This trip took me from Kyoto to Nara. Strangely enough, I’d never made it to Nara before. It’s been so long since I last visited—back in high school—that I don’t even want to count the years.
After about 45 minutes on the JR rapid train from Kyoto, I arrived at Nara Station as the sun was setting. I dropped my bags at the hotel and headed straight for Ukimi-do Pavilion in Nara Park.
I’d heard it was famous for autumn leaves, but the coloration around the pond was a bit underwhelming. Some had already passed their peak, making for a somewhat lackluster view. Still, I was lucky to make it this far and blessed with good weather—I shouldn’t complain.
Soon, the magic hour arrived. The beautiful silhouette of the temple’s roof.
The camera I’m holding is the LUMIX S1IIE. While in Kyoto, I used the SIGMA 20-200mm F3.5-6.3 lens the entire time, but its minimum F-stop proved challenging in low-light conditions. This time, the SIGMA 50mm F2 DG DN lens I brought along just in case came in handy.
I struggled to capture this unfamiliar evening scene. Processing the RAW files was another challenge (thanks to my gear’s performance, it captured the scene several times brighter than what my eyes saw. I just realized now that auto-exposure is no good). It’s proving quite difficult to get the result I envisioned. If only the moon had been out in the sky, reflecting on the water, it might have made for a slightly more picturesque shot.
The view from beside the temple, looking out over the edge of the pond, was quite something too.
At the popular Ukimido Pavilion, tourists naturally remained until dusk, but the crowd wasn’t so bad that it became unbearable. I was grateful to be able to take my time photographing and enjoy it to the fullest.
And that’s where things went smoothly.
The number of people flooding into the Nara Park area that day apparently far exceeded the city’s tourism logistics capacity. After evening, both the city loop buses I was counting on and taxis were completely stuck in traffic, unable to move at all.
I stood at the bus stop for a while, trying not to make eye contact with the drivers of the cars that weren’t budging an inch, but eventually gave up. Oh well, I guess I’ll just have to walk back on my own two feet.
And so, relying on Google Maps, I ended up walking for nearly an hour through the completely darkened streets of Nara city, camera bag in tow, all the way back to my hotel.
