{"id":1157,"date":"2009-03-04T22:59:04","date_gmt":"2009-03-04T13:59:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/2009-03-04\/1157"},"modified":"2009-03-04T22:59:04","modified_gmt":"2009-03-04T13:59:04","slug":"kyotos-i-fall-tower","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/2009-03-04\/1157","title":{"rendered":"Kyoto’s “I Fall” Tower"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n\n
<\/a>\nNikon D700 + Nikkor 24-70mm f\/2.8 @ 24 mm — 1<\/sup>\/<\/big>400 sec, f<\/span>\/8, ISO 250 —\nmap & image data<\/a> — nearby photos<\/a><\/span>\nKyoto's “I Fall<\/span>” Tower<\/span>\nbecause if you can get this close, you drop dead from exhaustion\n<\/div>\n\n

On the way to Anthony's first ski experience<\/a> last month, I took a<\/span> route\nthat runs along Lake Biwa (and past Shirohige Shrine<\/a>), but on\nthe way home I used<\/span> a mountain<\/span> route, and took the opportunity to explore\nsomething I'd seen driving by in the past...<\/p>\n\n

In the middle of the mountains, barely visible off to the side of the\nroad among the nothingness that Route 367 winds through, you briefly see\nthis innocuous set of steps...<\/p>\n\n

<\/a>\nNikon D700 + Nikkor 24-70mm f\/2.8 @ 24 mm — 1<\/sup>\/<\/big>400 sec, f<\/span>\/7.1, ISO 5000 —\nmap & image data<\/a> — nearby photos<\/a><\/span>\nLooks Harmless Enough<\/span>\n<\/div>\n\n

And at the top this sign...<\/p>\n\n

<\/a>\nNikon D700 + Nikkor 24-70mm f\/2.8 @ 70 mm — 1<\/sup>\/<\/big>400 sec, f<\/span>\/7.1, ISO 4000 —\nmap & image data<\/a> — nearby photos<\/a><\/span>\n

NTT Dokomo Kansai Corp<\/b>\n\n( telephone company name<\/i> )<\/span><\/p>\n

Tochu<\/b>\n\n( location name<\/i> )<\/span><\/p>\n

Wireless Relay Station Ascent Entrance<\/b><\/p>\n

This sign made with recycled cell phones<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

And then this:<\/p>\n\n

<\/a>\nNikon D700 + Nikkor 24-70mm f\/2.8 @ 38 mm — 1<\/sup>\/<\/big>200 sec, f<\/span>\/7.1, ISO 6400 —\nmap & image data<\/a> — nearby photos<\/a><\/span>\n<\/div>\n\n

Well, it starts off steep, but then it looks to flatten off. Let's take a look!<\/span><\/p>\n\n

Here's the view from the top of that run:<\/p>\n\n

<\/a>\nNikon D700 + Nikkor 24-70mm f\/2.8 @ 24 mm — 1<\/sup>\/<\/big>400 sec, f<\/span>\/7.1, ISO 6400 —\nmap & image data<\/a> — nearby photos<\/a><\/span>\n“To Infinity and Beyond!”<\/span>\n<\/div>\n\n
<\/a>\nNikon D700 + Nikkor 24-70mm f\/2.8 @ 24 mm — 1<\/sup>\/<\/big>400 sec, f<\/span>\/5, ISO 4500 —\nmap & image data<\/a> — nearby photos<\/a><\/span>\nPerhaps Halfway Up<\/span>\nlooking back down\n<\/div>\n\n

How these steps attach to the stringers, with the sturdy adjustable\nclamps, are, of course, the subject of yesterday's “What am I?”\nquiz<\/a>, which didn't fool anyone except perhaps those who gave me too\nmuch credit for being crafty.<\/p>\n\n

<\/a>\nNikon D700 + Nikkor 24-70mm f\/2.8 @ 24 mm — 1<\/sup>\/<\/big>400 sec, f<\/span>\/9, ISO 4500 —\nmap & image data<\/a> — nearby photos<\/a><\/span>\nEnd of the Stairs, but\nNot Yet The Top<\/span>\n( way below, you can see the road where this all started )\n<\/div>\n\n

