pansan (that`s me)

Nipponbashi Festa

2007-03-24T19:31:00.000+09:00

This was my last photo opp before moving back to Australia. I accidentally went to the festival last year but because i was just meeting someone for lunch i didn't have my camera. I'm not sure what the festival is all about but there are lots of strange people, dressed like cartoon characters and young women dressed in maids outfits. The festival itself is just shit. They block of the street and there's a float about every 10mins that usually has about 3-5 people in it. The people in the crowd are much more interesting and thats where all my photos are from.

remember to click to see large photo

i think this is my favourite pic from the festival. the
50mm 1.8 is a great little head portrait lens on digital.

I'm not sure how old these girls were but they
were easily the favourites. Most of them work in
cosuplay maid bars in the area.

more maids

some more weird people

this guy seemed to be the pimp for one of the
girls in maid costume.

kimchi, kia and samsung

2007-03-15T15:10:00.000+09:00

Recently i went to Seoul, South Korea for the week. My visa in Japan was about to run out and I wasn't ready to go home yet so a quick flight to Seoul for the week sounded perfect. Flights from Japan to Seoul are dirt cheap ($200 AUD) and the flight takes about two hours. It took me an hour on the bus to get to the airport, 2hrs waiting around at the airport, 2hr flight then 90min on the bus to get to the hostel. So 6 1/2 hours messing around for a two hour flight.

The first thing i noticed when i arrived in Seoul was everyone was driving a Kia or Hyundai. Every car seemed to look the same. When i got of the airport bus near my hostel i couldn't believe how many police there was. Not friendly police, ones carrying riot gear and all looking very serious. I realised a few days later that my hostel was near the Japanese Embassy. Politically things aren't good between South Korea and Japan. Also people don't ride bicycles here. In Japan everywhere you go you have to dodge people on bicycles. It felt a bit strange actually sharing the sidewalk with pedestrians.

remember to click on the photo to see large

Gyeongbokgung Palace. Originally constructed in 1394 and was
the largest palace of the Joseon Dynasty.

the main gate of the palace. The architecture is similar to Japan
but the roof has a curve and the colours are much more vibrant.

inside the palace. I used the sb600 to illuminate the eve of the roof
to show the colours and artwork.

Sungnyemun Gate. apparently it used to close every night at 11pm
when the city had curfew. I also heard the walls and gate were to protect
the city from South Korean Tigers. Sounds like BS to me.

the changing of the guards ceremony. This happens at various
sightseeing spots around the city a few times a day.

food in Seoul is awesome. Very similar to Japanese
food but everything is very spicy. Kimchi is the staple food, it's
made from pickled cabbage and is really spicy. top left is bibimap, beef wrapped
in lettuce leaves (one of my favourites), middle left, korean style bbq ribs. really really
spicy but great. other pics are just spices and stuff from local markets.

there's military everywhere in seoul. apparently Louis
Vuitton is army issue here. You can buy a genuine handbag and
genuine sorny MP3 player at the markets for a few dollars.

I actually went to the theatre. I think it might
be the first time i've even been to a theatre. I didn't run out and
buy a tweed jacket after but i did enjoy it. It was a performance of traditional
Korean dance and music. Really amazing and probably the highlight of the trip.

i quickly found out that when it comes to shopping women are just
nasty in every country. They have really sharp elbows and get super powers
to push you out of the way. all this to buy some shitty fake brand name bag
that is one of thousands at the stall. but you have to love the sellers as you
walk past "for you special price, today only"

the Blue House, Seouls version of the white house. This guard platform was
very high tech. He had three mirrors around him.

just some traditional dress from the national museum

In south Korea a lot of people have heated floors. my hostel had
them and they're awesome. This is at one of the palaces so it's old skool. basically
make a fire under your house and stay warm.

ume part II

2007-02-21T16:08:00.000+09:00

Otaku in Japanese pretty much means nerd and is used to describe people that go overboard with a hobby. Often people that sit indoors all day reading manga are called otaku. In Japan there's also camera otaka (which mika now calls me). They have all the greatest gear, usually at least two bodies and lenses that cost as much as most peoples cars. so i was at the castle still and noticed a big crowd of people with cameras so thought i'd better have a look. Not sure if they were a camera club but there was about 20 people set up taking photos of some type of bird on an ume branch. Looked fun so i unpacked my tripod and got out my 70-200 and teleconverter and joined in.

Here's where everyone was setup. there was about 20 photogs
and their groupies. most of them had the camo for their camera and lenses
and weird little seats that only a japanese person could sit on.

after people got bored i got a shot of my setup. nikon d80 with
sigma 70-200 and new velbon carbon fibre tripod. It's nice to use
a tripod that i can use at eye level.

