Another festival

Date August 31, 2008

Last weekend it was Super Yosakoi in Harajuku and this weekend it was Samba in Asakusa. The Samba carnival in Asakusa brought out a lot of colorfully dressed (or half-dressed) performers. I only watched for a little while as I really couldn’t find a good camera angle and couldn’t be bothered to search for one. It was getting hot and I thought it was going to rain soon (in fact just after I left it did in fact start pouring down). Still it was fun to see and I got a couple colorful pics of the event.

Asakusa Samba Carnival

On Sunday I headed over to Kagurazaka. This area in central Tokyo is quite traditional and has a lot of slightly hilly tree lined streets with lots of little stores and restaurants. I walked around for a little while and while I didn’t really get any pictures I was overly impressed with, it was still a nice way place to stroll around for the afternoon.

Walking the dog

Yosakoi

Date August 23, 2008

I went over to Harajuku today to check out the “Harajuku Omotesando Genki Matsuri Super Yosakoi” festival (boy, that’s the longest name I know for a festival). It supposed to last two days so I might go over again on Sunday, but the weather is not looking very promising. Today was a light rain but it sounds worse for tomorrow. Anyway, it was fun to see all these different groups (apparently 90 in total) from around Japan having fun and dancing up a storm. I really enjoy the summer festival season in Japan. There is a lot of variety and you can usually find one going on somewhere in Tokyo almost every weekend in August. Here’s one picture from today, check out Flickr for more.

Harajuku Omotesando Genki Matsuri Super Yosakoi

Temple visits and other things

Date August 17, 2008

When in doubt about where to go on the weekend, I usually go to Asakusa. It’s a lively area with a big temple and lots of shops. A big tourist destination actually and just about 10 minutes away from where I live by train. This weekend I went over there on Saturday afternoon and came back with a few decent shots and about 5 pounds lighter (since it was over 30C and I was perspiring a lot). I pulled out my big 80-200mm f/2.8 zoom lens and managed to get a fairly interesting picture of someone washing their hands (which is custom before entering a temple). The composition isn’t that good with the handle of the cup appearing to stick out of the persons arm, but the water and lighting worked out well I think.

Cleansing hands

Today (Sunday) was a cool day for the first time in a long time. It rained most of the day and was probably 10 degrees (centigrade) less that the day before. The rain discouraged me from getting out much but it was nice to be able to open the doors and turn off the air conditioning for most of the day. It looks like it will be back to sunny and hot tomorrow — oh, well.

I know I’m writing less and less on my blog these days. I guess it’s because while I’m still taking a lot of pictures I’m spending my time posting and writing about them over on Flickr. As any long reader of my blog will know, I don’t write about work (or at least I think I’ve only written about work once in three years) and I’m not going to change that. I’ll keep writing this blog when I feel like it. Hopefully at least once a week, which seems to be my pace recently. Otherwise you can basically enjoy what I see on the weekend by checking out my pictures on Flickr.

Morning Walks

Date August 10, 2008

I’ve been getting up fairly early on the weekends recently. I used to be able to sleep-in until fairly late but the sun rising so early here in the summer seems not be letting me sleep past 8 or so in the morning. Because of the heat I’ve used this as a chance to also get out early and take pictures. I went over to Asakusa on Saturday morning to take a walk and get some photographs. I didn’t really get anything that memorable but I did run across a taiko (Japanese drums) performance going on in front of a local school. I think it was just an amateur group but that seemed to be very into their performance so I took a few shots of them. I only caught the last 10 minutes or so of their performance, still it was enjoyable to watch. The afternoons bring the heat and crowds everywhere so I’m enjoying the relative calm and coolness of the morning combined with discovering things going on in Tokyo that I’d otherwise miss just staying in bed.

Taiko in the park

Tokyo Summer

Date August 3, 2008

It’s the middle of summer here which means fireworks displays and people walking around in yukata. I saw, from a long ways away, one of the larger fireworks displays in the Tokyo area - the Todabashi fireworks. That was Saturday evening. Then this evening, Sunday, I went over to Asakusa for dinner and noticed quite a few people walking around in yukata. I like fireworks and I like the sight of people in yukata. What I’m not liking about this summer at all are the oppressively hot and humid nights. Anyway, here are a couple of pics.

