Cherry Blossom Season at Himeji Koko-en!

I happened to be going by the Koko-en when the sun came out, and I couldn't resist the temptation to take photos of the gardens! There were so many kinds of flowers I had never seen before; I have since discovered that I can take--literally--hundreds of photos of flowers and still not get bored of them. Perhaps I've spent too long living in a desert, but I really like to admire flowers!

The garden is very relaxing to visit. I love how the Japanese design and landscape everything so that everything is not only one with nature, but also the way it emphasizes the beauty of nature at the same time.

A heron in the moat near the entrance to the Koko-en. He didn't seem to mind too much that I was taking photos of him.

I think this is the best photo I've ever taken. What do you think? I might tweak it a bit in Photoshop at some point, but I don't think it needs much touching up. The branches are from a Weeping Cherry Tree, which are, in my biased opinion towards all "weeping" trees, the most beautiful kind of cherry tree!

These flowers look kind of like pieces of popcorn. They're very interesting!

These giant white flowers (Magnolias, possibly?) are not as common as the cherry trees, but I've been seeing them around in many yards here in Himeji. They're very scented!

Although, these little teeny white flowers are even more strongly scented than the big ones. They're planted a lot of places too, which makes running into them a pleasant surprise for my nose!

A closeup of the small white flowers growing on the bushes. They're really quite lovely!

I inadvertently caught two koi fish in a yin-yang pose in this photo. Can you see them?

I loved this lone white flower blooming amid the bright purple flowers.

Finally, the view from the Starbucks in Piole of downtown Himeji. It's under a lot of renovation right now; they're redoing the street and building more modern buildings. It will be cool to see this place when it's all finished!

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Autumn Leaves and Castle Cats

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Yesterday, February 11th, was "Foundation Day" in Japan, which meant that there wasn't school that day. A few of us Phoenician ALT's got together and split money to rent a car, and we drove out to Asago to see the Takeda Castle Ruins . When we left Himeji at 6:30am, it was just starting to snow; by the time we had driven north to Asago, the snow was falling much more heavily, with easily several inches sticking to the ground. We could see the Takeda Castle at the top of the mountain, and I could have sworn I could see what looked to be the specks of people walking along it, but due to the snow the route was closed. However, we did climb up as far as we could go, and saw a few shrines and a temple along the way! The snow was well worth it, though none of us were overly prepared for it, considering the forecast had said it would be sunny. We didn't stay in Asago long, and ended up driving to Kobe to go shopping at the Costco. Japanese Costco's aren't

Daley-sensei's Adventures in Himeji, Japan.

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