Fukuoka City (福岡市) Hyperlapse - Visit Japan's Youngest Major City for Five Minutes

Fukuoka City is Japan's youngest major city and has Japan's fastest growing population.  Even so, it has a history that goes back at least 1500 years – it just took its time getting big.  It is also the closest Japanese port city to mainland Asia and its local culture and population reflects that.  This amazing hyperlapse of the city shows it off perfectly – a fascinating five minute snapshot from a place that many outside of Japan haven’t really heard of.  The video also contains a glimpse of two of the intriguing Yamakasa  festival (pictured above) that is held every year in July.

In case you wonder, as I did, why a hyperlapse about a city called Fukuoka has so many signs that seem to indicate that we are in a place called Hakata, there is a good reason for this. Hakata was once a city in its own right, but has been subsumed into Fukuoka as the latter became larger.  The two cities became one in 1878 but it is still thought of, in many ways, as a city within a city.

Watch the amazing hyperlapse video below.

You're Never Bored with a Gourd!

Image Credit Flickr User Badly Drawn Dad

It's strange how traditions start. In the late 1960s Ralph Upton, a farmer from the small, picturesque English village of Slindon in the county of West Sussex place his yearly crop of pumpkins, squashes and gourds on his shed to ripen.  

The colors and shapes of his harvest soon attracted visitors - and things have never been quite the same in Slindon since.

Image Credit Flickr User Wallygrom

Kumbh Mela: The Greatest Gathering or People on the Planet

Kumbh Mela is a Hindu pilgrimage which attracts, each year, the greatest peaceful get together of people in the world.  The  Maha Kumbh Mela of 2013 saw over 100 million people gather to bathe at dawn in the sacred Ganges River.

Time-lapse Photography and Adventure Filmmaker Rufus Blackwell was there and captured these astounding time-lapse images.

Onbashira: The Most Dangerous Festival in Japan

2016 was a special year in Japan. Every six years the men of the towns and villages around Lake Suwa in the Nagano Prefecture participate in the Onbashira festival (a matsuri in Japanese) and in 2016 it came round again.  It has been celebrated sexenially for over 1,200 years without interruption.

Translated as ‘the honored pillars’, Onbashira symbolically renews the Suwa Taisha shrine and is a dazzling display of the power of man over nature. It is also known as the most dangerous festival in Japan.  Broken limbs are inevitable during the festival and deaths have also, unfortunately, been recorded.


This festival would never happen elsewhere, frankly.  Hordes of health and safety inspectors would ensure that the huge logs would become nothing more than twigs. As for riding atop them at a breath-taking speed – this would simply be banned, interdit, verboten.  However, this is Japan.  Have you ever seen any of the country’s game shows which make demands on the body which should make most people quail? You may have wondered where anyone could get the idea for such risky physicality.  Perhaps their roots lie in Onbashira.

The Human Towers of the Castellers

Image Credit Flickr User fer55

No one is quite sure but at some point in the 18th century someone in the Valls, near the Catalonian city of Tarragona dreamed of a tower of a castle (castell in Catalonian).  Yet he may not have been an architect or an engineer: his tower was made of people.

It was an idea that took off.  It developed throughout Catalonia – even spreading as far as Majorca – and has for the last few decades been enjoying something of a renaissance after many years of prohibition under General Franco.  Although it is popular throughout many parts of Spain, you have to go to its birthplace to find the most skilled castellers.

Image Credit Flickr User vilanovi ilageltru

Beached Whale Art in Greenwich, London

The latest piece of outdoors installation art in London has caused a few raised eyebrows to say the least.  A life-size fiberglass sculpture of a beached whale has been placed on the bank of the River Thames at Greenwich, in London.

Image Credit DocklandsBoy

Giant Rubber Duck Swims in to Sydney Harbor

Sydney’s Darling Harbor has seen a few strange sights in its time.  Yet nothing, probably, to beat the harbor’s most recent visitor.  An enormous bright yellow rubber duck has been spotted nonchalantly floating through the city’s waterfront.

Image Credit Flickr User Halans

The Giant Slugs of Angers

Angers is a beautiful and historic city 300km south west of Paris. Its universities and museums help to offer its citizens a rich cultural life which spans many centuries but remains vibrantly contemporary. Yet even the cultivated Angevins may not have been prepared for an invasion of giant slugs, the latest work by Dutch artist Florentijn Hofman.

Hofman is renowned for his giant installations – we featured his big yellow rabbit in the Swedish town of Örebro last year. For Angers' recent Hanging Hearts Festival, Hofman created a pair of giant, dazzlingly multi-colored slugs.

Brussels Flower Carpet 2012

The Grand Place in Brussels, the capital of Belgium is for a few short days every two years awash with begonias. 2012 is a year on and so the people of the city decided that this year their Flower Carpet, made up of blooms all grown in the Ghent area, would pay a multi-colored tribute to the patterns of Africa.

Holi

If you live in a large, multi-ethnic city virtually anywhere in the world it is a possibility that you have seen groups of people in parks merrily spattering each other with paint. While you might be excused for thinking that it is a new form of corporate team building – and what a great one that would be – you would be wrong. The throwing of multi-colored water and powder is in fact the popular Hindu spring Festival of Colors, also known as Holi. Look at it another way - this is the world's original religiously sanctioned flash mob!

