Photography Trip 2: Sumidagawa Hanabi

Sumidagawa Fireworks Festival(隅田川花火大会) is the oldest in Japan, and needless to say, the most popular.

Marvin and his US friend, Abdul, booked a spot on the river bank early in the morning. According to the map we have, we should be able to see the fireworks very clearly from there...but it turned out to be one of the worst. The fireworks was 90% blocked by trees and leaves. We could barely see the fireworks, and not to mention taking photographs.





The place was so crowded that Marvin could not make it back after fetching Wena and Mich from the train station. So in the end, the attendees of this trip were only...Wit and Me. But luckily it was just only the 2 of us, because from the plot of land that we booked since early in the morning, there was only a pathetic space of around 30 sq cm that we could set up our tripods and took some decent shots. Yes, 2 tripods in such a limited space would mean that Wit's camera had to be kind of like stacked on top of mine.






I posted this shot just to show how obstructed we were. This was the best angle that we could get.

Disappointed but well...it was a learning experience. Now I know where is the best spot for Sumidagawa Hanabi and I will try it again next year.

猫ちゃんの物語

（日）茶ちゃん：ついにこの日が来たなぁ～
（中）小茶：这一天终于来了~
(Eng) Tea: The day has finally come~


（日）茶ちゃん：もうあなたと付き合いなんかできない。別れようか
（中）小茶：我不能再跟你交往了。分手吧
(Eng) Tea: I cannot go on with this relationship anymore. Let's break up


（日）黒くん：ええ～～？あいつらは付き合ったばっかりなのに
（中）小黑：靠~~这两家伙才交往没多久
(Eng) Blackie: Huh~~? They just started dating not long ago


（日）黒白くん：なに？
（中）小黑白：什么？
(Eng) Blite: What?


（日）茶ちゃん：わたし…黒くんが好き
（中）小茶：我…喜欢上了小黑
(Eng) Tea: I have fallen in love with Blackie


（日）黒くん：えええええ～？！！ありえない！！！！
（中）小黑：哇靠！！不可能！！！！
(Eng) Blackie: Oh My God!! That's Impossible!!!!


（日）茶ちゃん：黒くん．．．
（日）黒くん：～無理～絶対無理～
（中）小茶：小黑．．．
（中）小黑：～不可能～绝对不可能～
(Eng) Tea: Blackie...
(Eng) Blackie: ~impossible~~never will be possible~


（日）茶ちゃん：黒くん．．．
（日）黒くん：ついて来るな！
（中）小茶：小黑．．．
（中）小黑：不要跟来！
(Eng) Tea: Blackie...
(Eng) Blackie: Don't follow me!


（日）茶ちゃん：黒くん！！離れないで！！！何でわたしの恋はいつもうまくできないの～
（中）小茶：小黑！！不要走！！！为什么我的恋爱总是失败~~
(Eng) Tea: Blackie!! Don't leave me!!! Why does my love always go wrong~~


（日）黒白くん：チッ～どうでもいい
（中）小黑白：切~管它的
(Eng) Blite: Sh*t~Who cares


（日）茶ちゃん：～～
（中）小茶：~~
(Eng) Tea: ~~


（日）（茶ちゃんの泣き声）
（中）（小茶的哭声）
(Eng) (Tea's cry)

Japan's Magical Peak

We have been talking about climbing Mt.Fuji since last year, but the dream only came true last weekend.

We drove to the 5th Station(五合目) by Too Kok's car. 2300m above sea level.


View of the peak from the 5th Station.


Good cool weather.


Prayed for safety.


神社 was closing


Sunset at 5th Station. Feels like Heaven

After this, we had dinner, rested for a while and set off at 7pm.

We climbed slowly and reached the peak at 3am. 3756.4m

Sunrise that day was 4.30am. We did not book any space at any one of the huts, so in order to shelter ourselves from the chilling wind, we resorted to sleeping in the toilet.


Ansley's Silhouette

4am, Sun was rising and we were lucky enough to get a space to set up our cameras.


Sun was just below the horizon


Lighting up the clouds


Mr. Sun finally emerged


A slightly closer view of Mr.Morning Sun.

I did not bring my zoom lens, so that was the biggest of the sun I could get with a 10-22mm.


Sun brightened the land


revealing mountain range, lake, and plains


Crowd at the peak.

That was the most beautiful sunrise I have ever seen! Some people had climbed Mt.Fuji numerous times but never got to see it. That was how lucky we were!

After almost a hundred shots of the sun, the sky fully brightened up. We then went to stamp our walking sticks with evidences showing that we had conquered Japan's Highest Peak. At 6pm, we slowly made our way downhill.


Melting Ice on the mountain.


Last Shot from Mt. Fuji

The descending path was a damn boring never-ending series of Zig-Zags! Huts (and toilets) were so far apart that I had to hold my bladder for nearly an hour! I was seriously considering climbing Mt.Fuji again this season but that stupid descend turned me off.

We reached back at the 5th Station at around 8.30am.

Full Moon

I was on the way back from work and I saw this spectacular full moon (and the surrounding clouds)! I rushed back to my room, picked up my cameras, stepped out to my balcony and began snapping.


Canon EOS Kiss X2
EF28-135mm f/3.5-5.6 IS USM
1/10s f5.6 135.0 mm ISO800


Canon EOS Kiss X2
EF28-135mm f/3.5-5.6 IS USM
1/6s f5.6 135.0 mm ISO800


Panasonic DMC-FZ18
1/250s f5.6 82.8 mm ISO100

I have not bought my telephoto lens, but I have my PANASONIC 18X ZOOM!!!


Panasonic DMC-FZ18
1/13s f3.6 49.9 mm ISO200


Panasonic DMC-FZ18
0.4s f3.6 23.7 mm ISO200

Recap: Winter 2008-Spring 2009

Frozen Lake Fishing (ワカサギ釣り)

Canon EOS Kiss X2
EF50mm f/1.8 II
1/500s f1.8 50.0 mm ISO800

We left ome at 3am and reached there 6am in the morning! Temperture was around -10 degrees.


Canon EOS Kiss X2
EF50mm f/1.8 II
1/20s f3.5 50.0 mm ISO800

We rented the equipments and here is Sakaguchi drilling the ice.


Canon EOS Kiss X2
EF50mm f/1.8 II
1/4000s f2.8 50.0 mm ISO800

Fishing Gang: Nakanishi, Sakaguchi and Matsuo (left-right).


Canon EOS Kiss X2
EF50mm f/1.8 II
1/3200s f8.0 50.0 mm ISO800

We were not the only ones, that place was pretty popular.

Canon EOS Kiss X2
EF50mm f/1.8 II
1/4000s f7.1 50.0 mm ISO800

The experienced ones brought their own cute tents and fished inside, while newbies like us had to brave through strong chilling winds in naked wilderness.


Panasonic DMC-FZ18
1/1000s f8.0 14.0 mm ISO100

The cold was beyond our limits. We took turns to go to the rental shop to fetch some heat.


Panasonic DMC-FZ18
1/800s f8.0 4.6 mm ISO100

We left at around 2pm. The bounty to a whole morning of hard work was one pathetic 7cm ワカサギ. But we had fun and we learned, that a tent is a MUST! We promised that we will be back next winter.