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.

Cherry Trees And Giraffes

Today was probably the last chance for us to photograph cherry blossoms in our town, Utsunomiya. So we headed to the Oya district and Utsunomiya zoo (宇都宮動物園). Utsunomiya zoo is one of my favorite places to photograph cherry trees. It's plain gorgeous to see blossoms from the Ferris wheel!

After approximately 5 minutes of the Ferris wheel trip, I spent quite a long time taking photos of giraffes.

Tohaimon Gate

I realized that I've been posting entries related to Buddhist ceremonies. Now it's time to post something about Shinto.

By Chuzenji lake (中禅寺湖) in Nikko city, there is Futaarasan Chugushi shrine (二荒山中宮祠).

View Larger Map

Futaarasan Chugushi is a beautiful shrine enshrining three deities, Okuninushi (大国主)/Onamuchi (大己貴命), Tagorihime (田心姫命), and Ajisukutakahikone (味耜高彦根命). It also acts as an entrance gate for the trail to climb Mt. Nantai. The entrance is called Tohaimon Gate (登拝門).

We once challenged Mt. Naitai (男体山) and climbed it in summer. At NIGHT. We posted the entry here to share with you the experience we had during the challenge! We are supposed to try this summer once again!

Kaizan e

We went to Nikko city today just to see the nice views that the World Heritage site has to offer.

It was snowing!!!

Cherry blossoms are far behind in Nikko... It will take about two more weeks until the Shrines and Temples are decorated with pink petals...

April 1st is the anniversary of Monk Sho-do (勝道上人)'s death. He was the pioneer who initially started developing Nikko into a religious center. The ceremony took place at Kaizando Hall (開山堂). Since he was a Buddhist monk and Kaizando Hall belongs to Rinnoji temple (輪王寺), the ceremony called Kaizan e (開山会) is organized by monks from Rinnoji.

Lotus sudra (法華経) chanted by 80 monks was the prayer to mark this occasion.

Mizuko Jizo Statues

At Tagesan Fudoson (多気不動尊).

This is a Wordless Wednesday entry.

Time To Say Goodbye To Dolls

Since 1998, Tagesan Fudoson (多気不動尊)/Tagesan Jihouin Fudoson (多気山持宝院不動尊) of Shingon school (真言宗) Buddhist temple has been holding a ritual ceremony around mid February for old dolls that the owners decided not to keep at home anymore. It is an annual ceremony during which the temple treats the dolls as human beings when dead - by cremating them.

This was my first time to photograph this event, my positioning was bad and the best shooting position was completely taken by a bunch of old dudes with fancy DSLRs with expensive lenses.

The ceremony started off with the Buddhist monks chanting. Then gasoline was used to start a fire. It took less than 10 minutes of that for more than 100 fancy dolls to turn in ashes...
 
By the way, the most exciting event organized by the temple is a fire walking ceremony every May. We are planning to attend it this year. Photos of last year's ceremony are below. Click photos to enlarge.

This is Our World Tuesday Week 26 entry.

Two Baldies

From the archive, the photo was taken in Nikko city.

Have a wonderful weekend.

A Snail?

When I was rambling through the Utsunomiya downtown, one anonymous building caught my eyes. My first thought was that this metallic snail-looking thingy was a ladder. But I was wrong!

When I got closer to it, "organic" smell got stronger (Thank God that it was winter). This metal object adjacent to the building turned out to be a long and spiral slide to the trash bin! How intelligent, or let's say, lazy the designer of this building was!


This is a Outdoor Wednesday #160 and Sky Watch Friday entry.

 

            

Jizo Statue

A jizo (地蔵菩薩) statue photographed at the cemetery of Jikoji temple (慈光寺) of the Jodo school of Buddhism (浄土宗) in Utsunomiya city. It was heartbreaking to see that many statues, especially the old ones, were either cracked or crushed there and they still remained as they are up until now...

The statue in this photo is taller than me and obviously one of several that survived the March 11th earthquake!

南無阿弥陀仏...

This is a Outdoor Wednesday #159 and Sky Watch Friday entry.

           

My New Companion

LED backlight keyboard under the dark

During the editing of the photo for the previous entry on New Year's Day (3 AM), my computer was terminated... When the computer was restarted, the poor guy could not recognize the hard drive. I tried so hard to fix it, however, nothing really worked.

