Mountain of Shells
Mountains of Oyster Shells -- Shima, Mie, Japan -- Copyright 2006 Jeffrey Eric Francis Friedl
Nikon D200 + Nikkor 17-55 f/2.8 @ 55mm — 1/500 sec, f/2.8, ISO 100 — full exif
Mountains of Oyster Shells

A year ago we took a short trip to the Ise Peninsula, an area of Japan famous for its seafood in a country that has great seafood everywhere. In a previous post, I wrote at length about the food at our ryokan during that trip.

While on a drive around the area, we were in the middle of nowhere well off the beaten path when we came upon a huge mountain range of oyster shells.

100,000,000 Shells (my guess, accurate, probably, to within several orders of magnitude) -- Shima, Mie, Japan -- Copyright 2006 Jeffrey Eric Francis Friedl
Nikon D200 + Nikkor 17-55 f/2.8 @ 26mm — 1/250 sec, f/5, ISO 200 — map & image datanearby photos
100,000,000 Shells
(my guess, accurate, probably, to within several orders of magnitude)
Lots and Lots of This -- Shima, Mie, Japan -- Copyright 2006 Jeffrey Eric Francis Friedl
Nikon D200 + Nikkor 17-55 f/2.8 @ 55mm — 1/250 sec, f/7.1, ISO 100 — full exif
Lots and Lots of This
They All Look Alike to Me -- Shima, Mie, Japan -- Copyright 2006 Jeffrey Eric Francis Friedl
Nikon D200 + Nikkor 17-55 f/2.8 @ 26mm — 1/400 sec, f/2.8, ISO 100 — full exif
They All Look Alike to Me
Volcanic Field Finally, a bit of variety -- Shima, Mie, Japan -- Copyright 2006 Jeffrey Eric Francis Friedl
Nikon D200 + Nikkor 17-55 f/2.8 @ 55mm — 1/80 sec, f/10, ISO 100 — full exif
Volcanic Field
Finally, a bit of variety
Another Batch (fuzzy crop from a much larger picture) -- Shima, Mie, Japan -- Copyright 2006 Jeffrey Eric Francis Friedl
Nikon D200 + Nikkor 17-55 f/2.8 @ 55mm — 1/750 sec, f/2.8, ISO 200 — map & image datanearby photos
Another Batch
(fuzzy crop from a much larger picture)
Path to the Top -- Shima, Mie, Japan -- Copyright 2006 Jeffrey Eric Francis Friedl
Nikon D200 + Nikkor 17-55 f/2.8 @ 17mm — 1/160 sec, f/2.8, ISO 100 — full exif
Path to the Top

I chatted with the lady dropping off a load of shells. She said that the these piles represented about three month's worth of production, and that the shells would be used in the production of cement. Or dog food. I forget. At least they weren't going to waste.

This particular area was fairly desolate. It's where I took the “Hope” picture shown on the few pics from Ise post, which also includes some pretty pictures, as does this sunset and more post about the same trip.


All 4 comments so far, oldest first...

I wonder if some parasite attacked the oysters, causing the small deposits.
Mel

— comment by Mel Lammers on December 14th, 2007 at 11:38am JST (16 years, 4 months ago) comment permalink

I think those “little volcanos” are barnacles.

— comment by Mike on December 15th, 2007 at 12:09am JST (16 years, 4 months ago) comment permalink

Ah, it’s for the pearl production. Here in France the oysters are for eating, so obviously they are sold with the shells.

— comment by Anne on September 8th, 2012 at 9:55pm JST (11 years, 8 months ago) comment permalink

I forgot to ask: actually didn’t it smell strongly?\

I don’t recall that it did, but it’s been a while. They seemed pretty clean, so perhaps had been the result of boiling or something. —Jeffrey

— comment by Anne on September 8th, 2012 at 9:56pm JST (11 years, 8 months ago) comment permalink
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