Exploring the Wonders of Northern Japan
I was in Sapporo this year for an unrelated reason(a friend’s wedding.) However, I happened to have a free evening on my hands so took in the sights of the Sapporo Snow Festival. This festival is the biggest of its kind in the world, and I didn’t have much time to capture it all. Here is what I got while I was there. Enjoy!
There are many signs that spring has arrived in Japan. At first, the daffodils come out, followed by crocuses and tulips. Green grasses start to slowly cover brown fields. Finally, in a burst of white and pink, cherry blossoms awaken across the country from the end of March until the end of April.
You can see many signs that spring has come in people here as well. First comes the graduation ceremonies followed by the farewell parties(sobetestukai.) Then, new job assignments and High School placements are announced. After this, comes the first day and the welcome parties(kangeikai) and finally, to experience the explosion of cherry blossoms all over the country, there is a mass of flower viewing parties(called Hanami) all over the country. People in Japan take their cues from nature. It’s so timely, you could set your watch by it. This is spring in Japan.
Photo: Cherry Blossoms at Takamatsu pond in Morioka City, Iwate Japan. HDR with three exposures around sunset. Canon 350D 50mm f/1.8 ISO 100.
New Self Portrait to Celebrate the end of October, originally uploaded by jasohill.
I am currently participating in a flickr group called “six million people.” I added this photo of myself to the group.
During World War II, Nazi Germany was responsible for the murder of over six million Jews. A horrific number, but a number that isn’t easily understood by the human brain. It is so large that people cannot fathom it. The idea behind this group is to gather six million portraits of unique people in one place, so that we can start to understand just how much of a toll the Nazi’s took on the population in general. The group is open to anyone. All they ask is that you submit one portrait of one unique person. So you can submit as many people as you like, as long as there is only one photo of each of them.
I am hoping to place as many people in the group as possible. I hope you do as well. I feel it is important to never forget this tragedy. Here is a link so you can easily find it:
Six Million People (flickr group)
Also featured is Spotlight Seven: another group that talks about some of the talented photographers that are taking photos for the Six Million People project.
Windy Iwate Mountain, originally uploaded by jasohill.
You’ll probably notice some changes around here. I’ve upgraded the website to Wordpress 2.32 and have decided to go with a new theme based around the K2 interface. I’ve also chosen a new theme for the blog. I will still be focusing on Japan of course, but I will be working more of my photography into the stories as well. I’m going to move this blog more towards a photoblog of Japan.
To start this off I present you the first picture of Iwate Mountain I took this year. As you can see, it’s fairly windy up near the top, where the snow is being blasted off the side of the mountain. I went on a twenty minute drive to find the best shot for this. The entire time, I was worried the winds were going to die down. Lucky for me, they actually got stronger. This is why they don’t recommend you climb this sucker in the winter.
Takizawa Morning, originally uploaded by jasohill.
If you were to live in my area of Japan, you might just see this on a particularly clear morning. In this picture, Mt. Iwate stands guard over the small town of Takizawa, south of where I live, and north of Morioka. You usually can’t see the mountain as it’s covered in clouds.
La Lune, originally uploaded by jasohill.
Did you catch the total lunar eclipse on August 28, 2007? It wasn’t hard to see from Matsuo, Hachimantai City. All I had to do was look up. There were clear skies all evening. Still, it wasn’t an easy subject to capture. Even though my lens is a 200mm zoom lens, I still had to do a lot of cropping to get this image.
Many of my students has no idea how a lunar eclipse happens, so I spend the first fifteen minutes of my classes today giving them a quick astronomy lesson. Most seemed bored, but there were a fair number of students that wanted to know more. I’m glad I was able to reach out to them.
Update: English meaning section. I almost forgot to post what the Japanese word for Lunar Eclipse is. In Japanese you say gesshoku(月食) for a lunar eclipse and nisshoku(日食）for a solar eclipse. They mean “Moon Eat” and “Sun Eat.” If it’s a total eclipse of sun sun, you say kaikishoku(皆既食）、and of the moon, kaikigesshoku(皆既月食.）The more you know…
The hot season has finally arrived in Japan. Temperature soar to 30+C and I’m left sweating the days away.
It’s not all that bad, however. One of the nice things about this time of year are the flowers. You can see many different kinds, and if you are lucky, you can grab a good picture of them as well.
Is it a dream?, originally uploaded by jasohill.
June is here, and that means it’s flower time. Japan has to this awesome ability to spawn flowers on demand the way many teenagers are able to populate their faces with acne.
I used the great June weather to go out and capture this beautiful field of violet flowers. In my opinion, the best time for flower photography is near sunset or just after sunrise. Any other time and the light is just too harsh. If you must shoot in mid day, consider a polarizing light filter, or a shoot with a lower F number to keep those harsh sun beams from overexposing your shots. If you can wait for some clouds to come it might just provide a little softening on those harsh shadows. Enjoy!
Stormy Sunset, originally uploaded by jasohill.
It’s always nice to know I have a three megapixel camera on my phone if I should need one. I caught this amazing sunset the other night while I walking to the train station. The sun was going down down behind rain clouds and a mountain. I was really lucky to get this one. You can see the rice fields in the foreground.
Spring Textures, originally uploaded by jasohill.
It has been a few weeks since I posted something in the photo department. This week’s photo is a tribute to spring. It’s also a tribute to what you might find when you walk around in small town Japan. The colors are finally coming back.
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