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３年ぶりの川越まつり
例年より人が多く、まったく身動きが取れないような場所もありました。
久々にこのような大きな祭りが開催され、ようやく今まで通りの日常が戻ってきたな、と感じられた祭りでした。

深谷市の緑の王国ライトアップ
年に一度、冬季のみ行われ、幻想的な光景を見られます

今月10/9に行われた寄居町の「北条祭り」です。
北条氏とその敵陣営に分かれ、玉淀河原で合戦を行いました。
大砲や花火なども打ち上げられ、迫力のある演武を見させていただきました。

Enjoying the beautiful pre-autumn morning in a traditional way. Over 5 million red spider lily were full bloomed at kinchakuda park in Saitama Prefecture. The place was very crowdy and it was difficult to take a satisfactory shot. As a novice photographer it was very challenging to me. Anyway after attempting several times finally I was satisfied. I think the beautiful red carpet with the spider lily and the traditional umbrella creates a good combination.

曼珠沙華のを見に行きました！ギリギリ見頃で一面赤色でとても綺麗でした！

Over 5 million red spider lily is bloomed here in Kinchakuda park in Hidaka city of Saitama prefecture. The bright colors of this flower attracts the tourist from a long distance apart. Here the one flower bloomed over the top of the red carpet like colors. This flower is very eager to show its beauty to the flower lovers.

A scarlet autumn morning in a traditional way at Kinchakuda park in Saitama prefecture. This is most probably the biggest place to see the red spider lilies in Japan. A very vast area turns like a red carpet. This unique flowers and a traditional touch makes the day perfect.

A scarlet autumn morning in a traditional way at Kinchakuda park in Saitama prefecture. This is most probably the biggest place to see the red spider lilies in Japan. A very vast area turns like a red carpet. This unique flowers and a traditional touch makes the day perfect.

川越八幡宮
川越にはよく行くのですが、ここには必ずお参りしています。
休日は人も多く、にぎわっています。

今夜はロックグラスの底に富士山がある富士山グラスで有名な江戸硝子のTAJIMA GLASSで秩父のイチローズモルトウイスキーの白ラベルと青ラベルを飲み比べ

白の方が飲みやすいけど、青の方が好みだな

Decided to go back to Gyoda again this weekend.

We had such a good time last time we went we decided we wanted to check out the cherry blossoms this spring. Managed to visit some really nice places.

We originally wanted to use the rental bicycles that they have in front of the station but we got there past noon and all of them were taken unfortunately.
Fortunately for us, it ended up getting a bit colder later on so it actually worked out.

We got lucky as there was a really convenient sightseeing bus that rolled through the station to all of the major places in the city every 45 minutes or so.

We checked out the cherry blossoms at Gyoda Castle and they had the Hanachozu (花手水, pots of flowers floating in water). We were able to see a few of these throughout the city which was nice.
They also had traditional umbrellas on display in a few areas around the castle which was really pretty.

After Gyoda Castle we visited the Sakitama Burial Mounds which had some really beautiful views of the cherry blossoms.
There was also a flock of herons flying around the area but I wasn't able to get a very good photo of any of them.
Luckily we got some great photos of the cherry blossoms and the main mound and had a really enjoyable time.

We also stopped by Suijo Park and there were some food stalls in the area, but we got there when everything was just about closed so we only got to see a few of the vendors.
We managed to get a really tasty lemonade and a latte though. Both tasted really good.
Surprisingly there were a lot of cosplayers at the park.
We probably saw like 20-30 people cosplaying using the bridges and cherry blossoms in the area.

On the way back to the station we managed saw this river during the bus ride and so we backtracked a little bit after getting to the station (about 5 minutes walking) and got to enjoy some really phenomenal views of the cherry blossoms along the river.
There were hardly any people there as well, surprisingly.

Overall it was a really awesome time!

It's finally starting to feel like spring.
Loving the cherry blossoms around Tokyo already, it just needs to get a bit warmer.
Temperature feels a lot more up and down this year, but maybe it's just my imagination.

Hoping I can get out this weekend and enjoy some more views outside of Tokyo.
I'm not sure how much the cherry blossoms have bloomed in Saitama, but I enjoyed seeing all the photos and videos of the Kawazu Cherry Blossom Festival.

It's a bit too far/expensive for a day trip (6 hours on a train doesn't sound fun), but it'd be nice to see them one day.
From my knowledge, the cherry blossoms tend to stay in bloom longer there so it'd be nice to see them eventually.
Either way, I'm just happy spring is finally here!

