Yabusame horseback archery

This is the announcement of Yabusame event (Horse back archery) @Shimotsuma on 24th June.

Yabusame is a type of mounted archery in traditional Japanese archery.
An archer on a running horse shoots three special "turnip-headed" arrows successively at three wooden targets.
This style of archery has its origins at the beginning of the Kamakura period.
It is worth to see at least once, during your staying in Japan.

Here is the Link about the event. Written in Japanese...
http://guide.travel.co.jp/article/1268/

*Difficulty: 1 out of 5
This is a car based event. I you have a car, please bring it. Toll fee and gasoline will be divided by the participants. Drivers do not pay.

*Date: 24th June Saturday.
If it rains, the hike will be canceled. The event will be postponed to the next day, though.

*The meeting place and time:
8:30 A.M @ Tsukuba bus terminal parking lot.

*Rough Schedule:
8:30 A.M Meeting
9:30 A.M Arrive at Taiho Hachimangu Shrine @Shimotsuma, Ibaraki
10:00 A.M Look around Shrine
10:30 A.M Starts Yambusame
11:30 A.M Enjoy Ajisai (hydrangea) or open air tea ceremony for free.
12:30 A.M move to beer spark Shimotsuma http://www.beerspark.com/onsen.htm
Lunch and Take Onsen if you want
15:00 Go back to Tukuba

*What to bring
Lunch and drink if you want. We can buy or eat after Yabusame.
Onsen kit, if you want, Onsen fee 700 yen
Club fee 300 yen

*Please send email with your information no later than 21st June Wed. if you want to join us.
1) Your name.
2) Can you bring your car? How many people can take in including driver?
3) Your phone number.
4) When you want to join in only Yabusame, please let me know.

Please feel free to contact me if you have questions or request.

Report of Yabusame event hike on June 24th.

Surprisingly, the participants were all ladies ^^. It was a big fun, we enjoyed laughing, chatting, taking a lot of pictures of each other.

Weather was perfect, no rain, just bit cloudy but not too hot.
5 people got together at Tsukuba center free parking lot at 8:30 A.M.
We could leave there around 8:45, then dropped off the bakery at Kasuga 2chome for breakfast.
After 45 minutes driving, we arrived at Daiho hachimangu shrine at 9:45 A.M, it looked parking space was full.
Fortunately, kind neighbor ojisan allowed us to park at his place for free.
We could meet Jun and her daughter at shrine, get together total 7 participants.

We looked the ceremony for praying of success the event before Yabusame at the gate of shrine.
Yabusame started around 10:30 A.M, it was a bit crowded, but we could get good position to see it.
There were 3 archers, each archer has a chance to shoot 2 targets in each time.
2 of them were ladies. When they shoot the arrows they shout ‘in-yo陰陽’- meaning darkness 陰 and light　陽 (the two opposite cosmic forces).
Their performance with riding speedy horses was dynamic and full of exciting.

After 1 hour performance, we moved to park behind the shrine. Ajisai-hydrangea festival was held there.
We took many pictures with hydrangea, using as a flower hat.

At lunch time, we moved to local restaurant which Jun san recomended. Reasonable menu, tasty food, cozy space, and kind owner!
We really enjoyed our lunch time, then we move back to tuskuba around 3 P.M

Thank you for your participation! I was very happy to organize such a fun event hike as my 1st hike. ^^