Despite the beauty of Kyoto and Japan that I try to showcase in the photos I normally post, most of the populated ares of Japan are wall-to-wall unmitigated monochromatic urban blight. Concrete, utility poles, warehouses, convenience stores, congested traffic, anonymous nondescript office buildings.... just lots and lots of visually-neutered components pasted together with horrific amounts of mind-numbing blah.
The drive down to Hirakata (to see a doctor about my ouchy back, as I mentioned yesterday) is through this metropolitan monotony most of the way. As such, the drive is in no way pleasant, but it does offer one point that I find interesting: the ongoing construction of the elevated 第二京阪道路, the “No. 2 Kyoto-Osaka Expressway”.
Its planning dates back to 1969, but actual construction didn't start until a few years ago. According to its Wikipedia page, it's scheduled for completion in the spring of 2010.
What I find so interesting about it is that each small section of the most-northern few miles of it seem to have been designed by a different person having no contact with the others. As you drive along, its appearance is always changing, always dynamic.
Nikon D200 + Nikkor 17-55 f/2.8 @ 17mm — 1/180 sec, f/7.1, ISO 250 — map & image data — nearby photos
Under the Northern End of the “No.2 Keihan Expressway”
Autumn has arrived in full force, and lately we've been having wonderfully crisp, sunny, brisk days with few clouds and wonderfully clear air. But as if to highlight and enhance the total blah of the lifeless urban sprawl I was driving through, yesterday was overcast and exceptionally hazy, almost to the point of being foggy.
So, above we have these huge “sideways F” supports, yet just an eighth of a mile later, we have something completely different....
Nikon D200 + Nikkor 17-55 f/2.8 @ 45mm — 1/50 sec, f/7.1, ISO 250 — map & image data — nearby photos
Ramps
And just a tad further, we now have both lanes together and single center columns....
Nikon D200 + Nikkor 17-55 f/2.8 @ 30mm — 1/250 sec, f/7.1, ISO 250 — map & image data — nearby photos
Bus Stop? Emergency Exit?
It sort of sad, but among all the urban yuck that this highway cuts through, there's still the occasional remnant of old. After taking the picture above, I turned to the side of the road and snapped a picture of this little house and its garden, some of the only green I saw along the way....
Nikon D200 + Nikkor 17-55 f/2.8 @ 17mm — 1/250 sec, f/7.1, ISO 250 — map & image data — nearby photos
Hemmed In
Moving along just a bit further, we still have the unified roadways, but now the center columns are doubled in one style or another....
Nikon D200 + Nikkor 17-55 f/2.8 @ 30mm — 1/125 sec, f/7.1, ISO 250 — map & image data — nearby photos
Columns Evocative of the Logo on a Hanshin Tigers' Hat
A bit further, and now we have these massive center columns with wide arms, holding very thin ramp flyovers....
Nikon D200 + Nikkor 17-55 f/2.8 @ 17mm — 1/160 sec, f/7.1, ISO 250 — map & image data — nearby photos
Impressive Balance
One reason for the dynamic nature, of course, is that they had to make the thing fit into the existing urban zone. However, once you get far enough south and into slighly more rural areas, it's apparently all new, recently-opened construction. A short section of the expressway there is already opened (crossing the Uji River), and when I discovered it, it took only half a mile off my trip to the doctor, but it cut out a nasty segment of conjestion that cut my 60-minute trip down to 40 minutes.
After that little segment on the expressway (fee is 150 yen – about a buck and a quarter American), I descended back down to the surface street underneath, which at this point was new, clean, wide, and eerily devoid of traffic.
Nikon D200 + Nikkor 17-55 f/2.8 @ 55mm — 1/125 sec, f/7.1, ISO 250 — map & image data — nearby photos
Expressway Above, “New Route 1” Below
After the earlier chaos (both visually, and traffic/congestion-wise), the smooth curves and pleasant patterns of repetition made this short section an unexpected pleasure to drive. The lack of traffic was an additional bonus.
This area, and the open expressway above, are both new, so there's little traffic, and as such, little law enforcement (that is, a license to speed). I'd think it'd be the perfect place for a speed trap, but apparently not, because a friend of mine who has to drive long distances also likes to drive exceedingly fast, and he says he takes this part of the expressway at 150 miles an hour. (I like to drive as zippy as the next guy, but that's just insane, so I hardly approve.)
Nikon D200 + Nikkor 17-55 f/2.8 @ 55mm — 1/40 sec, f/7.1, ISO 250 — map & image data — nearby photos
Another Long Vista
Facing the opposite direction
One of the “new construction” areas cuts through a region with a fair number of cross streets, so that area takes on the more traditional dual-level design...
