ALL JAPAN KINMA CHAMPIONSHIPS

13/11 Kinma Race. We travelled 3 hours to compete in this national event. There is two part tot he competition, a performace and the race. These championships are serious stuff! For our performance we made plastic hula skirts, sang and did the hula! Actually we were sensible compared to some of the others. There were many "Hard Gay" impersonaters as you will see in the video. "Hard Gay" is a Japanese comedian (??) who dresses up in tight/short leather and runs aounr thrusting his pelvis saying "Fuuu!" I have no idea why it so popular or even why it is amusing but it is amazingly popular with Japanese people of all ages.
The race: 5 people drag a weight 21 metres up, around a pole and back. Obviously the people with the best times win. Men drag 400kg, women drag 200kg. Alot of time actually goes into the sled set up. Thanks to Terry for our sled. We came 5th out of everyone in Japan!!! Pretty good for the few times we practiced. My team was called Ohana 5, which in Japanese is "flower five" and in Hawaiin it's "family 5". We had a Hawaiin, Canadian, Japanese, New Zealander and me (Aussie), so it was very international! Terry had a team, made of NZers and an Aussie (I think). Unfortunately they didn't place either but they did a great Haka. Scary!
Ok Ok, confession: For this national event they were about 20 teams in the womens division and 40 in the mens. Many people in my town haven't heard of it! "You drag what???? Why????" We had a bit of a laugh when we rocked up and there was a massive sign "ALL JAPAN NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIPS". Oh, the reason you do it. First prize for the women's division is 200000 yen which is about AUD$2350. Men's first prize is 500000 yen or something. Not bad if you can win it.
I didn't put many photos on about this as the videos are the best display. 1st photo - emergency servces group, 2nd- oboetanai (can't remember), 3rd photo - "He" men, 4th-7th the dance group. It was traditional Japanese dancing and looked really fun. The dancing is unlike any other Japanese dancing we had ever seen. It looked like it was influenced by a few other countries. A man who sang/spoke during their performance was very strange the only words he said were "Hoi Hoi Ziga Ziga Ziga Heeeeeeeey." Well that's what it sounded like. Look at the bend in the flag pole!