The Biggest Tug-Of-War in the World!

So the coolest thing we did all weekend was go to the biggest tug-of-war in the world (It is even recorded in Guinness World Records)! It was awesome! Get ready for a million pictures! 

The festival was down in Naha on Kokusai Street - famous street in Naha with over a mile of shopping (I can't wait to go back) and one of the main highways in Okinawa. The first part was a big parade where all the different cities, or counties or whatever they call themselves brought their huge pole banners down the street. 

Here is a pic of what they looked like holding the huge poles. One guy would take his turn holding it at a time. It was really impressive! It was about 25 feet tall and made out of bamboo and rope. The whole time they were doing this, half would yell "Saaa Saaa Saaa SA!" and then the other half would repeat this back, over and over. 

Some guys would even do "tricks". You can see below that he is holding it with just his grip on the bottom. Some would spin it or see how long they could hold it out. The coolest guy we saw would bounce down until his bottom touched the ground and then pop back up (like a Russian dancer) while still keeping the pole balanced. I don't think I could squat that low even if I wasn't holding a huge banner! 

The main point I think was to show your strength and how you could balance this really heavy pole but every once in a while it would start to fall and the other guys would help keep it up with these other poles that had a fork at the end to help the man balance it. Each one of the tops of the poles were beautiful and different. Here are a few examples. 

In between the pole holders (there were about 14 different poles and at least 30-40 guys taking turns) there were lots of other entertainers. Some held little mini banners themselves, others blew on these huge seashells in time with the drums. 

I liked the little kids that did Karate demonstrations the best. Some of the kids looked as young as 3 or 4. The kids that were a little older showed moves with nun-chucks and fake swords. 

After the parade it was time to start the tug-of-war! The rope was huge! Below is one of the sides before we had to pull the ropes together. 

One thing that we learned is that the Japanese don't do anything quickly. I thought as soon as we got on the ropes it would be time to pull but first they had the pole holders show how strong they were and then we had to pull the ropes together across the intersection they sat on. After that, they brought out the king of the East and the king of the West to "duel" it out. They were on these large platforms that about 20 men carried over the ropes. They met in the middle and showed how strong they were, then they were carried back over the way they came. 

A few hours later, they finished all the opening ceremonies and we could start the war! I think the beginning part would have been more fun but we couldn't really see what was going on and couldn't understand a word they said so that took out some of the excitement. 

When the two kings were done they opened up this huge gold ball that had balloons and confetti come out kinda like a pinata. There was one main rope and ten they tied I think about 140 smaller ropes to the top that were the ones we actually pulled on. While they were passing out all the smaller ropes, I was able to jump up on the main rope and get some cool pics! 

Now it was time to pull!!!! Japanese guys used whistles and gongs to help us all pull together. It didn't seem to go anywhere for a while and then all of the sudden our side started to move back. We all cheered and kept pulling harder. We were told that they usually only pull for a half hour and then call it a tie or name a winner. It was a good thing too because after about 20 minutes I think people were getting tired. 

So after about 25 minutes of pulling, they stopped us all and announced that they had a winner! Someone told me that most years end up in a tie but this year there was a winner. I'm pretty sure it was our side that won too because all the Japanese people were cheering on our side and not the other! Yay, East side! Logan said it was because he was there this time. 

Then when it is all done, they let people cut off parts of the rope and take them home as a souvenir. It was a lot of fun and great to be able to say that we were a part of it!