{"id":4234,"date":"2017-02-06T00:23:34","date_gmt":"2017-02-05T15:23:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.takimotokan.co.jp\/english\/?p=1811"},"modified":"2017-02-06T00:23:34","modified_gmt":"2017-02-05T15:23:34","slug":"noboribetsu-yu-festival-and-water-battle","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/takimotokan.ardevtech.net\/en\/news\/noboribetsu-yu-festival-and-water-battle\/","title":{"rendered":"Noboribetsu Yu Festival and Water Battle"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>In our last post, you learned about the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.takimotokan.co.jp\/english\/news\/yu-festival-and-hokkai-ideyu-daiko\/\">exciting, annual Noboribetsu Onsen Hot Water Festival<\/a>! Last year it was a great success, and our guests had a wonderful time, watching and taking photographs of the participants splashing water on each other in the cold temperatures while only wearing loincloths!<\/p>\n<p>However, this year the water gods were serious&#8230;<\/p>\n<p>We would like to introduce you to the rare appearance of Yukijin, who serve as stern protectors of our hot water, our town, and our guests.<\/p>\n<p>On Sunday, at 6 p.m., with bells and gongs ringing all around, ten Yukijin were guided down from Hell\u2019s Valley to Senden Park. They came quietly but with heavy footsteps.<\/p>\n<p>At the opening ceremony, blessings were made to guarantee a successful supply of hot water throughout the year.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-1813\" src=\"http:\/\/www.takimotokan.co.jp\/english\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/TakimotokanYuFestivalBuntuArrive.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"600\" height=\"450\" \/><br \/>\nNext, the water gods lit a fire in a great kettle.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-1814\" src=\"http:\/\/www.takimotokan.co.jp\/english\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/TakimotokanYuFestivalYukijin.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"600\" height=\"450\" \/><br \/>\nThen, wooden plaques with wishes and hopes written by locals and guests were thrown in\u2026<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-1815\" src=\"http:\/\/www.takimotokan.co.jp\/english\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/TakimotokanYuFestivalBurningEma.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"600\" height=\"450\" \/><br \/>\nAnd the blazing flames carried our wishes up to heaven!<\/p>\n<p>The Yukijin then walked around the town, performing special dances to drive out evil spirits in shops and hotels, including our own lobby!<\/p>\n<p>Our guests also observed the traditional performance of rice cake (mochi) pounding and enjoyed complimentary sweet hot soup with mocha.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-1816\" src=\"http:\/\/www.takimotokan.co.jp\/english\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/TakimotokanYuFestivalDance.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"600\" height=\"450\" \/><br \/>\n<strong>Genku-no-kake Battle!<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Tomorrow is the main event of the Noboribetsu Onsen Hot Water Festival and should not be missed. At 9:30 p.m., 100 men wearing only loincloths will fight by splashing hot water on each other in the freezing temperatures. Please be careful as water will be flying everywhere!<\/p>\n<p>However, don\u2019t worry. If you become cold while watching the festival events, you can always come and warm yourself in the hot water of our baths.<\/p>\n<p>We, along with the water gods, are waiting for you!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In our last post, you learned about the exciting, annual Noboribetsu Onsen Hot Water Festival! Last year it was a great success, and our guests had a wonderful time, watching and taking photographs of the participants splashing water on each other in the cold temperatures while only wearing loincloths! However, this year the water gods were serious&#8230; We would like<\/p>\n<div class=\"h10\"><\/div>\n<p><a class=\"more-link1\" href=\"https:\/\/takimotokan.ardevtech.net\/en\/news\/noboribetsu-yu-festival-and-water-battle\/\">Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3686,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[23,19],"tags":[],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/takimotokan.ardevtech.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4234"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/takimotokan.ardevtech.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/takimotokan.ardevtech.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/takimotokan.ardevtech.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/takimotokan.ardevtech.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4234"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/takimotokan.ardevtech.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4234\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/takimotokan.ardevtech.net\/en\/wp-json\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/takimotokan.ardevtech.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4234"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/takimotokan.ardevtech.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4234"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/takimotokan.ardevtech.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4234"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}