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Fun Times at Nada Fighting Festival!

It was a cold, wet, rainy day, but that didn't stop everyone from coming out and enjoying the Nada Kenka Matsuri this year. I was only able to really enjoy the first day, but here's some neat photos from the event. I had a pretty good vantage point and was mostly sheltered from the rain, so I was able to relax and watch without getting trampled in the massive crowds.  Some mini shrines would precede the larger portable shrines ( yatai) , and they'd move very, very quickly.  It takes a lot of men to lift these shrines, particularly with four drummers sitting on the inside (and the drum itself weighs quite a bit!).  The yatai  were all too large to actually enter the gate into the main temple complex. So, ladders would be brought out and the top screwed off to safely drag the yatai  through the gate.  Seven different neighborhoods "compete" during the Fighting Festival, and each neighborhood is represented by a different color.  Younger boy
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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 th

Very delayed... Some Koko-en Photos~!

Whew! I've been so busy the past two months I haven't had any time at all to upload my photos! ごめんなさい!!I'll do my best to catch up on things this week. All the photos are processed and ready to go, I just have to sit and be patient with the still-abysmally-slow upload times.  Anyways, the Koko-en in Himeji is still as lovely as ever! I made a couple trips there over the last two months, and here's a roundup of the best of the photos. The trick to the Koko-en, as ever, is to get there right when it opens so as to avoid the worst of the crowds. Otherwise, patience is required to wait until an area clears up of tourists just long enough to snap a scenic photo.  The main building over the main pond. It's actually quite photogenic at the right angle! I have no idea what kind of fruit this is. It was growing on a tree and it looks pretty, at the least! Sometimes the paths can be quite dense in some of the sub-gardens, and I always enjoy this part becau

Some Waterfalls in Kakashi-no-sato

Last Sunday (9/10), since the weather was lovely, my friend (Yukiko) and I decided to visit Kakashi-no-sato (literally: Scarecrow Town) in northern Himeji (I went there once before , about 4 years ago, during their autumn festival). The town is famous for having more scarecrows than people and seemed like a great place to spend a beautiful afternoon. First, we stopped at a traditional Japanese restaurant on the way and add a wonderful lunch! I was so hungry I forgot to photograph the appetizers--ごめなさい! Then, once we arrived in Kakashi-no-sato, we met up with another friend (Masaki) who had grown up in the area. He said that there were two different waterfalls in walking distance of the town square and offered to guide us to both of them! It was a wonderful hike, with dense foliage and babbling creeks along the well-maintained trail. Masaki knew everything there was to know about the plants and creatures of the area, and it was really interesting to learn about them all. Not

Once Again to Shosha-zan!

On Saturday (9/9) I decided to make the trek to Mt. Shosha since I had the spare time! I was joined with some of my new colleagues. We left early in the morning, catching a #8 bus to the rope-way station; we cut through a small suburb in order to reach the beginning of the hiking trail. It was a hot, muggy day despite our early start and before long we were all melting along the trail. Occasionally a cool breeze would reach our skin through the dense foliage, and the brief relief was welcome. Eventually, after frequent breaks, we did reach the top (of the rope-way). Alas, it was a hazy day, and the photos of the view over Himeji did not come out particularly well.  I still think my favorite part of Mt. Shosha is the statue-lined path leading up to the first gate. During this part of our journey we were joined by a nice gentleman from New York who was visiting Himeji for the day. We all had a blast photographing the statues on our way up! The lighting was tricky, or maybe I'm j