The Naha Tug of War (October 2011)

The Naha Tug of War is the biggest tug of war in the world! You and 15,000+ of your closest friends tug on a piece of rope for 30 minutes... a little crazy... yes, indeed! In Okinawa, the tug of war is supposed to be a contest between the East and West side of the island, and whoever wins has won themselves good fortune/luck for the year. I guess it ends in a tie most years :) The main road (58) on Okinawa is completely shut down in the capital city of Naha for a couple hours for this event...

This year, I went to the Tug of War with my friends, Nicole and Jill. We also ran into our friends Julie and Orlando as well! Chris was back in the states. We thought parking may be a little crazy, so we decided to park a few kilometers away and take the monorail down to the event.

The monorail station

  Dressed up as the Ryukyu Kings

The start of the tug of war!

All hands ready to go!

 <--Nicole         ^Jill            -->Me
                     

Random Guy... he was really into it :)

Must. 

 Pull. 

Harder!

Well, after 30 minutes of complete madness, sweating and pulling, it was another tie this year. After the tug, many people take pieces of the rope home with them for good luck for the coming year.