It was a very early time in the morning I had to set my alarm clock to go to the Yamakasa festival.

I arrived at my train station at 03:30, where they just opened the gate to enter. Only two colleges from school and one or two other people were waiting for the early train. And when it arrived, to my surprise, it was quite crowded. So NILS class wouldn’t be the only one heading to the festival.

Tired but really wondering how the festival would be we walked from Tenjin to near Hakata station where the festival took place. Even in these early hours the temperature was more than comfortable to wear shorts.

And then the festival started exactly at 04:58. It was a race between seven different male teams in the age from child to elderly men. Each team had to bring their float as fast as possible to the finish line; the float was carried by around ten people. Encouraged by all the visitors, they ran quite fast to end up as winners. Probably the refreshing water which was splashed from some people was a reason more trying to flee from that early shower.

The festival ended with a huge and heavy float carried by around 25 people. It was definitely worth to wake up at this unusual hour to see the race.