Here's the fake ume branch they were putting small worms and
seeds on to attract the birds. they would put it on the flowers then
go back and hide behind the bushes and wait for about 15mins for
the bird to come back. get a few shots and do it all over again.

here's a few of my shots. It was really difficult
to get the exposure right and off course it all happens withing
a couple of seconds so easy to miss the photo opp. sorry don't know
what type of bird it is.

this was my favourite out of the keepers. again
the exposure is a bit screwy but it was midday and too
many others shooting the same thing to use my flash.

just a few more bird shots from around the park

Osaka Castle Ume (plum blossom)

2007-02-21T15:36:00.000+09:00

Osaka castle is one of the more famous places in Japan to see Ume (japanese plum blossoms). there's a huge park at the bottom of the castle with heaps of different types of trees that will be in bloom over the next few weeks. Usually this time of year any parks that have any ume are full of old retired men with their thousands of dollars of camera gear and foreigners like me doing the sightseeing thing. I'm not really interested in flowers so not sure why i've been to so many places lately to see them but thought it was a good opportunity to get some different pictures of osaka castle.

I got to the castle around 8am and was greeted by an old man dressed as santa taking pictures of himself in front of the ume. I was suprised that there was only a few people there but was happy because i could take my time to get some pictures before the clouds came over.

santa having some "me" time away from mrs clause.

Osaka castle with some white ume in the foreground. I used
an sb600 for some foreground fill flash to get the nice blue sky
properly exposed. As they say a flash is best used in bright daylight.

It was strange to see an old man using a disposable camera.
It seems everyone over here owns an SLR camera. the hat is
pretty cool though. looks like a member of the MG club.

While i was walking around the lady on the right started talking
to me and asking question about where i'm from etc. After that she took
me for a walk and introduced me to the guy on the right. He's quite a
famous painter in Osaka and he showed me his photos with some famous
TV celebs for tv shows he's been on. here's a webpage with some of his
work http://www.geocities.jp/kumabati87/newpage13.htm. One thing
i'm really going to miss is how friendly old people are in Japan. sadly young
people seem to be as rude here as everywhere else in the world.

i think this bird is called meguro or something. Mika has told me a
few times but if it's not a pidgeon or seagull i can't remember the name.
anyway i like the colours and contrast here.

the castle from a different angle with pink
ume in the foreground.

some white ume but on a really cool tree with all the
branches draping to the ground.

this is how busy it was by about 11am. Photographers and
old women everywhere. Because i have a nikon camera often
old men will come and talk to me about cameras and point me in the
direction of good photo spots. It seems over here anyway not everyone
has switched to canon and a lot of the old guys are still shooting 35mm
or medium format.

Awaji daffodil farm

2007-02-16T18:35:00.000+09:00

We went to Awaji Island with Mika's parents last weekend to visit a daffodil farm. It was the first time i've been to awaji and the famous bridge. i think it's the longest suspension bridge in the world or something. I couldn't believe how busy it was. there were traffic jams all the way to the park and once we got there we had to park a few km's away and catch a shuttle bus the rest of the way. I'm not really into flowers but it was a nice scene next to the ocean.

me and mika posing at the bridge. were on awaji side here with kobe
on the right.

the path leading to down to the entrance

posing in front of the flowers.

the ume were in bloom also. they're about 2 weeks early
this year.

two photos blended for shadows and
highlights

took this while waiting for the bus. couldn't resist
taking a photo with the yellow and blue sky.

new lense :-)

2007-02-08T21:43:00.000+09:00

i posted just after xmas that i bought a new lense. I got a new nikon af 80-200 f2.8dn. It is supposed to be a great lense but it wasn't so i took it back and got a different one. I ended up with a sigma 70-200 APO EX DG HSM MACRO (i love these long names). I love this lense and can't get it of my camera. I haven't really been anywhere since getting it to really test it out but i can't wait to get back to australia to try it out on some motocross and surfing. anyway here's a few pics showing what it can do. CLICK ON THE PICTURE TO VIEW LARGE SIZE.

the grand opening and yes cathy that's the michelin
man beanie.

the first shot with the lense. mika is holding one of our
souveniers from Hokkaido last summer

a seagull near our house.

and another one. I'd never tried to take photos of birds in flight
before and it's a lot more difficult than i thought. I was pretty
happy with the few keepers i got.

shinkansen (bullet train) at sunset between osaka and kyoto.

some type of bird in the park near our house.

in the park again. I really like how the lense renders
the OOF areas. It has much better bokeh than some would
lead you to believe.

same park. just playing around with the RAW abilities, shadows
highlights etc.

