Day 220: A castle, and some local politics.

Day 220 (14 Jul) Sunday. We're off to Odawara today, just south of Tokyo, an hour or so away on an express train out of Shinjuku. The plan is to leave about 8.00 to get to the meeting point. 

Outside the room, at 6.12am

I'm up at 6.12am again, checking out the weather...through the insect screen, just as a point of difference. We have breakfast and depart on the adventure and meet up at the appointed time. Of course, with four people interested in photography, it is going to be an interesting day. We compare cameras, lenses (this was confirmed the night before via email) and one person in the group collects stamps from castles she has visited. The person who is hosting us is the president of the interest group with which Jinko has an association. He has offered to show us around his 'hometown'.

Odawara lunch

We arrive just on lunchtime (so much of my timetable in Japan seems to be scheduled around eating) and we have quite a lovely lunch, at a place well-known for its variations on the local seafood. 

It's a very hot day and we have to be really quite conscious of the heat. It's a different heat from Brisbane with a higher 'heavier' humidity which can really take its toll particularly with people carrying much camera equipment. Typically, with a castle, there will be trudging up a hill involved. We take and compare some fascinating photos. This is one of the more interesting exercises I find among fellow photo aficionados: what comes of us all taking the 'same' subject? There's a bit of time to compare notes as we stop along the way in tea shops and cafes. 

The trip home, at 6.12pm

The trip home was on a regular train from Odawara into Shinjuku, and we were still there as 6.12pm rolled around. Once home, we uploaded the pics to our respective devices and compared notes. Most interesting. Oh, and I got to see some of the local political candidates as well. A good day all-in-all. The castle pics will be loaded up over at psephy's-ologies a little later.