Awaji “Hyakudanen”: 100 Terraced Garden Squares
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Slightly Disorienting I think the gazebo is a bit off vertical -- Awaji, Hyogo, Japan -- Copyright 2010 Jeffrey Friedl, http://regex.info/blog/
Nikon D700 + Sigma “Bigma” 50-500mm OS @ 500 mm — 1/800 sec, f/7.1, ISO 220 — map & image datanearby photos
Slightly Disorienting
I think the gazebo is a bit off vertical

The hotel that I recently wrote about (at which we stayed during our recent mini trip to Awaji Island a couple of hours south of Kyoto), Westin Awaji Island, is part of a conference center and park called the “Awaji Yumebutai” (淡路夢舞台;, “Stage of Dreams”, English home page), a complex array of buildings and visuallly-interesting areas built on the side of a mountain that had been half taken away in the early 90s for use as sea-fill during construction of the man-made islands that are now Kansai International Airport.

One of the “visually-interesting areas” is known as the “100-level garden” (百段苑; hyakudan'en), which consists of 100 squares of terraced gardens.

On the hotel post the other day, I showed the view looking left from our room balcony, and if it were possible to look further left still, through the hotel, this is the view I would have been able to show:

View from the Hotel's Elevator Lobby -- Awaji, Hyogo, Japan -- Copyright 2010 Jeffrey Friedl, http://regex.info/blog/
Nikon D700 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 48 mm — 1/800 sec, f/10, ISO 560 — map & image datanearby photos
View from the Hotel's Elevator Lobby
Reverse-Angle View view from near the kids play area at the Akashi Straights National Park -- Awaji, Hyogo, Japan -- Copyright 2010 Jeffrey Friedl, http://regex.info/blog/
Nikon D700 + Sigma “Bigma” 50-500mm OS @ 500 mm — 1/1600 sec, f/6.3, ISO 200 — map & image datanearby photos
Reverse-Angle View
view from near the kids play area at the Akashi Straights National Park

We weren't able to explore the area around the hotel except for our last morning just before checking out, so having time for just one of the many interesting areas, we picked the squares to pay a quick visit.

View from the Top Elevator Platform we didn't have much time so we took the elevator up; yes, I felt lame -- Awaji, Hyogo, Japan -- Copyright 2010 Jeffrey Friedl, http://regex.info/blog/
Nikon D700 + Sigma “Bigma” 50-500mm OS @ 50 mm — 1/1600 sec, f/6.3, ISO 200 — map & image datanearby photos
View from the Top Elevator Platform
we didn't have much time so we took the elevator up; yes, I felt lame
Reverse Angle Back to the Top Elevator Platform Photo by Fumie Friedl -- Copyright 2010 Fumie Friedl
Reverse Angle Back to the Top Elevator Platform
Photo by Fumie Friedl
View from the Highest Corner the big building is the hotel -- Awaji, Hyogo, Japan -- Copyright 2010 Jeffrey Friedl, http://regex.info/blog/
Nikon D700 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 24 mm — 1/320 sec, f/18, ISO 400 — map & image datanearby photos
View from the Highest Corner
the big building is the hotel
Going Off Trail -- Awaji, Hyogo, Japan -- Copyright 2010 Jeffrey Friedl, http://regex.info/blog/
Nikon D700 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 70 mm — 1/1000 sec, f/6.3, ISO 200 — map & image datanearby photos
Going Off Trail
Closer to the Bottom -- Awaji, Hyogo, Japan -- Copyright 2010 Jeffrey Friedl, http://regex.info/blog/
Nikon D700 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 42 mm — 1/320 sec, f/18, ISO 400 — map & image datanearby photos
Closer to the Bottom
Common Sight at this Site -- Awaji, Hyogo, Japan -- Copyright 2010 Jeffrey Friedl, http://regex.info/blog/
Nikon D700 + Sigma “Bigma” 50-500mm OS @ 210 mm — 1/640 sec, f/6.3, ISO 220 — map & image datanearby photos
Common Sight at this Site
Wish -- Awaji, Hyogo, Japan -- Copyright 2010 Jeffrey Friedl, http://regex.info/blog/
Nikon D700 + Sigma “Bigma” 50-500mm OS @ 340 mm — 1/1250 sec, f/10, ISO 200 — map & image datanearby photos
Wish

Most of the squares' flowers were decorated by school kids with pinwheels or the like. This bed of little yellow flowers (the same flower bed that lead on my Pretty Flowers to Brighten the Day post) had wishes by the kids, The one above, by a third-grade boy named Naoki, says “Preserve nature; don't litter in the mountains”.

And speaking of wishes, I wish I would have had time to explore the visual opportunities the site offered. Most of these shots are just pedestrian establishing shots that merely document that we visited. We were there for just 13 minutes. Pausing a moment as I was racing down the stairs to catch up with the family, I made one quick effort at a “geometric art” shot of some stairs running up to the side...

Meh -- Awaji, Hyogo, Japan -- Copyright 2010 Jeffrey Friedl, http://regex.info/blog/
Nikon D700 + Sigma “Bigma” 50-500mm OS @ 116 mm — 1/1600 sec, f/5.3, ISO 200 — map & image datanearby photos
Meh

I'm not really happy with it, but a minute later, my last shot at the terraces turns out to be my favorite shot at the terraces...

Awaji, Hyogo, Japan -- Copyright 2010 Jeffrey Friedl, http://regex.info/blog/
Nikon D700 + Sigma “Bigma” 50-500mm OS @ 50 mm — 1/800 sec, f/5, ISO 200 — map & image datanearby photos

All 3 comments so far, oldest first...

This place amazes me. My legs ache as I contemplate all those stairs. Then I ask …who sweeps all of them,and when?? And who carries up a lawn mower for those neat little patches of grass? And deadheads all those flowers and carts away the debris? Somebody very, very fit, is my guess. The mind boggles!

— comment by Grandma Friedl, Ohio, USA on May 14th, 2010 at 7:14am JST (13 years, 10 months ago) comment permalink

Hi Jeffrey, how are you doing? Looks like an interesting visit to this place.

— comment by Jon Van Dalen on May 15th, 2010 at 7:43pm JST (13 years, 10 months ago) comment permalink

This is fantastic. The use of curated spaces stacked vertically is intricately planned and very well executed. Kudos to the team, this is very inspiring.

— comment by Akhil on May 31st, 2021 at 7:59pm JST (2 years, 10 months ago) comment permalink
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