{"id":694,"date":"2008-01-17T22:51:26","date_gmt":"2008-01-17T13:51:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/2008-01-17\/694"},"modified":"2008-01-17T22:51:26","modified_gmt":"2008-01-17T13:51:26","slug":"snugglies-for-trees-and-more","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/2008-01-17\/694","title":{"rendered":"Snugglies for Trees, and More"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n
<\/a>\nNikon D200 + Nikkor 17-55 f\/2.8 @ 38mm — 1<\/sup>\/<\/big>125 sec, f\/5.6, ISO 400 —\nmap & image data<\/a> — nearby photos<\/a><\/span><\/span>\nTree Snuggies<\/span>\n<\/div>\n\n

Today we had a few flakes of snow, which is all the main part of Kyoto\nnormally gets. The outlying<\/span> areas, especially up in the mountains, can get\nheavy amounts – one of Anthony's school friends couldn't make it to\nschool today because of the snow in the mountains. A couple<\/span> of years ago,\nwe did get several inches\nof accumulation<\/a>, which made the Heian Shrine<\/a> quite pretty.<\/p>\n\n

One sure sign of winter in Japan are the snuggies that you see appear on\ntrees in the late fall. These komomaki<\/i> straw mats – wrapped\naround the trunks of pines and cedars – are meant to provide the\nlarvae of pine caterpillars an attractive place to nest for the winter. The point<\/span> is not to provide cushy accommodation for the young bugs, but to kill\nthem: in the spring, the mats are removed and incinerated, relieving the\ntree of a major<\/span> pest.<\/p>\n\n

Update: perhaps not that effective... see this Japan Times article<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n

<\/a>\nNikon D200 + Nikkor 17-55 f\/2.8 @ 40mm — 1<\/sup>\/<\/big>80 sec, f\/5, ISO 250 —\nmap & image data<\/a> — nearby photos<\/a><\/span><\/span>\n<\/div>\n\n
<\/a>\nNikon D200 + Nikkor 70-200mm f\/2.8 @ 135mm — 1<\/sup>\/<\/big>750 sec, f\/5.6, ISO 200 —\nmap & image data<\/a> — nearby photos<\/a><\/span><\/span>\n<\/div>\n\n

If you've never seen them before, they seem really, really odd. (Actually, they seem pretty odd even if you have seen them before.)<\/p>\n\n

I took these pictures in late November, the sunnier ones on the same\nouting as those in my Making the Best of Bright\nLight in Fall-Color Photography<\/a> post.<\/p>\n\n\n

<\/a>\nNikon D200 + Nikkor 18-200mm f\/3.5-5.6 VR @ 105mm — 1<\/sup>\/<\/big>90 sec, f\/5.3, ISO 400 —\nmap & image data<\/a> — nearby photos<\/a><\/span><\/span>\n<\/div>\n\n
<\/a>\nNikon D200 + Nikkor 70-200mm f\/2.8 @ 200mm — 1<\/sup>\/<\/big>2000 sec, f\/3.2, ISO 200 —\nmap & image data<\/a> — nearby photos<\/a><\/span><\/span>\n<\/div>\n\n

Straw mats can also be used for more serious, all-encompassing protection:<\/p>\n\n

<\/a>\n7.7-23.1mm @ 23mm — 1<\/sup>\/<\/big>60 sec, f\/4.9 —\nfull exif<\/a><\/span>\nThere's Likely a Plant<\/span> Under All This<\/span>\n<\/div>\n\n

That's a closeup of the freaky “cat in the hat”\ndisplay<\/a> I ran<\/span> into at the Kyoto Botanical Gardens a year<\/span> ago.<\/p>\n\n

On a wholly<\/span> unrelated note that somehow seems to\nbe related (huh?<\/i>), here are some trees being protected from the\nwinter wind by huge walls of twig bundles.<\/p>\n\n

<\/a>\nNikon D200 + Nikkor 17-55 f\/2.8 @ 38mm — 1<\/sup>\/<\/big>320 sec, f\/4.5, ISO 320 —\nmap & image data<\/a> — nearby photos<\/a><\/span><\/span>\nStanding Against The Wind<\/span>\n<\/div>\n\n

The trees perhaps look like little bonsai, but they're more than twice\nmy height. I took these<\/span> pictures just after sunrise in Takamatsu<\/a>, Japan, last month.<\/p>\n\n

<\/a>\nNikon D200 + Nikkor 17-55 f\/2.8 @ 17mm — 1<\/sup>\/<\/big>160 sec, f\/2.8, ISO 320 —\nmap & image data<\/a> — nearby photos<\/a><\/span><\/span>\nThere's a Tree<\/span> Behind There, Somewhere<\/span>\n<\/div>\n\n
<\/a>\nNikon D200 + Nikkor 17-55 f\/2.8 @ 18mm — 1<\/sup>\/<\/big>200 sec, f\/2.8, ISO 320 —\nmap & image data<\/a> — nearby photos<\/a><\/span><\/span>\n<\/div>\n\n
<\/a>\nNikon D200 + Nikkor 17-55 f\/2.8 @ 17mm — 1<\/sup>\/<\/big>350 sec, f\/4.5, ISO 320 —\nmap & image data<\/a> — nearby photos<\/a><\/span><\/span>\n<\/div>\n\n

In areas of heavy snow requiring more extreme measures, yukitsuri<\/i>\nis used, which is best described as tree\nbondage<\/a>. (That link is to a Japan<\/span> Times article by Alice Gordenker. It's one of<\/span> her well-researched and entertaining What the heck is\nthat?<\/a><\/i> columns that I look<\/span> forward to each month.)<\/p>\n\n

Back to our thatched wall, I'm not sure<\/span> what exactly it's made of, but\nI've seen the same techniques used in walls at various shrines and temples\n(such as Kyoto's Hougon'in<\/a> and Giouji<\/a> Temples), and as a decorative<\/span> veneer<\/a> of\nan outside wall of a private<\/span> residence.<\/p>\n\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Today we had a few flakes of snow, which is all the main part of Kyoto normally gets. The outlying areas, especially up in the mountains, can get heavy amounts – one of Anthony's school friends couldn't make it to school today because of the snow in the mountains. A couple of years ago, we did get several inches of accumulation, which made the Heian Shrine quite pretty.<\/p>

One sure sign of winter in Japan are the snuggies that you see appear on trees in the late fall. These komomaki straw mats – wrapped around the trunks of pines and [...]","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\/694"}],"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=694"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/694\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=694"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=694"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=694"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}