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紅葉です

てすと

クールジャパンビデオ｜日本の観光・旅行・グルメ・面白情報をまとめた動画キュレーションサイト「COOL JAPAN VIDEOS」

https://cooljapan-videos.com

お待たせいたしました。
令和５年度の新米を発売いたします！

#新米 #東川町 #北海道
#道の駅ひがしかわ道草館
#ゆめぴりか #ななつぼし
#おぼろづき #こだわり米

The next day returning from my two and a half months travel in Europe, I visited Nara, one of the most historical cities in Japan, with my friends. Compared to the cool weather in Europe, the Japanese summer was too hot for me. It seems like it was too hot for the deers too. I wanted to jump in with them!

Some photos of our trip to Sawara in Chiba Prefecture over the 3 day weekend a couple weeks back.

On the way to Sawara we stopped at Chiba Station and had lunch at a place called Common Café. I order a burger not expecting a lot, but it was the best burger I've had in a long time actually.

We arrived a bit late in Sawara and were kind of tired so we decided to just go to the hotel, shower and relax for a bit and then have dinner.
We had a reservation at a French restaurant called Mougins and it ended up being a really great experience.

After eating dinner we were headed back to the hotel and we heard some hayashi and cheering in the distance and we decided to check out what was happening. We found a dashi parading through the streets and they were stopping at different places to pick up alcohol lol. Apparently they'd been doing it every Sunday, I think since corona started.
It was pretty cool to see though.

The next day we went to check out the Sawara Historical District and after reaching our destination we decided to take a break at a cafe. We ordered a shaved ice and some sort of soda. They were both really delicious, especially the shaved ice. It was some sort of flavor using tea from Kyoto and milk. I forget what it was called exactly though.

We also stopped by the former residence of Inoh Tadataka, the famous Japanese cartographer.
It was quite interesting seeing where he lived.
After visiting his residence, we to the nearby museum and learned about his life and everything he did.

I was pretty blown away by how incredible he actually was. I was a bit surprised that I hadn't learned much about him when I was studying the history of Japan, but after visiting the museum I'm convinced he was truly a genius.

Unfortunately I couldn’t take pictures inside of the museum, but seeing all of the tools that he used to draw maps and learning how they worked was really interesting.
On top of that, the maps he drew were unbelievably accurate.
I think it mentioned somewhere that his maps were used until the 1900's, despite being drawn several hundred years prior.
His cartography was only one of the endeavors he pursued as well. There were also some documents that explained how he helped his town get through the famine, and also documents detailing how he dealt with local lords imposing taxes on his town.

Besides the museum, we also took a boat ride through the canal that ran through the historical district.
The canal was quite nice, and you could see the historical buildings that lined the sides of it while going through it.
We had to lower the cover on the boat for several bridges as the water level was quite high due to the recent rains, but that just made the experience even more memorable.

The tour guide on the boat mentioned how when the canal was used back in the Edo period, it was incredibly busy and boats would have been bumping into each other constantly while passing through.

During the boat ride through the canal I noticed some interesting statues on various lanterns and decided to check them out. They all turned out to be interesting and unique.

We ended our trip by having a late lunch near the historical district.
We had planned to take a train back to Tokyo but missed it by a few minutes.
Fortunately, a bus arrived at the perfect time and so we rode that back to Tokyo. It was much better than the crowded trains.

Overall it was a really good day-trip style excursion and I definitely recommend it!
Managed to find 2 poke lids too!

京都の嵐山の大覚寺に行った時の写真です。
今にも雨が降りそうな感じです。

上賀茂神社/京都府

京都で最も古い神社です。青い空に朱色の楼門がよく映えます。正式名称は賀茂別雷神社といい、賀茂別雷大神を御祭神とする神社です。調べたところ、別雷神とは「雷を別けるほどに強い力を持つ神」という意味で古来より厄除・災難除け・必勝の神として信仰されているそうです。夏に訪れたのは今回が初めてでした。

広島県にある世界遺産「原爆ドーム」を訪れました。
ここに来ると色々と考えさせられます。
夜に訪れると重みが感じられるのでおすすめです。

昨日に続き、福島県南会津にある｢大内宿｣にて。
まるでタイムスリップしたかのような感覚にもなる歴史的な場所でした。

江戸時代に会津若松市と日光今市を結ぶ重要な道の宿場町として栄えた「大内宿」
現在も江戸時代の面影をそのまま残し
この景観を引き継ぐために店舗兼住居として実際に生活されているそうです。
写真は小高い丘から撮ったんですが
30軒以上の茅葺屋根の民家が立ち並ぶ光景は圧巻でした。

二条城のプロジェクションマッピング?｡:*
お洒落なお花見遊び?

