Wednesday, November 3, 2010

Ryukyu King, Queen and Royalty: How I Spent My Day

You don't just jump into these sorta things. I learned about it the hard way in previous excursions to the big city. So, today when I went to the King and Queen's Coronation Ceremony in Naha Okinawa I hob-knobbed with the Royalty a little bit before I tried to get close to the big shots.


The guy with no socks and a real beard would be me. I got another cameraman to press the shutter release on my camera. Only he didn't wait for me to fix my hair or anything else.




Once all the dignitaries got used to me hanging around it was fairly easy to sneak through the crowds and capture this photo of the King.

It's actually a Reenactment Coronation Ceremony and the King and Queen are college students playing the roles.



My favorite part of the whole day was snapping the shutter when the Queen had her eyes just where I like them.

Even when rude people popped into my frame with their toy cameras, I didn't mind too much. 

I just hollered "Son of a samwich" a couple of times and people backed away from me.

The inconsiderate individuals could be PhotoShopped out if I was willing to pay someone. Then we could rent the space for advertising, I guess.

I'm going back Sunday to let the King and Queen choose their favorite photo and I'll give them each one for free. I bet, being Royalty, they probably aren't interested in any advertising money.

Really, it wasn't a bad day. How was your Wednesday, any better?

5 comments:

Gene said...

Looks like a good day ! You even got to ham for a photo. The reenactment looks very serious . How did you get in,,,LOL Good job my friend .

Jason Castellani said...

It's always great to see the person behind the camera! It's like spotting the Wizard of Oz.

www.solofemaletraveler.com said...

That is a great photo of you and the "royalty"! I'm glad you had such a good day.

RyukyuMike said...

Gene,
Hah, I was unbelieveably lucky. When I went to the Castle Park Office to get Press Pass I ran into the King and Queen. More on that in an upcoming story!

RyukyuMike said...

Jason and Sabina,
Thanks. It'll probably take a week to develop all the shots I took yesterday. There's lots with better-looking subjects and no old geezer in them.
As much as I hate driving in the city and crowds of people, though, I had a blast!