This is Page 2 of 3 - the best of April 2005 - Vacation!
posted: May 2nd, 2005
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Photos included on this page include only those taken between April 7th at 3:07 PM and April 10th at 3:00 PM, mostly a trip to Kusatsu for vacation. Click on any thumbnail to begin.
  This row continues with Phase 2 of Vacation, with 3 more shots of Violets. We THINK that we identified all of them, but if you think there is a mistake in the name, you could be right.
  This row begins with a shot of Chloranthus japonicus showing how it always grows. The 2nd shot is an Omphalodes japonica and the 3rd shot is the next day - a beautiful street of Cherry Trees at the ICU (International Christian University) campus, only a 10 minute walk from our house.
  The first two shots are beautiful close-up shots of Cherry flowers, both taken by Kazuya. Aren't these shots amazing?! The 3rd shot is some other flower - maybe a Peach tree?!
  The first shot is another Violet, at ICU, then a Trigonotis peduncularis - such a tiny little flower, less than 1/4 inch across. The 3rd shot is a Glechoma hederacea.
  This row begins Phase 3 of vacation - a 3 day and 2 night trip to Gunma Prefecture. We traveled to the Kusatsu Area, a very famous geothermal area. The first shot
is called Yubatake. It is a hot "spring" which puts out something like 14,000 liters per minute of extremely hot water. I don't remember how hot - very hot! They run it through these wooden things which collect some of the sulfur
and then they periodically remove the sulfur from the wooden slats and dry it for selling in packages so that you can take home a bag of sulfur and make your bathtub into a "hot spring". The 2nd shot is a footbath right beside Yubatake, kind of a funny shot
with all of the old people sipping on their drinks. The 3rd shot is one more of Yubatake.
  The first shot is of course - Kazuya - at the base of Yubatake. The 2nd shot is right at sunset time of day - a HUGE outdoor hot pool in Sainokawara Park. You can't quite tell from the photo, but all of these people are stark naked. The Hot Pool is behind a fence so that you
can't see in (easily) from the outside. Oh, I did take this shot from inside the fence, NOT outside. You CAN see snow on the hillside in the back. The 3rd shot is the base of Yubatake at night. Interesting lighting.
  The first shot is the same photo as in the previous row, but with that Sheet Metal effect. The 2nd shot is me along the road which we followed to Mt. Shirane on Day 2 of our stay in that area. And the 3rd shot is a shot from along the road to Mt. Shirane. There were buses, but we had to wait an hour
for the bus, so we decided to hike, it took about 1.5 hours to hike up the road to the bottom of the mountain.
  In this row, the first shot is a scene from along the road which we walked up, the 2nd shot shows a person skiing down a slope. The 3rd shot is taken from the Gondola car which we rode to the next level of Mt. Shirane.
  In Row 10 you see one more shot from the Gondola car we rode in, and the next 2 shots show the scenery from the top of the mountain. After the Gondola, then we had to ride a ski lift to the summit of the mountain. The big building in shots 2 and 3 is the top station of the Gondola.
  Two more scenic shots from the top of Mt. Shirane and a shot of Kazuya in the bright snow. The snow was still meters deep, we could not hike anywhere after we got to the top of the mountain. In addition, it was still ski season, lots of people skiing around us.
There were a few people like ourselves, just on foot.
  The first shot here shows both the top of the Gondola and the bottom of the ski lift; well, there are actually 2 ski lifts showing in the photo, but obviously the one we rode is the one which shows in the lower left quadrant of the photo.
In the 2nd photo, the mountain WAY in the distance is Mt. Asama and that is SMOKE billowing out of it. It's an active volcano. It does not show well, but it's right in the center of the photo.
The 3rd shot is in the evening after we got back to town, back in Sainokawara Park and after a refreshing soak in the outdoor hot spring.
Thanks so much for taking the time to look at this page. Now, please go on to Page 3 for the continuation of April 10th at Kusatsu. The next page goes through the end of the month.
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