Also Delayed... More Cats and Autumn Leaves at Nagoyama Temple~!

Nagoyama's still one of my favorite places to go, and luckily for me I can now see it every day from my classroom while teaching! So I knew when the leaves were just right, and made sure to pop over with my camera on a clear day--this autumn was unusually short, cold, and rainy, so there weren't many such days this year! It was very relaxing to walk my favorite path through the mountain area.

At first, there seemed to be a lot less cats than I remembered from previous visits. But fortunately, they started appearing once I worked my way through a bit. Most of the cats were quite feral, but fortunately outside the main pavilion the friendly cat colony was still there. Most of the cats I saw had tipped ears, so it seems like modern cat colony population management techniques are finally making their way over to Japan (except around the castle. I've counted at least eight separate litters of kittens around the castle since I've arrived!). It was great to play with three exceptionally friendly cats on a lovely weekend morning.

Cherries aren't famous for their autumn colors, but when you get enough of them together, they still look fabulous in the fall!

The main temple building was difficult to photograph for some reason this day (perhaps because of the strong sun?), but it looked great as a background for this stone lantern.

A view from the upper levels of the main temple. Look at all those cherry and ginkgo trees!

This was the shyest of the three cats, but once he warmed up to you he'd deign to let you rub his belly. In the meantime, he was great at posing in the autumn colors!

This chatty tom (recently neutered, I suspect) was just talking and talking and talking the entire time. He'd only relax once I started petting him, and then he'd just melt into a puddle on the sidewalk in bliss. He had quite the purr!

This little lady was not as friendly as the tom, but not too shy either. She was clearly the object of the chatty-tom's affections, and she didn't much care for his overbearing behavior. Still, she liked being pet quite a bit!

The tom taking a break from talking to scratch an itch.

Talk about a scenic pose, right? This cat knows how to frame a photo!

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Cherry Blossom Season at Nagoyama Temple!

I haven't been to Nagoyama Temple in awhile, but today was a beautiful sunny day, and since it's about 10 minutes away by bicycle, I couldn't resist! Nagoyama is absolutely stunning during cherry blossom season! I know everyone crowds into Himeji Castle for cherry blossom viewing, but I definitely think Nagoyama's cherry trees are of comparable beauty; perhaps some might find the idea of flower viewing in a cemetery depressing, but wow, this is probably the most beautiful cemetery I have ever seen! Also, there were cats everywhere. Would they be considered temple cats or graveyard cats? Can you spot Himeji Castle (in its scaffolding)? The cemetery extends for quite a ways around the main temple, and there were cherry trees everywhere! A small garden nestled between the hills of graves. You can see the city stretching out behind it! I love how, at certain angles, the main temple seems to float above a sea of cherry trees. ...

Shinzaike Honcho Festival, Friendship Festival, and the Countryside!

Lots of photos and a few videos incoming! The Shinzaike Honcho Festival was the local neighborhood festival. The shrine was just down the street from Shirasagi, and all of us ALT's walked to it. It was a lot of fun! Three other neighborhoods were also having their festivals at the same time, which meant that we ran into their portable shrines along the way now and then. Everything culminated at the park on top of the hill next to Shirasagi, with performances by the kids and some portable shrine "dancing." The portable shrine was alternately carried and pushed/pulled along the route we took, which circled through most of the area around the Shinzaike Honcho main street. We marched in lines behind the portable shrine, chanting "Yo Ya Sa" along the way (the equivalent of "heave ho!"). The entrance to the shrine. (^ Some detailed photos of the portable shrine. ^) (A lion dance performance at the start of the festival.) ...

Foggy Day on Yoshino Mountain!

Yoshino Mountain is located in Nara Prefecture, and it is often considered one of the best places in Japan to see cherry blossoms. It takes about three hours and multiple train connections to get there from Himeji, which means that if you leave early enough, it's day-trip doable. I went there last weekend, on the 11th of April. The temperature was warm, but the weather alternated between foggy and cloudy. The trails were quite muddy due to the rainy days all of the week prior, but the views were still stunning! The trees were in various stages of losing their blossoms, so with each gust of wind petals were knocked off and blown about, creating a snowy impression. I wish I could have seen it on a sunny day, with the blossoms at their peak! I did my best to photograph the beautiful cherry-covered slopes during my hike, but the fog mutes the bright colors of the blossoms. New cherry leaves grow in with an orange-red color, which combined with the lingering pink and white blossoms c...

Daley-sensei's Adventures in Himeji, Japan.

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