daisetsu-san from Furano. Furano is the setting for a famous japanese tv series "Kita no Kuni kara" ~ From a Northern Country. the drama started its first episode on October 9, 1981 and has a total of 24 episodes. but actually it's a thousand times longer than u can imagine watching "churasan". the series added add-on individual epsidoes in '83, '84, '87, '89 and, for every 3 years afterwards, two in '92, two in '95, two in '98, and two in '02. it's an epic about a family's blood, sweat and tears in Furano, Hokkaido. Hokkaido is also the setting for whole lots of other movies and tv series for example "Tetsu-dou in" ~ The Railway Worker...
Biei and its pastoral landscape
the twin trees... as its usual appearance in tobacco ads
a lil butterfly on... not lavender... but some autumn flower dat i don't kno the name of...
Farm Tomita's autumn field... daisetsusan in the background
farm tomita in Furano
the rainbow field in august... not as colorful as in mid-july
autumn field and wut they named the
"perfume house"
flowers...
in the middle of a sea of flowers... u should have seen the HK movie "Lavender" starring Jing Chang Wu and Kelley Chen (Chan Hui Ling)... but anywayz, the purplish Lavender ICE CREAM is the BEST thing u can find there, just 300 yen = less than US$3.00 and u can have best flavored ice-cream in the world!
Mr. Ramen with his energetic, concentrated, professional look!
house cha-shu ramen shoyu style
another forum? dang japanese has forum everyday everywhere, even in the middle of the peaceful northern country of Hokkaido... "to clarify japan's postwar responsibilities"...?! okay~ donno if anybody was listening but anywayz~ i'll support them for dat at least they're better than those imperialists in Yasukuni Shrine and they feel that they're somehow responsible for their country's acts in WWII.
a very bright field
not so bright... but a warmer spectrum, can't believe i took so many pics of flower... but anyway if u got the chance u must visit this place
flowers all over the place...
out in the middle of nowhere we went into this Obon festival. at first we were supposed to find the WORLD'S ONLY official Anpanman Shop - the bus doesnt even reach there, it's like a real rural place so we had to bike. anywayz we biked there, exhausted, rite before the store closed so we were like "yehhh". after dat we returned to this small rural village where the bus stop was located, found out the bus won't arrive until around 8pm so we went into this WORLD'S MOST DELICATE coffee shop. remember this is some rural village in the mountains in the middle of Hokkaido where everybody knows each other. i doubt even the existence of the coffee shop is necessary. few tourists would go there in summer and NOBODY would go in winter. seriously donno how she (the only person in the shop dat did everything, VERY personal service, u feel like ur at her home) maintained her business. anywayz she got like a hundred different sets of beautiful plates, knives and forks; fresh flowers and unique music boxes on each tabletop... other than there was another table of japanese family there (a mom, an aunt, 2 children) ordering curry rice for dinner so Ms. CoffeeshopOwner was cooking the curry on the bar (sorta like an open kitchen type) as we heard taiko drums rolling outside~ we came out and it was already like this! everybody was singing, dancing, setting up the food and stuffs around this tower thing... it was hella good. i was busy taking pictures thinking "this trip is not wasted"...
4 lil girls all dressed up in different color yukata in traditional Obon dance
yaki-tori!!! this is smokin rite here! we bought a dozen and finished them off on the last bus back to Furano station... this guy on the left ate like a pig... reminds me of the parents in Sen to Chihiro no Kamikakushi (Eng trans: Spirited Away)
little obon dancer in motion
i like this pic soo much, so dynamic... digital camera has this special advantage of long exposure in the dark... im not saying u can't do this on a SLR but normally u won't cuz u don't wanna waste film. with a DC u don't have to worry anything about dat u just press the shutter and shoot as long as u like without any tripod support or proper lighting or anything.