On his way, originally uploaded by jasohill.
There was a gerneral competition and a competition set aside for pro competitors. You really have to attend a live biathlon to understand all the work that goes into competing in this grueling sport.Not only are all the athletes expert marksmen, but they are also flawless cross country skiers. Missing just one target will cost you precious time, so they train to hit all five targets every time. My local board of education was responsible for running the event.
New photographs from Hachimantai will be posted every Thursday. All hachimantai photos can be found in my Hachimantai set on flickr.
The Hanawa Line, originally uploaded by jasohill.
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This is no ordinary train, however. It uses an older style diesel engine, and there aren’t that many of them left. The line starts officially at Koma station(although you can catch the train at Morioka Station) and travels all the way up to Odate in Akita Prefecture. It also makes a stop at an Onsen village called “yuuze” and a ski resort called “APPI”. The wonderful thing about this line is that it takes me anywhere I need to go for work. It passes near all of my schools, my home and my branch office.
The one negative aspect of this line is that it only comes a handful of times a day. I suppose it’s not the end of the world, but it makes weekend activities or shopping almost impossible without a car. It also means I have to wait until 5:30pm to get home every day. Still, riding the train to work everyday is pretty awesome.
Hey, it’s Sn’o problem, originally uploaded by jasohill.
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The snow was so deep I had to shovel a path to car just to shovel out the car. Then when I got on the road it was like some sort of aircraft turbulence from hell. The vehicle started to sway back and forth, and then when I slowed it down to about 30km/h I got this massive up and down vibration from the road. Then up the road, I could see my nemesis. The grader from hell. Shoveling snow and blocking my road. That was the only time I went out today. I hope not to have to go out again until April.
Remember folks, Japan might seem like a magical Island of awesome food and rice fields, but when winter comes, we get the same old crap. At least when you live in Iwate it is.
I joined a little project at Utata called, Iron Photography. Every week they give you three items to compose a photo with. For example, use a cup, some cheese and a light source. You have to take these three elements and make a picture with them. I thought this would be a blast, so I signed up for challenge no. 8. It involved something made of paper, a vessel of some sort and a low angle. And you can see, I made my work using a glass, some Japanese Yen notes and the floor. For effect, I also tunred on my camera phone light and used it to bring out the colors in the yen.
I used a 50mm lends with at F1.8 to make sure I was bringing out the detail in the bills only. As you can see from the photo, an F stop of 1.8 doesn’t leave a lot of field. Everything not in the field blurs out. That is the joy of using a lens with an F stop of 2 or under. You can really highlight fine details.
I was asked this week if I wanted to add some of my photos to the Hachimantai Art and Culture Festival. My photos would be displayed in the Ashiro town gym for a about three days to a week. I didn’t see how this could be a bad thing, so I went home, chose my 10 best “Hachimantai” pictures, put them on CD and had them printed.
The following day I went back to pick them up and realized they were 800 yen (around eight dollars) each. That came to around 8400 yen. Ouch! Then the store owner asks me if I’d like some frames for them. I mean, how can you display a photo at an exhibit without frames? So I go and buy ten frames. This costs me 750 yen a frame. Quite an investment indeed.
There are two ways I am going to rationalize this purchase. The first is that, as an ALT, it is my job to internationalize and show what foreigners are capable of. What better way to do this, then by visually demonstrating this. My second reason is to get my photos out in the open. I feel that if people see my work, they might be interested in seeing more.
I hope I’m right.
Fall has made it’s way to northern Japan. I was just out yesterday and noticed the veritable rainbow of leaves around me. Fall in Japan is more impressive than spring is. I took this photo from near the top of Hachimantai Mountain. I’m hoping to get out again on the weekend and shoot some more fall images. There are entire mountains full of color. The temperature has also dipped under th 10 degree mark. It’s time to start thinking about the ski season.
In other news, some of my Canadian friends made their way up here for a little one on one time with Jason. I would say most of them were a little surprised to see the lack of anything other than rice fields. I did warn them about this beforehand. Overall I think everyone had a good time. I only wish I had a car large enough to take them to some of the really cool spots. We did hit up an onsen and a few local toursits spots, however.
