1 - Sunset from the Seto Ohashi (6th July 2008)
This is quite a simple image to start with, but it's a view that both conjures up a memory of a particular moment, driving across this bridge and watching the most beautiful sunset during my time in Japan, and represents two years of living in this area of Japan. The Great Seto Bridge - known as the Seto Ohashi (瀬戸大橋) - links the Japanese islands of Honshu and Shikoku. I lived in the small town of Kojima, a southern suburb of the city of Kurashiki, on the Honshu side. The Inland Sea - which this bridge traverses - is stunningly beautiful and full of interesting islands - Naoshima (modern art) and Shodoshima (abandoned chemical factories/proliferation of bunnies) spring to mind. The bridge itself is pretty impressive - I often took trains across, going from Kaminocho station to the northern Shikoku city of Takamatsu, with its pleasant garden Ritsurin Koen (栗林公園). I also took the train the other way to visit Okayama, and to get to Kurashiki itself, where I worked for two day a week at a night school for students who'd dropped out of regular education. I once fell asleep on the last train home from Okayama to Kojima - and ended up on Shikoku, the first and last time I've fallen asleep and ended up on a different island to the one I'd intended to. I crossed this bridge by train and car on several occasions, and saw a handful of sunsets, but this was by far the most beautiful, turning from amber and gold to a deep red and then pink as the sun set to the west.