Autumn 2014: Himeji Castle and Nagoyama (again and again!)

I like making friends with the cats at Nagoyama. Seriously, they're the friendliest bunch of cats I've found in Himeji so far. The castle cats are cute, but most of them aren't too friendly unless you're one of their regular feeders. But the Nagoyama cats, now those are some affectionate kitties! Not all of them, but many are quite starved for attention even if you don't come bearing food offerings.

I took a lot of photos of this very photogenic kitty. He liked to talk while I photographed, and filled me in on what was probably a lifetime of cat gossip. Then he followed my bike around everywhere I went, which made for some tricky maneuvering. The company was nice, though!

The sun was starting to set, so I didn't have good light for very long. But the statues in the Nagoyama garden were looking great!

I first spotted the cat hiding in the tall grass. He didn't come out at first.

I think he enjoyed being photographed, because he liked striking poses like this long enough for me to get a good shot.

The sun was shining down on this statue at just the right angle!

The maple trees are at their peak right now, and I'm enjoying it immensely.

Another cat, but he was rather photo shy. He looked great sitting among the gravestones, though.

Himeji Castle

I briefly took some photographs of Himeji Castle while I was riding my bike to the train station (heading to Kyoto, see next blog post!). I admired a lovely crow perching in a maple tree, but he wasn't keen on having his photo taken. The castle it looking great, though! It's down to a single crane at ground level, and most of the scaffolding is gone now.

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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.) ...

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 ...

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...

Daley-sensei's Adventures in Himeji, Japan.

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