Golden Marsh

In everyone's life there will be a few locations that will always be loved and remembered. Kanazawa is most certainly one of those places for me.



Returning was very interesting, the chance to see what had changed and what had not. Coming into downtown from the train station, I could see that the fish market had been totally redone, but much of Katamachi was as I had left it two years ago. All in all the soul of the city remained the same, many of the same great bars, the same great people, the same horrible weather.



Speaking of bars and people, one of the must stop places while I was in the area was The World's Greatest Yakitori Joint. Whenever anybody arrives or leaves, the owner (aka Master) shouts and bangs the drum. The theatricality doesn't take away from the excellent food and very large beers.



Once again I learned that despite the passage of time, your true friends will ALWAYS be your true friends. Seeing Travis, Mo, Liz, Yukie, Rie, Noboru and more for the first time in years was fantastic. Even catching up with people I had only known for a little while was wonderful.



Kanazawa may not be the largest or most exciting city in Japan, but no matter where I end up in life, it will always be close to my heart.

Tokyo Bits and Bobs

Walking from Asakusa to the Tokyo-Edo Museum was not one of my brightest ideas. I never really got lost, per se, but there was a stretch where I was a might bit bewildered. Luckily, I made it to my destination without too much trouble, and the museum itself was totally worth it. Split up into two halves, the first covered the founding and growth of the old Tokugawa capital Edo. The second was devoted to the modern history of Tokyo, from the late 1800s to the present day through redevelopment, earthquakes and war. I was very impressed with the displays and the contrast between old and new in Japan's capital.




The next day I want to do something free, so I started off at the Yebisu Beer Museum. The short trip through the history of Yebisu and Sapporo beer was interesting, but the highlight of course is the tasting room. I sampled a premium pilsner, which was quite delicious and had much more complexity than the standard issue Asian lager.



Tokyo can be an overwhelming city, even for those who are familiar with it, so I was glad to make a stop at Meiji Jingu. Right in the middle of the city, near the hip Harajuku shopping area, the shrine is an oasis of calm. While it is always busy with tourists and visitors, the area is large enough and green enough that you don't really notice.



Another thing I like to do when I am in Tokyo is stop by the Nikon office in Shinjuku. They offer a sensor cleaning service that is free if you are still under warranty, and only about 10 dollars if you aren't. As my precious D-80 does NOT have a self cleaning sensor, I find this an excellent way to make sure my photos are dust spot free. (Saves time in photoshop later)



After picking up my camera, I was just a few blocks away from the Tokyo Metropolitan Building. One of the tallest in the city, the building has two (free) observation lounges perched at the top of the towers.



I had never actually made it to the top before, and I find myself wondering why not. The view was fantastic, and it was far less commercial than Tokyo Tower to the south. Located at the bottom of the elevator was an excellent tourist information area, making the whole thing a must see for any first time visitor to Japan.




Looking out over Tokyo I am always struck by how massive a megaplex it is. I have more photos that I took from the Metropolitan building, but most are HDR, so when I have them processed, they will get a separate post. Also, people may notice a new tag, Free Japan. Posts with this label will point to something that is absolutely free, proving that while Japan may be expensive, there are wonderful experiences to be had even on a budget.

Early Morning Senso-ji

One of my goals on this trip was to see things that I hadn't gotten around to yet. During my two years in Japan I saw a lot of sights, but there is always more to see and do, especially in a city as large and dynamic as Tokyo. One of the places on my list was Senso-ji, the largest most famous Buddhist temple in Tokyo.



The story of Senso-ji, also called Asakusa Kannon, starts in the 600's when two local fishermen find a golden idol of the goddess of mercy, Kannon in the nearby Sumida river. The temple was built to enshrine the statue, and over the centuries grew to its present dramatic size and popularity. The temple did burn down in the war, and the current buildings are concrete reconstructions.



I found that one of the downsides of starting my day before 5 am was that by 8 I had been up for hours, and yet little was open yet. Senso-ji was almost empty, the myriad trinket vendors lining the entrance street all locked up and silent. Even when I walked over to the nearby Kappa-dori, home of the plastic food and restaurant supply stores I found that early Saturday morning was not a busy time for them.



After a fair amount of aimless meandering, I walked back through the temple grounds close to noon, and found that things had picked up remarkably. There was some sort of festival in full swing, so there were street vendors with snacks and drinks on offer, and booths set up to display chrysanthemum flowers.



I had intended the trip to Asakusa to take up a full day of sightseeing, but I had done all I needed to do, and it was barely noon! I felt that a walk to the Edo-Tokyo Museum was a good idea, even though I didn't really have a map, nor a good sense of how far it was...

Tsukiji

The Tsukiji fish market is an overwhelming riot of sounds, colors, smells and speeding mini trucks. This is not your typical tourist market, indeed large tour groups cannot visit and during the busiest season all tourists are banned.



However, for those that brave the very early morning wake up call and the chaotic market traffic, the reward is a look at the largest wholesale seafood market in the world. Around 2,000 pounds of seafood a day passes through Tsukiji.



The area is built rather like an onion, with a surrounding district of shops forming the skin, and then layers of supplementary shops and stalls selling a wide variety of non seafood items mixed in with sushi restaurants. The actual market occupies a large area in the center. The Saturday morning that I was there was a popular one, as many tourists and Tokyoites had come down for a taste of the freshest sushi you can find, leading to lines that ranged from long to staggeringly long.