After driving Ms. T to the bus stop, I had my computer with me and took it to the computer doctor. Since I did not foresee any hope, Ms. T placed an order for me for a new computer, Apple MacBook Pro (13 inch). Until the new computer arrived, I had had to use a very old laptop I bought a decade ago. It still works fine but due to the old version of OS10, all I could do was just to browse web sites. But hey, it's still better than nothing since we don't have a TV at home! I could, at least, follow what was happening in the world:)

For these who left a comment, I sincerely apologize for my absence.

Happy New Year!

We went to Rinnohji temple (輪王寺) in Nikko city (日光市)...



Happy New Year!!!

Matsugamine Church

Matsugamine Church (松が峰教会) in Utsunomiya city is made of Oya stone (大谷石).

In February, I visited there at night and posted a photo of this church taken with a real Fisheye lens and explained briefly about this church.

Fishing the Church

The beauty of chilling winter is the clear air and sky! Though it was windy at dusk and nobody was there, it was worth visiting and photographing with the blue sky behind.

Inside photo of this church can be seen there.

The Weirdest Christmas Tree!

Butterfly resting after the eclosion

Since today it was the coldest day so far this winter, we came up with an idea of visiting a green house that provides us with spring-to-early-summer temperatures and heavenly moisture, located within the Igashira Park (井頭公園) complex in Moka city (真岡市). For those who are curious about this park and the city, please go check this article in our Budget Trouble blog (though the article's not yet fixed... Sorry for that).

As you can see photos above, a series of butterflies are waiting for you there. They are beautiful and lovely. When it's sunny, you simply forget that it's Christmas season if you are a resident of the northern hemisphere.

I was so eager to photograph them but I had to wait for 20 minutes or so until the condensation on the lens disappeared... What makes this green house unique is a Christmas tree decorated with a bunch of butterfly pupae! REAL ONES!!! No kidding! They're not socks, LED lights, or plastic toys.

Lots of pupae hanging. ALL REAL!!!

From some butterflies have already emerged and the shells are empty, others are not.

(Left) Pupae decoration   (Right) Overview of the tree

The fee to the green house is 400 JPY (adult). From 9:30 to 16:00.

This is a Macro Monday entry.

Bronze Statue Of Sacred Horse

It was a beautiful day today, though it was cold... When we went to downtown, I stopped at Futaarayama shrine (二荒山神社) to photograph whatever looks interesting. I captured the bronze statue of the sacred horse there.


This is a Black and White Weekend entry.

Have a wonderful Christmas Holiday!

The First Macro Of My Own!

You have no idea how desperate I was to have my own macro lens for years. Since I have been a good boy, Santa Claus came to our house a little bit earlier and dropped off a Tamron SP AF 90mm F/2.8 Di Macro 1:1 Nikon F-mount for me.

I attached it to my Nikon D200 and photographed water drops on the CD, which resulted in utterly abstract images!

My new gadget - I'm loving it!

Many thanks to my Santa's helper -  Ms. T!

Merry Christmas and Happy Hanukkah to everyone.

This is a Macro Monday entry.

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.

Yabusame Performance

Sorry for my absence from the blogging scene...

Yesterday we were at Nakamura Hachimangu (中村八幡宮) in Moka city to participate in Rei Taisai (例大祭). This festival is one of our favorite matsuri. They provide with bunch of events, Yabusame (流鏑馬), Daidai Kagura (太々神楽), sword performance named Batto Embu Taikai (抜刀演舞大会), and mikoshi procession, of course.

Have a nice week.

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???

Tsuruta Pond

We are currently in the middle of the rainy season and I am sort of reluctant to photograph when it's wet. But occasionally I strive to be an early bird and head to the pond named Tsuruta pond. It takes approx. 5 min to get there by car.

I was the only human being there when this photo was taken. I could only hear ducks making noise in the mist...

The haze has gone when the sun appeared and when it's not windy, the surface of this pond looks like a mirror with a few feathers floating.


Here is another photo taken there. Eventually you can see ducks (click image to enlarge)!

This is an entry for Show Me Japan Vol 1, Issue 29. If you want to see nice photos taken in Japan, don't forget to visit!!!