Best of - part 1: Japanese Nature

Work has been keeping me pretty occupied recently so I have not been able to get anywhere for the blog so I decided to do the first in a "Best of" series.  I will add to this series from time to time with a different theme or an update to an existing theme.  The first in the "best of" series will be about Japanese nature.

When I first came to Japan, 16 years ago, I had the impression that Japan was a concrete jungle.  All skyscrapers and neon, shiny, plastic and new.  Maybe most people who come to Japan are under the same impression and there is a lot of that.  But scratch beneath the surface and there is a whole lot more waiting to be found.  Get away from the cities and you will be surprised.  There is a whole lot of beautiful nature here and living in these big cities makes the Japanese appreciate all of the beautiful nature around them.  They cherish it and protect it, wanting to maintain and preserve it for generations to come.  Following are just a few photos I have taken to highlight some of the naturally beautiful places that I have been to.  Let's start with Japan's 2 favourite seasons.

Spring time means only one thing in Japan.  Cherry blossom time!  Time to get out and enjoy the flower that has come to symbolise the country more than any other.  One of the best things about Cherry blossom time is that you don't have to get out of the city to see it!  The following couple of photos were taken in Yanaka cemetery, in the middle of Tokyo.

This next one was taken near the Imperial Palace in central Tokyo.

Cherry blossom season is also party time.  Troops of office workers march out of offices and into nearby parks setting down picnic mats and eating and drinking to their hearts content, enjoying the beautiful cherry blossoms.  Now in a city as big as Tokyo, that means a lot of people as this photo from Yoyogi Park shows.

But the crowds are never an issue as everyone is simply out enjoying the season just like the folk on the picnic mat next to them.  It is a fun, festive atmosphere.

You can find some full blog posts about cherry blossom season here, here and here.

The other season that is celebrated is autumn.  With autumn comes autumn leaves as everywhere in Japan is turned into a sea of reds, oranges and yellows!  This first photo is at the foot of Mount Takao, within the limits of Tokyo.

You can read more about Mount Takao here.

The next 2 were taken at Nikko a beautiful town less than 2 hours by train from Ueno in the north of Tokyo.  Nikko is home to an area of temples and Shrines that is World heritage listed.

To check out more about Nikko, check out some past blog posts here, here and here.

Last year in July I escaped Tokyo and headed deep into Nagano.  Nagano is an area of Japan that I love and that is rich in natural beauty.  Here are a couple of photos taken from that trip.  This first one is a river running through a beautiful, old, small town called Tsumago.  The day we visited was the day after a typhoon had passed through and there had been a little rain that had fallen.....

Just a little.....

Nearby Tsumago is the quaint old town of Magome and on the outskirts of Magome I was greeted with this view.

Stunning!  This trip was made in July, just after rainy season, so the greens were so deep and vivid!  You can read some more about and enjoy some more pictures of these 2 stunning towns here. 

A little further north into Nagano is Togakushi, in the mountains outside of Nagano city.  I went here on the same trip as Tsumago and Magome.  These next couple of photos are of some huge old cedar trees in the area.

Not too far away from this area was a beautiful lake called Kagami ike, or mirror lake.

I am told that early on a still morning, the view here is spectacular!  Unfortunately, I am not such a morning person......  Anyway, you can read some more about Togakushi here.

Now, not all of this stunning nature is found outside of Tokyo.  The big city has it's fair share of hidden gems too.  One such place is Todoroki valley, a hidden oasis of green in the sleepy suburbs of Setagaya.

On a hot summers day, a visit to Todoroki Valley is just the cure!  Check more out about Todoroki Valley here.

Just a couple of months ago I had the pleasure of visiting Ise in Mie prefucture.  Ise is home to one of the most important Shinto shrines in Japan.  It also has a stunning river running through the town.

Please feel free to read more about Ise and it's beautiful shrine here, here, and here.

The final photos I would like to share with you come from an area just outside the beautiful old city of Kyoto.  The area is called Arashiyama and is famous for its natural beauty, especially in autumn when the area becomes a patchwork of vivid autumn colours.  It is, however, a beautiful place to visit any time of year.  One of the other things Arashiyama is famous for is its bamboo walkway.

I was lucky enough to visit the area a day after a typhoon had stormed through the area (I swear I don't plan these things!) so it was not at all busy.  Continuing on past the end of the bamboo walkway I found this little hidden gem.

This place was simply stunning and nearby was a temple or shrine as I could hear the bell sounding every 30 seconds or so.  I sat here for a good 5 minutes just taking in as much of the tranquillity as I could.  What a find this place was!

Also in the Arashiyama area is a river called Katsura river.  I reached the other side of the river at around dusk and it proved for some wonderful photos.  Here are just a couple of them.

