#kanagawa prefect

[pix4japan]

Mt. Fuji Across the Bay (Enoshima Island, Fujisawa, Kanagawa Pref., Japan)

On a clear day, you can catch a view of Mt. Fuji on the other side of Sagami Bay from the western shore of Enoshima Island.

According to visibility records maintained by the city of Fuji in Shizuoka Prefecture, you’ll have the best chance of seeing Mt. Fuji in its entirety between November and February.

Pentax K-1 II + DFA 28-105mm F3.5-5.6 88 mm ISO 100 for 1/200 sec. at ƒ/11

[shinsengumi-archives]

What people say about Hijikata

As usual, by accident and suddenly, I found a number of sites that provide opinions on the Hijikat to those who knew him personally . Some of this has already come across in biographies, etc., but it was not a completely accurate translation from English, but it was from Japanese, although I can not vouch for accuracy either)) - Calm, unperturbed under any circumstances. Generous and very helpful. (Kojima Shikanosuke, friend and ally) - By nature, he was very calm, generous. Usually, neither anger nor joy on his face was reflected. Yoshitoyo read many books, but he possessed leadership abilities by nature. He was a born strategist. (Hashimoto Masanao, friend and relative)

- Gloomy, gloomy, will not say a word.(Yagi Tamesaburo, a boy from Mibu)

- Toshizo was a shrewd, calm, cold-blooded, courageous and brave man. He grabbed everything on the fly, reacted with lightning speed. (Matsumoto Ryojun, doctor) - Kondo still has not made serious mistakes just because he has a Hijikata. (Matsumoto Ryojun) - Hijikatu can be described as an honest, direct, decent person, without frills. Undoubtedly, he is one of those who are called noble people. (Yoda Gakkai (1833-1909) - literary critic, playwright) - The arrogance of Toshizo and his contemptuous attitude to people personally was extremely unpleasant to me. (Tomioka Mitsuzo is some official from Kanagawa, like a prefect) - This man was amiable, prudent, and unlike Kondo - without unnecessary ambition. When meeting with Hijikata, I did not dislike him, on the contrary, he gave the impression of a sincerely friendly person. (Chiba Yaitiro, Shintegumi member) - Hijikata usually behaved calmly and calmly, but in anger he was much worse than Kondo. From the side of the bakufu, it was easy and easy to work with Kondo, but it was extremely difficult to work with Hijikata. ( Kato Hiroyuki , bakufu official, later president of the Academy of Sciences) - He treated people with understanding, was not without generosity, was not angry in vain. (Suzuki Suemori (?) - Shogun's vassal) - Hijikata-dono was an outstanding commander, combining wisdom and courage. (Sava Chuske, Shinsengumi member, groom) - Hijikata-san, as usual, showed mercy to his subordinates, and during the offensive he sought to be on the front front. He inspired the soldiers with his example, we followed him, and therefore did not know defeat. (Tachikawa Chikara, Shinsengumi member) - Toshizo had an unusually sharp mind and strong spirit. Over time, his character became soft, so that people were drawn to him, like babies to his mother. (Nakajima Noboru, Shinsengumi member) There are a couple of interesting opinions that I can’t completely decipher something. - When communicating, smart, insightful and considerate, but at the same time slightly arrogant. 人 に よ っ て は 毛 嫌 い す る も の も か な り あ っ た よ う だ。 ( Fukuchi Ouchi ) In the last sentence, I can’t understand who was prejudiced to anyone - Hijikata to people or they to him)) And about arrogance, there 気unnatural, tense, mannered, pedantic, snobbish, unsociable, pompous, smug - a whole colorful palette)) - As for the deputy Kondo, Hijikata Toshizo, he was a very worthy person. 割 合 に 理屈 も 判 る 人間 だ っ た. ( Shibusawa Eiichi ) Here I am confused by the numerous meanings of the word 理屈 - theory, argument, argument, reason, reason, reasoning; sophistry, debate, etc. Either he was a good theorist, or he listened to the arguments, but in any case, "he got the chip")))

[seidossecondbase]

❄❄❄❄

Headcanon Meme { Not Accepting }

❄ - 4x AU headcanon

     So, I started typing this a long time ago. And by long i mean... really long. But since I found this post in my drafts and I still like most of the ideas, I thought why not just share it? I never got to finish this but I think 3 fresh AUs are good enough, since I’ve got a ton of AUs on this blog anyway. 

