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

Here's a bunch of long overdue photos from the last two weeks! The autumn leaves have been absolutely stunning! The mountainsides are turning all sorts of colors, which makes them even more stunning than usual. I did my best to photograph the one that you can see from Shirasagi's garden, which is right outside of my apartment. The leaves are finally starting to fall from most of the trees these days, but the colors were beautiful while they lasted! Below are a bunch of photos of the bike paths next to the Himeji Castle Moat, which were surrounded by trees in stunning shades of red and gold. This is definitely the scenic route to get to downtown in Himeji! Unfortunately, I'm still not quite sure of all of the twists and turns through neighborhoods that it involves to get to the back entrance of this pathway, but once I'm on it I can orient myself via the castle. This area is always full of joggers, bikers, and... cats. Stray cats, for t

Typhoons, Sports Day, and Elementary Schools: One Week Condensed Into a Single Blog Post

It's been awhile since my last post, for which I apologize! Things got rather hectic after I made my last blog post, and it's really taken me until now to feel settled down--and to acquire some videos to share with you all! Let's start with a picture: the entrance to Hirohata Junior High School. I'll have more photos coming soon! First off, let's recap a bit of what happened last week. I wrote about how on Wednesday, I'd be having my first lesson. That was a lie. Instead, I had my first day where the weather was "bad enough" for even teachers to have to leave school early. We had something of a "super storm" that day, with a typhoon making landfall at the same time as a storm front was moving through the area--and rather like Hurricane Sandy, but on a (fortunately) smaller scale, a hybrid super-storm was born. Thankfully, this typhoon had downgraded to a tropical depression by the time it hit Himeji. The weather was still pheno

Scarecrows and Swordsmen Make for an Exciting Weekend!

This weekend I had two consecutive day trips! On Saturday, November 9th, I went to Aioi to watch a swordsmith make a katana and viewed the Scarecrow Festival; I also went on a bit of a hike, and visited an art museum! Aioi was about an hour away from Shirasagi by car. It was at a higher altitude, so it was a bit chilly in the morning. Once the sun came out, though, it got much more comfortable! The autumn leaves were absolutely stunning; there's nothing quite like seeing mountainsides dotted with colorful trees! The entrance to a main area of Aioi. The view from the window of the smithy. The swordsmith at work! He was a junior apprentice, which meant he had to do all the work himself, using this machine to pound the steel. Apparently the grand masters are allowed to have apprentices pound the steel manually for them. A pond outside the smithy! A watermill fed into it. An ivy-covered house! Starting a hike to view a shrine in the mountain behind

Daley-sensei's Adventures in Himeji, Japan.

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