Mika near our house on a cold winter morning. i was a bit excited
to try out my new lense the next morning, so up early on sunday, no
time for hotcakes. I was told this lense is warmer than the nikon but
i've found quite the opposite and the contrast is just as good if not better
than the 80-200.

setsubun

2007-02-08T20:54:00.000+09:00

some time in the past the Japanese celebrated the start of spring as the start of the new year. So before the end of winter they hold a festival to ward of all the evil spirits to start the new year clean. We went to a small festival at Yamazaki just north of Osaka. There's people dressed up as the devil and people chase them away. It seems the highlight of the festival is when the 7 gods throw mame (beans) into the crowd. If you manage to catch one you start the year with good luck. Most people get a bit desperate and things get a bit rough. Some people even resort to picking them up of the ground. I copped a few elbows and flying hands but it was all a good laugh.

even the animals getting in on the act. One thing i've noticed in
Japan is if there's a cute dog anywhere, women of all ages go nuts. The
dogs must get really pissed.

the 7 gods. well it would be if i got them all in the shot. so just
imagine there's another 3.

this is after the festival. The good people
had chased him out of the temple.

people were using everything to try and
catch the beans. You can see in the top left the
woman throwing the packets of beans.

just a wider shot of everyone using jumpers, jackets, hats,
bags, beanies and children to catch the beans.

just the entrance to the temple.

Tennoji

2007-02-08T17:35:00.000+09:00

the weather had been pretty shitty for about a week so on the next fine day i decided to go for a wander around Tennoji. It's known as the bad part of osaka. lots of rubbish, homeless people, crime and of course with crime you get the underworld. I kind of like it. It has an old feel and there's a great walking course that takes about half a day, covering lots of temples, shrines and some old fashioned paved streets. I got miserably lost but luckily an elderly lady pointed me in the right direction.

tennoji temple (same as last post)

b&w treatment of japanese temple roof and afternoon moon.

shake here for good luck. You throw your
money in a tray and shake the rope three times
then pray.

nothing in particular i just love taking photos
of these on the roof. most temples have different ones.

some big orange doors at tennoji. They were about
3.5m tall.

another good luck thing. buy some incense, burn them, wave them aound
until they go out (if you blow them out it's bad luck). put them in the big
thing then cover your ailing body part with smoke. Mika usually puts it
on my head because she thinks my brain needs fixing.

a carp (koi) in a japanese pond at tennoji.

Doya Doya?? ( i think)

2007-02-08T17:19:00.000+09:00

I went to two festivals on the same day and can't remember what this one is called. It was at Tennoji in Osaka. First we went to a Kushi Katsu restaurant above daimaru in umeda for lunch with Mika's mum. I love kushikatsu. All that deepfried goodness. It's kind of like fish and chips but you cook it yourself in the middle of table as you want it. I had the mix pack. so some squid, salmon, prawns, beef, mushroom and some other vegetables.

Mika and her mum at lunch. you can see the deep fryer
in the middle of the table.

after lunch we went to tennoji for the festival. We got there about an hour before it started but it was already too busy to get a good spot for photos. Any festival in japan is full of amateur photographers with their full kit. Before i got a decent camera i would always get lens envy everytime i went to a festival but now i realise they're just trying to make up for being short :-). so the festival is something to do with luck (like every festival here). Young boys dressed in the undies run around in the middle of winter trying to catch pieces of paper while their teachers throw cold water on them. How much some of my teachers would have loved to do that to me. It was pretty funny and the teachers had a great time. Everyone let out a huge cheer everytime caught one of the lucky charms.

Here they are heading to the main temple. They all are screaming
yashoi ( i think, don't know what it mean)

here's the young kids. they didn't get any water thrown
on them though. notice the big yellow buckets of water on the left.

and lastly the fun part of the festival. it seems boys are more
likely to wear a g-string in japan than women.

australia day!!!

2007-01-27T18:48:00.000+09:00

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

2007-01-15T19:11:00.000+09:00

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

2007-01-15T18:24:00.000+09:00

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

2007-01-11T17:47:00.000+09:00

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

2007-01-11T17:23:00.000+09:00

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

2007-01-10T16:34:00.000+09:00

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

2007-01-10T16:12:00.000+09:00

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

2007-01-03T16:19:00.000+09:00

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

2007-01-03T16:03:00.000+09:00

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

2007-01-03T12:43:00.000+09:00

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

2007-01-03T12:27:00.000+09:00

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

2007-01-03T11:52:00.000+09:00

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

2007-01-03T11:13:00.000+09:00

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.

