Luminarie!!

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!!

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

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.

I HATE!!!!!! F#%&!NG MONKEYS!!!!!!!!!

I went to Mino NP again last week to see if the autum leaves had changed yet. It's close to my house so it's easy to get to and is one of the more famous places in japan for autumn. I went with a friend and as we were walking back down the mountain a monkey started running at her and snatched her bag from her hands. Now comes the worst part!! the monkey stole my F"#$%#"ng BEER!!!! Everytime i tried to get the bag back it started to growl at me and was foaming at the mouth. I couldn't find a stick and i thought if i kick it maybe it will latch onto my leg. I already had trust issues with monkeys but this last episode is it. DIE YOU HAIRY MUD BUTTS!!!!!!

here's the theiving little bastard.

Daisen Day 2:

We stayed at Daisen mountain on Saturday night but arrived too late to see anything because of a little run in with a radar gun and a smurf on a motorcycle. The hotel had a beautiful big outdoor onsen which was perfect after climbing the mountain a few hours before. My legs were aching but after some cold beer a soak in the onsen and some beautiful tuna sashimi for dinner i felt like gold. The next morning we went to Daisenji temple and were lucky enough to see the sitting statue of Amida and were actually allowed to take photos inside the temple on that day.




next we went to the base of the mountain. It's known as mini mount Fuji because of the shape and is often used in movies to look like mount fuji. Early in the morning was really hazy so couldn't really see the autumn leaves clearly but the mountain was still amazing.

It looks really small here but from a distance looks huge. It's not actually
a single mountain but part of a range. From different views it actually looks
like a camel this being the head and the next picture being the back.





This is what we came her to see. One of the most beautiful sights
i've ever seen. There was a traffic jam all the way around the mountain
as it was the peak viewing weekend for Koyo (autumn leaves)

for our last meal we had lamb yakiniku. It was sooooooo good.
i'd forgotten how good lamb tastes. I didn't eat for about 12 hours
after i'd finished here. Could hardly walk out. I hadn't realised but
this was the first time i'd eaten lamb in over a year. Can't wait to have
some lamb chops on the bbq when i go home in a few months.

Daisen

About three weeks ago i went on a road trip with Mika and her parents for the long weekend to Daisen to see the Autumn leaves. It was about a 4hr drive from Amagasaki and the countryside along the way was beautiful. Going away with Mika's parents is great. Always lots of nice food that i can never afford to buy myself. The first day we spent at their holiday house in Okayama because her parents wanted to play golf.

Along the way. the japanese country side is really beautiful
this time of year. Beautiful streams with bright red, yellow and orange
momoji for the backdrop.

Early saturday morning we headed to Tottori prefecture and visited Mitoku-san (mitoku mountain) to see Nageiredo at the top of the mountain. the story is that En-no-Gyoja threw three lotus flower petals and one of them landed on Mitoku-san and was a sign that it was a good place for buddha. The building is 520m above see level and is perched on a cliff. Apparently modern engineers still can't work out how it was constructed and seeing it makes you think the same. Even now it would be a difficult feat but as it was built over 1300 years ago i have no idea how it was possible. Legend has it the En-no-Gyoja ordered the it be constructed at the base of the mountain and used unexplainable power to throw the temple to it's current spot.



The climb up the mountain was pretty challenging. Mika's mother has climbed it a few times but didn't let on how difficult it was. As we entered our shoes were checked to make sure they were suitable before we were allowed to start climbing. Most of the way you had to pull yourself up the mountain using exposed tree roots and ropes and chains.

this was one of the spots that i felt comfortable
to get my camera out and take a photo. There were
quite a few signs on the way showing were people had fallen
and died.

Mika pretending to be indiana jones or as
they say over here "i'm indy jonesu"

this was one of the temples on the way up. I think there
was about four. Mika's father told her that the floor is slippery with
socks so she wouldn't let go of the building. Over the front edge of the
veranda is a cliff straight down the mountain.