The best reason to make the trip is the sheer spectacle. From lobsters to live clams to squid to slick silvery fish to massive frozen tuna, every sort of sea creature you can imagine, and a few you probably can't, makes an appearance. I was most impressed by how the frozen tuna are handled, as if they are big red frozen fish logs, saws and all. I certainly never thought I would see a fish fed into a band saw!



I really enjoyed my early morning visit, though I did have to be careful not to get too wrapped up in my shot composition, as the carts, both motorized and not, won't stop or slow down for anybody.

The Glory of Jetlag

I have returned after my most epic trip to date. In 30 Days I visited two countries, 6 airports, 12 Cities, and 17 friends. I shot approximately 23 Gigabytes of photographs, the best of which will grace this blog in the coming weeks and perhaps months.



From the moment I landed back in Japan I had this strangely giddy expression fueled by excitement, exhaustion and the hustle and bustle that is the land of the Rising Sun. My hotel was located right in the heart of urban Tokyo in the district of Shinjuku. While there are many nightlife hot spots in Tokyo, Shinjuku is among the biggest and the best.



I was up very early the morning after my arrival, a victim of the time change. I spent some time from around 3 am shooting photos from my hotel room, seen above. After an hour or so of that, I decided that a trip to the Tsukiji fish market would be a good idea. I had never visited before, as the market does most of its business before 6 AM which is a simply ghastly hour to be awake if you aren't jetlagged. With the early riser problem solved, I hit the streets around 5, en route to the largest wholesale fish and seafood market in the world.

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.

Schnoodle Snow Balls

While much of the snow from late last week melted over the weekend, the back yard still has a fair covering. Fritz the Wonder Schnoodle (TM) is absolutely fascinated by snowballs, and will 'fetch' them all afternoon long. He will dig like crazy searching for the missing ball, until a new one is formed and lobbed. We had a photo shoot this afternoon with dad chucking the snowballs while I tried to capture him in mid pounce. I never really succeeded with that, but I got some fun photos anyway.

The first snow

Today marks the first major snow of the year, with a winter storm warning in effect for Denver all day today through to 6 PM tomorrow. It's been a chilly, wet summer and it so far the fall and winter seem to be following that track as well. Alas!

Aloha Lizzie

My sister has arrived safely in Hawaii, beginning her year stint at the Surfing Goat Dairy. Interestingly enough, it has been exactly a year since MY trip to Oahu, so I thought it would be a good time to dust off a few pictures that never made it on the blog. Of course, these are all from Oahu, and she is on Maui. I guess I'll just have to visit so I can get some proper Maui photos, and some beach time.

Argo Gold Mill

Last weekend Liz, Jen, and I went to Idaho Springs for a look at Colorado's mining history. Perched on the hillside above the town sits the Argo Gold Mill, a structure dedicated to breaking down gold bearing ores to extract the precious minerals inside.



Ironically, the first stop on the tour is the Double Eagle Gold Mine, a small hard rock mine that never really produced much of value. The mine is a great way to start the tour though, as it really gives you an idea of how the miners worked.



The real reason the mill was built in this area was the Argo Tunnel, originally called the Newhouse Tunnel after the man who built it. The Argo Tunnel is a 4 mile bore that goes under the mountain all the way to Central City. There are dozens of mines between Idaho Springs and Central City and most of them connect to the Argo Tunnel. The tunnel performed two vital functions. Firstly ground water was able to drain out of the mines through the tunnel and into Clear Creek in Idaho Springs, obviating the needs for expensive pumps. The tunnel also allowed the miners to drop their ore down instead of up, and move it via small mine trains to the central ore processing point of the gold mill.



In 1943 four miners working a load in a mine connected to the Argo tunnel set off a powder blast, and opened a passage to an adjacent mine that was NOT part of the unified network. This mine had been abandoned in the 1920's when it's pumps could no longer keep up with the influx of water in the deeper tunnels. The full mine's worth of water poured into their shaft, killing the miners and scouring the Argo Tunnel of its supports, tracks and equipment. In fact, an ore train was shot out of the tunnel and across the valley by the force of the waters.




This disaster, combined with the US government ordering all miners to work only on minerals necessary for the war effort signaled the end to the operations of the Argo Mill and tunnel. However, the tunnel still performs one of it's functions impeccably, draining water out of the mines above, though now that water is heavily polluted, and must be cleaned before it enters Clear Creek.



The Mill sat empty and abandoned until the 1970's when it was purchased, added to the National Historic Register, and opened to tourists. It's really fascinating to see this piece of Colorado's History up close, and though many of the large grinding machines are gone, you can still get an idea of the effort that went into extracting gold from the tons and tons of Rocky Mountain ore.



At the bottom of the mill there is a small museum, and part of the museum shows how certain minerals fluoresce under ultraviolet light. I took the opportunity to have some fun with long exposures and my zoom lens.



The final stop on the tour was a chance to do some gold panning. It was a little tricky at first, but once I got the hang of it I managed to find a few flecks of gold at the bottom of my pan! I was surprised and a little proud to see the glinting specks amid the mud and sand. We got to put our gold in small baggies to bring home, a fitting souvenir from our day in the Colorado Mineral Belt.