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posted: January 31st, 2012 |
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This page begins with January 8th - a trip to a new place in Chiba Prefecture to see a place which is famous for all of the Daffodils. The next, and final, outing on this page is a trip to and climb of Mt. Takao on January 15th. Click on any thumbnail to begin.
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| Begin January 8th |
Well, actually you should look at the 2nd photo in this row first - it is a photo of Tokyo Sky Tree which was taken from the train as we took a trip to Chiba Prefecture (It was placed in center position for "balance"). The Tokyo Sky Tree is a broadcasting, restaurant and observation tower under construction in Sumida, Tokyo, Japan. When completed (in early 2012), the tower will have a height of 634.0 meters (=2,080 ft). One of Tokyo Sky Tree's main purposes will be as a television and radio broadcasting tower. Tokyo's current broadcasting tower, Tokyo Tower, is at 333 m (=1,093 ft), no longer tall enough to give complete digital terrestrial television broadcasting coverage as it is surrounded by many high-rise buildings. When completed, the Tokyo Sky Tree will be the tallest tower in the world beating Canton Tower (600 m = 1,969 ft), the tallest structure on an island, beating Taipei 101 and the second tallest structure in the world, after the Burj Khalifa. (Thanks to Wikipedia for above information.) This photo had some wires which had to be removed with Photoshop. Now, let's go to the first photo in the row - it shows Hota Station, in Chiba Prefecture. We had never visited any place in Chiba Prefecture before and so this was all a new adventure for us. Chiba is on the Bousou Peninsula - south and east of Tokyo. We went there because Kazuya read about some mountain road which is famous for all of the Daffodils which grow wild there. The particular species which grows here is Narcissus tazetta var. chinensis. The 3rd photo shows a scene from the mountain road before we got to the Daffodil area.
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Okay, now we have reached the Daffodil Area. An amazing number of Narcissus tazetta var. chinensis were growing here - we hiked up this road for maybe 2 miles or so and there were Daffodils everywhere!
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Here are 3 more shots of Narcissus tazetta var. chinensis.
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Here is a shot of a bush filled with an amazing number of red berries. I noticed this bush off through the brush when I was taking a photo of a small bunch of Daffodils. The 2nd and 3rd shots are of course 2 more shots of Daffodils (Narcissus tazetta var. chinensis).
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These 3 photos are all kind of overviews of the kind of area we hiked through. Note the oranges on the tree in the 3rd photo.
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Here is one more overview photo in 1st position and then 2 shots which show an incredible number of Daffodils.
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And, here are the final 2 shots taken along Suisen (Daffodil) Road. After enjoying the beautiful Daffodils we hiked back to Hota Station. We were planning to take the Tokyo Bay Ferry across the bay to Kurihama, so we had to go back on the train just one station - to Hama-Kanaya Station. We had to kill some time near Hota Station before the next train and the Pacific Ocean beach was only a 5 minute walk from the station, so we went down and checked it out.
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Some property owners on the beach had some of these HUGE Aloe plants (Aloe arborescens) growing in their yards and it was the proper time of the year for them to be in bloom. Amazing!
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Here is one final shot from the beach near Hota Station. The 2nd shot was taken from Hama-Kanaya Station - we could see Mt. Nokogiri and happened to notice that there were several places that looked like the rock had been cut away for some reason. Why, to make tunnels, to mine for something, why?! Kazuya searched it on the internet and found that the rock had been cut out for building construction. Apparently it is really good rock for buildings. The 3rd shot was taken from the deck of the ferry which we took to go from here to Kurihama. Note that Mt. Nokogiri also shows in the background of this photo.
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Here are 3 shots taken from the deck of the ferry as we crossed Tokyo Bay from Hama-Kanaya to Kurihama.
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Here is a final shot which was taken from the deck of the ferry as we crossed Tokyo Bay. The 2nd shot is a map which shows the large circular route we traveled today. Note that "Home" is near the upper left corner and we traveled in a clockwise direction from home. We bought a special train ticket for the trip to Tsuru-No-Yu for New Year's and we were allowed to use it for 5 "all-day" rides on local trains. We were using up the last part of that ticket on this day. We have never before traveled in a circle such as the one we traveled today; we generally go out on a train and then return home along the same route that we went on.
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| End January 8th, Begin January 15th |
On January 15th we went out to Mt. Takao and we were feeling wimpish, so we took the chairlift up about two-thirds of the way to the summit. We were specifically looking for frost flowers on this trip, so we had to had to hike out to I-Ccho-Daira. My point is that we still had a good hike even after riding the chairlift. The 2nd photo was taken at one of the temples on Mt. Takao and it shows a statue of "Tengu" - the long-nosed god. The 3rd shot has been cropped and is shown to you actual size so that you can see the nose.
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We found frost flowers - as you can see in all 3 photos in this row, but they were very small. It seems that my guess last month was correct - that there has been so little precipitation this year (28 days with no precipitation at the time these photos were taken) so that there is just not enough moisture in the soil to create nice frost flowers. If you go to the "Complete List Of All Photos" page HERE (will open in new window) and do a text search for "frost flowers" you will find photos which we took in December 2011, December 2010, December 2009, December 2008, January 2008, January 2007 and December 2005. Alternately, you can use the "Google Search" box just below this text. These occur here in Japan on the stems of Keiskea japonica, in your country they may occur on a different plant. Knowledge of the formation of these amazing "flowers" is not well understood, but the best and most complete knowledge about them appears to be well summarized HERE (will open in new window). Note that the ice is coming OUT OF a plant stem. A Google search for "Frost flowers" will give you more results than you want to look at. These things are SO AMAZING!
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Here is a final frost flower shot and then a shot of an unknown tree which has red berries.
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These 3 images are all the same photo. The first one is the original shot of Mt. Fuji taken from I-Ccho-Daira. In the 2nd one I attempted to enhance it by using Shadow Illuminator Pro. In the 3rd one I attempted to enhance it by merely adjusting the exposure in Photoshop. As you can see, it was a hazy day.
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| End January 15th, End Page 2 |
| Thanks so much for taking the time to look at this page. Now, please go on to Page 3 for the continuation of this month's adventures. |
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