Only in Japan would hauling fir trees from the woods be so joyous.

And so very weird.

Every six years in the beginning of April, either during the Year of the Monkey or the Year of the Tiger, parishioners of the Shinto faith gather to transport 16 logs to be erected as holy pillars (“Onbashira") - totem poles, if you will - in one of four temples. The shrines are located around Lake Suwa, part of central Japan’s Nagano Highlands, about 120 miles west of Tokyo.