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Some shots from Japan

RuleOfThirds said:
Really love the pictures of your trip! Keep them coming please!
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Thank you.
RuleOfThirds said:
In 2023 I was late getting entrance tickets to Machu Picchu, Peruvian government has put a quota on how many visitors are allowed daily. So they sell tickets online in advance, and beside those they have a few thousand available every morning, regulated by crooked police, who decide.

If you know your way, you know how to use the crooked system, by paying a fee to get in the right lane… anyway we made it to Machu Picchu, but was shocked to see thousands of visitors lining up in lines to get a possibility to buy entrance tickets a 4:30am. Because we payed the crooked police via our local guide, we were like the 10th person out of thousands to be able to buy them. 5hrs later the main square was still completely full of tourists waiting for a possibility to buy them as we left with our mandatory guide.
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One of the (many) nice things about Japan is that corruption and crooked practices, at least for the general public, are very rare.
 
pdk42 said:
Thank you.

One of the (many) nice things about Japan is that corruption and crooked practices, at least for the general public, are very rare.
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If you go more or less guided with a touroperator, Peru is easy and safe, no hassle at all. But my wife is from there and we have family, so we don’t take the normal tourists ways. Because we had to extent my wife’s Peruvian ID, it was impossible to predict which day we could be there. Bureaucracy of the local government system made that impossible. As soon as you go by your own, of the beaten track, you get in bribe territory very fast.

Really would love to visit Japan!!
 
16) Fushimi Inari - Thousand Tori Gates

We went to see the Fushimi Inari "thousand Tori gates" today. I absolutely hated it; packed tight with tourists and just a chore to have to walk up with people pushing and shoving you all the time. And I cringed at the behaviour of so many of the people - crass "look at me !" selfies and noisy behaviour. I didn't even get the camera out to take a photo of the gates or the walkway since it really wasn't worth the trouble. You can find thousands of pics on line when the place is empty!

But I did take two shots - this one of a Kyoto panorama from one of the viewpoints on the way up:

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...and this one of a few gates that led away from the main path towards a little suburb called Tofuku-ji. Almost immediately we were on our own and it was a real relief!

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17) Tōfuku-ji Temple and the Tsutenkyo Bridge

Having escaped from the tourist chaos of Fushimi Inari and descended into Tofuku-ji, we stumbled across a Buddhist Temple there - and what an absolute eye-opener this place was!!

It was almost deserted of people but it was spectacularly beautiful with the most wonderful garden and an absolutely stunning wooden bridge that spanned a deep ravine. I've got more photos to process, but here are a couple to give you a taste:

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Tofuku-ji Temple by Paul Kaye, sur Flickr



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Tsutenkyo Bridge II by Paul Kaye, sur Flickr
 
I’m enjoying your thread thoroughly Paul. Thank you! How long do you stay?
 
18) Kyoto Botanical Garden

Having had our fingers burnt with the Fushimi Inari and other tourist traps, today we went to the Kyoto Botanical Gardens for some peace and quiet. And what a wonderful place it is. Very calm and quiet and with some spectacular garden scenery.


The Delights of a Japanese Garden by Paul Kaye, on Flickr



Magnificant Acer Tree in Full Autumn Glory by Paul Kaye, on Flickr




Trees and their Reflections by Paul Kaye, on Flickr




Path over the Pond by Paul Kaye, on Flickr




Lakeside Pagoda by Paul Kaye, on Flickr
 
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19) Ryoan-ji Temple
This place is famed for its Zen Rock Garden, but TBH, what impressed me the most was the beautiful wall art of dragons.


Ryoan-ji Zen Rock Garden by Paul Kaye, on Flickr



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Dragon in Buddhist Art by Paul Kaye, on Flickr



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Dragon in Buddhist Art by Paul Kaye, on Flickr


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Dragon in Buddhist Art by Paul Kaye, on Flickr


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Dragon in Buddhist Art by Paul Kaye, on Flickr


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Dragon in Buddhist Art by Paul Kaye, on Flickr


And there is also a beautiful lake there with a cute little boathouse on it.


Zen Boathouse by Paul Kaye, on Flickr
 
pdk42 said:
5) My Inner Zen

Did a tea ceremony today and then visited a beautiful area called Daitoku-ji Shinju-an with a number of temples and lots of acer trees. More pics to follow, but I did this shot of some fallen acer leaves.


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Japanese Autumn Acer Leaves by Paul Kaye, on Flickr
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Just saw this pic and it is very good! I just produced a series of videos of fall leaves, so i know about the pain. How did you do it?
 
20) Onomichi

We moved to Hiroshima a few days ago and decided to spend the first day on a day trip to Onomichi - a coastal town to the East. We had a great time, with a wonderful walk up to a hill-top temple followed by a leisurely walk around the town. We also found a superb little craft brewery run by some lovely people and finished the day off with a really top-class meal in a quaint little restaurant. A perfect day...


