Kamikita Preschool
During the Christmas season, here in Misawa the local elementary schools have performances. I was asked by one of my co-workers, at the school I teach at part-time, if I had a friend who would be willing to play Santa Claus. Well, I found a co-worker who was willing and off we went. Two consecutive weekends, I went to two different schools. When we get there, we walk in and there are rows and rows of parents seated on the auditorium floor in front of the stage. It’s crowded and there are lines of tripods with a wide array of electronic recording devices mounted on them, all aimed at the stage. It’s amazing to see how many parents were here to see their children perform. It didn’t matter whether their child just stood there and didn’t do anything remotely close to what they were supposed to or if they were the star of the performance, they just wanted to see their child being apart of something. It was a beautiful sight. There were several displays of music, dance, and a variety of stories, almost all of which I was unfamiliar with. Most of the stories were Japanese folklore and since my Japanese is not that fluent, I wasn’t able to understand everything.
After everything, all the younger classes are brought to the stage for the coming of Santa. At the first school, Santa just walked in from the side of the audience. At the second school, they had all the children ready on the stage, but behind the curtain. In front of the curtain, they had a large box that was wrapped like a present. Of course, my friend was hiding inside the box. They opened the curtain and began by having the children call for “Santa-san!” Once the chants were over, they opened the box and Santa appeared. Of the few children that began pouring out tears, I couldn’t tell whether they were afraid of Santa himself or the 6’4″ human being towering above their little world.
The principals gave me the privilege of being able to take photos backstage or up right in front of the stage. I managed to get some good photos and of course a select few will be added to my portfolio. Everything will still be displayed here though for your viewing pleasure. I was using my 5D paired with a beautiful 85mm 1.2L. What a great lens, it is nothing but GLASS from front to back, and boy does it take some great photos. There are going to be quite a few pictures from this series of photos, so this post is probably going to be quite long. The photos will be posted in separate galleries though on the Gallery page. Anyhow, Enjoy!
Hakodate
About 2-3 weeks ago, I went on a tour to Hakodate city. On the way there, we pass through the worlds longest underwater tunnel. It is called the Seikan Tunnel. Usually on the trip, you can get to the front car and take pictures of the tunnel entrance as you approach it, but the front car was packed, so I didn’t get a chance to take any pictures of it.
Anyhow, once we arrived in Hakodate, we began driving around the city and hitting up some of the famous spots. One of them is a very old building that is home to probably the first photo studio in Japan. As you browse through the pictures, you will notice from the interior design, western influence had already begun to take effect in northern Japan. They offer to dress you up in clothes from the time period, and they photograph you for Y1000 or so. I decided not to go for it, however, luckily a couple was there who did and I was able to grab a shot of them in the main hall of the building. Despite the many advancements in technology, you will probably be surprised to see how primitive the bathrooms remained. Of course there were newer bathrooms placed in the building for the tourists and the older ones were only open for exhibition. The “King’s” bathroom was pretty nice. Everything was made of wood, but the interesting thing was that he had a standing stall and a “benjo” which is the name for the Japanese floor style toilets. Oddly enough, that was made of wood as well, so I’m rather curious as to how long they lasted and just how clean they could really get them.
Another interesting place was “Goryou Kaku,” which is the star shaped “fortress” so to speak. What is now surrounded by a moat, was once land locked. They re-routed water inland to create the moat. I went up in the tower to get some bird’s eye shots, and I managed to put together a panorama. Unfortunately the main buildings were being renovated, perhaps prepping them for the coming winter, who knows, so I didn’t bother to walk to the center. At this point in history, I believe this is when the westernized imperial Japan began to push the samurai/shogun up north towards Hokkaido. If I’m not mistaken, the movie “The Last Samurai,” although a fictional account based on non-fiction, is set in this time period, and this is around the location where it took place. I took pictures of the diorama’s as well, using my newly acquired 85mm 1.2L (what a beauty!).
We did some more sightseeing of course, but the real reason for the trip was the view that the gondola ride to the top of the mountain, promised. While it is only ~350m high, it was tall enough that it overlooked the entire city of Hakodate. Earlier in the day the weather was not so good and the cloud cover was heavy. Initially we thought it would be a waste to go up to the top of the mountain because we wouldn’t even be able to see the city. Luckily for us, the weather cleared up later into the evening. I brought my 17-40mm and my tripod. I took as many shots as I could while I was up there and managed to “stitch” them together to get a nice panorama. The size was ridiculous, so I had to make it smaller, but I will upload a larger version in the near future.
In any case, enjoy the photos and feel free to leave comments.
On this trip I brought my gripped 50D, 17-40mm f/4L, 85mm f/1.2L and my bogen/manfrotto tripod. If you have any questions about my setup, feel free to ask away! Enjoy!
