Florence and the Machine Rabbit Heart

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This was a very exciting and fun video to both make and participate in. Two fellow JETs and I were fortunate enough to be asked to participate in a shrine carrying festival. Matsuri (祭?) is the Japanese word for a festival or holiday. In Japan, festivals are usually sponsored by a local shrine or temple.
Basically, the whole day consisted of competing groups composed of many MALE Japanese men carrying a huge elaborate shrine around the town while large groups of locals and bystanders gathered to watch them. They were often offered food and drinks from local businesses and homes. After, they all met in a big open space where they competed head on by crashing into each other and seeing whose float/shrine survived the impact. At the end of the long and tiring day our whole group gathered to celebrate at a food/drinking party.
Now, you can only imagine how excited Chi and I were about being asked to carry this shrine as girls are NEVER allowed to do it. Not exactly sure why they made the exception for us but we were absolutely shocked, thrilled and honoured to do it when an amazing and very friendly old man approached us and asked us to join in. Thus, we took turns carrying the shrine and filming, which worked out very well in the end. Most people had never seen or heard of girls being allowed to do it alongside men. I guess it goes to show you changing attitudes in regards to gender roles or maybe we were just very lucky, who knows. Either way we ended up getting a tie for first place. Our main competitor was the red team while we were the black and red team.
The song I decided to use in this video is by one of my favourite bands called Florence and the Machine. The song is called "Rabbit Heart (Raise It Up)." I have always loved this song and wanted to create a music video using it but it was always difficult as I needed the perfect story to tell that went with the lyrics of the song. The song is about sacrifice and fear (and raising it up, which we did!) and I believe we experienced that at the Izushi festival, especially standing so close to the action! It got pretty crazy, hence the fighting and police and everything.
Anyhow, enough chit chatter, hope you enjoy the video! I may post a properly colour corrected one in the not so distant future, when I get around to playing more with colour correction.