Absolutely Crazy – Nozawa Onsen Fire Festival

It’s finally snowboard season! As I do every year, I check out the MWR ski trips they have scheduled and sign up for a few. This year I saw one that definitely caught my interest: a three day trip to Nozawa Onsen in Nagano for a snowboard trip during their annual fire festival. I didn’t know too much about the fire festival at first and honestly I was more excited about all the snowboarding. However, as the trip got closer I started to look up some info about the fire festival and it started to look pretty cool. Looking back, it was an awesome experience and I’m really glad I saw it.

First things first though, the fire festival was the last night and I primarily came to snowboard and check out the town. On this trip it was myself and my buddy’s family. We thought our kids were a tad little for the fire festival part (in hindsight, 100% correct.) The whole family is going back to Nozawa Onsen in March though, so I got to scout ahead and find some good places for us all to check out.

The snowboarding was pretty good. The resort was awesome; tons of really scenic trails and nice, fast lifts, but the weather was warm so the snow quality wasn’t the best. The first day it was slushy and the second day it was icy. It did start snowing the third day, so we had just enough powder to hide all the ice patches. I’m sure the slopes were awesome the day after I left…

Overall we had a blast on the trails. Snowboarding on the occasional ice patch is way better than not snowboarding at all, and I can’t wait to go back with the family and get Jackie and the kids on the mountain. Hopefully they take to it! Even if they don’t though, there is plenty to do here if you’re not skiing. The town itself is really cool. Nozawa Onsen is old, and they try really hard to keep that feeling. You won’t see any huge resort buildings or hotels, everyone stays in small ryokans, hostels or Air BnBs peppered throughout the town. Our group probably had one of the biggest hotels in the area, and it was only around 15 rooms. The downtown area is very cool as well, with outstanding food, some nice shopping, and bars and nightlife. It was definitely way more fun that the smaller resort areas I’ve been to where they really only have the lodge for food and rooms. As the name infers, Nozawa Onsen is also famous for their public onsens which are scattered throughout the town. These are really strange for most foreigners, but I think they’re pretty cool and checked one out. Definitely one of the more unique aspects of Japanese culture. Possibly the weirdest thing about the place is that there are tons of Aussies there. They own lodges, restaurants, ski shops, bars, you name it. There were probably more foreigners in the town than there were Japanese overall.

Other than the first day, the weather was either overcast or snowing for the entire trip so the visibility was poor, but I did get a few good pictures.

Last but not least was the fire festival, which happens here every 15th of January and has been going on since at least the mid 1800’s. It is steeped in history and culture involving local deities named the Dosojin, good luck, and lots of flame. In a nutshell, a huge bonfire is erected which is guarded by men who are at “unlucky ages”. The 42-year-olds sit at the top drinking liberal amounts of sake and singing to the Dosojin (represented by two large elaborate poles) and the 25-year-olds who hold onto ropes tied to the bonfire and whose job it is to fend off the villagers who try to set the thing on fire using bundles of flaming reeds. They are also drinking liberal amounts of sake.

I walked through downtown on my way to the festival, and it seemed like just about everyone was out celebrating the evening. I was handed a paper cup and some delicious sake from some guy in robes with a huge bottle, and I obviously expressed my appreciation with a vigorous “kanpai!” (cheers!)

When I was reading about the fire festival, I expected it to be largely ceremonial. The unlucky guys drank a lot and “defended” the tower from the attackers, everyone cheered, and then they lit the thing on fire. It was not that. What I saw was complete chaos, an hour and a half of vicious combat. There were a few ceremonial attacks to start things off, and then a short period of calmer attacks with random locals, foreigners, and children, but then it was complete mayhem. There were flaming reeds being wielded like swords, hair on fire, people on the brink of passing out, burn marks, the works. Just an endless parade of people with flaming bundles with the singular goal of beating the defenders and lighting the bonfire.

I was standing pretty close to the tower and got to see firsthand these guys fending off the attacks. Several dropped out towards the end to get some water and take a breather. They did manage to defend the tower for over an hour and got to watch them celebrate afterwards. They looked like they just won the championship game; elated and completely exhausted, but with addition of being covered in ash and burn marks.

After the attack, the defenders stepped down to celebrate and the town lit everything on fire. The bonfire was pretty spectacular. I watched for close to an hour and it was still standing strong. Apparently the tradition is to go to the site the next day to roast rice cakes and other food over the still-burning remains for good luck. I was too busy getting one last day of snowboarding in to participate.

Overall this was definitely one of the cooler things I’ve seen in Japan. It really felt like you were stepping back in time to an earlier age to witness something that has largely gone away. If you’re ever planning a ski trip to Japan, I would highly recommend planning it around this event.

BRB, out to Japan – Taylor