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posted: January 31st, 2013 |
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This page actually begins with December 31, 2012 and our annual trip to Akita Prefecture and a New Year's Eve stay at Tsuru-No-Yu (The Hot Spring of the Crane). Then we go to Funagata, Yamagata Prefecture - Kazuya's hometown - for a day. Next, there is a trip to Mt. Takao and a successful search for Frost Flowers. Then we had snow in Tokyo - a rare happening, so there are 3 pictures at our apartment. The next weekend I went out to Okutama and Mitake to check out the snow there. Click on any thumbnail to begin.
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| Begin December 31st, 2012 and then January 1st & 2nd, 2013 |
On December 31st Kazuya and I once again went to Tsuru-No-Yu (The Hot Spring of the Crane) to celebrate the New Year. We were worried that we could not go this year. We called on December 29th and tried to make a reservation and they had no rooms available. You must understand that this place is booked for several years in advance for New Year's, so we cannot just call in July or August or even on December 1st and make a reservation - one has to wait until somebody cancels. Anyway, Kazuya called again on December 30th and, much to our surprise they had two cancellations, so we actually had a choice of rooms! We got up early on December 31st and took a Shinkansen Train to Tazawako and then took a bus to the bus stop for this place and then walked the remainder of the way (about an hour's walk). The first shot in this row shows the Tazawako Station area. The 2nd and 3rd shots were taken as we walked along the road to the hot spring. Oh, by the way, if you want to see photos from our previous visits to this place then please use the Google Search box just below to find additional photos. We arrived at the hot spring at about noon on the 31st.
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Here is a shot of Kazuya walking to the Hot Spring and then a shot of the entryway of Tsuru-No-Yu.
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In first position in this row is a night shot at the hot spring. In second position is our beautiful breakfast on January 1st, 2013 - HAPPY NEW YEAR. The next shot was taken on January 2nd from the deck of the hot spring in Kazuya's hometown of Funagata, in Yamagata Prefecture. Yes, we went to his hometown on the afternoon of January 1st and stayed there until the afternoon of January 2nd and then headed back to Tokyo and we were home at 7:00 PM on the 2nd.
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| End December 31st, 2012 and January 1st and 2nd, Begin January 12th |
On January 12th I went out to Mt. Takao to search for "Frost Flowers". I was successful, but there were not any really huge ones this trip. The biggest and most incredible ones we have ever found were found in December 2010. If you want to take a look at those, please CLICK HERE (will open in new window).
By the way, if you want to learn more about frost flowers, a phenomenon which is little understood, then the current state of knowledge about them appears to be most concisely summarized here
CLICK HERE (will open in new window). If you want to find more images of "Frost Flowers" on our site then please use the Google Search box just below - you'll get about 30 results.
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Here are 3 more photos of "Frost Flowers".
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Here is a final "Frost Flower" shot and then a "Candle Ice" shot.
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Here is a piece of "Candle Ice" in my gloved hand for scale. The 2nd shot was taken as I hiked down Hikage Creek trail to the bus stop. It shows a Cedar Tree with a great deal of developing pollen sacs. Looks like it's going to be a bad year for people who suffer allergies to Cedar Pollen.
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| End January 12th, Begin January 14th |
On January 14th it snowed in Tokyo, and was particularly heavy around the Mitaka Area - where our apartment is. It snowed about 6 inches (15 cm) in just a few hours. The first shot in this row was taken from our rear balcony. The 2nd shot was taken on our entryway walk and shows the snow on our porch plants. The 3rd shot was also taken from our entryway walk. Note the interesting effect here - the snowflakes have shadows. I used the flash on my camera, but I have used it in snow before and never achieved the shadow effect you can see here. I did absolutely nothing to this photo, it is precisely the way the camera took it. I wonder how/why it happened. I believe that I could try for this effect again and not succeed at all. Anybody know how it happened? Okay - here is how it was explained to me on the Digital Camera Resource Forum: "When you use a flash you essentially have two exposures, one with ambient light and one with the flash. In the final photo they're layered on top of each other. If you have movement in your frame, this becomes more apparent. The flash occurs fast enough to freeze the snow in place. The shutter speed isn't fast enough to freeze the snow flakes however. So as the snow flakes continue to move there is enough ambient light for their blurred motion to show in the final photo as well. The streaks all appear below the snow flakes because your camera is using first curtain flash, which fires the flash off as the shutter opens. This means that the freezing action takes place at the beginning of the exposure. If you set it to rear curtain, the streak would appear above the snow flake." |
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| End January 14th, Begin January 20th |
On January 20th Kazuya had to work, but I went out to the Okutama & Mitake areas to try and get some good snow photos, but the snow was already not so great. Here are 2 shots of Okutama Lake and there is still snow, but nothing special. The 3rd image was created from 3 exposure-bracketed photos using Photomatix Pro and the Details Enhancer Option. The sun was just off to the right of this photo, so any single photo of this mountain was pretty poor. This shows the Mt. Gozen area.
