5-Star Photos

As today (20th October 2017) marks 10 years since my first trip here, I decided to go through all my photos and make a short collection.

However, instead of only finding about 10-20, I ended up picking about 300. That’s a few too many, so I went through it again and culled it down a little.

Here are my 5-star photos from the last 10 years.

 

If you’re into any of these and would like to use them somehow, please drop me a comment and we can do some kind of creative commons thing.

 

This is one of the heritage-listed Gassho-Zukuri huts in Shirakawa-go. It’s at least a few hundred years old. Taken in Summer

Lantern Floating (Touro Nagashi) is the end of the festival of the dead (Obon) In Japan. The tradition is that at the beginning of Obon the spirits of family members return to the household, and there are a number of traditional services that you do in this period. At the end of Obon, you float a lantern with the family member’s name on it down the river and off into the wild blue yonder. Now, for pollution purposes, they burn all of them before the river gets too crowded.

I think that Japan’s major cities are much prettier by night. This is one of the canals in Osaka (I think). The colours made me think of a kind of Cyberpunk vibe.

Another Cyberpunk nightscape – this one is from teh middle of Shinjuku. I’ve spent most of my time in Japan in Shinjuku. I like it as it has a great mix of business, formal dining, party town and every kind of shop you can imagine.

I’ve been trying to capture a perfect sunset for years. This was on a weekend when I was in Japan between business meetings. I was on my own so I managed to have enough time to set myself up properly. However, I’ll admit that there was also a fair amount of luck in getting this shot; the next day there was a blizzard and I could barely get out of the hotel. Taken at Mt Zao

This is Toshima-en in Tokyo. It’s an amusement park that is about half an hour out of the city centre, so it’s not overly crowded. In winter they had an illumination exhibit, so we dragged our kids out there at 1900. It was great, but if you’re visint you should really go in the day and stay until the evening orz.

I was stalking this guy for about 15 minutes, but he never flew – just walked around the ground for a bit. This was with my old 100-400 lens, which weighed about 2kg, so it was getting pretty tiring. But I guess it was worth it in the end. Taken on Miyajima Island

This is the world-heritage Torii-gate of Ikutsushima Shrine on Miyajima Island, Hiroshima. It is set on a tidal flat, so when the tide is high it looks like it is floating in the water.

This is the Kumano-nachi Taisha shrine in Kii-Katsuura, Wakayama. It’s a long way from anywhere so there aren’t too many tourists (unlike a lot of the other places in this list). It is set next to the Nagisa Falls, one of the biggest waterfall chains in Japan. It’s a great place for hiking and there are a number of shrines and temples on the mountain.

In case you’re not aware, this is the Hiroshima Atom Bomb Dome. It is the building that was incredibly close to the hypocentre of the Hiroshima bomb. TO be honest, as a kid I always kind of joked about the dome, but to actaully go there is a haunting experience, and if you come to Japan I suggest that you pay Hiroshima a visit.

Probably one of my favorite photos from Kyoto, which again is an unmissable part of Japan. This is part fo the Kiyomizu-drea temple complex, but this is one of the less famous buildings. The main building is the one that overhangs a cliff, where it is said that if you jump off and survive then your wishes will be granted. Even though there are guards there on the lookout for jumpers, I think that something like 13 people have jumped in the past 50 years…

Another of hte Gassho-Zukuri buildings in Shirakawa-go. I erally liked the refletion that I got in this photo; we were waiting in line to get into a little museum and I was passing the time taking snaps of the area.

A night view of Shirakawa-go. This was the setting for Higurashi no Naku Koro Ni (When the Cicada Cry); a psychological thriller that was one of the main catalysts for me to really start learning Japanese and to actually get myself to Japan.

A field of Cosmo flowers on Nakajima, Fukuoka. This is a whole island that is set up with nothing but flower beds. You have to take a ferry to get there, and they always have at least one of these massive flowerbeds in bloom (the others are being planted with flowers from the next season). Japan is one of the few places crazy enough to do something like this.