Midtown Illumination

As usually a month before Christmas Japan covers by illumination, even if it's not really a holiday.
Midtown tower park was not an exception.


Whole field was covered by thousands of animated LEDs.

Shinrinkoen and kudamonogari

Went for kudamonogari (fruits harvest) with my colleagues. That was somewhere in Saitama near Shinrinkoen station on Tobu tojo line. Walked through gardens and farms a while. There is nothing to explain, so I put photos as slideshow.

We came at 12pm and finished at 2pm. One apple was around 100yen. Then together with bags with apples we went to Shinrin park, which was about twice further than apple garden.

Kamioka

This trip happened more than 2 years ago. Ralphmirebs called me and proposed to visit small abandoned miners town somewhere near Toyama, or, more precisely, Kamioka district of Hida city, but Kamioka looks like it's own town.
We went by night bus to Toyama first, but we had no much time there and I could not find anything interesting near the station for photo. We spent around an hour waiting for the first morning train to the south. At 8:30am we got to train station in Inotani village, the station and the village were about the same size.

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Fuji 6

I have almost my own tradition, every year climb mt. Fuji. This time it was the 6th. I don't do it alone, as Fuji itself is actually boring, so I found one guy on Internet. This time I decided to use simplest route from Subaru line gogome (go-gome is 5th station)
But I could not do it as planned, it became too crowded, probably because of UNESCO. Usually I could easily buy ticket for bus going directly to Subaru line gogome just 1 hour before departing, but this time next available bus was after 4 hours, also we were warned about traffic problems. So we just took train, it's actually more expensive and slower than bus.
But happened something very unusual for Japan, trains on the line we needed delayed for more than 40 min.
Somehow we got to Kawaguchiko line, our last transfer. The car was full of children paintings of mt. Fuji.

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Fireworks in Chofu

Fireworks happened in august Chofu city in Tokyo.


There is also video of most beautiful part, video is long but that part is only in the beginning.

Oedo onsen monogatari

After moving to my current apartment I have no onsen as well as kyudo. Closest good onsen I found is on Odaiba - Oedo onsen monogatari.

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Tobu World Square

After the lake I went to the north of Nikko city, to Tobu World Square park.
I was sitting in super express and waiting for tickets check, to pay additional 500 yen for "super". But train got to the last station and no one came. I asked about bus to the park and found it's just arriving, so I went to the bus stop in hurry. It was 4pm when I got to the ticket counter, still 2 hours left before closing but the park was empty, I found only 3 people inside.

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Nikko

Weekend was close, but no idea how to spend it. After some thinking and checking map decided I'v never been in Nikko. Actually I was in Nikko, but just passed it on the way to Sendai by bicycle.
Woke up really early, exactly as Google advised got to Kitasenju station... and stuck. When I got to the platform just a minute before Nikko train should depart I did not find the train, after couple of seconds I found some short train in the end of the platform, but it's front plate had some other name than Nikko. Minute passed, that train departed and only when it was passing I noticed back half of the train had plate with Nikko. It was one of that trains which separates in some point and goes to different directions.
I had to wait another 40 minutes for the next train. Finally I got to my train and got time to sleep a bit.
I woke up because it was too quiet for too long time, it was exactly that point where the train should separate. While it was doing it I noticed old man running from car to car selling obento (I will see him later again). It was my first time seeing someone not related to railroad company selling food in a train. Few stations later I got to Nikko station, here is it.

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National park Oze marshes

Park is situated near the intersection of 4 prefectures Tochigi, Niigata, Gunma and Fukushima. Idea to go there was not mine, Tokyo gajins club guys were planning to go. Because of mountains and current season colorful leafs were expected, and because of low accessibility and some required fitness it should be not so crowded. Weather forecast was saying about some clouds but low rain probability. Trip was on Saturday of 3 days holiday and that was the cause of tortoise speed on highway. Somehow we left Tokyo and Saitama but lost 1 hour from the schedule. In the end road turned to mountain serpentine. While below mountains the nature did not look specially colorful near the top it noticeably changed. But together with that the weather changed to very cloudy like one huge cloud covered the top. Whole walking way was on wooden roads, and that was not just for fun.

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Ramen

Ramen near working place Yandex.Fotki album (russian)