I'm a watch human. A penniless watch human, but interested in horology none-the-less. Often you can find me goofing around, surfing watch blogs and forums, perusing for small time robots to wear on my feeble wrists. So you will have little trouble imagining how excited I was to see this sweet little number from Seiko's incredible Grand Seiko limited edition series.

At least, that's where I started.

Before I know it, I'm watching insane videos, one, after the other (did I mention these are insane?) about the Onbashira, which the watch is meant to commemorate.

From Nagano Prefecture's Tourism Guide:

Once every seven years, the Suwa area (in central Nagano) holds the Onbashira festival. In this festival, thousands of locals participate in moving 16 massive fir tree trunks from the surrounding mountains to the shrines of Suwa. These fir trees are usually 17 to 19 meters long, 1 meter wide and weigh around 7.5 tons each. These trees become the new great pillars, or Onbashira, in the corners of each Suwa shrine.d

They must cross rivers, navigate narrow Japanese streets and even ride these massive trees downhill. It’s an amazing spectacle and it will be happening in April and May of next year, so now’s the time to start planning!

Now... I am internet-outraged that I missed this festival in 2016. The only consolation for missing this little gem is the warm glow of Japanagos video tour of the event.

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The Internet: come for the dream, stay for the bravado.