Have you climbed up stairs that are more than a century old ?
We had come to Jigokudani to photograph the snow monkeys and were at the rustic ryokan that had led to this place being such an attraction. The house was first built in 1864 and has survived through more than its share of natural disasters and accidents. Next to the washbasin ( of all places ) a poster was stuck that proudly talked about the different world events that took place in the years that were important for the ryokan. For example, there was severe flooding which destroyed the house, the year the Titanic sank.
It is a quaint place, with a rather odd design that might suggest that additions were added to the original building as the needs changed. Narrow and steep staircases of varying heights pop up at different places and the main one that leads you from the rather crowded room you step into, to the first floor, proudly announces that they were built in 1912.
The ryoken close to the onsen where the macaques occupy
The story goes that many decades ago, in the peak of winter, a young descendant was sitting outside the house desultorily chewing an apple. Whether he got bored of the apple or got tired of the persistent cold, we shall never know, but he did throw the half eaten apple away tiredly and it landed in the onsen. A macaque noticed it and the usual hunger that exists in the brutal winter led it to venture into the onsen to pick up the apple and secure itself a meal.
And, that is how the macaques discovered that the onsen, with water bubbling from a natural hot spring could be a wonderful place to escape from the terrible cold. Word spread in the monkey community and soon, large numbers of macaques descended onto the hot springs.
In a rare and welcome case of humans taking a step back, the onsen was vacated for the animals and today tourists from across the world trudge up the longish path to take a look at these monkeys sitting solemnly in the hot springs as if in deep meditation with steam swirling around it.
The onsen with the monkeys enjoying the hot waters
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Is that a fox ??? Yay !!!
A much desired pic that we all wanted to take was that of a minimalist image of a red fox running across a vast field thickly carpeted with snow. We were walking down a deserted road when we saw a fox bolt across the road to the fields to our right.
This field wasn’t exactly ideal. It had a fence that ran across its breadth halfway from the road and there were places that brown earth or unkempt bushes broke through the white carpet. But, beyond the fence, there was a wonderful stretch of undulating land covered in snow.
Will the fox cross that patch and give us our dream image ?
There was only one way to be sure. By following it.
We stepped off the road and hurried after it down a track that lay parallel to the field. The fox kept darting in and out of our vision, through bushes and a row of trees but never into the open field. Suddenly, it took a turn towards the path we were on, came onto it and stopped as if seeing us for the first time. With nary a care in the world, it approached us as all of us immediately fell to the ground to get an eye level shot.
A red fox coming straight at us, walking down a white path. What could go wrong ?
Well, all of us had the wrong lens at the time. We had gone to see an owl and had taken our longest lens and the fox was too close for that. I could have used my lens since I was a little behind but the others were smack in the middle of my view.
DD, who was right at the back, alone got a dreamy image of the fox staring at us in a bemused manner, wondering why on earth these humans had all fallen in a heap on the snow as soon as it came on their path.
*****
Camera hoods and I have a bad history.
I think, these hoods gather together and form evil cabals planning how they can trip me up. I can so easily visualize them evilly chuckling as a plan takes shape.
In one trip, the hood stayed back home and didn’t accompany me. In another, it decided to get stuck and refused to loosen its tight embrace of the lens.
This time, it went to the other extreme. It refused to get connected with the lens.
Terrible.
But, do you think these miserable hoods can trip me up ? No chance...nott when, we have the infamous jugaad.
My shoddy workmanship at display in the image below.
It doesnt look very flattering to carry around for a photographer, but it worked :)
*****
“ I have got bad news for you.”
We were at Rausu, to photograph the Stellar eagles and the white tailed eagles. The plan was to take a boat and go out into the sea. Usually, there would be pack ice and fish is thrown onto the pack ice and hordes of these majestic eagles swoop down to pick them up. They proceed to sit on the ice devouring the fish and it all adds upto a rather pretty picture.
There was no ice waiting for us, this day.
The previous day had seen strong winds blowing in the wrong direction and the pack ice was pushed out much further into the international waters where the boats won’t go. ( Konashir islands that Russia took over from Japan after WW II, can be seen from Rausu…you get the idea )
So. No ice. The boats still hurled the fish into the waters and the eagles and the gulls weren’t the type to be too picky about the surface on which free food is available, but it’s a lot tougher to photograph them.
Such is life.
On the following day, however, we saw pack ice. The winds had helpfully pushed them back.
Such is life.
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The weather was kind.
Which, in a way, is a terrible thing.
