Matsumoto Castle 松本城

Matsumoto Castle

I have always wanted to visit this castle since the day I saw a picture of it in Flickr.com sometime ago in year 2010. I wanted to take pictures of this castle myself. It is so beautiful. The opportunity came when I visited World Heritage Shirakawago and the nearby city Takayama early this year. Matsumoto city is located in between Tokyo and Shirakawago and therefore, I stopped by Matsumoto city on my way back to Tokyo, stayed overnight there just to visit the famous Matsumoto Castle. Matsumoto is about 3 hours and 10 minutes bus ride from Tokyo Shinjuku Bus Terminal. It cost 3,400yen one way. You can also access Matsumoto from Takayama Bus Terminal, which is 3,100yen one way. Click here for the Nohi bus time table from Takayama to Matsumoto.  For more travel information about Matsumoto, click here.

Matsumoto Castle at night

Matsumoto Castle is one of the most beautiful and photogenic castle in Japan. It is also known as the "Crow Castle" for it's black exterior.

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World Heritage Part 3: Suganuma & Ainokura

This is the Part 3 of my World Heritage series and in this episode, I will introduce you to two more World Heritage sites next to Shirakawago. They are located in another prefecture, the Toyama Prefecture while Shirakawago is located in the Gifu Prefecture. Although located in different prefecture, they are just 30 minutes drive away from each other. The two world heritage sites are Suganuma and Ainokura, both located in a place called Gokayama and therefore, some called them the Gokayama World Heritage sites.

You can access Part 1 and Part 2 of my World Heritage series by click on the link below:

Part 1: Shirakawago - Ogimachi

Part 2: Shirakawago - Open Air Museum

World Heritage: Suganuma of Gokayama

World Heritage: Ainokura of Gokayama

Gokayama world heritage sites are more difficult to access and therefore they are a lot more quiet than Ogimachi of Shirakawago, which is often swamped by tourist around the world. However, it is still possible to access these two sites with advanced planning and research. The two world heritage sites in Gokayama are smaller compared to Ogimachi. Read on for information about accessing these two sites.

World Heritage Part 2: Shirakawago

Shirakawago Open Air Museum

Welcome to the Part 2 of my World Heritage Shirakawago series. In this episode, I will introduce you the Shirakawago Open Air Museum, located just across the suspension bridge from the Ogimachi village. 

To read the Part 1 of this World Heritage series, click here.

I actually returned to Ogimachi on the second day of my trip because I only managed to spend less than 3 hours of my first day there and it wasn't enough to explore The Open Air Museum. I had to leave for the other two World Heritage sites - Suganuma and Ainokura as there were only 4 buses operating a day that connects these 3 world heritage sites. Therefore, I decided that I could come back the next day.

Gassho-zukuri style Restaurants in front of the Open Air Museum

World Heritage Part 1: Shirakawago

World Heritage - Gassho-zukuri Houses in Shirakawago, Japan.

Hello everyone, finally I'm back. It's been 6 months since I've last posted here. I apologize for my missing in action. I've been very busy during the previous 6 months, preparing for my wedding as well as working on my new house renovation, furnishing and moving in just last December. So, finally everything is done and now i can get back to working on my blog again. The good news is, I've been taking pictures this 6 months, from Seoul in South Korea to Adelaide in Australia. I just need time to process those pictures and share them with you in this blog later.

Before I forget, Happy New Year everyone!! It's 2012 now. This year's new year weekend had been an exciting one for me, as I have finally traveled to one of the World Heritage sites in Japan - Shirakawago. It was more than 8 hours of travelling time from where I am, Kimitsu  town, which is located at the south of Tokyo. I actually wanted to visit this place at the end of year 2009, but cancelled the plan due to long travelling hours and expensive travelling cost. This is the second World Heritage sites in Japan that I have visited, after Nikko which I have visited twice in year 2009 and 2010.

