...and from Japan

Veiws from Tokyo

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Our friend from Albuquerque, Lisa Dunlop, came for a visit last month. These photos are from our touring around Tokyo. We showed Lisa the best of what Tokyo could offer: Plastic display food, Lolicom Highschool girls dressed as freaks and Bow Peeps, Shrines, Japanese drummers, and the early morning fish market. Here are the highlights.

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Even old drag queens partake in the fashion. Complete with inward pointing (childlike) toes.

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who could be emailing her? Edward Scissorhands?

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Little Bow Peep and her bunny

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Food display at a resturant...notice the giant 'party' gyoza.

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Always check with your friend before getting dressed in the morning...you never know when you might wind up wearing the same Little Red Riding Hood cape with furry heart pockets.

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the dark twins

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Hanging out on the street.

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Straw covered tree in a Japanese Garden.

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Monkey street performance in Asakusa neighborhood.

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Details in a Japanese Garden.

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With Lisa at a cozy bar.

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Ginza neighborhood at night...picking up Leta from work.

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Shinto priest.

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Christine and our Brit. friend, Thanh.

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A run in with a Sumo wrestler in Tokyo Train Station.

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Colorful strings under the red umbrella.

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sake barrels...my favorite sight.

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Wedding party taking a lap around Meiji Shrine lead by Shinto Priests and followed by family.

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A Taiko Drum performance at Meiji Shrine, Tokyo.

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Prayer plaques at Meiji Shrine

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Temple guardian with monsterous nipples that look like flowers.

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Shamisen, three stringed Japanese guitar.

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Bride and Groom

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grand finale

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Lion giving a child a goodluck nibble on the head.

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female Taiko drummer...an unusual sight.

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good eatin'

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$13 for a plastic drinking straw of dried fish.

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Nikko temple doorway

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a vendor showing us the irridescent blue fins of this fish.

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Beautiful squid

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Eating breakfast while keeping an eye on a run away crab.

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a $50 bag of fish fins

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seaweed by the piles

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You can buy mugs full of tiny dried fish for scattering on your rice or noodles.

The Northern Island of Hokkaido

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Christine and I took a trip to Hokkaido Febuary 1-5, one of the coldest times to go. We began in Akanko and made our way up to Abashiri. We saw where the Japanese Cranes migrate for the winter, went to an Ainu village and was surprised how close there designs are to those of the Inuits, took a tour bus (there was only 6 of us on it) up to Abashiri stopping at a lake where swans migrate for the winter, a mountain with sulfur steam vents, and other frozen lakes on the way. In Abashiri we visited the Abashiri prison museum, learning the biggest deterant for criminals was living in Hokkaido with no heat! And we went on an ice breaker boat through the ice floes on the ocean that drift down from Russia. I didn't know the ocean could freeze!

Abashiri, Hokkaido

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Fish for sale outside of Abashiri train station.

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Our room at the pension.

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Sealife iceblocks...the Japanese would salivate when entering this tent. To them...Seafood iceblocks.

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our room continued...

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When we told people that we were going to Abashiri for vacation...they were shocked. Most people only go to Abashiri for the prison...so it is more of a threat than a vacation hotspot. We couldn't resist taking a tour of the dreaded historical prison just up the street from the newly built one.

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being led to work

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The bathhouse

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Central Heating

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dinner in a cell

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escapee

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Beginning in Mid-February, oceanic ice drifts from the Russian Coast down to the Northern most part of Japan. One of the main reasons for bearing the bitter cold of Hokkaido in winter was to see such a sight. When we arrived in Abashiri, two days of bad weather (i.e. strong winds and high waves) had cancelled the icebreaker boat tours of the icefloes. The second day, the wind had subsided but all of the ice had blown south. Luckily, on our third and final day in Abashiri the conditions were right. Although, overcast, snowing and blistery cold our 1.5 hour boat tour was a success!

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Leta and icefloes.

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Christine's head... for scale.

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Our path through the icefloes.

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Being followed

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Heading into the ice.

