A beautiful sunset

7:30pm, Thursday, 17th July 2008

I was just doing the washing up about ten minutes ago and noticed that the air outside had a red tinge to it with is unusual. It only lasted a couple of minutes but I managed to take a photo of the sky up above as I am surrounded by mountains but it has a unique feel to it. Sunset was at 7:22pm this evening.

photo taken at 7:24pm

Yakiniku!

me taking care of the cooking

Sunday, 13th July 2008

Summer is almost in full swing and the days are in the low thirties and the humidity over 70% making the heat unbearable at times. The nights are also humid with the temperature above 25 degrees however thankfully up in the mountains the temperature drops to the low twenties making it somewhat cooler than in the cities. Summer is also a time just like back in Australia when many people have a barbie outside! This evening we decided to enjoy one Japanese style! There is no such thing as the webber over here but they do have a simple alternative that does the job just fine. First of all the Japanese call it Yakiniku which literally means barbecued meat. The big difference between an aussie babrie and a Japanese BBQ is the type of meat cooked. In Australia we mainly have sausages and big pieces of steak and onion. In Japan they have thinly cut slices of beef, chicken, pork, small frankfurter type sausages, prawns, onion, cabbage, pumpkin, shell fish, capsicum... you name it! Rice balls are always ready prepared to eat with a bit of seaweed wrapped around it. A few beers to wash it all down goes just nicely.

Naomi's mum and Naomi enjoying the meat I cooked!

me barbequeing some meat!

Naomi's fathers' grandmother and sister

on top of the world!

MT. DOGO

道後山

14th June 2008

Located in the very north eastern corner of Hiroshima Prefecture where a few steps north from the peak would place you in Tottori Prefecture, this is Mt. Dogo, one of the highest peaks in the prefecture rising up to 1268.8 metres above sea level (Mt. Osorokan is the highest - 1346m located in the Geihoku region in the west). On a clear day you can see the Japan Sea in the north and Tottori Prefectures Mt. Daisen - 1709m - the highest mountain in western Japan. Out to the west is Shobara, Miyoshi and beyond and to the south - Tojo. To the east is Yamaguchi Prefecture.

You can drive half way up the mountain which is a ski resort in winter and park the car. From there you can hike up the mountain along the well trodden track. There are two peaks to reach the first one Mt. Iwahi - 1271m (岩樋山), actually taller believe it or not than Mt. Dogo by a couple of metres! The climb is relatively easy although there are sections where your level of fitness and flexibility will be tested! The view from the top is breathtaking and I will say that again, absolutely breathtaking. The last time I came up this mountain I was still in my work clothes so I couldn't adventure off from the car park but I did take a couple of photos two of which are at the bottom of this entry. The visibility wasn't 100% but was good enough to sit on the peak and gaze at nothing but mountains, mountains and more mountains right as far as our eyes could see.

the last few hundred metres to the peak of Mt. Dogo!

the view in a south-west direction from the peak

Kai standing on a rock on Mt. Iwahi with Mt. Dogo still another 30 minutes walk away



the peak of Mt. Iwahi from the carpark - September 2007


the autumn sky - from the carpark on Mt. Iawahi - september 2007

serene beauty

TAISHAKU-KYO ・LAKE SHINRYU

帝釈峡・神龍湖

17th May 2008

The sky was blue with a few fluffy clouds passing by in the distance and the sun shining brightly. The new leaves showing off their magnificant greens and the dry breeze keeping us cool and making us work harder to avoid drifting off course. It was a perfect spring day for a row on the famous Lake Shinryu in the beautiful surroundings of Taishaku. We enjoyed a leisurely walk through the forest under the canopy of leaves and soaking in the sunshine passing in between.

lunch time under the hot sun!

Naomi rowing the boat on the lake




this is what Taishaku looks like in mid-winter just to give you an idea of how this amazing place literally transforms from complete dullness and bearness into a tranquil forest full of life

Rice planting season is here again!

this year I got to have a brief push of the machine that plants the rice

GOLDEN WEEK 2008 (3rd May)

Winter is far gone and the rainy season is almost here and It's that time of the year again when Japan plants rice to keep stocks of their staple food high. Rice is eaten up to three times a day across the country although this is changing with western food products making up a considerable part of the Japanese diet.

