Photos on Nanikore

Shiga Kogen 2019

Fri, 22 Feb 2019 13:04:52 +0000

Ohisashiburi(long time, no see) Shiga Kogen 2019! … well except for our last snow trip there of course, but last year we stayed in the Ichinose area, whereas this time we stayed at the Prince Hotel a short ways down the road, which we haven’t stayed in for nigh on a decade - so that’s completely different!

I booked the Prince on Expedia (where I often book places at the moment it seems), and got a very decent rate on a family room. The listing said it was a smoking room which used to make us often reconsider, but because we were really limited on possible dates for this year, so we decided to take the risk and take what was on offer for those days. As it turned out that was a good choice - it was cheap for four people, and it turned out it didn’t smell of smoke at all.

If anything, we were actually quite impressed with the room as there was plenty of slide out boxes under the beds, which when you’re travelling with young children is a boon to help keep things organised, and you weren’t left trying to find some 3DS game or sock 30 seconds before check out. The only real negative to the hotel facilities is that there wasn’t really an onsen(a natural spring hot spa) in the hotel, just a washing and shower area, but there was was a rotenburo, an outdoor spa, where we could sit, watch the snow and feel our hair literally turn to ice. We really enjoyed that because for the adults it’s nice and relaxing after a day on the mountain and for the kids, they can sit in a steaming hot bath and grab snow from the surrounding piles of it. I admit, I might have done that too. Purely to illustrate scientific principles to my child.

The weather as ever it seems in the Yakebitaiyama area was pretty good, a bit overcast now and then, but not too windy, and even some snow. One day we traversed over the top lift to the Okushiga area for a day to have a go on their slopes. That day it got cold, very cold, as in ’the coldest day in years according to the local news’ cold, and to compound that, winds closed the top of the mountain so we had to take the bus back instead of traversing over as planned. Even my GoPro and the batteries seemed to struggle, but we still got some decent footage. Most of the second half of the trip it was thankfully a little milder, and began snowing that nice dry powder for which Japan is rightly famous, so it was all silky smooth.

Shiga Kogen is a great area, with a lot of variety of slopes for different skill levels, which is why we go, and with the free buses, it’s easy to get around the area even without a car. It seems to have varying fortunes from a patrons point of view, and during the week, when we were there, it was fairly sparsely attended with some Chinese tourists forming most of the skiers and snowboarders, with a few Aussies thrown in here and there but very few Japanese, even locals. The weekend saw more people arrive, many for day skiing, but it continues to concern me that the snow enjoying population is shrinking, perhaps linked to the pricing structure I’ll come to later.

So as ever, the boarding was a lot of fun, and even more so when we found that kids could board for free on the Yakebitaiyama slopes. We actually found this out over breakfast on the second day via a small, water stained sign on the dining table, written only in Japanese. Certainly no one mentioned this when I bought the kids passes the previous day (!), so before we hit the slopes, we went over to the ticket office to ask what the situation was, and though they initially didn’t want to, they did refund the previous days money since they were purely for that slope (a misunderstanding, they said).

Costs, oddly would give us an uplifting tale that night. As expected, prices at the restaurants in the hotel were expensive, but since we’d driven there, we could get out to local places which whilst not cheap, were far better value for money for a family of four. The fairly unimpressive evening meals in the hotel and annex went for between 5,000yen (~35GBP) per person and up to almost double that. For a family of four, that’s an expensive night out. The Chinese restaurant was completely empty when we went to look at their menu and (high) prices, at 7.30pm.

One night, we decided to have some of the instant noodles we always travel with, and left the empties tied in bags outside the door that night for pickup when we finished. The next morning we found a note written in neat Chinese pushed under our door, and initially we were a bit concerned we’d upset some fellow hotel guests. However, following a translation via photo from a friend (thanks LH!), it turns out the note was from a fellow hotel guest politely along the lines of ‘glad someone else thought of this too!’. It seems we weren’t the only ones balking at the prices.

Please don’t think that the trip was defined by the money side of things though, since the snow was great, the views were great, and it’s a fantastic place to be as a family, even if it means just eating instant ramen and playing Monopoly the odd night, but it captures some of the concerns I have as a keen snow person about accessibility for families.

As an individual or for single people there are plenty of deals here in Japan, especially for short trips from Tokyo on the bullet trains, or flights to Hokkaido - this is purely my concern as a parent who wants his kids to get some snow experience.

Sadly that was our only trip this season - usually we try to stretch to two, but with other family things going on, that wasn’t going to happen in 2019, but we’re already looking forwards to next year.

Bike Trip to Manazuru

Sun, 12 Oct 2014 17:29:31 +0000

It’s been a few weeks since I’ve been out on my bike for a run, rather than just running errands, and in fact, the last time, I just did old faithful - the Izu Skyline. This time I decided to blend the old and the new, with a final destination of the Manazuru spit, so I took my favourite ocean-side route 134 down towards Odawara, and then go up the Hakone Turnpike. It used to be called the Toyo Tires Turnpike, but now it’s the Mazda Turnpike. At the lower entrance they basically changed one cheap sign for another cheap sign. At the top, they’ve renamed the cafe area to the Mazda Skylounge, though aside from that, it’s business as usual - and there’s nothing wrong with that - a good chance to see people who love to get out on 2,3 or 4 wheels. I await a unicyclist at the SkyLounge for that single wheel addition.

