A vendor smokes behind a display of dog meat at a dog meat market on the day of a local dog meat festival in Yulin, Guangxi Autonomous Region, June 22, 2015. (Photo by Kim Kyung-Hoon/Reuters)

Soma-Nomaoi is a festival that recreates a battle scene from more than 1,000 years ago. It is annually held for 4 days from July 22 to 25 in Haramachi City, Fukushima Prefecture, in the eastern part of Japan. In this historical event, 600 mounted samurai in traditional Japanese armor, with long swords at their side and ancestral flagstaffs streaming from their backs, ride across open fields. Soma-Nomaoi has been designated an Important Intangible Folk Cultural Property.

Photo: A young woman (C) clad in samurai costume leads other local poeple as she rides her horse during a parade at the annual Soma Nomaoi festival in Minamisoma, Fukushima Prefecture, on July 28, 2012. The traditional full-scale festival kicked off for the first time after the accident of the Fukushima Dai-ichi Nuclear Power Plant following the massive earthquake and the tsunami on March 11, 2011. (Photo by Toru Yamanaka/AFP Photo)

A migrant prays on his knees after boarding the Migrant Offshore Aid Station (MOAS) rescue ship Topaz Responder around 20 nautical miles off the coast of Libya, June 23, 2016. (Photo by Darrin Zammit Lupi/Reuters)

Two Chinese farmers got more than they bargained for when they pulled up the root of a fleece flower – and came face-to-face with the doppelganger of Homer Simpson, on May 17, 2013. The large root appears to have two bulging eyes and a prominent nose – giving it an uncanny resemblance to the famous cartoon character. With two offshoot roots shaped like arms, it even looks like it is pondering or confused – just what you would expect from the real Homer. (Photo by ImagineChina)

A soldier under Russian command restrains a colleague after he fired his weapon into the air and screamed orders to turn back at an approaching group of over 100 unarmed Ukrainian troops at the Belbek airbase, which the Russian troops are occcupying, in Crimea on March 4, 2014 in Lubimovka, Ukraine. (Photo by Sean Gallup/Getty Images)

The Northern Lights glow green in a spectacular light show above a field of trees frozen solid with snow. (Photo by Jaak Sarv/Solent News & Photo Agency)

Female North Korean soldiers parade to mark the 60th anniversary of the signing of a truce in the 1950-1953 Korean War at Kim Il-sung Square, in Pyongyang. (Photo by Jason Lee/Reuters)

Austrian alpine skiers (LtoR) Georg Streitberger, Klaus Kroell, Max Franz, Joachim Puchner, Romed Baumann pose in the Olympic Rings on February 4, 2014 at the Mountain Olympic Village at the Rosa Khutor Alpine centre, four days prior to the start of the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympic Games. (Photo by Fabrice Coffrini/AFP Photo)