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A collaboration to help folks (and each other) find Japanese stuff:
We post links to/info on fun Japanese things, and little explanations of the Japanese involved.
The Alpaca Song
I wrote and recorded this for you. Because you need a song about alpacas, don’t you?
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saleem
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FROM THE START:
The Quarter-Japanese Kid hits up the homeland
Tokyo Silence
I'm Oriented
Tilting Towards Kumamoto
Fish Heads and Public Nudity
Halfie the Half-blood falls off his bike
And furthermore: Halfie the Half-blood Breaks a Chair
I Don't Know if I Like Pippi Longstalkings
Tanboy Eats Fish Eyeball
Japanese Communists are Cuddly
Test Your Halfblood Knowledge!
I Scare Small Children
It Was Like a Cuteworld Abby Road
Today's Post Contains Bees. And Profanity.
Typhoons Will Not Stop Me
The Sun Also Sets
Quick Note: Saleem is Not Dead
CORRECTION: Typhoons Scare Me. Lots.
Watch the Tan Kid Blush
Call for Entries: Name My Kids
The Youth Are Quick and True
Open Letter: To the Breaker at City Hall
Halfie Gets a Verbal Sucker Punch
The Kumamoto Drunken Horse Fest
Japanese Houses Hate Halfie's Head
How to Start Your Japanese Rock Band
Halfie's Personal Dignity on Decline
Japanese Sports Day: I Train Young Warriors
Theory: Three Strange Occurences Per Hour
How to Win an iPod While Dressed as a Typhoon
Winnie the (drunken) Pooh
The Earth Quakes
Collecting Japanese Salmon Sperm
Illiterate at 26
Japan's Children Ignore Homeboy's Toothless Face
Japanese Genius Boy Answers Your Question
Our Students Have Respect . For Nelly.
The Young Boxers
Dear 27% of America (Kid Ethnic Registers)
Please Do Not Attempt to Step to My Japanese Rock Band

The tourism office calls it the Fujisaki Hachimangu Shrine Festival. And locals call it the “Chagu-Chagu Umakko”.
But when locals explain last week’s festival in English, they emphasize the hammered horse aspect.
To prepare a horse for the event, paticipants cover the beast in what look like look like inflatable candy-canes. Then they feed it alcohol.
It is then a drunken horse, and fit to be paraded through the center of the semi-outdoor mall.
Some locals avoid the whole thing because they think it’s a cruel exercise in animal cruelty. Others use the day to exercise insanely dope fashion sense:

I mean, the looks were solid.

Dudes slicked their hair for it.

Mommas fancied up their offspring for it.

The bright eye makeup came out.

And killer doo rags abounded.
After all the parading and sun, people did the same thing we do back in the US.

Grab a drink with their friends at the 7-11.

All more fun to watch than the drunken horses. Drunken horses are actually rather boring. They were like that friend you didn’t mean to invite, just stumbling around stealing all the alcohol, making funny noises, and disrupting the party.
I was told repeatedly that after the parade, people shoot the horses. Why? Because they have been drinking.
UPDATE: A co-worker just told me that the drunken horses must be killed off because alcohol makes their meat taste bad if eaten raw. Awesome
* * *
Halfie Gets a Verbal Sucker Punch | Japanese Houses Hate Halfie's Head
I was in Japan in 2003 for the festival, and I never knew that the horses were drunk. It explains so much.
— mike 1259 days ago #
Desde ya, les quedo muy agradecido
— Felix Herrero 1082 days ago #