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Nikon D700 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 24 mm — ¹/100 sec, f/2.8, ISO 2800 — map & image data — nearby photos

So, finally getting into more from our snowy new-year's trip in the mountains of Toyama Prefecture, four hours north by car (of good-weather driving) from Kyoto, picking up from the post about driving in the driving snow that ended with a desolate view at a snow-filled parking lot.

We had arrived at a tourist-parking area up the mountain from Gokayama Village (五箇山), a world-heritage site of old houses built in a very distinctive style.

At the parking lot, we entered a small building and descended in to the mountain in an elevator evocative of what you see of NORAD in movies. It let us out in the middle of a tunnel that went both directions, to villages on either side of the mountain. We headed toward the right.

Emerging from the mountain...

Nikon D700 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 48 mm — ¹/320 sec, f/2.8, ISO 200 — map & image data — nearby photos
Anthony Intrigued By Unique Architecture of Historical Importance
( either that, or snow )
at Gokayama Village, Toyama Prefecture, Japan

Nikon D700 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 62 mm — ¹/200 sec, f/2.8, ISO 200 — map & image data — nearby photos
Snow-Chair Construction
at the exit from the tunnel

Near the tunnel exit is a storehouse/garage type of building that gives a good impression of the style, and of the weather...

Nikon D700 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 45 mm — ¹/160 sec, f/7.1, ISO 640 — map & image data — nearby photos
Thatched Storehouse

The snow was really coming down. I can see now in the background of the shot above that there are faint outlines of thatched houses beyond a river that runs behind the storehouse, but I didn't notice them at the time. Just too much snow.

Nikon D700 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 27 mm — ¹/160 sec, f/7.1, ISO 800 — map & image data — nearby photos
First View of the Village

Nikon D700 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 38 mm — ¹/160 sec, f/4, ISO 250 — map & image data — nearby photos
Fumie snaps a photo with her phone while
Anthony Waits Patiently

One can find thatched houses all over Japan, but the particular draw of these houses is their construction in a style called gasshou zukuri (discussed lightly on this Wikipedia page), noted for its lack of screws/nails/fasteners. Most of the house is constructed of a complex set of interlocking beams and boards, as if from some kind of hyper-advanced set of Lincoln Logs. An entire house be dismantled, transported, and reassembled at a new location with relative ease. Many of the houses in the village, in fact, originally came from elsewhere (which is a topic for another post).

Nikon D700 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 56 mm — ¹/160 sec, f/4, ISO 450 — map & image data — nearby photos
Old and New

These photos are way overexposed, to bring some detail of the construction out from the dark shadows...

Nikon D700 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 38 mm — ¹/160 sec, f/6.3, ISO 280 — map & image data — nearby photos
Front of Someone's House

Nikon D700 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 52 mm — ¹/160 sec, f/5.6, ISO 2200 — map & image data — nearby photos
Gable End
of a different house

In the large version of the shot above, you can see that all the beams are notched in various ways, allowing them to all interlock. Also of interest is the large, unfinished (natural shape) beam sticking out near the bottom center of the image. I'm pretty sure that's a major support beam running the length of the house, notched to hook over the gable-end beam to hold the gable walls from falling out away from the house.

While out in the snow I was using a FotoSharp Raincoat to protect the camera and lens from the weather, but I see now that had I also used an umbrella, I would have also kept flakes from immediately in front of the lens, avoiding the large distracting blobs of white that mar some of these photos. Lesson learned.

Nikon D700 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 32 mm — ¹/160 sec, f/6.3, ISO 450 — map & image data — nearby photos
Another House

Nikon D700 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 70 mm — ¹/160 sec, f/6.3, ISO 720 — map & image data — nearby photos
Detail

The big natural beam that sticks out and hooks on the gable-end beam looks to be cracked in this house. It might be time for the 300-year maintenance.

Nikon D700 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 48 mm — ¹/160 sec, f/5.6, ISO 560 — map & image data — nearby photos
Tourist Trap
the cave in the snow pile made for additional entertainment

Nikon D700 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 24 mm — ¹/160 sec, f/5.6, ISO 6400 — map & image data — nearby photos
Bottom Edge of Roof Thatch
built up from layers of different materials

Nikon D700 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 28 mm — ¹/200 sec, f/6.3, ISO 200 — map & image data — nearby photos
Rush Hour

In the photo above you can see silver boxes on either side of the road, and one way in the background. They contain high-power water guns used for fire prevention. (Not fire fighting, something I take up in another post).

In the background behind the little truck you can see the front of the house is enclosed with a protective cover of ugly corrugated plastic (seen better in the “Front of Someone's House” shot above). That helps keep the snow that falls from the roof away from the front entrance of the house, but it's quite ugly. A more authentic (but certainly more expensive style) is to use boards like this:

Nikon D700 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 56 mm — ¹/160 sec, f/6.3, ISO 640 — map & image data — nearby photos
Every Board Has its Place

It's still not completely authentic to the old times (if they had these in the old times at all) because they're using modern metal brackets, but it's still a lot nicer then corrugated plastic.