Shirakawago viewed from Shiroyama Viewpoint

The Shirakawago and neighboring Gokayama regions line the Shogawa River Valley in the remote mountains that span from Gifu to Toyama Prefectures of Japan. They were declared UNESCO World Heritage Sites in the year 1995, famous for their traditional gassho-zukuri farmhouses, some of which are more than 250 years old.

Sakura in Kisarazu

Sakura in Kisarazu

Did I tell you that I was assigned to an installation project in Japan for more than 2 years? Now you see why I have so many pictures of Japan. I stayed long enough that the company actually moved me from the hotel to a house in a city called Kisarazu, or 木更津 in Japanese, about 20 minutes drive away from the site. Kisarazu is about 1 hour drive distance from Tokyo, and is the other end of Tokyo Bay Aqua-Line. The Aqua-Line is a highway that connects Kawasaki and Kisarazu, across the Tokyo Bay ocean, with part of it under the sea in a tunnel and the other part above sea.

My house in Kisarazu was a perfect one, where there is a canal at the back of the house, with Sakura trees lining up along the canal. I was there in last year's Sakura season. It was awesome. In this article, I will share with you sceneries with Sakura that you won't find commonly on the internet, not like the ones you see in Tokyo or Kyoto.

Tulips in Japan

Tulips in Sakura, Japan

To avoid confusion, I have omitted the name of the location where pictures of these wonderful tulips were taken in the title of this article. The title would have been Sakura's Tulips. Yes, you hear me right, Sakura. It is the name of a city in Chiba prefecture, in Japanese it is written as 佐倉市.

A lot of travelers who transit in Narita Airport for more than half a day are eager to know how to spend their time while in Japan. Some would hope to visit Tokyo but it would be an hour away from the airport by train and the city is too big to be explored in half a day. What if I tell you that there is a place where you can enjoy beautiful Tulips and it is located just three train stations away from JR Narita Airport Terminal 2 station?

Shibuya Night

At the busiest cross junction in Shibuya, Tokyo [HDR Picture]

After the previous posting of Sakura In Tokyo - Yasukuni Shrine, Shinjuku Gyoen & Inokashira Park article, I was busy reading, researching and learning about ways to improve and optimize this blog. If you have not noticed, the layout and sidebar arrangements of this blog have changed quite a bit. The loading time of the blog have improved, and of course, my favorite changes are the introduction of the header picture and Most Viewed This Week section. I hope you like them.

While doing studies about website optimization, I have also been exposed to some articles about internet marketing strategy, which includes the new FREE Newsletter Subscription Services that you see as an addition to my existing Menu Bar above. I have signed-up to an Email Marketing Company - MailChimp, and have learned about ways to manage my subscribers via emails. Those signup forms, confirmation emails and RSS Feed Emails were customized by myself. If you like my photography work here, why not sign up for my Free email subscription services? All you need to do is to enter your email address and verify the confirmation email sent to you. After that, all new articles (including new pictures) from this blog will be sent to your mailbox directly, without needing to even visit this website itself. To subscribe for free, click here.

Furthermore, the Google Adsense Advertisements on this blog have just been optimized to display more relevant ads on my blog and hopefully should get better in the next couple of weeks.

Alright, let's talk a little bit about the picture above. The picture featured in this articles was taken recently in January 2011 at one of the busiest cross junction in Shibuya, Tokyo. As stated on the caption of the picture, it was a High Dynamic Range Picture and was created from three (3) bracketed shots with different exposures. I have taken a lot of shots that day from this cross junction, and probably have spent more than an hour in that area. For this shot, I established my tripod by the side of the road and stood there for more than 30 minutes, waiting for the best moment to photograph (I remember there was a car stopping in front of my camera for almost 20 minutes, just to drop his wife to do some quick shopping and the car was there all time. However, I waited patiently for the car to leave and of course was cursing the driver for blocking my view inside me, hahaha). I hope you enjoyed this picture and since it is the only picture in this article, I hope your eyes will land longer on it, checking out every detail of the picture.

Do leave me any comments about the picture or even about the blog. It will even be better if you have suggestions that I can look into to optimize and improve this blog. I hope you enjoyed your time here.

Have a nice day!!

