Through The Woods

Kind of reminds of a forest fire...

Across The Pond

Empty Booth

Little outside looking in action...

Sogi Leaves

Man, I should shoot car ads, I could have made $$$ with this one... I wish I would have spent more time taking some other shots here, but I was kind of in a hurry. We'll do a couple from this location over the next few days.

Sunset

We'll close this portion of the trip out with a nice sunset shot from Ginkakuji, the Silver Pavilion.

Golden Pavilion

Slight change of pace, this is at the Golden Pavilion in Kyoto. I got lucky with the timing of the sun and the leaves were also in full autumn colors.

Torii Alley

Torii Shine

Mini Torii Gates

Could be my new favorite.

Rays

Standing Tall

Fushimi Inari

I'll just start from near the beginning. This is a shrine in Kyoto where the walking path is lined with thousands of Torii gates. It was amazing, and I went crazy with the camera. Come by everyday, cause I'm gonna go on a bit of a run with these.

Asakusa Temple

This is part of a famous temple in Asakusa, Tokyo. Wonderful sunset, with a lot of shapes and things going on. Not much more to say, but I'm gonna go on a tear over the next few days cause I just had visitors for a week and took about 500 pictures...

Incredibly Off Duty

The lil' guy is taking some time off from being a super hero (boy) to read, how cute...

Hounds Tooth Torii

Not sure if anyone can even tell what it is, but it's one that I really like. I like the grainy background and overall composition of the shot. Its a shame I don't like any of the other shots I took from this part of the festival...

Big Hat, Little Head

Down Time

A little down time for the boys, so the spent it doing whatever kids do...

Performance

These boys were part of the festival and were in a performance on the main stage. There were a bunch of people taking pictures of them, so I didn't feel weird about shooting them and I think got some interesting shots.

Big Bang

The point of impact creates a massive source of light and energy! Or is the sun in the distance, you decide...

Silhouette

I'm gonna do a few days from a trip to Takayama from a few weeks ago. Went on a little hike through a chain of shrines, and this was really popped with the position of the sun and the clouds.

Rising Sun

An excellent lantern from the festival, and will be the last one from the series. I like this because the angle I shot it at portrayed the old Rising Sun flag of Japan used some time ago.

Distorted

This one is very MC Escher to me. You can hardly tell which way is up/down and I'm just amazed this design is all on one sheet of paper.

Eye Teaser

If you're looking at the middle, and your eyes move even the slightest bit, it throws them for a loop. Then you struggle to get them back into focus. Its a lot more intense if you have a blown up version of the picture.

Bloomin'

I think my favorite part about these lantern photos is that they are surrounded in darkness. Not being able to make out the background really allows these lanterns to pop, and even the small details in the design. I'll do a few more days of these, but I think I will refrain from making comments, unless there is something specific that needs to be said. Thanks, enjoy.

Umbrellas & Silhouettes

All hand-made... I didn't think about it at the time, but I should have figured out how the silhouettes got there.

Stacked

Paper Mushroom

I think this was my favorite lantern at the festival. I'll show another one or two over the next few days so you can get an idea of what it looked like. Don't have much more to say really, just has good depth, color and overall weirdness to it.

Flowers

Alright, so I went to a paper lantern festival this past weekend, so I'm gonna spend the next few days going through some of my favorites from the night. There was some real creativity out there, so I tried my best to work around the crowds and get in for interesting shots. I was a fan of the bright colors and space in between. Mind you, these are all hand-made with hand-made Japanese washi (paper)

FORE!

Japan is littered with golf driving ranges, because there is so little land to actually place courses. I have seen driving ranges as small as 60 yards plopped in the middle of a major city. The golf industry is huge here, but the cost of playing is so high, that most people are left with only driving range time. Here there, we just happened to have the perfect sunset for where I was at the time. Wonderful color, nice cloud placement and the sun fits perfect between the pillars.

Aftermath

This was after we came in from the fishing. We were moving too fast, so none of my pictures turned up from going down the stream. We were parked and they were packing up the birds and fish, so it made for a good photo-op

What's Inside?

The baskets there holds the birds until its time to let them go fishing. The strings and the hanging cage, well, I already explained those. The fog is so mystical, I just couldn't believe the atmosphere at the time. The ride, was unfortunately very short because the river was flowing really fast, but I think I got my moneys worth during the prep time.

Prep Time

Heres me coming in a little bit. They took a long time to prepare for the short journey down the river. They have to make sure all of the birds are attached to the leashes and they massage the throats of the birds as well. The idea is that the birds are attached by a rope around the neck, so that when they dive for fish, they are unable to swallow them when they bring them back to the boat. Settle down PETA, the only animals that are harmed in the making of this event are the fish that are caught and eventually smoked to delicious sweet goodness.

Ukai Fishing

These boats are used for a traditional form of fishing for a river sweet-fish called an Ayu. They light a huge fire on the front of the boat and then stroll down the river while birds on leashes go diving. This day there was an incredible fog that settled, which made the experience seem more traditional.

Fishies...

