australia day!!!

I started of the day with the usual vegemite on toast and a cup of hot milo. Milo is different over here. It's not as chunky and the taste is different. Still tastes ok but i prefer the malt one we have in Australia. For lunch we planned to go to the new Aussie cafe in Namba but the lunch menu was crap. I wanted to have fish and chips but they had crap like salmon and ham and tomato baguette. Since when is a baguette australian. After that we went to the Aussie Outback steakhouse but it wasn't open for lunch so ended up at Saizeria and had a 200g piece of Australian beef. You can actually get a piece of aussie steak cheaper in Japan than Australia. It cost 800 yen or less than $10 AUD.




Since i couldn't get fish and chips for lunch i decided to cook it for dinner.

a plate of prefried goodness

I'm not sure what type of fish it was. Mika said it was from Hokkaido. It was white and had no bones so was perfect.

the final product with a couple of Ebbisu beers. My favourite beer in Japan.

Mika with her favourite socks mum sent over last year.

Yamabushi

Sunday morning we went to watch Mika's dad performing in a small Yamabushi festival at his groups temple. The bigger festivals are good but sometimes it's nice to go to this type of thing to get up close and actually see what's going on.

Here's Mika's dad about to perform his part of the ceremony.

One of these almost hit me. Luckily they could only fly about 3 metres.

about to start the fire.

not sure what it is that he is reading but this seems to be most important part of any yamabushi ceremony i've been too.

and as you can see it got very smoky and we got covered in ash.

Mika's dad throwing sticks onto the fire. You write your wish on the stick then it gets thrown in and hopefully your wish comes true.

Namba

My time in Japan is starting to come to an end. Only about 10 weeks to go until i'm back home in Australia. So before I go home I want to capture some photos of my home town for the last 18 months. Osaka, like any big city comes alive at night. It's famous for it's food and over eating. The dished are usually much larger in Osaka and there are just restaurants everywhere. Anyway last Friday night i headed into the Namba, Shinsaibashi area which is also famous for the neon lights.

Here's the entrance to Namba parks. An upmarket shopping centre. On each roof of the terraced building are nice gardens and an auditorium.

This is the famous ferris wheel or festival wheel as most Japanese people seem to call them. It's in the young area of dotombori. You can get great crepes just next door.

This is the main eating area of dotombori. There are hundreds of restaurants and lots of takoyaki street vendors and of course like everywhere in Japan, lots of bicycles.

This is Hozen-Ji. People who work close to water or some type of water related industry come here to pray. You throw water over the moss covered statues for good luck.

One of the many Takoyaki street vendors around Namba. This one is my favourite but usually there is a huge line on the weekends.

Den Den town. Which basically is electron town. This whole area is full of electronic shops selling computer parts, cameras, audio gear and the latest technology. This was the first place i visited when i arrived in Japan in 2005 to buy my lumix fz30 camera. I had been in the country less than 12 hours and had it charged taking photos.

Toka Ebisu - Nishinomiya Jina

Yesterday i went to Nishinomiya Jinja for Toka Ebisu. It's a festival where you go and pray for good business luck and to have a prosperous year. Nishinomiya Jinja is the head ebisu shrine in Japan and about 2 million people make the yearly pilgrimage for the three days. All the way from the station to the shrine are hundreds of street vendors selling lots of great food and good luck charms to leave at the shrine.

as always click on the image to see a larger photo.

the main gate of the shrine grounds at about 9:30am. Seemed to be mainly
old people. Not sure how many are still in business or if it's just habit.

the entrance to the actuall shrine.

These guys hit you in the head with a paper pompom
for good luck as you enter the shrine.

Nishinomiya Jina.

this is where everyone throws money for good luck. Not sure
why security is needed as most people are only throwing in
5 or 10 yen coins. It'd take a few hours to get a $100. Or maybe
he's guarding the sake barrels behind him.

a giant tuna that you stuff with money. People were sticking money
in every cavity. As you can see it was 2.55m long and 295 kg or about $15,000.

some good luck charms to hang in your office or leave at the
shrine

one of the street vendors cooking sausages, yaki soba and
okonomiyaki.

this is where you donate yet some more money and leave
your bamboo good luck charm thing for a prosperous year.
with all the good luck you wonder how Japan ever has trouble
financially.

for extra good luck you can get your bamboo hand carved.
these were selling for around $60.

Ikuta Jinja - Kobe

Ikuta Jinja is a small shrine in Kobe that is known as the place to visit if you're looking for love or to visit with your partner for good luck in your relationship. We visited there in the week after new years which is it's popular time. The first thing i noticed was all the sponsorship signs leading up to the shrine. Goes to show religion is for sale everywhere and another reason why i don't take any religion seriously.

