I bet you would be amazed to see this gorgeous view in front of your eyes! You may not be able to imagine this is real!! This is "Kakitsubata, or Japanese Irises".
Ota shrine is very well-known for its beautiful "Irises" viewing, and what is special is the numbers!!! It's like a huge island of Irises... Everybody who visit the site says, "It's more than expected, really fantastic!!!"
You can never find such tremendous number of Irises planted all at once anywhere throughout Japan. It's designated as National Natural Treasure. Don't miss this breathtaking thousands of rabbit-eared irises!!!
Because the Horse Race ritual itself starts in the middle of the event, so I've decided to drop in Ota shrine to enjoy the Irises before the race start. It was right idea!! We're very lucky to know that Japanese National Holiday (GW) was the perfect timing for Irises in full bloom at the shrine!!!
While enjoying watching Irises the local people was selling traditional "Manju", a rice cake (specialty of the place) across the path, so we've sit down on the wooden bench and enjoyed Manjyu with green tea.
After we've been satisfied with nice "view" and "dessert", we've got back to Kamigamo shrine for the excited event to see horses run at their super highest speed just in front of your eyes!!
Right after the race started, the rider in the traditional costume was shouting, "Go! Go!", looking really cool. They are selected young men all from the ancestor of noble family related this shrine.
Two horses from each team compete their speed and judge the good harvest in the following year from the result which team was faster. (The picture above is from official website, I couldn't take a picture of running horse!! :( It's too fast!! )
The winner will be coming over to the sacred place where the main priest's waiting to announce his victory.
