On Sunday we went to the Kawasaki Fertility Festival, also known as the Festival of the Steel (or iron) Phallus... it is held at the Kanayama Shrine on the first Sunday of April each year. The penis (as you can clearly see in the picture) is the central theme of this event. There is a legend that goes along with this festival that has been around for hundreds of years. It involves a sharp-toothed demon that hides inside the vagina of a young woman and castrates two young men on their wedding nights. After the second unfortunate incident, the young woman asks for help from a blacksmith, who creates an iron phallus to break the demon's teeth... (I can't make this stuff up). When the demon breaks his teeth he climbs out of the woman's vagina and she ends up marrying the blacksmith. From that point on the iron phallus is enshrined. 
Today, the steel phallus is celebrated on this day!!! Back in the day, this shrine was popular with prostitutes who came to pray for protection from STDs... Today many of the proceeds from the festival go towards HIV/AIDS research. At some point this festival was also popular for prayers for personal health, fertile marriages, healthy deliveries, and healthy children... don't ask how it went from a steel phallus to fertility because I honestly couldn't find that information anywhere!!!! This festival was full of ridiculousness but so worth the trip! (This guy was MORE than happy to pose for this picture for us...)
The guy in the picture above does not win BEST costume... many people had creative accessories and costumes... and you could buy just about anything you could think of in the shape of the phallus. The picture to the left are of some very colorful and creative candles you could buy at the festival! There was interesting shaped lollipops that many people had purchased and ate while walking around the shrine... don't make me spell it out for you! And let me also say that people of ALL ages were taking part in this festival and eating this carnal candy. 
There was a large pink phallus and a black one that are carried around as floats on peoples shoulders during the parade... we weren't able to actually see the parade because of the insane crowds!!! There was also this man who was cleverly dressed up for the festival... he was extremely popular and many people posed in pictures with him! I have so many pictures from this day that I had to pick and chose which ones to put here so you can really see what it was all about. One thing that we did not get a good picture of was people carving vegetables into the phallus shape... the daikon, which is a large Japanese radish is the vegetable of choice for the carvings and a very popular event at the festival. 
The "Penis Energy Ball," although we didn't actually try it, was made up of octopus and breaded on a grill... They did have some other food there that was not graphically shaped and also that had nothing to do with the iron phallus. We were able to get some beer and some yummy yakisoba noodles while we people watched at this surprising event. I guess in an Asian country it is a little bit surprising that you would see giant penises being carried down the street while transvestites direct traffic and Grandma and Grandpa suck on phallic lollipops.... 
Japanese Word of the Day:
Chinko: Penis
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