See Japan's castles the easy way

Odawara’s Uma-dashi Gate at Night

Article posted on Tuesday, May, 17th, 2011 at 6:11 pm


I consider it a miracle when my night-time shots actually turn out. My camera, though new-ish, is pretty basic, and the majority of the time I end up with grainy, lifeless photos. Now, what we see down there is hardly going to knock anyone’s sock’s off, but there is a certain clarity to it that I at least, am very happy about.

No need to guess that this is a gate from Odawara castle, it says so in the title. But, what the Uma-dashi is, is a small, enclosed square that has just three walls and two gates, the back wall is completely open. The wall that can be seen through the doorway is actually located across a moat. Just to be clear, the front is protected, the back is dangerously exposed. Can you imagine why that would be?

Yes! Full marks to all you clever people. The attackers, having breached the gate you see below, would be faced with another closed gate. The defending army would then be able to make light work of the boxed-in & exposed attackers. It would’ve indeed been like shooting fish in a barrel.

(More photos of the gates of Odawara Castle.)

View this post & its comments.

Decorated drain cover

Article posted on Monday, April, 25th, 2011 at 5:11 pm


Have you heard the expression to laugh like a drain? It’s not a phrase I actually use, but I do like the mental picture that it conjurers. For those interested in this type of thing, I suspect it has its origins in British English.

How about the song Singing in the Drain? Or the movie Drainman? Surely, you’ll not have forgotten Dustin Hoffman’s Academy-award-winning performance.

I don’t see why drains should get all the attention when it’s their covers doing the hard yards, keeping a lid on things best left unobserved.

In an attempt to correct this imbalance, I invite you to consider the life of the drain cover a moment, as you view this fine example from Odawara.

View this post & its comments.

Odawara Castle at twilight

Article posted on Thursday, February, 10th, 2011 at 9:59 pm


I don’t have a great deal to say about Odawara castle, though it is a castle of great significance. It was here that Toyotomi Hideyoshi defeated the last of his enemies, the Hōjō. Following the removal of the Hōjō from the Kantō region, Hideyoshi then convinced a certain Mr Tokugawa Ieyasu to set-up shop in Edo. Perhaps you’ve heard of him and his epoch.

The photo, which I’m happy turned out as good as it did, was taken during my trip there in August 2010.

View this post & its comments.

Drainspotting – Odawara Castle

Article posted on Tuesday, August, 31st, 2010 at 3:19 pm


The very first destination of my recent trip was the city of Odawara in Kanagawa Prefecture. Did I visit Odawara castle? Of course. On this particular trip I was determined not to miss out on any more of these decorative manhole covers as it would be fair to say, they have gained a certain notoriety in recent times.

There exist more far more colourful & detailed ones than the one below but we have to start somewhere I guess. There is something a little odd about the picture of this one, have a good look at it. What do you think?

Are the people in the foreground trying to escape the Geisha/Dalek? Or perhaps, one was turned into a pillar of salt when they turned and laid there eyes upon what they had left behind?

Nah, it probably just is a Dalek. Exterminate!

edit: The above picture has since received the JapanDave.com polish.

View this post & its comments.

August 2010 Trip

Article posted on Friday, August, 27th, 2010 at 9:31 pm


Well, the Summer holidays are coming to an end. As much as I’d like them to last for ever, pretty sure that’s an impossibility. Perhaps for many of you it was business as usual, but luckily for me, I was able to sneak in a little traveling. Well, a lot of traveling actually. And just to give this post some focus, I won’t talk about the three weeks I spent back in Australia.

First stop was Odawara castle. As soon as I’d landed in Haneda airport I was on the phone to @Genshin, a fellow twitterer. And before I go any further, I need to thank him profusely for making the trip possible. We racked up many k’s in the @Genshin family car, and I repaid him by breaking the car’s antenna. Doh!

Roadtrip!
I now realise that I was a little too ambitious in the planning stage. And the plan was to head North from Odawara & see everything there was to see in Nagano Pref in under 2 days. Suffice to say, we didn’t quite see everything. We did see a lot & just to give you a small taste I recommend the following link: Views of Japan for some of @Genshin’s photographs.

The route we took, took us to:

Suffice to say, the above destinations & some places in between will feature heavily in posts over the following months. Stay tuned!

View this post & its comments.