{"id":1522,"date":"2010-05-11T23:37:20","date_gmt":"2010-05-11T14:37:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/2010-05-11\/1522"},"modified":"2010-05-11T23:37:20","modified_gmt":"2010-05-11T14:37:20","slug":"the-westin-on-awaji-island","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/2010-05-11\/1522","title":{"rendered":"The Westin on Awaji Island"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n\n
\nNOTE<\/b>: Images with an icon next to them have been artificially shrunk to better fit your screen; click the icon to restore them, in place, to their regular size.\n<\/div>\n\n\n
<\/a>\nNikon D700 + Nikkor 24-70mm f\/2.8 @ 24 mm — 1<\/sup>\/<\/big>125 sec, f<\/span>\/14, ISO 1800 —\nmap & image data<\/a> — nearby photos<\/a><\/span>\nRoom 602 at the Westin Awaji Hotel<\/span>\nAwaji Island, Hyogo Prefecture, Japan\n<\/div>\n\n

I've mentioned that we made a short trip to Awaji Island at the end of\nlast month. It's a short<\/span> two-and-a-half hours by car south of Kyoto; after\npassing over the longest\nsuspension bridge in the world<\/a> and getting off at the exit near the rest-stop Ferris\nwheel<\/a>, a few<\/span> kilometers further along the coast and we arrived at The Westin Awaji\nIsland<\/a> hotel.<\/p>\n\n

Because Anthony's school gets off a few<\/span> days earlier than most prior to\nthe start of the Golden Week\nholidays<\/a>, we were actually traveling opposite of peak time, so we had\nalmost no traffic. Yet, despite the non-peak time, the hotel was completely\nsold out, but Fumie had been vigilantly watching the reservations page and\nwas able to snag an amazing deal at the last minute.<\/p>\n\n

The photo above, which I took before we let Anthony loose in the room,\nlooks vaguely HDR-ish<\/a>\nbecause I had<\/span> to pretty much abuse the controls in Lightroom to make both\nthe inside and outside visible (both recovery and fill light were slammed\nover to the right). But it illustrates<\/span> the room and the view.<\/p>\n\n\n

<\/a>\nNikon D700 + Nikkor 24-70mm f\/2.8 @ 70 mm — 1<\/sup>\/<\/big>400 sec, f<\/span>\/9, ISO 200 —\nmap & image data<\/a> — nearby photos<\/a><\/span>\nThe View<\/span>\nEntrance to the Akashi Straights National Park<\/a>\n<\/div>\n\n

The Akashi Straights National\nPark<\/a> is like a city<\/span> park on steroids... lots of hills of well-manicured\nflowers, places for kids to play, scenic trails, etc. (It's huge; the\npictures here show only a small<\/span> slice). It costs<\/span> about $6 to get in, but\ncustomers of the hotel (I don't<\/span> use “guest” for someone made to pay!) get\nhalf price, and are allowed to enter the park an hour and a half<\/span> before it\nopens to the general public, a benefit<\/span> of which we were happy to have availed\nourselves.<\/p>\n\n

<\/a>\nNikon D700 + Sigma “Bigma” 50-500mm OS @ 340 mm — 1<\/sup>\/<\/big>1600 sec, f<\/span>\/8, ISO 560 —\nmap & image data<\/a> — nearby photos<\/a><\/span>\nSwan Boats in the Park<\/span>\n<\/div>\n\n\n
<\/a>\nNikon D700 + Nikkor 24-70mm f\/2.8 @ 28 mm — 1<\/sup>\/<\/big>500 sec, f<\/span>\/9, ISO 200 —\nmap & image data<\/a> — nearby photos<\/a><\/span>\nLooking Left from Our Balcony<\/span>\na complex maze of paths, buildings, and “stuff”\n<\/div>\n\n

The entire area around the hotel is an amazing place to explore. A guide<\/span> told us that it was explicitly designed to get people lost, so they'd\ndiscover the many interesting views, near and far, on their own.<\/p>\n\n

Guys don't care much about the vanity, toilet, and bath, but Fumie was\nhappy that they were bright and large, that the vanity was fully carpeted,\nand that all three were separate.<\/p>\n\n

<\/a>\nNikon D700 + Nikkor 24-70mm f\/2.8 @ 24 mm — 1<\/sup>\/<\/big>125 sec, f<\/span>\/2.8, ISO 320 —\nmap & image data<\/a> — nearby photos<\/a><\/span>\nVanity<\/span>\nSpacious bath is in a room at left; toilet is in a room<\/span> at right\n<\/div>\n\n

It's certainly no “Deluxe Executive Suite” at\nthe Whistler Four Seasons<\/a>, or\n\nOkinawa's Atta Terrace\nHotel<\/a> but then, neither was the price!<\/p>\n\n

The dinner buffet was amazing<\/i> in every respect, with quality and\nprice both very high. We had been<\/span> at the other end of the island for the sunset<\/a>, so\narrived for dinner fairly late, and it wasn't crowded at all, though\nAnthony was apparently chilly.<\/p>\n\n

