The setting for my first picture in this series was the grounds of Maizuru Castle Park. Shingen’s troops gathered here before heading off in their regiments for the “parade.” The atmosphere was very good. The weather was fine, Mt. Fuji loomed in the background, and the samurai were getting drunk before heading off to battle (the pavement of Kofu’s streets).

The Japanese guy above was enjoying the mood as well. I was merely taking an incognito picture of his group when he spotted me and performed this “charge.” It was actually more of a pose than a charge, but I appreciated his willingness to provide a nice action shot for my camera without actually impaling me.

Let’s not forget this was a festival and not a battle reenactment. Therefore, there was plenty of yakisoba, takoyaki, and the like to be had, as well as monkeys doing tricks and other matsuri standards.

The guy in the middle of this group, with the tall helmet, is the president of his company and represented one of Takeda Shingen’s generals on horseback later in the evening. I chatted with him for a while earlier and had my picture taken with him. Photos of people like me in regular clothes with those of Japanese in samurai gear don’t look right though.

As each of the 24 regiments left the castle grounds they gave a battle shout like the one you can see in the above video I took. Some groups were more serious than others. Applause at the end seemed a little… wrong.

Posted on April 25th, 2010 under Japan. Tags: castle, festivals, kofu, people, video. Comments Off on More from the former Kofu Castle site (甲府城跡)

My first game of the season was a good one. My Lions beat the visiting Nippon-Ham Fighters from Hokkaido.

Half the fun at Japanese baseball games is the cheering. Above is a video I took of one of the many cheers. Get your cheers down before the game for maximum enjoyment. 😉 Here you can practice them with music, but you need to be able to read Japanese.

The words to the cheer (for a player named 久) in the video are:
光り輝く　
日はまた昇る　
燃える男だ　
チャンスに久
かとばせ久
Go Go Let’s Go 久

Posted on April 24th, 2010 under Japan. Tags: baseball, seibu lions, tokorozawa, video. Comments: 7

While waiting for Takeda Shingen (武田信玄) and Yamamoto Kansuke (山本勘助) to arrive at Takeda Jinja there wasn’t much to do but take pictures of people in the crowd. People were taking pictures of me, the token foreigner at the event, so I got in on the action as well.

First off, we have some of Takeda Shingen’s army.

Some Japanese ladies of various ages…

This dance group featured music and performances to welcome the main Shingen group and to see them off. It was almost comical given how un-Shingen era the style and sound was. I’ll put a video at the end of this blog entry so you can see and hear more.

The night before I arrived there was a Koihime Contest (湖衣姫コンテスト), or so my Shingen Festival program says. The winner got 300,000 yen (about $3,200). Was this the winner? I’m not sure. She was in the regiment with Shingen so I’m thinking she could have been the contest victor and won this honor in addition to the cash.

These were the festival faces people wanted to see the most, Takeda Shingen and the favorite of his 24 generals Yamamoto Kansuke. Takeda Shingen (on the left) was portrayed by Ikki Sawamura (沢村一樹) and Yamamoto was acted out by Goro Ibuki (伊吹吾郎). Both are apparently quite famous actors in Japan. I hadn’t heard of either.

Posted on April 19th, 2010 under Japan. Tags: kids, kofu, people, video. Comments: 2

The day was cold. The day was wet. But it is difficult to pass up a marathon running through town even in the most adverse conditions. So I got on the Tokyo Metro for a couple of stops to arrive at Iidabashi (飯田橋) to view the race.

I got a position in the front row right next to a curve. I figured it would be a great spot to take pictures as I thought runners would be coming from my right before turning the corner. Unfortunately, my sense of direction got reversed by coming out a station exit I was unfamiliar with and runners actually came from my left which meant I couldn’t see them until a split second before they were past me.

The male winner was a Japanese man, Fujiwara Masakazu (藤原正和), for the first time in the Tokyo Marathon’s short, 4-year history.

Once I could no longer feel my feet (I stepped in a deep puddle early on) or hands (I had an umbrella in one hand and my camera in the other) I decided it was time to go home where I watched the last hours of the race on TV.

Posted on February 28th, 2010 under Japan. Tags: people, rain, Tokyo, tokyo marathon, video. Comments: 1

I previously mentioned the “Ginza International Jazz Festival” we “won” tickets for back in October. What I didn’t mention is the only international performer on the bill was Nikki Yanofsky, the very same 16-year old (she was 15 at the time) who just sang the Canadian national anthem, “O Canada”, at the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics Opening Ceremony.

The location was Kabukiza (歌舞伎座) in Ginza, Tokyo. This very old Kabuki Theater is set for demolition just a few weeks from now.

Here is a video I took of a piece of Nikki Yanofsky’s performance. Nikki Yanofsky performs “Somewhere Over the Rainbow” and Sadao Watanabe joins her on sax.

Posted on February 12th, 2010 under Japan. Tags: ginza, video. Comments Off on Nikki Yanofsky