Category: photography

Continuing on my 2024 end-of-year holiday posts (see here for Osaka [confusion.cc]), I want to cover some day-trips we did, before I dive into Kyoto. Over the two plus weeks we spent in Osaka and Kyoto we took three day trips: to Himeji, Nara and Uji. Nara and Uji are so close they almost don’t count as trips. Just a short train ride away, but we had a very relaxed schedule so even when they were close we got a late start and took our time to make a day of it.

I’ve been to all these places before. I first visited Nara was in March 2004, when J███████ S██████ and I went to visit J██ while he was living in Japan. That was my first ever trip to Japan (and my first time using a digital camera, the as the photos clearly show). You can see my blog entry and photos here [confusion.cc].

I visited Nara again, as well as Himeji and Uji for the first time a year and a half later, in December 2005 [confusion.cc]. J███████ invited me, along with Candice, to join him, his wife, K██, and J██, S██████, for a return visit.

So, 20 years from my first trip to Japan, I revisited these places with my daughters. So let’s have a little fun and compare the photos I took 2 decades ago with those from this trip.

Himeji

The first day trip we took, from Osaka, was to Himeji-shi [wikipeida.org] (Himeji city), home to Himeji-jō (Himeji castle). Himeji-jō one of the best preserved Japanese castles, having survived various natural and man-made disasters in it’s 400 plus years. The stark white walls of the main keep, the Tenshu, which sits atop a prominent hill, are visible from most of the city. The striking white color gives the castle its nicknames: Hakuro-jō, “White Egret Castle” or Shirasagi-jō, “White Heron Castle”.

By coincidence the castle was free to enter the day we arrived. Apparently celebrating its UNESCO World Heritage [whc.unesco.org] status. I guess its a thing they do every year? As Himeji-jō was inscribed in 1993 so 2024 would be the 31st anniversary, which doesn’t seem like a particularly important anniversary.

After touring around the castle grounds and making our way through the buildings, up to the top of the main keep and back down its steep stairs. We were rewarded with a rainbow over the castle as we walked back to the train station. Not a very bright one but a nice rainbow nevertheless.

For some comparison, the image on the left below I took in 2005 and the one on the right is from this trip in 2024, 19 years apart. Setting aside better equipment, having a better eye for photography and my greater skill at editing photos. It’s fun to see how little Japan changes.

Nara

Our second day trip, from Osaka was to Nara-shi [wikipeida.org]. Nara-shi was the capital of Japan, where the emperor lived for most of the 700s. As such there is a long and rich history of temples and shrines. Not as deep as Kyoto, given it’s 1100 years as the capital but impressive.

The two key attractions are the tame sika deer that roam around and Tōdai-ji, home of Daibutsu.

The deer are everywhere in Nara Park where most of the temples and shrines that are part of the UNESCO site are located. Tourists, local and foreign alike, buy deer crackers to feed them. Some of the deer will even bow to the people feeding them. But you also see a lot of skittish people being mobbed by several deer at a time, getting overwhelmed, dropping their crackers, sometimes even getting a gentle headbutt from a deer when they fail to hand over a cracker fast enough. All cute and funny but apparently the deer in Nara Park are malnourished and stunted as they eat too many of these deer crackers and not enough wild foliage.

Tōdai-ji [wikipedia.org], “The Great Eastern Temple” is a Buddhist temple that houses Daibutsu or “The Great Buddha”, a massive bronze status of the Buddha Vairocana. The building the Buddha sits in, the Daibutsuden or “Great Buddha Hall” and was the largest wooden building in the world until 1998. The current building dates to 1709 having been rebuild, some 30% smaller than the original, which burned down.

The temple sells roof tiles that you can write on for the ongoing repairs. My friends and I bought one back in 2004, and this time I got one from my daughters to sign and date. So, somewhere on the roof of the Great Buddha Hall there are tiles with my name and my daughter’s names.

Here are two shots of the Daibutsu, fairly close in composition to compare. One from my first trip to Japan in 2004 and one from 2024:

Uji

The last day trip we took was to Uji-shi [wikipedia.org]. Uji is famous for a few things, it’s a major setting in The Tale of Genji [wikipedia.org] a Japanese novel written in the 11th century. Uji is also famous for it’s cultivation of green tea, it’s home to the oldest tea house in Japan (and the 30th oldest company on earth) you wouldn’t know that passing this unassuming building on your way to the other major site: Byōdō-in [wikipedia.org].