The View Towards Takamiyama Island by Paul Kaye, on Flickr



The Senkojiyama Ropeway by Paul Kaye, on Flickr



Vignette of Japan by Paul Kaye, on Flickr



The Cemetry at the Sentoji Temple by Paul Kaye, on Flickr



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Onomichi Panorama by Paul Kaye, on Flickr


The craft brewery. The owners behind the bar were lovely - as was the regular on the left; who incidentally spoke excellent English and even a little French !!

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The fish that stared at us during our meal !!

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21) Hiroshima Peace Museum and Peace Park

This is a very profound place to visit. It should be a required visit by anyone with aspirations to political leadership.

“...their faces were wholly burned, their eyesockets were hollow, the fluid from their melted eyes had run down their cheeks.”

― John Hersey, Hiroshima
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Let's Not Forget by Paul Kaye, on Flickr


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Hiroshima Peace Museum and the Flame of Peace by Paul Kaye, on Flickr



Hiroshima A Dome and the Flame of Peace by Paul Kaye, on Flickr



The "A-Dome" in Hiroshima at Dusk II by Paul Kaye, on Flickr




The "A-Dome" in Hiroshima at Dusk by Paul Kaye, on Flickr




29000 Days...
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JohnnyMauser said:
Just saw this pic and it is very good! I just produced a series of videos of fall leaves, so i know about the pain. How did you do it?
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Thank you!

The acer shot was originally just a snap of some leaves on the ground:

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Then it had a bunch of treatments in LR - cropping, colour tweaking, curves etc:

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Then it got some PP beans done on it in Nik Color Efex - a liberal application of the "midnight" effect (mainly) and a border, then back to LR for some white boosting and black crushing, and voila:

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I was trying to get the sort of effect you see on varnished Japanese/Chinese trays etc. Good job that I like PP !!
 
22) Miyajima
Miyajima is the main town on a small island called Itsukushima just off the coast from Hiroshima. It's very cute in itself, but it's the site of the Itsukushima shrine and its famous "floating" torri gate. I was dreading going there in fear of hordes of tourists, a fear not assuaged by the exodus of people off the train at the ferry terminal. But like many areas of Japan, whilst the main areas of Miyajima were indeed packed, you didn't need to go far away to escape the worst of it.

In fact, we did a little hike up to a view point called Bakuchio and didn't see a soul. We then returned via Momijidani Park which was not too busy and had some lovely scenes around the river. By the end of the day, the torri gate and shrine were thinning out of people and I grabbed a few mandatory shots.


Sunset over the Floating Torri Gate of the Itsukushima Shrine by Paul Kaye, on Flickr




Posing By the Floating Torri Gate by Paul Kaye, on Flickr



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The Floating Torri Gate of the Itsukushima Shrine at Night by Paul Kaye, on Flickr


And a shot of one of the streets, first in daytime, and then later at night.


Takino Koji St in Miyajima by Paul Kaye, on Flickr



Miyajima Street At Night by Paul Kaye, on Flickr
 
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Those pictures are a very nice treat, thank you for sharing your trip with us.

I was considering to go to Japan in April, you might have convinced me to take my plane ticket! I visited Kyoto 12/13 years ago and the Fushimi Inari was not that packed, or at least, it was very quiet once you go a bit up in the mountain. I heard it changed a lot.

For some reasons, I really like the cable-car picture with the other people taking photos of your own cable-car!

I cannot wait for more photos to come. Happy new year in advance!
 
Arkan said:
Those pictures are a very nice treat, thank you for sharing your trip with us.

I was considering to go to Japan in April, you might have convinced me to take my plane ticket! I visited Kyoto 12/13 years ago and the Fushimi Inari was not that packed, or at least, it was very quiet once you go a bit up in the mountain. I heard it changed a lot.

For some reasons, I really like the cable-car picture with the other people taking photos of your own cable-car!

I cannot wait for more photos to come. Happy new year in advance!
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Thank you. And happy new year to you too (or Akemashite Omedetou Gozaimasu as they would say here !).

I'm sure Japan would be even more beautiful in April.
 
23) FInal thoughts and photos from Hiroshima
Well, we're off to Kumamoto tomorrow (well, actually, Takamori in the Asu-Kuju National Park) so we'll be saying goodbye to Hiroshima.

It's been an interesting visit. The Japanese have managed to create something from the ruins of their city which is joyous to see and yet at the same time there are constant reminderers of the horrors of its past. The whole Peace Park area is profoundly thought provoking and I think it's a must-see location for anyone who aspires to high political office.

We also really enjoyed the trips to Onomichi and Miyajima. But I think staying for five days was too much and in hindsight I'd have shortened it to three - two days in the city itself and a night in one of the ryokans on Itsukushima. That way you get the island to yourself in the early hours before the hordes arrive!

Anyhow, I'll leave you with a few final shots from Hiroshima itself.


Winter Colours in the Shukkeien Garden, Hiroshima by Paul Kaye, on Flickr


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The Gates of Peace, Horoshima by Paul Kaye, on Flickr



Shukkeien Garden, Hiroshima by Paul Kaye, on Flickr



Hiroshima Castle by Paul Kaye, on Flickr


Oh, and two from the hike in Miyajima:


Path in the Woods by Paul Kaye, on Flickr



Woodland Bridge by Paul Kaye, on Flickr
 
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