Visit Oku Village During Golden Week

City Folks Don't Know What They're Missing

Way up in the northern part of Okinawa is a village named Oku.

Every year during Golden Week the river gets decorated with the carp streamers.

Koinoborui, they're called in Japan and, there must be 1000 of them, fluttering in the sky.

Cabins, lining the waterway only cost about one third, the price of a city slicker hotel room.

It's quiet up in those hills. I could lay down in the grass and watch the flying fish all day.

There probably, will be some children, splashing around in the creek tomorrow.

But, it wouldn't be like that noisy city, I stayed at a hotel in, once. It was hard to sleep.

Some honeymooners, kept making noises all night long and, it cost me over 300 bucks !

5 Carp Streamer Images at the Kickoff of Golden Week

Testing the Pentax K1

 

 

Not enough time in my hands for a full review, yet but, I like it already.

This photo was taken with a 300MM lens f/11  1/320   ISO 400.

Location:  Oku Village, Okinawa, Japan

Date and Time:  APR 29 2016  11:12 AM

My mission today, was to try out the GPS function on the camera.

Latitude and Longitude, came out in more characters than my name and mailing address.

If you have an EXIF file reader, check it out.

Remaining Photos with the Old Pentax K3

 

 The skies wouldn't turn brilliant blue so, I cropped them out with a zoom lens.

There must be a few hundred of those colored streamers, flapping in the breeze.

Doc Graff and I, moved around, trying to get the best compositions, we could.

This time, we wandered across the river and up a road we had never been on before.

Golden Week is just the beginning of Okinawa's eternal festival season.

Families will be out in the fresh air, enjoying nature and festivals every weekend.

And, I'll  be out with the cameras, every chance I get, trying to capture them.

6 GIF Animations of Flying Fish (Koinobori) in Oku Okinawa

Huge and Brightly Colored Carp Streamers

 

 

A road trip to the north of the island turned out to be a good idea.

Crowds haven't hit the highways yet but, Oku Village is ready to party.

Workers were putting the finishing touches on festival tents and the stage.

Hundreds of  these decorative fish were flying everywhere along and across the river.

Without a tape measure, I'd have to guess, those streamers were a few meters long.

Some body spent a small fortune, buying those things.

Photos were taken from as many angles as possible to give you a sense of scale.

Here's a view from the top of a hill outside town, looking down at the river.

Back down in the village, you could see children playing in the water.

It's Golden Week so, they are all out of school.

Some folks call this the beginning of Spring. 

To me, it is the start of the never ending Summer Festival Season in Okinawa, Japan.

Wednesday's Motion GIFs from Oku in Okinawa Japan

Golden Week Keeps Us Busy

 

 

Today, over a thousand photos were taken in northern Okinawa.

It was cloudy and a little wet but, a fun filled day.

These koinobori (carp streamers) will brighten up anybody's dreary day.

So, I shot plenty of images, using the burst mode and a tripod.

That way, when the fishes dance around in the wind, I can get them GIF'd.

When shooting these streamers, just pretend they are wildlife.

And, keep a close look on their eyes !

More about how these Motion GIFs, are created, coming soon.

Carp Streamers ( 鯉のぼり) Koinobori in Okinawa (Photos)

Between moving the office and travel to the USA, Koinobori photos sort of got forgotten this year.

 These Carp streamers get flown, most places in Japan, during Golden Week.

But, in Okinawa they start showing off the brilliant colored things in April.

They fly like windsocks in the breeze for the whole month of May.

The internet thingy hasn't been hooked up at my new place, yet.

This Wifi spot is really an alright place to get online but, it happens to be Friday night.

The place is crawling with geeks.

I gotta get outta here, now.

So, if you want to learn more about the Koinobori, take a peek at Doc Graff's

GOYA REPUBLIC BLOG

He must have shot a thousand of those critters.

Visit my website for the PHOTO OF THE DAY

Chasing the Light for Koi Nobori Photos in Okinawa, Japan

Koi Nobori (Carp streamers) flying in the air all over Okinawa and the rest of Japan have been escaping my camera lens for too long this year. 

Today, Rusty and I had two missions to accomplish.  Get Mother's Day cards and shoot some Koi Nobori.

It's rainy season right now but, every once in awhile the sun shines. We knew it would happen today.

He's driving like the LAW IS AFTER US when all of a sudden he spotted these Koi Nobori on a bridge we were crossing, hits the brakes and makes a u-turn.

There were plenty of the things strung out across the river and hanging on the next few bridges upstream but, I wasn't too thrilled with the lighting conditions.


Following the dirt road along the river banks got me some closer shots but, not what I was after.  We had to keep moving, chasing the light for the photos I like to take. 

The Mother's Day card store would be open a few more hours.  So, our mothers could just do what they always do. Wait.


Here is what I mean by chasing the light.  This Koi Nobori was in the kind of sky that I like shooting under.

When you see a pole with these windsock-fish flying from it, the biggest one is usually black and at the top of the pole.  That represents the father.  The next largest Koi Nobori is red or pink and is for the mother. Smaller carp streamers are flown for each child in the household.

We ended up getting a few hundred pictures, got to the store before closing time, bought Mother's Day cards were done chasing light and capturing Koi Nobori way before sundown.

The only thing that went wrong today was the post office closed before I could mail my Mother's Day card. 

So, now I'll go back and see if I can find a better Koi Nobori photo in my pile and email it to Mom. 

She's probably too old to be reading cards, anyway.  Ya think?

For more information about Koi Nobori in Japan VISIT HERE

To all mothers, around the world, HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY !

See my Homepage for THE PHOTO OF THE DAY