Full moon rises over Shinjuku's Center Building and Mode Gakuen Cocoon Tower

Today’s photo of 新宿センタービル and モード学園コクーンタワー was taken from 東京都庁舎 in Shinjuku.

Posted on October 22nd, 2011 under Japan. Tags: buildings, shinjuku. Comments: 1

Skyscrapers across the tracks from the Shinagawa Prince Hotel (品川プリンスホテル) with a shinkansen pulling into Shinagawa Station

When Ryan came back from his school field trip to Cambodia, his bus from the airport dropped everyone off at the Shinagawa Prince Hotel. I went a bit early to welcome him back, even though the skies weren’t very interesting, to see what the views would be like from the top of the Shinagawa Prince Hotel’s 39 floors.

A bullet train is about to enter the Shinagawa Station in today’s photo. You can also see the buildings for the headquarters of Canon MJ (customer service I think) and Mitsubishi Construction. Tokyo Bay is in the distance (although easily reachable on foot from here).

Posted on October 17th, 2011 under Japan. Tags: buildings, Tokyo, trains. Comments: 1

Bergen's Bryggen (wharf)

Bryggen, in Bergen, Norway, is a UNESCO World Cultural Heritage site. Look closely and you’ll see that each building is tipping in a slightly different way. Some of the buildings in this area are hundreds of years old. Most have burned down once or more over the years and then been rebuilt in basically the original style. Today’s photo shows just three of the buildings, but there are actually more than a dozen lined up in a row like this.

Posted on September 24th, 2011 under Other. Tags: bergen, buildings, Nikon 18-200mm VR II, nikon d7000, norway. Comments Off on Bryggen

Fantoft Stave Church - Bergen, Norway

Ever since playing the computer game, Age of Mythology, I’ve been a bit fascinated with Stave churches (stavkirke). The first time we went to Norway, in 2008, we didn’t have time to visit one. When I read that there was one in Denmark, near Aarhus, I was excited to visit, but I was a bit of a disappointment as it wasn’t anything like the Norwegian variety.

So as soon as I got to Bergen I jumped on the light rail and headed to the Fantoft Stave Church. The original stave church from 1150 didn’t look much like this (at least not in the 19th Century after hundreds of years of changes). The church was moved to Bergen in 1883 and reverted to this older style. However, in 1992 the idiot arsonist and murderer Varg Vikernes burned the church. The one I photographed above at dusk is a 1997 reconstruction.

Posted on September 11th, 2011 under Other. Tags: bergen, buildings, stave church, sunset. Comments Off on Fantoft Stave Church in Bergen

Anne Frank House - 263 Prinsengracht

“Friday, July 10, 1942

After we arrived at 263 Prinsengracht, Miep quickly led us through the long hallway and up the wooden staircase to the next floor and into the Annex.”

Sign on the Anne Frank House - Anne Frank Huis

The Anne Frank House is now a museum. In it you will find not only the rooms she describes in such detail (pretty much as they were when Anne lived there in the early 1940s), but also pages from her original diary and the clippings she herself decorated the walls with (now covered in protective glass).

Posted on September 4th, 2011 under Other. Tags: amsterdam, anne frank, buildings, museums. Comments Off on Anne Frank House