{"id":44,"date":"2003-09-16T17:27:05","date_gmt":"2003-09-16T17:27:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/cosmicbuddha.com\/adam\/2003\/09\/beer-horses-drunk-people-fun\/"},"modified":"2003-09-16T17:27:05","modified_gmt":"2003-09-16T17:27:05","slug":"beer-horses-drunk-people-fun","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cosmicbuddha.com\/adam\/2003\/09\/16\/beer-horses-drunk-people-fun\/","title":{"rendered":"Beer + Horses + Drunk People = Fun"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"pic_0411[1].jpg\" src=\"http:\/\/www.cosmicbuddha.com\/adam\/archives\/pic_0411[1].jpg\" width=\"120\" height=\"120\" border=\"0\" \/><br \/>\nOn my way driving to an English Camp on Saturday morning, I was surprised to hear Japanese drums. As I came around a curve, a saw a frightened horse bulldozing his handlers into the heavy traffic. He was clearly terrified by the streaming cars, the dancing participants, and the throbbing drums. I learned that they were preparing for the &#8220;Drunken Horse Festival&#8221; that I had missed last year, and that the main event would be on Monday.<br \/>\nI spent the three day weekend working with the same 5th and 6th graders that I taught during the summer. It was great to see them want to use their English, and I think this batch has great potential. I taught Kaho-chan to do the proper Kung Foo pose while uttering &#8220;Tiger-style&#8221; in traditional Wu-Tang Clan style (Method Man would surely approve).<br \/>\n<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"pic_0415[1].jpg\" src=\"http:\/\/www.cosmicbuddha.com\/adam\/archives\/pic_0415[1].jpg\" width=\"120\" height=\"120\" border=\"0\" \/><br \/>\nAnyhow, yesterday I decided to fight my mind paralyzing fatigue, so that I could witness the ensuing mayhem. From what I&#8217;ve heard, this festival was started in order to honor the horses of Kumamoto for the role that they played in a smashing victory on the Korean Peninsula (yet another reason why Koreans hate Japanese).<br \/>\nIt didn&#8217;t seem like the horses really liked the honor that was bestowed on them. I met up with a bunch of friends and co-workers, and we watched the latter half of the 65 or so horses and thousands of hapi-clad paraders dance, stumble, and thrash around spasmodically to the sounds of drums and loud hoarse chanting of the various MCs (one per horse).<br \/>\nHorses and people alike lacked the equilibrium needed to avoid collisions. The horses were completely freaked, bucking on several occasions. I saw one horse charge to the side of a really small street packed past capacity. He swung around in an unsteady arc, and without warning smashed into the trapped crowd with several rapid kicks! Unbelievably, no one was injured.<br \/>\n<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"pic_0416[1].jpg\" src=\"http:\/\/www.cosmicbuddha.com\/adam\/archives\/pic_0416[1].jpg\" width=\"120\" height=\"120\" border=\"0\" \/><br \/>\nAbout ten minutes later, I saw an ambulance streak by headed in the same direcion&#8230;<br \/>\nThe parade was amazing and I stayed for three hours. I was rockin&#8217; to the beat and rewarded with beer on many occasions (that I had to give away, since I had to drive home).<br \/>\n<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"pic_0417[1].jpg\" src=\"http:\/\/www.cosmicbuddha.com\/adam\/archives\/pic_0417[1].jpg\" width=\"120\" height=\"120\" border=\"0\" \/><br \/>\nHow was this matsuri started anyways? I can imagine a bunch of Kumamoto men saying: You know what we should do? Lets throw a party and watch what happens when we get the horses sloshed! I bet my horse can drink more than yours! etc.<br \/>\n<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"pic_0418[1].jpg\" src=\"http:\/\/www.cosmicbuddha.com\/adam\/archives\/pic_0418[1].jpg\" width=\"120\" height=\"120\" border=\"0\" \/><br \/>\nI have found the best, most fun matsuri are the ones that blend danger, alcohol, and a riotous crowd in the proper measure. This matsuri ranks among the best that I have encountered so far.<br \/>\n<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"pic_0419[1].jpg\" src=\"http:\/\/www.cosmicbuddha.com\/adam\/archives\/pic_0419[1].jpg\" width=\"120\" height=\"120\" border=\"0\" \/><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>On my way driving to an English Camp on Saturday morning, I was surprised to hear Japanese drums. As I came around a curve, a saw a frightened horse bulldozing his handlers into the heavy traffic. He was clearly terrified by the streaming cars, the dancing participants, and the throbbing drums. I learned that they &hellip; <a class=\"read-excerpt\" href=\"https:\/\/cosmicbuddha.com\/adam\/2003\/09\/16\/beer-horses-drunk-people-fun\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&raquo;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-44","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-around-kyushu"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cosmicbuddha.com\/adam\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cosmicbuddha.com\/adam\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cosmicbuddha.com\/adam\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cosmicbuddha.com\/adam\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cosmicbuddha.com\/adam\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=44"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/cosmicbuddha.com\/adam\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cosmicbuddha.com\/adam\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=44"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cosmicbuddha.com\/adam\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=44"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cosmicbuddha.com\/adam\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=44"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}