Abandoned van in Gunma.

These, the "floats" that were pulled at Chichibu. Even with wooden wheels and weighing over 10 tons, these things seem to move rather smoothly.

Here's a series from the Chichibu Yomatsuri just this past weekend. The festival goes on for 2 days (December 2 and 3) and the highlight is at night. All local districts pull out their floats (I guess that's the word for them) and pull them through central Chichibu, Saitama. I read somewhere that these floats weigh more than 10-tons....and after looking at them, I wouldn't doubt it. The crowd is just amazingly too huge that at times, you can't even move your arms while walking (just like a packed train) or you can't make a turn because you are just being pushed along with the rest of the crowd. God help if someone fell down. What's so fun about this?!? I haven't the slightest idea but I would definitely go back again for the "Jagabata" (steamed potato). Of course, as at any matsuri, the food was good!

Anyway, here's a few of the people that pull these floats. Most were in their teens and mostly girls. Must've been a few hundred of them pulling at once. The cool thing is that they were all having fun while yelling out the name of their district and chanting "We're number 1!"

Cosmos taken near a dam in Gunma. I thought these flowers were Spring flowers but these were still blooming in the cold.
Ice Cream mascot/s near the entrance to Himeji Castle.

This one was taken from SkyWalk underneath Yokohama Baybridge, overlooking part of Tsurumi.

More from Kawagichi-ko.... This was just about all of the vendor booths at this Matsuri. Small yet nice!

The colors were beautiful! Especially the sign under this tree, reading "Asahi Super Dry".



Houtou must be a local treat. It's a udon type dish only with flat wide noodles and a lot of veggies. Very delicious I must say!
Houtou was sold everywhere. At every booth at this matsuri, all local restaurants and even this clothing store.

This is not what I would normally post but it was too good not to mention. On the 15th of this month, got to see the World Premiere of "Letters from Iwo Jima". Knew that Clint Eastwood, Ken Watanabe, Kazunari Ninomiya, Tsuyoshi Ihara, etc. would be there. Well, having semi-VIP tickets meant that I would get in the red carpet area and see them up close, maybe even shake thier hands or talk to them...so I thought. Time went and went and they, the movie stars, were running late. So I stayed on the red carpet and not one person asked if I had the VIP pass or anything...not even the security guys that passed me over and over and over (they thought I was with a newspaper or magazine with my camera hanging off my neck).

Finally, some old Japanese guy comes up to me and asks "Are you with Asahi Shinbun (Asahi newspaper)?". "NO!" I say. "Are you with....who are you?" he asked. I didn't know how to answer the guy...was I supposed to tell him my name? Maybe, tell him where I'm from? I felt like saying "I'm David! Who the f**k are you?" It was at that time that this less rude American guy (I think he was a main figure in production or something) said "Yeah, you're not supposed to be here unless you have one of these, as he shows me his "Letter's of Iwo Jima" backstage-pass looking deal.

So, I had to move off the red carpet. Instead I got to see the stars come in....from the other side of their vehicles and I got a great view of the back of their heads. I think Clint Eastwood's wife should've fixed his hair before they got out of the van though (personal opinion). Anyway, after thinking about it, if the stars were on time, I would've had the best seat in the house, standing front-row on the red carpet.

Oh, the movie was great by the way!

Here's what we went to Lake Kawaguchi to see...The light-up of the fall leaves. It was a blast! Not only were the photos ops everywhere but there was a small festival going on too. Hot food and drinks! 河口湖

The other week, went on a trip with a friend to Lake Kawaguchi at the foot of Mt. Fuji. Sure enough, all day it was too cloudy to see Mt. Fuji! But the main reason was to see the colors of fall at night. We made a pit stop to see Shiraito Falls. This one is of the real-calm water that leads to the waterfall.
Shiraito Falls...notice the small rainbow? 白糸の滝

These were taken at a river in Gunma. I took these with colored gels over my flash. I didn't know what effect I was going to get...especially since I didn't have my tripod. I thought they turned out "alright" enough to post....

Taketomijima, Okinawa. 竹富島　沖縄

Ruins in Gunma. A smashed, rusted van out back of the building in the next pic.
Looked like this place was a bathhouse. Not as run down as other ruins I've seen but I'm sure this place will get there soon.

11/24/06: My mistake. Apparently this place is still in use. I couldn't tell looking up close but seems to get the most usage during the spring time...

Shuri Castle, Okinawa. 首里城

Just another photo of the monorail at Ofuna.

Going back a few blogs, I mentioned Doai station in Gunma prefecture. The platforms being seperated and one way being underground..... Well, here's the staircase that lead to the other side. Finished in September 1967.


Here's the actual platform. With no one else there and no sound but dripping water and the echo of my footsteps was creepy! And looking down into the tunnels was even creepier~

I got over that creepy feeling right away when realizing that I had to climb back up the 460+ steps to get back up. CREEPY suddenly became "Oh sh*t!" 群馬県　土合駅