A nice little run.

There are trails EVERYWHERE here in Japan! This section of a trail is between Zushi and Taura. It's beautiful. It is very soggy right now due to recent rains.

I ran down an almost hidden road in the Taura area and came upon a red Torii gate at a start of this path. It was beautiful, so I followed it up... and up... and up!

On the way up, I passed this little farm tucked into the Taura hills.

These Torii gates were lined up just above the little farm. I didn't count them, but they go on beyond what shows up in the photo. The path actually turns to the left and leads to a small shrine.

This is the shrine at the end of the Torii gates.

I took this photo at the park in Taura (see previous post). I think I caught the trail at Numama and took it to Mt. Futago, then Taura and back to Numama.

This is the pedestrian bridge to cross the expressway and head up to the Taura park.
Looking toward Zushi from the pedestrian bridge.
Apparently they have homes like this in Japan too. Reminds me of some neighbors I have had in the past.
Sake break! Sure, alcohol vending machines are common-place here in Japan, but in this particular area it just struck me as funny.

Ha! Found it! Park in Taura.

The sign above sits on a hilltop high above the Yokosuka-Yokohama Expressway. It is in a park in Taura.

There is a brand new little playground for kids here too. It is not open yet. I am not sure when the playground will actually open because I saw the sign way down there after I had walked all the way back up.

I'm not sure if these are Sakura (cherry blossoms) or plum blossoms. The trees here were just starting to bloom, so I think they may be the first Sakura flowers. This hill looks to be a great place to view Japan's unofficial national flower.

I don't know of a good way to get up to this park because I came and left via trail.

Tokyo Tower

We were in Roppongi yesterday and saw the Tokyo Tower at the end of the road. We decided to go up. The Tokyo Tower is 13 meters taller than the Eiffel Tower in Paris.

That's the Rainbow Bridge and the Odaiba area across the way. The building with the golden sphere over there is the Fuji Television building. You can walk across the Rainbow Bridge. I'm told it takes about 30 minutes. We like to take the monorail-like train over it.

I can't remember which direction this view is, but I know the photo was taken from the Main Observatory level at 150 meters.

This is called a Look Down window. You can stand on it too. It's from the lower part of the 150 meter Main Observatory deck. I saw one mother refusing to let her young child on it.

This view is from the Special Observatory at 250 meters. It cost 820￥to get to the Main Observatory and another 600￥to get up to the Special Observatory. There were long lines to get in, for the elevator up to the 150 meter level, to buy tickets for the next elevator, for the elevator up to the 250 meter level, and long lines to get back down as well. Plan accordingly.

Roppongi, Roppongi, let down your wig!

We went to Roppongi today with the sole purpose of looking for Exotic Tokyo Kit Kats at the 6-floor Don Quijote store and taking a picture of the Gas Panic bar. What we found was soooo much more!
We made an impromptu side trip to the Tokyo Tower. I'll post those photos later, but here is one from inside the tower. This man and/or woman was visiting as well. He/she invited the attention and wanted photos taken. Who am I to refuse? Here he/she is atop the Look Down window in the Main Observatory level at 150 meters.

Here is the Gas Panic club in Roppongi. It is just down from Chickenman.

We found these Hello Kitty nose hair clippers in the Don Quijote, but no Exotic Kit Kats. We did find enormous packages of Kit Kats. With my photography skills, I managed to make them look like average size bars... hence the lack of a photo.

I can't remember if I posted about these before... I think I did. They are edamame key chains that you can pop the beans in and out.

Saru chie! That's a monkey's idea.

The Kamakura Museum is located just off to the side of the Tsurugaoka Hachimangu Shrine. No photographs are allowed inside the museum, so here is a link that has one interior photo. There are impressive statues inside dating back to the 13th century. One of them had intense eyes that seem to follow you as you walk by. That statue is grouped together with other demon statues from hell.

The other half of the museum is a doll museum. Hina Matsuri is a doll festival. Those dolls are set up everywhere this time of year. There are some really old ones on display in this museum.
The entrance into the museum.

Yes, I did mean to take this photo. There were a bunch of high school boys sitting all around me on the train and all of their shoes and pants looked the same. They look so nice from a distance.

There are throngs of Japanese high schoolers all over the place because they are taking their final trip. They are required to take a trip to someplace in Japan and learn something. The tour guide I was with asked some of the boys where they had come from and what they had learned. They came from Omiya to Kamakura, but they could not tell him anything they had learned.

Another thing I learned to day was a Japanese expression. Saru chie. It means "monkey's idea" and it is used to describe something that seemed good at the time, but ends up being bad for a lot of people.

Miniature Erasers

I had to buy tiny gifts to stuff in some plastic eggs, so I bought these erasers. You can buy them everywhere, but I love that many of these are replicas of popular Japanese dishes.

See if you can find the Unagi Donburi in the picture.

Tokamachi Snow Festival

This is the Tokamachi Snow Festival. It is not the same as the Sapporo Snow Festival.

The in the foreground of this photo are as close as the general public could get to the snow castle. The people up at the castle must have been part of a show later on. They had lights shining on the snow to turn it different colors. Later that that night, they shot off fireworks from the top of the castle.

A giant snow dragon.

They had several igloos set up. Some of them had little shrines in them. This one seemed to be set up just for kids to play in.
This is a tea ceremony. A very cold tea ceremony.