Trip to Kyoto

Well, the whole day we spent on exploring the beautiful scenary of Kyoto, their long historical places. We saw a kimono fashion show as well including dose stuff.. heheh I manage to capture some kewl pics:d There 's too much to write if i start to describe in detail so i wud drop it.. anyways enjoy da pics

KIYOMIZU-DERA

Atlast the training is over. We are currently visiting to Kyoto for a study tour to learn more about Japanese Culture. We came to Kyoto by bullet train and i manage to take some pics of mountains with snow. It was really difficult to take a good shot. Kyoto is the oldest city in Japan and it was the previous capital too. We visited Kiyomizu Temple, which is located in Otowasan, one of the Kyoto's Higashiyama(east mountains), commanding a great panaromic view of the whole Kyoto City.

The temple was founded by Yenchin in the 8th century (780) and the present structure was rebuilt in the 17th century (1633) consist of Niomon(two stories gate of the Deva Kings), Sanjunoto (three storied pagoda), shoro (bell tower) and some others.

The view from the temple is simply amazing, with red leaves all over the place. I really enjoyed the nature around here. Though my hand was freezing, i manage to capture around 192 pics. By the time i returned to the bus, my hand was really shivering bad. But i manage to show a bright smile :D

panaroma views

Well, i've been surfing the internet for a new camera and I came across this software provided by Columbian University- Autostich. It is damn easy to make pana. U just have to grab the pictures and it is done. www.cs.ubc.ca/~mbrown/autostitch/autostitch.html

PICS

The first three pictures is taken in Tokyo Sea Life Park. The next four is taken in Yokohoma City. The rest is taken in Misaki in Kanagawa Prefecture.

Tokyo Sea Life Park

It’s another day and it’s another aquarium. This time it’s much bigger and more stunning. A Japanese architect designed Tokyo Sea Life Park. The design illustrates a dive into deep sea. The surrounding in the park is designed such that the view merges with the waters of Tokyo Bay. Lets run some statistics… hehehe. Well, Japan has the most number of aquariums in the world. Out of 144 or more, larger aquariums in the world, 68 are in Japan and Tokyo Sea Life Park is the biggest in Japan. There are 542 different species of fish in the aquarium. This accounts around one fifth of the species in all aquariums in Japan. Will u believe that for this aquarium nearly 13 million US dollars is invested annually? This aquarium displays 166 tuna of 6 different species. It is the first aquarium to successfully display tuna, which is around 17 years ago. The tank is made from 26cm thick glass specially designed for aquariums and the water for this tank is brought from deep sea. In this aquarium, various filters are used which filters around 2200tonnes of water per hour. Ozone is used for killing bacteria and facilitating oxygen for the species. I was so amazed of the clarity in water in the tanks. Wow!!! And wow!! I could not take a good picture of the tuna. The tuna moved so fast and due to the thickness of the glass I was not able to take a good picture of them. Sorry folks!! But I have some amazing pictures of the rest of the aquarium, which also have penguins and some other sea birds.

Hagoromo-no Matsu

We visited a famous site in Japan which is called Hagoromo-no Matsu. Kami no michi(God's road ) is the site of celestial nymph legend called "Hagoromo-no Matsu(Pine of Hagoromo). The legend goes that the person saw the saint bathing in the sea.The clothes of the saint were laid in the branches of the pine tree, which is now very very old. The legend asked the saint that she has to dance inorder to get back the clothes and she agreed and danced until she went to the skies. The japense also have the tradition of picking up stones from the beaches, and if a person finds a stone with only single white line, than he would have good luck. Kinda good luck charm. It was kinda interesting. We aslo went to see the Miho shrine and the Monument to elene, which is a monument dedicated to the french ballerina, Elene Giuglaris who loved the Noh play"Hagoromo" and dreamed that Miho-no matsubara, but died before visiting the pine tree area. A lock of hair of the deceased is buried beneath the monument.

Yazumi port

Well, it's another port, which is much larger than yesterday's one. They land pole and line vessels, longline vessels and many more. We watched the unloading of the pole and line vessel which is very much huge compared to the maldivian ones. They catch around 400 mt of catch before they land. They adopted the system of pole and line fishery from the Maldivians, but they catch more than the Maldivians.

Shizumi Port

Today we visited the shizumi port. One of the largest in Japan. They had 8 transhipment vessels which carries around 2000mt of tuna in each vessel. Well, these vessels collect fish for around 1-2 years and loads the fish in the port. It takes around 1 month to load the entire stock. They keep the tuna in -60C. By keeping in that temparature, tuna doesn't get spoiled. It retains the same quality when it's caught. After loading to the collecting vehicles, it is kept in a storage area which is also -60C until the prices is high enough. They sometimes keep the tuna for 2-3 years until the price is high.

Will u believe? One big bluefin tuna is sold at the same price of a toyota car?. and by each shipment they get around 20 million US Dollars... dats's huge money!!!