日本の冬と聞いて想起したのは、雪国・北海道。
#青い池 として有名な北海道の美瑛。

神秘的な青い池と、まっしろな雪のコントラストがとても美しかったです。

北八ヶ岳のロープウェイより撮影。
この日は晴天だったので、ロープウェイに乗りました。
しかし、山頂に着いたらまさかの曇天、、。
山の天気は読めないですね。
なお山頂は-12℃ととても寒かったです。

福島県にある達沢不動滝です。
秋には紅葉と滝で撮れるスポットで有名ですが、冬の雪と滝も綺麗でした。

Tsuruga Castle in Fukushima! I'd heard of its white walls before, but it looks like winter is doing its best to make it completely white! Apparently Tsuruga Castle was designed after Kurokawa Castle that was sieged some time during the 1,500's. I wonder if the color scheme is true to Kurokawa Castle. It'd be interesting to know if there was some sort of tactical reason for an all-white castle. In a snowy region I could see it acting as a sort of camouflage but who knows. You can also barely see what looks like a shachihoko on the roof if you zoom in which is pretty neat. Apparently the inside of the castle has some mannequins set up with guns showing how the arrow-slits, or in this case gun-slits, would have been used. There's also other mannequins that show them being used for rock dropping as well. Warfare has come a long way since then😂

It's like a winter wonderland! Looks really cold though lol. I'd seen on the news how bad the snow was getting in parts of Akita, especially Yokote but it looks like it's just cold everywhere this year. The plus side is Japan has a lot of beautiful scenery so when the snow starts to pile up like this it makes for some beautiful photography like we're seeing here. I really like this photo though, you can practically hear how quiet and cold it is. It almost makes me want to get outside and go camping with a big ol' campfire and a heavy duty tent. I know my girlfriend would never agree to go though to a place with this much snow though 😂Hope everyone is staying safe from the cold! Be sure to take some photos of the beautiful scenery while you can though. No snow here in Tokyo though unfortunately?😂.

新潟に移り住んで1年めの冬。1996年。
朝起きて窓をあけたら…の光景です。

PENTAX P30
smc PENTAX-A MACRO 50mm f2.8