All posts tagged: haari

Nago Haari – Dragon Boat Races

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 On August 2nd 2026 the Nago Haari (dragon boat races) took place in the Nago City port, northern Okinawa. I was part of the Yambaru DMO team, but instead of rowing, I spent the race crouched at the bow taking photos. Thankfully, my extra weight didn’t slow the team down; we still crossed the finish line first! These wide-angle shots were with the Sony A7RIV with the 14mm 1.8 lens, held about 20 cm from the surface of the water as I leaned out of the boat. It was great to see so many different boats competing, with teams of local Okinawans and Americans. These telephoto shots were with the 70-200mm lens.

Dragon boats are back!

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After a four-year hiatus, the dragon boats are once again racing during the Golden Week holidays. Friday afternoon had the finals of the regular races with the boats crews made up of both locals and Americans. The sky was overcast, but luckily it was not raining on the day. After these races the special dragon boat race took place, which the crews in traditional costume, along with flag bearers and karateka. I’m not sure of the names of the sensei performing with the black-robed crew, or the blue-robed crew, but the white-robed crew was led by Onaga Sensei, a karate master I’ll be photographing in the coming weeks. Checking back through my archives I found a pic from 2011 when I actually managed to get in one of the boats for a race. Can’t believe I was shooting with a medium format digital camera, in the rain, on a boat that might sink! After going further back in the archvies, I found images shot with the Pentax 67ii medium format film camera around 20 years …