Nikon D700 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 56 mm — ¹/160 sec, f/6.3, ISO 560 — map & image data — nearby photos
Roof Detail

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Nikon D700 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 70 mm — ¹/1600 sec, f/2.8, ISO 200 — map & image data — nearby photos

The lack of context and clues for orientation make this shot perhaps a bit odd, but for the life of me I have no good ideas for a caption.

Continued here...

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Anthony's “Idea Award”

It turns out that Anthony's art project, A Fish That Can Suck In Anything, was a more than a hit just here at home. He was one of several who received recognition for interesting, individual thinking in their art project, in the form of an “Idea Award”.

The prize was lunch with the principal, who has street cred with the kids (one of the sports-day activities, for example, had him dressed head to toe in a blue-spandex super-hero suit that I would certainly not have the guts to don.).

Anthony said that he enjoy it..... it's normally a bit crazy during lunch (they eat in their classroom at their desks), but the lunch yesterday with the two other kids and the principal was quiet, and he could eat fast (which, I took it, meant that he could then go out to play more quickly). I asked whether he chatted with the principal, to which he replied with “yes, of course” in a somewhat “what else would we do, are you stupid?” tone. I then commented that the principal was a nice guy, to which he said “yes, of course, what are you thinking?” in a somewhat exasperated “he's the principal, of course he's nice, you moron” tone.

I've always known that I have a good grasp of the obvious, and now, apparently, Anthony knows too. 🙂

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Nikon D700 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 70 mm — ¹/100 sec, f/13, ISO 2200 — map & image data — nearby photos
Scarred
— the only color, if you look closely, is the wound from a recently snapped limb —
In the mountains of Toyama Prefecture, Japan

The day we arrived up north in Toyama Prefecture at the start of a short New Year trip, it was clear and sunny, but that was pretty much the last sun we saw until on the we came home. We woke up the next morning to find that it had apparently just started snowing hard... there was only a bit of new accumulation, but no let up in sight.

So we headed off to our planned destination for the day, which entailed a drive through the mountains. It would have taken about 45 minutes in clear weather, but since we were getting some snow, we took it slow.

Much of the way early on turned out to be in open-sided tunnels, built just to protect against snow, so not only could we go normal speeds, we could stop to take pictures out the side of the tunnel, from the un-snowy confines just inside. That was the occasion when I took the photo above, along with the tighter zoom seen in an earlier post as our theme for the trip.

One thing I like about these is that the background is not clear... there's something back there. Pulling back for a wider shot makes it apparent...

Nikon D700 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 38 mm — ¹/100 sec, f/13, ISO 2000 — map & image data — nearby photos
Valley

Perhaps it's not really that apparent... the tree in the foreground is fairly near, but the entire background is the far face of a valley, with a big river out of view in between. Anyway, I thought it was pretty.

The snow was coming down relentlessly, so the breaks between the tunnels were filling out fast. I stepped out from where I took those photos to take this one:

Nikon D700 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 24 mm — ¹/200 sec, f/3.5, ISO 200 — map & image data — nearby photos
Omaki Tunnel
1,330 meters long

It looks dark inside (and compared to the field of white outside, it was), but the outside-facing wall of the tunnel was open the entire way, so it was quite pleasant to drive on a snowy day.

The next tunnel started pretty much right away.... looking the other way from the same spot:

Nikon D700 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 24 mm — ¹/200 sec, f/3.5, ISO 200 — map & image data — nearby photos
That's Where We're Heading

Eventually the snow-shield tunnels stopped, and the roads got steeper, and driving became substantially less pleasant. 10km and 45 minutes later, conditions were worse... here's another backward/forward pair:

Nikon D700 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 34 mm — ¹/250 sec, f/9, ISO 200 — map & image data — nearby photos
Where We'd Been
looking downhill

Nikon D700 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 24 mm — ¹/250 sec, f/9, ISO 200 — map & image data — nearby photos
Where We Think We're Going
looking uphill

Nikon D700 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 48 mm — ¹/250 sec, f/9, ISO 200 — map & image data — nearby photos
Looking To The Right
in short order the road dives down to cut through that little town

It was a relief to get to the little town because all the roads were snow-free... because they were continuously sprayed with water (!), just like the roads in Kinosaki we saw last year. I suddenly had much appreciation for the method.

The snow continued to come down hard, but eventually we made it to our destination, which offered quite a bit to enjoy, though it looks totally bleak in this particular photo:

Nikon D700 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 24 mm — ¹/160 sec, f/6.3, ISO 200 — map & image data — nearby photos
Parking Lot

While parking, I heard a snowplow....

Nikon D700 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 70 mm — ¹/100 sec, f/9, ISO 250 — map & image data — nearby photos
Enter the Cavalry

Nikon D700 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 24 mm — ¹/100 sec, f/6.3, ISO 250 — map & image data — nearby photos

I could certainly have used him later in the day.

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