About 250 carp-shaped streamers, known as koinobori, are being flown at a beach in the central Japanese prefecture of Mie for ...

The banners are made of cloth 7.5 meters long and 85 centimeters wide, and popular designs include a samurai with a Japanese sword, a dragon, a tiger and a carp swimming up a waterfall.

It's the height of spring, fields glistening with snow melt from the mountains and nature returning to life as we ride through the Nasu Highlands under hundreds of streaming carp banners ...