Marine Festa!

This weekend was a great festival in Kuchinotsu. We spent the day at the beach and I caught some skim-boarders doing their thing. Then at night, we watched students perform Taiko drumming and some dancers. They capped the night off with a big fireworks display. I recently read an article about shooting photographs of fireworks so I tried it.

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A skim-boarder in mid flight.


Sometimes you can look cool while you skim.


But busting is the best part of the whole deal for me.


This guy tried a few times to jump the waves.


He's walking on water, JC style.


But then a big bust!


This guy was learning from the others. But he got really nervous when he saw my camera.


Finally we made it to the festival. I let this kid borrow my camera. He did a decent job taking photos on my last day at Kuchinotsu. Maybe he'll become a photographer.


That piglet looking kid is the photographer.


My students wearing Yukata's!!


Now the fireworks. I took about 100 photos, changing settings until I thought I was ok. I'm still not sure if I succeeded.


These were my favorite. They just dropped them off the back of the boat!


It looks like they blew up the boat.


This burning thing on the left was awesome. It was a line that shot off fireworks steadily. But the photo just looks like an inferno.


A star!


I like this one because I have no idea what happened!


Click on this picture and look at the large size. The little explosions on the end look really cool.


Maybe my favorite of the fireworks shots.

残り物 (のこりもの) - Leftovers

I was looking through my photos and found a few leftovers I wanted to put up. The timeline is really scattered, but the jumbled timeline exists like that in my mind anyway.

After I told the students I was engaged the girls got really interested and drew this on the board after lunch.


They also wrote my name in Katakana. It is pronounced like "Po - ru" And that has been my name for the past year.


My tiny town of Kazusa is so beautiful. There is a moist lump forming in my throat right now as I realize I'll be leaving in a few weeks. I took these next couple of pictures a month or two after I got here. I drove up the mountain and stood in between a cabbage patch and a field of potatoes and watched the sunset.




The wall in front of my school has this tag on it. I thought I had already posted this, but I can't find it on the blog now. If there was a rock nearby, this would be incredible. Instead it's in a parking lot.


At the Seaside park, which I've posted about before there is this little monkey.


Also a shot of the Seaside park. The Sakura were absolutely beautiful. I sent this to my mother for Mother's Day. I think she would really get into 'Hanami' (花見) or 'Cherry Blossom Viewing'.


What a year.

Beaches

I spent this weekend relaxing around the beach enjoying the scenery and my friends. I was recovering from ANOTHER cold so I kept it all low key.
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Rowan stands as a robot. Rowan is one of the most interesting people I've ever met. He's got a unique perspective on everything. Sometimes he drops nuggets of genius. Other times, I just can't follow what he's talking about.


Rowan, Chris and I talked as we sat on an ancient lava spill and watched the sun nestle into bed.


I had to put both of these up.


I love the color this time of day. We never did play soccer, Rowan kept guard of the ball though.


Sunday I sat alone on the beach near my house and played with my uberzoom macro filter. A tiny rock! on a beach! Captivating!


This sea creatures skeleton caught my eye.


The tide was way out.


Kazusa is apparently one of the best places to surf on the peninsula.


I can't blame them, it's a beautiful spot to surf!


The lone surfer waits for his wave. It shall come, and it shall be conquered, as the sky was conquered by the airplane, so shall the sea be conquered by a surfboard. And boats and ships don't count.


I'm getting really excited about coming home. I think one year was perfect, I just can't believe it's already almost over.