Province of Alberta, Part 1 the Rocky Mountains

I have been living in Alberta for over 40 years and like to share some of beautiful spots and moments I encountered.  Since the folks from the US and the Philippines may not have chance to see where I live, I'm going to post photos in the next few posts.  The first post is a world heritage site, the Canadian Rockies. These are my photos.

Starting with the most famous Banff National Park, the first National Park in Canada.  It takes about four hours by car from my house to Banff.  Since it is the busiest tourist destination, we tend to stay away and spend more time in less known locations. But it has so many beautiful spots and I have to start with Banff.  Above photo is Randle Mountain near the town of Banff.

  The Town of Banff.  It started with the Canadian Pacific Railway construction in 1883.  There are many reasonable hotels in the town, if you need to save money.  Playing golf in Banff (36 hole golf course in the photo) is relatively expensive in Canadian standard.

Next stop is at Lake Louise. The Chateau Lake Louise is one of the oldest hotel in Banff and has a beautiful view of the Lake (below).

From Lake Louise you can drive up to Moraine Lake.

 From Lake Lousie the Trans-Canada Highway goes into Yoho National Park in British Columbia, an adjacent Province.  In Yoho you find Takakawa Falls tumbling 384m (1,260 feet).

Going back to Lake Louise then take the Icefield Parkway known as the Banff-Jasper Highway.  This Herbert Lake is well known by photographers but not for tourists and one on my favorite photo spots.

Bow Lake is one of larger lakes along the Icefield Parkway.

Payto Lake is one of the most photographed lakes in Banff.  It has a breathtaking view.

The Icefield Parkway leaves Banff National Park and enters to Jasper National Park, where you find the Columbia Icefield.  The ice has receded a few hundred meters since I first visited in 70's.  I can see and feel the global warming trend.
You can go onto the ice by taking this huge bus.

 Wildlife is commonly seen throughout Alberta.  Some endangered species in North America such as Grizlie Bears and Golden Eagles are much more common in the Canadian Rockies.

Next post will include more outdoor activities hopefully soon.

Trip to Japan Part 4 Kyoto

 

 This is the last part of Japan.  This is the Kamogawa shrine.  One of the oldest Shinto shrine in Japan.  I'm no historian, but I can feel the history from the surrounding forests and the shrine.  I mentioned earlier that I have visited these places as a high school student.  But now I can appreciate more than ever.

 

We move on to Nanzenji Temple.  There are so many old buildings represent Japanese culture and history.  Good thing that US decided not to bomb Kyoto during the WWII.  Now all these areas are world heritage sites.  Wooden structures built in 13th Century are still standing strong.



It was a lunch time and we were looking for a restaurant.  We found a very nice tofu restaurant.  It was a bit pricy but foods were so good that everybody should go there if you were in Kyoto.  This restaurant serves only tofu.  An each separate building is a private eating space with a beautiful garden. 

    Now's the food.  These are all tofu dishes.  Amazing to see so many ways to prepare tofu.  They were so good that we ate everything.  These tofu dishes were developed for Buddhist monks who were not allowed to eat meat.  Foods could evolve over hundreds of years.

 



 

Now we move on to the famous Kiyomizu temple.  I remembered I was there 48 years ago and it has not changed much. 

 



 

The current wooden structures were built 400 years ago and still safe enough to hold hundreds of visitors every day.  It would be a fantastic view if it was sunny day.  Well rainy day in Kyoto was not too bad.

This is it for the spring trip to Japan.  We enjoyed eating and drinking more than sightseeing, but that was not too bad for aging couple.  I thing we will continue.  

For the next blog I like to introduce my own Province of Alberta.  I have worked with Alberta Parks and Forestry Departments for over 31 years.  I have tonnes of nice photos that most folks never seen.  I will share with you.  See you soon. 

Trip to Japan Part 3 Kyoto

My wife and I visited Kyoto with good old friends of ours, Shihoko &Yuichi Maruyama.  The last time I visited Kyoto was about 48 years ago.  I was a grade 11 high school kid.  Amazing.  There were lot of new discoveries especially excellent sake and foods.  I'm getting old enough to enjoy them.  These are some photos from Kyoto.  We started from the Kyoto Train Station, of course.

We arrived late afternoon, so the first thing we did was looking for a good dinning spot in old section of Kyoto.  We did find a really nice place.  Next day we visited some old temples and hike around the northern section of Kyoto.  The first buddhist temple was Tenryuji, a UN world heritage site.

 With our friends strolled the temple's garden.

 We were sitting inside of temple looking at the garden.  Quiet and beautiful!

 Sakura trees were still blooming adding to the beauty of the garden.

 We were strolling along the famous Kamo River and found this place for lunch.  Foods were excellent.  You can tell from my face that I drunk little sake wine.

Although Bamboo forests need a lot of maintenance, they grow very well here in Kyoto.  At the end of day walk along the river with cherry blossoms.  I will post more Kyoto photos in next blog.

Spring in Japan Part 2: After the monster tsunami in Tohoku Region

All areas along the coast line of the Tohoku Region has suffered from the monster tsunami three years ago.  People and towns are slowly recovering from the damages.  We visited Rikuzen Takada in Iwate Prefecture.  What the city is doing is so amazing, that I have to share some photos.

From Tokyo Station we took this nice looking bolt train, Tohoku Sinkansen to North for about two hours. 

This is a photo of a service area in the city of Rikuzen Takada.  This building was used to house restaurants and shops.  The picture of waves on outside of the building was the height to tsunami.  The inside of the building was completely destroyed, and there was a huge pine tree stuck inside.  The coast line of this area had shelter belts of red pine, but they are all gone.

This was a gas station sign.  It indicates the height of the wave of 15.1m (the allow mark).

 I want to show you these photos.  These bridge like structures are belt conveyors.  The most of the city was sitting on waterfront at zero meter sea level.  To avoid future tsunami the city decided to build the new city on 17m of earth.  They are moving mountains from the back of this photo to the low lying areas.  Only Japanese can think of such idea of moving mountains and doing it.  Wow!

 

Spring in Japan: Part 1

I received comments from some of my blog followers to continue.  I actually missed blogging, so I decided to continue my blog.  My wife and I visited Japan for three months and I'm going to post some pictures.  This is part one: Cherry blossoms (Sakura) in Tokyo.  Tokyo has some most beautiful spots to enjoy sakura in Japan, if you don't mind a crowd of people. This is Ueno Park area. It will light up in evening and giving fantastic view and not so great drunken people.  You can drink in the public in Japan.

Since I am a Forester I should mention about tree. These cherries are call "somei yoshino" variety and most common sakura in Japan.  Japanese has been cultivating ornamental tree species for few hundred years.  Somei yoshino is a man made variety cultivated from several species of native sakuras and planted all over Japan.

Although sakura blossom last only a couple weeks, Japanese enjoy a peaceful moment in the spring.  I bet my doughnut that Japanese is the only people in the world talking about when sakura blooms in the national news every day in the spring.  Japanese should be proud of being a nature lover, but at the same time be grateful living a peaceful country.   It reminds me every time I watch sakura blooms.  Enjoy Sakura!