I did manage to get another photo while I was here and this is one of the most beautiful photos I have taken, although, quite a different kind of beautiful!

If you would like to read more about Arashiyama and Kyoto, you can find their blog posts here and here.

Well, I think that will do it for this post.  I hope you enjoyed that photographic tour.  As I said at the start of the post, there will be more posts with the "Best of" theme so please keep an eye out for them.  Thanks again for reading.  Please leave a comment and share the blog with someone you know who will enjoy it.

Se you next time!

Nikko: Shoyoen garden - Utsunomiya and Nikko Part 3

This is part 3 of a trip to Utsunomiya and Nikko.  You can find part 1 here and part 2 here.  We woke up the next morning after our monkey adventure and made a quick decision to go to Nikko.  Nikko is one of my favourite places near Tokyo (this was the 5th time I have been).  I went to Nikko at Autumn time 2 years ago when the leaves are beautiful reds, oranges and yellows.  You can read about those Nikko posts here and here.

We got to Nikko (about a 40 minute train ride from Utsunomiya) and made our way to the World Heritage Shrines and Temples area.  Being that it was a weekend day, the crowds were crazy but we managed to find a nice quiet area away from the crowds to enjoy some nature and monuments to the Tokugawa shogunate.  I didn't take any photos of those as I had already done so in my previous posts about Nikko.  We then went over to a beautiful Japanese garden (that I had taken photos of at night when the Autumn leaves were present and had posted about in the above links) on the grounds of Rinnoji Temple called Shoyoen.  The garden was made early in the Edo period and is approximately 400 years old.  This post is primarily going to be a pictorial post as I think the photos will describe the garden much better than my words.  Please enjoy.

A nice pond full of carp.

A lovely old tea house.

Simply stunning...

And moss, everywhere moss!

And baby mushrooms.

It was getting later in the afternoon so we decided to head back toward the station.  Passing by the always beautiful Shinkyo, or Sacred Bridge.  Realising our bellies were rumbling, we stopped for a huge bowl of ramen on our way back.

So huge, none of us could finish our bowls!

We got back to Nikko station and wearily made our way back to Tokyo, enjoying the Green car ride again, for that extra comfort and rest!

Well, that finishes this series on Nikko.  I always enjoy Nikko, as I said, one of my favourite places and highly recommended for a 1 or 2 night trip, or even for a day trip from Tokyo.  Please leave a comment below, and if you have any questions, feel free to ask.  Until next time, Bye.

Autumn in Japan - Nikko (part 2)

Day two in Nikko began with the alarm rudely awakening me at a time that felt way too early, but, convincing myself that the day was worth getting up for I dragged myself out of bed.

Kazu again offered to take us to the train station so we could catch the bus up the mountain to a nice place called Lake Chuzenji.  Lake Chuzenji was created about 20,000 years ago when nearby Mount Nantai erupted and blocked a river.  The mountain was discovered in 782 and is considered sacred.  It was actually closed to women horses and cows from when it was discovered until 1872.

Getting on the bus we started the 30 minute ride up the mountain-side to the lake.  At the top we started out for Keggon waterfall which is fed by Lake Chuzenji.  The waterfall is 97 metres high and is one of Japan's three highest waterfalls.  In 1927 it was declared one of the "Eight Views" which best displayed Japan and it's culture during the Showa Period (1926 - 1989).  It is also quite beautiful and spectacular.  Unfortunately, you are restricted as to how close you can get to it, and my cheap little mobile phone camera doesn't zoom in very well, but you will get the idea from these pictures.

I looked down and saw a young couple having their photo taken with the waterfall in the background.

Ahh, young love!

I plan to make a trip back here in February as the waterfall actually freezes to a standstill in winter!  Now that is going to be spectacular!

We suddenly realised that we were both pretty hungry (must have been the clear mountain air) so set off in search of something to eat.  We stumbled upon a little place run by an older couple and decided that some nice homecooking would hit the spot!

I was so hungry that I totally forgot to take a picture of what I ordered so I took a picture of it on the menu.

It looked even better in real life!

Satisfied we continued on over to the lake itself and marvelled in it's beauty.  The temperature at this stage was a crisp 1 degree Celsius and the clear mountain air made for some good photos.

It wasn't just the air that was clear, the water was too.

Reluctantly (we were on a tight schedule) we went back to the bus stop and got on the bus to head back down the mountain to see some more Autumn colour.

On the way back down, the bus takes a road called  Iroha-zaka Road.  This road that leads down (it is a one way only road) the mountain has 48 bends, the same number of letters of the ancient Japanese alphabet.  The name actually comes form the first three letters of the alphabet - i-ro-ha.  It is a spectacular road that would look even more spectacular from above.  It reminded me of some of the mountain climbs that I see each year watching the Tour de France.  While Dan held on for dear life, certain that we were going to die, I managed to take a few pictures on the way down.

