Week 11.
Read MoreWEEK 11
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snow
The White Forest
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As coronavirus, or COVID-19 if you’re fancy, sweeps the world, there’s little to do other than stay inside and refresh instagram. Or is there? You could panic buy toilet roll, perhaps. People seem to have a much faster metabolism than I do, or there are uses for toilet roll to which I am not yet accustomed. You could go on a cruise to escape, but there’s a chance that someone on-board has the disease and then your ship will need to be quarantined off the coast of some island until they decide to release everyone, like a new Sean of the Dead film.
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Snow, in May...?
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April had a few showers, but Easter weekend was +20ºC. Down to 2ºC with snow and hail in May… bring on June!
Read MoreiPhone 7 panorama mode
Das Fellhorn
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I know why it's called the Fellhorn.
Read MoreRoses are Red
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Violets are blue, and Tokyo is white...
Read MoreThis temple is practically outside our place
Yomping through the Snow
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The now infamous Honshu Blizzard of 2014 was responsible for umpteen tonnes of snow dumped across Tokyo and regions beyond. We decided to lay low, and stay indoors (except when we went to get dinner). The following morning, we were greeted with a sky of brilliant blue, and a ground of bright white.
Read MoreEverything's white!
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My goodness. It was -3ºC at lunchtime (-12ºC with windchill - and it is chilly). Around 6-12cm of snow has fallen over the course of the day here in Tokyo - with the rest of the Japanese mainland (Honshu) also experiencing huge amounts of snowfall.
Read MoreSnow in Tokyo
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We've had a very uncharacteristic haze the last couple of days; with visibility lower than I've ever witnessed in Tokyo - even Beijing was cleaner! Contrary to what many may think, this is just Tokyo sitting in its own filth, due to a lack of wind; high pressure, and a peak temperature of 17ºC.
Read MoreCoasting to the coast
in Blog, photo-journal
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.
Slipping down
I always love a bit of rust
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.
日本海 ｜ The Sea of Japan
See the rain in the not-too-far distance, with the sun bursting through?
I'm impressed with the new FE 55/1,8 Sonnar lens
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.
Rain coming!
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.
Four Seasons in a Day
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Every time I've visited Echizen Province 「越前国」there's been some kind of precipitation. The region is fairly central to the main island of Honshu, north of Kyoto. There are no bullet trains going directly to the area, so one must change first at Maibara 「米原駅」to a more local train.
Out of the window of the Hikari bullet train
Due to the rather extreme topography of the region, there's something of a microclimate in Fukui. The mountains separate the land into different blocks, which may have their own weather system at any given moment. This made for a rather adventurous voyage from central Fukui to the coast at Cape Echizen 「越前岬」, our final destination.
Rather you than me
After collecting the hire car, we decided to escape the central city area with its generic eateries, and take our chances finding something more "local" and hopefully a little more authentic. We were in luck. We found an interesting looking Soba place - an extremely old building covered in melting snow.
Some light reading during lunch
After wolfing down our soba noodles, we hit the road. Cutting through the narrow mountain roads, covered in snow, was really very good practice for my drifting, erm... I mean driving, skills.
The little Nissan March did rather well
We experienced hail, snow, rain... and clear blue skies on our journey to the coast.
At our highest elevation, the view was quite magnificent.
We had driven over an hour from Fukui city, and only had to cross one final mountain before reaching the our goal...
Can't go over it, can't go around it...
End of Part I
Walking in a Winter Wonderland
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We returned last night from an impromptu trip to the Japanese Alps. There's no snow in Tokyo, but there was no shortage of snow here. I hope you enjoy the photos - there are more than normal! (as usual, click on a photo to fill the window)
As you will have spotted from the first photograph, we were fortunate enough to see wild snow monkeys (Japanese macaques) around the natural hot springs steaming out of the volcanic mountainside.
Is it safe in there?!?
It's so hot!
Escaping the ice and snow, we boarded a series of trains, including the almighty bullet train, back to Tokyo.
Merry Christmas, everyone!
What a difference a day makes...
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The Restaurant │ NEX-7 & Sigma 30mm F2.8 │ 30mm, ISO 100, f/3.5, 1/50, -0.3EV I took the above shot yesterday evening, after a lovely long walk around Kichijoji. It's the outside of a restaurant, and is really quite beautiful. It's been done in the style of the old edo wood carvings and paintings, which I absolutely love. It really caught my eye, and pleasantly reminded me I am in Japan.
Today was the Japanese "coming of age day", which is effectively a "bank holiday" (aka a day off) here in Japan. Seijin no hi (成人の日) is a Japanese holiday held annually on the second Monday of January (incidentally this year, it's also the birthday of a very good friend of mine). It is held in order to congratulate and encourage all those who have reached the age of majority (20 years old (二十歳 - hatachi) over the past year, and to help them realize that they have become adults. For me, and my co-workers, it was another day at work. Instead, it a wasn't another day of work, because Tokyo had the heaviest snowfall in the last decade, at over 10cm. I was not dressed for this...
and I am glad to be in the warm right now!