Daley-sensei's Adventures in Himeji, Japan.

On Monday I spent most of the day visiting a part of Kobe I had never been to before. Part of the Rokko Mountain chain that borders the city, the Herbal Gardens can be reached by ropeway from Shin-Kobe Station. At the top, you get some lovely views of the city, provided, of course, that it isn't raining. But if it does rain, the garden staff have stations where they provide free umbrellas to use. Definitely convenient! Once you reach the top, there's a small rose garden tucked in the back. Many of the blossoms had fallen, but plenty were still in bloom. They smelled great in the rain!  There were other flowers besides roses, of course....  The roses came in every possible color!  The raindrops actually created a lovely effect, once I figured out how to balance my umbrella and camera simultaneously...  After the rose garden, I slowly worked my way down the paths to experience the rest of the Herbal Gardens. Some of the areas were them

There haven't been too many non-rainy days lately, so a couple weeks ago when there was a clear Sunday, I took advantage of it to climb Mt. Shosha one last time. I also needed more of an excuse to play with my new camera, too! Spending five hours on the mountain photographing everything definitely helped me to figure out more of my menu settings. It was a cloudy day, but occasionally the sun broke through.  First, some photos of Himeji spread out beneath Mt. Shosha! There are several points on the trail where you can get really great views of the city. Sometimes, on clear days, it's easy to spot the ocean; from some angles, you can even see Himeji Castle and Nagoyama Temple, though you'll need binoculars to get a clear view of them.  The ropeway cable cars come in two designs: Kuroda Kanbei, or Shiromaru-hime. Here's a photo of the latter, soaring over the city she represents!  Last year, I attempted to photograph all of the buddha statue