Merry Christmas and A Happy New Year

During winter in Japan, myriad of illuminations take place all over Japan to cheer visitors up! Illumination at JR Hakata station, which is decorated with around 800 thousands LED lights, signifies "hope" of our new era, Reiwa (令和).

The kanji characters for Reiwa (令和) are derived from the Man-yohshu (万葉集), an anthology of waka poetry (和歌), compiled in the 8th Century. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan provided an English interpretation of Reiwa as "beautiful harmony".

Symbol tree

According to Fukuoka city official website, they claim their city as a town of light (光の街・福岡) and the symbol tree accounts for it. Illuminated colors of the tree represent those of nature in four seasons.

LED Sky Walk

It takes place from 6th of November to 7th of January (starting from 17:00 till midnight).

Wishing you a Happy New Year 2020!

Big O in Tokyo

You may wonder why this it is called "Big O". 

Yes, it is indeed big wheel with 60 meter diameter and "O" is named from a "centerless" non-rotating structure. In 2006 it is listed as the world's largest centerless Ferris wheel by Guiness World Records!!!

The rail of roller coaster called "Thunder Dolphin" goes through the "O-ring" of Big O! 

It's located very close to Tokyo Dome.

Shanghai Night

A Happy New Year 2015

Dear visitors,

A Happy New Year!!! 明けましておめでとうございます。

Thank you for visiting my photoblog although entry is posted infrequently^^

May every day of 2015 glow with cheer, happiness, and love for you and your family.

Cheers, Yoshi

photo from the archive...

Apple Store in Shanghai

I had a chance to visit Shanghai, China. It was my first time to visit foreign asian country in my life. The views at night appear to be more attractive to me than those seen during daytime.

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".

Bronze Statue Of Sacred Horse

Important note: New Friend Exchange

This entry is a part of activity that I joined through Sunflowerkat321's blog, who decided to play after visiting The Kitchen Bitch Ponder's blog.

I would modify the rule a little and here we go:
I promise to send something related to Japan to the 5 people who leave a comment on this post and who, in turn, promise to send something back to me. The rules are that you need to make the items personally and send within 2011. I will contact you by private message for your snail mail address.

If you only want to comment on this entry but don't want to join this activity, that's fair enough. Just leave a comment as you normally do. 

If you find it interesting, want to join the activity and to swap things between you and me, please express your intention in your comment.

Part two of "Sacred horse" and "Ema (絵馬)" in Shinto religion. Ema is a substitute of the real sacred horse that used to be donated to the shrine in the past. This bronze statue of the sacred horse shown in this photo was donated by an individual who must have been rich and serious about religion. If you want to be a shinto geek, please visit  Lina's blog in which I have described Ema in more detail.

If you are more into live horse action, here you go.

Click photo to know more about the performance

This is an entry for Show Me Japan Vol 1, Issue 12. If you want to see nice photos taken in Japan, don't forget to visit. 

And also for Black and White Weekend, Shadow Shot Sunday #142, Scenic Sunday 133.

             

Have a wonderful weekend.

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.

             

Traffic At Night

It was photographed while a bus was passing me by in my neighborhood. It was full moon that night.

This is a Sky Watch Friday and Looking at the Sky on Friday entries.