Hokkaido was expected to be much colder. Those in the group had come here a few years back swear that it was significantly colder then. The lowest temperature that we experienced was around -17 deg. The average would have been in the high single digits below zero.
Layering helped. Which is, I realize after typing it, a rather obvious statement to make. The new inner layers that I had bought proved to be a wise choice. The boots held up as they were expected to. The big problem was the gloves. All of us had the same brand and the same type, and they are amongst the best in the world, and our hands still would get numb from the cold. The hand warmers, the heated warmers…nothing really worked.
Need to figure out what else would work. There are more trips to colder places in the next few years and this is a problem area for sure.
Good stuff but the fingers still took a beating...any suggestions ?
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Phototrips are always rather exhausting.
This one was even more so.
We were here in the peak season and almost at every location, we could never get hotels for two successive nights. We had to check in and check out almost daily, which for someone like me is a terror filled exercise considering my skill at leaving things behind.
On top of it, we had a decent workout daily. Our daily mileage averaged around 5km daily, in heavily layered bodies and carrying a heavy camera bag. And, as if that was not enough, we would frequently kneel down, lie flat on the ground all for the right angle to get THAT photo !
We photographers are a crazy bunch.
Sigh.
*****
Onsens are a boon.
Days were exhausting. Both mentally and physically.
And to soak in the hot waters of an onsen at the end of a long day was such a tremendously soothing experience and one which guaranteed a wonderful night’s sleep.
It took a couple of us a few days to muster up enough confidence to shed our inhibitions and understand the Japanese etiquette that one needs to follow in an onsen. After the first time, however, two of us were properly hooked. The Japanese really love them, by the way. There was a public onsen facing Lake Kussharo and at 7 am one bitterly cold morning I saw a young man hurry into the onsen. Imagine getting out of your house first thing in the morning, braving the cold, all for a few minutes in an onsen !!
The one onsen I missed out on seemed to have been the best. It was an outdoor onsen and to be in one with the stars twinkling above, would have been such an experience.
Next time.
For sure.
*****
I think the world needs to stop obsessing over what Trump is doing and focus on figuring out how they could emulate the toilet tech that Japan has. Like, right now. Immediately.
I can’t describe the relief when your bare butt doesn’t have to touch a ice cold toilet seat in these cold climes but instead lands on a soothing, warm one. Plus the array of mesmerizing buttons on the console nearby which will help you choose on the temperature of the water spray, the strength, the direction…phew. Bliss.
At the same time, technology can only take us till a particular point. The rest is upto the people and here the Japanese obviously score at a different level altogether. At even the smallest of towns or the smallest of convenience stores, the washrooms were spotless.
*****
Food wasn’t such a problem. And for that, I think, I should thank Chris, our guide. He took extra care to ensure that each place was clearly told about the fact that there were a couple of vegetarians in the group and what exactly we will eat and what we won’t.
Despite all that, at the Singapore airport, I made a beeline to the Kaveri restaurant and I can’t remember when I last enjoyed a masala dosa more !
A sigh of contentment...that grossly yellow looking stuff is a mango lassi :)
*****
Japan has an ageing problem.
While talking to another Brit who has made Japan his home, we were told about an amazing and disconcerting bit of statistic. For the last many years, Japan’s population has been declining by almost a million each year. Wow.
We were staying at a really quaint place run by an adorable elderly couple. They had started the place around three decades ago and the common refrain we kept hearing was that it was becoming difficult for them to continue to run the establishment.
That obviously is only to be expected with advancing age, but what really took us by surprise was when we were told that they might not get anyone to buy their place. There aren’t interested buyers as it was difficult to get help. Hokkaido has a lot of tourists. As I had mentioned, we were unable to get two successive nights in any hotel and despite this demand, it was staggering to hear that it was difficult to get a buyer for such a beautiful place.
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Hokkaido was a little different from what I was expecting.
I had thought of it as this remote place with little outposts of communities living here braving the elements.
In a sense, it is definitely remote. And, they do have to brave the elements. But each of the places that we went to were fairly large towns and seemed to be thriving. Convenience stores were never in shortage and were astoundingly well stocked. I certainly was not expecting towns of this size and convenience.
However, we do try to pack a lot in each trip and we zip in and out of places, intent on photography and maximising our RoI. We rarely pause to understand the local culture and the ways of life.
I wonder how it would be to plan just two places across the two weeks we were here for. Slow. Unhurried.
How would it impact our photography ? Should help, I guess. To know that we have another day and a few days after that to think of what sort of image might really work and to work on getting it right, should be very calming.
Next time.
Maybe.
For now, I want to soak in the memories of an utterly fascinating trip.
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