Sat outside the SkyLounge, on one of the benches with a view down onto lake Ashinoko, I was drinking some tea from my flask, and leafing through my Mapple touring map book, trying to find somewhere I could do in a couple of hours, and be back home in the early afternoon. It just wasn’t going to be Izu again I’d decided. As I leafed through I noticed a small spit of land out into Sagami Bay, that just hadn’t registered with me before, I suspect as I’m usually on the coastal road, which lacks an exit near it - the small peninsula called Manazuru.

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Let’s not get ahead of ourselves though, first I needed to get from (A) The Mazda Skylounge, to (B) Manazuru. Fortunately for me, a nice way to get there is via Yugawara and Route 75, a playful twisty something, meandering down through the mountain valleys, with plenty of tree overhangs, shade, and more corners than you can shake a moderate sized stick at. It must be five years since I last used this road, and it’s a shame because it’s a lot of fun. At Yugawara, at the base of the 75, it’s a short jaunt on that 135 coast road, but you jump off before the toll and express routes, and then in my case, headed for Manazuru station. I was wondering how these roads were going to work, as on the map there seem to me a mass of turn-offs in front of Manazuru station - and there are. However, after years of tourists, they’ve got it organised, with colour coded lanes to take you to different areas. Fundamentally, the 739 road loops the peninsula, but near the cape (as it’s called) a smaller road breaks off, but this is one way, and quite narrow, which is a good thing, as it keeps traffic flowing safely.

I stopped a couple of times along the road to watch people sea fish off the rocks, see the literally fresh fish being dried, and listen to the waves. Riding on though, and onto the one way loop through winding lanes, you finally get down to Manatsuru Cape itself, and a nice large tourist area with car parks and bus parking. From the building, you can get a great view of the bay, it’s very scenic, but I hadn’t come all this way to look at the Pacific from the top of the cliffs - I’d come to touch ocean, and see the shrine. Well, not so much a shrine but, well the photo explains it. As far as I can tell, it’s called ‘名勝三ツ石’ or Meishoumitsuishi. Literal translation - ‘A place of beauty with three rocks’.

As you descend by the steps though, there’s a nice looking cafe. I can’t recommend anything from there, as I was a little early for it to open, but it looked very inviting, perched on the sloping rocks with a grand view of the ocean. At the base of the slope are some toilets, then the pebble beach. The large rocks at the end of the spit are often cut off from the coast when the tide is high, but when it’s low, you can walk out towards them on the rock causeway. You have to be careful on the rocks, and there are thousands of beetles and such, but it’s nice to get out around the waves, and if you’re up for it, try to catch some small fish or shellfish.

The rocks themselves, between two of which are stretched some Shinto based paper streamers on a long rope (called shime 標, or even a rope version shimenawa), look quite striking against the surf, and it’s easy to see how people living near here in times past would want to make an acknowledgement to the gods of the sea. All it all, it’s quite a fetching place, and somewhere you can sit for a while and just look out over the vast Ocean. You’ll likely want that rest too, before the hike back up the steps.

The building at the top of the cliffs is nice, but it’s nothing special, if you’ve seen one tourist targeting restaurant selling local food and trinkets, you’ve pretty much seen this one, but it’s got a great view, the menus seemed OK (again, it was too early to try), the staff were nice, it had some nice places to sit outside, and vitally, the toilets were clean.

After I’d drunk some more tea on the lawn over the cliff, I could feel the bike calling me, so off I went again, giving cyclists plenty of space on the bumpy road, but actually not so far, as another building came into view, and in front of it, the Manazuru Fire Station, which is a simple building with large glass windows, showing off the single fire engine. It looked quite nice in it’s own way.

The building just behind it looks like a large converted house, in some old, and non-Japanese style; at first glance it looked almost south east Asian colonial - yes, I’m not much of an architectural scholar. In front of the house, what was once likely a large stately lawn, has been quite tastefully converted into a miniature golf course. Walk past this, through the palm trees, and again there’s a beautiful cliff-top view of the ocean. I think this is all a part of the number of hotel resort facilities in the area, for those who want to come down for several days.

There are lots of things to see on this peninsula actually - I’d quite like to come back for a full day and walk around a lot more to see more of them, and once you’re here, on foot is a good way to do it. Of course, two wheels are the best way to actually get here.

I made a Google Map link, as the image above is a grab - it didn’t want to show for some reason. However you get here though, the compactness of the area makes it worth the trip.

New Header Image: Sunset

Sun, 05 Jan 2014 12:11:48 +0000

It’s been a long time since I changed that header image, and since the last one was from a cooling stream, I thought I’d replace it with a sunset, which looks nice and warm, even though I took the picture in late 2013 and it was definitely not warm. The same time I took these pictures I think.

