Words from Afterdark

Once again I was lucky to be able to go to Japan for some tourism and to meet some friends. This time, in Winter. I had never been there in Winter and was excited to see how things would look like. Also, to keep on with the cold&snow theme, I went to Hokkaido for the first time, and I stayed in little villages instead of nice cities. I also spent some days in Korea to visit some friends in and near Seoul. Here are some pictures - click on any picture to enlarge it.

A Korean ancient musical instrument. The pieces are stones. Contrary to typical Western instruments, different tones are obtained by the stones having different thicknesses, not different sizes.

Haenggung, a palace in Suwon, and Changdeokgung, another palace in Seoul:

Sapporo (Hokkaido); the Sapporo Snow Festival:

Otaru (Hokkaido), and its snow festival too:

Around Kawayuonsen (Hokkaido): From the train on the way there; geese enjoying the hotel’s hot water source in the otherwise-frozen lake; town of Kawayuonsen; surroundings:

Lake Oonuma (Hokkaido):

Gassho-zukuri houses in the town of Shirakawa-go, and in the open-air museum in Takayama. Bridge in Shirakawa-go. The whole town of Shirakawa-go is a UNESCO World Heritage site, but some of those houses are hostels and you can actually spend the night there!

Old-style houses in Takayama: