Rainy season really is rainy season. In the last week, we've only had a few hours without rain. I was lucky enough to be in Shibuya during one of those hours.
Read Morephoto-journal
Compacted
The humid, hot, rainy season air feels compacted. With that in mind, I took Charlotte's RX100 for a little spin.
Read MoreBullet Train to Tokyo
There's something really cool about the phrase "Bullet Train to Tokyo".
Read MoreFushimi Inari - 伏見稲荷
If you were to think of "Japan", there's a high chance that you'd conjure up images of "red gates" in mountains, after you've thought about sushi, cartoon characters, neon lights, underwear vending machines, men in suits, business cards, bowing, sumo, blowfish... you get the idea.
Read MoreQuiet Kyoto
As you probably know by now, I am an advocate of walking through backstreets and seeing what's around, away from organised tours of "look at this, check it from your list". Kyoto does very well in this regard – there are many streets full of old buildings, stonework, brickwork, and little features.
Read MoreBy Any Other Name
"A rose by any other name would smell as sweet" – Romeo and Juliet
Read MoreBlossoms on the Meguro River ー 目黒川の桜
A small selection of photos from "Hanami 2014" cherry blossom viewing, by the Meguro River, Tokyo.
Read MoreSakurajosui - 桜上水 - Part 2
In this piece, I'll take you a little further away from our apartment, towards the neighbouring neighbourhood of Kamikitazawa.
Read More
Sakurajosui - 桜上水 - Part 1
I've been nursing a heavy cold, but took my camera with my when I went to get some fresh air, and replenish supplies.
Read More"Sakura 2014" has started!
It's officially the time of year when people in Japan take photos of cherry blossoms, remove their jackets, have some beer or plum wine, and lets their collective hair down under a sky of white and pink.
Read MoreCoasting 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.
Four Seasons in a Day
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.
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.
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.
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.
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...