Luminarie!!

2006-12-20T16:41:00.000+09:00

Luminarie is a light festival in Kobe City for the great Hanshin Earthquake in 1995. We went on monday night to try and miss the crowds. It wasn't as busy as we expected but their website says there were still 300,000 people there. Over the two weeks they get almost 4.5 million visitors to walk up one narrow street and a park at the end. The lights are amazing and the theme changes every year. It's not christmas lights but all the stores around there are playing christmas carols so feels like xmas anyways.

this is the main street entrance. as usual a camera
can't capture how beautiful it really was.

you can actually give your camera to someone in
japan and they won't steal it. Have to be careful
they're not a foreigner though.

the main display at the park after the first street. This was
huge. about the size of 3 tennis courts i guess.

lost on a mountain!!

2006-11-22T11:17:00.000+09:00

After walking the train trail along the river i noticed some signs that had a course with some waterfalls and viewing spots for the maple leaves. I could hear some other people ahead so thought i should check it out. There were 5 different trails so of course i picked the longest and most difficult. This seems to happen most of the time when you can't read the signs. back in spring i did the same thing at Setsukyo. There was a track leading up a mountain so i thought if there's a track there should be something interesting at the top. I got to the top after about an hour and there was a bench with a lovely view of some green trees that had overgrown the lookout view.

Anyway i didn't know how long this hike was going to be so i made a plan if i didn't start descending again after two hours i would turn around and go back. The climb was pretty difficult. really steep in most parts and lots of switchbacks. It was 8'c but i was sweating like pig and exhausted after about 1 hour. about half way up i came to a lookout and it was well worth it. The view was incredible. Still i didn't know how long it was going to take so couldn't stop for long. Right on two hours i was sitting on the top of the mountain eating onigiri for lunch.

This is the view from the bench i ate my lunch at. It was freezing cold at the top but i was glad i kept going even though most of the way i didn't have clue where i was going.

another view from the top. not as nice a photo but i could see a large city on the horizon. I think maybe takarazuka or kobe.

another cheesy portrait on the way down the mountain.

I love this one. The green, red and yellow gives great contrast.

anway i made it home safely, even though i could hardly walk to the train station. Lesson learnt if you're going to climb a mountain you don't need 4 camera lenses especially when one of them is a 300mm f4 and i really need to get a lighter tripod.

you can see more of the photos at my flickr page.
www.flickr.com/photos/brettinjapan

Takedao: a day in the mountains

2006-11-22T10:44:00.000+09:00

Last week i stumbled across this small onsen village on the internet while looking for places to go and see the autumn leaves. It's about 30mins from home but feels a million miles away from osaka. The train station is actually in a tunnel under the mountains and when i arrived around 7:30am i thought i must have been in the wrong place because i was the only person to get off the train. Reports on the internet said the mountains in the area were at their peak for autumn viewing so i was expecting some more people.

Takedao station. The blur is a rapid express train heading
to shin sanda i think.

The autumn leaves were beautiful and it was nice to take some photos that weren't disected by powerlines for a change. The area is famous for the walking trail where you have to walk along an old train line that follows the river. Along the line there are 8 old train tunnels that you have to walk through. The first few were pretty short so there was enough light but after that most of them are at least a couple of hundred metres and on bends so you can't see the other end and it's totally dark inside. Luckily i spotted on a website you need to bring a torch. I noticed a sign leading to the trail that you need to be careful of bag snatchers in the tunnel. Not comforting when your by yourself carrying around $3000 worth of camera gear.

This is one of the tunnels you have to walk through. This one seemed about 300m and because it was on a bend in the river once you went in about 40m you couldn't see either end of the tunnel.

Here's one of the hidey holes in the middle of tunnel where the bag snatchers apparentley hide out.

I wasn't sure if the fence and piled up railway sleepers meant to stop here but i got some nice photos from the other side of this old bridge so i guess it's all good. I was here bymyself so actually used my remote to take some shots of myself. I'm suprised how well the remote works over a fair distance for $30.

This is a view from the other side of the bridge. The colours didn't really come up as well as i hoped in this photo but it was still a beautiful scene. It was amazing that you can find these places 30mins outside the 2nd biggest city in japan.

here's my attempt at a classic japanese momoji (maple) picture. Pretty bad attempt now that i look closely at the composition but the colours are nice.

This is the other endo of the train trail. the remains of the bridge got taken out in a big flood about 10 years ago so you can't access any of the tunnels past here.

This was one of the first photos i took when i got off the train. It was actually really nice that there was no one else there. i love the reflections in this one. The water was so still and clear that you can see the colours in the reflection.