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!

Comments

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 2014: Kyoto

I spent all day on the 22nd in Kyoto. I went to so many places that I cannot honestly remember the names of them all. I will try my best to be accurate, but it was pretty overwhelming. I also was able to en joy a performance by a Maiko , or apprentice Geisha. She was very beautiful! The weather was great, in fact is got pretty toasty in the afternoon. The crowds, though, were a bit obnoxious. I've come to expect big crowds in Kyoto, but it still comes as an unpleasant surprise every time I visit. Be warned, I took a lot of photographs! Fushimi Inari Shrine Our first stop was the Fushimi Inari Shrine . This was actually many shrines, all along a gorgeous mountain trail that I did not have the time to enjoy fully (perhaps again, during a non-peak tourist season). Inari is the Shinto god of rice, and the messenger for this spirit is the fox. Thus, there were foxes everywhere, as well as the red coloring that goes with this god. You will see many Inari shrines throughout Japa...

Daley-sensei's Adventures in Himeji, Japan.

Search This Blog