Away from the port, backing up steep slopes, lies the Nagasaki temple row. Here is the oldest Obaku Zen temple in Japan, founded in 1635 for the Chinese resident community. Modern buildings share space with old structures, some original, many rebuilt in the 19th or 20th century. Because of their location and the position of…
Category: Japan
The smile
Kyoto’s best dressed geishas will gladly pose for you, if you ask nicely, in Japanese. Le sourire des geishas à Kyoto. Pour la photo, il suffit de demander, en japonais.
Genbaku dome
The “A-bomb dome” : One of the few buildings left standing in the area where “little boy” exploded on August 6 1945 in central Hiroshima. The dome was designed by a Czech architect in 1915 and had been used as the Hiroshima Prefectural Industrial Promotion Hall. Le dôme de Genbaku : Un des rares bâtiments…
470 km of canals
The Edo era town of Yanagawa in Fukuoka prefecture, Kyushu, is famous for its canals, its canal boats and the sagemon (hanging dolls) tour. Visit the town on the flat bottom boats called donkobune and keep your head down to get under the low bridges. If you are lucky the boatman will sing Japanese folksongs…
Tocho-ji
Tocho-ji : a Shingon buddhist temple in the Gion district of Fukuoka. The pagoda, stunning due to it’s orange colour is only one of several building in this temple. This temple also houses the Fukuoka Daibutsu, one of the biggest statues of a seated Buddha in Japan. Tocho-ji : un temple bouddhiste Shingon dans le…
Hiking
Eboshi-dake is a mountain peak in a caldera on Kyushu. The Aso caldera is big and, this close to the main crater, sometimes dangerous. The hike to the top of Eboshi-dake, taking around 90 minutes from the visitor center, is not very difficult. The trail, for which the steepest parts are equipped with wooden step…
Growing on the slopes of Eboshi-dake
Eboshi-dake is one of the peaks near the Aso volcano, high enough to get a good look at Aso from above. But the scenery includes more than volcanos. The wild flowers are abundant even in November.Eboshi-dake : un sommet à proximité de Naka-dake (le cratère du mont Aso). Eboshi-dake est juste assez haut pour dominer…
Mount Aso
Mount Aso in central Kyushu sits in the centre of one of the largest caldera in the world, extending around 18 km east and west and 25 km north and south around the central peak. Almost always smoking, this is the largest active volcano in Japan. On this day, the closest you could get was…
Glover Garden
After the opening of trade with Japan in the mid 19th century, a number of western businessmen established themselves in the Nagasaki area to conduct trade and other industrial activities. The family names of Alt, Ringer and especially Glover (a Scot) are closely tied to the history of this region in the late 19th and…
City views
Overhead wires everywhere, covered shopping galleries, office blocks covered in white ceramic tiling, rivers confined between canal walls, crowds, aspects typical of many Japanese cities. Nagasaki is no exception. Fils aériens partout, galeries commerciales couvertes, immeubles de bureau ‘décorés’ de carrelage blanc, rivières canalisées, foules. Aspects typiques de la ville japonaise. Très équipée mais pas…
Point of impact
Nagasaki peace park in the district of Urakami. On the 9th of August 1945, the A-bomb missed the target and exploded several kms. north of the city centre over this district. Parc de la bombe atomique de Nagasaki dans le district d’Urakami. Le 9 août 1945, la bombe a raté sa cible et a explosé…
Dejima
At first a peninsula, then an artificial island and now almost lost in the modern city of Nagasaki. Dejima was a European trading post in Japan from the 1630’s until 1853. The island was built by local merchants, initially for the Portuguese, but soon dominated by the Dutch, who were never-the-less kept at arms length…
Mount Inasa
A summit near the heart of the Nagasaki. Visible from everywhere in daytime, attractive views from the summit at night. A ropeway gets you to top. Un sommet de 350 m dominant le coeur de la ville de Nagasaki. Visible de partout de jour, point de vue attrayant de nuit. Monter par le “ropeway” (télépherique)…
Kagoshima Bay
Kagoshima : a city with a volcano on it’s doorstep, just a couple kilometers out in the bay. Smoke and ash are a daily diet here. Kagoshima : La vie en face du volcan, 2 ou 3 km au loin dans la baie. Fumée et cendres sont au menu quotidien de cette région.
Flora in the steam room
In Beppu, the hot springs and steam serve many purposes. One of them is to heat floral pools and greenhouses. A Beppu, la vapeur et les sources chaudes servent à de multiples fins y compris à chauffer des serres permettant de cultiver une flore tropicale.
Boiling mud and steam
The Hells of Beppu: Hot water, steam, boiling mud, everywhere. Steam used for cooking, hot water used for bath houses, many pools too dangerous to get too close. This is Beppu, a small city on the north east coast of Kyushu island, southern Japan. Hard to believe the pressure cooker underground has not blown its…
The Kinkakuji
Kyoto, Japan. This temple construction is not very old. An older version was totally destroyed by fire in 1950 and this one is an identical rebuild completed in the 1950’s. The gold colour is not fake – the building is almost totally covered with pure gold. Ce temple n’est pas très vieux. Une version plus…
