This is the Daimonji Fire Festival video for 2010. 9 minutes, 16:9.

2010 Daimonji Fire Festival Video is here.
Tonight there will be a video here of the 2010 Kyoto Daimonji Fire Festival. This video will be my first Video On Demand (VOD) experiment. That is, there will be a fee of $1.50 (Paypal or credit card) to download the full video.
A previous short video is here.
I sincerely [...]

2010 Daimonji Fire Festival Video is here.
map of the daimonji fire festival

Daimonji video 2008

Every August 16 since the 1600s, Kyoto marks the end of o-Bon season by lighting up the hillsides with giant kanji, starting at 8 p.m. It’s called Daimonji Gozan Okuribi, literally “Giant characters five mountains sendoff fires.” This marks their function as [...]

Enkoji Temple, Kyoto
A few minutes of quietude all alone at Enko-ji Temple, Kyoto. Then, a listen at the suikinkutsu at this temple. A suikinkutsu is a very large ceramic pot buried under a water source of some kind, which allows water to slowly drip down through pebbles and into the water in [...]

We have had brutal rainy-season storms this week. This evening at dusk the storm clouds did something weird to the last bit of light. Sorry for the shaky cam; if you can’t stand it skip ahead to 38 seconds for the first color change and 1:20 for the second. I tried to go “Whoa! Whoa!” [...]

In this first clip from the upcoming Peter MacIntosh/Nils Ferry video program Alive in Kyoto, Peter visits Nishiki Ichiba market and, after a snack of kara-age fried chicken, introduces a shop specializing in dashimaki omelettes, where the proprietor Mr. Tanaka shows us how it’s done.

The 2010 Gion Matsuri (festival) parade of yama and hoko “floats” is coming up. This is a spectacle of ancient pageantry not to be missed.

Also, on the three days and nights leading up to the parade, Yoiyama (16th), Yoi-yoi-yama (15th) and Yoi-yoi-yoi-yama (14th), revelers stroll up and down shijo street and the other main downtown streets, many in colorful summer yukata, eating, drinking, carousing, visiting the floats and listening to the distinctive music of the festival.

On May 3, 2010, the Kyoto band elements played its final show as elements. After 15 years and seven albums, the death of elements drummer Sanjo Toru in January 2010 marked the end of one part of their musical journey. This show was a celebration of their music and a tribute to their friend.

Trailer and Purchase Information inside

There is no excerpt because this is a protected post.

I’m going to be offering a Kyoto Sakura DVD for sale this spring for the first time. Music composed, performed and licensed by Kevin Macleod.

Watch Kyoto Sakura preview on Vimeo.

I posted some videos up on the top page of this site while you weren’t looking.

Highlights from last year. Go to the top page of this site for video.

A short video of a suikinkutsu, an audio feature of some Japanese gardens that adds a soothing soundscape to the visual calm. A Suikinkutsu is a very large, inverted clay pot buried under a tsukubai water laver or other water feature, whereby water filters down through stones and into a hole in the top of [...]

Video is here
(QuickTime 7 required)

Looking for fireflies at Takaragaike Park in Kyoto. Infrared and slow-shutter sequences. Surprise ending for one of the fireflies.
View on YouTube

Click for some clips from the just-concluded Ebisu Matsuri in Kyoto, a festival at Ebisu Shrine where people pray for business success in the new year and buy branches and all kinds of lucky charms in hopes that the gods will favor them over the following year.

I probably should have posted this a while ago…
Kurama Fire Festival (6 min, 37 MB Quicktime)
The Kurama Himatsuri, or Fire Festival, is held every October in a tiny mountain village in northern Kyoto. Progressively larger torches are paraded up and down this one-street town by teams in traditional costume, as a thumping taiko beat stokes [...]

I made a little video over here of something or other.

First unedited clips posted on top page at www.planetkyoto.com

Just saw this guy on TV tonight accompanied by accoustic guitar, mandolin and ukelele, and when the host of the program interviewed him it came out that he is the 2-time musical saw world champion. I didn’t know that when I made a video of him playing at Kyoto Station last year.