Sakura in Tokyo - Yasukuni Shrine, Shinjuku Gyoen & Inokashira Park

Sakura Trees around Yasukuni Shrine

Entrance to Yasukuni Shrine

This is my third article about Sakura viewing spots in Tokyo. In this article, I will introduce three more fantastic sakura viewing locations, namely Yasukuni Shrine, Shinjuku Gyoen and Inokashira Park. 

To access my previous articles on Sakura in Tokyo, click the titles below:

1. Sakura in Tokyo - Ueno Park & Koishikawa Korakuen

2. Sakura in Tokyo - Chidorigafuchi & Meguro River

Due to the current radioactive scare caused by the damaged Fukushima nuclear power plant, I believe many have cancelled their Sakura viewing trip to Japan this year. I hope that the nuclear crisis can be overcome soon and people can start visiting Japan again next year. While praying for the recovery from the disaster suffered by Japan, these Sakura in Tokyo articles and pictures will serve as an alternative for Hanami (sakura viewing) online. Note that these pictures were taken in Tokyo last year, while actual sakura has only started to bloom at the time this articles is written. They are fore-casted to reach full bloom in about one week from now.

Leaving Japan

I wanted to use the word evacuation for the titled of this article, but I think the word will mislead the readers about the current condition in Japan.

On 17 March 2011, I have left Japan and have already been back to Malaysia for the past 4 days. It was a difficult decision as the power plant that I was working at has not been started yet but I have to leave the Japanese people at this very difficult time. I felt so sorry for the move but the few of us foreign engineers have decided to leave the country for our own safety, partially due to the radiation level concern and mainly due to the scare of being trapped in Japan if a panic strikes the region where we were at. Foreigners like us do not speak Japanese language well, so it will be extremely difficult and dangerous for us if there is an evacuation order or a panic that strikes places like Tokyo. It will be too late to leave by then. Thus, I have decided to support the startup from home in Malaysia.

The flights out of Japan were mostly fully booked while the few seats left available are of double or triple the usual price. I managed to get a flight out from Narita Airport on Vietnam Airlines, but needed to transit in Ho Chi Minh City before arriving in Kuala Lumpur. 

My drive to Narita Airport as early as 5.30am was a slow one as the speed limit throughout the highway was reduced to 80km/h due to the fear of car skidding if there is a shake on the road caused by an earthquake. Along the journey to Narita airport, I found that the petrol stations were all in long queue, as told by my Japanese colleague earlier. The queue was so long that I could only see the queue but not the actual location of the petrol station.

Narita Airport was crowded as expected. The queue to check-in my luggage at Narita Airport was crazily long. The queue to my check-in counter at row <I> was as long as to the side of row <M>. It took me one and a half hours to check-in my luggage.

Narita Airport on 17 March 2011

Crowded Narita Airport

Now that I have reached home safely in Malaysia, I am supporting the site in Japan remotely as much as I can as this is the least I can do to help them at this very difficult time. I wish them luck in getting the unit started and adding 500MW into their national grid. We know the 500MW means a lot to the people especially during this cold weather in Japan. I also hope that the nuclear plants in Fukushima can successfully be cooled down as soon as possible, bringing the end to this nuclear radiation scare and I will then be able to return to Japan and support the startup.

To read about my previous postings on the Earthquake, click the links below:
1. March 11, Earthquake and Tsunami in Japan
2. Earthquake & Tsunami Aftermath On A Monday in Japan

Earthquake & Tsunami Aftermath On A Monday in Japan

Kimitsu-shi, Chiba-ken, Japan. - It's Monday, and a lot of people wonder if I need to get to work on this day after the disaster last Friday that killed more than a thousand people. Yes, I did get to work, everyone at site did, although I heard that there are offices in Tokyo that are closed today.

