Some more photos I took at Asukayama Park the other day. I really liked this statue of Avalokitesvara, as I felt like it was really well crafted. I included the description to this monument as it's hard to read what is carved onto the stone and it's written in older Japanese too so my friends couldn't even read it lol.

I think it has something to do with a poem about cherry blossoms although I could be wrong about that.

It's pretty cool seeing the older Japanese from hundreds of years ago though. Even if I can't read it it's interesting to see how the Japanese language itself has evolved throughout the years. I'll be posting more photos of this place tomorrow as well!

Went to Asukayama Park near Oji Station yesterday. I've passed by the area many times and seen the gondola leading to the top but never knew what was up there until now. It's a really big park dedicated to Shibusawa Eiichi, known as the father of capitalism in Japan.

The park has a bunch of monuments and cultural properties to check out so I managed to take a lot of photos and I'll be uploading them over the next few days. I chose a good day to go it seems too, as there was an event going on. It involved some traditional dances (I think from the Oji area), and it involved some sort of sash that kind of reminded me of a kimono obi, but I'm not sure exactly what it is. They had a taiko drum as well but it seems I didn't make it in time to watch them playing, I only heard it in the distance when I was walking to the park.

I thought it was really cool seeing all the different monuments though. Many of them were several hundred years old and the Japanese on them was also and older form, so it was hard for me to read a lot of them lol. It was a really enjoyable experience though, so I'll upload some more photos tomorrow!

青空に映える 満開の冬桜
冬がそこまで来ています

夏を越え秋を迎えたアジサイは
時間をかけてアンティーク色に変化して
秋色アジサイとなりました

秋バラが見頃

鳴鐘山東勝寺宗吾霊堂は
義民･佐倉宗吾を祀る成田の古刹
今年も紅葉の季節となりました

嵯峨･江戸･伊勢･奥州･肥後･丁子
歴博･くらしの植物苑で今年も｢伝統の古典菊｣始まりました
秋から冬への風物詩です

宗吾霊堂は義民･佐倉宗吾を祀る成田の古刹
今年も紅葉のグラデーションが始まりました

Some photos I took while passing through the area. Lit up trees ready for Christmas near Toyocho Station! I also spotted these pandas around a Christmas tree at Ueno Station as well and thought it was cute.

It's funny how fast Halloween ends and almost immediately we start to see Christmas decorations lol. It's not dissimilar with the US though. Every time Halloween ends it's like someone flips a switch and suddenly all of the Halloween decorations become Christmas decorations.

Speaking of Halloween though, I actually saw children trick or treating in the streets this year which was really nice considering all the restrictions over the past 2 years. It also seems like the culture of Halloween has started to become a bigger part of Japanese culture over the last 5 years or so.

I still love that Christmas is a dating holiday in Japan though. It feels like a romantic holiday anyways, I think it's better this way personally.

銀杏並木のグラデーション

青空に映えるヤマハゼのシルエット

Dropped by a cafe near Oji Station the other day and ordered a small chocolate cake and a tea. It looks strikingly similar to the one I had at the pasta restaurant a few days ago, with very minor differences lol. I didn't take a photo of the tea unfortunately, I was too focused on eating the cake?. I suppose it's a popular dessert combination as it seems quite easy but delicious at the same time.

The cafe is called Dining Cafe Tagen (ダイニング カフェTAGEN). When I passed it on Halloween they were opening the large doors at the front of the shop and preparing some sort of Halloween event, although I wasn't able to see exactly what was going on with it. They had a big speaker as well, so maybe they were going to sing and give candy away lol. I'm not really sure though. I think they were wearing costumes as well, it looked pretty interesting. It's a nice place though. It can be a bit cramped at times but otherwise it's a nice place to go for a coffee and dessert if you're in the area. You can also take the streetcar (Tokyo Sakura Tram) to get there as well which is a plus!

