Christmas Lights in Bihoku Hillside Park

23rd December 2007

Bihoku Hillside Park, Shobara, Japan
広島県庄原市備北丘陵公園

This massive park located in the beautiful mountains of Shobara lights up with thousands of Christmas lights weaved through the surrounding trees bringing together a magnificent Christmas themed display for everyone to enjoy.



Naomi and I decided to go on the 23rd December in the evening hoping that the queues would have eased but that wasn't the case! We had to queue for 2-3km from the main road causing traffic chaos for people not going to the park but after a long hour long wait stopping and starting we managed to pass through the toll gates and continue on to park only to find that we had to get on a special shuttle bus along with all the others who had parked in the same area to get us to the display! By then we had had enough but were happy with what we queued up to see!


A long line of individually decorated Christmas trees





My favourite Christmas tree!


Lit up walk through passage up the hill

Merry Christmas from the kids!

20th December 2007

The year 5 students at one of the schools I teach at went to the trouble of making me a surprise Christmas present which they gave to me on Tuesday at the end of their English lesson! It is the first time I have received a present like this so I was really thrilled when they presented it to me! It is a Christmas tree with all the decorations being hand-made by each of the students. They cut the shapes out of fabric, sowed both the front and back together and filled them with cotton wool to give them a real look! The decorations include Christmas stockings, bells, cake, gloves, a Santa hat, presents, three and four leave clovers and even a koala to put on the top of the tree!

A rare morning spectacular!

14th December 2007

Every morning I wake up and open the shoji (Japanese blinds) to see if the morning fog is thicker and denser than the previous day and whether or not the sun appears as if it is going to shine through. Fortunately this morning I was delighted to open the shoji to a clear winter days morning with the sun just about to rise. Sun rise at the moment occurs just after 7am but with the mountains rising above the horizon the sun doesn't show itself for another 20 or so minutes after that. I endured the 0 degree air outside for a few minutes to capture the moment!


14th December, 7:12am
The view from just outside my place


14th December, 7:16am
With limited space to build, Japanese homes are built right to the edge of the perimeter so these mirrors are common in Japan to allow drivers to check for passing traffic before entering. The mirror on the right shows the reflection of the sunrise to the east and the mirror on the left reflects the view from the north.

Winter has arrived!

With a strong winter front from the north currently over Japan, the temperature plummeted over night bringing a very light shower of snow to the region. The photo below shows on the left, Iiyama (pronounced ee-yama) or Mt. Ii, located about 10km north from where I live in Tojo with the mountain base being around 500 metres above sea level. The pine trees are decorated with a thin layer of snow which certainly shows that the winter snow is on it's way! The second photo shows the kouyou(autumn colours) a month ago.



Today, 5th December 2007
Mt. Ii, Tojo Town, Hiroshima Prefecture, Japan
(the mountains to the right are a little further north towards Onuka (小奴可)


7th November 2007
Mt. Ii, Tojo Town, Hiroshima Prefecture, Japan

Where I Live!

TOJO TOWN, HIROSHIMA PREFECTURE, JAPAN
The view from the top of Mt. Takuhi (21/10/07)

5th December 2007

I live in a place called Tojo, nestled nicely 310 metres above sea level in a basin surrounded by mountains in the north-western corner of Hiroshima Prefecture, 2km from the Okayama Prefecture border and bordering Tottori and Shimane Prefectures in the North. Over the last 6 months I have experienced spring, summer, autumn and now the beginning of what is going to be a rather cold winter. I have watched the evergreen trees deepen in colour, the new green colours of spring come out, and the kouyou (autumn leaves) which was very beautiful this year. Over the last couple of weeks the temperature has dropped suddenly with the cold air flowing down from Siberia in the north taking the temperature below zero some nights.



24th October, afternoon shot of Tojo Town


With Tojo being located in a basin with a river flowing through it, the months of Autumn with humid air and colder nights tend to form a thick blanket of fog on most mornings which gradually thins out lifting completely by mid-late morning. The photos below, all taken from around the same spot, show the morning scenery over the last few months.




24th July, 8am, a clear blue summers sky


22nd October, 8:15am, thin layer of morning fog lifting


7th November, 8:11am, heavy morning fog


The 2 photos below show the view of Tojo town from my place.


21st October, 10am, morning fog pretty much gone!


7th November, 8am, thick morning fog blanketing Tojo!

The End of the Rainbow!

