A busy day today; first a quick visit to Kobe's Herb Gardens and to enjoy the view from the mountain Kobe lies against, after which we proceeded to Hiroshime, to take the local train to Miyajimaguchi, where a ferry hops between the main land and the Miyajima island with its famous
tori in the water.
You see, the Hanabi Taikai-festival took place on Miyajima (or rather, just off the coast of Miyajima), and I went there to see it. The third festival I visited during this holiday; I could do worse.
When we arrived there, the place already started to fill up; this is a rather important festival for Miyajima, attracting a lot of people.
The atmosphere was very festive and inviting. The weather was great, and I was able to take a few beautiful pictures.
I can also safely say that I became one of the most photographed persons on the island that day, as I wore my "Atsui ne?"-shirt, which scored quite a few laughs.
I've been photographed numerous times with and without my knowing, I had quite a few requests to pose and I've had quite a few chats with people about the shirt, why I was there and so on.
Of course, I have also a picture of myself with a few girls wanting to have a picture of them with that strange foreigner, but that one will be kept private. ;)
Also quite a few girls in yukata. I brought mine to the festival, but after the overwhelming reactions to the shirt, I decided to keep it tucked away for a different day.
By the time the sun began to set, the crowds started to grow to epic proportions. We also heard that the fireworks would not start before 19:50, and knowing that our ferry would leave at 20:00, that would leave us not very much time to enjoy the fireworks.
Fortunately, the fireworks could also be see from the main land, so we hopped on the ferry well before 20:00, found a nice spot at a parking lot and waited for the fun to begin.
Beautiful, simply beautiful.
I got the 200mm tele out, put in a fresh memory card and started shooting.
(Pictures will be added later; it's 2:30 as I write this, and sleep finally begins to kick in, despite me drinking a few beers at dinner and a cup of Ozeki sake later on)
We had to be on the 20:59 train to Hiroshima to make it back to Osaka, but the crow waiting in front of the station was huge.
Fortunately, the Japanese know how to handle large crowds, and we even got the 20:49-train, leaving us 10 minutes extra for an easy stroll to the Shinkansen platform, making it back at Shin Osaka and the projected time.
If we had taken the 20:45 ferry, we would have had to get a hotel at Okayama for sure.
Cheers, K.