Yabusame - Oct 9th

Today is some kind of national sports holiday, and a lot of events are happening throughout the city. One of those events is Yabusame, a traditional form of equestrian archery, where the rider tries to hit three 2x2' targets while riding at full tilt. The event would take place in the same park that we had been setting off fireworks a couple weeks back. I met up with a few friends and we moved over to the temple, where the riders and their entourages were being blessed by the resident priests. The "baba" in Takadanobaba is actually 馬場, which means stable. Some centuries ago, the entire area surrounding Waseda was actually a collection of fields and farms, and Takadanobaba was the official stable of the Shogun. There are various clues hinting at this time long since past, but they are mostly overlooked by the casual observer.

After getting blessed, the riders moved down to Toyama park, where the yabusame would take place. We walked down the temple steps past the statue of a yabusame rider about to fire his arrow, and pushed our way through the crowd to find a good vantage point.

Those riders sure are fast! The first one had almost completed his run before I could pull out my camera and squeeze off a shot. They event continued for a couple hours, and each time I got better at timing my photos. Thankfully, my camera has a good continuous shot mode, so I was able to get several nice sequences of the riders making their runs. After a while, the crowd started to disperse, and I took a few more photos before gathering the group back up. From then, everyone had plans to do various things, so we all splintered off to attend to our various plans for the day. I had promised James and Ehtesham that I'd take them to get a haircut, so Ayaka (the girl who went with Derek and myself the first time) was kind enough to escort us to Shimokitazawa again for another round of style.

James had a hard time at first picking a look; he had purposefully grown his hair out (almost chin-length) so he could give a Japanese stylist a blank slate to work with, but the overwhelming number of options available to him made it difficult to choose a style to go with. He finally settled on a semi-long look, and the stylist got to work. There was a lot to be done, so Ayaka and I went out to explore the shopping district surrounding the station. We saw all kinds of weird and interesting shops, including a restaurant with a huge fugu (blowfish tank) right out front. We returned to the shop to find James a changed man; I forgot to take a before photo, but the results were startling! I took a few photos for posterity, and we headed back home on the Odakyu line. I can't wait to get my own haircut too!