     Cause this post ist pretty long, I’ll post everything under the cut. Note that the mentioned AUs under the Keep Reading will be a Hogwarts au, a Vampire au and a Pokémon au. Oh. And thanks @mochi6 for asking back then. Thought I’d tag you since I kept you waiting for so long to read all of this. ;)

Hogwarts AU

   Not that surprisingly, the sorting hat decided that Ryosuke best fit into Ravenclaw, the house who cherishes knowledge the most. He got to share a dorm with Chris, who got to be one of his closest friends since his first year.

     Ryosuke liked Quidditch since his dad introduced him to it in his early childhood, though he never really played or practiced much until he learned to ride a broom in classes and saw Chris already joining the Ravenclaw Quidditch team in their first year. He joined the Quidditch team rather late in his fourth year - but he is a rather good seeker and makes good use of his small and fragile looking frame.

 Speaking of his body: Ryosuke does look somehow feminine in general and it caused many rumors to spread. There was a rather silly rumor telling that Ryosuke was actually born a girl and his parents transformed him into a boy because they didn’t want to raise a girl. These rumors became even louder once his younger brother Haruichi came to Hogwarts two years later, but eventually went silent after he took care of those he caught making silly comments about them.

   Still, there’s a certain secret Ryosuke’s family never shared publicly: Ryosuke’s motherly side consists of a row of veela ancestors with his mother being a quarter veela herself while his father is a muggle-born wizard. It never became evident to others since it’s only known that the veela gene is passed to any female offspring, not male ones. Ryosuke and Haruichi both originally got the stature and the light blonde hair from their motherly side (which Ryosuke started to dye soon into a rather dark pink like his mother did - but it turned out to be a rather girly pink since his hair seems to bleach out parts of the color naturally).

   Ryosuke’s best subject is Arithmancy but he’s rather good at Transfiguration too. His weakest subject is Potions. However, everything related to theory is where Ryosuke’s good at in general - since he learns facts very quickly and knows much despite not spending too much time with learning. Luckily for everyone in his house (or even at Hogwarts), Ryosuke never got to be Prefect - which is actually something really good since he can be really nasty and cruel if someone tries to mess with him.

Vampire AU

   – Note ! This AU contains rather classic vampires. Meaning they can’t go out in the sun or they’ll turn to dust if exposed too long to sunlight, they can’t see their own reflection in the mirror and they have to feed on human blood every once in a while. Additionally, their regenerative powers are inhibited when wounded with something made out of wood, but they don’t react to garlic nor crucifixes. (If anyone knows the Vampire Files Series… they’ll resemble the vampires from there!)

    At a very young age, Ryosuke was bitten by a vampire but didn’t turn until right after high school graduation when he was hit by a car and got deadly wounded. He can’t remember how he got away from the accident - but woke up in a small back alley just before dawn. His family never saw him after the accident again and had been told by the police that Ryosuke had gone missing; with Ryosuke being the one who stayed away from them once he realized what he had become.

   He moved from Kanagawa to Tokyo, feeling like chances were smaller to see any familiar faces there, but saw himself forced to live a life he never wanted. He took small jobs, all of them at night and fed on humans as rarely as possible once he was able to control his urges.

  But the longer he lived between humans, the more Ryosuke wanted to be human again, missing the small comforts of taking a walk in the sunlight, playing baseball again or be able to taste any other food than blood. But most of all: He missed being able to look in the mirror and see his own reflection - which pushed him into the idea of working as a model for art students at night school.

   Not gonna lie, this AU is mostly an idea for KuraRyo fanfiction with art student!Kuramochi and vampire!Ryosuke (although Ryo is still a rather young vampire bec wtf everything else is weird af).

