Tug-a-war

I finally got around to posting some pictures of us at the Naha tug-a-war. According to Guinness Book of World Records, this tug-a-war is the largest one in the world (using natural materials for the rope). The rope is made of straw, is 659 feet long and weighs 44 ton. The main part of the rope itself is pretty tall (almost as tall as Becca) and then it has tons of ropes coming off of it, kind of like a centipede, that everyone pulls on. There are parades, tieko drummers, eisa dancers each team has a handful of hatagashiras which are tall poles decorated to represent different regions of Naha. The tug-a-war itself last for 30 minutes or until a team is able to pull the rope 15 feet in one direction. There are usually around 15,000 people pulling on the rope each year. At the end of the event, if you were pulling from the winning side, you cut part of the rope off and it will bring you good luck for the year.

There were a lot of different people to watch, events to see, and food to eat. The top picture is of us at the very end of the event. The picture next to it is Alex and Becca hanging out in front of some of the performers who were taking a break.

This picture is of Pete and Lalee pulling on the rope. The guy on top of the rope in the black would direct their team to pull and the teams would chant hayrida, hayrida, hayrida! Which simply means pull. The last picture is of Becca pulling on the rope. Yes, she is wearing a butterfly mask. She loves that mask and wears it all over (Thanks DaNette). Ironically, it is a common tradition for kids to wear masks at these events and they were even selling masks at a lot of the street booths. If you look in the background of Beccas picture which was taken about an hour before the event and had a lot smaller crowd, you can see the size of the rope. Anyway. We had a good time and learned more about the culture and people.