Saidaiji Naked Festival
Held each February at Saidaiji Temple in eastern Okayama, the Hadaka Matsuri is one of Japan's most dramatic festivals: thousands of men clad only in white loincloths pack into the temple courtyard on a freezing night, competing in a frenzy to grab two small sacred wooden sticks thrown from the main hall window. Catching a shingi stick is said to bring a year of supreme good fortune. The spectacle of thousands of white-clad bodies surging under floodlights draws international visitors every year.