Hokkaido University in Sapporo

This may be the most beautiful university campus in the world. Wow.

Spent the afternoon wandering the university campus and the museum attached to the science building.

Happy Birthday Mom

Happy Birthday Mom!
幸せな誕生日おかあさん！






Some photos from the Sapporo Botanic Gardens at Hokkaido University.

Uminonakamichi Seaside Park

Yina took me to the Uminonakamichi Seaside Park. What a fun place; its part amusement park, part traditional Japanese gardens, part zoo and aquarium. One stop shopping for shopping in terms of island amusement parks. And of course, you can ride a giant panda!

The eerie part is that the place is abandoned, seriously I think we were the only people in the whole park. Never have I been the only person on a roller coaster - I think we had to wake the guy up to run the coaster. The roller slides certainly were fun, but oh me arse be hurtin after that one laddie.

The roofless flower museum looked eerily similar to the A-bomb dome in Hiroshima, but it was amazing. There were all shapes and colors of flowers I have never seen before. [mom - you would have loved this one] There actually were fields of flowers everywhere, but still no people.

Great day, thanks Yina.

Suizenji Jojuen Garden

My first impression of the park is Wow! Traditional Japanese ponds are surrounded by meticulously manicured mounds. The mounds are key because they separate you from the noise and greyness of the city. Suizenji is in the middle of the city yet it feels peaceful like the countryside.

The garden reproduces the 53 post stations of the Tokaido, the important road, which connected Edo with Kyoto during the Edo Period, in miniature form, including a small Mt. Fuji.

Beautiful arched bridges. Motionless cranes waiting to catch fish. Gold, white and brown koi everywhere. A Shinto shrine with red gates at the entrance. What a beautiful park.

A trip to Iso Gardens

Mmmm tastes like pancakes. Well, sort of.

Met a guy over family style dinner at the guesthouse named Yoshihisa, who wanted to take the German and I to the Iso Gardens. I wasn't too sure what that was about but sure why not... The German declined, it was too early for him... Well, yes if you sleep till 2 pm every day, then leaving at 11 am is early I suppose.

The Iso Gardens were more of a complex really. There are huge, stone lion lanterns, bamboo groves and meandering streams with koi. All with a view of Sakurajima in the background. The area was important back in the day for the import of technology from Britain. A couple of museums house local art and historical artifacts from the previous lords of the residence. Lots of old machinery that enginerds like to try and understand.

The gardens were beautiful but the highlight of the afternoon was eating Janbo Mochi at a local place down the road. If you have ever eating mochi, you know the gooey consistency I'm talking about. If you take a pancake and make it more "gooey", stick a couple of hashi in, and grill it until you get that browned and slightly burnt grill flavor, you've got Janbo Mochi! The sauce was a subtle blend of soy sauce, sugar, and flour that, oddly enough, reminded me of maple syrup.

Ohori Koen

Everything here in Fukuoka is closing for the impending O-bon festival so I spent the afternoon at the city park. There were dragonflies and turtles everywhere, I even saw a few cranes. This one let me get close enough for a few photos. The lily pads were blooming too. Entire ponds full of them were blooming these gigantic white flowers. Anyone know the name of these flowers? [Mom: these are what make those huge cone-shaped seed pods you love.]

Tomorrow I leave for Kumamoto with Yina to celebrate the O-bon matsuri (festival of the dead). I am told there will be fireworks!

Botanic gardens photo shoot

These are some photos I took at the Denver Botanic Gardens; I was experimenting with the 105mm f/2.8G ED-IF AF-S VR Micro-Nikkor lens that I had bought for my D70. I was pleased with the results but the lesson I learned for next time is to use a tripod. Even with the vibration reduction feature it is difficult to keep things in focus but more importantly it's nearly impossible to keep the image framed and selectively focused with high magnification. A tripod solves all these problems and if the image is worth taking it is worth taking your time to do it properly. The tripod forces you to go a little bit slower.