Today is Blackout day, a scheduled one. Due to the earthquake and tsunami that destroyed the nuclear plants in Fukushima, Japan is now suffering from power shortages. As such, people in Japan have to share the usage of electrical power and will each experience a three hours power outage. When I login to my Facebook account just now, I saw this message:

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"Japan Earthquake Information - Updated Mar 14, 8:05AM

Scheduled Blackout
There will be a scheduled blackout (power outage) starting the morning of 3/14 in Tokyo, Tochigi, Ibaraki, Gunma, Chiba, Kanagawa, Saitama, Yamanashi, and Shizuoka.
Areas will be divided into 5 groups and each group will experience about 3 hours of power outage.

Please refer to the TEPCO Homepage (as of now, the list is only provided in Japanese) to find out which group you are in and what time the power outage will occur in your group.

Train companies have announced that there will be irregular operation, including out of service hours. Summary here.

JR | Tokyo Metro | Toei Subway/Bus | Tokyu | Odakyu | Keio | Tobu | Keikyu | Keisei

Major out of services are: Tokaido Line (all day), Yokosuka Line (all day), Yokohama Line (all day), Odakyu will only operate between Kyodo to Shinjyuku (all day), Keio will only operate between Chofu and Shinjyuku (during morning and evening rush hours).

The Facebook website will not be affected by this blackout.

About this box: Facebook uses this box to provide information to foreigners and visitors in Japan for the duration of the current crisis."

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I am not sure if everyone gets this message or it is only for people who login through an IP address from Japan, but I think this is very useful at this difficult time in Japan. Kudos to Facebook!! If you think this information might be useful to your friends, just hit the Recommend button above or below this article to post it to your Facebook wall.

As described in my earlier posting about the earthquake on March 11, I am a field engineer who is currently working on an outage in a TEPCO thermal power plant in Chiba. When I get to site today and visited the TEPCO office, I was shocked to realize the absence of light in the office. It was dark and I thought the office must be under-going some electrical panel maintenance work until I was told that they are actually trying to reduce electrical power usage so that more people in other parts of Japan can have a share of the power. Only laptops and computers were powered in their office. Although I know that this measure will only reduce a minimum amount of energy consumption, these people have immediately won my utmost respect to them. I went back to our office and we started switching off our lights too.

Sakura in Tokyo - Chidorigafuchi & Meguro River

This is my second posting about Sakura in Tokyo. In the previous article, I have introduced Ueno Park and Koishikawa Korakuen. You can access the previous article here.

Due to the recent major earthquake and tsunami that struck North-East Japan on 11 March 2011, this posting has been delayed. I wish all of the affected victims the best of luck in recovering their homes and loved ones.

If you wonder what is the current condition in Japan and is it fine to visit Japan at this moment, you can visit this webpage for a more detailed information about the effect of the disaster on the tourism industry in Japan by clicking here.

Back to the cherry blossom. This article will introduce to you two more beautiful sakura viewing spot in Tokyo, Japan - namely Chidorigafuchi 千鳥ヶ淵 and Meguro River 目黒川.

Chidorigafuchi 千鳥ヶ淵

Meguro River 目黒川

March 11, Earthquake and Tsunami in Japan

Kimitsu-shi, Chiba-ken, Japan - It has been more than 24 hours since the 8.9 scale earthquake struck North-Eastern part of Japan, causing tsunami of 10 meters that destroyed homes and killed believed to be more than a thousand people. It was indeed a very sad day in Japan - March 11, 2011.

This will be one of my very rare post that will have no picture in it. I want to share my experience in this earthquake.

It was a Friday evening, at 2.46pm Japan Local Time. I was working at a Thermal Power Plant in Futtsu, Japan. At that time, I was just done with checking my email in the site office and was getting ready to go to the turbine deck to checkout some instrumentation before attending a daily meeting at 3.30pm. Just when I was getting ready, the office floor suddenly moved sideways and the movement got stronger and stronger. We immediately ran down the office building to an open space carpark just by the office. We couldn't stand still on our feet. The earth was moving sideways (left right front back) and we had to move our legs to keep our balance. The cars parked at the parking area were shaking too. It lasted for more than 3 minutes, and instantly we knew that this is a big one, a special one, unlike the ones we had in Japan that will usually only last for a few seconds.

