It was a short night. I got up at 2 o´clock in the morning. The train station in Fukkodai-mae - there is my home and it's not a big station - was surprisingly full - I had to stand in the train!

Today is the final day of the Yamakasa. A 4:45 the first floats sets off at the signal of beating drums from the Kushida Shrine.

 

on the picture above - this woman behind the ice-cream van was squeezing through thousand of people. Can you see, what is sitting on her roof??

It is really difficult to get through the crowd. Shortly behind the Kushida Shrine I can get signed up a place at the first front.....where the water filled buckets were...

 

the first float is coming...

I squeezed me through the crowd to get to the goal.

This is a contest in which men compete on the time taken to race along 5 km course, over more or less 30 minutes.

 

The men pour their heart and soul into the race. The speed of the float race and the exciting atmosphere of the festival is just fantastic.

The race is for god. The Yamakasa floats are thought to have moved through the streets at a leisurely pace back then. The time competition of the oiyama race did not appear until 1687 - which causes new excitements into the festivities.

I could catch this picture in front of the goal...that's the whole team of Daikoku nagare after the race.

The Kazariyamas will dismantle this night... On the right picture, this is a tent, there are strengthening for the men after the race.