Grilling

Another post that harkens back to the halcyon days before I acquired a DSLR. This is from a night market in Taiwan, a place that is bursting at the seams with food stalls, silly carnival style games (I played a ‘pop the balloons’ game that used a full on bow and arrow instead of darts) and cheap goods for sale. This was, I believe, taken at our last stop — a ‘stinky tofu’ restaurant. As my friends stuffed themselves with the vile smelling curd, I looked over into the next stall and took this of the neighbors grill. I like it.

Midnight Ikebana

 

Two girls shooting illuminated flower sculptures at a lantern festival in Kyoto.

This picture comes from another era — the Pre-Canon era. That just means it was shot with my little TZ5 using my favorite night shooting technique: balancing it on something, setting the timer, and praying. This was taking during “hanatouro”, a festival that’s so insignificant in the grander scheme of Kyoto festivals it was difficult for me to find it on an event calendar to check it’s spelling. It was quite a treat though — a bunch of lanterns were set out on the streets of Kyoto’s charming old neighborhoods for people to enjoy strolling around at night.

These kinds of festivals are actually quite common in Japan. Just last Sunday, I went to Kyoto again to see the Daimonji, where they set a bunch of bonfires in the shape of the chinese character for “big” alight on one of the mountains surrounding Kyoto. Just like any Japanese event, there were thousands of people in attendance (and sadly, as I DIDN’T bring my little TZ5, I wasn’t able to take a decent picture for lack of zoom).