After this, it's another 100m or so of easy climb up to the base of the\ntower, which is surrounded by a fence,<\/span> so this was the closest I could<\/span> get:<\/p>\n\n

<\/a>\nNikon D700 + Nikkor 24-70mm f\/2.8 @ 24 mm — 1<\/sup>\/<\/big>4000 sec, f<\/span>\/2.8, ISO 200 —\nmap & image data<\/a> — nearby photos<\/a><\/span>\n<\/div>\n\n

The fence is helpful, though, as it helps support your body as your legs\ncollapse into a quivering<\/span> mess, and your heart attacks you for doing\nsomething as stupid as climbing all those steps.<\/p>\n\n

The tower is in the mountains north of Kyoto, but is not visible from\nKyoto, nor is it actually in Kyoto, but officially, in the city of Otsu\n(which people normally think of as being 20km away over the mountains and\nby the lake). There wasn't much view from the top except for other\nmountains, but stretching a bit<\/span> I could<\/span> see part of the lake and, I think,<\/span>\nMoriyama or Kusatsu Cities on the other side.<\/p>\n\n

<\/a>\nNikon D700 + Nikkor 24-70mm f\/2.8 @ 70 mm — 1<\/sup>\/<\/big>400 sec, f<\/span>\/14, ISO 1800 —\nmap & image data<\/a> — nearby photos<\/a><\/span>\nNot Much of a View<\/span><\/span>\n<\/div>\n\n

One thing I thought was funny was a thin<\/span> green wire attached to the\nbase, trailing off over to one of the fence posts buried in the\nground....<\/p>\n\n

<\/a>\nNikon D700 + Nikkor 24-70mm f\/2.8 @ 24 mm — 1<\/sup>\/<\/big>400 sec, f<\/span>\/2.8, ISO 400 —\nmap & image data<\/a> — nearby photos<\/a><\/span>\nNot Quite Up to Code?<\/span>\n<\/div>\n\n

I can't imagine what it was for. As a grounding<\/span> wire, it wasn't thick\nenough for a small<\/span> residential house, much less one on top of a mountain<\/span>\nprone to rubbing up against thunderclouds. The fence<\/span> itself was already\nwell grounded, should that have mattered, so I'm at a loss<\/span> to guess what it\nwas for.<\/p>\n\n

After a short rest, I headed<\/span> down, counting the steps as I went.<\/span> Even\nthe trip down was an MI<\/a>-inducing effort. In order<\/span> to not forget my count, I made a<\/span> note to myself:<\/p>\n\n

<\/a>\nNikon D700 + Nikkor 24-70mm f\/2.8 @ 70 mm — 1<\/sup>\/<\/big>60 sec, f<\/span>\/20, ISO 6400 —\nmap & image data<\/a> — nearby photos<\/a><\/span>\n308 Steps<\/span>\nplus another 20 or so stone steps back to the road\n<\/div>\n\n

I'd like to be able to tell you how high it was, and normally I'd be\nable to pull the geoencoded altitude from the photos, but for some reason\nthe altitude was completely wacky in the tracklog I pulled<\/span> from my GPS unit<\/a>,\ngiving essentially no altitude change over the 300+ steps. Very odd. It's the first<\/span> time I've noticed that happen.<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On the way to Anthony's first ski experience last month, I took a route that runs along Lake Biwa (and past Shirohige Shrine), but on the way home I used a mountain route, and took the opportunity to explore something I'd seen driving by in the past...<\/p>

In the middle of the mountains, barely visible off to the side of the road among the nothingness that Route 367 winds through, you briefly see this innocuous set of steps...<\/p>

And at the top this sign...<\/p>

And then this:<\/p>

Well, it starts off steep, but then it looks to flatten off. Let's [...]","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1157"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1157"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1157\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1157"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1157"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1157"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}