Fireworks, Crackers and Beer at the Gallery Last Night

It was open to the public but we didn't advertise so, you had to be in-the-know, otherwise, you could consider yourself uninvited.  Anyways, we had fireworks, crackers and beer at Mike's Ryukyu Gallery last night.  We had a pretty good idea that the half million views was going to happen.

So, we took a few photos to show everybody how we gotterdun, in true Redneck Style.

The first thing, in case there's ever any doubt about us knowing what we're doing, was to document this event with photos.  Not really sure what day of the week it ever is, I threw a fireworks photo on the blog.  Then, the blog told me it was Friday, June 10, 2011. They know the date, wherever they print the thing.

Next, I thought it'd be nice if everyone could see what time it was in Japan while this event took place.  That clock, leaning up against my redneck cooling tower is showing you Japan Standard Time (JST) and it's 11:21PM Friday night June 10, 2011.

Ryukyu Rusty had to take pictures because I was getting ready to set off the fireworks. 

That yellow contraption in my hands, the Japanese call a cracker. 

I was watching the view meter, ready to pull the string.  Fireworks liven things up, always.

It's not easy shooting a camera in a gallery because of the horrible lighting, especially when everyone is drinking beer. Rusty had to use camera flash. 

You can see that I don't usually wear those girly boots you saw the other day. 

At this point, the dang meter already hit 500,001 and I pulled the string.  The cracker thing made a real loud BANG but, nothing flew out of it.  I was expecting red, yellow, blue and green streamers to fly all over the place.  Nothing came out of the damn thing but noise, BANG !

I  looked up in the sky, just in case the beer had slowed down my eyeball reflexes, but there wasn't a streamer in sight.  So, I popped another one.  The same thing happened, no streamers.

They developed some new kind of tree-saving fireworks, I guess.  These crackers come with only noise and no streamers.  What kind of redneck do they think I am, anyhow? 

Next time, I'll buy sparklers, I guess and if they don't look like fireworks, to me, I'll start making my own. 

I ain't stupid, ya know.

We celebrated with a few more beers, put my redneck cooling tower, cameras and computer away and cleaned up the mess we didn't make.  We had to get home and grab some sleep.  This morning Ryukyu Rusty, Ryukyu Mike and Doc were hopping on a boat to shoot some photos on another Okinawa island called Minna Jima.  You'll hear about that excursion later.

Right now, I just want to thank everybody who helped this blog hit the half million views mark.

Next week I'll be sifting through my mail to see who guessed closest to the date we gotterdun and mailing them their choice of photos.

Then, after I get caught up on developing this weekends shots, we'll see what kind of celebrating to do besides fireworks, crackers and beer in the event this madness continues on to the million views mark.

Cheers,
Mike

Get the Fireworks Ready 500,000 Views Comin' Right Up !

           It could happen any minute, now.  A half million views on this photo blog from Okinawa, Japan !

WU HU HU ! Half a Million Views Coming Soon !

Excuse the goosebumps on the legs. It happens, sometimes when I get all excited.  This blog is going to hit half a million views before I get a chance to sleep tonight, almost guaranteed.

Don't worry.  I haven't turned into a fruitcake or anything like that.  This was just one of those photos I had in my wildlife collection that suited my purposes today. See, I'm watching that meter.

The true story about this photo can be seen by looking in the new page I created up above titled "The Doozies".  The blog post was "Laugh and Dance".  I'm good at laughing; like to see other people laugh, too.

In case you missed it, I'm giving away two photos, from my gallery, to the two lucky people who come closest to guessing the date that viewmeter hits 500,000.    RULES HERE

Now, if you'll excuse me, I think I'll get back into my flip-flops.  These boots are killing me !

Visit my Homepage for THE PHOTO OF THE DAY

World Oceans Day 2011 Why Should We Care?

Our Grandchildren need the oceans

Our Nephews need the oceans

Our Wildlife need the oceans

We should care for the oceans on World Oceans Day June 8th, 2011 and everyday from now on because we all need the oceans.

HAPPY WORLD OCEANS DAY !

MORE ON WORLD OCEANS DAY 2011 MAY BE SEEN HERE

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Japan's Wedding Envelope: An Insider's Tips

In Japan, there are many occassions where a gift of cash is given.  A Japanese wedding is one of them.

Here is a shot of one I scanned this morning while my cameras were sleeping.  I'll probably be doing a series on the money envelopes of Japan, or maybe, an article at POCKET CULTURES
and promise to use the camera instead of scanning, next time around.

The Google Stats Guys keep showing me lots of people are looking at my Japan Insider's Tips so, I decided I'd better hurry up and start putting more stuff in there.  I bought a pile of almost every Japanese envelope you could imagine, just for that purpose and they've been gathering dust waiting for me to shoot them. The Japanese Wedding, first because there's a couple of real doozies I can tell you about these things. 

Like, scanners don't do well copying them.  But, there's more.

The very first wedding I attended in Japan was up in Kyushu.  The bride's father paid my way to spend a week up there so I could help my not-so-much-Japanese-speaking friend translate while he was meeting family and getting hitched.  He was from Ohio, I think, because that's all the Japanese he kept saying.

Being treated like royalty for a whole week, I figured the least I could do was act like I knew what I was doing for the wedding.  Hah!  I was clueless.

I got the bride's sister to take me shopping for a wedding card.  That's when I learned it was an envelope, not a card.  And you're supposed to put money in the envelope.

So, I put the equivalent of 300 US Dollars, as a wedding gift, for my two friends, in the envelope.

There was a table with a guest log at the entrance of the wedding hall.  That was where I scrawled my name in the book and deposited what I thought was my wedding gift.

As it turns out, that wedding gift doesn't go to the bride and groom.  All the money given in the wedding envelopes goes to Papa.  It helps pay the costs of the wedding.

So, when the newlyweds returned to Okinawa, I took them shopping for their wedding gift.

ANOTHER DOOZY:

Glad this didn't happen to me but, I witnessed this one.  Some of the fancy money envelopes you can buy in Japan aren't for weddings.  They could be for "Get Well Soon" wishes or even funerals. 

Another friend of mine married here, in Okinawa and some gal brought a funeral envelope to the wedding.  Damn.  I'd rather watch cats scratching each other's eyes out !

MY INSIDER'S TIP FOR JAPANESE WEDDING ENVELOPES:

Or, any other gift giving envelope in Japan, if you don't have a reliable translator to go along with you, GOOGLE IT .

There are plenty of sites explaining the different envelopes, Flickr photos, even photographers who make their living shooting, framing and selling Japanese Envelopes.

Here's one link, I thought was kinda nice, if you want more on fancy envelopes MAMALISA.COM  She seems to have her act together so, I give her a ThumbsUp !


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