Wallowa Valley - Day 2

Today after a wonderful breakfast we took the Wallowa Tramway to the top of Mt Howard and then kayaked on Wallowa lake.

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Hikarigaoka Park in the Spring

 Just a few photos from springtime in the park. 

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Shakujii Park

 An hour walk or 30 min bus from our apartment is Shakujii Park. 

It is very different from Hikarigaoka park in that half of it is reserved for nature.  It also has a few shrines and remains of a castle.  The quiet half is wonderful for communing with nature as it is so peaceful.

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Kuroyama Three Falls Loop Hike

 Found a great new hiking area up in Saitama outside of Ogose.

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Hikarigaoka - Entertainer

 The other day I watched one of the greatest entertainers I have seen in a long time in the park.

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Tokyo Sewage and Water Science Museums

 Visited these museums to learn more about Tokyo's water infrastructure.

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Hikarigaoka - Rose Garden

 Right out back of our apartment is a rose garden that is in full bloom. 

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Umezawa Three Falls Hike

 We hiked a 6 mile trail to the falls which is about my limit with my foot issues. 

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Kyoto Trip

 At the start of April we visited Kyoto for 2 days to see the Sakura blossoms.

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Ofuna Kannon in Kamakura

On a visit to Kamakura south of Tokyo we stopped at the Ōfuna Kannon-ji Temple.

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Hikarigaoka Art Fair

Hikarigaoka park close to my home in Japan has many different events throughout the year.  In December there was an art fair.

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Hikarigaoka Farm Festival

The park this weekend had a Farm Festival where cities from across Japan came to show the food that is grown in their city. It was held in the main mall area of the park. 

They had 20+ cities participate with a sign for each city telling you how big it is, how much is farmland, and how many farmers they have.  So for Nerima city (where Hikarigaoka is located): 

It was very interesting when comparing it to something like farmer's markets in the US. First both the city booths with the farm products and the food trucks ran out of supplies on both days. I would think that they would be sure to have enough supplies (especially on the second day where they had to know more about the crowd size).  Many booths had long lines with people standing with a sign to tell you where the end of the line was located.

Even the garbage area was staffed with people who made sure you put the garbage in the correct container.

This is an advertising music truck which is pretty common at larger events in Tokyo. You see them driving all around crowded areas like Shinjuku advertising and playing music.

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Hikarigaoka - Demo Garbage Truck

 I was walking back to my apartment and saw this small garbage truck with see through sides.

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Mount Jinba to Mount Takao Hike

Yesterday we hiked from Mount Jinba to Mount Takao in western Tokyo.  Took the JR train from Shinjuku station to Takao Station where we saw this giant Tengu statue.

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Back in Tokyo

I am back in Tokyo after spending the summer in Issaquah, WA and taking the summer off from writing.  Current plans are to get back into writing on a daily basis - we will see how it goes.  I live in next to Hikarigaoka park and a few days ago found a group of older people in the middle of the park field  shooting paper airplanes into the air.

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Tokyo Lost and Found

Well I got to experience the incredible efficiency of the Shinkansen Lost and Found system. Yesterday on the way back from our Kumano Kodo trip we left our staffs in the top rack of the Shinkansen train by accident.

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Tanabe

Today we went to Tanabe, Wakayama which is the gateway to the Nakahechi Kumano Kodo route. Tanabe has Tokei-jinja which is a world heritage shrine.

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Nara

Today we took a trip to Nara to visit several temples, world heritage sites, and Nara park.

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Osaka

Traveled to Osaka today for the start of our Kumano Kodo trek. The shinkansen from Tokyo is really comfortable.

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Digital Nomads

 Since I plan to be living in Japan permanently when I get older, I have been looking for a group of people I can spend time with.  This is rather difficult as my Japanese is non-existent at the moment (I am working on that), but through the meetup.com, I have found a few groups of expats/digital nomads that have been fun and interesting.  I have learned a lot during this process.

Walking at Meiji Jingu

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