In our trip to Hokkaido last week, we took a car ferry most of the way. We drove the 83 miles from Kyoto to the Tsuruga ferry port, then boarded the Shin Nihonkai Line's ferry named Suisen (which means Daffodil).

Nikon D200 + Sigma 30mm f/1.4 — Handheld ¹/6 sec, f/1.4, ISO 640, P.P. boost: +1.10EV — map & image data — nearby photos
Big Boat Needs Big Rope

Looking at that big rope, I have to ask: if you had to choose, would you rather be caught between the ship and the dock, or read my blog? It's a question of whether you'd prefer to be moored to death, or bored to death....

(yeeach, that's rank, I know 🙂 )

Anyway, the boat is 200 meters long, and is designed to carry the crew, 507 passengers, 122 truck trailers, and 80 cars.

Nikon D200 + Sigma 30mm f/1.4 — Handheld ¹/25 sec, f/2.5, ISO 640, P.P. boost: +2.87EV — full exif & map — nearby photos

Nikon D200 + Sigma 30mm f/1.4 — Handheld ¹/60 sec, f/1.4, ISO 640 — map & image data — nearby photos
Passenger Loading Ramp (Right of Center)

The ship has five levels. The bottom two, which extend the length of the ship, are for vehicles. The top three are for passengers (restaurants, store, entertainment, rooms, etc.) and are much shorter. Additionally, one would suppose that below the vehicle levels are “boat stuff” levels with things like fuel storage and an engine.

Nikon D200 + Sigma 30mm f/1.4 — Handheld ¹/60 sec, f/1.4, ISO 640 — map & image data — nearby photos
Vehicle Loading On Two Levels (upper-right and center-left)

Nikon D200 + Sigma 30mm f/1.4 — Handheld ¹/30 sec, f/2.8, ISO 640 — map & image data — nearby photos
Scale Model

Our room was toward the rear of the top level (mouseover this text to highlight the location in the picture above), although I didn't know that for a while. The ship leaves at 1:30am, with non-driving passengers loading as early as 11:30pm, and cars at 12:30am. Being the driver, I had time to wander around taking pictures.

The ridiculous middle-of-the-night departure time is apparently to allow trucks to leave Osaka after business hours yet still arrive in time to board the ship. The main business is cargo; passengers are just an afterthought.

Nikon D200 + Sigma 30mm f/1.4 — Handheld ¹/15 sec, f/2, ISO 640 — map & image data — nearby photos
Waiting

The trip goes 585 miles (941km) north-north-east through the Sea of Japan, and takes 18 hours; it arrives at Tomakomai City, Hokkaido, at about 6:30pm. The boat generally travels about 50 kph (27 knots; 31 mph), but according to my GPS unit, at one point was going 60kph (32 knots; 37mph).

Trip Track from my GPS Device

Even before seeing the rust stains on the outside of the ship, we had really bad expectations for a car ferry that leaves in the middle of the night. We just assumed that the ship and rooms would be yucky in every respect, and so we were thrilled to find that everything was really quite nice. The rooms were smaller than you'd find in a nice hotel, but otherwise just as nice.

Nikon D200 + Nikkor 17-55 f/2.8 @ 17mm — ¹/45 sec, f/3.5, ISO 400 — map & image data — nearby photos
Our Room

There are several classes of room: “Stateroom,” “Special,”, “First Class,” “2nd Class/Bed,” and “2nd Class/Tatami.” The 2nd classes are communal, while First and up are private rooms. We had a “Special Class” room, which differs from “First” in that we got our own bathroom.

Hallway Outside Our Room

The hallways were not marbled elegance, but they were clean and well lit. Overall the entire ship was really quite nice...

Nikon D200 + Nikkor 70-200mm f/2.8 @ 200mm — ¹/160 sec, f/2.8, ISO 400 — map & image data — nearby photos
Enjoying the “Promenade”

The only problem was that nothing was open to the air except the directly-rear view; any other view was through a window, which makes photography mostly out of the question. The ship was built with a true (outside) promenade and outside decks, but they were all permanently closed off. Bummer.