Other than to drink green tea, Byōdō-in is why we went to Uji. It’s a Buddhist temple. According to Wikipedia the building was built in 998 as a villa and converted to a temple in 1052. The main building was completed in 1053 and is commonly called the Hōō-dō or Phoenix Hall, though officially it is Amida-dō. This is the building that has been on the back of the 10 Yen coin since 1951. The building and grounds are beautiful, and you have to go just so you can say you’ve been there every time you show someone a 10 Yen coin.

Anyway, wondering around the temple grounds and shopping for green tea were the only things we really did in Uji. It was a relaxing day and not too crowded. And once again, the late autumn was in our favor as there was a lot of colorful foliage around the temple.

For comparison, below is a shot from 2005 of the Phoenix Hall, and one from 2024 taken from almost the same position. You can see how much renovation work has been done to the Phoenix Hall in the past two decades.

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You can see the full photos set from Himeji [flickr.com], Nara [flickr.com] and Uji [flickr.com] on Flickr, or browse the galleries below.

Look at me, only six months since I took the photos and I’m already posting them. Much better than the full year it took me to post the photos from December 2023. Although, I have not even started on Kyoto yet, and there are a lot more of those. So maybe no celebrating yet.

Anyway. We went to Osaka for a few days before we moved on to Kyoto. I’ve never really been to Osaka, passed through but never really spent any time there. Since we flew into and out of Kansai airport, we decided to spend a few days.

We didn’t really have much of a plan for Osaka. The one thing we really wanted to see was Katsuō-ji [wikipeida.org], a Buddhist temple north of Osaka that is associated with “winning”. But the reason we wanted to go is the temple grounds are covered in daruma [wikipedia.org]. Daruma’s are a talisman of good luck so people leave daruma all over the temple. All the daruma are gathered up and burned once a year. It must be a big bonfire, judging from how many daruma there were when we visited.

One of the most striking, and photogenic, sites is a series of sheltered stalls along a stairway that are filled with daruma. Hundreds of daruma, all the traditional, round, red, papier-mâché daruma that people buy and fill in the eyes for their wish to come true. The stalls are filled with daruma of all sizes: from a small as a fist to more than half a meter tall.

Besides the traditional papier-mâché type, the temple sells a smaller, solid wood daruma with a whole drilled in the bottom containing a fortune. These daruma are more waterproof than the papier-mâché variety. Nearly everyone visiting the temple buys one of these, writes something on it and leaves it somewhere on the grounds. Every flat surface is covered in these mini-daruma. Every nearly flat surface has a few balanced on it. And people wedge them in the nooks of trees, or impale them on tiny branches, or squeeze them in crevices in rock walls. They are everywhere. Some have been taken over by fungus and the people have arraigned others into little cult-like meetings, surrounding the fungal ones.

In addition to seeing all of the daruma, the grounds of Katsuō-ji were amazing. Last year Japan had an unusually warm, and long, summer. In fact it was international news that Mount Fuji remained snow free later than any time since records began [bbc.com] (only since 1884, I would have expected that to go back longer in Japan…). But, in this case climate change worked in my advantage.

See, I almost always visit Japan in winter (at least for holiday, I’ve been there in summer for work). This is mostly due to living in Singapore where it’s always summer, so I want to visit cold places. And also the need to plan holidays around the Singapore public school calendar. The end result, is that usually there is no nice foliage, it’s too late for the colorful leaves of autum and too early for the beautiful blossoms of spring.

As I said, this time climate change worked in my favor; the long, warm weather meant that we arrived, in December, with the full colors of autumn still on display. Over the two weeks we where in Osaka and Kyoto most of the red, yellow and orange maples faded to brown and the leaves fell but we were constantly amazed that there were still trees in full color everywhere we went in the first few days. Katsuō-ji was our first stop and it was stunning. I took as many photos of fiery Japanese maples as I did of daruma.

Ok, enough of Katsuō-ji. What else did we do in Osaka?

We visited Himeji to see the castle, and Nara to see the big Buddha and feed the deer, but I’ll post about those day trips separately. In Osaka itself, we mostly shopped an wondered around the city.

We spent a lot of our time in Shinsaibashi [wikipedia.org]. We visited a cat cafe. and spent too much time (and too much money) in gashapon shops. This was to be a reoccurring theme in Kyoto too. Victoria was determined to get a full set of one particular Mofusand [mofusand.co] figurines. She literally got the final figurine on the last night I think.

