If
you ever get a chance to go to the Awa Odori Matsuri
in Koenji, by all means go.
It is one of the better Matsuri I
have seen and is absolutely loaded with colorful dress,
music, dancing, food, beer, and people having a really
good time. (No doubt with a little help from all that
free-flowing beer...)
Sound
Clip
But if you plan on getting some pictures,
make sure you show up early. It gets extremely
crowded during the actual parade. So unless your 7 foot
4, and don't mind stepping on some people, you will
likely not be able to see very much.
But all hope is not lost for you photographers
out there. The dance teams practice their steps on the
side streets for a few hours leading up to the main
event and it is those side street performances that
provide the best photo ops.
I am happy to announce that my 50mm
f1.0 L worked like a charm. I think I am going to really
enjoy this lens (not carrying it around though, the
things weighs over two pounds all by itself). The effect
you can achieve through the use of extremely thin depth
of field is a whole lot of fun to play with. And just
to be sure I can use those big wide apertures in brighter
conditions I picked up a neutral density filter for
it.
In addition to the great photo ops,
another pleasant surprise was just how reasonable the
beer was. 250 yen for a can! This is almost half of
what you normally see beer going for at festivals in
Japan. There were some stands selling it for 400 or
even 500 yen, but all you had to do was walk just a
little way down the street (20-40 feet) and you would
find another vendor selling beer.
But I do have a word of caution: Seeing
as the Awa Odori Matsuri takes place in the end of August,
it is hot.
Really hot.
Stupid hot.
Think "average surface temperature
of the planet Mercury's sun facing side" hot and
you get an idea of what i am trying to say.
So the fact that one is sweating buckets
and chugging beer like a redneck at a shotgun
wedding, you stand a really good chance of overdoing
it and spending the later part of the evening dehydrated,
and "driving the porcelain bus" if you know
what I mean.
To help prevent this I made sure to
have a bottle of water or juice between beers. The helped
out in a couple of different ways.
First of all it kept me hydrated.
Second of all it kept my stomach full enough so I could
not chug the beer too fast. Third of all it helped me
get rid of the ball of change I seem to continually
accumulate.
I swear, some days I'm walking around with about 5000
yen in change! All I can say is its a good thing there
is a vending machine ready to swallow my coins on nearly
every street corner here, otherwise I would eventually
be unable to move from underneath a mountain of 500,
100, and 109 yen coins...
Personally I think it is a conspiracy.
I imagine a dark boardroom in downtown
Osaka where the vending machine Yakuza boss (and you
thought such a thing did not exist...Ha!) plots his
next move to further increase the amount of loose change
the average consumers ends up with after a day of shopping.
He craftily ensures prices are set to maximize the amount
of change in coins is received for every purchase you
make. Then "conveniently" locates vending
machines right outside of all these places of business,
just ready to relieve you of all that annoying change.
....
...OK, I'll put away my tinfoil hat
for now, but don't say you weren't warned...
--
Just a couple more days to go before
my Kyoto trip. I made a last minute trip to Yodobashi
Camera today to pick up an extra battery for my EOS
Rebel XT, and a couple of step up rings so I can use
my 72mmand 77mm polarizing filters on my smaller lenses.
If I remember to, I'll take a picture
of my photo bag once it is packed for the trip so you
an get an idea of what I will be carrying with me.
--
Calling all artists!
BlogAds, the service I use to serve
adds here on Sushicam is looking for a new logo.
So turn on your creative juices and enter your best
idea(s) and if you are selected as the winner you get
a cool $1,000 and the referring blogger (Your truly)
makes $300.
And to sweeten the pot even more, If one of you enters
and wins, I will turn that $300 around and give it to
you! So that makes it $1,300 for a winning entry!
Please see this
link for the details and information on how to make
a submission.
Comment 22
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