Exploring the Wonders of Northern Japan
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.
Long March Icicles?, originally uploaded by jasohill.
We’ve had some strange March weather here in Hachimantai City. It’s the middle of the month already, but the snow just won’t stop falling. Apparently that isn’t normal weather for this area In March.
To give you a perspective, I took a picture of this icicle farm growing behind a building. The constant melting and freezing is keeping people scrambling around on the icy streets. It should be all over soon, I hope.
[This picture comes to you courtesy of my camera phone. The Sharp SH902is]
Iwate Mountain, originally uploaded by jasohill.
I took this photo on a Saturday afternoon. What I really enjoyed about this scene was the way the clouds just seem to be hanging around near the top of the mountain. You can really tell how Iwate Mountain dominate s the sky around my house.
Sadly, because Japan is such a humid country, scenes like this are rare, and the mountain is usually masked in cloud. It was a real blessing to capture the mountain in this light.
On his way, originally uploaded by jasohill.
As a way of promoting Hachimantai city , I have decided to post a picture from the city on my blog every week. This week’s picture comes from the 16th annual Eastern Japan Biathlon, which was held in Tamaya.
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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If any of you ever wondered how I got to work, I now have nice pictorial answer I can give you. You may be familiar with my car, but in order to cut down on gas costs, I started commuting to work by train.
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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I was able to avoid the blizzards that hit Vermont and Edmonton. I escaped them on a jet plane to sweet sweet freedom. However, today I wasn’t able to outrun the one hundred centimeters of snow that seemed to have buried my house, my car and my sanity.
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.
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!
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