Tag Archives: travel

Mt Fuji

These pictures will never be anywhere other than my blog. However, as we rode the train from Tokyo to Toyohashi, we went along the coastline that takes you south around Mt Fuji. Possibly Japan’s most famous landmark, it really is a bit mountain. Even from the train, I was quite taken with how big it was. It was a hazy day so not the best for taking pictures and taking them from a moving train (a very fast moving train) didn’t help. Neither did the various poles and cables alongside the tracks but I still had to get a shot or two as mementos. This is it!

Tokyo Views

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I have talked about the Skytree in Tokyo so now it is time to show a little of what it looks like from up there. It was a very nice day when we visited but there was a certain amount of haze in the air. Seeing Mt Fuji was out of the question but there were still great views of the city itself. We restricted ourselves to the 350m viewing area. You can see an awful lot from that high. If this had been the only thing we were doing that day, I would have paid the extra to go as high as possible but it wasn’t a good plan to use up all of our time on one thing. Besides, when you are trying to get an experience of a city, looking down on it only tells you so much!

There are actually several levels as you walk around the 350m area. The glass is leaning out so you can get quite a view downwards. Combine this with the structure gradually getting wider lower down and you can get an interesting perspective on where you are. Tokyo is a busy city with a combination of old and new buildings to be seen. You can see the parks including the Imperial Palace grounds as well as the many rail lines crossing the city.

There is a lot of water. The big port area is easy to see as are the rivers that cut through everything. I didn’t know much about Tokyo when I got there (still don’t of course but I am slightly more aware) so this was very interesting to me. As with all high places these days, they have provided a place with a glass floor. We had to check this out. It was actually tower glass panels separated by a few feet so it felt a little more detached than some of these places but still pretty cool. After checking out the gift shop which had more Skytree themed items than would seem possible (but not the one I wanted), it was time to head off and see more of Tokyo.

Shinkansen

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One thing that Japan is famous for is their high speed rail network. The Shinkansen has been in service since the 1960s and has expanded to cover far more of the country while also becoming more popular and faster. I was heading from Tokyo to Toyohashi which meant taking a ride on the original line that runs to Osaka. This is the busiest line both from the perspective of passengers and frequency of service. The trains are very modern and comfortable running at speeds of close to 200mph. The speed is not the most interesting thing for me. Plenty of countries have fast trains these days. What is impressive is just how many of them are running.

There are fast and stopping services along the line. My first trip was on one of the stopping services. We would get to a station and stop for several minutes and would have one of two trains blast past us. Then we would be on our way again. One of my colleagues checked out the timetable and noted in one hour that 21 trains passed through Toyohashi. Our return leg was on one of the minimal stopping trains and it made the journey back in about one hour less than our outbound trip. Timing is everything it seems. The volume of trains traveling that fast was something else.

I did manage to get a few pictures of the trains while I was there. These were mainly as they pulled in to our station as we were traveling but I did get to see some of them come through at full speed. They really are motoring. They crest the hill and come into view quite a way off but that doesn’t give you much time. They are upon you in a heartbeat. I was stuck between wanted to get a picture and wanting to have an image that conveyed the speed. Unfortunately, with little time to experiment, I was pushed into making sure I got something.

I did also try to get passing shots of other trains while we were traveling. This was a crap shoot since they appear and disappear very fast. I was aiming to get a blurred nose on the view but, even at a high frame rate, this didn’t work out much. All of that said, here are a few Shinkansen shots.

I also got to see one of the original Series 0 cab cars while visiting the company we were seeing. They built it and have it as part of their collection. I was aiming to get a shot of it the day we left but the schedule got busy so that one will have to be a memory only.

Tokyo Skytree

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One of my current projects recently took me to Japan for a few days. As with many work trips, the chances to take a look around were a little limited. However, I did get a bit of spare time to play with on the day I was flying back to the US. A colleague of mine showed me a little of what Tokyo has to offer before we headed back to Narita to fly home.

We headed out to explore the Tokyo Skytree. This is a huge tower that has just been built and, while it is a popular attraction, we timed our visit well and were able to head straight in. First, a few stats about the tower itself. It opened in 2012 after a four year construction period. It has a main viewing area about 350m up. (That is about 1,100’ for those of you not working in metric.) There is a secondary viewing area at about 450m if you weren’t high enough before. The top of the tower is 634m. This thing is not small.

As an engineer, it is an interesting structure. It is a tubular framework which transitions from something close to circular near the top to something more triangular near the base. The transition is very subtle and it took a while to even see it as I looked from the ground. The elevator to the first viewing level was both fast and smooth. You were hardly aware you were moving apart from the occasional ear popping! It really is something very impressive and I shall post more about my visit there shortly.

Bryce Canyon

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Continuing the theme of looking back through photos of trips I have taken in the past and that have never made their way on to the blog, we find ourselves in Utah. Our trip to the Grand Canyon was the first leg of a journey that also included some time at Bryce Canyon. This was a location that I was really struck by. The beauty of it combined with the relative peace at the time of year we were there meant it was something very special. Walking down into the canyon was a very inspiring experience.

We spent some time there and walked along the rim of the canyon (and back again courtesy of missing the shuttle as a result of someone spending too much time taking pictures) as well as into the canyon itself. The weather was great while we were there which certainly helped to appreciate what it had to offer. These shots are a few of the many I took while there. Now I want to go back!

Grand Canyon

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My friend Jo Hunter recently blogged about her trip from Texas to Las Vegas and back. She saw and did many interesting things en route so I would suggest you check it out at Futurshox. Part of her trip took her to the Grand Canyon. Nancy and I made a trip to the North Rim of the canyon quite a few years ago. I decided to take another look at some of the pictures from that time. One point of having pictures is so that you can go back and take another look to remember what you did in days gone by.

