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.

Cherry Trees And Giraffes

Today was probably the last chance for us to photograph cherry blossoms in our town, Utsunomiya. So we headed to the Oya district and Utsunomiya zoo (宇都宮動物園). Utsunomiya zoo is one of my favorite places to photograph cherry trees. It's plain gorgeous to see blossoms from the Ferris wheel!

After approximately 5 minutes of the Ferris wheel trip, I spent quite a long time taking photos of giraffes.

A Snail?

When I was rambling through the Utsunomiya downtown, one anonymous building caught my eyes. My first thought was that this metallic snail-looking thingy was a ladder. But I was wrong!

When I got closer to it, "organic" smell got stronger (Thank God that it was winter). This metal object adjacent to the building turned out to be a long and spiral slide to the trash bin! How intelligent, or let's say, lazy the designer of this building was!


This is a Outdoor Wednesday #160 and Sky Watch Friday entry.

 

            

Matsugamine Church

Matsugamine Church (松が峰教会) in Utsunomiya city is made of Oya stone (大谷石).

In February, I visited there at night and posted a photo of this church taken with a real Fisheye lens and explained briefly about this church.

Fishing the Church

The beauty of chilling winter is the clear air and sky! Though it was windy at dusk and nobody was there, it was worth visiting and photographing with the blue sky behind.

Inside photo of this church can be seen there.

Bronze Statue Of Sacred Horse

It was a beautiful day today, though it was cold... When we went to downtown, I stopped at Futaarayama shrine (二荒山神社) to photograph whatever looks interesting. I captured the bronze statue of the sacred horse there.


This is a Black and White Weekend entry.

Have a wonderful Christmas Holiday!

Mikoshi Procession

Summer is the season for the festival in Japan.

The festival we went today is called Miyaichi festival (宮壹祭). In principle, mikoshi (a portable shrine) is owned by each district and the carriers in the district wear the same uniform with its logo. At Miyaichi festival, you can only see ONE mikoshi carried by a variety of participants coming from Utsunomiya downtown, as well as mikoshi freaks coming from outside of Tochigi prefecture.

This year, we have several mikoshi carriers coming from the tsunami devastated area in Tohoku... Though they also could be refugees that had been evacuated to Utsunomiya city...

This is an entry for Show Me Japan Vol 1, Issue 32. If you want to see nice photos taken in Japan, don't forget to visit!!!

Update: For those who are curious about how I took this photo, here is the answer.
I was not on the mikoshi, but my camera was approx. 3 meters high from the ground. I am not a mutant in the movie X-Men. So I don't have the ability to jump 3 meters, stay in the air, and take photos...
What I did was attaching monopod and remote cable release to the camera and doing the blind shooting by walking backwards in front of mikoshi! Does it make sense???

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!!!

 

H-II Rocket Nippon

Photographed at Waku Waku Grandy Science Land in Utsunomiya city, Tochigi prefecture. H-II rocket is a Japanese satellite launch system.

This rocket replica was re-painted last year. We personally prefer the previous version...

Which one do you prefer?



This is a Blue Monday and Mellow Yellow Monday #110 entry.

            

Old Factory in Tochigi City

The factory looks like it is covered with ash...

Well, we did have a volcano eruption at Mt. Kirishima (霧島山) but it's way too far from where I took this photo. If you are curious about the eruption, here we are.

The building shown in this photo is a lime factory in Tochigi city. It was unfortunate that the sky was fully covered with thick clouds when I was there, and because of that almost everything looks just GRAY. And a little bit red from the rust... It's not an abandoned building but it does look so exhausted...

View Larger Map

A series of industrial factories related to the lime is located along Route 202 and I am beginning to like this bizarre looking place! I will definitely visit there once again when the sky is blue!

This is a That's my world and Ruby Tuesday entry.

           

Kagura Performance in Mibu

Daidaikagura (太々神楽) performance at Umebayashi Tenmangu (梅林天満宮) in Mibu city (壬生町). When you see that the name of the shrine ends with "Tenmangu", it means that Michizane SUGAWARA (菅原道真) is enshrined there. He is a deity of scholarship and deified as "Tenjin sama (天神さま)".

The Shinto deity holding a bow in this photo seems to be Hondawake [= Emperor Ojin (応神天皇)]. As you can guess by just looking at him ready to shoot an arrow, he is defied as the "god of war". His nickname is "Machiman sama (八幡さま)".

I have one more photo of the Kagura performance for you!

This is a Mellow Yellow Monday #109 entry.

Shrine Trees

Photographed at Futaarayama Shrine at night. The stage to the left is called Kaguraden Hall (神楽殿) where a traditional dance performance, Kagura (神楽), is dedicated to the Shinto deities.


This is an entry for Sky Watch Friday and Thursday challenge. The theme is "trees".

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.

         

Futaarasan Chuguji Shrine

Photographed about a month ago in Nikko City. It's located just by the Chuzenji lake (中禅寺湖).

These are photos of Chuzenji lake (Click photo to enlarge).

       

Chuguji (中宮祠) shrine acts as an entrance to climbing Mt. Nantai (男体山; 2484m above sea level), which we did last summer.

          Click photo to enlarge. Here is the view from the summit of Mt. Nantai.

The weather today reminded me of autumn and this photo came to my mind.

This is a That's My World Tuesday entry.