Haikyo

Japan is covered in abandoned buildings, or haikyo. Some are old military installations, some are mining ghost towns, and some are relics of the 80s property boom. Some are just buildings that have been replaced.

Our days target for exploration was the abandoned Mt. Asama Volcano Museum and Observatory. It sits on the slopes of Mt. Asama, the most active volcano on the main island of Honshu. Asama-san straddles the border between Gunma and Nagano prefectures, and if things aren’t too hazy it is clearly visible on my ride to work. The museum was abandoned when a more modern (and less architecturally interesting) one was built right next door. Rather than tear it down, they just left it for the volcano to do the dirty work for them.

Both museums are located in the Oni Oshi Dashi, a lava field left by a cataclysmic eruption in 1783. The name refers to the exiled demons that were ejected from the volcano. It was fun for me to see a lava field like the ones I saw on Kilauea, only 200 years older. Despite the ample scrub, the lava fields still look pretty desolate.

In the 20 some years since it was left to rot, the volcano has done a pretty good job at breaking down the old building. Eruptions and earthquakes have shattered the glass, peeled the paint and even knocked down some walls and support pillars. The structure may not collapse tomorrow, but it is certainly looking a bit worse for wear. In fact, it is looking worse than it did even a few years ago, based on old photos and blog posts I have found online.

While most of the seismic action this year has been off the north eastern coast, the ground under Asama has seen a few good sized tremors as well, including one that hit in the wee hours of the morning on March 12th that woke up everybody in Gunma. This and the eruption in early 2009 have knocked the poor old museum around quite a bit.

While there are signs forbidding entry, it’s quite easy to get pretty close to the building, though plywood across the doors makes actual entry more difficult. In my great folly and or wisdom, I decided not to actually enter, but a couple of people in our group were a bit more adventurous and headed inside. They made it in and out in safety, so either things aren’t as bad as they look or we were fantastically lucky!

The Sky is Burning

 

Yesterday saw a spectacularly fiery sunset behind Mt. Haruna. I Shot a few frames, though on second shot I probably shouldn't have been looking through the viewfinder all zoomed in. My eyes do seem to still be working, so maybe all is well. 

Where the road sings

Most of the volcanoes in Gunma are extinct, or at least long dormant. They may erupt again, some day, but all signs point to a nice peaceful slumber for the present. However, in the far northern part of Gunma, near Nagano, there are a few mountains that are a little more awake. One of these is Mt. Shirane, an 7,123 foot volcano that last erupted in 1983.

Like Mt. Aso in Kyushu, the summit crater contains a milky blue acidic lake that reeks of sulfur. In fact, the entire mountain has a faint sulfur smell. The road to the top passes through an area of vents and springs that spew sulfur into the air. Foolishly I rolled down my window during that portion of the drive, and the smell stayed in the car for quite some time!

The locals put all that hot sulfur water to good use, the large and famous spa town of Kusatsu is nestled at the base of the  mountain. The highway to Kusatsu is called the Japan Romantic Road, and on a segment right before the town there is a melody road. You know the grooves that are sometimes cut in the side of the road to wake you up if you go to far over? A melody road is like that, but the grooves cross the whole road, and the tones you hear make up a song.

I had known there was a melody road somewhere in Gunma, but never quite where it was, so I was pretty surprised when these weird noises enveloped the car! 

The top of Shirane was a delight, far cooler and less muggy than the flats down below. The day before I had been in Tokyo, and difference in climate was very noticeable, and very welcome.There were a variety of hiking trails along the top, but Travis's leg was in a fair amount of pain from an old soccer injury, and he wasn't up to do much walking.

As we had been driving up, I was surprised to see highway buses negotiating the road to the top, direct from Shinjuku in Tokyo. The area is known to local tourists, but I don't think Shirane is very high on the list for people visiting Japan, which is a shame. There aren't many easily accesible active volcanoes in the world, and while Shirane may not have the cache and lava explosions of Kilauea it is still a great place to visit.

