Hokuriku Landscapes

Taken from the JR Hakutaka Express train from Toyama Station to Echigoyuzawa Station in Niigata. You can see the Tateyama Mountains all the way on a sunny day, and they are a most beautiful sight. 

Last Sunday, there were a lot of farmers out planting rice.

You would frequently see shrines and cemeteries right in the middle of a rice field.

Wisteria, snaking their way around all the trees and giving themselves away by their color. The forest must smell wonderful this time of the year.

This building looks like an old barn converted into...something. I'm guessing it's a city hall.

 

An old lady working on her farm.

The Joetsu-Shinkansen Max Toki from Echigoyuzawa to Tokyo Station. The shinkansen has two floors, and the first level is so low that you can only see the barrier. The second floor allows a better view...until the tunnels start up.

It was so cloudy that day, I missed out on a chance to see the mountains.

I wonder what you can see from up there?

For Tourists Only: Times Square

Times Square, one of the most recognizable places in the world. I almost didn't see the point in taking photos, since I would simply be recording the same things as millions of people all over the world.

 

It was just as I'd expected: skyscrapers, tourists, bright lights, strange costumes. (My friend called it "the place that no one who actually lives in New York ever goes to".)

 

The Big Bird combined with the headlines tells you everything you need to know.

It would seem like a bad idea to have a horse on a street where cars are always running by. I wonder about the number of injuries to horses per year in New York City.

A Ferris wheel inside a store!

Each chair was inhabited by a different set of characters.

I had the chance to see Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, starring Scarlett Johansson as Maggie. It must have been all the repeated performances -- Johansson's usually husky voice was ragged and nasal as hell, giving the character a blowsy quality that was much more pronounced than Elizabeth Taylor's take in the 1958 film version. The ending was decidedly more downbeat than the film, but considering the lack of chemistry between Johansson and Benjamin Walker, who played her alcoholic husband Brick, it was oddly convincing.

View Askew

Electric tower?

No, the Ferris wheel in Kasairinkaikoen (Kasai Seaside Park).

17:26

The Ferris wheel at Kasairinkaikoen, with the view of Fuji-san (Mt. Fuji) behind. Damn those power lines! As I was standing on the train platform at Kasairinkaikoen station, striving to get a decent shot, people around me were similarly whipping out their camera phones to capture the surprisingly beautiful view.