The shrine itself is supposed to be one of the oldest in Japan but they seem to say that about every shrine i've visited except Horyuji which is actually regarded as the oldest in Japan and is the oldest wooden building in the world.

the main entrance gates for the shrine. Notice all the lovely
advertisements on the left. Adds a great touch to one of the oldest shrines
in Japan. I'm sure the monks will appreciate a nice cup of UCC
coffee after a long session trying to reach nirvana.

this was part of a ceremony taking placeinside the shrine. Not sure what it was for
but there were lots of young men getting thebranches waved over their heads.
I think it may be for good fortune in business.

Some barrels of sake that are at most shrines this time of year.
The tigers are the local professional baseball team. They really do
need some luck.

Wishing for love. This is a part of the many omukuji all over the shrine.
the pink loveheart says "love" in japanese and as you can see from the others
has a message written on the back. Usually it's a young girl wishing to
meet her dream husband.

Himeji Castle

This was the second time for me to visit Himeji Castle. The first was back in Summer with Mika's parents for a quick stop on the way home from a Weekend away in Okayama. We only stayed for about 20mins at night but the castle was lit up so well worth the stop. We had planned to visit in Autumn but went to so many other places just didn't fit it in so here we are in January and we finally made it back.

You can see the castle pretty much straight out of the train station and is about a 10min walk from the station. It's perched up high above the city and is a grand sight from any direction. Also known as the "white heron" because of it's white walls and graceful demeanour. It is one of four castles in Japan that is a world heritage site and unlike most European castles of the same era, Himeji is predominately built with timber. 360 tonnes of timber and 75,000 tiles were used for it's construction.

as with all post, click on the image to see a bigger photo or go to my flickr site to see a few more www.flickr.com/photos/brettinjapan

a wide view taken from the front plain.

me and mika inside the castle grounds.

this is my favourite picture of the castle. This view point just
fit my 50mm prime perfectly so i couldn't stop taking photos. I
think i deleted about 100 photos when we got home.

some old guns inside the castle.

these holes or hatches were everywhere around the castle. Some
were bigger than others and were used to throw stones, spears
and boiling water onto enemies. Might be useful back in OZ for the JW
doorknockers.

this the princesses quarters. It was huge. I can't remember exactly
home many tatami mats but it was very big. Here they are playing a
memory game with shells that we usually play with cards.

the top of the castle. This is where the princess would do her
daily prayers along with the lord of the castle.

Koko-En Gardens

Next to Himeji Castle is Koko-En Japanese Gardens. The entry was included with our ticket to Himeji Castle and we were a bit behind schedule so couldn't go to Mt Shosa as we planned. The Gardens were a bit ordinary being winter but there was a huge Japanese pond with heaps of huge Koi (carp) and a couple of waterfalls. It wasn't busy at all so there was a really nice atmosphere. We spent about an hour and half mainly taking photos and lazing about. It was a nice sunny day and really didn't feel like winter.

Mika taken by suprise looking at the Koi in one of the ponds.

bamboo reflection with Koi at the last pond in the gardens.

photoshop gone a bit crazy. I loved the motion of this picture. i think
the shape of the fish and the motion of the tail make a graceful picture.
Click to have a look at it bigger.

Mika loves to take photos of me taking photos. That's my lense
nikkor 80-200mm f2.8d. It's a bit heavy (1.5kg) so you can
see i'm using a monopod (poor mans VR) between my legs.

New Years Day

New Years day we went to Yoshino to visit a few more shrine and temples. It was really quite and most of the shops were closed. Mika wore her kimono so i had a chance to take some great photos in an a nice setting. Before going to Yoshino we had a traditional new years day breakfast. Osechi which is cold vegetables and fish cooked a few days before so you don't have to prepare on the day. It tasted ok but i would have preferred a hot meal on a cold winters morning.

new years prayers at Yoshino

nice hot udon for lunch at Yoshino across from Kipunsenji temple.

walking down to no-ten daijin temple at Yoshino. There were a lot of steep stair and i'm not sure how mika didn't take a spill wearing the traditional slippers.

just a funny statue at the temple

inside the temple buring candles and incence to pray for good luck

New Years Eve

New Years Eve is the big holiday in Japan. Families come together to celebrate, pray, eat, drink and clean. We started new years eve by having Fugu Nabe at Mika's parents. It's the third time i've had Fugu so am not really worried about dying anymore but there were a few suprises this time. First was a big tray of fugu testicles. They were big, soft and quite difficult to eat. Second i got to eat the fishes face. After cooking all the bones fall out of the face and you're left with the lips, skin and flesh behind the skin. It was actually really tasty and my favourite part of the fish. at around 11:30 we went to a local shrine so mika and her family could do their new year prayers and drink sweet sake. Even though it was a small shrine there was still a 200m line waiting to do their prayers and a huge fire to keep everyone warm.

