Communal Fire

Today is ??? (seijinshiki) in Japan, which is the coming of age ceremony for all the new adults. All the people who have turned 20 in the last year dress up in fancy kimonos and suits and go to shrines for ceremonies. I was hoping to head to the big one around Nagoya (Atsuta Shrine) today and take some pictures there, but mother nature didn't like my plan and rained on my parade. So plans changed, and it was lunch with friends.

Luckily, the rain stopped in the afternoon, and in front of Osu Kannon they had a fire where they were burning the offerings/presents people left around the New Year holiday. I spent some time there, and was taking pictures of my friends while they warmed up by the fire. A man came up from behind, looked at my photos and we started talking about how to take photos around the fire. He was very nice, and it was fun talking cameras in Japanese. I learned some new photography words in Japanese (which I have since forgotten) and got some tips from him. He ended up asking the friend I was using as a model to take a few pictures of her, and I snapped this picture of him taking his pictures of her.

I wish I had gotten his number, because he seemed like he would have been fun to hang out and go on some photo shoots with.