Well, Spring isn't just about perfectly clear, blue skies, and pretty flowers. Those flowers need fuel from somewhere - and a significant chunk of said fuel fell from the heavens today. All day.
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Coasting to the coast
This is Part II of my two-part photo-journal related to a fieldwork trip in Fukui (Part I).
Previously, I described our journey from central Fukui towards the coast at Cape Echizen. It's not a popular tourist destination - there's not really "anything of interest" here. That's probably why I like the area so much. It's quite simply just a part of Japan far away from the neons, anime, and hustle-bustle of city life, or the pseudo theme-park of geisha, temples, and sushi.
Here's a map of the approximate route and its relation to Honshu:
When I left you last, we were facing a rather long, narrow tunnel which passed straight through the mountain to the other side. Upon entering the tunnel, I had to check I had the headlights on - I couldn't really see anything at all, as it took a good minute or two for my eyes to adjust to the complete darkness. Popping out of the other side, we were in for a treat...
There was a very small village in the narrow valley. Just a few small clouds were scattered overhead.
Over the next 20 minutes, we were subjected to strong winds, rain, sleet, snow, and hail. The works! However, once we reached the coast, we caught another break between the clouds.
See the rain in the not-too-far distance, with the sun bursting through?
Less than 2km from the coast, there's ~50cm of snow covering the ground. At the coast, it felt almost like spring - if it weren't for the biting cold wind.
We'd reached our destination, and got to work. I still have a few photos to show from the trip, but this concludes Part II.
I hope you enjoyed the ride through the cold mountains, preferably from the comfort of a nice warm room.
Uncharacteristically wet
The weather forecast for the next 7 days alludes to more rain, cloudy days, and generally a rather British-style autumn. It'll be November soon! October last year was much nicer, and I am hoping that this rain system dissipates in the near future, as I want to take photos of the amazing autumn leaves.
Tire-phoons
A double-typhoon last week has summed up quite a tiresome October. The strong wind coupled with the opening of the heavens, along with a few other factors, has meant that we've spent most of the week, and weekend indoors.
It's been a week since I last posted, and we've had two typhoons in that time. That's more than "normal" for this time of year.
Of note, I made a slight change to the way in which I operate my camera. All of my cameras to date, including my current phone, activate autofocus upon the half-depression of the shutter button. This means that if the autofocus point is set to the middle of the frame (as it typically is) then I have to keep the focus button depressed if I want to slightly reframe the image (e.g. move the focal-point/focus of the image slightly out of centre). No problem; it's what I'm used to.
The change I've made is to have my camera always in manual focus mode, but with the AEL (Auto-Exposure Lock) button set to Autofocus (toggle/hold). This means that I can manually turn the focus ring, and fire off a shot... or I can have autofocus as the press of a button. A side effect of this setup is that if I take multiple shots of the same object, e.g. a car moving through the frame as it drives past me, the camera will not reset its focus position (and I will not have to worry about half-depressing the shutter). The result is that photographs can be fired off much faster, without hunting autofocus. It takes some getting used to, but it's been an enjoyable change so far.
The internet is full of chatter regarding the upcoming Sony A7(R) cameras. I have updated my "camera musings" page on the gear section of my website, with some recent thoughts on the matter.
The weather seems to have improved, and this marks the end to this tedious and tiresome tyranny of typhoons.
A weekend in the Kinki region - Nara
On the Saturday, we spent our time in the rainy vicinity of Kyoto. On Sunday morning, we decided to brave the [now torrential] rain, and take a trip down south, to Nara. Unfortunately, what is supposed to be a 45 minute journey ended up being almost 2 hours due to the weather. It was almost like being in the UK! No matter. By the time we arrived the rain had almost stopped, and we set off walking around this peaceful city.
Nara is famously full of deer. They're wild, but very docile. Some even bow for the tourists (they expect some food for their efforts). Unfortunately, there were too many rowdy tourists to enjoy the area near the main temple, Toudaiji. People were shouting, posing strangely with the animals, and generally acting in a manner which I did not think was fitting for the scene.
After we'd seen the impressive Toudaiji, we saw in which direction the crowds were headed, and turned 180° and started walking. I'm very glad we did. We could finally relax, as there were almost no people up in the hills, though we did "meet" one Chinese tourist group.
The rain made everything feel extremely lush, as if anyone caught taking a quiet nap would be consumed by the vegetation. Moss covered almost everything, which was really quite beautiful.
We walked from the temples in the north of Nara, around to the eastern edge. At this point, we were elated when the sun split two clouds overhead and we were greeted with our first proper shadow of the day. I ran down to get a photo of this bucket, as it was the closest object at the time. The sun then disappeared, after just a few seconds.
