run, run, as fast as you can

so you get the tomatino festival in spain, and the bare-back horse race in italy but I'd never heard of the danjiri before I came to Japan. this is quite a festival. in the sense that someone usually dies each year. and in the sense you get danjiri insurance for your house.

it's kind of a religion in kishiwada, where the neighbourhoods who used to literally fight it out, now race their elaborate wooden carts in circuits around the town in this harvest festival of harvest festivals. hundreds pull each cart and at 3 or 4 metres high, the guy on top is the one with the most insurance. all seems to have cooled down a little over the years, but there's definite passion in the air - something that you can't usually find in day-to-day japan.

after months of preparation, kishiwada itself becomes an alcohol soaked blur for these few days in mid-september in south osaka and even the kids seem to be at it. drinking and running. drinking and running.

thousands descend from the large but normally subdued station onto the streets which are already lined by stall owners competing for trade and spectators shouting on each group who are covering the road in sweat. the pace of the day falls then rises, as shouts from the 'cox' are echoed and work up to a crescendo of noise and speed that sees hundreds of people pulling at full sprint. thats when, if you're on top, you don't want to see a corner. sometimes the course is altered by organisers during the event, making it look a bit like the wacky races. it's kind of like doing intervals on your bike and, during an all out sprint, you come to a hair-pin bend.

the guys on top of these things are just mental. they're meant to be carpenters and they perform all kinds of dances on top, and leap about on the roof in a crouch like a coil ready to explode. they, after all, are the ones who hypnotise the crowds, and leave you with a feeling of awe. they could after all, be about to meet the reaper.