sunset and sunrise

The Sunset on Saturday, 9th of June 2007 from Emerald Beach, Motobu.

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On 22nd October last year, Liz, Paul and I had gone to the Tanaga-gumui Falls up north. While coming back down south, we stopped on the side of a bridge in Higashi and climbed up a cliff, which seemed to face east and on a clear day would be an excellent sunrise spot. Ever since that time, I had been thinking of going there to see the sunrise, especially for New Years, as in Japan its a tradition to see the first sunrise of the year. Of course, lack of a car and severe flu during the winter break prevented that, but today I finally went there with Ben and Paul. It was breathtaking. We could not really see the sunrise from the foliage-free part of the cliff :

So, we entered the dense thicket and tried to find an edge from where the sun could be visible. Paul even climbed up a tree. We somehow got a glimpse through the bushes:

Then we went over to another place, north of the bridge, to see the rest of the rise. It was beautiful and so much worth losing sleep over:

... don't you agree?