The Road Less Traveled

I suppose it’s one of those things you learn in kindergarten – that life’s full of choices.  But choices are funny things, at least for me.  Some take up major amounts of my thoughts, even simple choices.  I can angst over whether to buy a can of smoked oysters or not, for much longer than is reasonable to admit.  (It’s best not to go shopping with me, if you’re in a hurry.)  And others, are rather simple.  Like my choice to focus my time and money on my vacation ethic, rather than fixing up things in the house or the like.

I’ve made what I think is a wise choice to not name this post Lens Envy, though this photo gives a sense of what I’m talking about.

Lens envy!

As I was thinking about this – my next blog post from what has been a magical and meaningful trip for me this past few weeks – that title popped into my head.  Consider the scene – late afternoon out the back of this lovely cafe at Tsurumidai, a part of Kushiro Shitsugen National Park, a vast wetland famous for the amazing Red Crowned Cranes.

The Tancho, or Japanese Red-Crowned Crane. A quite lovely bird, and loud too. (At least during mating season, which is winter.)

Continued after the jump… Read more

“You’ll know it when you see it,” was what I’d heard.  And it was true.  From the train station in Otaru, I was on a mission to get to the canals in the old warehouse district, as that’s where I understood the floating globes with candles in them would be.  Certainly they would be a site to behold, and with my second mission being fresh sushi, I was anxious to get to the globes, to hasten my visit to a sushi bar.  (This was after all just an evening’s venture from Sapporo.  I had a train to catch home before too late.)

The canal in Otaru, all lit up, with a cast of thousands appreciating it.

Of course, my Japanese is pretty minimal.  I didn’t even know how to apologize when my luggage fell over on the subway and knocked some poor guy in the knee, when I first got here.   (I’ve learned since then.)  So, I was going with what I’d read – heading for the canals.  But half way down the main street to the canals, a path cut off to the right, and with it the throngs of people who had left the train with me.    Indeed – I saw it.  I knew it.  I’d found it.   The light path.

Fun with the camera...

(More after the jump…) Read more

Me visiting the snow monkeys outside of Shibu Onsen.

Bliss is about all I can say about this first day of February, 2011.    Our amazing hosts at Matsuya Ryokan (a Japanese Guesthouse) took me and several others up to the trail head that leads to what I call the monkey pools.  A walk through a lovely forest…

Afternoon light on the mountains across from the trail leading up to the monkey pools.

… leads to a spot on the Yokuyu River where hot springs (onsen) are channeled to some pools placed her specifically for the snow monkeys. It’s about an hour so into the mountains from Nagano, Japan, where the 1998 winter Olympics were held.

Ok – let’s just get this out of the way upfront: the “Snow Monkeys”  of Jigokudani Yaenkoen are not exactly wild.   But they’re not exactly tame either.   They are fed by humans (the rangers in this National Park) and they hang out in the pools created for them  – but that’s because they started invading hot spring pools that humans were using in the nearby onsen villages back in the 1960s.   It was either make them a place of their own, or forever ‘suffer’ their invasion.   (Continued after the jump.) Read more

One of the things that is such a draw for me are the neolithic sites sprinkled around Orkney.   No other human-built structures I’ve visited has had me wondering about those who built them as much as the stone ruins of Scotland.  They’re simply magical.

Stones of the Ring of Brodgar at sunset

There are neolithic sites here spread around but without a doubt, the Ring of Brodgar is my favorite.  Each stone is unique and interesting to look at on its own. Their textures, shapes,  and silhouettes are all intriguing.   More after the break… Read more