Koyasan

two weekends ago we went to Koyasan, a small town on the top of Mount Koya. I've been wanting to go there before even coming to Japan after reading about it in the lonely planet guide. It was founded 12 centuries ago by Kobo Daishi for studying Esoteric Buddhism. It was about a 3 hr trip from Amagasaki on 3 trains and the subway and finally a cable car to the top of the mountain. We left home around 5:30am, which i think is the earliest i've woken up since living in japan.

as you can see my face doesn't like the early hours but i
think Mika probably smiles in her sleep.

here's the cable car. There were a couple of sumo wrestlers on here with us. They must have been famous because they had two photographers with them and everyone was staring at them. Mika didn't know who they were and i didn't care. was just worried about the extra 500kg of weight in the cable car.

this is part of Danjo Garan. the pagoda in the background was huge. these temples are still used by monks for training as part of the shingon buddhism sect. in the second temple there was a monk reading from a sutra, which added a nice atmosphere in the early morning.

the main reason we went Koyasan was because it's the first place in Kansai that the autumn leaves change colour. This is around Okunoin. it's a cemetary with about 500,000 head stones. It's become popular here for a company to have a site. The coffee company has a huge coffee mug as it's company headstone. Most of japans famous and influential people in history have a place here. by far the busiest cemetary i've ever been to. at the end of it all is a huge temple that is filled with 200,00 lanterns, no photos allowed though. It was the most amazing temple i've visited in japan. it was surrounded by an ancient cedar forest and a small river ran alongside the temple.

Mino National Park

Last week i went for another hike at Mino National Park to see how far away the change in leaves was. A few places the maple leaves had turned but it's probably about another 3 -4 weeks away. It was a beautiful day and mino is always a nice change from Osaka. The creek that runs all the way along path is full of fish and the air actually smells like air. About half way up is a small temple called Ryanji temple is the place where i took photos of the yamabushi festival earlier in the year. I spent about an hour here looking around and taking some photos. After that i walked up to the waterfall and sat around for a few hours in the sun and listened to some music. perfect afternoon.

here's the guide map for the part of the area. see if you can notice
anything wrong here. Just think politically incorrect. maybe click on the picture
to see it bigger.

these small bells hang from the roof of the temple and look really amazing
when it rains. Each little one fills up then overflows and fills the next. not sure
what they mean though.

This is part of the temple complex. This one is a 9 exposure
HDR.

Here's the local Yakuza boss keeping an eye on things at the waterfall.
Or maybe he's just seeing miami vice to many times. thankyou Don Johnson.

Horyuji - it's like history

two sunday's ago we went to Horyuji to see the worlds oldest wooden building. We got there pretty early, around 7am i think. It's on the way to Nara, so about 1hr on the train. From the station it was a 20min walk to the temple grounds. Luckily we accidentally found the tourist information centre on the way and found out we could get a guide for free. I can't remember our guides name but he only usually works a couple of days a month so we were lucky to get the only english guide for the tour. He was a really nice old guy who goes to Nova (big english school) once a week and wanted to use his english. He took us on a tour for about three hours and i learnt a lot about japanese history and buddhism. It was a bit strange for mika going sightseeing in japan with a japanese english tour guide but his english was a mix of english and japanese so was easy for her to understand. I think they both forgot they were japanese for a while because they started having a conversation in english.

anyway Ikaruga temple was built first built in 607 along with a buddha statue, Yakushi Nyorai (arrival as a healer). The temple and budha was built by prince Shotoku and empress suiko who was actually the first female emperor /empress of japan. Prince shotoku is famous for being able to listen to 10 conversations at the same time and give the correct answer to each. Useful if you want to have multiple wives.

here's me and mika outside the temple grounds. above my head you can see the top of the pagoda (Goju no to) which is the oldest five story pagoda in japan. The pagoda is the most important structure in a budhist temple and is the place where the relics of a buddha are enshrined. the pointy thing at the top weighs 7 tonnes and is supported by one pole.

Here's the same view without me and mika. As you can see there are a lot of school kids here. Apparently 80% of high school kids in japan do a school trip here. to the right of the pagoda is the main gate to the temple complex. itw as built in 711. It has two large guards standing either side. we found out that one always has its mouth open and the other shut. its because the sound ahh is the sound that starts the word day and mmmm is the sound that starts the word for night. so you have a day and night watchmen. to the right you can see the roof of horyu which is the temple built in 607.

again this is the pagoda goju no to which. there were some amazing statues inside but of course no photos allowed. This pagoda is known to have a femine form because it tapers from top to bottom so is supposed to be more beautiful. i guess tapers is a nice way of saying big ass.

here is Kondo (main hall) built in 607. Inside was amazing with many clay statues. the pine trees in front have been capped because a few years ago there was a typhoon heading towards the area and people were afraid of a foreign tree falling on them.