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The first 2 shots in this row were also taken while I was at Okutama Lake. After that I took a bus back to Okutama Station and took a train to Mitake and hiked the riverside trail from Mitake to Sawai. The 3rd shot shows the Famous Ginkgo Tree (in the center of the photo) that we get great photos of in the Autumn Color Season. In this shot, the tree branches coming from behind me which show in the top of the photo are the branches of the Red Maple Trees which add the red color here in the Autumn Color Season.
If you want to refresh your memory about this area in the Autumn Color season
HERE IS A NICE SHOT - (will open in new window).
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Despite the wintry weather, there are still people kayaking here - and, yes, that is snow on the riverbank behind that kayaker! And, there are still several people who come out and stand around to wait their turn at trying to practice their rock climbing skills.
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Here is another person practicing rock climbing and then a shot taken looking down-river at Sawai. In this shot you can see snow on the riverbank.
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| End January 20th, End January 2013's Photos, Begin Miscellaneous Information |
Well, here is something new from me. I created a "2014 Photo Calendar Showing Japan Mountains and Mountain Flowers" - a print edition. The first image shows the photos that can be found inside, the 2nd image shows what a one month page looks like and the 3rd image shows the cover - both front and back. The right side is the front cover. To see this Calendar's Amazon.com page
CLICK HERE - (will open in new window). It retails for $9.49. It's available on Amazon too and you can find a Details Page with more information about this calendar and a link to Amazon on the "Our Books" Page - "General Information" (link button at bottom of page).
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And, here is another print calendar - this one is entitled "2014 Photo Calendar - Japan's Flowers, Plants & Trees". The first image again shows the photos that can be found inside, the 2nd image shows what a one month page looks like and the 3rd image shows the cover - both front and back. The right side is the front cover. To see this Calendar's Amazon.com page
CLICK HERE - (will open in new window). It retails for $9.49. It's available on Amazon too and you can find a Details Page with more information about this calendar and a link to Amazon on the "Our Books" Page - "General Information" (link button at bottom of page).
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 CreateSpace Calendar #2 The February Page |
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And, here is the third - and final - print calendar - this one is entitled "2014 Photo Calendar - Japan Mountain Scenery". The first image again shows the photos that can be found inside, the 2nd image shows what a one month page looks like and the 3rd image shows the cover - both front and back. The right side is the front cover. To see this Calendar's Amazon.com page
CLICK HERE - (will open in new window). It retails for $9.49. It's available on Amazon too and you can find a Details Page with more information about this calendar and a link to Amazon on the "Our Books" Page - "General Information" (link button at bottom of page).
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 CreateSpace Calendar #3 The March Page |
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| End Miscellaneous Information, End Page 1, End January 2013 |
Here are links to separate web pages - all of them will open in a new window (or new tab). The first link shows some photos of our DVD Collection, an AVI Movie of our Home Theater System and 9 photos of our Sharp Aquos TV. The 2nd link shows our entire DVD collection in DVD Profiler (if you're asking yourself what might be good to rent for the weekend). The DVD's will be sorted by date purchased. You can click on the "Title" Column to sort that way if you desire. The 3rd link shows our entire DVD collection in php DVD Profiler, which is much more sophisticated than the plain vanilla DVD Profiler just above it. The 4th link takes you to a set of pages which show you the FRONT cover-art of our entire DVD collection.
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 January 1, 2013 - DVD Collection & Home Theater System   
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 Please check it out by clicking on the above button. (Click on the "Studies of Plants and Wildlife" link in the new window.) |
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Here is a small hint to let you know that we'd be thrilled to have you buy one of our books. For additional information regarding any title please click the "General Information" tab on the "Our Books" button down at the bottom of this page. Click on any thumbnail to go to its Amazon.com webpage. |
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| Thanks so much for taking the time to look at this page. We hope that you found something which tickled your fancy, despite the limited selection this month. |
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Link to Amazon.com (new window).
We get 2% of whatever you spend if you go to Amazon from this link!! Please shop on Amazon from here.
| If you would like to donate to our hiking & traveling fund or show your appreciation for our efforts you can donate through PayPal. A single donation will entitle you to request a single full-sized photo IN THE DONATION MONTH - which you may then use as a desktop wallpaper or whatever. The copyright will be retained by us and the photo will be inconspicuously marked with the copyright symbol (©), year and photographer's name. (Donation probably not tax deductible.) |