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)

Commended. In late May, about a quarter of a million snow geese arrive from North America to nest on Wrangel Island, in northeastern Russia. They form the world's largest breeding colony of snow geese. Photographer Sergey Gorshkov spent two months on the remote island photographing the unfolding dramas. Arctic foxes take advantage of the abundance of eggs, caching surplus eggs for leaner times. But a goose (here the gander) is easily a match for a fox, which must rely on speed and guile to steal eggs. “The battles were fairly equal”, notes Sergey, “and I only saw a fox succeed in grabbing an egg on a couple of occasions, despite many attempts”. Surprisingly, “the geese lacked any sense of community spirit”, he adds, “and never reacted when a fox harassed a neighboring pair nesting close by”. (Photo by Sergey Gorshkov/Veolia Environnement Wildlife Photographer)

Actress Victoria Justice arrives at the 2011 MTV Video Music Awards at Nokia Theatre L.A. LIVE on August 28, 2011 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Christopher Polk/Getty Images)

A subway worker walks away after a train departed the station in central Pyongyang, North Korea May 7, 2016. (Photo by Damir Sagolj/Reuters)

A handout picture provided by Global newsroom of Czech Martin Sonka (C) leading Nigel Lamb (top) of Great Britain and Yoshihide Muroya of Japan (down) along the Mount Fuji prior the third stage of the Red Bull Air Race World Championship in Chiba, Japan on June 1, 2016. (Photo by Predrag Vockovic/EPA/Global Newsroom)

A young Chinese girl kicks during a kung-fu class at Ritan Park on June 11, 2016 in Beijing, China. Ritan, meaning “sun altar”, is among the oldest parks in Beijing, built in the early 1500s during the Ming dynasty for the emperor to make sacrifices to the sun. (Photo by Kevin Frayer/Getty Images)

A picture made available in 01 July 2016 shows a 16-meter-long and 6.5-meter-high model of a Spinosaurus installed by employees of the dinosaur park in Muenchenhagen in the region of Hannover, Germany, 28 June 2016. The model is considered the only replica of this dinosaur species worldwide. The outdoor museum at Lake Steinhude shows more than 230 true-to-scale replica of dinosaurs. (Photo by Holger Hollemann/EPA)

A protester from the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) displays a placard from a bathtub as a people looks on during a demonstration to call on the public to eat more vegetables to save water, in Sao Paulo on August 2, 2016. (Photo by Cris Faga via ZUMA Wire)