Before I spent 2 full seasons at Hakkoda, I cruised around Aomori and Iwate prefecture hitting up the parks and groomers and that was fun for me. It was challenging to hit boxes, rails, hand rails, kickers, rainbows, halfpipes.....anything that had to do with freestyle snowboarding. This season, I haven't had the drive to practice this anymore and I just thought it was because riding Hakkoda every weekend was wearing me out. I didn't have enough energy to hit nighters and on top of that photography was started to eat away my free time.
I found myself again at Ajigasawa on Sunday, the 6th of April....but I was really in the mood for all out park riding. I took it easy and played spectator for the most part. Everyone had their own style and looked really happy doing whatever they were practicing, but for me something was lacking. Drive, motivation, interest....call it what you will but I was basically a zombie with a board stuck to my feet. Maybe I was having an off day...maybe I've grown out of it? Hah! Brian would say that I'm just getting old.
What it really comes down to is that freestyle snowboarding is risky and potentially dangerous. You could hurt yourself far more easily doing a simple freestyle trick then freeriding. Being injured before, I learned my lesson and I want to protect what I hold most dear to me at this time of the season. Surfing!! Right now, the snow is crap, the snow season is about over and surfing is on the horizon. If I got hurt now, that would scrap my last surf season in Japan. I wasn't about to take that kind of risk just for spring park riding...which doesn't really mean that much to me.
So instead of practicing hard in the park, I was looking forward to the drive home. It's not often I'm over in Hirosaki to capture the beautiful mountain sunset. Beautiful Iwaki San!
I wasn't really content with my photos in Hirosaki. I felt like I needed to add a little more or find something better to shoot.... just didn't feel satisfied with the pictures I came home with. Yah some were okay and others were not bad, but nothing stood out like, "Damn, that's a nice photo." So what other choice did I have? Settle for mediocre or try my luck again. The weather was forcasted to be cloudy and rainy so that completely blew out my chances....but wait!! What if I go and shoot at night? In the rain?!?!
Night photography is so much different than day photography because everything is intensified. Sometimes night shots look like day shots, but you have to remember that the camera doesn't see things like the human eye does so of course it will produce a different. I called my friend Mayumi up since she lives quite close to Hirosaki and asked her how the rain was holding up. "Hmm, it looks like it has stopped raining," she said. (Cha-ching!!) After I finished work, I packed my gear and cruised back to Hirosaki...which is just over 2 hours from Tohoku Town. Mayumi was free that evening and she decided to join me. Awesome! That means I have someone to model in my photos to give them a little more spice...rather than just a tree with white leaves I guess.
As I got there, the showers of rain had turned into a very light sprinkle. "I can handle this," I thought to myself as I flung my camera bag strap over my shoulder and made my way out into the field. I was really excited because I've always like night photography AND the fact that it had just rained made it even better. Puddles, rain drops, all add a different twist with a bit of water reflection. Whooohaa! I was in business. After my first few photos, I knew going back to Hirosaki for my last Sakura viewing was well worth it. I had a few stunners that I'm really stoked on. I hope you enjoy them as much as I did taking them. This will probably be my best set of "flower" type photography that I'll ever do. Who knows.....
Also, check my flickr for more sakura pictures. I just didn't want to make this all long!
One of the biggest events in Japan is the blooming of sakura. Japanese people love sakura! And they should be cause it really is beautiful and only lasts for about a two weeks. Two weeks isn't bad, but maximum bloomage is probably for 2 days! Traditionally, it symbolizes cyclic nature of well..........you guessed it, Nature! As the flowers bloom, it marks the essence of spring and symbolically... life. When the petals fall it isn't really considered death, but the natural state the sakura must undergo until its' rebirth. During WWII, it was said that painting sakura on warplanes or carrying a sakura branch while flying a kamikaze mission wasn't uncommon (wiki).