Pokémon AU

— His parents own a large area with berry plants they take care of and sell. It’s because of this that Ryosuke knows much about berries, Pokéblocks and Poffins.

— He was never interested in collecting badges since he thought it was a rather silly and easy goal to achieve (yeah, he kind of was so confident it would be a piece of cake that he didn’t even bother considering it). In the end, he got invested in Pokémon Contests, feeling like it was more diverse.

— Ryosuke’s team consists of Skitty, Gengar, Marowak, Mismagius, Murkrow and Typholsion. He prefers ghost and dark types most, but generally likes pokémon who are quick and are known to be somehow shady.

              Skitty was Ryosuke’s starter and actually isn’t in a pokéball most of the time. Despite its small state, it’s pretty fast and strong - mostly surprising his opponents with both traits. Why Ryosuke never bothered to evolve it, is something only he knows, but it’s most likely because he just got too used to it the way it is.

              Ryosuke got his Gengar when it still was a Gastly - and it actually lived at the same cemetery as his Marowak when it used to be a Cubone.  They always shared a close bond and were known to chase any intruders away, including Ryosuke, who wasn’t really affected by their attempts to scare him, but rather fascinated by them. Once they were more around him, they developed a very twisted humor, often scaring people on purpose whenever they get the chance to (which - to some extent - Ryosuke really enjoys watching).

             Murkrow used to be a petty thief who stole from trainers as they weren’t paying attention to their surroundings. When it tried to steal from Ryosuke though, it soon realized that instead of the little bag full of delicious Poffins he had seen him carrying around, it stole a bag of pebbles. Hurt in his pride by being tricked for the first time by a human, it followed Ryosuke to the nearby wood, trying his luck again as soon as possible. It got tricked again and eventually got hurt by Skitty and collapsed before it could escape. Ryosuke didn’t try to catch it at first, nursing it back to health before asking if it wanted to be set free or join him.

[pix4japan]

The Pix4Japan blog has been updated with a new post with shots taken at Samukawa Shrine located in Kanagawa Prefecture during the 2023 New Year’s holidays:

https://www.pix4japan.com/blog/20230117-samukawa-shrine

Each photo includes tidbits of historical or culturally significant information that I found of interest to me.

I also include links to source/reference material I used for the writeup of each photo including Google Maps links and most importantly, a link to Donny’s blog post from Oct 9, 2020 where his goes into much more detail about the shrine’s history and his impressions. He also offers useful tips on how to access the site by train.

For fellow photographers, I have including the gear used and EXIF data for each photo.

[pix4japan]

Shrine on Clear Winter Day

In this shot, I tried to capture the beautiful architecture of the shrine from under the eaves of a covered wall surrounding the courtyard of Samukawa Shrine in the sleepy rural town of Samukawa, in Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan.

The main structure is this shot is the haiden (拝殿), or worship hall, which is where visitors approach to offer prayers or make a wish after tossing some coins as a monetary offering into the saisenbako (賽銭箱), or offertory box.

The courtyard of a shrine is called a keidai (境内), and the  wall surrounding such a courtyard is called a tamagaki (玉垣).

At Samukawa Shrine, the tamagaki is roofed with lanterns hanging from the rafters, and extends completely around the courtyard making it very convenient to visit the shrine even on a rainy or snowy day.

From under the roof of the tamagaki, there is a ramp leading up to the front of the haiden making access very easy for the elderly, mothers with baby strollers, or visitors using wheelchairs.

It is not always easy for many structures built hundreds of years ago to implement barrier free access, but Samukawa Shrine has done a good job of  making the shrine accessible to all, which I think is partially due to it being located on a large plot of flat land in a surrounded by suburban homes and farmland.

Back to the courtyard, if you look closely at the hanging lantern on the left, you can see a version of the chrysanthemum seal, which is almost identical to the crest used by the emperor and the imperial family. The symbol is also the national seal of Japan and is used on the front cover of Japanese passports.

Fujifilm X100V (23 mm) with 5% diffusion filter ISO 3200 for 1/55 sec. at ƒ/11 Astia/Soft film simulation