Cherry Tree at Korinji Temple

From the archive. Fish-eye filmed by old film camera, Nikon F801S, with negative Kodak film at Korinji Temple (光淋寺) of Jodo school (浄土宗) in Utsunomiya city. Approximately 250-year-old popular cherry tree is registered as natural monument by the city.

I am back!

Dear visitors,

I am terribly sorry for being away from your wonderful blog(s). Due to my family issue that happened soon after 3/11 disaster, I sort of lost my motivation to photograph. To be honest, I still am but I find it inappropriate not to update my blog.

From now on, I will resume posting photos, though not as often as I used to do.

This photo was taken last spring at Korinji temple (広琳寺) in Utsunomiya city with my old film camera, Nikon F801S with a fish eye lens, of course. It's totally out of the season now but the 200-year-old cherry tree should be worth sharing with my visitors.



This is also an entry for Show Me Japan Vol 1, Issue 24. If you want to see nice photos taken in Japan, don't forget to visit!!!

 

Orchestra Performance

This image is from the archive that I photographed in Kanuma City during the Kanuma Buttsuke Autumn Festival...

It was a cold day today (below zero Celsius at night) and I felt like posting photo taken during a warm weather. Where's the spring???

This is an entry for Sky Watch Friday, Walk In The Street, and Foto Friday (the theme is Shapes and Finales) entry.

         

Have a wonderful weekend.

All In One Frame

Yes, three famous buildings in NYC - the World Trade Center (no longer exists), the Empire State Building, and the Chrysler Building - are all in one place. This is photographed with a Fish eye lens (of course) at Tobu World Square (東武ワールドスクエア) in Nikko city.


This is an entry for Sky Watch Friday.

Matsugamine Church

Matsugamine Catholic Church (松が峰教会) history goes back to 1888. The current Church, as shown in this photo, was designed by Max Hinder (Swiss) and founded in 1932. The Church complex comprises of three floors - on the ground floor there is a kindergarten and the second floor is for the Chapel (main worship hall).

This is the largest building made of Oya stone (大谷石) in the world. The stone is called that because it is quarried out at Oya town in Utsunomiya city. Since it's been over-mined, the quantity of the remaining stone is quite small...

As you can easily guess, this is photographed with my favorite lens, Sigma 15mm Diagonal Fisheye, attached to film camera, Nikon F801S.


This is a Sepia Scenes #119 and Alphabe-Thursday entry. Q is for quarry, quantity, and, quite.

             

Festival In Kanuma City

We don't have many matsuri (festivals) during winter and we miss them so much. So I decided to post a matsuri photo taken in Kanuma city, Tochigi Prefecture. When we were there, my wife was wearing a black T-shirt with a big logo saying "I♡Tochigi" (in Japanese). It really worked and everybody was friendly to her and she felt that she was a Celebrity (alternatively they were just laughing at her and it was all her misinterpretation!).

Each district has its own Mikoshi float. The floats in Kanuma city are well-known for their detailed carvings all over the main structure. They have four wooden wheels and are pulled by district members. As you can see in the photo taken by a film camera (Nikon F801S), a float has a small front stage to entertain the audience with live music played by a traditional orchestra hidden behind the stage.

If you want to know it more in detail, we have articles regarding this autumn festival (part 1 and part 2).

If you don't feel like reading, then you can enjoy photos taken during the festival: day 1 part 1, day1 part 2 float, day 2, hair style (recommended), Mikoshi float map night photos (recommended) , locals.


This is an entry for Show Me Japan Vol 1, Issue 11. If you want to see nice photos taken in Japan, don't forget to visit.

This is also an entry for Sky Watch Friday.

Anonymous Tree

Part 5 of the Buddhist Guardian ....

No No No, that Buddha statue series is just over!

This anonymous tree by the Sainoko Lake (西ノ湖) must be a centenarian (or double?). Needless to say, the weather was lovely when I photographed it with my favorite lens, Fisheye (15 mm, F2.8).

If you want to know more details about this lake, please click here.

Other photos taken at this lake are here:

This is an entry for Sky Watch Friday.

  

"Y"ellow Light Decoration

Photographed at Ashikaga Flower Park (足利フラワーパーク), Ashikaga city, Tochigi Prefecture. This park is well known for having a variety of wisteria trees. The tree in this entry is the biggest among them and it is still growing, branching, and expanding its mass enough to occupy 1000m²!!!

We went there for the Christmas illumination and the tree was decorated with "Y"ellow LED lights. I don't want to know how many LED light bulbs were required to cover the upper part of the tree.

I used Nikon F801S (old film camera) with Sigma 15mm Diagonal Fisheye (first image) and Nikkor 20mm F2.8D (second one).

If you are curious to see this tree during daytime, take a look at this video taken in May, 2010. In the YouTube video, this tree appears at 1:00 min mark.

This is an Outdoor Wednesday, Watery Wednesday (second photo) and ABC Wednesday entry.Y is for yellow.

         

"U"ndisturbed "U"pstream of Ryuzu Waterfall

It is located between Ryuzu waterfall (very popular) and this place where very few people go.


As some of you probably noticed, it was photographed with my old but lovely film camera, Nikon F801S with a 15mm Fisheye lens (Kodak Super Gold 400 film).

This is a Outdoor Wednesday, Watery Wednesday, and ABC Wednesday entry. U is for "U"ndisturbed and "U"pstream.

                

A Path Through A Forest

Autumn is already over in Nikko. Almost all the colorful autumn leaves are on the ground and this tiny path is covered with fallen leaves. A massive amount of leaves, I have to say!

It was photographed with my old but lovely film camera, Nikon F801S with 15mm Fisheye lens (Kodak Super Gold 400).

This is an entry for Show Me Japan.

And of course, this is also Sky Watch Friday and Looking at the Sky on Friday entry.

    

Kan ei ji temple in Ueno, Tokyo

Taken with an old film camera (Nikon F801S) that a Sigma 15mm F2.8 Diagonal Fisheye is most likely attached to. The beauty of this lens is the resistance against lens flare and ghosts. It has never occurred to me before or I did not notice, except this time.

Can you see a very faint red-and-blue circle to the left side of the image?

Eventually I could make appear a funny ghost "haunting" the 15mm Fisheye lens! There is a cemetery behind the temple, BTW.

Happy Halloween...