Amagasaki City Festival

This one is from about a week ago. We'd been seeing footage of this festival on TV for weeks but couldn't find out any information about when it was happening. Luckily Mika's mum saw a poster near her work and let us know. In the afternoon there was all the normal stalls you have at a city festival. Lots of toffee apples, fairy floss, beer and hot chips. At japanese festivals they always have a stall where you can catch goldfish. Not sure why but it's popular. There was also a tank full of eels that you could pay a couple of hundred yen ($2) and you get to keep it. Japanese people love to eat eel.

Here's mika at the chocolate fountain. I had beer and chips.

Typical festival, cost 500 yen for a beer.

This is a just a few of the floats from the festival. I think there was around 16 or 18 all up. Basically they run into each other until one of them breaks or someone dies. Apparently someone got caught under one a few years ago and got crushed to death. It's mostly young guys with way too much testosterone and not enough sex getting over excited and trying to hurt each other. Makes for good entertainment though.

Toyono

Early last week was a national holiday so Mika had a day off so we decided to go and see the cosmos in full bloom. We had some visitors coming that night so we only wanted to go somewhere close so we could get back in time. The guidebook didnt say anything about the 1hr bus trip up the mountain. So after a 30min train ride then the 1hr bus trip it was almost time to head home. Toyono is a rural district in moutains to the north of osaka. At the start of autumn its famous for the millions of comsos in full bloom. It was a really nice area and i wish we had some more time to have a look around. There were lots of farms and very old traditional houses. anyway still had time for lunch and took some photos.

this is taken with the 60mm micro mika's father lent me but saddely

it's been returned now :-( (click on the image to get a close up)

This was taken smack in the middle of the day. The sky was as clear as
as i've ever seen it. One of the things i love about my new D80 is if you're
carefull you can take a really nicely exposed pic even at the worst time of the day.

Tera Machi, Amagasaki

Last week i decided to go on a bike ride to visit a few local spots. About 20mins ride from our apartment is a place called teramachi and is an area that has 11 temples all on the one street. I went in the middle of the day so no great photos but will head back soon late in the afternoon. really interesting place and there's a lot of really old homes and building in the area also.

I was just playing around with lighting effect here.

This is the "rose of sharon" a symbol of Japanese temples along with Hydrangea.

Yoshino

Here's a few photos from the day after my hike up Omine-san with Mika's father. After waking around 10am we had to check out of the hotel and did some sightseeing around Dorogawa, the town where the hotel was. We visited a local shrine and a suspension bridge that was quite big and offered a nice view of the town. Dorogawa is a really nice rural town and full of inns and onsens. Seems to be the wives stay at an onsen while the husband climbs the "mens only" omine mountain.

After Dorogawa we went to Yoshino, a place that i've wanted to visit since coming to Japan. It's the most famous Cherry blossom viewing area with something like 30,000 cherry blossom trees. It's also the home of Kinpusenji, one of the most important buddhist temples in japan and centre of shugendo, a sect of buddhism the is based around mountain worship.

click on the images to see them large

These four are from Dorogawa. The first one was strange to come across. they were taking it in turns standing under the waterfall and screaming at each other. The second is Mika and her parents on the suspension bridge. the third is a photo of Dorogawa from the suspension bridge. The last is my new shirt. I went through all my clothes on the hike because it was so sweaty so needed some new clothes. It's a hand painted picture en no gyoja http://arvigarus.bravehost.com/history_005.htm.

just a few random pics from the temple at Dorogawa.

These four are at Kinpusenji, Yoshino. I'm not exactly sure what the second one is. Mika's father had a miniature one that he would shake while doing prayers. The reason i took this photo is because you can see in the third photo Mika's grandfathers name is written on the monument (bottom left name) . Pretty impressive considering this is one of the most famous temples in japan. Last is our lunch. Cold soba and sushi and of course some nice cold beer.