Japan Through Photo #5

Another photo taken on Mt. Fuji these famed cloud forests are actually in the lowest levels of cloud cover. They are startlingly picturesque and serene which at a glance would make them seem a romantic place but in truth their notariety is a place where people commit suicide.

Japan Through Photo #4

The sunrise from the summit of Mt. Fuji, Japan's most famous volcano (though presently dormant) the peak towers 3800 metres above the rest of Kanegawa prefecture and has been a hallmark of Japanese Art, Culture and Religion for more then two thousand five hundred years. The sunrise from Fuji is a notoriously beautiful sight to behold. This photo was taken on my Sony NEX-5 but by Spencer Belsvic as I was unable to climb past the 3100 metre mark and passed out at the True 7th station after passing the photographical torch to a more able climber.

Japan Through Photo #3

A mother monkey with it's baby on the peak of Arashiyama in Kyoto, Japan. The mountain is a sanctuary for several hundred of these Japanese Macaques which have become a spectacle for tourists who flock to the mountain to feed them peanuts and apples.

Japan Through Photo #2

So I was biking to the train station today when I happened upon this guy. My appartment is flanked by rice paddies so turtles and frogs are no stranger to the landscape but this poor fellow managed to get up onto the road where he was clearly too terrified to go on. He had is head sticking out and looking at all the passing cars but his legs were totally beneath him. I didn't want him getting turned into road kill so I put some 711 bags on my hands and put him back in the rice paddy he came out of. I should also point out that he was no little turtle, if I had to guess I'd say he was probably 30 or 35cm long (about 1 foot.)

Japan Through Photo #1

So I'm bringing this back to life, but just with very brief photos and descriptions although updated much more often hopefully...


I took this sucker at an elementary school Kendo championship in Hiroshima. I gotta say I have mad props to the little girl sparring here with one of the teachers, probably because she's doing something I was always to lazy to do and that is actually start practicing Kendo...

Awesome Thing of the Week #1 (7/4/2011)

Due to restraints to do with my Camera I'm putting this post up before my temples and university stuff post. But with that out of the way let's get to it; as I said last week I'm going to be doing an "Awesome Thing of the Week" collumn in which I will post particularilly awesome things I'm seeing in Japan, I have already nabbed a few pictures which apply but this one really got me.
Now careful readers or ones who are aware of underground Japanese cartoons will recognize this as an Ad for "Secret Society: Eagle Talon" a flash made anime program about an ill fated secret society's frequent plans to take over the world. With that backstory out of the way let's look at this poster for what it is to someone who doesn't live on the internet.

That is ofcourse a goddamn Vampire Bear in a Labcoat receiving moral support from Red Hitler. Now I understand there's a lot of weird advertising in Japan but seriously this one is off the charts. It's not even the fact that he's a vampire bear, it's the fact that he's adorable, and smiling with a glee which can only be a product of his horrendous plans to kill and maul all those red hitler sees worthy of destruction.

Anyways that's all I got, next week's entry will either involve Popeye hawking beer or Darth Vader selling cell phones...or something to that extent.

My Dorm in Seta...

So I just moved into my dorm in Shiga prefecture and it's awesome, I've got a couple pictures of the dorm here just as a taste, my facebook's going to have a more consise photoflood but this is the general idea. I've decided to give these some context instead of my usual just here's photos and you can figure them out dealie...

Also a quick note, make sure to check in tomorrow and sunday as I will be doing a whole blog post on my university grounds (one of the 2 campuses I'll be at) as well as some features either on sunday or monday on some of the local temples. I'm also going to do something called "The Awesome Thing of the Week" starting wednesday and running every wednesday, it's just going to be various awesome things I see and this week's involves a poster with both a cartoon hitler look alike and vampire bears so tune in!
I leave you with more dorm pics.


The first one is my bedroom in a state of disaster, the second is my balcony and a little of the view of the west, the third is the outisde of the dorm and the last one is my mystery room which so far I've used for storage and excercise. It's a nice place :D