Horse Day – Bajikouen

At the end of September every year, Bajikouen (馬事公苑), the biggest equine sports center in Tokyo celebrates Aiba no hi, or Horse Day, with special events, shows and “meet the horses”. The events start early, at ten in the morning (it is the last day of a three day long weekend so a lot of people sleep in that morning) with yabusame (horse archery), test riding, show jumping and many other things. I was there and took a few snaps of some of the events, including a ladies sidesaddle show ride and some very interesting non-competitive variation on horse polo, in which the riders pick up a small ball and stage mock attacks on castle wall, trying to throw the ball into a small target.

Bajikouen is a bit of a walk (but not too far) from Sakura Shinmachi Station and if you are a horse lover I recommend going there just before noon on weekends, as there is almost always some sort of competition going on, usually with local high schools and universities competing. As you can expect, there are very few opportunities to ride horses in Japan and even few places to actually compete, so such a centrally located sports center gets a lot of use!