Back to Japan for even more - Oct and Nov 2017 - Page 9

Here is a very grey Utsunomiya station area, shot through a closed window.
On the train between here and Nikko the sun came out, which I was not expecting. That did not last.

I was quite thrilled with this photo, the bullet train splits in half soon after this stop, half goes to Yamadera, half to Sendai. I managed to snap it as another one was speeding past.
Also you can clearly see how one of those trains has its nose retracted back into its own nose. I was fascinated.

Arriving at Nikko and I got to admire the huge mountain vista. I remembered admiring it last time with better weather and a camera with zoom capabilities also.

This is the Nikko main street area. Its a bit overrated in my opinion, or a bit tired.

The photo EVERYONE takes. The main temples in the hills are still closed for rennovations, for the next 20 years and the last 10 years it seems. They have constructed a shed over it and painted a temple on the outside of the shed. Seriously.

So instead, I found a path to climb over behind a hotel.

Quite a good view from down here, then things got weird.

The path continued up another hill, I could appreciate this tree.

Then I could appreciate this shrine in the hills.

The path then descended into the back of a resort, closed obviously, as you can see their pool is bright green. The signs pointing to the exit all lead down stairs to locked doors, I was trapped!

That is not a lawn! Its a pond. If you fall in you will die. There is no fence. I had to carefully step around it, go through a workshop shed, and climb down some landslide barriers into a car park to find a way out!
It is very weird to me that a sign posted trail lead me to here.

Back on track now, I like the look of that little peak to the right, lets go investigate.

A mountain trail! Mount Toyama. So much for my rest day, lets run up a hill.
This one had lots of concrete gates, was very steep, but only took 45 minutes. I was the first person up here for the day judging by the spiderwebs.

In amongst the tool slim cedars was the occasional spooky tree like this. I liked this path a lot.

And there is Nikko as seen from the top. With fog over the hills in the background. It was getting dark and starting to drizzle.

The hills across the valley. All the WORLD HERITAGE SITE!!! shrines are in amongst those pines in the valley.

Possibly the last STANCE of this trip. A good one cause I am in my Chinese commando pants and favourite ten year old long sleeve t-shirt.

I really like the mountain backdrop view. A shame the light wasnt better.

There are bigger mountains off in the distance as well, behind a lake. Climbing these is possible but not on a day trip. It takes too long to get to Nikko, then the bus to the mountains is another hour at least.
You would have to stay in Nikko to do it. I suspect Nikko is really really boring at night!

Once I got back to the station area I found out I had to wait 50 minutes for the train. No problem, I found a supermarket with a public seating area inside, with a microwave, free tea, toilets.
Basically you buy your stuff from the supermarket, heat it up if required, sit and eat it. $4 lunch, no problem, thanks for your hospitality.

On my way to Asakusa I passed a street full of shops making what I presume are dislay cabinets for your dead relatives ashes. Very interesting. They are big believers in setting up competing stores right alongside each other in all Asian countries.

Then I went down a shut street of local shops which at night become garage doors. I am waiting to see the garage door shop shut behind a garage door.
Just one lonely taxi spoiling my view.

DELICIOUS BEEF NOODLE SOUP. Noodles made by hand in store.

DONKEY

The covered streets around Asakusa were a mix of open and closed. Theres lots of nice places to eat around here, but I had already chosen the best.

The junk gift shop street, with a tour group charging towards me.

Heres a long exposure, because there was a sign to rest my camera on.

This is a short exposure, handheld, nothing for camera to rest on.

This one is also handheld, nice lighting though.

Now for a trio of long exposures, firstly just the skytree. Getting the camera steady in portrait orientation took a lot of effort and holding my face right and not breathing.

Next a long exposure of a different sort of red bridge.

And finally, the final long exposure of sky tree and friends.

The actual skytree is of course atop a sizeable shopping mall, and food court. I had never been here at night, food court looks ok.

On the top level they have a xmas market going on.

And of course an 'illumination'.

Last one for this evening, skytree in all its phallic glory.

After a relatively fast train ride compared to the extended ride home, I arrived at Musashi-Itsukaichi station. A nice, quite large town. I stocked up on calorie mate and pocari sweat and got going. I had read this hike would take 7 hours.....
It didnt, I covered the nearly 25km in just over 5 hours, but that involved lots of running.

The first part of the hike took me up a well manicured path to a temple. It was more like a large informal garden. This actually made it a bit annoying, as there were lots of paths, I decided just to keep heading up.

There were even tunnels of camelia bushes like this near the temple itself.

