Japan 2009

By the end of March 2009 I went to Japan for vacation, my first visit ever to Japan. I went this time of year to experience the cherry blossom, which is a big thing in Japan. I travelled around by train, as Japan Railways (JR) offers a rail-pass that entitles you go with almost all their services. The connections are very frequent, and if you go with Shinkansen it's really fast, 285 km/h. My trip went along the Shinkansen line that goes south-west from Tokyo through the most densely populated parts of the country.

Before I left home, I bought a new camera, a Panasonic TZ5, with more zoom and more megapixel than my five year old Minolta, and this lead to a small disaster: I came back with almost 1400 pictures. I set off to delete duplicates and less successful photos, but here are almost 900 of them, which still is far too many. To make it somewhat manageable, I've selected 76 pictures as a summary of the trip, and those are the ones you find below.

The rest is split up on a number of sub-sites. First of all there is my Cherry Blossom Special with almost150 pictures of cherry trees in various degrees of bloom (and quite a few more flowers). Then there are the following sub-sites, approximately in the order that my trip went (and you will find a quite some cherry blossom there as well):

• The first days in Tokyo. Jag wandered around in Tokyo and recovered from the jet lag. (33 pictures)
• Kyoto - The City. The old capital is also a modern big city. (32 pictures)
• Kyoto - Temples and Shrines. Temples and shrines in Kyoto but also a short mountain walk. (60 pictures)
• Kyoto - The Gardens. There are many nice gardens in Kyoto.(55 pictures)
• Himeji & Okayama. A castle and a garden. (29 pictures)
• Kurashiki and the Kibi Bicycle Ride. A preserved old city district and bicycling in the country side. (40 pictures)
• Hiroshima. A rainy day for a sorrowful memory. (51 pictures)
• Aso. A national park in the world's biggest caldera. (40 pictures)
• Fukuoka. A modern city where the word kamikaze was born in the 14th century. (52 pictures)
• Miyajima. An island outside Hiroshima with one of Japan's top three views. (60 pictures)
• Nagoya & Hakone. A big city and a mountain and lakeland area outside Tokyo. (40 pictures)
• The Kiso-ji Hike. Along a historical road through the post towns of Magome and Tsumago. (34 pictures)
• A Sunday in Tokyo. A fantastic day full of contrasts. (58 pictures)
• Nikko. A town north of Tokyo packed with sights. (40 pictures)
• Yokohama and Odaiba. Yokohama and Odaiba, a modern island in Tokyo Bay. (33 pictures).

Some of the pictures in the summary reappear in the sub-sites, but in many cases I've selected different pictures when I have had more than one on the same thing.

Svensk version

1. The Imperial Plaza	2. Ginza Crossing	3. Artist in Action	4. Cherry-blossom picnic
5. Torii	6. Cherry Blossom in Kyoto	7. Pontocho	8. Fushimi-Inari Taisha
9. A Beautiful Place	10. Canal	11. Temple Detail	12. The Hills of Kyoto
13. Kyoto Dinner	14. As the Bell Tolls	15. The Crane and the Turtle	16. Bird on a aqueduct
17. Garden view	18. The Philosopher's Path	19. Ginkaku-ji	20. Bloom over Water
21. The 15 Stones of Ryoan-ji	22. My Favourite	23. The Himeji Castle	24. Tapestry in Himeji
25. A Couple in a Garden	26. Korakuen in Okayama	27. Korakuen II	28. Kurashiki
29. The Kibi Bicycle Ride	30. Cherry-blossom Party	31. The A-bomb Dome	32. 8:15
33. Aso	34. Cherry Blossom in Aso	35. The Rice Bowl	36. Naka-dake
37. Volcanic Landscape	38. Now, we are eating	39. ACROS	40. Lady with Umbrella
41. Church?	42. Nakasu by Night	43. Coffee Copies	44. Air-con Instruction
45. Miyajima	46. Miyajima Park	47. Masks	48. Monkeys
49. View from Miyajima	50. Nagoya	51. Cherry blossom in Nagoya	52. TV Tower Nagoya
53. Bento	54. View from Magome	55. Kiso-ji Scenery	56. Tsumago
57. Hakone	58. Fine Bird	59. Excursion Ship	60. Shinjuku Crossing
61. Neon Lights	62. Sky Scrapers	63. Big-city Jungle	64. The Inner Garden
65. Drum bash	66. Prada	67. Contrasts	68. Piss Alley
69. The Bridge in Nikko	70. Three Monkeys	71. Warrior	72. Cherry Blossom in Nikko
73. Yokohama	74. Chinese Temple	75. Spaced Out on Odaiba	76. Venus Fort

Back to "My Pictures"