Japan Photo Guide

Geibikei (猊鼻渓), along with Genbikei (厳美渓), are two famous gorges in Iwate Prefecture in the Tohoku Region of Japan, with Geibikei being the more famous of the two.  Geibikei is about 30 minutes by bus from Ichinoseki Station and 30 minutes by train on the Ofunato Line also from Ichinoseki Station.  Geibikei’s main appeal is that you take a boat ride down a shallow river that runs between cliffs as tall as 100 meters (about 328 feet).

Round trip the boat ride takes about 90 minutes and at the half way point you can get off the boat and walk around some before coming back.  The boats run from 8:30 am – 4:30 pm in the spring and summer, until 4:00 pm in November and from December to March run from 9:00 am – 3:00 pm.  Bringing food and drinks is allowed but be warned there are little to no trash cans, so you will be holding your trash.

The boat ride and scenery is very beautiful and relaxing, though as you might imagine, the 100 meter cliffs can make for some difficult lighting situations if you are trying to take photographs.  That being said, you should still l be able to get some good shots.  I went during the fall which was beautiful, but if you can bear the cold, I imagine after a fresh snow this place is really nice as well. See more photos and read the rest of this entry »

Genbikei (厳美渓), along with Geibikei (猊鼻渓), are two famous gorges in Iwate Prefecture in the Tohoku Region of Japan, with Geibikei being the more famous of the two. Genbikei can easily be reached by bus in about 30 minutes from Ichinoseki station. While being the less famous of the two gorges, if you are in Iwate Prefecture it is still worth checking out. I went in the fall season but the Genbikei claims that it offers a spectacular view during all four seasons.

There are a few trails you can walk along and follow Genbikei and the Iwai River that flows through it, but they are not so easily accessible. I did not walk too far so maybe at some point upstream it becomes more accessible but you can will probably be content after spending about 45 minutes or an hour there.

Actually, Genbikei might be most famous for it’s “Flying Dango.” Dango is a sticky riceball that comes in various favors such as seaseme (goma), red bean paste (an), or my personal favorite (the one with light brown sauce on the right), soy sauce (mitarashi). Genbikei has “Flying Dango” because a restaurant on one side of the gorge sends it to the other side of the gorge via rope and basket.

For more information see the Iwate Prefecture Tourist Site or the Tohoku Tourist Site.

I have just added new forums here at babibubeboDOTcom, provided by bbPress.  Registration is easy (and fast) so get to posting!  Since it is brand new, it is very empty right now, but that just means it will be easier for me to answer your questions about traveling or photography in Japan or just about Japan or photography in general.  Thanks in advance!

Odaiba is yet another shopping, eating and entertainment district in Tokyo. Odaiba has much to offer a photographer or visitor in Japan and is well known for the Rainbow Bridge, Fuji TV Building (below), a replica of the Statue of Liberty, shopping and crowds of people.

Odaiba actually has a lot of attractions but they are mainly geared more towards tourists (local or foreign in somecases) such as:

•  
  • Toyota Showroom (called Mega Web for some reason)
  • Ferris Wheel (where on a weekend the line gets as long as a two hour wait)
  • National Museum of Emerging Science and Innovation (bilingual)
  • National Museum of Maritime Science
  • Oedo Onsen Monogatari (the largest hot spring theme park in Japan, designed after the old Edo period)

I recommend getting there by taking the Yurikamome Line which is a fairly new (and slightly expensive) private train line that rides fairly high off the ground, over the Rainbow Bridge and between some really interesting and cool buildings. When the weather is nice, the train ride itself offers some great and unique views of Tokyo. You can transfer to the Yurikamome Line from Shimbashi. Below are photos of the Rainbow Bridge. The one taken during the day was taken while on the Yurikamome Line.