Inside the Maze

Its just that, a shot from inside the maze. I like how the light splits in the middle and also seems to go straight across from beam to beam.

Maze

This was a maze made of more metal bars. I managed to make my way through, but someone thought it would be a good idea to put cross beams at your head level, so yes, I hit my head about 5 times just trying to crawl through this thing. More from the inside tomorrow.

Crazy Park

Playgrounds here are the most dangerous things I have ever seen. I love it, all this park had was a bunch of metal bars for kids to drop 20 feet from and break every bone in their body. No one thinks twice to crawl around on them, and it is amazingly refreshing that everyone is babied and issuing subpoenas left and right. I'm gonna do a few days of pictures from this park I found last night.

Coastline

This was taken at the same area along the coast at night. The tide is low, so you can see about 3 more steps than usual. There were these crazy little pre-historic looking hard shelled bugs that were running up and down the boardwalk. There must have been millions of them, but they would just part when you strolled by. I've been here a few times, and only seen them during the warmer months.

Wedded Rocks

These are the Wedded Rocks out in Futami, in Mie Prefecture. When the tide is up, the rocks appear to be two seperate stones that are connected by a braided rope. When the tide is down, you can see that they are actually one rock cropping. These are very famous in Japan, and just to East, across the bay, is an amazing sunset.

The Leaves

Alright, we're getting close to the Fall season, and it is amazing out here in Japan. The most colorful tree here in the Fall is the Japanese Maple, which goes from bright green to a fire red and everything warm in between. This was taken at the Silver Palace in Kyoto last Fall, and I was just amazed that this top part of the pond could fill up with leaves, but not a single one went down the mini waterfall into the pond below. The colors aren't as vibrant here, since they have already fallen, but I assure you that there will be more to come as the temperatures drop.

Blue Skies

I tried to find some other photos of power lines, but I just couldn't be bothered digging through everything right now. So this one was taken in Kyoto at the Heian Shrine. I got into an pseudo argument with some of the teachers I work with about the color of the wood below. Its obviously orange, but they were set on the fact that it was red. Its a special color they only use for shrines and it has its own name, but still claim it is red! Anyways, I can't believe the sky above the building. The colors are so rich and it seems like its just blends from the shingles on the roof.

Killer Sunset

This was taken outside my house the other night. I noticed it turning a bit orange outside, so I went out with my camera. For those who haven't been, there is a ridiculous amount of power lines running through every part of Japan. I can only think that they are not underground for earthquake purposes, but I'm not entirely sure. I'll try and find another one I have taken of phone lines for tomorrows post. Anyway, this only proves my theory that power lines cause ripples in clouds during sunset. :-) Not really, but its just crazy how these clouds formed at that time, and the placement of the lines was dead on.

In Focus

I was on an island near Hiroshima where I walked by this pair of glasses that somebody had lost. They were folded up on the ledge when I first saw/ignored them, but I walked by later and noticed the potential here. I kindly positioned these 80's spectacles to bring the monstrous shrine in the background into focus. I don't wear glasses, but I think that this shot would only work if the person couldn't see long distances. Either way, I found it to be a little creative way to shoot.

A-Dome at Night

This is one of my favorite pictures that I took this year. It was right when I got my new camera and was down in Hiroshima with family. This building was extremely different to shoot during the day and at night. The lights at night seem to give off this eerie green light, and from across the river everything turns out really well with a long exposure. There is actually a lot I don't like about the photo, but it seem so fake that it makes me still love it.

Chopped Down

After they chop down the whole rice stalk, they are bundled together and then draped over these stands. I'm not exactly sure how long they take to get ready, but I don't think it takes very long. Not to much more to say about this one, so I will leave it at that.

From The Beginning

I think I got a little ahead of myself there, so let me go to the beginning of the rice harvesting phase. If you haven't seen rice grow before, like I hadn't before coming here, it kinda looks just like wheat. This is a shot looking up at some that are ready to be cut down. These fields are everywhere, so there has got to be just massive amounts of rice grown every year. A little side note, the Japanese are very snobby about their rice and don't think any imported rice is ever as good as their own. hens, they grow it all themselves.

Rice Harvest

I'm gonna lay off the transportation for a bit and move on to something relevant to the seasons. Right now is rice harvesting season, so I took some time out today after work and cruised through the rice fields. I'm not much for scenery shots, but I do like the fresh cuts drying on the handmade stands. It was getting close to sundown and there is a typhoon coming so the clouds and sky are looking good. I'm gonna try again to get out there again during a proper sunset and see what I can come up with.

Country Roads

I took this at my friends house during a party one night. It was almost completely black outside, so I had to really let the exposure run with this one, but it turned out good I think. The 止まれ written on the street is the Japanese version of a stop sign. There are actual stop signs, but they don't really put them up too often.

Left Alone

This was taken a few feet down the track as the previous shot. I think that the tires and the overgrowth say a lot about the state of the track. I don't know why these tracks aren't used anymore, because they would have been very useful to connect me to the neighboring city. Nonetheless, I think it made for some good photos, so at least someone used it :-).