I may be old, but I am not yet old enough to go birding. Theres lots of birds to see though.
I noticed later on there were solar sensors mounted in some trees with cameras and infra red lights to film things at night. Bears or birds?

The view of Itsukaichi, and other cities up the valley beyond from the temple.

The temple itself was a bit underwhelming for such a path and garden. Although there were strangely no other people. The weather was very good if a little grey, but the sun was making an occasional appearance.

It was now ridge time, with big trees, no view for hours. This was a rare glimpse of a view, nice wires.

The ridge trail was up hill the whole way, but pleasently so, I ran most of it. There was one group of other people, I later worked out they had caught the cable car up and were hiking downhill all day.
Lazy, I do not respect you.

There was quite a lot of logging in this area, and I could hear chainsaws. Logged areas provided an opportunity for a view. Thats Tokyo in the distance.

Logging AND wires. A winning combination.

It wasnt all cedars, you can see some yellow / red leafed (leaved?) trees here also.

Great light for this photo, with the logged trees replanted for future logging. They need a lot of logs in Japan to keep making steps on hiking trails.

And after a few hours, I was at the summit of Hinodesan, and there were suddenly other people, I would soon realise why.

Across the valley there is the upper cable car station, the path between Hinodesan and Mitakesan was very well maintained staircases.

Still the brave souls that have made the 20 minute trek across from the cable car have put on all their alpine gear.

Have a bit more of the same view, I now realise this was almost the same as the other photo!

And heres my huge stupid head to ruin the shot, maybe for the last time on this trip!

After the short skip across the valley to Mitakesan, I found myself in tourist paradise, with streets of little restaurants and chopstick shops. Its quite high up, the road down is an amazing engineering feat as I would discover....

Just look at these wonderfully maintained steps to the top with colorful trees and stone tablets declaring a shinto-fatwa on non pure blooded Japanese.

Have some over-exposed leaf view. Colors nearly blew up my camera.

The shrine / temple on the top was extensive and possibly brand new, like the steps leading up to it.

Further behind it is an older bit not many people were interested in.

Hmmm, still more mountains. Actually ALLLLL the mountains around this area have extensive hiking trails, hundreds of them!

Time to head down. I skipped what I thought was a cable car which is actually a fernicular (cable pulled) railway. Japan has painted the track through the forest bright red, cause historic.

This is the bottom of the 7km road down from the top station. It was quite an amazing piece of engineering, uncomfortably steep. Cars going up it would surely overheat.

I thought I was at the bottom, but no, still a lot more steep road. This is a wider road cars drive up to get to the bottom station of the cable railway, and those that went past me did indeed smell like they were burning.

Finally I came out on the main highway, what a vista! I thought this would be the last photo, but no....

Other than the wires, what an amazing view! This was a footbridge across the river. The people down there are fly fishing.

The photos are not doing the scale of this justice, also the lights a bit crap in this one, but thats fine, more to come!

In the middle of the town of Mitake theres another bridge across. I was early for the train so I got to walk over.
Down there is a kayaker battling the current.

And then surely, saving the best photo for last. The amazing river, the mountains, the town on the side of the cliff.
A great day indeed. I will one day come back to Mitake and climb more mountains, at least ten hikes start from here. The town was full of cyclists, rock climbers, kayakers etc.
I was amazed when the train came that the platform at this remote station in the valley with no phone coverage was completely full on a week day.

If only I had seen this place earlier, where were you a month ago!

I briefly considered this for dinner, because it is bright red and warning I will die of death by chilli. But it was too close to my hotel, have to keep walking.

Akihabara 1 - have I ever been here at night before?

Akihabara 2.

These people are all standing around on a street corner kind of away from any shops. Almost underneath the highway overpass, all looking at their phones. At least 100 people.
So yes, Pokemon go is still popular in Japan.

Kanda is also quite a bright colorful place at night. A few junior wannabe Yakuza with the head sets and black gloves hanging around.

I made it as far as Tokyo station, and descended into its underground shopping streets and kitchen streets. This is their 'illumination'.

The predictable last supper, a bit more ramen, in a smoking bar. I also got the 5 tiny gyoza. I then had to negotiate my way out of a combo meal which involved a beer.

First I appreciated a steam train, which for an unknown reason was at the natural science museum. So natural.

This is a mobile floating wooden tea house, made by an artist, it gets moved around the country.

These cats are squinting into the glorious sunshine.

So then I also squinted into the glorious sunshine.

My traditional reeds shot, I think I have taken this shot 3 trips in a row.

My disappointing airport lunch to use up the last of my Yen. I am going to stock up on drinks for the plane because Singapore Airlines dont seem to be able to supply water in anything other than a single gulp sippy cup once every 9 hours.