In the shot below, Anthony is standing at the rearmost railing accessible, looking at the only non-window view available to passengers. The dot on the horizon is the Suisen's sister ship, the Suzuran (“lily of the valley”) after having passed us on its return trip south.

Nikon D200 + Nikkor 70-200mm f/2.8 @ 70mm — ¹/350 sec, f/10, ISO 400 — map & image data — nearby photos
Watching the Suzuran Disappears Into The Distance

Nikon D200 + Nikkor 17-55 f/2.8 @ 18mm — ¹/200 sec, f/7.1, ISO 400 — map & image data — nearby photos
Anthony Prepares for Lunch

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Enjoying his Bread

In the shot above you can see some land, but during most of the trip no land was visible. At one point we were 75 miles (120km) from the closest landfall.

As an unexpected bonus, our room came with a complimentary hair stylist.

Nikon D200 + Nikkor 17-55 f/2.8 @ 40mm — ¹/30 sec, f/2.8, ISO 640 — map & image data — nearby photos
Free Hair Styling For All

I liked the gentle rumble of the engine and gentle rocking of the boat, so I slept well. However, both Fumie and I started to feel odd the next afternoon, eventually becoming a bit queasy. We took some motion-sickness medicine, but it didn't seem to have any effect. Worse still, the next day we were both really tired, as if in an all-day “food coma”... you know, like after Thanksgiving Dinner.

For the trip back, which was on the Suzuran (having gone into service on the same day, identical except for the interior color scheme), we took the motion-sickness medicine up front, and things were better stomach-wise, but we were drugged-out tired the entire trip, and the next day was the all-day food coma again. Ugh.

It was a nice trip, but we'll probably fly next time due to how tired it (or the requisite medicine) made us.

I went again today to the Kyoto Keage Water-Treatment Plant to see the azaleas (although I didn't know they were called “azaleas” until looking up the word yesterday).

The pictures yesterday didn't give much feel for the overall site, so I thought I'd show some today that attempt to. I'm sure I won't be successful, for as I said yesterday, it's a huge sprawling site with many terraces, pathways, alcoves, gardens, nooks, and crannies.

Nikon D200 + Nikkor 17-55 f/2.8 @ 52mm — ¹/750 sec, f/6.3, ISO 250 — map & image data — nearby photos
View From The Road (Looking North)

The view is nice enough from the outside, with many flowering azaleas to brighten it. The picture above is from across Sanjo Street, looking down the hill toward the North. The main entrance is way further down the hill than is visible in this shot.

Turning to look up the hill, you can see one huge hillside of azaleas that I thought, until yesterday, was the main attraction. I didn't realize that the site extends far above what you see here, and that many beautiful areas are to be found along the whole breadth of the site, but just aren't visible from the road.

Nikon D200 + Nikkor 17-55 f/2.8 @ 17mm — ¹/500 sec, f/6.3, ISO 250 — map & image data — nearby photos
View From The Road (Looking South)

Nikon D200 + Nikkor 17-55 f/2.8 @ 55mm — ¹/640 sec, f/5.6, ISO 250 — map & image data — nearby photos
Schoolkids Walking Along the Road Out Front

The kids above are walking where, until 10 or so years ago, a tram track ran. It's now under the road as the tozai line of Kyoto's subway.

Nikon D200 + Nikkor 17-55 f/2.8 @ 17mm — ¹/160 sec, f/8, ISO 100 — map & image data — nearby photos
Inside the Southern Gate, Looking Up Toward the Main Building

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Halfway Up, Looking Down

Almost everything in the picture above is hidden from the road. The front of the building to the left of center can be seen from some vantage points along the road (including in the first photo above), but that's about it. This shot is looking down a hillside covered with azaleas, but it's not the big hillside on the southern end of the site visible from the road.

The picture above shows many levels. The driveway just behind the foreground plants is well below where I was standing, and the people congregating in the little clearing are well below the driveway. They're all way above the filtering tanks and people walking in the background, which themselves are way above the main entrance and Sanjo Street.

Yet, at this point, I've still got 90 vertical feet of paths, gardens, terraces, and azaleas before I reach the top.

Looking at a small part of the same view from the side rather than the top, you see more of the beauty than the layout...