This festival has been conducted in India and Nepal for hundreds of years but as the Hindu diaspora grows other countries as far afield as the UK and the US are getting involved in the fun. Fun, of course, but like Christmas in as much as it has some serious religion at its heart.This remarkable video was created by Variable.

Dalek Art Car at the Burning Man

Guest of honor at this year’s Burning Man Festival was this awesome Dalek art car.  As well as being several times larger than your average Dalek this one could pick up some speed too.  Although a number of festival goers swear that it could also fly – just like the ones in the TV series – we suspect that may have more to do with ingestion of dodgy substances than true aerial ability. 

You have to admit, though, that it looks pretty cool against the desert background – and it even has its own security guard from a galaxy far, far away.

Image Credit Flickr User laszy

First three images courrtesy of Flickr User Tirch

The Big Yellow Rabbit of Örebro

Image Credit Flickr User swedishCass

A Big Yellow Rabbit has invaded a Swedish city.  There he is, above, relaxing in his new home. It may not be a surprise to hear, however, that this piece of installation art has split the local community down the middle. Yet love it or hate it, the Big Yellow Rabbit of Örebro in Sweden demands attention.

Image Credit Flickr User Dimidus

The town is in the middle of its annual open art festival and among many others this year it attracted Dutch artist Florentijn Hofman who already has something of a reputation for the sensation that his art creates. Made from wood and painstakingly constructed over a number of days, Hofman’s big yellow rabbit has attracted many fans.

Image Credit Flickr User Barbra Uppsala

Image Credit Flickr User Barbro_Uppsala

It has, on the other hand, attracted the ire of some locals who resent the fact that the historic center of their town has been taken over by a fifty foot high, thirty foot long rabbit. They feel that the art on display should enhance Örebro and feel that the rabbit simply does not do that.  Plus it was pricey, costing US$20,000. It may not be my money but I think the Big Yellow Rabbit is huge fun (literally) and worth every krona.

Image Credit Flickr User Dimidus

The BYR (as perhaps we should call it!) will not be there forever – the festival lasts for a month and after that the rabbit will disappear from the town.  Until then the townsfolk have a new attraction to look forward to seeing every day or something to avoid for the duration.  At least the festival has 1,000 other (albeit smaller) exhibits from which to chose a favorite.

Image Credit Flickr User Barbro_Uppsala

So, what do you think of the Big Yellow Rabbit? Let us know!

Image Credit Flickr User Barbro_Uppsala

Image Credit Flickr User Barbro Uppsala

Overcast

Do you ever feel under a cloud? Then spare a thought for this poor guy because for him the metaphor has become real. Yet sometimes in life you just have to make do with your lot and get on with things.

This cool animated short is by James Lancett and Sean Weston. It made its debut exclusively in the Cartoon Brew's 2nd Student Animation Festival.

Dionosaur + Kites = Magic

Portsmouth's nineteenth International Kite Festival recently took place on Southsea Common. At first site the video about might seem like some sort of elaborat CGI hoax, but the combination of dinosaur and kite is for real.

The dinosaur, which goes by the name of Luna Park is the creation of artists Ivan and Heather Morrison. It is part of their current exhibition called An Unreachable Country: A Long Way To Go. The artists may not have envisioned the accompanying kites in their original concept. Yet the two disparate items go together quite uncannily - as if they were made for each other.

You can read more about Luna Park and how she came to be on Southsea Common in our original artlicle about her by clicking here.

Image Credit Flickr User bobfranklin

Image Credit Flickr User bobfranklin

The fliers, with uncanny accuracy managed to position the kites above, around and along the body of the giant creature. Amazing skill is involved in these manoeuvres which, when done in this sort of unison leaves the jaw somewhere at ground level while the kites soar.

Image Credit Flickr User bobfranklin

Of course, Luna Park took all of this in her stride. Perhaps if she is lucky then Southsea Common might become her permanent home. In fact her future is so bright, she has to wear shades.

We very much regret to inform you that on the night of 30 September 2010, Luna Park was destroyed by fire.  You can read about it HERE.

Kuriositas would like to thank Flickr User bobfranklin for his kind permission to use his marvellous photographs. Please take a visit to his photostream to see these and other wonderful photos.

Sala Montjuic 2010

This is quite an eye watering advertisement for a film festival and is an extremely effective thirty seconds of film.

Sala Montjuic is an annual outdoor film festival in Barcelona, Spain.  Starting in June the festival kicks off for 2010 with three screenings a week and extends over a five week period.

All the films are in their original language with subtitle in Spanish and before they start people can have a picnic on the lawn while enjoying the amazing surroundings in the Catalan sunshine. You also get an extraordinary view of the city from Montjuic - below is a shot taken from the opposite hill of Park Güell, which should give you an idea of the extraordinary panorama visitors enjoy.  What a superb place to take in a movie out of doors!

Image Credit Wikimedia

A great deal of European and American filmmaking will be on display at the festival with the audience being able to vote for the last film in August (a cool idea if ever there was one).  The choice of film is quite surprising too, with the 1923 Harold Lloyd classic shown one evening, with the likes of No Country For Old Men and Almodovar’s recent classic Volver thrown in to the mix.

Now where did I put my passport?