This years contribution to the sad and somewhat disturbing series of 楽しいクリスマス photos. For anyone interested, the character is Mizutani Shizuku from the anime ‘tonari no kaibutsu-kun’, a pertty funny show complete with a quirky main couple.
Have a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!
Heres a Christmas gift - a crunchyroll 48 hour guest pass YYVAVYZLYLD – will be crossed out once activated.
Category: Photography
I arrived into Los Angeles a couple of days before day 1 of Anime Expo. I had originally planned to get in on day 0, so I needed to extend my original reservation at the Figueroa hotel. The hotel turned out to be fully booked and I had to look for another hotel to stay for the extra night. This turned out to be a good thing, as I ended up in the Kyoto Grand hotel, right in the middle of little Tokyo…
My final day-trip from Tokyo was to the city of Matsumoto. A 1 way trip took about 2.5 hours by limited express train. From Matsumoto station, the leisurely walk to Matsumoto Castle was about 20 minutes. I spent about 3 hours around the park and castle grounds.
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Next to the Futarasan shrine is the Taiyuinbyo, I spent couple more hours taking photos of this part of the complex. At around mid-afternoon I started to make my way to my hotel – the Nikko Green Hotel Fuwari. There weren’t a lot of guests at the time of my stay and I had the men’s onsen all to my self. Soaking in 40c hot spring water was definitely a nice way to unwind after a day of walking and photography.
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A few more photos of the Toshogu, the location of Tokugawa Ieyasu’s mausoleum. A short walk along a stone lantern path is the Futarasan shrine.
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The next set of photos are from an overnight trip to Nikko. I had already visited Nikko in 2009 for a short day trip, but this time I had a lot more time to take photos and explore around the temple/shrine grounds. Renovations were taking place at the Rinnoji temple, fortunately the Toshogu complex was still open. I really enjoyed the architecture and the intricately carved details of the temples and shrines.
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Just a few more shots from Odaiba and some from the observation deck of the Fuji TV building.
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Shots taken from one of the observation floors of the Tokyo city hall.
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After the cruise around Matsushima bay I had lunch at a restaurant close by the harbour. Lunch was gyuutan – grilled cow tongue – which was pretty tasty along with some locally brewed beer (Matsushima Brewing Co.’s Helles). After lunch I went for a hike around Fukuurajima – an island accessible via a bridge. After a couple of hours of hiking and taking photos, I called it day and headed back to Sendai via the local train. Unfortunately, although I had a few hours in Sendai before the shinkansen back to Tokyo, I didn’t get a chance to really look around the city.
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Photos from a 1 hour cruise around Matsushima bay. It was pretty windy and cold on the rear deck, but I was able to get a lot of shots of the islands. Seagulls followed the boat around since some of the passengers were feeding them some junk food. The VR on the lens (Nikon 70-300 VR II) seems to have worked fairly well. Despite the vibrations from the boat, most of the pictures had little or acceptable motion blur.
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