Tetra Mound at Moerenuma Park

The Moerenuma Park in Sapporo, Hokkaido, is possibly the most incredible and breathtaking municipal park in Japan.

Designed by artist Isamu Noguchi, the vast park is on the outskirts of Sapporo, transforming what was a waste treatment area into one of the most striking landscapes I have ever seen. There are several massive installations like this in the park, but I've chosen this photo of the Tetra Mound as my first image to post here.

Its scale (13 meters high) is discernable from the two figures seen below the point of the triangular pyramid. These were two teenagers skateboarding around the sculpture. Not strictly permitted, but I can't say I blame them. As skate park locations go this has to be among the best on the planet!

(Geek footnote: Anyone who remembers the 1984 Lucasfilm video game Ballblazer which featured a futurisrtic sports playing field of huge checkerboards will probably react like I did - which was like being *inside* the videogame on the field of play. A very surreal experience.)

Official Moerenuma Park website (in English): http://www.sapporo-park.or.jp/moere/english.php
Wikipedia entry for Ballblazer video game: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ballblazer

Cute Coffees in Kobe

Kobe coffee house, October 2010

A thousand words?

There's a well-known saying that says a picture is worth a thousand words.

In blogging terms a thousand words is a pretty long post by most standards. A good number of my posts are several hundred words in length. I never focus on how long a post is, rather what it is I want to share or say. Sometimes though a picture is all you need. (Indeed, some blogs seem to comprise of picture posts only. Surely a photo-based website instead of a blogging platform is a more natural home for that kind of sharing?)

Anyhow, enough words for now. Over the coming weeks I'll be sharing some of my favourite photographs of Japan. They're not always technically the finest, more that they convey something special about Japan that means a lot to me. I hope you enjoy them. If you do, please post a comment to let me know. :-)

Temple garden, Sado-ga-shima, May 2012