The cold was so intense is was hard to stand on the floor and toes got numbed.
A bottle of sake was there for O miki and to warm the bodies up, it was intensively used although is was early morning.
After the usual speeches and greetings was a ceremonial shooting at the makiwara with 2 helpers called Kaezoe.
This is a rare form with a bow carrier (kaeyumi) in case the shooter's string breaks.
The makiwara is a straw-made practice target.
The newly graded from the past year also offered a ceremonial shot, Reisha.
Then a Sannin hitosumato zasharei, 3 persons shoot on the same target in turns within a precise ceremonial.
After that a general Reisha (2 arrows) and twice 4 arrows shooting.
After a bento (lunch box) and a soup lunch break we carried on with shooting on a smaller targer called Hanamato, representing the 12 months of the year with a flower for each month.
Whoever hits the target keeps it and receive a price later on.
I was lucky enough to hit one with my first arrow and got to go help gathering arrows at the target bank.
By sheer chance I hit the one for my birth month.
It took a very long time to hit all the 12 targets.
Followed another shot of the same size target (5 of them) covered in golden paper.
Last we shot at balloons containing a number giving a prize, here too my first arrow hit one.
The day ended in the presentation of the various prizes.