Back in the States

It's been about a week since we returned home.  After the day-trip to Nara, we followed up with a trip to Hiroshima where we visited the A-Bomb Dome/Memorial and Park, and later, a ferry boat trip to Miyajima Island - spectacular scenery and cool, crisp sea air on an otherwise hot humid day.  

Spent Friday and Saturday on short trips to nearby Nagahama and Hikone and finishing up class work including the construction of a photo book - from scratch!

Basically, we selected 6 photos that were printed on a 6 x 24-inch piece of photo matte paper that was sized and marked to be folded up accordion-style and then bound between two thick cardboard covers that were covered by textured/colored paper of our choice.  Sounds pretty simple but it takes more care and attention to detail than what you might expect.  I put together my first book, but wasn't happy with how it came out - the second attempt was much better - almost have to go through the process to get the method down.

The remainder of the weekend was mostly dedicated to clean-up and packing with a few last photos and work to put our photo portfolios together for online display.  I recently posted mine and it's at:

http://stu.wccnet.edu/~miquigley/Japan2010/index.html


We will also be making large prints of select photos for a formal exhibit later this summer, so please stay tuned.


Thanks all for following this blog.  Wish I had more time to include more detail, but things were sooo... busy the during entire trip.  Look forward to telling you more about it firsthand in the future!


take care,


MQ

Chronicles of Nara

On Tuesday, May 18th, we travelled by train to the city of Nara which is about 80 miles southeast of our temporary home in Hikone.

Nara is deeply steeped in Japanesse history.  In 710, it became the first Japanese capital and although it kept that status for only 74 years, this period marked the flourishing of Japanese arts, crafts and literature. Buddhism grew and prevailed during this time as well with the building of many shrines, pagodas and palaces.

And thanks to historical foresight, many of these structures remain intact within extensive parks and gardens around the city.

Following arrival at the Nara train station, we trekked to a nearby restaurant for lunch cooked Okonomiyai-style.  The word means "as you like it" in Japanese and guidebooks describe it as Japanese pizza or pancakes often cooked right at the table.   Our meals were more omlet-like with a wide array of ingredients and spices - absolutely delicious!

After lunch we set off to visit  Japan's giant Buddha at the Todaiji Temple in Nara Park.  At the outskirts of the park we encountered dozens of the park's tame deer herd patiently awaiting snacks of special deer crackers available from street vendors.  We came home that night with far more deer photos than expected.

The temple and park were spectacular and no doubt a popular spot judging from the size of the crowd.

Navigating Around Japan

Traveling and navigating around Japan can at times be challenging, but at other times it's surprisingly easy. Signage and electronic message boards at rail stations and on trains in major cities offer considerable information in English and if you really get confused/disoriented, just ask, and chances are there's someone close by to help guide you to where you need to go.

During our Japan orientation short-course we heard stories of folks getting lost, asking for help and getting personally guided to the right place by a helpful local bystander.  And in many cases, these folks went way above and beyond what anyone in the U.S. might expect.  It's part of the Japanese culture to look after one another - quite refreshing to say the least!

Moreover, maps and related tourist info in varied amounts of English are widely available.

While preparing for my trip to Japan, I ended up providing advice to a friend on what type of GPS unit he should buy to help him navigate while shooting photos in the southwest U.S.  He asked me if I intended to take my GPS unit to Japan to help me navigate during my travels.  Honestly, I hadn't even considered it.

I checked out what info was available and ended up buying an SD card with maps of all Japan from a third-party vendor for use on my Garmin hand-held unit.

It cost me around $100 and I was leery about how well it might work, if at all.  Upon arrival in Japan I fired up the GPS unit with the SD chip onboard.  It had a brief "We're not in Kansas anymore" moment, but once it got past that, it worked perfectly, connecting with all available satellites and tracking our route as we roamed across rural and urban landscape.

Generally, I turn the GPS on when we get off the train/subway and leave it on, during which time it leaves a "bread crumb trail" of where we have travelled from our original location.  This track really comes in handy for determining where we might be at a point in time and what direction we need to head to get back to where we started.

In addition to roads, streets, major landmarks, etc.  the software also has a complete topographical map database for all of Japan  This was particularly useful when we travelled to mountainous  Miyajima Island, west of Hiroshima on Thursday, 5/20.

Beer (bi-ru) in Japan

Beer in Japan is widely produced, distributed, marketed and available, including via the ever-present vending machines.

In general Japanese beers tend toward the lighter lager/pilsner types while darker full-bodied beers (ales, stouts, etc.) are rarer, but becoming more widely available thanks to a growing microbrewery industry.

Major Japanese beer producers include Kirin, Sapporo, Asahi, and Suntory and these companies also produce and market a wide array of soft drinks.