Nikon D200 + Nikkor 17-55 f/2.8 @ 23mm — ¹/160 sec, f/7.1, ISO 200 — map & image data — nearby photos
Reverse-Angle View

Nikon D200 + Nikkor 70-200mm f/2.8 @ 150mm — ¹/250 sec, f/5.6, ISO 250 — map & image data — nearby photos
Mini Garden Area

There were many little mini garden areas, and being a water-treatment plant, water fountains were plentiful (and log-shaped, no less, to better blend in with the plentiful nature).

Nikon D200 + Nikkor 70-200mm f/2.8 @ 90mm — ¹/320 sec, f/8, ISO 250 — map & image data — nearby photos
Little Paths Everywhere

Besides the major walkways, there were little paths everywhere, connecting terraces, gardens, and walkways.

Some paths are not obvious at first glance. The only indication of a path in the picture below is the parasol carried by an unseen stroller.

Nikon D200 + Nikkor 70-200mm f/2.8 @ 70mm — ¹/1250 sec, f/4.5, ISO 250 — map & image data — nearby photos
Some Paths More Hidden Than Others

Nikon D200 + Nikkor 70-200mm f/2.8 @ 116mm — ¹/200 sec, f/5, ISO 250 — map & image data — nearby photos
Occasionally, Water-Treatment Stuff

The circular thing above houses some kind of valve. It sports a wheel on top not unlike one might use to steer a schooner.

Nikon D200 + Nikkor 17-55 f/2.8 @ 22mm — ¹/320 sec, f/5, ISO 250 — map & image data — nearby photos
Random Pathway #72

The city really pulls the stops out for the four days it's open. They hire a bazillion kindly guides and dress them as private security guards. They give everyone who comes in a round uchiwa to fan themselves with (the sun is unmercifully hot these days), and a bottle-shaped can of water (source: Genuine Kyoto City Tap Water).

Because it's hot and there's so much climbing involved, they've set up rest areas at convenient locations (with, unfortunately, ash trays to make getting cancer all the more convenient as well).

The tent shown below is at the very top of the site, on top of the “No. 2 Highest Water-Storage Area.”

Nikon D200 + Nikkor 70-200mm f/2.8 @ 82mm — ¹/2500 sec, f/4, ISO 250 — map & image data — nearby photos
Tent at the Top

The big vertical sign says “No alcoholic beverages.” Drat! Oh well, they can't please everyone 🙂

Nikon D200 + Nikkor 17-55 f/2.8 @ 55mm — ¹/2500 sec, f/2.8, ISO 200 — map & image data — nearby photos
Drowning in Scarlet Pink....

Nikon D200 + Nikkor 17-55 f/2.8 @ 44mm — ¹/2000 sec, f/7.1, ISO 200, P.P. boost: +1.96EV — map & image data — nearby photos
...and Pure White....

Nikon D200 + Nikkor 17-55 f/2.8 @ 55mm — ¹/1500 sec, f/4, ISO 200 — map & image data — nearby photos
... and Light Pink....

Nikon D200 + Nikkor 17-55 f/2.8 @ 32mm — ¹/160 sec, f/9, ISO 200 — map & image data — nearby photos
... and Violet, Orange, Red, Purple, Peach ....

Every year, the local water-treatment plant opens its gates for four days so the public can enjoy its manicured gardens of about 4,600 azalea shrubs (tsutsuji — つつじ — in Japanese).

Kyoto's Keage Water-Treatment Plant (蹴上浄水場) is on a sprawling hillside less a kilometer from our place, and I've long enjoyed the brilliantly colored (mostly insanely bright pink) hillsides of shrubs that are visible from the road, but until I ventured inside yesterday, I didn't realize how much I'd been missing. The place is huge, and full of amazing and beautiful sights.

It rises 68 meters (225 feet) in elevation from its lowest point to its highest, and has many paths, terraces, and azalea-covered hillsides along the way.

There are apparently a good number of huge water-storage tanks, but for the most part they're underground, with their top covered in dirt and grass. The picture below looks across the “No. 2 High Water-Supply Ground” (the grass-covered roof of the otherwise invisible “No. 2 High Water-Supply Tank,” I guess), looking toward the “No. 1 Highest Water-Supply Tank”, 23 meters (75 feet) above.

