待ちに待った地元の花火大会が3年ぶりに開催されました。今まで通りとはいかないものの、久々に地元の風物詩を家族やたくさんの人たちと共有できて、とても感動的な時間でした✨

待ちに待った地元の花火大会が3年ぶりに開催されました。今まで通りとはいかないものの、久々に地元の風物詩を家族やたくさんの人たちと共有できて、とても感動的な時間でした✨

新潟県長岡花火大会へ初めて行きました。 最初から最後まで感動に包まれました。

新潟県長岡花火大会へ初めて行きました。最初から最後まで感動に包まれました。

The last couple photos I wanted to post from our trip to Takamatsu. The first one was at one of the stations by Ritsurin Park. It just tells you not to try and go past the railway crossing after the bar has come down but I thought the pictures on it were pretty funny lol. The second was just one of the manholes that I thought looked nice. Snapped a photo of it outside of Takamatsu Castle

夏休み。神津島へ親子旅行！ 天上山へ一合目から登山。 絶景の景色で風と夏を感じて。

夏休み。神津島へ親子旅行！

. . 𖥧 𖥧 𖧧 ˒˒. . 京都 瑠璃光院 新緑 苔 机もみじ 水晶玉撮影 . . 𖥧 𖥧 𖧧 ˒˒. .

On the final day of our trip we were a bit tired but still wanted to see a few things and just casually enjoy our time. We ended up going to Marugame Castle as our first destination. It was really cool as it's one of the 12 castles in Japan that still has an original castle keep. The castle itself isn't very large, but the area surrounding it is. From the bottom of the castle the keep is quite small so it's hard to get a good photo of it, but we got a photo of it with one of the turrets along the moat wall which was cool. We reserved a rickshaw ride the previous night as well so when we got to the castle we did a little exploring and then we went on a guided tour around the lower area of the castle. The rickshaw guide was a really nice guy and quite funny as well. Apparently he was a comedian but he enjoyed doing this job as well. He told us a bunch of different things about the castle and it's construction while also telling some jokes occasionally. After the rickshaw tour we climbed our way up to the top of the castle and there were saw really amazing views waiting for us at the top. You could see the entire city almost. We also entered the castle keep, but it was relatively small. It was still nice to see the architecture on the inside but the stairs were a bit scary. They were incredibly steep and I was holding the handrails the entire time going up or down them. After checking out the castle we were pretty hungry and so we decided to get some lunch. Being Kagawa is the udon prefecture we went to an udon specialty restaurant. I haven't been to many udon restaurants so it was kind of a new experience for me. They had it set up kind of like a cafeteria and you go through and choose what you want and other toppings to go with your udon. I didn't see the trays for the extra toppings so I just ended up putting the karaage on top of my udon lol. I got niku udon and it tasted really good. The karaage was a nice touch as well. Not the usual tempura most people get but it went surprisingly well with the soup. After eating we headed towards Nakazu Banshoen, a garden with art exhibits as well. Before getting there we decided to stop by a Lupin-themed cafe though. It was a really tiny shop but we were able to cool off for a bit and relax which was nice since we were walking quite a bit. The garden was quite large and had a lot of different points of interest within it. The stepping stones were fun to cross and the row of torii gates was pretty cool as well. You can definitely take some nice photos with them. And that concludes our trip to Takamatsu! Overall it was a really fun trip and I definitely recommend it to anyone who hasn't been to Shikoku or Kagawa before. We didn't even get to do everything we were looking at but we still had a blast!