One place in particular was called, “Taki no Yuu”, or “The waterfall bath.” We didn’t notice any waterfalls, but we did feel the 40+ degree temperature in the bath. You really being to appreciate which body parts are more sensitive to scalding hot water when you foolishly place them it in. My friend Chris remarked that he could see what parts of me were in the bath by the massive red line that formed on my back. Perhaps that bath was a little too hot.
Taki no yuu Hotel
There are still a few more visits in store before everyone makes there way back to Canada. I’m hoping to show them all the Japan that I have come to love. Sadly, there is just too much to see, and they are only in Iwate for a small period of time. Still, it’s better than them not coming at all. Have a good weekend!
One of the things I love about flickr is the sheer number of beautiful photos that I come across. Sometimes, one of those photos stands above the rest, and James Disley’s “Geisha 1″ ranks up there among my favorites. What is it that captivates me about this photograph?
If you look closely, you’ll notice that there is very little color in the picture, but it’s used very strategically. The colors on the umbrella draw your attention to it, then your eyes float down gently through her hair to the red on her lips and then come to a rest on her belt. I love how she is positioned in the photo. Just off of the center. I find the umbrella to be tilted just enough to showcase her delicate yet commanding posture.
if you look at the background, you can see it’s there, but not enough to be distracting.
Some have complained that this photo is overexposed in some areas. I find that a rather blunt statement. If anything is overexposed it seems to have been done that way intentionally. And it works well for the composition.
I’m very happy to know there are people like James Disley in Japan, keeping a sharp eye on the exquisite beauty around this fine country.
The previous topic was rather upsetting, so why don’t we talk about something a little happier. On tuesday I walked over to the Hachimantai Summer Festival. The event started at 5pm with a stage show and then followed a group of Taiko drummers and dancers. They circled the food area and danced around for about an hour.
That was fun for about twenty minutes. Then I realized that is all there would be until the fireworks. I went over to the food stands, bought a beer and a salted yakitori and made my way over to where the fireworks were going to be held. The nice thing about this being the first festival is taht it wasn’t esstablished, and therefore not that many people came. That gave me an excellent spot to set up my camera for the fireworks. They started a little after eight and last a full hour. It was an impressive show.
I took over 200 pictures. I found only about 15 to be worthy of posting up. Out of all of them, this was my favorite. To me, it symbolized the meaning of the festival. Color and light.
Have a good week everyone.
My first week in Hachimantai City was quite exciting. I had a chance to check out some of the interesting sites around town. There were quite a few of them. On Friday I joined a group of teachers and headed out on a tour of some of the cultural assets of the Nanashigure(七時雨) area.
Nanashigure is a class E volcano. What this means is that it hasn’t erupted in over one hundred thousand years. At one point in the past, this volcano blew it’s top and left a concave area that led to the formation of a lake. The water receded many thousands of years ago, but there is geological evidence in the strata lines that there was indeed a massive lake in the area, and we got an opportunity to see this line in the rock.
Most of the sites we visited were ancient religious sites that were used by early Japanese people. Some of them went back well over a thousand years. We also got a glimpse of the old road system that people used to travel by. You can find many ancient stones that show what certain areas of Hachimantai city used to be called. The old road was fairly popular amongst travelers in Japan’s ealy history, right up until about 110 years ago.
I wasn’t terribly interested in the religious significance of what I saw, but there was an amazing collection of temples and torii to be found. Not to mention all the wildlife that surrounded us. There is even an old style Japanese hut. You can’t enter it, but just looking around it gives you a sense of the deep history in the areas.
And with that, my first week in Hachimantai came to an end. I was very grateful for having them bring me along on the trip. I met a number of nice teachers, and found that many people were using the same model of camera that I was. Small world!
I took a little break from moving this afternoon and got down to some photography. I noticed a little girl sketching out an amazing flower. All the students are now on spring break, so she was using her free time to hone her artistic ability. I though I would join her.
I just love the way this flower draws you in with its subtle change in colors. This is why I love flowers and this is why I love Japan. It’s full of stuff like this.