I was out at Naomi's place to help out. The weather was hot and dry, much more pleasant than last year when it was humid and rain clouds threatened the planting activities.

I am doing 'uenaoshi' which is where you walk from one end of the rice paddy to the other checking if enough seedlings have been planted. (The machine isn't perfect!) It is aruduous work and that smile was only for the photo! Each person has 4 rows at a time to check. The general rule is to make sure 3 seedlings are planted.

I am evening out the muddy soil

Wisteria!

Sunday, 11th May 2008

After a couple of weeks with temperatures in the high twenties warm enough to take the chill out of your bones after the long winter, the weather took a change for the worse with the last 3 days being cloudy and dull. It was raining when I woke up yesterday, the temperature rising to a cold mere 12 degrees and it was still raining at midnight last night when I went to bed! This morning it was quite cloudy but at around 10am the sunlight poured through the clouds and the bright blue sky was at last visible again. Naomi and I decided to go to Sera Highland, a 50km drive away, where there are flower farms growing pretty much everything that can grow in Spring! The only snag is that each farm is separate and each costs about $7 to enter but the farms are huge and you can spend a couple of hours strolling around. Last year we visited the tulip farm so this time we went to the Wisteria Flower Farm which has nothing but wisteria! They have an array of purples, pinks and some whites on display and the flowers give off a very sweet scent that you can even get a whiff of from the car park! It was mother's day here in Japan today so there were a few families out enjoying the day. The weather stayed mostly fine and the mercury is going to drop to 6 degrees tonight! I can't wait for it to warm up again.

they almost look like grapes growing on a vine

the flowers look very different up close!

Giant Cherry Trees!

YOGAI-ZAKURA

要害桜
広島県庄原市東城町小奴可

The following write-up is my translation of the information board found on site.

This large cherry tree, a member of the ‘edohigan’ family in Japanese, is found on Kyushu, Shikoku and Honshu in Japan as well as in the southern part of the Korean Peninsula and central parts of China.

This cherry tree in particular was planted around 260 years ago on the site of what was the Kameyama Castle and known to the locals as ‘yogaizakura’. It has been well protected and cherished by the town folk ever since allowing it to grow into the giant it is today. Its trunk is 5.7 metres in girth and stands at a height of approximately 18 metres.

Yogaizakura is the largest of all the Hiroshima Prefecture designated cherry trees, noted for its magnificent features and beauty of its blossoms when it flowers in mid April each year. Yogaizakura is not only recognised for its size but also for the great significance its presence had with the locals and being deeply linked to their lives. From an academic point of view this tree is of great value.

CHIDORI BESHAKU YAMA-ZAKURA

千鳥別尺の山桜
広島県庄原市東城町千鳥

The following write-up is my translation of the information board found on site.

The yamazakura tree as it is called in Japanese can be found on Shikoku, Honshu and Kyushu as well as in the southern parts of the Korean peninsula. It is commonly found in Hiroshima Prefecture. The young leaves of the yamazakura tree are usually a reddish brown colour and shoot out as the tree flowers, however, on this tree the young leaves are hardly tinged with red at the time of flowering. The different varieties of the yamazakura are strikingly vast and many are known, however it is still unknown which variety this tree in particular belongs to.

There are very few large yamazakura trees and in Japan there are only a handful of yamazakura trees where the girth exceeds 4.5m. In 1990, there were only 8 national and 7 prefecture designated yamazakura trees and as far as it is known, this is the largest one. Its trunk is 4.6 metres in girth and stands at a height of approximately 25 metres. In spite of the fact that this tree is old, it is rare for the trunk to remain this healthy without it hollowing out.

One the southern side of the tree is a small shrine sacred to the koujin （荒神）god and although little is known about the purpose of this tree, it is thought that the tree was planted as a religious symbol and that the site was a common place shared and used by the local population and believers of kojinshinko （荒神信仰） for events.