I also had a chance to meet up with someone I’ve “known” since 2000 that I’ve never actually met. The creator of Little Gamers [little-gamers.com]. He’s Swedish but moved to a small town an hour or so from Osaka a few years ago. Luckily he was able to make the trip to Osaka and meet up. It amazes me, and delights me, that I can meet up with people I know in random cities all around the world. People I went to school with in London, or have worked with over the years, and in this case a guy I know because he draws a web comic I read. I don’t have a large group of friends but it’s very cool that I have people around the world to meet up with.

The last thing worth writing about that we did before moving on to Kyoto was to visit the small, but very interesting, Osaka Ukiyo-e Museum [osaka-ukiyoe-museum.com]. It’s small, but if you enjoy ukiyo-e [wikipedia.org] it’s worth the visit. Amazingly, they were showing a collection of original and early reproductions of Hokusai [wikipedia.org] prints when we were there. A number of pieces from the Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji [wikipedia.org] series were on display, including the famous The Great Wave off Kanagawa [wikipedia.org], the most famous ukiyo-e or japanese woodblock print ever. You can’t photograph the originals or early reproductions on display, typical museum rules. They did have two slightly newer reproductions, owned by the museum, of The Great Wave and another Hokusai, Fine Wind, Clear Morning, on display that we were allowed to photograph. It’s a small museum, with only a single room exhibition space but worth the visit. They have classes too, on making prints (using linoleum, which is something I did in art in like 7th grade) if you make reservations in advance.

That was it or the first few days in Osaka. But we had to pass back through to get to the airport on our last day. As we flight out was quite late, we stowed our luggage at one of the train stations and spent the day at the Osaka Aquarium Kaiyukan [kaiyukan.com]. The main attraction there is the two whale sharks in the massive pacific tank. As you make your way through the aquarium you basically spiral around this tank going from top to bottom of its thirty plus meter height.

And so that was it for Osaka. Next up was Himeji. Let’s see how long it takes me to post those photos.

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You can see the whole Osaka, Japan, December 2024 [flickr.com] photoset on Flickr. Or browse them below.

I covered the details of my trip trip the US in my 2024 Recap [confusion.cc] post. So I won’t rehash that, but I wanted to post some of the photos I took in New York. I’ll get to Minnesota in another post.

I didn’t take a ton of photos, I was only in the city for a few days. I did take a walk from my hotel, south of Penn Station and Times Square, up through Central Park and spend a few hours at the Guggenheim Museum. And I made my way to MoMA for an afternoon.

At the Guggenheim there was an exhibit in the rotunda by Jenny Holzer titled “Light Lines”. It was interesting, the LED displays spiraling up the ramp showing various quotes was interesting to watch. And I enjoyed some of the political pieces – redacted documents related to the “war on terror” and Trump tweets make for interesting material for sculpture. You have to see it.

My favorite piece of Jenny Holzer work that was on display was a small, easy to miss, plaque near the very top of the spiral. A simple plaque you might see in any building with some label or name on it. But this one said “Laugh hard at the absurdity of evil”. Given the current state of the world, that just too close to home.

Meanwhile, over at MoMA there is a giant blob of rainbow colored stuffed animals hanging from the ceiling with smaller “moons” of stuffed animals, each moon a different color…

Also, van Gogh’s Starry Night [flickr.com], and Picasso’s Ladies of Avignon [flickr.com]. And much more, MoMA is big. I spent like 5 hours. It’s not Louvre big but it’s much bigger than the Guggenheim. But between the Guggenheim and MoMA I saw a lot of “modern” art in a few days.

Anyway, I only had a few days in NYC, so modern art was most of what I did. Other than that I caught up with A█████, aka F█████, as I mentioned in my 2024 Recap post. And, I enjoyed some proper New York pizza and bagels.

I also swung through NYC on the way out but was just there for one evening. I stayed in the TWA Hotel [twahotel.com] at JFK. There I met M███ in the most random fashion, as covered in the Recap post. But I also had time to explore the TWA Hotel itself and admire —and photograph— the 1960 architecture and decor. Including the “Rainbow Room” or “Hidden Alcove” where the Beatles hid before, or after, their famous press conference in 1964 when they first landed in America.

