Last night's field trip to Nozawa Onsen for the Dosojin Fire Festival was one of the more extraordinary things I've done in awhile. Please read the description of the festival meaning/story on the above link... I don't think I can explain better, especially since I didn't get close enough to see the battles.

After driving an hour north up past Nagano City, we instantly crossed over an imaginary line into snow territory. It was actually signaled by a truck with flashing lights and a man next to it trying to encourage drivers to use chains on their tires. We didn't have any chains so we just forged on ahead (David was driving his massive disco van with Angie, Jaclyn, Danielle and I as support crew). Literally as soon as we passed the flashing lights the snow just began pouring down. Almost immediately we lost sight of the actual pavement and the road was from then on just solid snow and ice. After we exited the highway and began narrowing in on Nozawa Onsen, the only way to tell where the street went was by watching the edge of the 2 to 3 foot high drifts of snow on the edges and the 15 foot red and white reflective poles placed for the plows. We used to get a huge amount of snow in Wisconsin once every other winter or so- but this place has it all winter long every year!

We managed to arrive in one peice and quickly glimpsed a crowd surrounding a man with a 5 foot bunch of straw on fire before snagging a parking place (probably because we were loads earlier than we needed to be... but we didn't know it yet). It was pretty easy to follow the crowd, smoke, and flying ashes down to the village square where the main activities were being held (see the first picture on the website). It also didn't take too long before random villagers were offering us cups of sake... which we gladly accepted in hopes they'd keep us warm.

Then came the waiting. We waited for what seemed like for-e-ver until they started doing ANY-thing. My patience wore thin quickly due to the fact that I was freezing my butt off! My feet were so cold from standing on the hard packed snow. The fire looked more and more inviting as we stood there (and accepted more cups of sake). Finally, people started attacking the shrine with fire and the guards did their job to protect the wood from igniting. Having read a bit of info on the festival before going, we knew that this meant there was at LEAST another hour before the big fire started.... so we were all yelling "burn! Burn!!" and hoping that they would mistakenly let it start early.

Not so lucky. We stood around longer watching people and snow and ashes and smoke... I tried taking pictures but my hands were so cold that it just wasn't worth it to take off my mittens. Yes, it was 8 below zero out (which would be all of 17.6 in fahrenheit). Folks around us continued to get drunker and drunker and I was completely out of touch with the toes on my left foot.

When it finally started on fire, we were practically delirious from a combination of cold, exhaustion, loss of patience, and the distraction of trying to sing aloud every possible song that has ever used the words fire or burn. ha! So it finally caught on fire, (the men on top got off safely first) and the thing was definitely impressive. It warmed our faces cover 50 feet away. But I was cold... Jaclyn was cold... we were shivering... and it was just a really big bonfire.

I feel like I've failed my job as cultural ambassador by wussing out on this thing, but it was now 10:30 at night (on a school night), we had an hour and a half ride home through white out conditions, I couldn't feel my toes or distract myself by taking pictures, and....it was just a fire!

So we headed for the van. Story over with a ps: David decided that the only way to keep the windows from fogging was to run the air conditioning. So, after being freezing cold for 5 hours, we proceed to stay bundled up in the car all the way back home. Of course, my house is not heated nor is it insulated, so it was below freezing inside when all I wanted to do go to sleep. Solution: at 12:30am after getting home I turned on all my heaters and my electric blanket and took a 20 minute steaming hot shower. Dried my hair to make sure it wouldn't freeze when I stepped out into the hallway. When I was finished, my room was at least above freezing so I fell asleep with my hat on my head. My supervisor tells me it was about -11 C (12.2 f). I am praying for heat this weekend.