Nikon D200 + Nikkor 17-55 f/2.8 @ 55mm — 1/2500 sec, f/2.8, ISO 200 — full exif & map — nearby photos
Drowning in Scarlet Pink....
Nikon D200 + Nikkor 17-55 f/2.8 @ 44mm — 1/2000 sec, f/7.1, ISO 200, P.P. boost: +1.96EV — full exif & map — nearby photos
...and Pure White....
Nikon D200 + Nikkor 17-55 f/2.8 @ 55mm — 1/1500 sec, f/4, ISO 200 — full exif & map — nearby photos
... and Light Pink....
Nikon D200 + Nikkor 17-55 f/2.8 @ 32mm — 1/160 sec, f/9, ISO 200 — full exif & map — nearby photos
... and Violet, Orange, Red, Purple, Peach ....
Every year, the local water-treatment plant opens its gates for four days so the public can enjoy its manicured gardens of about 4,600 azalea shrubs (tsutsuji — つつじ — in Japanese).
Kyoto's Keage Water-Treatment Plant (蹴上浄水場) is on a sprawling hillside less a kilometer from our place, and I've long enjoyed the brilliantly colored (mostly insanely bright pink) hillsides of shrubs that are visible from the road, but until I ventured inside yesterday, I didn't realize how much I'd been missing. The place is huge, and full of amazing and beautiful sights.
It rises 68 meters (225 feet) in elevation from its lowest point to its highest, and has many paths, terraces, and azalea-covered hillsides along the way.
There are apparently a good number of huge water-storage tanks, but for the most part they're underground, with their top covered in dirt and grass. The picture below looks across the “No. 2 High Water-Supply Ground” (the grass-covered roof of the otherwise invisible “No. 2 High Water-Supply Tank,” I guess), looking toward the “No. 1 Highest Water-Supply Tank”, 23 meters (75 feet) above.
Nikon D200 + Nikkor 17-55 f/2.8 @ 55mm — 1/180 sec, f/8, ISO 200 — full exif & map — nearby photos
Looking Across “No.2 High Water-Supply Ground”
Next is a view of eastern Kyoto from near the front of the “No. 1 High Water-Storage Ground” (an impressive structure dating to 1912, and certainly destined to be the subject of a later post).
Nikon D200 + Nikkor 70-200mm f/2.8 @ 70mm — 1/750 sec, f/5, ISO 200 — full exif & map — nearby photos
One View of Eastern Kyoto
The roof in the center is 625 meters distant (0.4 miles), and is that of the main gate of the Nanzen Temple (map). The Nanzen Temple is the location of the first few shots of one of my all-time most-popular posts: The Photography of Katsunori Shimada.
Coincidentally, I'll be heading back to the water-treatment plant today with Shimada-san. I went by myself yesterday at about 1pm, and the sun was extremely harsh. I'm hoping that an earlier time (9:30am-ish) will yield a bit softer light. Today is the last day of this year's open house.
Nikon D200 + Nikkor 17-55 f/2.8 @ 38mm — 1/320 sec, f/7.1, ISO 200 — full exif & map — nearby photos
Enjoying Lunch
This lady's lunch spot overlooks much of the site 100 feet below.
The Japanese government should hire you to promote tourism there.
I didn’t have any desire to go to Japan until i saw your site.
As long as you are over there, you should go up the bird sanctuary trail behind the Miyako Hotel for more views. You can see all the way down to your neighborhood, and out across Keage as well. Two ways to get there: From the hotel front, go right and go up the big parking ramp that curves around to the side of the hotel. Don’t worry, a lot of people are walking this way.
There is a big parking area with another hotel entrance. Keep walking past this on the access road between the hotel and the cemetery, up past the wedding chapel almost to the swanky private villas. As you approach the villas, the trail begins on your right. There are walking sticks if you want that authentic Japanese retiree look, but the walk past a little shrine and mushroom cultivation areas is not strenuous.
Oh yeah, you can also walk through the lobby, past the glass waterfall to the elevators on the right, go to the 7th floor, go right down the hallway and go all the way to the back of the hotel (with a little zig-zag to the right, I think). The hotel is on a mountainside, so the 7th floor is ground level in the back, coming out right across from the chapel.
Say two Hail Marys and the trail starts up the hill to your left.
Thanks, Nils, for the suggestion. I made the trip —Jeffrey
Those directions are all wrong. It’s a left after the waterfall. Everyone knows that.
Left… right… I’m so confused!. Clearly, I’ll need a tour guide to get past the waterfall. When shall we go, Nils/Krister? —Jeffrey
when i learn how to say left and right in japanese, i’m good to go.