Bus Tour of Akan National Park

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Along the 5 hour panoramic bus tour of Akan National Park, we had the opportunity to see a lot of Hokkaido's natural features.

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Lake Mashu is the second clearest lake in the world and inaccessible due to the shear cliffs surrounding it.

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Do you smell something?

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At one of our stops we were able to walk out to sulfer vents bubbling up from underground hotsprings. It was one of the most amazing landscapes I (Christine) have ever seen. The photos do not even touch upon the unearthly quality of this place. It was beautiful...but stinky.

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sulfer vents

Lake Akan

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Tundra Swans living it up in the hotspring warmed water.

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Leta on carved iceslide.

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Christine's afterslide snowplow stop.

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Ice fishing tents on Lake Akan

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Carved snow owl.

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By February, Lake Akan has a nice layer of solid ice on the surface. The frozen lake in transformed into a village of igloos, ice fishing tents, a stage for nightly performances and fireworks, and of course...no village would be complete without electrical lines. Hmmm, electricity and water.

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Christine being attacked by an abominable snow bear.

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Ah, the catch!

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Ice fishing

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Traditional Ainu headbanging.

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We attended a Ainu Performance one night.

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Shovelling out the floor of a soon to be igloo on Akan Lake.

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igloo cafe

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We spent a couple of nights at Akan Lake, home to a very touristy Ainu Village.The Ainu are amazing wood carvers; these owl carvings were enormous and done with detailed precision.

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Modern Ainu houses complete with log construction facades covering the prefab houses.

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Swarming Sea Eagles trying to intercept fish thrown to the cranes at their 3pm feeding.

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Adult and juvenile flying overhead.

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Treading through deep snow.

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Wintery landscape in Hokkaido. Birch trees covered with morning ice.

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Red-crested cranes wintering in Akan, Hokkaido.

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Crosscountry skiing with my professor and members of Takano Landscape Inc. in Obijiro, Hokkaido.

Snow Monkeys in Hotsprings

2006-01-06T01:33:00.000-08:00

Jigokudani Yaenkoen was made famous when National Geographic and Life Magazine published the famous photos of the Japanese Macaque monkeys bathing in the natural onsen (hotspring). Leta had a 5 day vacation from work so we headed for the Japan Alps to see the 'snow monkeys' for ourselves. We were not disappointed.
The Monkey park has a live internet cam on its website: http://www.jigokudani-yaenkoen.co.jp/frameset.html
Check out the park and read more about the Japanese Macaque.

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Japanese Macaques

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We hiked to the monkey park two days in a row. The first day there were only 8-10 monkeys in the onsen but it snowed all night and the next day there were probably 30.

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Visitors must hike a narrow mountain path to the monkey park. The first 100 yards were the hardest. We had to step sideways, stabbing our toes into the snowy bank for traction. The rest of the way was a winter wonderland. Large snowflakes filtered softly through the cedar trees. With three layers of clothing we made our way.

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The monkeys must get their mail. The postman had to abandon his motorscooter halfway up the mountain and go the rest of the way on foot. How he made it this far I will never know.

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Finally we made it to the entrance.

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On the second day the place was crawling with photographers. The blizzard made it perfect conditions to get shots of snow covered monkeys in the hot spring.

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A young male huddling in the snow.

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Leta and a family of three.

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There are benefits to having a lot of kids...six hands grooming you at once.

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Watching the humans from a tree.

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A group of females finding shelter outside the heated visitor cabin.

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Who's watching who?

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When we arrived at our destination, the town of Yudanaka, we were welcomed by massive amounts of snow and this beautiful old shrine.

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Our host at the ryokan, Miasaka, comes from a long line of archers practicing the Japanese style of archery, Kyudo. He offered to show us his practice facilities that his grandfather had built. Miasaka dressed in a kimono with the sleeve pulled off of one shoulder showed us each of the 8 steps in the Kyudo process.

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There are only right handed archers in Japan. Everyone must face the direction of the alter and your teacher. It is unacceptable to have your back to the gods. This is Miasaka's alter on the shelf above the photo of his grandfather.

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Miasaka prepares to release the arrow.

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The hole to shoot through.