Another thing if you are a photographer is to go back and see what you did with those pictures and whether anything you have learned since might give them a new lease on life. One thing is the different processing tools that are available. Another is your approach to using those tools. Consequently, I had a look through a few of the shots and decided to give them a go.

It is a little sad to see how many cameras I have been through since that trip. These were taken with my first DSLR at a time when it was still relevant to use the term DSLR. Nowadays, there are hardly any SLRs around that aren’t digital so perhaps we should just call them SLRs again. Anyway, I digress. Despite the lower resolution, the image quality from that old body is really not too shabby. I had full page magazine images from that camera and they looked great. It might have been a bit restricted in how far you could push it but it still worked well.

Enough blathering, here are the shots. It has got me excited about that part of the world again. I suppose a trip down there may be another thing to add to the list. Of course, the list never gets shorter. Always so many things to be done!

Muir Woods

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Having visitors is always a good excuse to go to places that you haven’ been to for a while. Muir Woods National Monument was one such destination. If only we had known just how many other people had the same idea, we might have aimed to get there a lot earlier in the day. As it was, we got there a bit alter in the afternoon. A short while later and it might have been a lot easier to park. Of course, late in the day in winter means fading light and being in a heavily wooded area means even less light!

Muir Woods is a great place to wander. Having a lot of other visitors means it is a little less tranquil. My previous visits have obviously been off peak and usually involved colder and damper weather. This time it was dry and warm(ish). The trees are majestic and often interestingly shaped. However, being so close to such large trees as coastal redwoods does make it hard to get the images that you have in your mind.

The light is tricky and the angles wide. Some playing with HDR and panoramas certainly helped out. Sometimes it was just fun to look straight up. The shapes there are exactly as you imagine them. The dynamic range is so large that even HDR doesn’t always cover it (at least the way I was bracketing the shots) but it still worked out okay.

Bodega Bay

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Our run down the coast brought us to Bodega Bay. Neither of us had been there before but we had heard it was pretty and also knew about its appearances in The Birds! No attacking avians on this day but we initially passed straight through the town without being terribly impressed. However, we had seen a turning off towards Bodega Bay head so a backtrack took us along a different road around the bay. We were also hungry at this point!

Fortunately, we soon came to an area where the fishing boats tied up and there were two places selling crab sandwiches. One was a small hut which only had a couple of items on the menu and the other was a bigger looking place with a wider menu but a lot less people. We figured the simple option of doing one thing and doing it well might be the case in the hut and went for their crab sandwiches. They were excellent. No wonder the place had a line outside it.

Suitably reinvigorated, we headed up to the headland. Here you had a view back to the bay but a more interesting view of the cliffs and the shoreline. A stroll up the cliff path was in order (that crab sandwich needed to be burned off) and the appeal of more crashing waves on rocks was too much for us to resist. The sun was shining and the wind was not too strong so it was a really nice place to be and, while we weren’t alone in thinking this, with so much space, it never felt like you were in a busy place. What a great end to the trip.

Pacific Coast Highway

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Returning from Mendocino County provided the option of driving along the coast heading south. The Pacific Coast Highway is a great choice if you have time on your hands and we did have. Therefore, we headed this way. The run down the coast is a combination of great views, long runs along the cliffs and the occasional area of twisting road around the inlets that occasionally cut into the shoreline. When the road is quiet it is a lot of fun. If you get stuck behind a bunch of RVs, it suddenly is a little less enjoyable.

We stopped a number of times en route to enjoy the view. One diversion out towards a lighthouse provided a lovely overlook of the shore including a bay below us that was full of sea lions. Despite the crashing waves, this area apparently provided a bit of shelter and the sea lions were seemingly taking it easy behind the protection of some rocky ledges.

There are lots of areas with large rocks slightly offshore. This reminded me a lot of the coast of Oregon (which, since we weren’t that far south, is probably not that surprising). Heading south we were looking into the sun so had some lovely reflections of the light off the water. Occasionally the edge of the road was very close to the top of the cliffs so you do have to stay focused as you drive along but it is a beautiful area on a sunny day. I imagine if a storm is rolling in from the ocean, it is also dramatic but a little less welcoming.

Mendocino

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A weekend away after a bunch of home moving activities seemed like a great idea. We had an invitation away for the Thanksgiving weekend which we would have liked to have taken but the travel involved meant it was not going to be a practical proposition. Instead, we decided to drive a couple of hours north to Mendocino and have a short break there as compensation for the missed trip to friends.

This turned out to be a great idea. We chose a weekend when the weather was gorgeous and the number of people was limited. What a combination! While we were staying in Albion, a little way south of Mendocino itself, we decided to head there on the day we arrived and take a look around. It is a cracking little town. It is a combination destination with people who are getting away from the hustle of life being there as well as city folks doing the same thing if only for a day or two.

There are lots of little shops to deal with the tourists and the place is very picturesque. It is planted right on the coast and you can walk out onto the headland to see the waves crashing in while looking back at the town on the cliffs behind you. Seeing as it was later in the day and the sun was low given the time of year, it all looked even better!

One feature of the town I particularly liked was the use of water towers. You could see the evolution of the towers around the town. Some of them were as designed with a timber framework holding up the water barrel. Others had decided to enclose the tower structure to provide some additional room space under the barrel. Then there were those that had gone the whole hog and got rid of the barrel and converted the tower into part of the home. The distinctive shape was still there which is what gives it all away.

Other little details of the place appealed. The weathervane on the fire house was rather cool. If you like chocolate, you would have several places to visit to sample their wares – something that made Nancy a lot happier than me! All in all, a great place to wander around and relax in.