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posted: January 31st, 2010 |
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This page actually begins with 6:48 AM on December 31, 2009 and takes you through 11:56 PM of that day - a trip to Akita Prefecture. Click on any thumbnail to begin.
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| Begin December 31st |
On December 30, 2009 Kazuya and I headed off for a New Year's Holiday Adventure. The first day (the 30th) we left our home station of Musashisakai on a 4:49 AM train and we finally arrived at Morioka Station at 4:09 PM. We had a special discount price ticket (¥10,000 for 5 days of travel on local trains only). There are no photos from the first day, no snow was seen and snow was what we were searching for! The first photos in this row start at 6:48 AM on December 31st at Tazawako (Tazawa Lake) Station. We took a train from Morioka Station at 5:22 AM and arrived at Tazawako Station at 6:09 AM. The first photo is looking across the parking lot at Tazawako Station. The 2nd shot is the Tazawako Station. The 3rd shot is Tazawako (Tazawa Lake).
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These 3 shots are all Tazawa Lake Scenery. Tazawa Lake is the deepest lake in Japan - it's not so very large, but the depth is an incredible 423.4 meters (1,389 feet). We walked around the lake area for about 2 hours in the cold and wind. These 3 photos were taken between 7:18 and 7:22 AM.
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Here are 3 more shots of Tazawa Lake. The first photo shows some mistletoe infected trees. The 2nd shot and 3rd shots show a famous tree "The Horai Pine". Mount Penglai or Penglai Island, is a mystical land found in Chinese mythology. The legend also passed into Japan, where it took shape as the legend of Horai - therefore, the Horai Pine, a mystical pine tree. The 3rd shot is the Horai Pine which has been worked on with software called Photomatix Pro. I used this software to "fuse" the first image of the Pine with a copy of the image which I very obviously over-exposed using Photoshop.
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The 1st shot in this row shows the lake nicely framed on 3 sides by the lower branches of the Horai Pine. This is the final shot of Tazawa Lake. In the 2nd photo it's 9:30 AM and not as windy because we took a bus from Tazawa Lake to a place where we got off the bus and started walking about 4 kilometers to our destination. We are quite a bit higher elevation now and you'll notice that the snow is much deeper. Our destination is Tsuru-No-Yu (Hot Spring of the Crane). The second photo shows a sign to the Hot Spring and says that it is open to the general public from 10:00 AM to 3:00 PM. We will be staying there as guests, not as general public. The 3rd shot is right at the very start of the road.
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Here are 3 more shots as we walked along the road to Tsuru No Yu. It's not snowing too hard YET.
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These 3 shots are all the same area. The first shot is an overview, the 2nd shot is zoomed in to the small hill in the center of the first photo. The 3rd shot is zoomed in even more to the area of larger trees on the right side of the hill.
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Here are 3 shots of creeks. The first 2 shots are the same place, but the 2nd shot is a sepia toned one. The 3rd shot is a different creek. The creeks were the few places where one could get a true idea of the depth of the snow.
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In the 1st shot we have just arrived at the Hot Spring (Tsuru No Yu), it's now 10:53 AM (recall that we started walking at 9:30 AM). Check in time is not until 3:00 PM, so they put people who arrive before check-in time in "waiting rooms" and you can order lunch and use the Hot Baths while you wait. The 2nd shot shows some Sake Bottles on a shelf in the "waiting room". The 3rd shot is me outside of the waiting room.
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Here is a creek which flows through the "resort", if I may use the word "resort" for this type of place. I don't think this term is correct. The first shot is looking upstream and the 2nd shot is looking downstream. The 3rd shot is the "Rotenboro" or outside bath. It was very nice to sit in the hot water and have the snow falling all around you. After a while you ended up with snow-filled hair.
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Now it's 3:15 PM and this shot was taken from the window of the room where we stayed. Amazing place. The rooms were heated and nice and warm. Supper was served to us in our room and you can see some photos of the amazing meal we had if you search Kazuya's Blog for Tsurunoyu in the box below. The 2nd shot is one of the hallways in the hotel. The 3rd shot is a night scene showing the building where we were staying - the time now is only 5:29 PM.
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Here is another night scene of the hotel, but not the building where we were staying. The 2nd shot is me at the start of our supper meal after they brought it to our room. The time now is 6:28 PM.
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Here are the 2 final shots from December 31st. The time is 11:56 PM, nearly New Year's! These were taken with flash - night shots again. Where were we at midnight? In the Rotenboro of course, and some nice people gave us a little bit of champagne to see the New Year in with while we soaked there!
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| End December 31st, End Page 1 |
| Thanks so much for taking the time to look at this page. Now, please go on to Page 2 for the continuation of this New Year's Holiday adventure. |
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