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This is Page 2 of 2 - the best of February 2014!
posted: February 28th, 2014
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This page begins and ends with February 22nd and a trip out to the Mitake and Okutama Areas. After the snowfall of February 15th the train line from Ome to Okutama was stopped for 7 days. The 22nd was the first day this train had operated since the evening of the 15th! We were fortunate to be able to come out and see this much snow. Not many people were out walking around. Click on any thumbnail to begin.

Begin February 22nd
  As it says up above, after that heavy snowfall of February 15th, the Ome Line train was stopped from Ome to Okutama. That line is the one we use to go to Mitake, Sawai and Okutama - names which you often see on these pages. It opened from Ome to Mitake on February 21st and then on Saturday morning, the 22nd, when we checked the status on the internet, it was reported that it was open all the way to Okutama again! We therefore decided to go out and see the snow! The first photo in this row was taken by Kazuya from the train window and it shows the terrible looking clearcuts as we approach Mitake. The 2nd shot shows 2 trains sitting at Mitake Station and shows a lot of snow on the station platform! The 3rd shot shows a portion of the UGLY Mitake Clearcut as seen from Mitake Station.
Feb22nd_11_FromTrainEnrouteMitakeRC
Feb22nd_11_FromTrain
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Feb22_01_MitakeStationAreaHeavySnowRC
Feb22_01_Mitake
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Feb22_09_MitakeStationAreaHeavySnowRC
Feb22_09_Mitake
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  Three more images of the UGLY Mitake clearcut. What a blight on nature. And, did they have to make it so huge? I've been waiting for a record rainfall to super-saturate that mountainside with water and then send the entire thing careening down on to the houses and highway at the base of it.
Feb22_09_10_12_Panorama_MitakeStationAreaHeavySnowRC
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MitakeStationAreaHeavySnowRC
Feb22_10_MitakeStationAreaHeavySnowRC
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Feb22_09_10_Panorama_MitakeStationAreaHeavySnowRC
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  Here is one more shot of that clearcut and then a shot of the Mitake Bridge over the Tama River. Of course you can see the clearcut from here too - you can see it from everywhere in the area. The 3rd shot was taken looking downstream from the bridge. In the 13 years I have lived in Japan I have never seen more than an inch of snow along this riverside.
Feb22_12_MitakeStationAreaHeavySnowRC
Feb22_12_Mitake
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Feb22nd_36_MitakeWalkingToRiverRC
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Feb22nd_33_MitakeWalkingToRiverRC
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  The first shot in this row was taken looking upstream from the Mitake Bridge. The 2nd shot shows the bank of the Tama River and shows lots of snow! The 3rd shot shows the steps which lead down to the river from near the bus stop in Mitake.
Feb22_17_TamaRiver_Mitake_SawaiHeavySnowRC
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Feb22nd_39_MitakeWalkingToRiverRC
Feb22nd_39_Mitake
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Feb22nd_47_Mitake_TamaRiver_SnowRC
Feb22nd_47_Mitake_
TamaRiver_SnowRC

  We have not taken any photos of the naked guy statue at Sawai in several years now, so here are 2 of them - in 1st and 3rd position. You always see statues of naked women in parks and other places, but never any statues of naked guys - did you ever wonder why? The center shot was taken from about the same spot where we always take photos of the Famous Mitake Ginkgo Tree in the autumn. The tree which is embossed is the Ginkgo Tree. If you don't know what we are talking about them you can see one photo of it HERE and more photos of it starting HERE.
Feb22nd_81_SawaiTamaRiverNakedGuyStatueRC
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Feb22nd_53_Mitake_TamaRiver_SnowRC
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Feb22_28_TamaRiver_Mitake_SawaiNakedGuyRC
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  Here's the final photo taken as we hiked along the river from Mitake to Sawai. This is looking upstream along the Tama River. You'll note that they even clearcut right down to the river along this area. Could they have possibly have had any esthetic considerations in mind when they decided to do this? Well, the answer is obvious isn't it? After we finished up our hike from Mitake to Sawai and then ate lunch and drank some sake at the Sawanoi Sake Brewery we took a train from Sawai to the end of the line at Okutama. The center photo shows Okutama Station with a large pile of snow in front of it. The 3rd shot was taken as we looked downstream from the Okutama Bridge over the Tama River.
Feb22_24_TamaRiver_Mitake_SawaiHeavySnowRC
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Feb22_32_OkutamaAreaHeavySnowRC
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Feb22_34_OkutamaAreaHeavySnowRC
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  Here are the final 2 shots for this month - taken as we looked upstream on the Tama River from the Okutama Bridge. The 2nd shot is zoomed in to the pedestrian bridge over the river - the snow is pretty deep on that bridge.
Feb22_35_OkutamaAreaHeavySnowRC
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Feb22_36_OkutamaAreaHeavySnowRC
Feb22_36_Okutama
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End February 22nd, End February 2014's Photos, Begin Miscellaneous
  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.

January 1, 2013 - DVD Collection & Home Theater System





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