Tsukuba-San

When I came to Japan in March I had been told I was going to Ibaraki Prefecture, and so I did a lot of research. Of course I was eventually placed in Gunma, but I still have several good friends in Ibaraki that I did training with. One of them invited me to climb Mt. Tsukuba as a prelude hike to Mt. Fuji, which we hope to climb in August. My day started pretty early to make it to Ibaraki by 11, and it included travel on this one car diesel train, a rarity in the generally electrified grid of Japanese rail. 

Mountains are often sacred to Shinto, and Tsukuba-san is no different. There is a beautiful large shrine at the base of the peak, and the trails start from there.

It has been a while since I had done much hiking, and for most of our group this was their first hike. We weren't quite prepared, especially water wise. Luckily one of us had brought a fair amount of extra water, so those of us who had only packed a little bit were saved. I really should (and do) know better, but I wasn't quite prepared for how the heat and humidity of Japanese summer affects hiking. To put it briefly, you sweat, a lot. I've now learned that any hike in Japan had better be accompanied by a small towel around your neck to absorb the sweat pouring off your face.

Despite the heat and the sweat, the hike was lovely. I had almost forgotten just how much I love hiking. The lush green forests were a remarkable contrast to the dry pine forests and wide open fields of the Rocky Mountains. The trail was also quite busy, but mostly with people coming down the peak after riding the cable car to the top!

As always once we got to the top all the work it took was forgotten as we looked out over the flatlands of Ibaraki Prefecture. Unlike most Colorado Mountains, there were vending machines, a restaurant, and a gift shop up top, so we had plenty to amuse ourselves with other than the view!

Though I must confess, we didn't actually make it to the TOP, rather we made it a large saddle that is between Tsukuba-san's two peaks. We were up very late in the day (5:00), and had to head down to avoid hiking down in the dark, as we were utterly unprepared for that. I suppose that means I have unfinished business in Ibaraki Prefecture, and I may just have to head back and make it to the top of BOTH peaks, and not take the cable car down next time....

Asia in HDR

With all the computer problems I've had lately it has taken longer than usual for me to finish up processing on the HDR images I took in Asia last November. However, here they are, in all their altered glory. I've got a few new tools, and a few new techniques that I've made use of on some of these. The photo above is a good example. I processed it in photomatix, my HDR program of choice, then I made to copies and turned one of them black and white. I then blended the color and the black and white version in photoshop using blending modes. I'm pretty happy with the result, and I think I'll try that technique again in the future.



As always, a lot of these will benefit from clicking on the picture to enlarge it. These first few were all shot from the top of the Tokyo Metropolitan Towers in west Shinjuku. It really is one of the best views in Tokyo, and admission is free!





As this posts, I'm flying through the air on Japan Airlines, headed back to Narita. I should have internet at the hotel, so hopefully I'll be able to get some updates posted throughout the week. I'm quite excited to be working again, and to be starting a new and interesting phase of my life. Expect plenty more photographic excursions in Tokyo, and the surrounding region. I also plan to hike Mt. Fuji this summer, and that should be a cornucopia of amazing photographs.



This picture of the Ebisu Bridge in Osaka is another of my experiments. I processed the HDR image two different ways, one very dark and one very light, then I combined both of those with blending modes, going through the list until I found one that I liked. Things like this require a lot of experimentation, and each image will benefit from a different approach.





Shanghai was a city that would really benefit from a concerted HDR effort, sadly this day I didn't have my tripod with me so I had to make do with the edge of the dock.



The Forbidden City came out quite well in this picture, I think it really captured the detail of the carvings, and the unique color of the sky that day.





I had to shoot the bracket frames of this picture of the interior of the Temple of Heaven in Beijing twice, because someone jostled me and the camera on the first go around. Of course, I was so busy trying to get the shot, I wasn't really paying enough attention to the substance of what I was looking at, which is why sometimes it is nice to just put down the camera and enjoy yourself.

Here, There and Everywhere

My first passport is dated March 20th, 2000. The first stamp in it is Gatwick airport, 24th of May, 2000. I got that stamp en route to Ireland on a three week tour put on by one of my college professors. We Stayed in Dublin, Kilkee in County Claire and Derry in Northern Ireland. I still remember riding into Dublin on a double decker bus, jetlagged, exhausted and thoroughly hooked.



