Apr# 217

So finally, after a week of teaching in Arashiyama, I felt satisfied that I had enough pictures of the cherry blossom and trains to feed the obsession. Every time I went home from here it took 1 hour of cycling (thank god the weather was perfect), but it really does show that you get result with perseverance. I wouldn’t say I was accepted by the other photographers, but then again they didn’t seem to like each other as well. I had my photos, the kids got their English lessons and you the reader got to see far too many pictures of trains.

Apr# 216

So I got some pictures, but they weren’t that great. But 2 fingers up to the rival photographers, I had work the next day and that would mean I would be back. Muhahaha!

This time I had time (as I wasn’t planning to cook dinner until 7:30pm) and unlike a British female tennis player in the second round, I wasn’t going to go home defeated. Here was the best shot of the day. And later that night my boss called me and said that 2 little girls wanted another lesson the next day. I was going to show those old Japanese photographers that I was going to be part of their group.

Apr# 215

The next day I went to work in Arashiyama and cycled back cutting across the train tracks to check out the the hotspots. To my surprise here I found a throng (6-8 people that is) of photographers waiting to take pictures. It felt a little bit like stumbling upon a secret freemasons meeting, wondering whether I had uncovered a huge secret and whether I would be accepted in their train snapping group?

To answer my questions, no it wasn’t a big secret as their were kids on bikes cycling (and standing) on the train tracks and again, no, I wasn’t accepted into the photographers group as it became apparently clear that this was a territorial clan.

Not wanting to interfere I found my own secluded spot and patiently waited for the train.

To be continued