Went and had some pasta at a small cafe called Abbraccio the other day. I got a cream and mushroom sauce penne which tasted great. The salad was served with a small slice of bread which complimented it quite well. The desert was really simple but tasted excellent. Just add a bit of the whip cream (I think it's whip cream anyways) and the (what I thought was) cherry sauce and it a great way to finish the meal. They had a PayPay campaign going on as well and we managed to get a 50% discount and only ended up paying ¥700 per meal, which was pretty incredible considering we got the drink sets as well, which unfortunately aren't pictured here, but I ordered a chamomile tea I believe. Or something similar to that. It was also quite refreshing. The place seems to have a couple of balcony seats as well but I'm not sure if you have to request them or reserve them or what, but by the time we noticed them we were already seated so we decided not to ask. Overall it was a pretty good place and the service was good as well

This is the Daigoji Buddhist temple in Kyoto. This photo highlights the contrast between the warm red temple and the chilly winter breeze. It really gives off the winter vibe as you stare in awe at the beauty of this scene. One is left seeking solace in their worship as the snow descends outside, covering everything.

Went to the local restaurant Gigi again and ordered ahijo with some bread, always a great combination, french fries like we usually get (we'd already eaten some before we took the photo lol), karaage that reminded me of zangi a lot with the texture and flavor, and then we ordered an assorted appetizer platter with a bunch of stuff. I really liked the bread and the potato salad, and the crackers were great too. I think they were served with cream cheese or something like that on the side, but it tasted great. I also ate them with the thinly sliced meat that was on the plate. Every time we come here the food is always really good and the atmosphere is nice as well. The lights are dimmed and it's really relaxing. We also ordered a pizza but forgot to take a photo of it this time. The Japanese name is「ピッツェリア＆トラットリア ジッジ」I believe

【千葉の宝物】
~
小湊鉄道は眺めても乗っても撮っても楽しい鉄道です。
~
四季を通して楽しめますので、是非千葉へ～（笑）
~
鉄道：小湊鉄道

【どこでもドアでもお越し頂けます】
~
どこでもドア完備の公園です。
お手持ちのどこでもドアからお越し頂けます～（笑）
特等席をご用意してお待ちしています～♪
~
そんな時代が来たら、どこでもドアで渋滞とかあるのかな〜(笑)
~
場所：あけぼの山農業公園
場所：

【秋ひとりじめ】
~
大学の敷地内で車が通らないので、ゆっくりと散歩ができます。
~
学舎と銀杏の組み合わせが素敵で、ドラマや映画の世界の様です。
~
場所：東京大学

【都会の真ん中で秋散歩】
~
東京の県庁所在地にいることを忘れてしまいそうな空間です。
~
地面からニョキニュキと顔を出す根っこがかわいいです~（笑）
~
場所：新宿御苑

国営昭和記念公園で撮影しました。
テーマは回想です。
しゃがみ込んでる姿を撮影した時に何かを思い込んでいるように見えたので、それに合うように暗めのレタッチにしました。この写真を観て、自分自身もその日の事を思い出す事があるので"回想"をテーマにしました。

Went to Diver City in Tokyo over the weekend. We'd visited in the past as well but my gf's friend was in town so we decided to go again. There's so much to do there that it would take a month to do everything probably.

We decided to go to the "Unko Museum" this time lol. It was a lot more fun than I was expecting to be honest. When the clerks would say "thank you" they would say "arigatounko" and it was pretty funny.

It was really colorful and there was a bunch of different games you could try as well. We heard people yelling "unko" extremely loudly and were confused until we found out that it was a game. The objective of the game was to yell "unko" as loud as you can, and whoever managed to do so, would create the bigger poop. It was embarassing to do, but at the same time pretty funny (I managed to win lol?).

Besides the "Unko Museum," we also did the VR experience and ran away from zombies, etc. Couldn't take photos since we were in VR but it was fun.

We also ate dinner at a steak restaurant that was pretty good and picked up a couple desserts before leaving. Lots of fun though. Definitely plan on going again lol.

苔むす屋根に色づき始めた紅葉

Went to Shinjuku over the weekend and found a really awesome plaza with an open-style food court that had several different shops inside of it. I was kind of craving some tacos or something ethnic at the time so I went and got a burrito at "Chronic Tacos" because it looked really tasty. It's kind of a "build-your-own burrito" system which is nice. You can choose the type of meat you want in your burrito (I chose spicy pork) and and other toppings I think. I also added guacamole to mine. You can add it on the side or have it put into the burrito as well. I wanted to try a taco as well but since there were other restauraunts I grabbed two slices of pizza at a place called "Cucinova."