The following three weeks only further cemented my growing interest of travel. From art museums to pubs to castles to the Guinness Brewery to the mountains of Donegal to the Giants Causeway to the Aran Islands and more, I loved all of it. Indeed, that trip created an ongoing interest in Irish culture and history.



My family visited the City of Lights over Christmas of 2001, and Paris was absolutely amazing. I remember walking around thinking "Wow, I'm in PARIS!" for much of the three weeks we were there. Paris was my first experience with a subway system, and my first exposure to really world class art museums. We went to the Louvre three times, and there is still an entire wing I haven't seen!



2002 was a year without a trip, but just barely. We returned home from Paris on December 31th 2001, the day before France switched from the Franc to the Euro. On the 7th of January 2003 my best friend Matt and I left Denver for London. This was my first trip on my own so to speak, no teachers, no family, just my buddy and myself. This trip I learned that sometimes, you just have to be flexible, such as when we found that our Bed and Breakfast in Cardiff that we had booked online had been closed for over a year. Luckily, the card was never charged.



December of 2003 found the whole family in Munich for Christmas. Traveling in Europe at Christmas is actually quite a bit of fun. Few people want to be tourists over the holidays, so many attractions are less than full and it is interesting to see the different celebrations in different parts of the world. After being in Munich though, it's just not Christmas without a good stollen, some pfeffernüsse and a mug of glühwein.



In late 2004 my friend Zach got a job in Nagano teaching English. Little did I know then that he would change my life. We had a farewell party, and he invited all of his friends to come visit. Since it had been close to year since I'd been anywhere, I took three weeks off in late February and March of 2005 and went for a visit. I got a Japan Rail pass and went all over Tokyo, Kyoto, Hiroshima and Nagano. I had a blast, and in fact had so much fun that six months later, I was back in Japan full time.



I lived there for over two years, first in Nagoya then in my beloved Kanazawa. Living in a foreign country was everything I would have hoped; exciting, challenging and rewarding. I learned even more about myself and the world than I could have imagined, and I met people that will always be among my closest friends.



I spent much of my time off traveling in Japan, but I did take one trip to Southeast Asia in May of 2007. I had planned to go with Zach, but he went to book his tickets the day after I booked mine, and the return flight was sold out so I ended up going alone. The ten days I spent in Thailand and Vietnam were amazing. I had visited beaches before, in Japan and Northern California, but nothing had prepared me for the water and sand I found on Phuket. Even better than the beach was the food, every meal was excellent.



My only regret about Vietnam is that I only had four days there, and didn't see much of Hanoi at all. But I did see the Perfume Pagoda, and the karst geology of Ha Long Bay and I earned a Tiger Beer Hangover with an Australian, so it certainly wasn't a wasted trip!



After I returned home to Denver, I started working at an Educational Tour company, and one employee perk was being able to go on tour. I returned to London and Ireland over 9 days, seeing some places I had visited before, and some places that were new. It was quite a bit of fun to see how Dublin had changed between 2000 and 2008.



After touring through the United Kingdom and Ireland, I spent another nine days getting to know Italy, getting two trips for the price of less than one. Italy floored me, especially Florence. How can you fit so much history and beauty into such a small city?



Of course, 2009 was going to bring me to Sweden, but after the visa debacle, I decided to visit Asia again. I had a brand new passport, and it needed some stamps! Thirty days in Japan and China gave me over 2,000 new photos and a wealth of new memories.



I only hope that the next decade will be as fun and eventful as this past decade!

HDR Clearinghouse

Here is a grab bag of HDR Images from various places that I've visited over the past couple of years. First up we have the Ring of Kerry in Ireland.



Followed by St. Patrick's Cathedral in Dublin.



And then we have St. Peter's in Rome.



The Trevi Fountain, also in Rome.



The Denver Center for Performing Arts.



Byodo-in is a Buddhist temple built on Oahu as an exact replica of the temple of the same name near Kyoto. The Kyoto version is actually featured on the 10-yen coin. Funnily enough, I saw a book, 1001 Gardens to See Before You Die, that included the garden of the Japanese Byodo-in, but used a file photograph of the Oahu version, complete with the distinctive volcanic cliffs in the background.



Finally we have a view of Honolulu Harbor at sunset.