Memories of Hokkaido

[two200]

Sure #85 #86 not macro of model? I like:bsmilie:

 

[giantcanopy]

Positively not toys!

It was just raining and raining in Hakodate.
An electric tram ride and a short walk in the light drizzle and we are at the foot of Mount Hakodate. To show how misty the mountain was, here was the other end of the cable of the cable car. Cannot really see where it is leading us to. A ride into oblivion. After a while we found that visibility within the cable car was affected too!

#87

 

[giantcanopy]

#88

More mist
Taken at the top of the cable car station. We were literally in the rain clouds
Poor visibility. Of course it was only about 5+ am when we reached and hope against hope that after having our sumptous dinner up there the fog will dissipate and we can get to see the view of Hakodate

 

[giantcanopy]

# 89

One of the sides of the viewing platform in the clouds. I did not manage to walk around due to the prevailing light drizzle. ( sigh )

 

[giantcanopy]

# 90

Some jap style seafood pizza that we had on the top restaurant at peak of Hakodate.
You can call for freshly prepared cheese sprinkles.

Ryan

 

[giantcanopy]

#91

Our way back to our Chcolat Hotel. ( We did not manage to see the famous night scape of Hakodate due to the very poor visibility )
Waiting for the tram on a chilly drizzling night

 

[giantcanopy]

#92

Woke up early the next morning to keep our luggage in the train station lockers ( very very expensive lockers ... ) before heading to the Hakodate Asahi Market to fill our tummies.

Saw some passengers sleeping on the benches within the station. Guess they are all waiting for the earliest train.

 

[giantcanopy]

#93

We got a map of the Hakodate Asahi Market ( in japanese ) from the hotel staff, and they recommended two stalls. The Asahi Market is actually just next to the Hakodate JR.

It was still a pretty cloudy morning that day after a rain over the night.

 

[giantcanopy]

#94

Fresh and frozen

 

[giantcanopy]

# 95

Wet market enclosure in Asahi Market Area.

 

[giantcanopy]

# 96

 

[ray_stinger]

I love this series! Nice use of the PC lens..cant wait to see your Osaka photos too.

 

[giantcanopy]

I love this series! Nice use of the PC lens..cant wait to see your Osaka photos too.

Thx ray_stinger for ur comments. Still on the learning curve !

For now. Enter Lake Toya 洞爺湖, a volcanic Lake 10 km in diameter in central Hokkaido, with a small Toyako Onsen Town at the western shores
It was still pretty cloudy when we reached Toya. For a while we thought we were in a run for rain. Everywhere still smell and look fresh from the G8 Summit.
( The democratic representatives were lodged in the popular Winsor hotel during the July period, which we still had no luck booking, we settled for Hotel Kohantei 湖畔亭 )

We took the public transport from the JR to the Toya Onsen station
and walked a short bit along the edge of the Lake to Kohantei

A shot from my room in Kohantei ( a 6 shot composite ) facing Toya

#97

 

[two200]

Like the composition of #97. :thumbsup::thumbsup: Are you using wide angle or mid tele for this, since you said you needed 6 shots composite and the room did not look too wide?

 

[giantcanopy]

Like the composition of #97. :thumbsup::thumbsup: Are you using wide angle or mid tele for this, since you said you needed 6 shots composite?

Thx for following. I used 24mm to take the various shots, with quite abit of overlap over the middle ( The resultant file is less than 40 MP so u can tell how much i overlapped. Basically to get abit of the bottom of the chairs and table, and included abit of the sides )

3 frames shifted on the top
and another 3 frames at the bottom layer.

Of course u can easily capture the same scene with a much wider angle lens too.
The places which has a special memory for us which I intend to make into a big photobook/ larger photo frames and I got a minute more to setup a tripod I will do the trouble to get a bigger file size.

Ryan

 

[konahead]

simply gorgeous shots, mate...am using your shots as inspirasi for my upcoming trip end october...:thumbsup: top-notch...

 

[giantcanopy]

simply gorgeous shots, mate...am using your shots as inspirasi for my upcoming trip end october...:thumbsup: top-notch...

hey thx for the comments. October thats pretty soon
Remember to book ur hotels early before hand. We had to plan ours more than 3 mths before hand
( could be busier because of summer hols )

Ryan

 

[giantcanopy]

Lots of seagulls. The ones here are not the white / grey ones we saw in Otaru. The Toya ones are abit more used to human presence. Usually they will come perching on our window balcony to rest and walk about. ( Most of the hotel rooms in the various hotels face the lake. You of course pay less to face the other side ) We got a pretty high floor in Kohantei to have a nice view of Toya.

Kohantei is one of the better hotels that we got good impression of. There are chinese speaking receptions that speaks fluent chinese and guided us alot on our travelling around Toya

Here is one of the several I took ( but I will just show a few )

# 98

 

[giantcanopy]

# 99

 

[giantcanopy]

#100

Lucky to have shot against a blue backdrop that morning
All the bird shots taken at different times over two days