The pizza tasted great, and the spicy slice that I got had the perfect amount of spicyness! The food was definitely great at both places, although maybe the burrito was a bit expensive. I think it was ¥1200 for a drink and the burrito. They could probably make it a little cheaper, although Mexican cuisine always seems to be a bit expensive in Japan. Maybe it has to do with ingredients. Not sure though.

Overall, I definitely recommend checking it out. They've got a coffee place as well and while I didn't get a coffee from there the scones looked pretty tasty! I think there was a bar as well if you're looking to grab some drinks with a friend.

Went to dinner last night at Tokyo Butchers in Okachimachi. The place had a really great atmosphere and reminded me of an American restaurant sort of. The food tasted great and there was a lot of different stuff to try. A lot of the stuff they served was presented very stylishly and each dish left an impression on me. I particularly liked the steak and fries (probably something to do with my American roots lol). I believe the second dish was "Pate de campagne" which is French for "country pate I believe. It tasted really good though. I think it's a ham steak with ground pork? Not entirely sure what type of meats are used in it exactly. The salad was great too, I really liked the dressing as it was quite refreshing. The champagne glasses came nice and full as well! Can't complain about that lol! The strangest thing we ordered was definitely the melon and ham. It was... an interesting combination. I wasn't really a fan of it so we just ate it separately and it tasted good that way as well. I really like that olives too. Now that I think about it, I don't get the chance to eat olives much since I've come to Japan. Definitely recommend this restaurant for a date or just a fun night out though!

茨城県常陸太田市での米作り。
稲刈りの真っ最中をドローンで撮影。

こんにちは

暴れススキ?と申します

秋の植物やってます

ぜひご覧になってって下さい

I'm pretty sure this is the last photo that I have of my trip to Kumagaya. Was a really awesome time and I'd love to revisit sometime in the future. You can really feel the summer atmosphere with the koinobori and the clear skies as well. I wanted to walk along the canal and see how long it is and see if I could find any cool cafes, restaurants, or other shops to check out, but I was unfortunately short on time so I didn't get the chance. It'll have to wait for a return trip.

Kumagaya was an interesting town though, so I'm sure I'll be able to find at least a few hidden gems to explore along the canals. I want to explore the rest of the city more too. It had some nice places to eat but I want to see more of the local culture, etc. next time I'm there.

Another photo from Kumagaya. This is a big map outside of Kumagaya Station's North Exit, depicting, from what I understand, Kumagaya and the surrounding area in 1936. It's a bit difficult to see, but if you zoom in you can see Kumagaya on the left side with Tokyo in the upper left behind it, and to the right of Kumagaya you can see Kami-Kumagaya, from there, if you look to the bottom-right you'll see Kumagaya City Hall and furthest to the right is Ishiwara. Underneath Ishiwara you can also see several schools (elementary, middle, high school) and a hospital.

It's quite difficult to see in this photo, but the mountain at the far back right is Mt. Asama, and you can see Nagatoro as well. On top of that, there's the Arakawa River running through the background of the entire map and a bridge connecting to Onuma Park as well.

There's tons of stuff to see in just this one map, I love looking at old maps and historic things like this. I could stare at it for hours and still find new and interesting things.

I found a few more photos of my trip to Kumagaya. Being as it's the "Rugby Town" of Japan, it's only natural that it has a big statue of a rugby ball! It's kind of a cute statue and it reminds me of something from a movie, although I'm not sure which movie it is I'm thinking of. Apparently there's supposed to be a few of these statues found around other parts of Kumagaya, but I don't remember if I saw them or not. Obviously I saw some of the other statues, like the one over the canal, etc., but I don't remember seeing more than one of this statue. Perhaps at one of the other exits of Kumagaya Station. Also, the statue is apparently called "Rugby Boy" ("ラグビー少年" in Japanese), for anyone curious!

コスモスと風車と秋の空