Though order and structure can be impressive, there's little more impressive to me than the sheer indifference of nature to humanity's constant intervention.
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temple
Asakusa
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I've been to Asakusa 「浅草」 many times over the years, but I've not been back here for around a year or so. The temple of Sensoji 「浅草寺」is a very popular all-year tourist attraction, and basically, I try to avoid those.
The area is, however, rather photogenic. As it'd been so long, and there's something about New Year and temples, we decided to take the hour-long journey from our place in west Tokyo, to the eastern side. In order to do so, one heads for the HDTV beacon known as Tokyo Sky Tree.
Satellite TV
Going to work
It's traditional to waft the smoke from the incense over one's head
The temples are full of thousands of little details - almost too many to take in. Fighting my way through groups taking "selfies", I once more made use of my considerable height advantage.
Plane, moon, temple
I find it rather amusing when I stop to take a photograph, because I've seen something, and a small group will gather around me, phones, cameras, and iPads (?) at the ready. The people try to understand exactly what I'm looking at, but perhaps it's nothing in particular, and just a certain light or reflection which has piqued my interest. I've even gone as far to fake seeing something interesting, for my own amusement :)
Happy New Year!
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明けましておめでとうございます！
Happy New Year!
We got on our bikes at around 11:15 and cycled to a nearby temple to join the New Year festivities. It was a very cold, but clear night here in Tokyo.
There were lots of stalls selling a variety of foods, drinks, and other festive gear (such as pikachu face-masks).
The crowds waited patiently at the front entrance to the temple
It's traditional to buy a fortune written on a strip of paper, called o-mikuji (御御籤). It's also traditional to tie the fortune to these ropes at the temple, so that the fortune may have greater effect.
Our fortunes, tied to rope at the temple
A Happy New Year to all that read (and will read) my blog over the coming year. I'll strive to develop my photography in as many ways as possible. Thanks for dropping by, and I wish you all the best for 2014!
Enter the shadow
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Long shadows, especially in winter, are one of the most often overlooked treats of living in a mid-latitude country. I suppose if one isn't the slightest bit interested in photography then it doesn't matter, but if one likes to take photos... winter is best.
In Japan, this truly is the season for photography. The air, especially in the morning, is crisp and dry (unless it's been raining). In summer, the sun ascends too quickly and has too much strength to have any decent artistic merit. Photos taken between 10am and 3pm in the summer are lacking contrast, shadows are directly beneath objects, and it's simply too damn hot anyway.
A little bit closer
Shadows are very interesting to me, just as is the 'colour' black. Man-made blacks, as with blacks in nature, are never truly black. Nothing is black, other than the complete absence of light, which is what a shadow is trying to be. The Japanese word for shadow is 陰 which is pronounced "kah-geh". Its romanisation however, is "kage". I'll never forget this word, as when I was younger I played Sega's Virtua Fighter, in which there is a character named "kage" (which I know now is Shadow). He was a ninja. It all makes sense. However, I read his name as "cage". I had similar troubles with the famous Street Fighter character "Ryu", whom I called "Rhy-ew", not "ri-u" as I (more closely) should have. I had no idea how words were pronounced in Japanese - Japan was an almost fictitious place of samurai and bullet trains.
Words, names, and other Japanese influences from my youth will always stay in my mind. The longer I live in Japan, the wider the schism grows between what I once thought, and what I now know. This works on all levels, but is most easily communicated using simple examples of wordage, as that above.
Guardian of Warriors
Kamakura Pt. 2 - Tsurugaoka Hachiman-gū
Continuing our cycle-journey through Kamakura, we left the bamboo forest and sped back to the centre of Kamakura, to visit the centre-piece of the small city - Tsurugaoka Hachiman-gū.
Tsurugaoka Hachiman-gū is the most important Shinto shrine in the city of Kamakura, Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan. The shrine is at the geographical and cultural center of the city of Kamakura, which has largely grown around it and its 1.8 km approach. It is the venue of many of its most important festivals, and hosts two museums.
Tsurugaoka Hachiman-gū was for most of its history not only a Hachiman shrine, but also a Tendai Buddhist temple, a fact which explains its general layout, typical of Japanese Buddhist architecture. At the left of its great stone stairway stood a 1000-year old ginkgo tree, which was uprooted by a storm in the early hours of March 10, 2010. The shrine is an Important Cultural Property.
Our cycle route, taking all of 5 minutes!
Knotted Tree
In Japanese mythology, Hachiman is the Japanese syncretic god of archery and war, incorporating elements from both Shinto and Buddhism. Although often called the god of war, he is more correctly defined as the tutelary god of warriors.
We bought ice-creams and some liquid refreshment, as cycling in the scorching 35°C bright sun was quite hard work. I had the 18-200 lens attached to my NEX-7, and decided to make the most of its range.
At first glance, I thought that this was just one building, due to telephoto compression
The shrine is actually multi-layered
I recommend a visit to Tsurugaoka Hachiman-gū, though I think I'm yet to not recommend somewhere! It's easily walkable from the train station (though bring water & maybe a parasol, if you're doing this in summer), which made it relatively busy (for a week day). After this shrine, I'd recommend visiting some of the smaller, more tucked-away sites, to really soak in the atmosphere.
Sensoji │ NEX-7 & SEL 16mm F2.8 │ 16mm, ISO 5000, f/4, 1/60, Handheld twilight
Sensoji
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I took this photo in October, 2011. Recently going through my archives, it jumped out of the dark at me. I've thrown it onto the homepage of my site, which was just populated with more recent photos. However, this image is from a time long-before this site. It's from a time where we had only been in Japan 10 months, and were thinking for maybe just 2 more.
Here we are, over two years on.