On the second day of our trip we headed over to Shodoshima, one of the many islands in the Seto Inland Sea. The only way there is by ferry so we got some tickets for it and boarded the ship. It was a really nice ride as the weather was great on Sunday and it was warm out, but not too hot. Sitting on the upper deck was nice as well, as we got to view some of the other islands in the area and also got to see people fishing etc. Plus the breeze was really refreshing as well. When we arrived to the island we tried renting some bicycles but unfortunately they were all rented out. After that we tried to get a car, but they were all rented out too, so we decided to take the buses where we needed to go. It worked out fine though. The first spot we decided to go was Olive Park, but when we got to the bus stop where it was located there was a really nice beach so we decided to check it out and put our feet in the water to cool of. There were people swimming and wind surfing and there was a nice little snack shack with some tasty looking food. After hanging out on the beach for a bit we headed up to the park. There was a ton of people renting broomsticks to do the Kiki's Delivery Service photo and it was pretty funny to watch it. We thought about doing it but the brooms were like a 45 minute wait because there were so many people so we decided to pass on it. We also ate lunch at a restaurant inside the main building at the park. They had some really good food (photo #4) and a really tasty drink as well. I don't remember what it was, but I'm glad I got it. The view from the restaurant overlooked the area as well which was nice. After lunch we headed down towards where the windmill was and stopped at a small shrine on the way. The windmill area had a nice view as well and there were people trying to jump off rocks to get photos with it lol. After we finished up at the park we decided to head over to Angel Road. We looked at the hours when you could cross the sand bridge and we arrived early, but it seems like the hours were slightly off that day perhaps and we made it right at the perfect time. There was just a little bit of water left over the sand bridge so we were able to take our shoes off and cross. Unfortunately there were a bunch of really small rocks so it kind of hurt your feet but it wasn't too bad. We managed to make it across. Was able to take some decent photos as well. We also had some ice cream at a nearby shop. It tasted great! After we finished checking out Angel Road, we headed back to the ferry and and as we started to leave the port I said out loud "It smells like sesame oil doesn't it?" Well it turns out there was a sesame oil factory directly behind me so we had a bit of a laugh at that. Was a successful day!

. . 𖥧 𖥧 𖧧 ˒˒. . 法然院 京都 新緑 kyotojapan hounenin bluemaple artofjapan japantravel histrip_japan japan_focus naturephotography landscapephotography 𖡼.𖤣𖥧𖡼.𖤣𖥧

I've got too many photos to post so I'm making another post today and at least 1-2 more in the next couple days. After visiting Ritsurin Park we headed towards Takamatsu Castle. The castle itself had no castle tower but it still had a really nice garden and the moat was pretty cool as well. They had a boat tour of the moat too, but we didn't think it was as extravagant as the one at Ritsurin Park and we were already tired so we decided to skip it and just tour the castle on foot. There were a variety of different stone lanterns throughout the garden that I thought were pretty cool. I always enjoy seeing the different lantern designs for some reason. Despite not having a castle tower, the turrets themselves were cool to see. After looking at the first castle tower we crossed a bridge that ran over the moat and headed up to the top. Once we got to the top, where the castle tower was previously located, we had a really awesome view of the area and I was able to get a photo of a boat passing through the moat. They were all wearing straw hats and special clothing, which I think was part of the experience. After leaving the castle and heading toward our hotel, we arrived at the second turret and it had a nicer view than from inside the castle. I thought the clouds above it looked quite nice as well. After that we headed to our hotel and rested for a bit and then headed over to a pizza place called PIZZERIA 18 for some dinner. The place had a nice atmosphere and the food was really good as well. We ordered pizza (obviously) and a variety platter as well. It all tasted great. They had Heartland as their nama-beer which I thought was nice. Don't see it very often.

Went down to Takamatsu over the 3 day weekend last week. It was the first time either one of us had been to Shikoku before and it was a lot of fun. I'm surprised it's not talked about more, as there's so much stuff to do. We stayed near Takamatsu pretty much the whole time and we still didn't get to visit every place that we wanted to go. The first day mostly consisted of Ritsurin Park. The park (garden) itself was quite large and there was a lot of beautiful sights to see. We really wanted to go on the boat ride throughout the park's pond, but unfortunately it started to rain just a tiny bit and they closed the boat for the rest of the day, just before we arrived...☔️ Even still we had a lot of fun walking around the park. There were a lot of koi and turtles swimming in the pond too. We stopped by a small cafe-like building inside the park and i got an ice cream float and she got a coffee. In front of the shop one of the custodians came by with a big bucket of fish food and created a feeding frenzy amongst the koi. I'm pretty sure I saw a single catfish in there as well. After we finished our drinks we climbed to one of the best viewing spots in the park which had a really amazing view of the bridge and the pond. You can see the people on the boat we didn't get to ride too lol🥲 The one building shown in photo 9 was actually a tea house where I think you could try traditional tea ceremony and eat sweets as well, but they also seemed to offer just a normal tea drinking experience as well. We decided not to try it, but if you like tea ceremony it looked quite nice.

宮古島の与那覇前浜ビーチで撮影 水晶玉の前に貝殻を置き撮影してみました

道後温泉に立ち寄った際に風鈴の音色に導かれやってきた廊下 綺麗でした😌