For Monochrome Madness this week, Sarah from Travel with Me, has challenged us to find leading lines in our photos.
“Leading lines are a compositional technique that uses lines in a photograph to guide the viewer’s eye towards the subject. They can be natural or man-made, and can be straight, curved, horizontal, vertical, or diagonal. Leading lines can create a sense of movement and depth, and can be used to direct the viewer’s focus, create balance, and tell a story“.
I’ve thoroughly scoured my archives to see if I had anything along these lines (excuse the pun!).
I wouldn’t have necessarily taken a photo because of the lines, these just become apparent after viewing. I will now try and implement this technique.
It’s something I’ve come to appreciate on these challenges, I find out more and more about different ways of taking photos.
Climbing the Sydney Harbour Bridge is a popular tourist attraction. For the more adventurous and not something I’ve ever felt inclined to do! I prefer looking up at the ant like characters at the top.
Sydney Harbour Bridge
Hong Kong Skyscrapers
Stairs leading up to a temple in Luang Prabang
Looking over to Mount Sakurajima, Japan
Quiet street in Luang Prabang, mostly bikes. Such a peaceful road.
Some cities from around the world for Debbie’s OWS – Urban.
Hanoi, Vietnam
Da Nang, Vietnam
Macau, SAR
Hong Kong, SAR
Ribadasella, Spain
Kagoshima, Japan
These are all cities we have visited over the last few years or so. It’s nice to spend a few days in a city but that’s about it for me. I much prefer a beach holiday, relaxing under an umbrella, a swim in the sea and watching the sunset. Da Nang in Vietnam is perfect for both which suits hubby and me down to the ground! He loves a good shop and browse and to tramp along streets unknown, letting his feet take him wherever! We rendezvous later after his explorations are over and to see if he’s found anything interesting worth visiting.
Yufu and Yoshinocho are both located in the Kyushu Islands of Japan. Situated in the Southwest of Japan.
Yufu
These are some of the photos I took on our trip to Japan a few years back. We visited Yufuin Onsen Village one afternoon, famous not only for its hot springs and holy shrine, but also art galleries and museums.
Chagall Museum
One of the many decorative restaurants in Yufuin
Norwegian Wood Cafe
Tenso Shrine
Toyonokuni Lodge, Kinrin Lake
We had a fabulous afternoon here, a bit touristy, but a glimpse into village life.
Yoshinocho
On the same trip we spent a morning at Sengan-En Gardens, located in the Yoshinocho district, Kagoshima. Sengan-en is a traditional garden and stately home built by the 19th head of the Shimadzu family, Mitsuhisa, in 1658. We couldn’t visit the house as it was being used for filming. There are some lovely gift shops here selling local artwork and sweets. This is also where the famous Satsuma Kiriko glassware is sold, unique to Sengan-en and made at the glassworks next door.
The traditional red door, only affordable to the very rich
Water fuelled rice grinding machine
Water images from around the gardens
Stone staircase used in many films
Mr D pitting his strength!
Tree being kept upright
Handsome Hubby ❤️
We had a wonderful morning here in these beautifully maintained gardens. It would be fun to watch scenes being filmed.
Nagasaki was part of our 9 day road trip through the Kyushu Islands a few years ago and we spent two very busy days and nights here. There were four of us on the road trip, me, hubby and our two good friends Cheryl and Vaughan. Vaughan and hubby did all of the driving.
We stayed at a hotel called Hotel Monterey, a great location and decorated in a Spanish Villa style.
Our first night was spent at Dejima Wharf, I’d read that it was quite lively and had a few restaurants. Maybe it had just opened or not been open for long but there didn’t seem to be that many places to choose from. We opted for a seafood restaurant where we sat outside and could cook our own seafood. I have to say it wasn’t such a great dinner as half the things we were served I couldn’t identify and the small bbq didn’t seem adequate to cook anything properly.
Cheers!
After dinner we found a bar upstairs called St. Andrews Jigger Inn, playing live music and everyone singing along, we even got up to have a dance!
The next morning with heavy heads we had a cooked breakfast at the Hotel Monterey and headed out to explore.
