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