In Japan it's OK to possess and drink beer in public places - kind of reminds me of Europe - certainly far less strict than U.S. laws.  However, given that, we have yet to encounter any situations of excess consumption or abuse in public - seems like a more sensible, casual approach to alcohol consumption at-large works well.  That plus stricter Japanese moral codes of conduct in public may help explain such differences.

From a personal beer-lover's standpoint.  it's been great to grab a couple of cold beers at the train station newstand to enjoy on the journey home after a hot day of trekking and photo-shooting.  No need to go searching around for a liquor store or bar ever!  And if you don't have time to get beer on the way to the train you can still by it onboard from a refreshment cart traveling frequently up/down the aisle.  Doesn't get much better than that!

Overnight Rail Trip to Tokyo

After finishing a photo shoot of Kyoto's Aoi Matsuri procession/festival on Saturday, we rode the Shinkansen (Bullet Train) to Tokyo in the afternoon - a nice smooth 3 -hour ride.

Our hotel was just a few blocks from the downtown train station so we got settled in there briefly then grabbed dinner at a nearby Sushi bar.  The quality and variety of sushi at the bar was amazing-  have never had anything that came close at any other time/place.  While at the bar,we chatted/drank saki with some locals - a group of businessmen - one of them had spent several years in the U.S. and spoke near-perfect English

We finished dinner and headed out onto the street to visually capture life in Tokyo after dark.  We weren't at all disappointed - people and neon everywhere on a busy Saturday night!

Got up early Sunday and after breakfast at the hotel, we took the subway up to the Asakusa District, northeast of downtown to watch/photograph a procession/festival.  Following that, we visited the Sensoji Temple and gardens for photos and got additional pictures in surrounding markets and business areas.

While walking around we came across a poster for the Himiko river ferry - an ultra-modern boat that we thought might be a good way to do some sightseeing along the Tokyo waterfront.  The boat took us down the river toward downtown and across Tokyo Bay where we disembarked onto an island/park area where we got lots of more photos.

From there we rode the subway back downtown for some more shots of Tokyo's spectacular architecture - wow!  After that we headed north by subway to the Tokyo Tower, a steel 1100-ft high Eiffel-like structure built in 1958.  We shot lots of photos from the 500-foot observation deck.

Following that, we travelled by subway and train back "home" to JCMU in Hikone.  A whirlwind trip and great fun!

More on Lake Biwa (Biwako)

Walking along the shore of Lake Biwa ( Biwako in Japanese) reminds me much of Lake Huron's shores in northern Michigan - sand and gravel beach and crystal clear water.

Biwako supplies water for 14 million people in the region and although it might appear pristine at first encounter, it still faces ongoing threats, particularly in the area of nutrient enrichment / eutrophication.

Some fun facts on Biwako from various sources:

Area - 670 sq km
Max depth 104 m
Age ~4 million years
Origin Tectonic
Biwa is named after a stringed Japanese musical instrument because it resembles the shape of this item
58 endemic species; 60 fish species(12 endemic)
460 stream tributaries; outlet is Seta River that empties into Pacific Ocean at Osaka

Kyoto's Aoi Matsuri Procession/Festival

On SaturdayMay 15th, we travelled by rail back to Kyoto to attend the city's annual "Aoi Matsuri" procession/festival that dates back to the 6th century.  The event - "one of the most solemn and graceful festivals in Japan" is named after the aoi (hollyhock) plant worn by procession marchers (511 people, 36 horses, 4 cows, and two carriages).  A flyer cautioned the public - "Please do not use flash photography for your safety.  Cattle might be stampeded by flash."

Hollyhock is a plant long-believed to ease child birth and ward off dangers of lightning and earthquakes.

We left the Kyoto rail station late morning and raced by foot through main streets and smaller routes through residential neighborhoods to a park where people were lined up 3-4-deep along the procession route.

Unfortunately the viewing area was also heavily shaded - not the best conditions for photos.  We took several photos as the procession passed anyway, but decided to move on to another location and better conditions in early afternoon.

We grabbed lunch at a little restaurant along the way - generous portions of ramen noodles and inexpensive to boot!

Got set up on the curb near an intersection where the procession was to pass.  Bright sun at our backs, but not overly harsh for early afternoon.  The procession arrived on time and all managed to get some nice photos of both the procession and street scenes of procession-watchers, etc.

The annual procession is part of Shinto religious tradition and the crowd was quiet, reserved and respectful throughout, responding to passing marchers with brief applause.

Following the passage of the procession, four of us slowly made our way back to the train station through heavily crowded streets to board a bullet train for a quick overnight trip to Tokyo.  More on that later.