During our trip to Hokkaido a month ago, we twice ate lunch at the Furano Wine House (富良野ワインハウス), a pleasant restaurant at the top of a small monadnock that offers commanding views in three directions. Even though the top of the hill is only 50 meters above the surrounding plane, the views make it feel like it's much higher.

There's a tiny park next to the restaurant that's thoroughly enjoyable for a four year old, including steep banks to climb along with the normal attractions of a park (place to run, bugs, spider webs, etc).

More pretty views from Biei, Hokkaido, Japan from our trip a month ago. Unlike those posted before, these are from our first day there, when it was much more hazy, overcast, and gloomy. Still, a few nice shots came out, I think, with common themes throughout.

The trees in the last shot (which is better viewed with the larger version -- as with most photos I post, click on the image to view) are somewhat famous, even being marked and labeled on area maps. There were at least a dozen people along the road taking pictures of these trees when [...]

That's Mt. Furano and a host of other peaks, 15 miles in the distance. The view from our 8th-floor hotel room on our trip to Hokkaido was wonderful. We stayed at the New Furano Prince Hotel, which is not to be confused with the non-new one some distance away.

As I mentioned in a post the other day, I love how low-angle shots like these really compress distance, especially all the tracts of farmland in the foreground.

As for the hills, the near edge of the hills in the shot above are 4 miles away, but the dark square patch [...]

During our drives around the countryside on our recent trip to Hokkaido, I noticed a fairly large number of abandoned houses. I love them for their photographic opportunities, and because I find them to be quite intriguing.

I wonder who built the house? Who lived there? Were kids raised there? (How did they like it, and where are they now?) Why did someone leave it? What's happened to it since? Who owns it now, and where are they?

Mostly, I wonder about who might have lived in it first, when it was new. How wonderfully peaceful it must have been, [...]