[fuzzyice]

Hi there, I've got a few questions, hopefully you can help me out!

Last year in march I went to Japan with a tour group, kind of went all over the place, it was pretty awesome. I plan to go back to Japan for a month at some point in the future, but I want to accomplish a few things, not just go sight seeing.

First of all, I was wondering if there were any "Strength tests" or something like that, at festivals or temples. I good example of what I mean by strength tests, is at kiyomizu temple, I lifted benkei's staff; I thought that was pretty neat.

Anyways, I'm looking for things a long those lines. I'm also interested in festivals, if theres things like that going on in any of those. I remember seeing this one crazy video which claimed to be in Japan, were they packed their own huge fire works and held on to them while they were shot off, and they had to hold on to them to become a man according to the video. I think doing something like that would be pretty cool. Any other crazy traditions like that going on around Japan? If so, could a foreigner give it a shot?

Thanks for reading the wall of text. I appreciate all information given.