<\/a>\nNikon D700 + Nikkor 85mm f\/1.4 — 1<\/sup>\/<\/big>200 sec, f<\/span>\/1.4, ISO 500 —\nmap & image data<\/a> — nearby photos<\/a><\/span>\nDinner Choices<\/span>\n<\/div>\n\n
<\/a>\nNikon D700 + Nikkor 85mm f\/1.4 — 1<\/sup>\/<\/big>200 sec, f<\/span>\/1.4, ISO 500 —\nmap & image data<\/a> — nearby photos<\/a><\/span>\nthe breadth and depth of\nThe Dessert Spread<\/span>\nwas worthy of considered study\n<\/div>\n\n
<\/a>\nNikon D700 + Nikkor 85mm f\/1.4 — 1<\/sup>\/<\/big>200 sec, f<\/span>\/3.5, ISO 1400 —\nmap & image data<\/a> — nearby photos<\/a><\/span>\nLet's Just Try a Chocolate<\/span> Cake<\/span>\nstarting with this slice\n<\/div>\n\n
<\/a>\nNikon D700 + Nikkor 85mm f\/1.4 — 1<\/sup>\/<\/big>200 sec, f<\/span>\/1.4, ISO 500 —\nmap & image data<\/a> — nearby photos<\/a><\/span>\n<\/div>\n\n

If you were up early enough, you could catch the sunrise, as I posted<\/span> the other day<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n

<\/a>\nNikon D700 + Sigma “Bigma” 50-500mm OS @ 170 mm — 1<\/sup>\/<\/big>8000 sec, f<\/span>\/6.3, ISO 200 —\nmap & image data<\/a> — nearby photos<\/a><\/span>\nMorning View from the Balcony<\/span>\n<\/div>\n\n

If you looked down from the balcony, you could see the top of one of the lower floors...<\/p>\n\n

<\/a>\nNikon D700 + Sigma “Bigma” 50-500mm OS @ 50 mm — 1<\/sup>\/<\/big>800 sec, f<\/span>\/5, ISO 1000 —\nmap & image data<\/a> — nearby photos<\/a><\/span>\nBelow Our Balcony<\/span>\n<\/div>\n\n

This picture is of no interest except to illustrate the answer to the Egg-Slicer “What\nam I?” Quiz<\/a> that I posted<\/span> a few<\/span> days ago. The tops of<\/span> the walls were\ncovered with wires, I'm sure to<\/span> keep birds off. The pins holding<\/span> the wires\nmade long shadows that quickly grew shorter as the sun rose, and I thought<\/span>\nthey were pretty in an abstract way, at least when composing out<\/a> all the\nother stuff and viewing them in isolation. I was impressed<\/span> with the variety of\nanswers to the quiz, from a string<\/span> instrument to queue lines at a beach!<\/span> \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n\n

<\/a>\nNikon D700 + Nikkor 24-70mm f\/2.8 @ 28 mm — 1<\/sup>\/<\/big>3200 sec, f<\/span>\/2.8, ISO 200 —\nmap & image data<\/a> — nearby photos<\/a><\/span>\nBreakfast on the Second-Floor Terrace<\/span>\n<\/div>\n\n

The breakfast buffet was also an impressive spread, though we certainly\ndidn't get our money's worth with Anthony, who had exactly one bowl of\ncereal, one and a half<\/span> croissants, and a glass<\/span> of juice. And it looks<\/span> like\nGeorge<\/a> may have helped\nwith that glass of juice.<\/p>\n\n

It was still a bit chilly in the mornings, so the terrace was mostly\nempty, providing Anthony ample room to throw some paper airplanes.<\/p>\n\n

<\/a>\nNikon D700 + Nikkor 24-70mm f\/2.8 @ 24 mm — 1<\/sup>\/<\/big>500 sec, f<\/span>\/11, ISO 200 —\nmap & image data<\/a> — nearby photos<\/a><\/span>\nAirplanes After Breakfast<\/span>\nour room is fifth from the left, fourth from the top\n<\/div>\n\n

And speaking of paper airplanes, one evening we took advantage of the\nopen space in a little<\/span>-used area of the ground floors to try some indoor\nflying.<\/p>\n\n

<\/a>\nNikon D700 + Nikkor 24-70mm f\/2.8 @ 42 mm — 1<\/sup>\/<\/big>200 sec, f<\/span>\/2.8, ISO 3200 —\nmap & image data<\/a> — nearby photos<\/a><\/span>\nLaunch<\/span>\n<\/div>\n\n

We'd not brought much paper, but the bellboy came to our rescue.<\/p>\n\n

Anthony had fun, but I was disappointed that our planes didn't go very\nfar. When I was<\/span> in grad school at the\nUniversity of New Hampshire<\/a> oh so many years ago, Ram Kulkarni<\/a> and I used<\/span> to\nfly paper airplanes across the long multistory\ncentral atrium of Morse Hall<\/a>. We could<\/span> get all the way across without\neven dropping one floor. I guess<\/span> I should<\/span> have paid more attention to Ram's\ndesigns, rather than just copying them.<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I've mentioned that we made a short trip to Awaji Island at the end of last month. It's a short two-and-a-half hours by car south of Kyoto; after passing over the longest suspension bridge in the world and getting off at the exit near the rest-stop Ferris wheel, a few kilometers further along the coast and we arrived at The Westin Awaji Island hotel.<\/p>

Because Anthony's school gets off a few days earlier than most prior to the start of the Golden Week holidays, we were actually traveling opposite of peak time, so we had almost no traffic. Yet, despite [...]","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1,2],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1522"}],"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=1522"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1522\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1522"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1522"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1522"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}