Nikon D200 + Nikkor 17-55 f/2.8 @ 55mm — ¹/180 sec, f/8, ISO 200 — map & image data — nearby photos
Looking Across “No.2 High Water-Supply Ground”

Next is a view of eastern Kyoto from near the front of the “No. 1 High Water-Storage Ground” (an impressive structure dating to 1912, and certainly destined to be the subject of a later post).

Nikon D200 + Nikkor 70-200mm f/2.8 @ 70mm — ¹/750 sec, f/5, ISO 200 — map & image data — nearby photos
One View of Eastern Kyoto

The roof in the center is 625 meters distant (0.4 miles), and is that of the main gate of the Nanzen Temple (map). The Nanzen Temple is the location of the first few shots of one of my all-time most-popular posts: The Photography of Katsunori Shimada.

Coincidentally, I'll be heading back to the water-treatment plant today with Shimada-san. I went by myself yesterday at about 1pm, and the sun was extremely harsh. I'm hoping that an earlier time (9:30am-ish) will yield a bit softer light. Today is the last day of this year's open house.

Nikon D200 + Nikkor 17-55 f/2.8 @ 38mm — ¹/320 sec, f/7.1, ISO 200 — map & image data — nearby photos
Enjoying Lunch

This lady's lunch spot overlooks much of the site 100 feet below.

Nikon D200 + Nikkor 70-200mm f/2.8 @ 200mm — ¹/640 sec, f/4.5, ISO 100 — map & image data — nearby photos
Anthony Squishing Around in Good Old Fashioned Wholesome Mud

I ended my previous post with the sad tale of having most unfortunately thrust my foot into a large, gooey pile of finely aged cow poop.

The story doesn't end there. In fact, that wasn't even the low point of the tale — it turned out to be one of those “one of those days” days.

So, to continue the story, I washed it off as best I could in a puddle of what I fervently hoped was water. I was able to get it to appear fairly clean, but then again, the shoe was brown to begin with, so who knows.

It really stunk up the car.

A few windows-rolled-down miles later, we came across some large patches of snow, and I used them to wash the shoe off more vigorously, and as our sense of smell would later validate, more successfully. There's still plenty of snow in the higher elevations, but this was down in a valley where snow was now scarce, so it was fortuitous to find some.

An hour later, I still worried that there was a lingering lilt of eau d'bovine in the air, so took the opportunity when stopping at a highway rest stop to make a more thorough cleaning. While Anthony played on a big pile of snow made when a plow had last cleared the rest-stop parking lot, I fetched a soon-to-be-considered-old toothbrush and headed to the rest-stop bathroom.

Nikon D200 + Nikkor 70-200mm f/2.8 @ 200mm — ¹/200 sec, f/5.6, ISO 250 — map & image data — nearby photos
Playing on a Plowed Pile of Rest-Stop Snow

As you can imagine, a rest-stop bathroom is not the most pristine of locations to take one's shoe off, so I maintained an awkward balance while going at the shoe with water and toothbrush. It became sparkling... good as new, almost good enough to lick! (Almost)

I returned to the parking lot happy as punch, took over from Fumie on Anthony duty, and wandered over to the big pile of snow to play with him a bit. Unfortunately, it turns out that he'd been splashing in some mud at the edge of the pile, and it was all over his shoes, hands, and even some on his shirt. I didn't want him to wipe his muddy hands on his clothes, so I returned to the bathroom with him in tow to wash his hands.

We then returned to the somewhat dirty pile of snow to climb around together for awhile.

The pile was somewhat dirty because as it melted, the assorted dirt that had been embedded in the plowed snow collected in a layer on top of the pile. Unfortunately, this marked the second time in as many hours that I'd mistaken something else for dirt. This “dirt” was oily tar, and I was imbecilicly late in figuring this out. (That the “mud” on his hands had been so difficult to wash off should have tipped me off, for example.)

We returned to the car, and with Fumie's help we got him out of the boots and his clothes without spreading the damage too widely, pulling new shoes and clothes from the luggage. I brought his boots and myself to the bathroom, retrieved the toothbrush from the trash, and tried to clean his boots. They were so thoroughly covered in tar that I really had no hope, so I put them into a plastic bag for the trip home.

