Tennosai in Utsunomiya

It's summertime, which is when festivals happen in many places all over Japan.

We went to Tennosai festival (天王祭) last night. Only to the best highlight part at night, though. It was cloudy and extremely humid. We thought it's a matter of time before it would start raining... Because Ms. T was with me (it ALWAYS rains when she's out and about), but hey, it didn't!

Please expect that she will upload video in the near future.

Every year at Tennosai festival, the districts that have their own mikoshi (portable shrine) compete who can climb up the backbreaking 96 steps of Futaarayama shrine with the mikoshi the fastest! The winning time this year was 18 seconds.

These two are the mikoshi photos from Bamba district. It has a big drum on it and two young drummers kept beating while being carried to the top of the shrine. Over 70 guys contributed to the pushing of the biggest mikoshi to the finish line.

Actually, Bamba has another tiny mikoshi (No drum on it) carried by little boys and girls.

Long Time No See...

Terribly sorry for being away from the photo-blogging sphere... I hope that there IS still somebody who is curious about visiting my blog:)

I marked December 15th on my calender as Otariya Festival (冬渡祭) that is organized by Futaarayama shrine (二荒山神社) in our town, Utsunomiya.　

Since we've featured this festival in our other blog, Budget Trouble, those who are interested in the background of this event, please take a look at  this article. And the photo of this festival taken last year is shown here.

Kaminokawa Town Summer Festival

We, as Utsunomiyans, used to go to the local summer festival called "Tenno sai (天王祭)". But this year, Ms. T. was encouraged to carry mikoshi at the Summer festival in Kaminokawa town (上三川町) by her friend, Sayaka SATO. Her family owns a fancy construction company (佐藤材木店) there.

We went there, had the same outfit as you can see in this photo and had a good time.

We really appreciate Ms. and Mr. Sato's hospitality!!!

Mikoshi Procession

Summer is the season for the festival in Japan.

The festival we went today is called Miyaichi festival (宮壹祭). In principle, mikoshi (a portable shrine) is owned by each district and the carriers in the district wear the same uniform with its logo. At Miyaichi festival, you can only see ONE mikoshi carried by a variety of participants coming from Utsunomiya downtown, as well as mikoshi freaks coming from outside of Tochigi prefecture.

This year, we have several mikoshi carriers coming from the tsunami devastated area in Tohoku... Though they also could be refugees that had been evacuated to Utsunomiya city...

This is an entry for Show Me Japan Vol 1, Issue 32. If you want to see nice photos taken in Japan, don't forget to visit!!!

Update: For those who are curious about how I took this photo, here is the answer.
I was not on the mikoshi, but my camera was approx. 3 meters high from the ground. I am not a mutant in the movie X-Men. So I don't have the ability to jump 3 meters, stay in the air, and take photos...
What I did was attaching monopod and remote cable release to the camera and doing the blind shooting by walking backwards in front of mikoshi! Does it make sense???

Welcome Home

Photographed during Otariya Festival (春渡祭) at Futaarayama Shrine (二荒山神社) in Utsunomiya city.

Mikoshi is a portable shrine that is occupied by  shinto deity - Toyokiiribiko (豊城入彦命) in this case. After the procession in Utsunomiya downtown in the snow storm, this shinto deity in the mikoshi managed to come home (Main Hall of Futaarayama Shrine) without any delay or troubles.


Below is another photo taken during the festival.

And our video.




This is a That's my world entry.

Mikoshi Procession in the Snow

Murphy's Law!

The first snowfall of this winter strikes on Otariya festival (春渡祭) that took place today. It happened just when we went to photograph the Mikoshi procession in Utsunomiya downtown.



This is an entry for Show Me Japan Vol 1, Issue 9. If you want to see nice photos taken in Japan, don't forget to visit.

 This is also a Sunday In My City entry.

Here is our video.

Mikoshi Procession Under Christmas Decoration

Photographed in Utsunomiya downtown on December 15. This festival is called "Otariya (冬渡祭)". Ujiko members of Futaarayama Shrine gathered, carried mikoshi, and marched downtown. During December this street (with a roof) is decorated with Christmas lights and the portable shrine (mikoshi) had a procession under Christmas decorations.

This is an entry for Show Me Japan Vol 1, Issue 5. If you want to see nice photos taken in Japan, don't forget to visit.

This is also a Spiritual Sunday, Our Weekend Memories, Sunday In My City, and Photo Friday entry. This week's challenge is "Gathering".

          

Autumn Festival in Tochigi City

This image is NOT taken with "multiple exposures". If you have a zoom lens and are bored with taking ordinary pictures, attach your camera to a tripod, have 2-5 second shutter speed (change ISO and aperture settings) and either zoom-in or zoom-out the lens!

Supplementary Info:
ISO: 100
Aperture: F10
Shutter Speed: 5 sec
Focal length: from 75 mm (approx. 2.5 sec) to 18 mm (approx 1.5 sec)
*Margins are slightly cropped.

If you want to see more, please visit this or that.

This is our video from the first day of the festival.





And a couple of pictures from the festival.

This is for That's My World entry.