See more photos and read the rest of this entry »

Naruko is most famous for it’s onsens (hot spring baths) but almost as famous for it’s fall leaves or koyo in Japanese. Naruko is one of the most famous places to see the fall leaves in the Tohoku area is the most famous in Miyagi Prefecture. I went there October 21st, 2006 and it was just a little bit too early. If you live in the Tohoku or Miyagi area, by next weekend (28th) it should be really nice! By local train, Naruko is about 2 hours from Sendai and 40 minutes to Naruko from Furukawa (depending on where you are coming from, you should change at Furukawa or Kogata to get to Naruko). The station you want to get off at is called Naruko Onsen.

From the station you can walk to some places of interest but also there are a few buses and taxis if you don’t want to walk the whole time. One of the more popular places to go is Naruko Gorge. It is about a 30 minute walk from Naruko Onsen Station and it takes about 1 hour to walk through the gorge. At the end their is a really famous bridge, that you can see in the photos here, and a really nice view of the gorge. I recommend taking the bus to the end of the gorge where the bridge is and then walking back towards the station through Naruko Gorge. The gorge, while being slightly commercialized, is actually quite a nice and easy walk with a few waterfalls, bridges and interesting rocks and cliffs. As you can imagine, being as it is a gorge, sometime the lighting can be somewhat tricky with places completely in shadow and completely in direct sunlight.

Other places of interest include, Naruko Tropical Botanical Gardens, Katanuma Lake (although it is a lot smaller than I thought it would be), Naruko Damn and a nature trail at Jigokudani (which passes by a famous geyser). See more photos and read the rest of this entry »

Got good photographs of Japan? Want to share them with others? Want your 15 minutes (or more) of fame? Send me your photos and if you make the cut I will put them on my website! Of course you will be given full credit and I will link to your site if you have one. Please mail all submissions to japanphotocontest@gmail.com and write “contest” as the subject. Also you need to provide information about where your photograph was taken and any relevant information. Good luck with the Japan Photo Contest!

*NOTICE*

By submitting your photographs you give me the right to edit and publish your photograph(s) for babibubebo.com.

Previous Winners:

• Greg Logan
• Laura Kumataka
• Myriam Ward (Kamakura)
• Laurenz Bobke (Shinjuku Gyoen)

Ueno Park (Ueno Koen), along with Yoyogi Park, are the two most famous parks in Tokyo. Yoyogi and Ueno Park are on opposite sides of the Yamanote Line and kind of have opposite personalities, for example Yoyogi is most famous for it’s ginko trees which turn golden in the fall and Ueno for it’s cherry blossom (sakura) which turn pearly white in the spring. Ueno Park right next to Ueno Station and close to Asasuka, Nippori and Akihabara. The photo below was taken at sunrise.

Both parks are very nice and each has it’s advantages. Ueno has a huge lake in the middle, a zoo (including the ever popular Giant Pandas), homeless people (but not a whole city like in Yoyogi Park), morning joggers, temples and shrines, crows and everything else you would expect from a park in Tokyo. There is no question that the best time to go there is in the spring when the cherry blossom are blooming. I actually went to Ueno park a couple days too early as you can see, only some of the blossoms are in bloom, but you can imagine if all of them were in bloom!

See more photos and read the rest of this entry »

Okamako, Okama Lake, is a 320m lake in a crater, created from a volcanic eruption in the 1720s. Okamako is on Mt. Zao in Yamagata prefecture and about and hour or two from Sendai. It is also known as the “Five Color Swamp” (五色沼, goshiki numa) because depending on the season and the weather the lake changes color.

To be honest, it should also be known as “usually too cloudy to see but still beautiful lake,” because most of the time it is really cloudy and you can only catch glimpses of the ever changing lake. I was there for about 4 hours and could actually “see” the shy lake for a total of about 3 minutes maybe and these are by “see”  I kind of mean catch a glimpse.  I am not sure if there is really anyway to find out what the weather is like before going, because I went twice on sunny days but Okamako is so high up on Mount Zao that on a sunny day it was cloudy there (see the very bottom photo). On the other hand, the other photos, taken by Laura Kumataka, were taken on a cloudy and a little rainy day, but again, Okamako is so high up she got above the clouds.  Maybe the secret is going on a rainy day and just hope you can get above the clouds. See more photos and read the rest of this entry »