But for myself, I had only the one pair of shoes — a pair that had only minutes before had one minty-clean member, and now had two that were covered in black, sticky tar. I didn't really want to ruin the inside of our car, so I had no choice but to try to clean them.

Factoid: a toothbrush is much more effective in cleaning cow poop than tar.

The toothbrush, my shining star at the previous cleaning, was worthless here, as it quickly turned into a big stick of tar that then did nothing but spread tar around like oily frosting.

Luckily, the soap dispensers were well stocked, so I used liberal amounts of hand soap, water, scrubbing, time, (and a lot of awkward balancing), and eventually the shoes seemed to clean up.

I spent considerable additional time trying to clean my hands and the bowl of the sink, all of which had turned into a slimy black mess.

Then we continued our drive to the ferry for the trip home.

The muddy boots at the top of this post are from April 30th, our first full day in Furano. We were driving around among large farm fields in the middle of nowhere to the east of the city, just looking around. Anthony wanted to play in some snow, so we stopped and let him at it.

Nikon D200 + Nikkor 70-200mm f/2.8 @ 150mm — ¹/2000 sec, f/2.8, ISO 100 — map & image data — nearby photos
Snow is Fun but Mud Is Funner

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Nikon D200 + Nikkor 70-200mm f/2.8 @ 86mm — ¹/500 sec, f/6.3, ISO 100 — full exif & map — nearby photos

In looking at the satellite view of this location, you can see we're beside a large circular structure. (Its parking lot was convenient; the road was plied by a lot of dump trucks, and there was no other place to safely pull off the road.) I'm not sure what it was, but the downwind smell made me think it was some kind of holding tank for liquefied, er, “natural fertilizer.”

Perhaps I should have taken this as an omen for things to come....

(Anthony's tar-covered boots are still in the plastic bag, sitting outside the front door.)

Nikon D200 + Nikkor 70-200mm f/2.8 @ 70mm — ¹/750 sec, f/5, ISO 160 — map & image data — nearby photos
Biei, Hokkaido, May 2007

As I mentioned yesterday, Biei, Hokkaido is a really pretty area, and we went three days in a row. Each day's weather was different, so each had its own feel.

Nikon D200 + Nikkor 70-200mm f/2.8 @ 80mm — ¹/1600 sec, f/3.5, ISO 160 — map & image data — nearby photos
Big Fields Means Lotsa' Plowing

The fields all seem to be in different states, with some recently plowed (deep brown dirt), some green (grass?), some dried yellow dirt. A very few had dotted rows of tiny seedlings that could be seen only up close.

I loved the endless combinations of rows, colors, and shapes, along with the many different types of backdrops. I was forever stopping to take pictures; Fumie is a patient woman.

Nikon D200 + Nikkor 70-200mm f/2.8 @ 200mm — ¹/1600 sec, f/3.5, ISO 160 — map & image data — nearby photos
Colorless Field in Biei

The mountain peak above is 20km (12 miles) away. The field extended that far, if not further..... (or seemed to).

Nikon D200 + Nikkor 70-200mm f/2.8 @ 200mm — ¹/1000 sec, f/5.6, ISO 250 — map & image data — nearby photos
Colorful Field in Biei

That last picture above was one of the last I took on our trip. We were tired and heading home, but even if not, it likely would have been the last for a while because I paid dearly to get it.

I already was in “drive home” mode and thought I was done with photography for the day, but upon seeing the farmers and machines silhouetted on the horizon, combined with the stunning green, well, I had to stop for the picture.

There were some trees in the foreground that I wanted not to be in the picture, and conveniently, there were big mounds of hard dirt piled by the side of the very rural road we were traveling. They were three or four feet high, so I thought to step up on them to raise my vantage point for the shot.

(Farmers in the audience can certainly see where this is going....)

In short, I was mistaken about two things: they weren't mounds of dried dirt (only the outside shell was dry and hard), and they weren't mounds of dried dirt. At my first step onto them, my shoe broke through the thin dry shell into something soft and gooey. I instinctively muttered a four-letter expletive, and indeed, it turns out that assessment of the substance was correct.

To be continued . . . . . .