I Stopped At...

2016/11/03     "The dullness around fails to hide its Full Glory ." Nishizawa Gorge is located in the very west of Yamanashi, close to the boundaries of Saitama and Nagano. Arakawa River flows through Chichibu mountains creating the Nishizawa Gorge. It is a hiking course of 4 hour walking along the river through muddy trails in the woods watching the river falling , flowing and gushing towards the city. Along the way we come across bridges and waterfalls. Too bad I could not capture any of the bridges but managed to capture the waterfalls which will be posted under a different post. .   It was November and the mid Autumn.  The water level was low and bearably cold. Here is Arakawa river flowing down the rocky steps through the stones. We walk up the river trail while the river flows in the opposite direction. The trails are narrow, and muddy at some parts. Some parts are safe guarded by metal chains and some parts are not. A little missed ste...

2008/03/08 I visited this place in my first long trip in Japan. It was a memorial trip with all the Japanese learnign students of our university took part in. This temple below is called Kinkakuji with the meaning golden pagoda. The origin of the name is, as you can see, the golden plated temples. This is a very famous tourist spot in Kyoto. This site is photographed for its beauty and a famous landscape picture in calendars and so on. We, the students, were sitting for the Japanese Language Proficiency Test level 2 in the end of the year. So our Japnese teacher wanted us to write  a pledge for the God of academy. Below are the wooden plates with our names written on it . Well, as a result of this and good hard work of ours, as far as I remember we all passed the level 2 in the year 2008!!! All Rights Reserved.

2008/8/7 Hiroshima is famous for its own okonomiyaki. O-konomiyaki written お好み焼き in Japanese is a dish made of flour coated with sauce and mayonnaise. o-konaomiyaki can be translated in to [fry as you please]. I  am not sure what makes a normal o-konomiyaki being different from Hiroshima o-konomiyaki, except for all the vast amount of veggies and ham added to it.  I captured Hiroshima o-kinnomiyaki being made at the Hiroshima station. All Rights Reserved.

2013/12/28 It had been one and half years since I was in Sri Lanka last. Hambanthota a remote city situated near 200Km away from Colombo had gone through so many development phases in the past several years. My parents took me across Hambanthota to the sacred shrine of Katharagama letting me witness the "Change for Good". Well, all through out the journey I noticed only the beautiful greenery and rich nature still intact of the raging development process. Following are some scenarios I managed to capture on the way to Katharagama. It was  a cloudy solid day. The following were taken on the way back. The sky was till cloudy but held it that way all the way till we go home. All these beautiful giants in water can be seen from the main road(Thissa- Katharagama Road) as the road runs over the Thissa Reservoir bunt. This reservoir is believed to be built by King yatalathissa around second century BC. This was resotred later by the British who col...

2016/11/03 Nishizawa Gorge is a hiking course with several beautiful waterfalls created when Arakawa River flow towards the city. This post is about the several waterfall we came across. while hiking the trails along the river. all of them were captured through my phone and I apologize for the low quality. Here is a link(Japanese) to the hiking course and it indicates all the waterfalls along the trail. And below are how they actually looked like on November 3rd 2016. Link: http://www.yamanashishi-kankou.com/sozai/asobu/nature/nishizawa002.pdf ★Ookubo-no-taki 大久保の滝 (Ookuboo Waterfall) ★Sanjuu-no-taki 三重の滝（Sanju Waterfall） From Below ★Sanjuu-no-taki 三重の滝（Sanju Waterfall）  From Top ★SakanaDome-no-Taki 魚止滝　（SakanaDome Waterfall） ★　Jinmendou 人面洞 （Jinmendou） ★　Riyugami-no-taki 竜神の滝（Riyugami　Waterfall） ★Botaifuchi  母胎淵 (Botaifuchi) ★ Nanatsugama-godan-no-taki   七ツ釜五段の滝 ( Nanatsugama-godan-Waterfa...

2014/05/01 So I made a trip to exotic Bali. I will be disclosing each and every where I visited with my companion and may I start with Barong Kris dances. Barong dances are a traditional dance in Bali which is performed to symbolize the fight between evil and good spirits. The dancers use their whole body to express the meaning with Balinese traditional music is played in the background. They also use verses in Balinese while they perform. Barong is the king of good spirits. It is symbolized as a lion for the strength and braveness. Below is the king of evil spirits, Ranghda.  Barong dances mainly portrait the fights between Barong and Ranghda. The following characters come up in the dances while the story flows. Below is a servant of a goddess who is beautifully cladded in flowers and showing  graceful movements with eyes and fingers. Below is a minister who gets caught in a spell by Ranghda and loses his servants. The minister is saved by the ...

Borobudur Temple which is the largest temple in the world boasts of some beautiful stone carvings with Indian Gupta influence. Following wikipedia article is very educational when it comes to Borobudur Historic Value. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Borobudur There are 504 Buddha statues all together in this site. Some Buddha statues are situated inside the stupas as the one below. Some are placed inside stone wall s without head cover. We are not sure whether those statues used to have a roof or something overhead. Then when we walk along the corridors we come across some Buddha statues leaned to the outside walls gazing serenely towards the world below. There are also beautiful stone carvings where several stones are fixed to create one mural. Very detailed carvings, I should say. As you may see the stones are a little yellowish as the Dutch archaeologists who found this at first tried to use sulfur to save the murals. Other than the Buddha statue...

We waited since 4.30 and waiting for the sun to appear behind from Mount Merapi. The first sun rays were beautiful, when the sun was no where to be seen but still its rays tinting the everything around in a beautiful red color. Mist made it appear cooler and Mount Merapi far behind with clouds  or fumes at its top. Perfect morning! Red tint gradually vanishes and through the mist Borobudur temple comes in to a better view. The stupas, Buddha statues and we gradually became aware of the sorrounding more. Then Mount Merapi starts to glow. So here the moment had come. I changed my camera mode to catch a better glimpse of the sun which was about to peak from the behind of Mount Merapi. The stupas giving the perfect shot with its gracious lineup. The sun emerged from behind Mount Merapi gloriously as it could be. Such a picturusque moment. I lay my camera down to enjoy the moment. Loved it!! I  am not a photographer but I think I got the ...

2014/05/02 We made it to the world famous beach Nusa Dua.  Nusa Dua is luxury beach resort area where all the beaches are clean and golden  and owned by luxury hotel complexes. We went to the free beach area where there were no people in sight, only the vast blue sea and the golden stretch of beach. The most important  fact is that the beaches are fairly clean. The following is the entrance to the beach. It was covered with temple trees. Well, The Indian Ocean is stretched in front of the eyes with richest golf courses in the area carving in. The sea has the rare color of blue which reminds me of the  sweet Southern sea of Sri Lanka.  Thank you Ayanthi my dearest travelling companion and the panorama guides. All Rights Reserved.