Mika eating fugu skin.

fish testicles anyone? i was really suprised that people eat them but you have to try everything once right?

this is the fugu mouth. The white in the centre of the fish is the lips. It was actually really nice.

the sweet sake stand at the shrine in Amagasaki. It was really nice but they didn't give you enough.

the shrine and fire. nice and warm on a very cold winter night.

Christmas Day

We had a quiet christmas after going out on christmas eve. We had a kentucky xmas pack for lunch then went to Mika's parents and had roast chicken, roast vegetables and seafood paella for dinner. It was the first time anyone in mika's family had eaten roast vegetables and chicken gravy.

our huge christmas tree and a few gifts.

my annoying musical christmas card from Mika.

Mika cooking paella (spelling?) with prawns, clams, squid, rice and capsicum.

Mika's family and some red wine with dinner.

we ended up with two christmas cakes. these were by far the best christmas cakes i've ever had.

Christmas Eve

christmas eve was a really fun day. Even though christmas in japan is nothing about religion (which i much prefer) it feels more like christmas here because it winter. We started the day with hotcakes for breakfast then went to the Osaka pool which turns into an ice skating ring during winter then to Osaka aquarium at night to see the christmas lights. Christmas eve is kind of like valentines in japan. it's a real couples day, exchanging gifts and lots of couples on dates. It's a really nice atmosphere.

It was my second time to go ice skating and it was much easier this time. I could only skate for about three hours then my feet started to ache. Mika has been ice skating since primary school so she made me look like an idiot. anyway here's some pics.

the entrance to the ice skating ring.

yeah i'm a speed maching on the ice.

the christmas tree at osaka aquarium. it was about 30 metres tall and there was a 200m line to get your photo in front of it.

Christmas lights in Osaka

we went to Nakanoshima in Osaka to see the christmas lights on the 23rd or as they call it in Japan Christmas eve eve. Because christmas is not a public holiday in Japan, many people celebrated on the 23rd and 24th. the christmas lights were ok but after going to luminarie a few weeks ago nothing special. We were really suprised how busy it was and so many old camera otaku (camera addicts with big cameras, lenses and everything else you can buy). I can never understand why old people always go to things on the weekend when they could have gone any day of the week. I think it's just to annoy young people.

Here's mika with a christmas belgium waffle while we were waiting for the lights to turn on.

the main street leading up to the park.

a german friendship christmas tree

Autumn 2006

I've been really slack with the blogging for the last couple of months but have been trying to work out a decent workflow with the thousands of photos i've taken during Autumn and made the mistake of only shooting in raw which is a pain in the ass if you just want to do a quick blog. anyway autumn is well and truly gone but here's a few pictures of some of the places i visited in October, November and December.

Koyosan in October. This was the first place we visited to see the Koyo (red autumn leaves). It's a small temple village on top of mount Koyo. It's also famous for Okonoin cemetry which is home to thousands of corporate graves and famous figures of Japanese history.

Takedao Onsen village. I came across this one by accident and the leaves changed about a month earlier here because it's in the mountains. It was a great day hiking and only about 30mins from home.

Ryuanji temple in Mino NP. I went here many times over Autumn because it's very close to home. This is where i saw the Yamabushi festival earlier in the year.

Yoshiminedera about halfway between Osaka and Kyoto. It's recent fame is being one of the places used for Memoirs of a Geisha. I saw it on TV as one of the autum secrets of Kansai. Certainly not a secret anymore. There was about 200 people waiting at the bus stop for the bus that only left every hour and was even worse coming home. It was one of the most beautiful temples i've been to. Really big grounds and lots of smaller temples to look at. Nice view from the top of the mountain as well.

This was also taken at Yoshiminedera. I like the autumn colours and the beautiful bokeh caused buy the shallow DOF using a 300mm f4 prime lense.

The famous Sanzen-in in Ohara, Kyoto. One of the better spots in Kyoto for Koyo viewing. It Was really busy but easy to find a quiet corner. Many of the small temples and shrines give you green macha tea and japanese sweets as you sit on the tatami looking over the temple garden.

the famous statues of Sanzen-in. These can usually been seen on posters at most train stations in the Kansai area.

just another one from Ohara to show the contrasting colours you see here in Autumn. Very different to Autumn back home in Queensland.

Ichio near Kiyomizu in Kyoto.


a small shrine in Kyoto. We planned to go to Kiyomizu to see the koyo lit up at night but there were thousands of people lined up to get in so we decided not to bother. We had to walk some back streets to get back to the station because of the crowds and came across this place.


just walking between temples in Arashiyama. This is two images blended because there was to much exposure variation in the scene.



my take on a classic arashiyama autumn photo. Arishiyama is famous for the bamboo grove and momoji.

finally my last Autumn stop, Tofukuji in Kyoto. This is apparently the most visited temple in Japan of Autumn. It was nice but certainly not as spectacular as some of the other places i visited over the last few months.