Some more photos from Asukayama Park! The first monument is a bit difficult for me to read so I had to do a bit of research, but it seems to be a commemorative monument signifying the planting of various trees throughout the park to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the Meiji Restoration, and as such, was constructed in 1968, so it's about 50 years old, probably one of the newer monuments of its kind within the park. When I was walking back around the area I saw the dance stage from a different angle and managed to take a photo of the participants through a nice gap in the trees. There were a lot more participants this time so I stopped and watched it for a little while again. At the other end of the park I found this statue of a woman which is actually a statue of the "Goddess of peace" and it was erected in 1974 to wish for world peace and happiness. Even cooler, it was erected by the famous sculptor Seibo Kitamura who erected the "Peace Statue" at Peace Memorial Park in Nagasaki. Really cool to see his works all the way in Tokyo as well!

Went to Asukayama Park near Oji Station yesterday. I've passed by the area many times and seen the gondola leading to the top but never knew what was up there until now. It's a really big park dedicated to Shibusawa Eiichi, known as the father of capitalism in Japan. The park has a bunch of monuments and cultural properties to check out so I managed to take a lot of photos and I'll be uploading them over the next few days. I chose a good day to go it seems too, as there was an event going on. It involved some traditional dances (I think from the Oji area), and it involved some sort of sash that kind of reminded me of a kimono obi, but I'm not sure exactly what it is. They had a taiko drum as well but it seems I didn't make it in time to watch them playing, I only heard it in the distance when I was walking to the park. I thought it was really cool seeing all the different monuments though. Many of them were several hundred years old and the Japanese on them was also and older form, so it was hard for me to read a lot of them lol. It was a really enjoyable experience though, so I'll upload some more photos tomorrow!

Ancient times (秋思祭）

歌舞伎舞踊公演： 連獅子 より 舞踊家：舞踊家（ 亀鶴屋イベントより ） 2014 photo: ATZSHI HIRATZKA Canon 5d3 , 24-70mm f2.8 L

歌舞伎舞踊公演： 連獅子 より 舞踊家：舞踊家（ 亀鶴屋イベントより ） 2014 photo: ATZSHI HIRATZKA Canon 5d3 , 24-70mm f2.8 L

歌舞伎舞踊公演： 連獅子 より 舞踊家：舞踊家（ 亀鶴屋イベントより ） 2014 photo: ATZSHI HIRATZKA Canon 5d3 , 24-70mm f2.8 L

歌舞伎舞踊公演： 連獅子 より 舞踊家：若月仙之助（ 亀鶴屋 ） 2014 photo: ATZSHI HIRATZKA Canon 5d3 , 24-70mm f2.8 L

歌舞伎舞踊公演： 連獅子 より 舞踊家：舞踊家（ 亀鶴屋イベントより ） 2014 photo: ATZSHI HIRATZKA Canon 5d3 , 24-70mm f2.8 L

歌舞伎舞踊公演： 連獅子 より 舞踊家：若月仙之助（ 亀鶴屋 ） 2014 photo: ATZSHI HIRATZKA Canon 5d3 , 24-70mm f2.8 L

歌舞伎舞踊公演：拵えの様子 楽屋より 舞踊家：若月仙之助（ 亀鶴屋 ） 2014 photo: ATZSHI HIRATZKA Canon 5d3 , Zeiss 50mm f1.4

歌舞伎舞踊公演： 連獅子 より 舞踊家：若月仙之助（ 亀鶴屋 ） 2014 photo: ATZSHI HIRATZKA Canon 5d3 , 24-70mm f2.8 L