Wow, love all these photos. Seriously making me homesick for California!! Thanks for the trip down the not so distant memory lane! =D
27 May 2008 12:05am
@Nicole: Nicole, thanks for visiting and the comments. Were you from the L.A. suburbs, namely the San Gabriel Valley area? I've been to Japan once, and that was to Hokkaido last September. So, looking at your pictures
oh yeah - great idea writing where you took the shots as well. If only I actually knew where I was in Japan half the time I'd be tempted to do the same. ; )
I'm actually originally from Norcal - the bay area, Los Altos specifially but I studied in Claremont which is either the San Gabriel or Pomono valley I guess, so a lot of your photos have a familiar feel. So Hokkaido? Hokkaido in September really is the best. I did a homestay there in August once really beautiful. How'd you like it?
30 May 2008 12:50am
@Nicole: Ah Claremont! I went to Cal-Poly Pomona, howdy neighbor! I remember going to Claremont to visit the botanical garden for a native California planting class, and taking our plant identification midterms at this park off Indian Hill. We used Scripps and Harvey Mudd for some mock landscape architecture projects, going up to Chaffey to take this easy math class, etc... Man, that was ages ago, seems like yesterday.
Hokkaido was fun. BUT, September on the contrary is not the best time. Good weather, but no- lavender, snow, or autumn color. Go either a month earlier or a month later. The onesens were way too addictive, got me hooked, got me searching all over the web for California hot springs but couldn't find anything alike Hokkaido. Beautiful landscape, good onsen food, hot springs, and humble, honest people (at least seemed pretty nice to us supposed rich tourists from Taiwan...)