I just posted a number of photos here of the bridge I described in a previous entry. It was quite interesting to see such an enormous construction up close, and the perspective formed by the structures was a visual treat.
Category: Japan 2011 #2
We returned to Japan in September 2011
Walking in Kyoto
I just posted a few photos from our walk in Kyoto, in the neighborhood roughly between the Yasaka shrine and the Kyomizudera temple. I didn’t take that many photos that day, having photographed the area pretty extensively on previous visits. It’s a remarkably picturesque area, though, so I had to pull out the camera a few times. The Flickr photo set is here.
Photos of Tokyo (Mostly) Posted
I’ve put up the first batch of photos from our recent trip. These were taken during our first full day, when we made a whirlwind trip to Tokyo and back via shinkansen. We saw our friend Rafael, did some shopping, visited our usual haunts in Asakusa, and had lunch at Ippudo, the ramen restaurant with incredible gyoza. The photo set is here and there are brief captions, but a couple of things bear special mention. (All of the following photos link to Flickr, so you can click them to see larger versions.)
Souvenir
We’re home now. My intent is to post a number of photos and some anecdotes and reflections during the coming days; we’ll see whether I actually find the time and energy to do that, along with catching up on work, etc. Here’s a snapshot of my synth-geek souvenir:
I first heard YMO about 30 years ago and as long as I’ve been going to Japan I’ve wanted to buy one of their CDs while there. Yeah, I know: physical media is obsolete, I could have just ordered the CD from Amazon, etc. Nonetheless, it was a good deal of fun to flip through the YMO selection in the CD shop in the Porta mall next to Kyoto Station, and buy one from a polite young woman who I think spoke next to no English.
The Somewhat Odd
Big thanks to Rafael for bringing me a couple of bottles of this when we met in Tokyo:
That is a bottle of sparkling green tea. Yes, green tea with bubbles in it. It’s a little strange; something seems to have happened to the flavor in the carbonation process. Tracie’s reaction was one loudly voiced obscenity. I guess I’m not surprised that it’s disappearing from the market, according to Rafael.
He also brought me a bottle of sparkling soy milk. I’m trying to summon the courage to try that one this evening.
Heian Jingu Gardens
We went for a stroll through the gardens at Heian Jingu (Shrine) yesterday. These gardens are known for their spectacular cherry blossoms in the spring. We thought it would be interesting to see them at a different time of year. It turned out that they’re sort of between seasons right now. There aren’t many flowers blooming other than water lillies, and few leaves are just starting to change color. It’s a beautiful place any time, though, and it was a pleasure that there were only a few other people around.
Here’s Something You Don’t See Very Often
That’s the inside of a huge suspension bridge. The underside of the road itself is at the top of the photo. The two flat areas stretching into the distance are service roads and walkways. The bridge looks like this from a more common vantage point:
The first photo was taken just beyond the far side of the huge concrete structure, which must be the anchor for the mainland end of the bridge. The bridge extends from Kobe to an island, and has the longest central section of any suspension bridge. You can read about it at Wikipedia here and, if you happen to ever be in Kobe, you can go to the visitor’s center and see it from the same vantage that we did. Big thanks go to our friends the Makinos for taking us there. Sid, a professional tourist guide, really has a knack for finding interesting things to visit. Tracie and I kept having flashbacks to the bridge-crossing level in Half Life 2 while there.
Kyoto has Black Butterflies
While walking through the neighborhood between Kyomizudera and the Yasaka shrine this morning, we were startled by several large, black butterflies. The first time I saw one I caught only a glimpse of it, and I thought it might be a bat or a small bird (although, yes, it was the wrong time of day for it to be a bat). They’re at least as large as a monarch, completely black, and have unusually shaped rear wings. They passed by fairly quickly so I didn’t have an opportunity to photograph them, and I’m not having much luck with Google image searches, which is too bad because they’re quite strange-looking.
Greetings from Kyoto
We’re back in Kyoto for about a week. We arrived yesterday evening (local time) and got up early today for a whirlwind trip to Tokyo to see our friend Rafael. I’m about to crash from jet-lag so I’ll just cut it short here and preset this photo of Fuji-san, shot from the window of the shinkansen on the way to Tokyo.
(Getting a photo like this is mostly a matter of luck, because the view is frequently obscured by buildings, power lines, etc. All you can do is use an auto-winder mode and hope that at least one exposure works.)