夜のお散歩にチラッと行く大阪城はいつも散りかけの桜の季節?

福岡市にある、福岡城跡と桜の写真です。城の濠に映る桜と城壁、ライトアップが日本の春を感じさせてくれます。

大阪市の大阪城公園、西の丸庭園からみた大阪城です。庭園内は200円の入園料が必要ですが、大阪城が目の前に見え、季節の花々が咲き誇るのでとても美しいです。春は桜の名所です。白いユキヤナギが群生している姿も絶景。

広島県庄原市にある丑寅神社。
鎮守の森に包まれた鳥居の様子は、いかにもかくりよの門。
いろんな神社に行きましたが、自然とここまで調和した場所はなかなか珍しいように感じます。

成田山新勝寺にて撮影しました。?初詣のときに敷地内にある五重の塔の造形美に惹かれて撮影。1500年の歴史を垣間見ることができました。

タイトルは『踊るよさこい旗』
いつかまた踊り子さんたちと観客の熱気を感じられる特別な4日間が訪れますように

Just some more photos to wrap up our trip to Nikko.

I took a bunch of photos of different monuments and buildings that seemed important or had lavish decorations.
I can't make out what the writing on the monument says but I can at least make out the kanji for heart (心).

I also liked the golden palanquins inside the the building in the forth photo, although I'm not sure if they were used at some point or are simply for decoration.

The other photos are from Futarasan Chugushi Shrine (二荒山中宮祠神社) located in front of Lake Chuzenji.
Unfortunately we didn't have time to go inside the shrine but I was at least able to take some nice photos of the torii gate.
Apparently it has a kagura hall as well and the entrance to Mt. Nantai is located inside the shrine as well.

And finally, just an assortment of food that I haven't posted yet.
All of it tasted great.
It was definitely a trip I'm never going to forget!

Some more photos from our trip to Nikko.

There were so many awesome monuments, landmarks, and buildings that it'd be impossible to fit it all into one post.

I was so glad that I had my mobile battery with me because I was taking so many photos that I was just burning through my battery lol.
I really liked how the incense burner looked and I tried looking up how old it was but I wasn't able to find anything about it, only the one in front of Tokugawa Ieyasu's burial site.

I would have liked to use the chozuya as well, but unfortunately it was closed off due to covid.
I also liked seeing the sake barrels as well as they always brighten up shrines.

The "Ippon Toro" lantern was interesting as well.
I'd never heard of Empress Tofukumon'in before either, so it gave me some interesting things to read about Japan's Edo Period.
Apparently she helped rebuild prominent temple in Kyoto and collected art and pottery from famous artisans of the time and even those of the past.

Some buildings I'd have to look at a map to know their names but there was definitely no shortage of decorations.
Unfortunately we weren't able to take photos inside some of the main buildings, but a few of them had ceiling paintings done by famous painters.
Many of them were birds, and I'm not an expert, but I think they were mostly cranes and they were all really beautiful.

Continuing on from yesterday's post...

On the second and final day of our trip we woke up and ate a light breakfast followed by some udon and soba at a nice little restaurant on the way to the Kirifuri Highlands (霧降高原).

We were originally planning on hiking up to the observation deck around 880 meters up the mountain, but it proved to be a little farther than we thought it would be an had to stop at around 650 meters as there was a massive staircase to reach the observation deck and not everyone in the group was up for the challenge lol.
Not having the proper gear didn't help much either.
Most people had on snow shoes and they could easily trek through the snow but wearing just boots or tennis shoes we were a bit under-equipped and decided it'd be better not to overdo it.
We got to see some really amazing views and talk to an 85-year-old man who told us what gear we should buy if we're planning on hiking in the snow, about how the dam located on the mountains across from us rises and falls during the day/night, and how this was his ~60th time climbing the mountain but the woman he came with has done it more than 300 times.
She had to turn back early that day, but those are some impressive numbers!

