|
The above will search Traveljapanblog.com. Concerts - Landscapes - Sports |
Inuyama Castle
There’s a mansion on the hill
Psychedelic music fills the air
Peace and love live there still
In that mansion on the hill. — Neil Young
For some reason, that Neil Young tune came into my head while I processed this image of, not a mansion per se but, Inuyama Castle (犬山城) in Aichi Prefecture (愛知県).
O.Co Coliseum and Oracle Arena
Today Game 2 of the ALDS will happen at the O.co Coliseum between the Oakland A’s and Detroit Tigers. I wish I was flying in again like I was back in May when I took today’s photo.
Arashiyama (嵐山) just after sunset panorama
Arashiyama is one of the most magical places in the world, and dusk is a magical time of day. I didn’t have my tripod with me on this evening in Kyoto as I had been biking around all day and still had a couple hours of biking ahead of me. So I set my camera on the edge of the famous Togetsu Bridge to take this 2 second exposure at ISO 100 and f/11.
Stand and eat noodles at Shin-Imamiya Station (新今宮駅)
The morning I headed out for Koyasan from Osaka I figured I would just find some breakfast along the way. By the time I arrived at the Shinimamiya Station for the train transfer I was starving so I purchased some gyoza and ate them on the platform. They were delicious. On my way back from Koyasan I found out the same station also had the above eating possibility.
This type of eating is known as tachigui (立ち食い) (literally, standing eating), and you can do it in Japan at numerous places including the Nankai Soba (南海そば) pictured here.
SK Wyverns’ player rounds third, salutes the third base coach, and heads for home after hitting a home run
October begins, and with it comes the grand finale in most professional baseball leagues. My A’s are still alive and well in the major leagues. My KIA Tigers in Korea tanked it big time. They were contenders a week or two after I arrived in Gwangju, but have won very few games since. The SK Wyverns lost to the Lotte Giants the night I saw this game despite this home run.
The playoffs are set for the 2013 Korean Professional Baseball (KPB) postseason, and they will not include the Tigers, Giants, or Wyverns.
Building next to Fukuoka‘s Dazaifu Tenmangu Shrine (太宰府天満宮)
One thing that I love about traveling around Japan is that even on days when I have no plans, some sort of unforeseen adventure sprouts out of nowhere. Such was the case on the day that I took today’s photo. I was wandering around Hakata Machiya Folk Museum, mostly to stay out of the rain, when a man asked me (in Japanese) if I could understand Japanese. We chatted for a few minutes, and that’s all it took for him to tell me that he insisted on being my tour guide for the rest of the day. He was a retired history professor. Since it was my last day in Fukuoka, he wanted to show me Dazaifu. He wouldn’t even let me pay for my train ticket. He told me all about all sorts of things over the next few hours. At one point he told me about this house at the end of the road between the station and the shrine, but I can’t remember what he said now that several months have passed.
If you have spent any time in Japan you probably know that virtually every famous place has a road leading to it that is lined with shops selling food, souvenirs (omiyage or おみやげ or お土産), and local specialties to the countless tourists who have frequented the path over the years, decades, and centuries. Today’s photo is of one such establishment. Perhaps it has been made over recently, but the more traditional and stylish these buildings are, the more tourist heads they are likely to turn and attract. We were there after business hours so most of the shops were already closed for the day.