18th November 2007,
Tojo Town, Hiroshima Prefecture
広島県東城町

Some very strange weather this afternoon brought some luck with a full rainbow appearing in the basin surrounded by mountains up in mountains that Tojo, the town that I live in is. Unfortunetly the power poles are a bit of an eye sore for what could be a beautiful picture but nonetheless being able to see the ends of both sides of the rainbow completely is a somewhat rare sight!

The Autumn Leaves of Japan

Saturday, 3rd November 2007
Tojo Town, Taishaku National Park, Hiroshima Prefecture, Japan
広島県東城町国定公園帝釈峡


With beautiful weather and perfect timing for viewing of the kouyou (autumn leaves) we set off for Taishakukyo a popular national park (luckily only 12km west of where I live) which attracts hundreds of people from all around Japan at this time of the year to do some medium level mountain walking and enjoy the colours of autumn!

Starting from Upper Taishaku we walked along the flowing creek to Onbashi (which I have written about in a previous post) which is an easy 25 minute walk. The sun was hidden behind the mountain so it was a little dark. From Onbashi it's a few minutes walk on before the path narrows and you begin to climb up the mountain which is pretty steep for almost a kilometre. The path eventually levels and you walk through some neighbouring homes alongside rice paddy's which gives you the feeling you took a wrong turn which Naomi and I did a couple of years ago! We managed to find out where we went wrong though this time!
Once again you go down the mountain which is just as steep. After walking almost 4km we finally arrived at Shinryuko 神龍湖　which is a spectacular sight! You can take a short boat trip on the river or stand on the bridge like we did waving at the boat from above and enjoy the scenery. It was a long walk and worth it and all we had left to do was walk 4km back to the car!! We managed to walk back in 1 hour and 15 minutes non-stop walking at a relatively fast pace.

Shinryuko from the bridge, Lower Taishaku

Naomi and Shinryuko in the background



Walking up the steep mountain through the colourful surroundings



Momiji, a particularly famous tree in Japan which the leaves turn into a beautiful deep red colour



Momiji, this time turning a vivid green and yellow colour

Fishing for fish!

Sunday, 23rd September 2007
Midori Town, Hiroshima Prefecture, Japan
広島県美土里町

me concentrating on catching a fish!

This morning Naomi's family and I drove to a small fishing pond up in the mountains in Midori town where you pay a flat fee for a fishing rod and bait and catch as many fish as you can for an hour! It sounds like fun and it is but I did have difficulty trying to catch one! This was my third time to fish this way but I think I was worse this time than the last! Naomi and I shared a rod and we caught a mere 7 of the small Yamame fish. Naomi's dad caught a whopping 36 in the hour! When we returned the rod to the pond owner he was shocked that I only caught 7 and he went and scooped a few more out of the pond with a bucket for us because he felt bad! We ate the fish for dinner which were delicious.

Naomi's dad on the left catching a fish every 2 minutes and me 1 every 10!

finally caught one!

so many fish but hard to catch (for me!)

COSMOS flower now blooming

Rice Harvesting Time Is Here!!!

22nd September 2007

Almost 5 months since the planting season has passed and this is what the rice crop looks like!

A close up of the rice grains

A last minute decision by the neighbours and Naomi's family on this hot and humid supposedly autumn morning to harvest the rice was made and I jumped in the car and drove 75km from where I live in Tojo to help out! Check out the photos to see how the harvesting is done!

The above picture shows the nifty machine that is used to harvest the rice. It is capable of cutting two rows of rice crops at once. Once each crop is cut at the base the machine then rotates it to its side on a conveyer belt as you can see below which it then somehow threshes the grains one by one placing them into a bag which holds around 25kg of the small grains.

I wasn't able to have a go controlling the machine just in case I destroyed a years supply of rice but I did get to try cutting the crops the old fashioned way by hand! I was pretty much doing what the machine does except I didn't have to thresh the grains off the crop, instead, I collected a few bundles, tied them together ready to be put through the machine manually. It was fun for a while until I realised that it would take a very very long time to harvest the whole crop this way!

After it bucketed down with rain and blew a gale in the afternoon causing us to briefly retire for about 30 minutes, the guy on the machine working his way in from the outside in circles all day harvested the last row of rice! Naomi and carried the last 25kg bag in a wheelbarrow up to where we stacked the other 75 or so bags and wiping off the dripping sweat on our necks the pros came to transport the harvested rice to the rice centre where each grain will be dried and the outside layer peeled off and put into bags which will supply Naomi's family with their staple food for another year! Stay tuned for a photo of the first rice!

The machine sweeps up the last standing rice crop

and the brings this years harvesting to an end!

A Walk through Taishakukyo!

