Naritasan Temple

Just prior to taking an airplane at Narita airport, I visited Naritasan temple (成田山). 

Main hall

The actual name of the Buddhist temple complex is called Naritasan Shinshoji (成田山新勝寺) that was established in AD 940. It belongs to the Shingon school Chisan branch (真言宗智山派)

Three-storied pagoda image taken by Infrared camera

Acala (不動明王), a guardian deity of fire, is worshipped there.

Somon gate taken by an infrared camera

This is Weekend Black and White 27th of June entry.

Shoin Shrine in Hagi City

I had a chance to visit neighboring cities thanks to the generous offer from a Yamaguchi native!

There are two Shoin shrines (松陰神社) in Tokyo and Hagi city in Yamaguchi and I, of course, visited the latter one.

The first Torii gate taken by Infrared camera

I think almost all Japanese can recognize him as one of the indispensable personnel in achieving Meiji Restoration (明治維新).

Probably due to his given name, Sho (松= pine) in (陰), lots of pine trees are planted there.

Tsunetomi Hachimangu in Yamaguchi City

Currently, I have a short stay in Yamaguchi city, located at the very western tip of the mainland, for around four weeks. This is my first weekend and I rambled new neighborhood on Sunday.

Sure, I visited a couple of local shrines! Two shrines are combined there: Tsunetomi Hachimangu (恒富八幡宮) and Takakurakou Shrine (高倉荒神社). Since it's named Hachimangu, Hondawakenomikoto, also known as Emperor Ohjin (応神天皇) is enshrined in Tsunetomi Hachimangu, as well as Ichikishimahime no mikoto (市杵嶋姫命), Takirihime no mikoto (多紀理毘売命), and Tagitsuhime no mikoto (多岐都比売命).

Tsunetomi Hachimangu taken by Infrared camera

On the contrary, Takakurakou Shrine enshrines Sumanoo (須佐之男神) and Ukemochi (保食神)

It's a brand new building as they lost almost all buildings by fire in February 2002 (local newspaper article here in Japanese). 

Japanese Garden

Just like yesterday, this is another infrared photography taken by my customized digital camera - Olympus C2020Z. Since chlorophyl has autofluorescence around 700 nm when exposed by sunlight, green leaves look so bright.

This is a Weekend Reflections, Scenic Sunday, and black and white weekend entry.

   

Have a wonderful weekend.

Extra-Sensory Perception

You know, our eyes have a very narrow visible light band ranging from 400 to 700 nm and the same principle applies to your DSLR/DSR camera. Although silicon-based sensors (CCD and CMOS) are sensitive to detect wavelength up to around 1200 nm, there are filters to get rid of UV (ultra violet) and IR (infrared) sitting in front of the sensor.

My old camera, Olympus C-2020Z, which I bought at Yahoo Auctions ($5 bucks!!!), makes it possible to photograph infrared (but almost all the visible light is cut off = no colors). The previous owner customized it to photograph infrared.

This is probably how bugs see the world through their own eyes!!!

And the image below is taken by Sigma DP1s (FOVEON sensor). That's how we see our world.

This is a Skywatch Friday entry.