Category: Japan – Events

Sanja Matsuri, Asakusa, Tokyo, May 17, 2003 (Fuji Neopan 1600).

Sanja Matsuri, Asakusa, Tokyo, May 17, 2003 (Fuji Neopan 1600).

In her comment on my tourist weekend post, Lil mentioned “the photographers clambering over each other trying to get ‘the perfect shot'” that helps make up the atmosphere at Asakusa’s famed Sanja Matsuri festival. This couldn’t be more true, and one of the “images” from my Saturday at the festival that struck me was the sheer amount of photography that was going on.

From the professionals with multiple camera bodies dangling from shoulders and battery packs fastened to their waists, to the serious (and I do mean serious) amateurs with camera lenses out to here and Lowepro backbacks, to the tourists with all manner of digital and point and shoots, to the students with their Pentax K1000’s and Nikon FM10’s, all the way down to the camera-equipped mobile phones being thrust into the air (mine included), there was a lot of imaging hardware in action. I saw a couple of guys toting around step-ladders (complete with shoulder straps) even.

Speaking of the serious photo-hobbyist contingent, this particular photographer that I’ve captured above had what I thought was an ingenious solution to the I’m-not-tall-enough-to-get-good-shots problem, which was to mount his 2 ¼ Kowa Six camera onto some sort of SLIK clamp/bracket which he then hoisted in the air. It didn’t even dawn on me until later when I looked at this photo that he has mounted the camera upside down so that he can look up into the Kowa’s waist-level viewfinder to compose his shots, which I’ve captured him doing. (He snaps the pics via a long cable release). In the end I’m not sure what’s more bulky to carry around, a step-ladder or this homemade stanchion, but this guy definitely wins the award for otaku creativity.

Interestingly, early on in the day, when I realized one of the day’s “sub-themes” was going to be all the photography going on, I snapped a picture of this guy with his rig, and he flashed me one of the more vitriolic “fuck off” looks I’ve received in a while. (It never fails. These guys can’t take what they have no problem dishing out to others.) So a couple of hours later, when I noticed he was right behind me, my juvenile juices kicked in and I couldn’t resist taking another pic of him. However, I don’t think he noticed me, so engrossed he was with his viewfinder (makes for a better picture at any rate). I find it funny though that a couple of others were staring me down on his behalf, as it were.