People who were working at site in the turbine building stopped work and evacuated the area. Everyone was instructed to return to their office and was prohibited from entering the turbine building. It was about 30 minutes later that we felt the second quake, which I think was stronger than the first one as I could hear the items on the table trembling when I was on my way running out of the office, for the second time. The Japanese colleagues were all putting on their safety helmet in the second evacuation from the office. All of them were seen using their mobile phones to watch the TV news.

Sakura in Tokyo - Ueno Park & Koishikawa Korakuen

Sakura or Cherry Blossom in Japan

Sakura is the term for Cherry Blossom in Japan. With the Sakura season coming soon by the end of March to early April, I am posting some of my Sakura pictures taken last year and sharing some of the best places to view Sakura in Tokyo, Japan. The 2011 Sakura forecast can be accessed here.

This post recommends two of the best places in Tokyo to view Sakura, namely the famous Ueno Park and Koishikawa Korakuen. More Sakura viewing locations will be made available in my coming postings in March 2011. So, stay tuned and bookmark this website if you are interested to know the best locations in Tokyo area for Sakura viewing. Remember to LIKE our Facebook fan page to get the latest update on my postings right at your fingertips.

Sakura in Ueno Park, Tokyo

Winter in Gunma - Part 2

This is the second part of my first snow experience in Gunma, Japan. To read the first part of this trip, which includes some of my Winter Photography tips, click here. 

After having our car stuck in the middle of a blizzard, we walked down hill and looked for help. Finally, we got ourselves into Minakami Okutone Skiing Zone.

Minakami Okutone Skiing Zone

Kids around the Skiing Zone

Winter Photography in Gunma 群馬, Japan

Winter Photography

With the end of the winter season in the northern hemisphere regions, I am sharing my first experience with snow as well as some tips for Winter Photography. Although it may sound strange to some that my first contact with snow was when I was 26 years old, it is absolutely normal to people who lives near the equator, in hot and humid countries such as Malaysia and Singapore. Snow is a big deal to us!! A lot of people here live their entire life not seeing snow except in TV. So, I consider myself very lucky.

My first contact was in January 17, 2010. It happened in Minakami Okutone of Gunma Prefecture, Japan. It was a last minute call when my Japanese colleague invited me to join them for a skiing trip to the famous skiing resorts in Niigata Prefecture of Japan. He said he will be driving and an American colleague is going together. I made my intention clear, that I am there for my first contact with snow and to photograph winter!!

Winter Photography

So, how did we ended up half way in Gunma instead of Niigata? (A little bit of Geography lesson here. Gunma Prefecture is located north of Tokyo, in between Tokyo and Niigata Prefecture)

Traditional Osaka 大阪

Osaka Castle in HDR

A Japanese colleague visited this blog and was looking for more Osaka pictures when he clicked "Osaka" on the Label section of the blog. Well, here you go. More Osaka pictures.

Taiko Bashi Bridge in Sumiyoshi Taisha Shrine, Osaka

Sometime in March 2010, I had a short assignment in Osaka, Japan. Upon completing the works at site, I returned to the hotel, did a quick search for must see places in Osaka on the internet, grabbed my camera and headed out. It was a very rare occasion to be on the western side of Japan as I am always assigned to sites around Tokyo only.

With a population of 2.5 million people, Osaka is Japan's third largest city. It was formerly known as Naniwa and was once the first known capital city of Japan. Despite visiting the city of Osaka, I had opted for the traditional side of Osaka in this short half day trip.

Narita Airport

I am not the kind of person who likes to take out my camera and shoot when I am in the airport. I just don't get the mood to photograph in such a place.

Yesterday morning, I was in Narita Airport Japan and while I was waiting to board the flight back to Kuala Lumpur for Lunar New Year celebration with the family, I saw this travellator in the airport that was rather empty and got the feeling that a shot with my ultra wide angle lens 10-22mm would make an interesting picture.

And here's what I got, after converting the 3 bracketed shots into a single HDR picture.

Narita Airport Terminal 2: Gate 91

What do you think? Post your comment below.