Saturday, August 13, 2011

Itsukushima Torii Gate

I'm at Miyajima for the fireworks festival tomorrow night.  Actually, there is a slight problem in that I am not at Miyajima.  My hostel, which I remembered as advertising itself as being on the island, is not on the island.  It's a ferry-ride away, but that means I will be on the first ferry tomorrow morning at 6:25am with a bunch of other semi-serious photographers hoping to score a good spot.  I say semi-serious because our 13 hours spent waiting in the sun tomorrow pales in comparison to the guys in this picture, who are all spending the night at their spots right now.  That's right, there's at least 30-40 photographers already staking out their spots 24 hours ahead and at least two have already been there since yesterday.


The space for the best photos falls between the guy in the green umbrella over to that wooden structure, though every place where an overhanging tree exists (twice) is heavily discounted.  I made friends with the guy in the blue umbrella by busting out some Japanese, telling him about where I live and how awesome I am, then buying him a beer and promising to buy him a bento tomorrow.  I'm pretty sure he promised me a share of his space in return.

Here is the view from his spot, which I would be psyched to be shooting from tomorrow night:


It's going to be a long, hot day between now and then, though.

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