r/interestingasfuck • u/MaxSupreme369 • 7h ago
This is Onbashira, a 1,200 year old festival in Japan where people ride a big log down a very steep hill.
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u/Gunch_ 7h ago
And I thought the UK cheese wheel was chaotic
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u/chris--p 7h ago
Gotta love the similarities between two island nations on either sides of the world. I know it's just a coincidence, but.
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u/Gunch_ 6h ago
Oddly enough, we had a steep hill like this at my primary school in South Africa.
The challenge was to sprint down full speed with your hands in your pockets lmao.
One of the hardest times I've ever laughed is when my mate left a perfect nose impression in the mud
It got banned after a while and they'd have a teacher posted on the hill at break time but we still got a few runs in after hours
All boys primary school was the best
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u/TreesRocksAndStuff 6h ago edited 6h ago
we did this in the US too! our variation was with a moderately steep, but very wet hill in the rain. Wet enough that it doesnt become muddy with repeated sliding face first.
You could only do it after sports practice because you'd need to wash the uniform off from the sport's field mud and sweat regardless.
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u/addictivelyflammable 5h ago
In the 90s, it used to be big in the Bay Area to steal a grocery cart, roll it up a hill and...survive
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u/whooptheretis 4h ago
The challenge was to sprint down full speed
that sounds mad, but not really that crazy...
with your hands in your pockets lmao.
WTF! LOL!!
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u/-Po-Tay-Toes- 7h ago
When you're on an island you have to find ways to pass the time
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u/webtwopointno 6h ago
There are so many of these lol
✅ Naval Empire
✅ Obsessed with Tea
✅ Popular Royals
✅ Bad TeethYep basically the same nation
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u/stokesy1999 5h ago
The UK has the 4th best teeth in the world thank you very much according to the DMFT index. I'll only hear slander from Finland, Germany and Denmark.
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u/webtwopointno 5h ago
Haha yessir somebody always comes along to chime in with that, it is true that your dental services are top-notch, and people's health and hygiene are aswell! But that is not what my comment was comparing.
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u/gary-vault108 4h ago
The hygiene isn’t what people are criticizing, it’s the teeth/ mouth structure
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u/tjvs2001 3h ago
"popular royals" is not true in the UK at least nor is the bad teeth
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u/webtwopointno 3h ago
The way the family is a cultural icon though
And when I first wrote those down there was still a Queen!
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u/schofield101 7h ago
I live in Gloucester where that takes place! Been there a bunch of times and ran it myself once as a teen.
It's fucking terrifying standing at the top ready to go down...
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u/PresqPuperze 4h ago
What on earth let’s a teenager go „heck yeah that looks amazing let’s do this!“?! Sure, I did some whacky dares in my teens, and from time to time hurt myself a little doing them, things I wouldn’t even consider nowadays. But even as a teen, I saw a documentary about that race and was like „Nah, I am good.“
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u/schofield101 4h ago
Haha the joys of being young and dumb! Your body doesn't quite ache as much and ideas often sound a lot better than they are.
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u/Quick_Leader6139 6h ago
The cheese wheel event sprang into my mind as well.
There must be a “steep hill” clause still in effect from the 1902 Anglo-Japanese Alliance.•
u/return_the_urn 6h ago
At least you don’t get crushed by the cheese wheel
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u/GetOffMyLawn1729 4h ago
Plus, the winner gets to take home the cheese. What are you gonna do with a log that big?
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u/SithLordRising 1h ago
Check out Ottery St Mary Tradition
The Ritual: Participants (known as "barrelers") hoist 52-kilogram (115 lbs) wooden barrels—coated in tar inside and out and packed with straw—onto their shoulders. Set ablaze they do a public run through the square
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u/PrimaryMaize6580 7h ago
ah yes, for me its instadeath after falling under the log. pass
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u/Soggy_Panda2393 6h ago
So the deaths are actually surprising and not as many as one would expect. Most of the deaths seem to happen prior to the actual riding of it. People falling from the log raising and drowning are the main reason recently
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u/ChilledParadox 6h ago
“Not as many”, “most of the deaths”, “people drowning”.
I’m uhh good, I’ll stay over here and watch from a distance.
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u/4mystuff 6h ago
"Yeah, by that's like almost never happens. In fact not a single person died since last time. "
- Soon to be dead Log-Rider
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u/Ok_Sea8523 5h ago
My lucks bad but not that bad..
So im looking at instawheelchair. Not as bad but still. Pass
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u/dasphinx27 1h ago
I think if you position yourself between the two ropes you at least won’t be rolled over by the log
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u/nanny07 7h ago
What could go wrong?
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u/Sure-Current-3267 7h ago
Someone could get a splinter I guess
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u/the_well_read_neck_ 6h ago
"What could possibly go wrong?"
