Weekend tour

I did a little sightseeing this weekend. Nothing too exciting and actually we were looking for cherry blossoms to view but it is a little too early in my part of Japan.

I went to visit my good friend Kaoru-san, in her new condominium in the city and we decided to check out the city parks to see if the cherry blossoms had bloomed. This is just a pretty shrine right in the middle of the city with tall buildings and busy traffic just a path away. It is always interesting to me to see how Japan combines modern and historic within a short distance from each other.

And at the park we found a relief of a famous sumo wrestler who had once lived nearby. Supposedly this is a life size relief of him.

I thought this was interesting pedestrian sign that had obviously once been centered over the pedestrian walkway. A building was being built or taken down (I don't know which) and the sign had been moved aside in order to make room for the protecting fence. The sign was still doing its job in a lopsided sort of way...

The next day Tetsu and I were still looking for cherry blossoms and as usual got lost in the process (sigh...) We ended up at a parking lot and since parking attendants were directing people up the mountain, up the mountain we went. Another shrine.

In fact, shrines. I thought this was interesting because there was this little building with offering boxes in front of each prayer window and people were throwing coins into each box, saying their prayers, taking a step to the right and doing the same thing over and over. Supposedly if you prayed at each window it was equivalent of visiting each of the major shrines of Japan. A convenient way to do it if you don't have time to go cross country.

Tetsu and I "landed" in a historical town that is supposed to be very interesting to sightseers but since we had stumbled onto the town after getting lost for a couple of hours we never saw the sights, just walked up one side of the street and came down the other. I liked the broom and basket store.

Here is a shot of a bicycle shop we found. Isn't that colorful! But I would want the whole spectrum of colors in my garage to get the full effect, not just one pink bicycle...

That's my tour of the weekend.