Urayasu Sanja Matsuri - Chiba

Right across the river that borders Tokyo from the neighboring Chiba prefecture lies Urayasu City, with a population of about 165 000 people and a long history it also puts on quite a few large festivals! On the 16th and 17th of June this year there is the large Urayasu Sanja Rettaisai, or Urayasu Sanja Matsuri for short. Once every three four years the three major shrines of the city of Urayasu join together in one huge festival! Today, right now as a matter of fact, was the first day of the festival even though persistent heavy rain put a damper on the audience the participants didn’t seem to mind being thoroughly soaked after the first few minutes. Every cloud has a silver lining and this time it was probably the fact that very few people showed up to watch it, so photography was pretty easy and I managed to get pretty much the place I wanted. If you are near Urayasu right now I really recommend grabbing an umbrella and heading over there, or if you’d rather not be out in the rain tomorrow looks like much better weather. Expect heavy crowds though, as everyone who stayed home today will want to see it on the second day. It’s only on once every four years so here’s your chance! Here’s a route map of the procession of omikoshi!

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