Bridegroom Tossing - Jan 15th

Winter has a whole host of festivals and the first ones to come to mind are the snow festivals that dot the calendar here in Snow Country. However there are plenty more around and many of them are a little more obscure. It might have something to do with being cooped up in your home trying to deal with mountains of snow.

Matsunoyama Onsen certainly has one of the more "out there" winter celebrations. Any male resident of the village who was married in the previous year is thrown down a snow bank!

As if marriage wasn't tough enough already...

This takes place at about 2pm. Straight after that people get the ash from the bonfire, mix it with a little snow, and go around painting each other faces with it, chanting "Congratulation".

It is quite a sight, and a great time is had by all. Head up there for a very interesting day.