Koyo – Japanese Autumn in Kyoto <13.11.2008>

After Cherry Blossom season in April, the Japanese Autumn with its breathtaking colorful leaf changes is the second highlight of the year for passionate photographers.
It was always my dream to visit Kyoto during this season as it is a very special place to celebrate the Koyo (“Red Leaves”).
So I made this dream come true and spend a weekend in Kyoto at its peak of the Koyo-season.

Here you can see why it is a real famous place to go during this time – picture tells more than 1000words:




Walk of Philosophy

Koyo @ Night

Arashiyama (West Kyoto)

Seeing Red

Over the Top of Japan – Tateyama <1.11.2008>

If you think about Japan you might imagine a huge island with endless cities, stuffed trains, crowds everywhere and everything dominated by the latest electrical gizmos… But do you know that there are more mountains in Japan than in Austria & Swiss?

One of the highest ones and easiest accessible is Tateyama in Kurobe located north of Tokyo:

The Tateyama Kurobe Alpine Route is a spectacular route through the Northern Japan Alps, which can be easily followed by using various means of transportation, including cablecars, trolley buses and a ropeway – if you in transportation stuff … that’s the place to go ;-)

Here you find the highlights of the trip

Kurobe Dam is with a height of 186 meters Japan's tallest dam

Tateyama Ropeway
Japan's longest one-span ropeway (1.7 kilometer long ropeway operates without any support towers between the lower and top stations)

Murodo offers fantastic views of the Tateyama Mountain Range

The Murodo Station complex includes Hotel Tateyama, Japan's highest located and great for the night views and spectacular sunsets.

Within a short walk over the snow plateau you can also reach Japans highest Onsen – don’t miss the homemade blueberry cake there ;-p)

Tateyama Snow Corridor
In case you would go there between April to May, the road from Bijodaira to Murodo runs between up to 20 meter high snow walls. The snow corridor is most spectacular around Murodo

Shomyodaki Falls
The highest waterfall in Japan, the Shomyodaki Falls collect water from the Tateyama mountains and erode the Midagahara plateau to form a V shape before cascading down 350 meters. The falls have four stages: the first 70 m, the second 58 m, the third 96 m and the last 126 m. The bottom of the waterfall is 60 m in diameter and 6 m in depth

The whole trip can be easily done within 3 days and doesn’t require any alpine experience or special equipment for mountaineering.
So it is a perfect escape for overworked city slickers as I am :-)

I love Japanese Signs

End of Dive Season 2008 – Hatsushima <25.10.2008>

It is already end of October, the temperatures start to drop below 20 deg. and the leafs start to change their color.
This is a clear sign to finish the diving for this season :'-(
And to make this a special event I had the chance to visit one of the Izu Islands Hatsushima – which is the closest to Tokyo and really easy to reach.

It just takes you 1.5 hours car ride and an other 30 min boat transfer before you reach the small but lovely island. There is not much to see and only few hundred people lives here but this is exactly what makes its charm.

The island is run by one dive station which offers several dive sites on two location of the island.

Beside the good diving spots – especially for Macro Divers – the island offers you a nice coast scene with dramatic rock coast lines.

This is a perfect finish of your weekend trip before you had home with the last ferry…

The finish of my 2nd season @ 160 dives

Saipan – Lost Paradise <9.10.2008>

First – I am sorry I haven’t updated my blog for a long time!
The reason you will see within the next trip reports – I was on the move over the past weekends ;-)

Since my time comes soon to an end here in Japan I want to see the places I only can visit easily from here in Japan.
One of those destinations was always Saipan – part of the Mariana Islands.
To give you an idea here you can find the map:

It is just a 4 hours flight – directly from Tokyo – so really easy to go there. The main attraction definitely is DIVING – I am sure you are now fully surprised ;-)
So please enjoy the next slides about the underwater world there, which includes famous dive spots like: The Grotto (Cave), Ice cream, Lau Lau beach, B52

Famous Grotto:

Impressive Fire Scallop were you can see the current flow!

War & Peace in harmony:

The little ones:

The Free Divers:

If you search for a dive shop in Saipan - I really can recommend you GODIVERS!

It is a great team - really supportive and customizable, very flexible, super friendly ... all in all the first choice!

Here you can find more details: http://godivers.net/

Special thanks at that point to our guides Eva & Sydney!!!

But there is not only the underwater world which is worth visiting this place, beside the beatufil nature - Saipan also has an interesting, but sad history. Mainly about the second World War were you can find many relicts left (Tanks, monition, etc…) or visit places like the Suicide or Banzai Cliff, to remember the thousands of people who committed suicide to escape the US army.

All in all a facet rich island with many things to do & see and real nice people welcoming you with open arms!
And the highlight – one Austrian called Markus … he is as famous as Arnold Schwarzenegger in US ;-)

From the Marijuana’s