New Albums

Over the holidays I added 3 albums to my online photo gallery.

(Clicking on the links below will open the album in a new page).

Kyoto
53 images












Shrines & Temples
51 images










Autumn Leaves
28 images

Kamakura

With FC Barcelona due to play in the Club World Cup in Yokohama, I managed to get a game ticket for the big event on 17 December. So I spent the day before the game in Kamakura, a seaside resort town 30 minutes south of Yokohama by train.

There's a bit of everything to suit all kinds of visitors: long narrow streets lined with snack food vendors and shops selling crafts, rustic temples with gardens and cemeteries, bamboo groves, hiking trails with hilltop views, and a one-of-a-kind mammoth buddha statue that is the town's main attraction. Wherever I went, I wasn't far from two or three hawks black kites (see edit) circling above, constantly cawing.

Shimogamo jinja

A visit to Shimogamo jinja shrine in Kyoto last week. It's another World Heritage site worth visiting. I decided to go there after hearing it was the last place in Kansai still good for viewing autumn leaves. There is a small, thinly-wooded area before the temple grounds with many Japanese maple and gingko trees. The Japanese maple trees were a mixture of red and orange, while yellow gingko leaves blanketed the ground. There is also a small stream that was very popular with the many photographers milling about. I used a "vivid" filter setting on my D80 for the first time, with satisfactory results.








The shrine itself isn't like most others; it has a tall, brightly coloured gate and a number of small wooden structures in an enclosed area, including a stage, stream and pond. There is also an area with small mini-shrines for each animal of the Chinese zodiac. The shrine proper hosts a number of shinto ceremonies throughout the year, especially Kyoto's famous Aoi Festival in May as well as a popular New Year's celebration .

Just as I entered the shrine, there filed past a wedding party, with bride and groom in traditional garb. I followed it into an inner courtyard, where it soon disappeared into a huge hall, leaving a neat row of shoes outside.





Coupled with the small wooded area in front of the shrine's entrance, Shimagamo shrine is a striking, peaceful place to visit. It is just 5 minutes from Keihan Demachiyanagi station.

Crash

Flying past Mount Fuji...


It has been a while since I updated ANy FIdelity. That was due to an HDD crash in early November and the following post-crash panic and shock. It took a week to see whether I could get my data recovered (couldn't) and another week to get a new HDD (under warranty thankfully). Then it took another week to scramble back into work catching up to lost time, and yet some more weeks to generally recover from the whole trauma. Don't ask whether I had backed up all my Nikon photos taken since September. Bloody 'ell, it's painful.

So just the thought of heading out to take some pictures -- when I was finally caught up with work and had some free time -- made me cringe. I didn't want to be reminded of my loss, which amounted to about 2500 pictures. Isn't it always ironic when computer train-wrecks occur? Since I had never suffered a crash before, I had become complacent and not as prudent as I should have been when it came to backing up data. I used to back up all photos once a month (some would say that isn't being careful enough) but due to a busy September I didn't back up. Then I was planning to do two month's worth of backup on the first Sunday of November. The night before, the erstwhile-trusty Powerbook ground to a halt with some awful gut-wrenching noises. The next day, just when I had planned to back-up, it was dead. Bloody, painfully ironic.

So that shot of Mount Fuji from the airplane in late October was my last for a while.

Two weeks ago I ventured out, making a short trip to Arashiyama, a popular small resort town near Kyoto. It was a weekday, but the crowds I had hoped to avoid were there in force, as it is a popular place for viewing autumn leaves in November-December. In April it is just as popular for the cherry blossoms.

Arashiyama

Some attractive gardens are situated in a number of the local temples and shrines, including one that is a world heritage site. Cherry and Japanese maple trees abound. A crowded shopping street is packed with souvenir shops and restaurants. To get away from the crowds, there is a lovely short hike you can take along the nearby Oi river; if you can afford a riverboat, take that instead. Either way allows you nice views of the steep river banks covered in autumn foliage. Drivers use long poles in the shallow water to push their crafts along, sometimes latching onto boats with clever vendors selling hot drinks. Smaller two-person dinghies can be rented, too. I just ambled around for a few hours, but there are quiet inns and hot springs to entice travelers wishing to spend more time.







Arashiyama is about 30 minutes by train from Kyoto station, to the north-west. From Osaka station, it is a combined trip of shortly more than an hour.

Akame 48 Waterfalls

Another blue-skied autumn day. I was up early and decided to get some fresh air.

An hour on the Kintetsu train from Namba to Akameguchi followed by a short bus ride brought me to Akamedaki, just across the border into Mie prefecture. It's famous for its hiking trail dubbed "48 Waterfalls" (Akame Shiju-Hattaki) although there aren't half as many as that -- more like just a dozen or so. But it is a very pleasant hike, and I managed to get a lot of pictures (see gallery). The path follows a meandering stream studded with moss-covered boulders and flanked by tall trees. It is about three kilometres long, gently climbing through the Taki-gawa valley alongside a tributary of the Nabari river.


From the bus stop a short walk past a row of five or six restaurants and souvenir shops brings you to a salamander centre, which also serves as the entrance to the trail. Amphibians from all over the world can be found on display here, alongside the giant salamanders that call the Taki-gawa valley home.


The first waterfall greeted me shortly after starting the hike, past a bend in the stream. It and many others that follow are just textbook waterfall shots (like the one above) -- all you need is a tripod and an accurate exposure at a shutter speed of 1/2 or 1/3 seconds. For me the most exciting shots were around some small rapids on a flat part near the end of the hike, where white water swirls around moss-covered rocks. Nature is on your side, as there are many convenient spots to set up your tripod.


Nature also rewards you for not giving up. The farther you go, the more shots there are, the best being towards the end of the path. Sure, the large waterfalls are nice shots, but they are almost cliche. Looking around carefully you can see many other things to photograph, like the aforementioned rapids. I almost made it to the the end of the path (where there was a magnificent waterfall, apparently) but decided to turn around because I had spent way too long meandering along the rapids. The last bus was leaving at 4:10pm and I had to rush back down to make it.


The Akame Shiju-Hattake falls was a welcome reprieve from Osaka. As I rode back on the train I recalled how struck I was by the thick green vegetation that never let up for the entire way, and how the sound of birds gave way to the roar of rushing water as I walked upstream. The most indelible impression was how autumn had just begun to make its mark on the surrounding forest. At times a gust of wind would loosen the branches and a swirl of red and yellow leaves floated in the air before landing in the water. A touch of magic to ease the swirl here in Osaka.

There are 39 pictures in the "Akame 48 Falls" gallery on my photo site.