I mentioned the deer. Well, up in the hills they don't seem to pester the (few) tourists, and generally go about their business. This made for an all-round nicer experience, more in keeping with the deer we saw in Miyajima. Unlike the deer in Miyajima (click to see them), these ones had little white 'bambi' spots (which may mean they were fawns, but I couldn't tell you for sure). We did see a few fawns, though. And they were too cute for words!
The journey back to Kyoto wasn't anywhere near as bad as the outward journey. We took a different train line, and made a B-line straight for a shrine I really wanted to take a photo of. It's rather famous. It has thousands upon thousands of bright red Tori gates ascending high into the mountain. I'd envisioned getting there around magic hour, but there basically wasn't one. By the time we got there, it was pitch black, but still quite beautiful. Another benefit of visiting a bit later, was that we were the only people there at this time, and so could take our time and really relax on our final night.
Well, that concludes our weekend trip to the Kinki Region of Japan. I hope you've enjoyed the photo-journal, even though it's a little photo-heavy. If you have any comments or questions, I'd love to hear them.
I recommend a journey to Kyoto and Nara. I think that even if the weather is pretty atrocious, it's possible to have a great time and even the rain doesn't detract from the beauty to be found in this historic area of Japan. See you next time!
A weekend in the Kinki region - Tokyo to Kyoto
A while ago, we planned a city-break to Kyoto in the Kinki Region of central Japan. The Kinki Region, also known as Kansai, is a popular tourist destination for Japanese and non-Japanese alike. Much like the Kanto region in the east, the Kinki/Kansai region is not an administrative unit, but rather a cultural and historical one. It's famous for food, culture, Geisha, and temples. It's not famous for rain - but it should be if our weekend was anything to go by!
I've not taken a shinkansen (bullet train) for over a year, so I was rather excited. As we pulled out [exactly on schedule, naturally] from Tokyo Station, the intensity of the rain increased until it was streaming sideways across the window. I wonder what the view from the front window was like...
I took the Nozomi class shinkansen and arrived in Kyoto after two hours of ultra-smooth, ultra-fast train travel.
Directly outside Kyoto station is the bus terminal, which I thoroughly recommend using to navigate around the city in a timely fashion. Walking everywhere means you will not see everywhere. Some temples are pretty close to each other, but definitely look into getting the bus to cover larger distances with ease.
Our accommodation was in the northern Sakyo Ward, which is around 30 minutes on the 206 bus from Kyoto station. The flat fare of ¥220/person (pay when you get off - and please have your change ready!) seems pretty reasonable.
After almost three years in Japan, we've experienced our fair share of Engrish, but this really has to take the cake. I have no idea what it means. Whatever it means, Charlotte has until 10am tomorrow morning...
I'll post some photos from the weekend in subsequent posts. I took far too many to cram into one post, even after some rather ruthless culling. I hope you enjoyed the start of this journey - stay tuned!
Focussing on falling rain
These two photos were taken within a few seconds of each other at the top of my work building, outside in the rain. In the top image, I focussed on the horizon. In the lower image, I manually focussed on a plane of falling rain, in an attempt to catch the raindrops mid-flight.
After just dodging the rain this morning, I wanted to keep dry. I just about achieved the look I was after with these photos, but I didn't have long. Soon after the lower shot was taken, I hurried inside to the safety of my building, protected from the lashing rain of the storm outside.
Narrowly missed the rain...
When I left the house this morning, I saw enormous storm clouds over central Tokyo and heard the rumblings of thunder. I knew rain was forecast for later in the day, but thought I'd be safe until tonight. When I emerged out of the underground network closer to work (in the centre of Tokyo), it was as if the city had been through a car wash. It must have been 100% humidity, even at 32℃. The ground was soaked, and the trees were looking greener than ever.
Showers
Showers are the theme for June. Rain showers, and bathroom showers. It's almost constantly raining at the moment, and is predicted to continue raining for as long as weather forecasts dare... erm, forecast. The rain's fine, really. I am from the UK, after all. I lived in Manchester for 7 years, which is famous for its near-constant rain. It's the elevated temperatures and humidity that are the killer in Japan during tsuyu, the rainy season.
You wake up, sticky. You shower. Within 5 minutes of leaving an air-conditioned room, you want a shower. You arrive at work, feeling as if you've jogged the entire way wearing a polyester shell suit. You go through the entire day wishing you were in a desert, or some kind of arid landscape. Occasionally you think back 6 months, when you were wearing moisturiser due to the severe dryness, a scarf, a duffel coat, and shivering in the street. Rushing into the relative warmth of the trains with their heated seats. How on earth can this be the same place?