Nagahama Castle (reconstructed) in Nagahama, Shiga Prefecture is a lakeside castle within Hokoen Park. The original castle was built by Toyotomi More

Nagahama Castle (reconstructed) in Nagahama, Shiga Prefecture is a lakeside castle within Hokoen Park. The original castle was built by Toyotomi Hideyoshi in the 16th century who lived in Nagahama Castle until 1582. Hokoen Park fronting Lake Biwa is noted for cherry blossoms.
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4 Video shorts of young Japanese girls dancing in traditional costumes at a Cherry Blossom Festival near Motobu, Okinawa, Japan. For those of you with More

4 Video shorts of young Japanese girls dancing in traditional costumes at a Cherry Blossom Festival near Motobu, Okinawa, Japan. For those of you with 6-7 year olds, watch for the "older sister" at front row left help her "little sister" (front row second from left) remember her position at 1:40-1:45. The perfection of the execution by the early teen girls in sequence two (starting at 2:08) is inspiring and is equal to anything I have seen in a similarly aged ballet group. Execution like this is only inspired by training, an audience's attention and the glory of the day and moment. In sequence three, look for the high enthusiasm of the 8 year old boy in the left grouping. Energy, conviction and pride of execution are all there. These boys are loving their heritage. I was unable to shoot video of the final "Celestial" dance, but you can find some sense of its drama in the timeless still shot visual at 4:50. Shot on February 1, 2009 with a Nikon D90 Camera with Nikkor 18-200 DX VR lens. OK, sorry about the weak video quality at full screen (doesn't do justice to Vimeo I know) viewing, but the D90 has its limitations, and I did not have my Canons along, and I wasn't expecting something so cool and cultural :)
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