After enjoying the outdoors we headed over to Nikko Edomura/Edo Wonderland (日光江戸村) and had a blast exploring the theme park.
We arrived at about 2pm so we got a nice discount on our all-day passes.

Walking around we got to see all of the different buildings that gave the theme park its Edo-Period-feel.
We also got to see the oiran procession (花魁道中) which was really awesome as well.

It seemed like they tried to make it as accurate as possible too.
The way the courtesan walked was in the traditional figure eight style which, from what I've read, is not easily done, so I assume that this is a sort of special type of profession as she was doing it (to my untrained eye) perfectly.
One funny thing was that the girls in red in front of the courtesan had to slouch somewhat because they were too tall and the theme park obviously can't employ children to play the role like they would have traditionally.

We also got some temporary "tattoos."
They got some cute Nyan-mage tattoos and I got a Shinsengumi tattoo lol.

After that we watched a really awesome performance inside of the ninja theater, but we weren't allowed to film or take photos so I don't have anything to post unfortunately.
It was really cool seeing the ninja actors jumping off of rooves and fighting though.

On top of that we also tried out the ninja maze where I was unfortunately the last one to make it out as I got unlucky and hit a dead end at the last part of the maze.
This was a really fun experience as there were a lot of hidden and revolving doors that you had to find to escape the maze.

We also did the shuriken experience and I managed to get 3/5 but I gave one of my shuriken to my girlfriend in the hopes that she would stick one in the target but unfortunately she wasn't able to lol.
I guess I was technically 3/4 because of that.

Overall the whole trip was a blast and we got to make some awesome memories out in Tochigi.
I definitely recommend it as a travel destination!

福岡県北九州市にある恵比寿神社でのお宮参りの様子です。
赤ちゃんの健やかな成長を願い、生後一ヶ月頃に御参りします。
その後も、七五三や成人等、人生の節目に御参りする人が多いです。お宮参りは、その1番初めにあたるもの、神様への初お目見えです。
見守ってくれる神様がいると思うと、何だか心強いですね。

初めて上まで登れた金比羅山!!
めっちゃ筋肉痛で痛いけど
登れて良かったなー?
リベンジ成功✌️?

岡山県の美観地区をお散歩しに?
昔の事は全然分からへんけど
歩くだけでワクワクする
何回行っても大好きな場所☺️
美味しー物食べて飲んで幸せしかない♡

鬼踊り 節分 廬山寺

福井市の一乗谷朝倉氏遺跡の城下町を再現した「復原町並」内に、色鮮やかな和傘20本と風鈴300個で彩られた とっても可愛い場所でした。
風が吹くと風鈴の音色が 心地良く 夏空と風鈴の音色と和傘の彩りに 暑さも忘れて 来場した人達は 楽しそうに夢中で撮影されてました。

Decided to donate some clothes I wasn't wearing anymore over the weekend so I decided to go to the Second Street in Minami-Senju.

Managed to find some cool stuff along the way.
I was walking from Minowabashi and saw this nice looking temple, apparently called Koshunin (公春院).
It was a really lovely spot and I would have liked to take more photos but I had some luggage with me and also wanted to avoid taking any photos of the tombstones as I thought it might be rude.
It seems the temple focus on memorial services though and looked like a nice place.

The next spot I came across was just a really small shrine that seemed so randomly placed that I wanted to take a picture of it.
There wasn't much space inside the shrine are so it was quite difficult to get a decent photo, but I did the best that I could and tried to take a photo from the side street next to it which was also incredibly narrow lol.

The last thing I ended up finding was a statue of Matsuo Basho!
I'd not been to Minami-Senju as I've never really had a reason to go there, but I saw the statue from the corner of my eye and thought "Hmm I wonder if that's Basho" and sure enough it was.
It even has "The Narrow Road to the Deep North" (奥の細道) written below it.
Also, apparently there is debate about which "Senju" he started at (Adachi or Arakawa), so this is one of the statues depicting the place where he started his journey!

It ended up being a pretty interesting walk.
I'd like to visit the area again as there was a ton of cool stuff.

”炎舞の始まり”
鬼すべ
日本三大火祭りのひとつ。寛和2年(986年)に菅原道真公のひ孫の菅原輔正によって始められたそうです。
災難消除・火除けの神事で災い事の 象徴である鬼を退治するというもので、
毎年多くの参拝者が、燃え上がる巨大な炎に一年間の幸せを祈るお祭りです。