The sign on one of the corners with the applicable Japanese character (this one I can read, it is "hi" the same sound as the "hi" in "hill")

Much to Dan's relief we made it to the bottom safely.  Getting off the bus we headed to the area that contains the World Heritage listed temples and shrines.  The beautiful coloured leaves looked even more impressive in daylight.

We came to some steps and feeling suddenly energized I bounded up the steps like a gazelle in the Masai Mara......

and then realised when I got to the top that it was just the first set of steps.....

Dan, on the other hand was wisely taking the steps at a much more leisurely pace.

Reaching the top we soon found ourselves at the foot of a beautiful tree-lined walkway that leads to the three most famous temples and shrines in the area.

Autumn colour was present in the trees lining the walkway and I suddenly felt the artistic juices flowing and decided to get creative!  This was the result.

Art was never my strongest subject at school!

We came across a Japanese style garden next to one of the temples that was your typical manicured Japanese garden that was looking even more impressive with the autumn colours all around.

Beautiful!!

Heading back to the path, I looked back down in the direction we had come from.

Sensational!


Further up the path was the World Heritage listed Toshogu Shrine.  We didn't go in on this day, but wandered around the outside grounds (on my next trip to Nikko I will write more about it)

Shown here is the main gate of the Shrine.

Just beyond the main gate on the left hand side is the five story pagoda.

The five stories represent the five elements; earth, water, fire, wind and aether.

We moved on past Toshogu Shrine towards Nikko Futarasan Shrine.  The path toward Futarasan Shrine is lined with a stone wall and the wall face appears as though it doesn't see much sun as moss was growing in abundance.

We soon arrived at the main gates of Futarasan Shrine.

Futarasan Shrine is also World Heritage listed and was first built in the year 767.  It's name comes from Mount Nantai (which we had been up earlier today to Lake Chuzenji) which is also called Futarasan.

I took so many photos of inside the grounds but I will show only a few here.  I have tried to identify these buildings from Nikko Tourist Association, so I hope I get them right!  This first one is the shrine office.

This next one is the Oratory, or place of worship.

I think this next one is Hie Shrine

A massively tall Pine tree

 Daikoku Hall

A portable shrine.

This is the building that houses the portable shrines. 

A stone that people were touching and rubbing, so I guess it is for good luck.  I gave it a rub just in case!

Mitomo Shrine.

Spiritual fountain of Futara

And some beautiful autumn leaves outside of the Teahouse of Azumaya.

It was starting to get a little late so we decided to head back in the general direction of the train station and along the way found a little entrance to another area.  I couldn't find any information about what it was on the information brochures we had but we wandered in anyway.

Through the gate there was what I assumed was a tomb of some kind (for my Japanese readers, feel free to correct me if I am wrong).

Wandering off in another direction, I took a photo that was intended to show some more autumn colour but then saw something else in the picture too (maybe you can see it, it is right in the middle).

Walking closer I saw this information plaque.  I don't know what it says so maybe, again, one of my Japanese readers can help.

It appeared to be a memorial of some kind.

Heading back down toward the town I took a few more random photos of autumn beauty

 and I couldn't resist a photo of this guy too!

One thing about Nikko is that there is water everywhere.  I come from a city that receives, on average, 546mm of rain each year, so to see all of this water everywhere I looked was incredible!

 wondered where it was coming from, and where it was going to.  So much water!

The last place we checked out before going back to the station was Shinkyo, or the Sacred Bridge which is owned by Futarasan Shrine.  There is a nice story that explains the origins of the bridge.  A Buddhist High Priest called Shodo wanted to climb Mount Nantai to pray (people at the time believed that god was in the mountains as it seemed that rain came from the mountains which enabled people to live).  He got to the edge of the river Daiya in 766 but couldn't get across as the water was flowing too fast.  Priest Shodo got down on his knees to pray for assistance.  A God appeared on the north shore of the river and two snakes were twisted around his right arm.  The God released the snakes and they transformed themselves into a bridge.  Priest Shodo and his party were able to cross the bridge safely to the other side.  After crossing, Priest Shodo looked back and the bridge had already disappeared.  The current bridge was built at the same place in 1636 and was only used by Generals and messengers from the Imperial court.  It was opened to the public in 1973 and for a small price, anyone can cross the bridge.  So what does it look like?

Very nice!

We continued on to the station to make our way back to Tokyo.

Nikko had proved to be an amazingly beautiful place to visit.  I will say, however, that it is an amazingly beautiful place to visit at any time of the year, and I recommend it to any visitor to Japan.

Well, I hope you enjoyed Nikko as much as I did.  As I have said, I am planning another visit to Nikko in February to get a winter view, which should be just as spectacular as this one.

Thanks for reading, and I'll see you again soon.