Life in Japan - Pictures galore !! Arcades, Temples, Rainy days, etc

[Yakumo]

More random shots today from my drive in the country.

I wouldn't like to live here when a flood strikes!


This is some sort of dam to filter heavy rain from the mountain.


Yakumo

[Yakumo]

What? More pictures?? Yes, today's pictures come from Mt Hinoyama in Shimonoseki which was a volcano at one point in time.

This shot shows the west side of Shimonoseki. The big light brown coloured part used to be a mountain. They've been blowing it away for the last 10 years and have finally finished. Now they are laying housing sites.



Here's the other side of the west part of the city.



Ooh, it's the coast of Kyushu.



On Hinoyama are remains of Japanese Bomb shelters used during World War II. I've taken pictures of these before with my old crappy phone camera but thought it was worth doing them again with the iPhone. The iPhone seems to cope really well in the dark. None of these shots have been touched up.

This is the outside of the shelters. You can see the iron plate that form the roof in case a bomb struck.



Inside was very cold and dark. The floor is made of dirt which was pretty normal in Japan back then. Still is in some places.



The door at the very end of the shelter leads to a toilet but there was no way I was going down there. Pitch black it was!



This was situated in the center of the shelter. I can only guess that it was some sort of fire place.



Finally a picture of the cooking stove.



Yakumo

[Vosse]

Great pictures~ The pictures you guys take always makes Japan look like such a beautiful place.

[DCharlie]

bomb shelter pics are amazing! great job

[MysticParadise]

If you have pics of giant stuffed Doraemons, I'd appreciate it. I always get the giggles when I see him. He's really cute!!!

[handofg0d]

Thanks for the bomb shelter pics Yakumo! Most everything I see from WW2 is in Europe, definitely interesting to see some of the Pacific stuff. These look to be in (relatively) good condition - are they part of a park or something that maintains them? If they were in America they would be covered in graffiti and littered with syringes.

[Yakumo]

Yeah, they are part of the park now although you can't actually go down there but I did :)

[DCharlie]

so i have 11 days off during golden week, have to take care of the boy most the time but a couple of days i have a pass out.

Has anyone done any of the "abandoned" areas around Tokyo for photography?

heard a few horror stories about bears, but hey! sounds like fun. Want to up the amount of photography/filming i'm doing.

[Yakumo]

Never been but I'd like to see some cool pictures. You're a lucky sod getting 11 days off too. I'm off tomorrow, working Friday then off Mon, Tue and Wed.

Yakumo

[Yakumo]

More pictures from the iPhone. Today I took my son to his fav' play area on top of a steep hill. From there you can see the sea and a lovely windmill which is quite rare in Japan.




A few days ago I mentioned in a different thread that I had to take a ferry to Ainoshima which is a small island off the cost of Kita Kyushu. Anyway, this place is so small it has no police, no post office, no bank, no shops at all, no petrol station, no entertainment, no nothing! It does have internet if you can be bothered using super slow DSL that is.

Here's the islands only school. Home to 12 primary school students from 1st to 6th grade.


Considering the island is so small that you can walk from one end to the other in just over 40 minutes, there are a few cars there but none have number plates. This is because none of them have tax, insurance or any MOT. But because there's no police they can use them. Some of the drivers have no license but then again your average Japanese with a license still can't drive well.



Inside a creepy tunnel with no lights. I wouldn't want to walk down here at night.




As you may have guessed, Ainoshima is a fishing island so of course there are many small fishing boats there.


and here's the fishing boad grave yard


Yakumo

[alecjahn]

Wow. That is like my dream getaway location, IE "F--- everything else, I'm gonna go fishing"

Seems like that school is a bit big for 12 students?

[forcethunder]

Are there other little islands like this in japan? I cant imagine having an autonomous community anywhere near the UK.

[Tatsujin]

lol @ the "car with no car number plate" :lol:

here also sumthing for the lulz:

[Yakumo]

Seems like that school is a bit big for 12 students?

They probably had more kids on the island in the past since the school has got to be at least 30 years old.

@Tatsujin. How on earth did they miss-spell consoles? That would be the easiest part to write :lol:

[ASSEMbler]

How old is the little dynamo yakumo? It feels strange having known people on the forum move, marry, have kids in Japan. Makes it seem like I'm standing still.

[alecjahn]

They probably had more kids on the island in the past since the school has got to be at least 30 years old.

Makes sense. Must be weird to attend there. I wonder if they have an entire floor of unused/abandoned rooms.

here also sumthing for the lulz:

I lurl'd pretty well.

[Yakumo]

How old is the little dynamo yakumo? It feels strange having known people on the forum move, marry, have kids in Japan. Makes it seem like I'm standing still.

He's turned 3 in March. To be honest though, the best times of my day are when I'm driving home from work on my own. I'm free to listen to what I want, say what I want and do what I want. Of course spending time with my son is also great but a man needs his free time.

Yakumo

[DCharlie]

awesome photos as ever Yakumo!

Ended up my day taking photos was spent around Tokyo, nothing particularly exciting, but here are a few :

[GaijinPunch]

Just think... somewhere on that train is some poor girl getting finger-banged against her will.

[DCharlie]

it's the chuo line, i'd go as far to say there may as many as 4 girls having a particularly unfun journey :/

!!! BONUS GALLERY !!!

yup, like a sad twat i went and took about 150 pictures of the new Club Sega. On my first real day off. :Rock: :crying:

Utterly boring set to be quite honest - but might be of interest to some one out there.

Here it is :