Saturday, 16th June 2007
Onbashi, Taishakukyo, Hiroshima Prefecture, Japan
広島県帝釈峡雄橋（おんばし）

10km west of Tojo Town, where I am living now, is the northern gateway to the Taishaku Gorge National Park. From the carpark, a refreshing 20 minute walk through the beautiful greenery along the running river takes you to the naturally formed rock formation called 'Onbashi' literally meaning male bridge. The formation is said to have formed from water running from up above gradually weakening the underlaying rock and collapsing to form what now remains a bridge like structure. It is 90 metres long, 40 metres high and 19 metres in breadth.

Wakunaga Seiyaku Gardens

Saturday, 9th June 2007
Wakunaga Seiyaku Gardens, Koda Town, Akitakata City, Hiroshima Prefecture, Japan
湧永製薬公園・広島県安芸高田市甲田町

After lazing at home all day waiting for rain, the clouds cleared up and the sun came out from behind and thought we should make the most of the beautiful weather before the rainy season kicks in this month. We went to the Wakunaga Seiyaku Gardens which is about a 10km drive from Naomi's house. The Garden is named after a man called Mr Wakunaga who created the gardens for the townspeople and for the research and development of herbs and flora to discover new medinces. The Garden is very well kept and is open most of the year with different floral exhibitions in each season. The roses are in full bloom at the moment which we got to enjoy.

A nice place to relax and enjoy the fresh air!

yellowish red rose

pale purple rose

Naomi's best shot!

A trip to Tottori Prefecture

The Hiroshima prefecture/Tottori prefecture border around 700m above sea level

広島県と鳥取県の県境　１８３号線

Saturday 5th May 2007

This was the the last couple of days of the Golden Week before returning to a regular week and Naomi and I planned to drive to Tottori Prefecture which is to the north west of Hiroshima Prefecture. Tottori City is at the far east end and is a good 3 1/2 hour drive from Mukaihara where Naomi lives through winding mountain roads up to 700 metres above sea level before going downhill again once reaching the border. We left at 6am to avoid traffic and to get the most out of the day. We eventually reached the half way point and saw through the haze the outline of one of the highest mountains in western Japan, Daisen which rises to 1729 metres. Daisen slowly disappeared as we continued on and had our first stop in a place called Kurayoshi where there are old Shoyu (Soy Sauce) production houses and some retro looking buildings and cafes. There is also a beautiful park where you can go for a walk. It encloses a small zoo which is free to enter and has a few types of animals including a couple peacocks where some guy was trying to scare them stamping his feet and clapping his hands loudly. We had morning tea in a small cafe behind the tourist information office which is run by a few university students before continuing out journey to Tottori City.

Utsufuki Park
打吹公園
Japanese style garden with this springs new green

Seaside Cafe for lunch on the Japan Sea coastline

Desert in Japan?
鳥取砂丘

Who would have thought that a land made up entirely of mountains would have a so called 'desert'?! Well in Tottori, a few kilometres to the east of the city there is a massive 10km strip of sand dunes. Some sections can be as wide as 2km and from the shoreline the dunes rise steeply before dropping back down to a basin type area. Having been in Japan for 4 years I was pretty impressed to see sand dunes of this size here! The weather was a little wet so the camels they have out on the dunes took a day off as it seems they don't like rain! We walked from the car park to an entrance to the sand dunes, took our shoes off and walked in damp sand all the way up the sand mountain top and back down to the shoreline to have a paddle in the Japan Sea! What amazed me the most was that about 95% of the tourists were walking on the dunes with either their own shoes on OR with shin high gumboots on which were for hire!

The path we took!

Naomi climbing the steep sand dune mountain!

Us at the highes point of the sand dunes with Tottori in the background


Paddling in the Japan Sea with the sand dunes in the background

Uradome Coastline
浦富海岸・山陰海岸国立公園

destination reached

A few kilometres to the east of the Tottori sand dunes is a strip of spectacular coastline part of the San-in Coast National Park. We parked at the Uradome-kaigan boat tour jetty and boat tickets for a half-hour long guide along the rugged headlands. The sea was a little rough so the boat was rocking from side to side making me feel a little queasy but I managed to take some photos of the naturally weathered rock formations and hidden beaches. Afterwards we drove to the top of the coastline, parked the car and went for a walk along the somewhat paved walkway to the hidden beaches. The walk wasn't an easy one with some very steep sections weaving in and out of the rocks down to the beaches and by the time we returned to the car 2 hours later we were both wringing wet through with sweat!

view from the boat

One of the hidden beaches

hidden beach with a hollow rock formation to the right

rock formation out at sea with palm trees growning out from all angles!