Out for a summer stroll in Asakusa

Fireworks ... far away

Morning

Date July 23, 2008

Morning in Blaine, Washington. This is the view from where I sit drinking coffee and using my pc after waking up early from the predictable jet lag caused by flying from Japan to the west coast of the US yesterday. Something like a 16 hour time difference. It’s quiet here. The wind blowing in the trees is the most consistent noise I hear before everyone wakes up. The view out the window is just of some trees. And it’s cold! I went from 30+ C (upper 80’s F) and oppresively humid days and nights to pleasent but very cool days and nights here. It seems a little below normal even for this area at this time of year, but I’m wishing I had brought some warmer clothes already. Obviously a big change coming from Tokyo. Blaine has a popluation of roughly 4,000. Tokyo 12 million.

The Zoo

Date July 19, 2008

I decided to make a visit to the zoo today to do some wildlife photography. Not that the animals in the zoo are allowed to be that “wild” but still it was a nice pace of change from what I’m been doing recently. There is a zoo in Ueno that I had actually never been to despite being relatively close to where I live. So that’s where I went to today. It’s a city zoo so the layout is quite compact and there are large fences in front of a lot of the exhibits preventing me from having that many opportunities to take pictures of the animals. But fortunately a few exhibits, like the penguins, polar bears, and monkeys were accessible so armed with my camera, my 80-200mm zoom and x2 teleconverter I snapped away on a very hot and humid afternoon. Here a couple of the pictures. As always you can find more on my Flickr page.

Summer @ Ueno Zoo

Summer @ Ueno Zoo

Tsukiji

Date July 12, 2008

FishDespite spending many years in Japan I had never actually visited the famous wholesale fish market at Tsukiji - until today. I went over there around 8:30 this morning. By this time of day most of the auctions are over and it is prime time for getting the fish on to trucks or packed up and shipped off to their final destinations. The place was buzing with both the people who were working there but also bunches of tourists and foreigners (like me) there to take some pictures and see what has got to be one of the biggest fish markets in the world. I wanted to take more pictures but actually it was hard to find a quiet spot to concentrate on a subject. There were carts and people constantly going from one place to another. I’ll have to try and visit on a weekday sometime. Then at least there should be less tourists getting in the way.

That's a big knife

Yokohama

Date July 7, 2008

I had lunch in China Town in Yokohama this past Sunday. It was a hot and humid day. Rainy season is nearly over in Tokyo and despite a relatively cool summer so far, the temperatures were over 30C this weekend. Despite Yokohama being less than an hour away from where I live I don’t think I’ve been there but once in the past year and can probably count on my hand the number of times I have been there in my many years in Japan. Despite the weather being rather uncomfortable I was happy that at least it didn’t rain like it has seemed to most weekends the past couple of months. Here’s a (not so interesting) picture of part of the port and the Yokohama Bay Bridge.

Yokohama Bay Bridge

Kita-Kamakura

Date June 29, 2008

Twisting treeI went to Kamakura again this past Saturday. I got off the train at Kita (North) Kamakura station to check out the many temples in that area. There were many colorful flowers and the green of the trees, grass and moss was soothing to see since I’m usually stuck in the concrete dominated environs of downtown Tokyo. Despite having been to Kamakura a number of times now, for whatever reason I had never explored the Kita-Kamakura station area. If you’re spending the day in the area I highly recommend both Engakuji temple and Meigetsuin temple, both very near the train station. At this time of year (June) the “ajisai” (hydrangea) are in full bloom and quite beautiful to see, though they do bring in the crowds so if possible better to visit on a weekday. Kamakura is just about a 50 min. train rain from Tokyo station so it is an easy day trip for anyone visiting or living in downtown Tokyo.

Hydrangea @ Engaku-ji

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