11/10/2009
Autumn Scene
On the last full day that mum and dad were here with us in Japan, I brought them for a walk to some of my favourite spots around my neighbourhood. While at this particular spot I noticed this scene which was very similar to an example photo shown for an "Autumn Scene" contest. Except that in this shot the cosmos aren't standing so tall, thanks to the beating they took in the typhoon that when through just 4 days prior.
Well, I know photography is not about trying to copy other shots, but sometimes when you've been seeing the advertising example photo on every street corner notice board, it's just hard to resist clicking that shutter release when the same scene comes past your eyes in real life!
10/10/2009
Vories and Biwa
On our visit to
Japan in 2007 we found out about a Missionary named William Merrell Vories while staying in
Omi-Imazu, where there are three buildings that he designed.
To see more about those buildings and Vories click here. Ever since then we have been wanting to visit his adopted home town of Omi-Hachiman where many of the organisations he was involved in founding still exist in some form. Well, it's amazing how things worked out because the city of Omi-Hachiman decided to have a special month of opening all his buildings to the public which "just happened" to occur at the same time as my parents visit.
It was a great day walking around Omi-Hachiman looking at all of the buildings he designed and visiting the school and a business that he founded (which still operate to this day). Just like Ritsuko and I, Vories was a self-funded missionary, so it was both an inspiration for us and also my parents, to see the impact one can make if they follow God's leading. We also visited a place were Vories would meet with other Christian men for Bible studies, we discovered there that one of the other members of that group founded CO-OP (a chain of co-operative supermarkets in Japan). Our local supermarket that we go to almost daily is a CO-OP.
Since it was my parents first visit to Shiga Prefecture in the late afternoon we headed to Otsu (the capital of Shiga) for a sunset boat cruise on Lake Biwa, where we saw a beautiful rainbow. All-in-all we felt that God really blessed the day together in Shiga Prefecture.
09/10/2009
Osaka Castle
To paraphrase the entry in the Lonely Planet:- "It's Japan's most visited tourist attraction, some would say because it's the only thing worth seeing in Japan's second biggest city! I would beg to differ, there are plenty of interesting places to see in Osaka. Why is Osaka castle so popular, even though it is a concrete reconstruction, when not so far away in
Himeji you can see a real original wooden castle? Maybe it's because of the views of Osaka, or the disabled access, or just that it's located in the centre of a big city. Certainly while the interior is very modern and not authentic, the museum contained inside is very informative."
Since we couldn't make it to Himeji and I also wanted to show Mum and Dad some of
South Osaka, I decided to bring them to Osaka Castle on the way there.
After the castle we had a fantastic lunch at nice cafe/restaurant on the ground floor of the Osaka History Museum which is just opposite the castle (we didn't go to that museum). Then we headed to Shinsaibashi and walked down to Namba, the final stop was at BIC Camera, where I introduced Mum and Dad to the wonders of a huge Japanese Electronics Store.
08/10/2009
The Day After the Typhoon
On the night of the 7th of October, I experienced my first typhoon since arriving in Japan last year. Actually it's very rare for a Typhoon to come to Kyoto, maybe only once every five years or so. Where Ritsuko comes from in Kyushu, they get Typhoons more frequently, so she is experienced in dealing with them. So we brought everything inside, including the bicycles and pot plants and closed all of the shutters on the windows and doors. Then I went to bed determined to sleep it out. Once it came (although we where not in the direct path) our little wooden and weather board house was shaking all about and it was difficult to sleep. Then I heard the sound of the bamboo blind on the back balcony scraping up and down. I had forgotten about that! I didn't want to go out into the storm so I just left it. In the morning after the typhoon had passed I took the photo on the left, before cleaning it all up from the roof and the road!
My parents phoned me about 10am, and I asked them did they notice anything, but they were almost oblivious to it in the reinforced concrete hotel they were staying!
In the afternoon the weather came good and so we decided to meet up with mum and dad. Together we went to see Kamigamo Shrine and the historical area surrounding it. It was in the grounds of Kamigamo Shrine where we saw the damage to the huge tree which is in the photograph on the right.
05/10/2009
Okayama and Kurashiki
Have you ever returned to a place after many years only to find that it's not quite as good as you remembered it? To make matters worse, how about if on the return visit your brought a long some of your family members because you felt it was a special place you wanted to show them? This experience happened to Ritsuko, when we (Ritsuko, me, mum and dad) went to see Kurashiki. Ritsuko had visited there more than 12 years ago, and it was a place she really wanted to show us. When we got there it was almost like a Ghost Metropolis. Now I've seen small cities in rural Japan become run down, due to economic hard times, but Kurashiki is a city of more than 400,000 people and it even has a bullet train station nearby. Even the area around the central train station had many shops vacant! Many shopping arcades where very run down, more so that I've ever seen in Japan.
The photo on the right is part of an area we came to see in Kurashiki which is a historical district, even in this photo if you look carefully you can see the street's not so pristine. Actually, area around the famous canal is still pristine and it was worth seeing, but the rest of the city looks sadly depressed.
When we got back to the train station, I decided to take a look on the other side of the station, because I noticed an interesting clock tower. Then to my dismay did I happen to see the demolition of what looked like it once was an attractive amusement park going on.
Earlier on the same day we made a stop at Okayama to see the famous Korakuen (garden) which is pictured on the left. Okayama seem to be doing much better economically that Kurashiki, but still rather quiet compared to what where used to seeing in the cities around here (i.e. Kyoto, Osaka and Kobe).
BTW on our way there I finally got to ride on the
500 series Shinkansen (Super Express aka “Bullet Train”), so I've now ridden every kind that run (or have run) on the Tokaido/Sanyo line. These are the
0, 100,
300,
500,
700 and N700 series. It's taken me 11 years from my first Shinkansen ride in 1998.