Nikon D200 + Nikkor 17-55 f/2.8 @ 20mm — 1/40 sec, f/7.1, ISO 250 — map & image data — nearby photos
Traditional Styling
(untraditional lack of traffic)
By the way, I live in the city of Kyoto, which is part of Kyoto Prefecture, which is part of the larger 京阪 region (keihan – “Kyoto-Osaka”), which itself is part of a larger region of Japan know as 近畿 (kinki – “environs around the capitol”, reflecting that Kyoto the capital of Japan for over a thousand years), which itself is part of an even wider region known as 関西 kansai. My trip yesterday took me out of Kyoto, but only just into Osaka Prefecture, so I probably should have titled this post “A Keihan Drive,” but that wouldn't be as fun a title as “A Kinki Drive,” now would it? 🙂
Last week was not a good week for me. The cold I got Monday evening was the least of my problems, because earlier that same afternoon, something happened to my back that left me, for the most part, unable to walk for several days. Whatever it was, it was unlike any condition I could find discussed on the Internet (it's not related to a pinched nerve, slipped disk, etc.). As one might expect from a sudden and severe back pain, the pain was utterly excruciating.
I was mostly okay so long as I didn't move, so that bode well for sitting at my desk and getting stuff done on the computer.
The same thing happened about four years ago, and after three weeks of the aforementioned excruciating pain and trying everything I could think of to ease it – massages, cold packs, acupuncture, copious amounts of ibuprofen, sports creams, even moxibustion, all to no avail – I finally found a doctor who could treat it, Dr. Hamamoto.
Dr. Hamamoto gave me a massage that was perhaps more painful than the condition, massaging my feet, hands, legs, arms, neck... everything but my back, and all in the most painful way I could imagine. It was like torture, but the results were nothing short of miraculous. After the pain of his massage wore off, I could immediately tell that my back was a lot better. After three sessions over the course of a week, I was much improved.
(During the final session, which was not at all painful, I asked why he was going so easy, to which he replied “I'm using the same pressure as the first time. It doesn't hurt because you're getting better.”)
The clinic is 浜本整骨院 (Hamamoto Bonesetting Clinic), in Hirakata, Japan (between Osaka and Kyoto).
The condition seemed to have been rooted in a right/left imbalance in my back/butt muscles, such that eventually one set of muscles just seizes up, causing the pain and staying that way until “eased” back by the tortuous massages.
Over the years since, I've been better about stretching, but I have had fairly often mild lapses of an ouchy back. I've tried to find a similar doctor in Kyoto, but none are even close to achieving the results this guy could do. So, when I had my major can't-walk-anymore relapse a week ago, he's he first and only place I called. It's a good hour to get down there, but luckily, I could sit and drive without too much pain – it was trying to drive with a cold, and the painful bending involved in getting in and out of the car that posed the most difficulty.
I've gone almost every day for the last week, and like before, each session is less and less painful. Today, I finally feel I'm almost back to the generally-have-a-mild-touch-of-back-pain level I was at before. I even felt good enough to take the scooter down, which cuts drastically into the round-trip time.
After it happened this second time, I was surprised to find that I was still as flexible as I was before, so it seems that the type of stretching I've been doing was wrong, or, at least, not complete. I've learned some new stretches this time, and hopefully will be able to put this all behind me for good.
I don't suppose too many people will find the recommendation for the clinic useful, but I had to post it. I mean, really, how else would I get to use the phrase “bonesetting clinic” in a post title? 🙂
Nikon D200 + Nikkor 17-55 f/2.8 @ 55mm — 1/350 sec, f/4.5, ISO 400 — map & image data
Wall Made From “Unrolled” Bamboo
On the way back from the Eikando-Temple event that yielded the Bonanza of Fall-Foliage Desktop Backgrounds (among others), we came via a street here in Kyoto that I've traveled often, and whose views I've always admired. Yet, it was the first time that I noticed that one of the walls lining the road along the way was covered in weathered, “flattened” bamboo. I'd never seen such a thing.
The bamboo had apparently been scored lengthwise many times over its entire circumference, then flattened to make a flat veneer. Without ever having heard of such a thing, one can imagine that some heating and soaking were involved in the process.
I thought it was beautiful, and that perhaps it would make a nice desktop background, so I've included a number of links for them, in both widescreen and standards sizes.
I couldn't decide whether it looked better close up, or from further back, so I decided not to decide: I'll offer three views.
Nikon D200 + Nikkor 17-55 f/2.8 @ 31mm — 1/500 sec, f/4.5, ISO 400 — map & image data
“Unrolled” Bamboo Wall — Medium
Nikon D200 + Nikkor 17-55 f/2.8 @ 17mm — 1/500 sec, f/4.5, ISO 400 — map & image data
“Unrolled” Bamboo Wall — Far
To offer a bit of context for the wall, here are two more views showing it in the context of the street it's on.
