Tuesday, December 14, 2010

Illumination Fantasy


I have just been to Nabana-no-Sato, a dreamlike resort located in Mie prefecture, where it is now holding a grand-scale lighting festival. I’d like to show some of the pictures I took there.








This is the observatory called “Island Fuji”, which is raised up to 45m high. It looks like UFO floating in the air.














                                                Passing through a “tunnel of lights



                  There’s another tunnel of rainbow whose arch is jeweled with rainbow colored lights.
                  The stream of lights draws a beautiful curve along with the passage



One of the greatest eye-catchers is here; this year’s theme is “Mt. Fuji and the Sea”.
The image of a vast expanse of sea stretches before our eyes. There’s a gentle swell with lights and shades moving and the sea lapping against the shore where we stand with a sound of waves. Occasionally dolphins jump out of the sea.
Far away at the very end of the sea stands imposing figure of a great mountain modeled on Mt. Fuji whose color changes from blue to red alternatively after an interval in the dark.














11 comments:

  1. Wow!! What is happening in your blog ???
    It is stunning!!
    Never have I seen such great scale and beautiful illuminations!
    ・・・with a deep sigh・・・

    ReplyDelete
  2. Unbelievable scene! It is far beyond my vocabulary.

    Mt.Fuji, dolphins and waves are sparkling together. Heavenly spectaculars suddenly appear like mirages! Cheers to the paradise!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Your photos proved the reputation of the illumination of Nabana-no-sato. I've never imagined this scale.

    Though artificial lights and colors, they reminded me of the scenes in "Perelandra" by C.S.Lewis, which is full of beautiful, subtle colors and unearthly feel: Mt. Fuji looks like a "fixed land" and the sea with numerous waves coming along one after another.

    Thank you for sharing this.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Thank you, friends, for all your comments. I’m glad we can share the feeling of exclamation.
    I usually avoid going out to too popular an attraction packed with so many people.

    However, to hear a friend of mine talk excitedly about the large-scale event of previous time there induced me to see them by all means. It did live up to my expectation!

    Much to my regret, since I joined a bus tour, the time we spent there was limited.
    To make matters worse, it was Saturday so congestions of both traffic and people
    were terrible. Again I know I was one of them. I strongly advise you to go there on week days
    if you’re interested.

    Yes, Stardust, the imagery of “Perelandra” came across to me, too.

    ReplyDelete
  5. I imagined the exotic Mt.Fuji, hundreds of times bigger than this, thanks to your posting.
    I suppose that taking photo of illumination might be difficult.
    I came to know Nabana no Sato is not only famous for a variety of begonias.

    ReplyDelete
  6. “ I suppose that taking photo of illumination might be difficult.”

    Yes, indeed, Haricot, it is difficult (^ _ ^).
    All I have to do is pop the shutter. The rest depends on the efficiency of fool-proof digital camera. Sometime it works more than I expect and offers me a fresh and surprising discovery in the picture.

    Its begonia garden has been one of the features there; they boast a great variety of begonias.
    I would have taken some of them for large roses if I hadn't known it was a begonia garden. Thank you for visiting, Haricot.

    ReplyDelete
  7. cosmos,

    Yahoo is introducing the best 20 illumination spots in Japan. Nabana-no-Sato is the fifth best. Ican not believe there are four places more popular than Nabana-no-Sato.

    http://xmas.yahoo.co.jp/ranking/(sorry only in Japanese)

    ReplyDelete
  8. Thank you for an interesting information, Snowwhite. I understand there're many places that create their own design and atmosphere from simple one to gorgeous one.
    By the way, the square in front of Tenri Station in Nara is not far away from my husband's mother's house, but I have never been there at this time of the year. According to the popularity poll, it is listed high. "It's darkest beneath the lamp"

    ReplyDelete
  9. What a beautiful blue color this pictures are!
    I have heard of Nabana-no-sato long ago but I didn't know the illumination is such beautiful. I thought that not all rumors are right. People exaggerates things but this is exception. Picture is true than words in this case.
    I will go there in the near future.

    ReplyDelete
  10. Sarah, thank you for the comment.
    I think it's true that "good" is not enough when your expectation is too high.
    Just wait to say "picture is true than words in this case" before you actually see what they are like. I hope it won't let you down.

    For me, I'd like to return to the place again. A friend of mine talked me that when she visited in February or early March, she was able to see precocious cherry blossoms filtering through the lights of arch. How fantastic!

    ReplyDelete
  11. With precocious cherry clossoms! What a genius made such a shining plan?

    ReplyDelete

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