Some impressions from today’s visit to Hallstatt in Upper Austria. The scenery was as grand as ever, but the place is plagued by overtourism to an extent that is almost as bad as in Kyoto. 🤒
Day trip today to Soumenlinna, the inhabited sea fortress about 4 km southeast of the city center of Helsinki. Weather was perfect, and the place very interesting - a really pleasant area for walking.
A line of Stone Lanterns (tōrō) at Yugasan Rendaiji Temple in Kurashiki, Okayama Prefecture. The temple was opened about 1,300 years ago on a mountain with a main peak of 300 meters.
An evening scene outside Dōgo Onsen Honkan, the main public bathhouse at the Dogo Onsen Hot Spring in Matsuyama on the southern island of Shikoku. With a history of more than 1,000 years, this is one of Japan’s oldest hot spring resorts, where guests can be seen wandering the streets in yukata robes after their bath.
In the last part of our visit to Takao, one hour north of Kyoto, we reach Kosan-ji Temple (sometimes also written as Kozan-ji). Wrapping up our visit there, we notice that (a) buses back to Kyoto aren’t that frequent and (b) we’ve gotten quite hungry from all the climbing - so we find a local restaurant with a nice view of the Kiyotaki River, and have a bowl of noodles 🍜
In part 2 of a small photo series from Takao, located a 1-hour bus ride north of central Kyoto, we leave Jingo-ji Temple and walk to Saimyō-ji. After a short climb, we step through the main gate to reach the inner premises of the temple, where we find many stone lanterns overgrown with moss. Saimyō-ji was first constructed in the years 824-834; its current main hall dates from 1700. A very calming place.
Adding on to yesterday’s post, here are a few more photos from Takahata Fudoson Kongoji, a temple located on the western outskirts of Tokyo in Hino. In addition to a beautiful five-storied pagoda, the temple also features a pleasant hiking course through a forest, with 88 Jizō statues located along the trail.
The old town of Takayama in Gifu Prefecture has been beautifully preserved with many buildings and whole streets of houses dating back to the feudal ages, when the city thrived as a wealthy merchant town. This kind of scenery lends itself to being photographed on film, so here is a photo set taken with Mamiya 6 and 50mm f/4 lens on Fujicolor Pro 160 NS.
I was in the Ochanomizu area of Tokyo this evening, so I thought I’d try to capture a night view from Hijiri Bridge towards Akihabara. And as if I had ordered them, a Marunouchi Line subway train (red) and a JR Chūō-Sōbu Line train appeared as welcome foreground elements. 🚊
Matsushiro Station is a - by now - disused railway station of the Nagano Electric Railway on the former Yashiro Line, around 10km south of Nagano’s city center. When I visited less than a year before it was decommissioned, it exuded a very nostalgic and melancholic mood. I shot some details around the station, as well as an image with the station master.
Taitō (台東区, Taitō-ku) is Tokyo’s smallest ward, yet it contains a lot of history, boasting major tourist magnets such as Asakusa's Sensō-ji Temple, Ueno Park, or the Ameyoko street market. But walk on any of its side streets, and you will discover homely and surprisingly quiet neighborhoods with quirky and photogenic details.
Yakushiji in Nara, one of Japan's oldest temples, was constructed by Emperor Tenmu in the late 7th century for the recovery of his sick wife. It is one of the country's most famous imperial and ancient Buddhist temples, and is part of the "Historic Monuments of Ancient Nara" UNESCO World Heritage site. Yakushiji's layout is symmetrical, with two main halls and two three-storey pagodas.
For today’s “Window Friday” on Mastodon, I have this scene from a ride on a Kyoto city bus, giving us almost the same angle of view as that of the proud driver.
During the five winters I have lived in Tokyo so far, snow has been an extremely rare occurrence. Almost exactly 2 years ago, we got a memorable dusting of a few centimeters, and I walked around my neighborhood after work to capture some impressions.
All photos taken in the Shimura district of Itabashi Ward in Tokyo, Japan.
Some random shots from last night walking home after an office day, and getting off two stops earlier than usual. I love walking through Itabashi in the evening to relax and wind down after work. Photos taken in Miyamoto-chō and Hasunuma-chō districts.
From an evening walk around the Gion area of Kyoto a couple of years ago, here is a set of photos shot with the Fujifilm X-E2 and an 18-55mm Fujinon lens - a camera system that I really liked but had to sell. Maybe one of these days in the future, I’ll return to Fuji’s X series again.
We’re super excited to announce the addition of 2 new Penguins to our (very local, plush) Penguin Colony: 2 Gentoo penguins (far right in photo) named GenOne & GenTwo. 😉 We now have 5 Emperor + 2 Gentoo Penguins! 😍 It’s probably the only penguin colony in Tucson, AZ, USA! 🐧🐧🐧🐧🐧🐧🐧