Nikon D200 + Nikkor 17-55 f/2.8 @ 45mm — 1/640 sec, f/4.5, ISO 400 — map & image data
“Unrolled” Bamboo Wall — Context
This is a wonderful little residential area (to see a map, click on a “map & image data” links associated with any of the pictures) that has born much photographic fruit over the years, including some of the most popular images I've ever posted. All the images on these previous posts were taken within a 30-second walk from this wall:
- The Color of Kyoto — Desktop Background
- Photoshop's “Darken” Blend Mode (and more fall-foliage desktops)
- Vine and Bamboo Again (With Desktop Backgrounds)
- On the Way to the Nanzen Temple...
- Vine and Bamboo, Green Edition (With Desktop Backgrounds)
I did take another picture of the vine in the fence, which is still there a year later. People are probably getting tired of Autumn-themed pictures, so I'll save that for next year...
I seem to have a thing for photographing walls with interesting construction. Besides the ones listed above, here are a few more that come to mind...
- Old Wood-Veneer Siding (Desktop Background)
- A Different Wall at Kyoto's Giouji Temple
- Giouji Temple Part 2: Gate and Walls
- History Written in Brick
Of course, then there's my full category of desktop backgrounds with all kinds of different ways to fill your monitor.
The outing that produced the Bonanza of Fall-Foliage Desktop Backgrounds and the Touch of Color from the Nanzen Temple posts was an outing to an event at a local preschool, which we attended with the family of one of Anthony's classmates, Monet (who was featured in the latter half of this post).
The preschool had fun stuff for kids, of course, so it was a hit with all...
Nikon D200 + Nikkor 70-200mm f/2.8 @ 98mm — 1/1000 sec, f/3.5, ISO 800 — map & image data — nearby photos
Top of a Climby Thing
Nikon D200 + Nikkor 70-200mm f/2.8 @ 70mm — 1/1000 sec, f/5.6, ISO 800 — map & image data — nearby photos
Peek-a-Boo
With Monet's two-year-old sister, May
Lots of events and activities were prepared for the kids. Here, Anthony puts on the eyes of an animal face he's making....
Nikon D200 + Nikkor 17-55 f/2.8 @ 17mm — 1/320 sec, f/5.6, ISO 400 — map & image data — nearby photos
The Eyes Have It
Nikon D200 + Nikkor 17-55 f/2.8 @ 48mm — 1/350 sec, f/2.8, ISO 400 — map & image data — nearby photos
Monkeying Around
At some point the kids got ahold of those party favors that you blow into and the ends unravel like a snake's tongue, making a party-favor kind of noise. They were kept occupied by these the whole walk home.
In the next shot, all three are giving it to the “Cupie” bolted to the front of one of the preschool's bus.
Nikon D200 + Nikkor 70-200mm f/2.8 @ 116mm — 1/250 sec, f/2.8, ISO 640 — map & image data — nearby photos
Direct Hit
I'm not sure how this poor couple was selected, but I came upon them being accosted by two party favors at full tilt.
Nikon D200 + Nikkor 17-55 f/2.8 @ 55mm — 1/80 sec, f/8, ISO 800 — map & image data — nearby photos
Accosted
Nikon D200 + Nikkor 17-55 f/2.8 @ 55mm — 1/750 sec, f/2.8, ISO 400 — map & image data — nearby photos
Oblivious
Nikon D200 + Nikkor 17-55 f/2.8 @ 40mm — 1/30 sec, f/7.1, ISO 400 — map & image data — nearby photos
Pause that Refreshes
Eventually we got almost home and the party favors were starting to wear down from overuse, so they had to revert to more normal kid play like running around.
Nikon D200 + Nikkor 70-200mm f/2.8 @ 110mm — 1/750 sec, f/2.8, ISO 800 — map & image data — nearby photos
Playing
This was the location where I'd come two weeks ago for First Taste of Kyoto's Autumn and the subsequent Outing at Dusk, and it was more lusciously polychromatic than before.
The kids couldn't care less about the beautiful colors, so I couldn't get them to turn when I wanted for a nice shot, but even still, the colors in this shot of Monet's back are just amazing.
Nikon D200 + Nikkor 70-200mm f/2.8 @ 200mm — 1/1000 sec, f/2.8, ISO 800 — map & image data — nearby photos
Monet (sort of)
My head is swimming due to a cold I came down with yesterday, so to brighten things up a bit, here's a touch of color from the same outing here in Kyoto, Japan that produced the fall-foliage desktop backgrounds I posted the other day.
Nikon D200 + Nikkor 17-55 f/2.8 @ 45mm — 1/640 sec, f/3.2, ISO 400 — map & image data — nearby photos
Autumn at the Nanzen Temple
Zooming back a bit....
Nikon D200 + Nikkor 17-55 f/2.8 @ 26mm — 1/200 sec, f/3.2, ISO 400 — map & image data — nearby photos
You can see these same trees in the “Placing Incense” photo my summer “More From Nanzenji” post.