Former Hong Kong & Shanghai Bank
Nagasaki has a very international feel to it, with many Dutch, Portuguese and English buildings still standing. We headed first up to Hollander Slope, so called because many Dutch people lived here from around 1600.
Old Dejima Seminary
From here we took a tram to another historical building, Glover House and Gardens.
Glover House
Glover House was built by Thomas Blake Glover, a Scottish merchant who arrived in Japan from Shanghai in 1859. He set up his own trading company, Glover and Co. Glover House is a western style building with imported furniture from Scotland and England. The carpenter is purportedly Koyama Hide who built the Basilica of the Twenty-Six Holy Martyrs. Source: Visit Nagasaki
From the balcony of Glover House
Koi Pond
Nagasaki is a big cruise ship port as you can see from above photo.
There is some Japanese influence in the rooms, but mostly it is of the old heavy wooden style favoured during the 1800s in England.
In this bottom right photo my hubby is with the Japanese gardener, and while I popped to the ladies he struck up a conversation with her. He speaks fairly fluent Japanese and she was so taken aback by him that she dropped everything and bombarded him with questions about his life, they found out that they were exactly the same age, even with the same month, now that’s a coincidence!
With the morning over and our visit to Glover House done, hubby said it was his turn now and he wanted first to go to the Sakamoto International Cemetery and then lastly the Peace Park and A Bomb Museum.
Sakamoto International Cemetery
Trying to find our way to the Cemetery was a bit of a nightmare, but we eventually found it tucked away at the back of some houses.
I wish I had taken more photos of the cemetery but felt a bit morbid doing this. Cemeteries in other countries with foreigners are so interesting. It makes you realise how determined people were hundreds of years ago and how easy we have it today. It would have taken them weeks or months to arrive at their destination and we complain about an hour delay to our plane!
Nagasaki Peace Park
It feels appropriate to be writing this post now as is the 75th anniversary of the Atomic Bomb on 9 August. It was the second bomb to be dropped by the United States after Japan still refused to surrender after Hiroshima. The exact number of people killed will never be known as all records were destroyed and many bodies were totally obliterated.
To walk around the museum is very sobering to see the destruction and devastation that was caused that day. Of course there is no mention of Japan’s part in WWII.
After experiencing that nightmarish war, that blood-curdling carnage, that unendurable horror, Who could walk away without praying for peace? This statue was created as a signpost in the struggle for global harmony. Standing ten meters tall, it conveys the profundity of knowledge and the beauty of health and virility. The right hand points to the atomic bomb, the left hand points to peace, and the face prays deeply for the victims of war. Transcending the barriers of race and evoking the qualities of Buddha and God, it is a symbol of the greatest determination ever known in the history of Nagasaki and the highest hope of all mankind.— Seibo Kitamura (Spring 1995)
Nagasaki to Kagoshima 6 June 2017 By now I think our two drivers were getting the hang of the roads and tolls! It was especially useful to be able to input a telephone number into the satnav instead of the actual address – very helpful considering how all the Japanese places were spelt. Because if…
Fukuoka is the first place we stopped at during our road trip through the Kyushu Islands. It is a city of canals, waterways and bridges. It said to be the oldest city in Japan. We were staying at the Hotel Okura which is located overlooking the Hakata River. As we were only here for two nights we didn’t have much time to see this city so had to decide where we wanted to see most.
Walking over one of the canals on our first night.
In the lobby of the Hotel Okura
Fukuoka Castle Ruins
I really wanted to see one of the castles here but was a bit disappointed that it was only ruins! But we had a good walk around and there were some great views over the city from the top. Built at the beginning of the 17th Century and torn down in the 19th Century, because it was viewed as an unwanted symbol of the feudal past.
Fukuoka at dusk
One of the shopping centres we walked through
Fukuoka is also home to the famous Canal City which is called a city within a city, and has a canal running through it. Unfortunately we didn’t have time for a wander around as we chose to go to Nokonoshima Island instead.
For our last night we stopped at a British Pub called Morris Hippo! strange name and enjoyed a few drinks here before dinner at Cafe Otto overlooking the canal.
Our handsome drivers!
Other places to visit in Fukuoka:
Fukuoka Tower
Ohori Park
Tochoji Temple
Kushida Temple
Hopefully we’ll visit again as I enjoyed Fukuoka very much
