Kanazawa's acrobatic firefighters

We went this snowy morning to a display put on by the Kanazawa firefighters. As we're in the dead of winter the threat of fire is down, all of the firefighers from Kanazawa it seems were there. It began with a couple of speeches and playing of patriotic brass music over the PA, then each fire brigade put up a bamboo ladder for one man to climb to the top while the rest of their group steadied it from below.


once on top of the ladder, the firefighters assumed different seemingly life threatening positions and posses while more music played in the background.


after about 15 minutes or so of this, collected all the ladders and each brigade of firefighters set up their hose and sprayed it on full blast into the air while one member of their group ran the flag of the brigade out into the parade grounds into the falling water from the hoses(almost naked)

the city fire helicopter was just over the tops of the firehouses on full blast into the sky.

it was below freezing when this was all going on, and a lot of the spray into the air seemed to turn into a snowy slush as it fell down onto these guys. We thought it might be some form of initiation?