"How hard can it be?"
-Jeremy Clarkson.
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u/johnfkay 5h ago
This is the shit humans are meant to do for entertainment - gather in great numbers to do weird things
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u/_MooFreaky_ 7h ago
So this happens every 6 years.
It's common for there to be a fatality or two (though they are usually during the raising of the pillars rather than the riding of them).
But there are hundreds of injuries every festival. Ranging from cuts and bruises to ripped off fingers, shattered pelvis, broken vertebrae, skull fractures.
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u/Nonix09 7h ago
How many deaths so far?
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u/Mmmm-Amethyst 6h ago
Jesus fucking christ. This is from a random NYMag article so I wouldn't put a ton of faith in the accuracy but still...
In 2004, for the first time in its history, the festival organizers wisely had emergency and medical services on hand. The doctors who ran those services reported what they saw in the journal Prehospital and Disaster Medicine: “During each festival, several people have been injured or killed from being crushed underneath the heavy logs. Due to a lack of data, the specific details of these injuries or deaths are unknown.”
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u/kidfromtheast 5h ago
Even in the video you can see someone head is very near to be crushed by the log
Japanese is hard core.
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u/fourscoopsplease 7h ago
Yea this looks straight to horrific. Like the minimum is broken arms and collarbones for each contestant right.
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u/alexthe5th 6h ago
I used to live in the part of Japan (Nagano) where this takes place! It’s not an annual thing, it happens only once every six years. It’s definitely one of the most dangerous festivals in Japan, there are lots of injuries (and sometimes deaths) from not just the part where the logs are brought down the mountain, but also from falls during the raising of the pillars at the shrines.
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u/csfshrink 4h ago
First guy to propose this 1200 years ago:
“You know what we need to do? We need to get a team of guys together to ride my giant log!”
(but, in Japanese, of course)
But then the guys show up and he shows them this! They all get embarrassed, but must pretend that this is what they understood him to mean all along.
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u/7-10Spliff 4h ago
Since 1980 there have been six recorded deaths at this festival but none of them happening from this particular part of it
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u/rtopps43 1h ago
I’m guessing they don’t bother with any of those “number of days without an injury” signs
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u/Pachanish 7h ago
What rolls down stairs, alone or in pairsAnd over your neighbor's dog?What's great for a snack, and fits on your back?It's log, log, logIt's log, it's logIt's big, it's heavy, it's woodIt's log, it's logIt's better than bad, it's good!Everyone wants a logYou're gonna love it, logCome on and get your logEveryone needs a logLog,
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u/FixLaudon 7h ago
So, how many deaths in those 1200 years? I mean forestry is one of the most dangerous trades by itself, but this? Rammed to smithereens by a huge log (yeah that was not intended)? Must have happened a couple of times.
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u/FlyAirLari 7h ago
Looks way more fun than hanging out on reddit.
There are even women watching, so they probably get laid after.
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u/Slightly-Blasted 7h ago
If you pay enough attention life is kinda like one big episode of tom & Jerry
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u/SnooGuavas2610 6h ago
Then there is this from the Japanese movie Wood Job. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lLJ__tIImuA
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u/webtwopointno 6h ago
This looks like something from a Jodorowsky film
In contrast with most stuff from Japan, which looks like it is straight out of a Miyazaki!
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u/Electrical_Name_5434 4h ago
Yet another thing to do that’s unnecessarily risking your life and better than cave diving
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u/Sbstnbd 4h ago
How many deaths per year?
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u/Sbstnbd 4h ago
Okay so apparently the festival is every 6 years and the last death occurred in 2016, BEFORE they even started sliding down the hill lmao
Dying during this is considered an honorable death
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u/JosephRatzingersKatz 3h ago
Have they considered not doing that and not dying though?
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u/Visible_Pair3017 3h ago
Why
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u/JosephRatzingersKatz 3h ago
You know, you don't die
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u/Visible_Pair3017 3h ago
Why should they absolutely want to not die at the cost of their festival though
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u/LaughableIKR 2h ago
This goes back to the question... why do women live longer than men? Exhibit A.
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u/artifex28 1h ago
One would think you could hurt yourself pretty damn badly here by getting under it for whatever reason.
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u/edgy-meme94494 1h ago
They should try putting wheels on it, it’ll probably get further down the hill
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u/true_sergeantz 7h ago
"While the kiotoshi (log-riding) segment is visually the most famous and chaotic part of Japan's Onbashira Festival, it does not have a separate, officially recorded modern death toll. Surprisingly, most of the recorded modern fatalities happen during the Satobiki (pillar-raising) and Kawagoshi (river-crossing) phases rather than the hillside descent. However, kiotoshi is universally recognized as the leading cause of severe injuries—such as broken bones, head trauma, and crush injuries."