There’s something very calming about sunsets all over the world, over forests, cities, the ocean, wherever. I’m frequently reminded about something the amazing Douglas Adams wrote for the ‘final’ Hitchhiker’s series - Quintessential Phase about boundary conditions, (I’ll dig the quote out for the next post) and a sunset where the ocean meets land seems to be two simultaneous boundaries.

Shonan Beach In Winter

Mon, 23 Dec 2013 10:54:32 +0000

There’s something just very relaxing about coastlines and sunrises or sunsets, even as Winter moves in. After almost 5 years of living near the Japan’s Shonan Pacific coast, I just don’t seem to get bored of cycling down here, walking around and taking some pictures (yes, almost the same picture) again and again. I’m not alone either, year round people are cycling the beach track, surfing a little, even playing beach volleyball, and I just don’t think it gets any more relaxed than this.

Unlike the Summers which are busy with tourists, the Winter tends to just be local people and those dedicated outdoors people looking to get some time in on the waves for surfing, wind-surfing or other outdoors activities, even if that’s just walking off breakfast lunch or dinner at one of the local places to eat. Good times.

New Header Image: Water

Thu, 11 Jul 2013 00:34:08 +0000

It’s been a while since I posted, and it’s been a while since I updated the head, and since I’ve moved the blog theme to the Twenty Thirteen fit a little better. This time the header image is focussed on water.

There’s been a lot going on of late, hence the lack of posts, and much of it has been in the outdoors, and as the temperatures climb higher and the humidity makes Japan a nation-wide sauna once more, it’s good to get into the water and trees of the countryside and cool off.

I took this shot quickly as it’s a park of some steps which make waterfalls for the kids to play in, and it gets decent traffic on these hot weekends in Kanagawa.

New Header Image: Wooden Posts

Tue, 23 Apr 2013 22:05:35 +0000

It’s been a long time since I updated the header image - about 9 months in fact, so I decided it was time for a change. Nothing amazing, as usual, but I thought I’d keep with images from out and about the local area. This one was from a local children’s play park, where they have a trellis on supports over a seating area. The steel supports have these wooden post sections bolted to them for cosmetic reasons, and you can see here, they don’t touch the ground any more, meaning there’s a quirky look and a nice texture.

The image was taken on my Nikon D3200 on the 35mm lens at the slightly silly 24MP, but cropped all the way down - that’s a benefit of lots of pixels - cropping becomes a lot simpler.

The Penultimate Train

Thu, 23 Jul 2009 15:06:04 +0000

Nothing flashy, just a quick, and slightly skewed look at the empty platforms tonight. Picture from my iPhone’s battery just died! We always talk about making the last train home, but I thought for once I would sing the praises of the penultimate train home. Safe in the knowledge that even if you somehow messed it up, there was still one more to come!

An Enfield in the Dark

Mon, 12 Jan 2009 15:10:40 +0000

I was walking back from Shin-Toyosu station the other night - a pretty dead place after 10pm as it’s awaiting development for the most part, and there, just on it’s stand in the dark was a very nice Royal Enfield Bullet 350. They’re kind of old fashioned quirky bikes, but I think if I had the cash I might just get one to see what they’re like.

Nikon D40

Tue, 30 Jan 2007 14:29:52 +0000

After three years with my little Canon IXY 500, I recently received a new camera, and it’s my first stumbling footsteps into the world of D-SLR cameras in the shape of Nikon’s new entry level model, the Nikon D40 ( Japanese).

Whilst I’ll still be taking my IXY out for quick point n shoot bits, like snowboarding, I wanted to learn to use a ‘real’ camera, and hopefully get better family and day to day pictures. The Nikon sports a 6.1MP sensor (only 1MP more than the IXY) but excels way beyond the compact in image quality - even I was amazed at the different in depth, light and colour the Nikon has, so as someone who stuck with tiny cameras for years, I would definitely advise people to check out the weird, and increasingly ‘cheap’ world of digital SLRs. As ever, before we bought this, we spend time at DPReview.com, where the D40 got a great review.

Hopefully, after I’ve finished learning what all the buttons do I can actually upload a few decent pics to the Gallery and spend a bit of time doing spot the difference.

Flikr test

Thu, 30 Dec 2004 15:41:22 +0000

びんビールです

グラハム :)

*Note that the above was a test post from my mobile phone with picture, via e-mail to the flickr website/service, which I finally got around to setting up, even though some of my more learned friends (nod to Rudolf) have been talking about it for a while. Expect disturbing drunken pictures in the near future.

Sydney Pics

Sun, 04 Apr 2004 02:16:23 +0000

OK, I’ve managed to select a few pics from my trip to Sydney if anyone’s interested. They’re here. For the first time, I’ve lmited the larger size pics to 1280*960 to save a bit of disk space, so if for some reason anyone wants a full size (5Megapixel) version, let me know. I have to say that even cut down the image quality of the new camera is obvious - to me anyway.

2004 Trips to Sydney

Original Comments

Comments from the original WordPress blog post.

neal — 2004-04-06

Cool! Some nice pics. Glad to hear you got back safe and sound - just in time for the earthquake anyway! Will have to add Australia to the list of places to see…. aahh well in my dreams anyway! ;-)

Cheers

Neal