Anyway, that’s enough for this post. Just remember:

Laugh hard at the absurdity of evil

Jenny Holzer

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You can view the whole New Your City, New York, USA, May 2024 [flickr.com] photo set on Flickr.

And so, with a few hours to spare before I leave for this year’s winter holidays, we come to the end: Milan. The final post, the last photos from our 2023 Italian adventure.

We didn’t spend much time in Milan, a few days only. We flew into Milan when this trip started but we jumped on a train immediately and went to Venice, saving Milan for the final few days of our trip before flying off.

As we only stayed a few days we didn’t see everything in Milan, but we did go to the must see sites: the Duomo, La Scala and, of course, The Last Supper.

The Duomo, officially the Metropolitan Cathedral-Basilica of the Nativity of Saint Mary [wikipedia.org], but that’s more than a mouthful, so we will stick with “the Duomo”, is beautiful. I think I say this about almost every cathedral I visit, but it’s almost always true; they are beautiful buildings. A lot of the smaller cathedrals are very similar, but the Duomo in Milan is in the group of great cathedrals that set themselves apart visually. The roofline of the Duomo in Milan is unique as far as I know, covered, almost to excess with floral inspired carvings and statues. It looks like there is not an inch of the roof that is uncovered. But that’s an illusion, there are walkways on the roof. You can climb up to the top and walk among the spires and statues. It’s amazing.

Inside too the Duomo in Milan stands out. it isn’t stark like and bright like the inside of the Duomo in Florence [wikipedia.org], but dark but airy. I’ve seen photos of the newly renovated Notre Dame [wikipedia.org] in Paris and it’s too bright. I guess its true to the original, but like the idea of vividly painted ancient statues from Egypt, Greece and Rome, it just feels wrong, I prefer the raw marble without garish paint and I prefer cathedrals that soar into the dark high above. The Duomo in Milan feels right, the stone is dark, but the space is vast and it does not feel oppressive. I love the texture of the vaulted ceiling and the shape of the columns.

Near the Duomo we also visited the Galleria Vittorio Emanuel II [wikipeida.org]. I’m not much for the shopping but the building itself is worth a visit. It’s industrial revolution architecture at it’s best. I would say “Victorian Architecture” if it was in England or an colony of the British Empire from the time, but as it’s Italian I’ll stick with “Industrial Revolution Architecture”. It combines the steel work and ornate brick and stone work of the industrial revolution. The central dome is awesome soaring above you.

But, as I said, I’m not much for the shopping. But on the other side of the Galleria from the Duomo is La Scala [wikipedia.org], the famous opera house. It’s not as fancy and magnificent as the Palais Garnier [wikipeida.org] in Paris, but its probably the most important opera theater in the world.

Another very cool, if small, site near the Duomo that we went too was the chruch of San Bernardino alle Ossa [wikipedia.org]. Specifically it’s ossuary, where the walls are decorated with the skulls and other bones of thousands. This is nothing like the Catacombs of Paris [wikipedia.org], where the bones of millions are stacked up gathering dusk. Here the bones are not just stacked up, but used as materials for decorations. There area stacks of skulls, in the shape of crosses packed into walls of femurs (it think), but also little scull and crossbones and other decorative motifs made of bones. A very cool site.

The last sight we saw, on the last day before we flew back home, was The Last Supper [wikipedia.org]. I’ve seen it twice before, but it’s still amazing. It’s not my favorite painting but it’s history and the obvious technical mastery, even in it’s wounded state after so long, make it well worth the visit. I took a ton of photos, as this is the first time I visited it with a good camera (as it was for much of the things I visited for the second, third or forth time this trip, my first time in Italy I took few photos with a film camera as I was poor and my second time I lost my camera —stolen on a train). I any case I don’t expect I’ll go back to see The Last Supper, or many of the other sites in Italy, there is so much more to see in the world.

And so, that was the trip. Venice, Florence, Pisa and Siena, Rome and the Vatican, Pompeii and Milan. Retracing my honeymoon 16 years ago, with my wife and this time accompanied by our daughters.

Now I have a few hours to sleep before I head to Japan for this year’s holiday trip. I made it with a full 12 hours to spare! This year I will also be re-treading old ground, this time in Kyoto, as my older daughter was 18 months old when she visited and my younger daughter has not been there before. They both love Japan but this year will be death by temple and shine.

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You can see the full Milan, Italy, December 2023 [flickr.com] photoset on Flickr.