Japan (3) More pics (local festival) - Update

UPDATE:

Just uploaded the two videos (which I mentioned at the end of this posting) to YouTube with a short impression of the festival. I've embedded them after the pictures, but you also can check them here and here.

This time some pics which I took during a local festival exactly one month ago at the nearby shrine at Nerima area, Tokyo.


Japan knows many festivals, both local and nationwide. It's often said that you always will find a festival somewhere in Japan. Most festivals are based around a main event and often sponsored by a local temple or shrine. At most festivals you'll find lots of food stalls and some entertainment.

I also shot two short videos which I will uploaded to YouTube and will link or embed here. As soon as I upload to YouTube I will update this post with the URL to the videos or embed the videos in this post.

The last six pictures were taken at a nearby temple on the way back home. The pics are a bit darker, because it was already late afternoon and on the way back when we passed the temple it was already started to shimmer.

For now enjoy the pics!

(click on the pics to enlarge)

Bavaria part 8

Things are going slow, but little by little we are getting there.

In my former post I said that I would update it with some extra backgroundinformation, but when I was checking on the internet I found out that there was not so much more to add, so I decided to skip the update and start preparing the last two post with pics from our trip to Bavaria, Germany last year.

In this post you will see mostly pics from Munich and taken at the Englischer Garten (English Garden), one of the biggest parks in Europe and very pleasant to walk through. The weather was very nice that day, so it gave me quite some nice photoshoot opportunities.

The street on the right is the Maximilianstrasse (Maximilianstreet). The building on the left and in the middle is the Residenz.

A little closer look at the Residenz.

It seems that there isn't a major city anymore which doesn't have constructionwork going on, spoiling the view. In Holland it's the same in my hometown Utrecht, but also in Amsterdam, Rotterdam and Den Haag. Very annoying especially for tourists.

I can't remember which building it was, but it was not far from the Haus der Kunst (House of Art) on the opposite site of the street.

Some advertising at the Haus der Kunst, near the South entrance of the Englischer Garten .

There is an artificial stream that runs through the Englischer Garten. There is a water pumping mechanism that produces a permanent wave that was used by surfers, although officially swimming and surfing is prohibited. Those surfers drew a lot of attention from people strolling through the park

The Chinesischer Turm (Chinese Tower), originally built from 1789 to 1790, but burnt down in 1944 during World War II and rebuild in 1952. The beer garden that surrounds the tower is with 7000 seats the second largest in Munich. I took a break here and had a nice cool so-called Mass (one litre glass of beer).

This guy was a funny street musician playing Blues and his lyrics were improvised based on things happening around him and on people he saw passing by. When I wanted to take his picture he started to sing that I needed to pay a little fee for listening and taking pictures, otherwise his tough friends from the biker's gang would come after me and beat the shit out of me. I didn't took any risk and gave him some change.

The monopteros, a Greek style temple, built in 1836 on an artificial hill made from left over building materials from the Residenz.

The Ludwigskirche (Catholic Parish and University Church St. Louis).

And a bit of the inside

Japan (8) - Nagano visit part 5

Here are the rest of the pics from the Zenko-ji, a buddhist temple complex.

I also have some foodpics from Nagano, but I will post them
tomorrow.

Japan (7) - Nagano visit part 4

On Friday we went to Zenko-ji temple in Nagano an old and one of the most famous temples in Japan. I was here before in springtime 1997, but I never saw the temple complex while there was snow. It attracts a lot of tourist, but it is for a reason, because this is a very nice and gorgeous temple. Here are some pics to give you a bit of an impression.