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: Asia 2014
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…
Streets and museums of Hanoi
Hanoi 2014 : old town : polluted and noisy, congested with scooters and motorbikes, but interesting street scenes, and beautiful museums. A busy, complex, interesting and irritating city. Hanoi en 2014. La vielle ville est polluée et bruyante, les rues et trottoirs sont saturées de motos, et le velo à presque disparu. C’est pour les…
Nanjing Road
Nanjing Road East, Shanghai : Look out Fifth Avenue, Oxford Street, the Ginza, les Champs Elysées, this is serious competition. This must be the street with the highest concentration of luxury brands and products in the world. Rolex, Bugatti, Vuitton… You name it, it’s here. Lots of people looking, but not many (visible) buyers…. Nanjing…
Heart of Shanghai
The Bund, the Oriental Pearl Telecommunications tower, the big boats on the Huangpu. This is the heart of Shanghai. Le Bund, la tour de télécommunications et la rivière Huangpu … le coeur de Shanghai.
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…
Dancing girls
The apsara is the female spirit of clouds and water in the mythologies of Hinduism and Buddhism. Supernatural, beautiful, youthful, elegant, and good at dancing! Les apsaras sont des nymphes celestes de grande beauté, élégantes, nées, selon la légende hindou, du barattage de la mer de lait.
High water
Tonle Sap : around November every year, at high water mark, the lake starts to drain into the Tonle Sap river and into the Mekong, The Tonle Sap river reverses flow and drains the lake down to about one third it’s high water size. Then in May or June, due to heavy build up of…
Lonely silent corridors
Endless empty corridors everywhere. There were thousands of people in the site, but for some reason they avoided these corridors. Couloirs, partout, interminables. Des milliers de visiteurs aussi, mais pas ici. On n’aime peut-être pas le poids du silence.
Scenes in the temple
Chasing a fleeting moment (in stereoscope). La chasse aux images éphémères.
Bas reliefs
With names like “Churning of the Sea of Milk”, “The Battle of Lanka” and “Heaven and Hells”, the bas-reliefs in Angkor Wat leave you wondering which chapter of that history book you missed out on. The most precious treasures of the Angkor Wat complex are not the quincunx towers or the lonely hallways – but…
Living in Central
Feathered friends at home in Hong Kong Central. Les volatiles à domicile : Hong Kong Central.
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…