さいたま市の自宅から、真っ赤な“天使のはしご”に遭遇しました。

秩父盆地では、夜に地表付近の空気が冷えて霧が発生することが多く、市街地を覆うように雲海が発生します。「都心から一番近い雲海」として注目を集めています。

秩父神社の「鬼やらい」
毎年2月3日に行われている秩父神社の「節分追儺（ついな）祭」のことです。
鬼がいっぱい登場し、年男・年女による「鬼やらい」や「豆撒き」が行われます。
年男・年女が「鬼は外～」といいながら豆をまくと、鬼は退散。

This Kasaboko (flower parasol) used in 300 years old Japanese festival in Chichibu which actually looks stunning. This chichibu night festival is also known as 'chichibu yomatsuri'. I was really very excited to see it.

I didn't have enough space to write it the other day, but after visiting Fukuda Inari Shrine the other day in Nishi-Omiya, Saitama we stopped by a café called Mango Tree Cafe, a small Thai restaurant on the way back to the station.

We'd already eaten, so we just wanted to sit down and relax from all the walking and to catch a break from the cold. We ordered some frozen drinks and a mango ice cream which all tasted quite good. I think the ice cream was the best but I didn't get a picture of it.

I ordered the watermelon frozen juice and it was pretty nice, but they had something called "manaonade" (アンチャンマナオネード) which I guess means "blue tea" or "butterfly pea flower tea-ade" (lol).
It's a type of herbal tea I guess but it seemed interesting. I was considering getting it, but I'd never heard of it before so decided to stay on the safe side and just get the watermelon.

I'll probably try it next time as I know this place is a chain restaurant with other locations in Tokyo. Plus I never really eat Thai food, so it'd be something nice to try for a change

Wanted to do Hatsumode this year but didn't want to go anywhere crowded, so I decided to go out to Saitama and find a small shrine to visit. Ended up at this tiny shrine in Nishi-Omiya called Fukuda Inari Shrine (福田稲荷神社). It was super small and not a single person was there so it was like we had the whole place to ourselves.

There was no real path leading up to the shrine so we had to walk through a plot of land that wasn't being used but it ended up being a really cool place.
The approach to the shrine was really mysterious and once you get past the second torii gate you can see a bamboo forest surrounding the whole area. It was really neat as I couldn't see any bamboo from the outside and didn't really know what to expect when I visited.

The shrine itself looks almost deserted but somehow still well maintained.
I wanted to go inside to look at the pictures better but obviously I can't so I just admired them from afar.
The temizuya/chozuya (or at least I think it was that, maybe this would be considered a chozubachi?) didn't have a ladle to wash your hands but maybe it has to do with corona.

Anyways, it was a really nice little shrine and is a great place if you're looking for a mini adventure outside of Tokyo.
Or if you want to do Hatsumode and avoid the crowds completely lol.
Also, happy new year!

埼玉県川越の風景です。
ここの街並みは好きでよくいきます。
最近は観光客も増えて混んでる時が多いですがとてもすきな街です。

トーベ・ヤンソンあけぼの子どもの森公園という公園です。駐車場も無料公園も無料です。1年に一度ライトアップいたします。
今はしてませんが普通に昼間もムーミンの公園でインスタ映えいたします。

初霜が降りた氷点下の朝

自宅付近からの撮影。
葉が落ちた木々の間から見えるお月様がとても幻想的な夜でした。

岩槻城跡公園
雨上がりのリフレクション。
水面に写り込んだ景色が、まるで絵画のような世界を作り出していました。

I found a Saitama fair in Ueno station and they were selling my favorite sweets 十万石まんじゅう!! I highly recommend this to anyone going to Saitama ?

こんにちは

暴れススキ?と申します

秋の植物やってます

ぜひご覧になってって下さい

I'm pretty sure this is the last photo that I have of my trip to Kumagaya. Was a really awesome time and I'd love to revisit sometime in the future. You can really feel the summer atmosphere with the koinobori and the clear skies as well. I wanted to walk along the canal and see how long it is and see if I could find any cool cafes, restaurants, or other shops to check out, but I was unfortunately short on time so I didn't get the chance. It'll have to wait for a return trip.

Kumagaya was an interesting town though, so I'm sure I'll be able to find at least a few hidden gems to explore along the canals. I want to explore the rest of the city more too. It had some nice places to eat but I want to see more of the local culture, etc. next time I'm there.

Another photo from Kumagaya. This is a big map outside of Kumagaya Station's North Exit, depicting, from what I understand, Kumagaya and the surrounding area in 1936. It's a bit difficult to see, but if you zoom in you can see Kumagaya on the left side with Tokyo in the upper left behind it, and to the right of Kumagaya you can see Kami-Kumagaya, from there, if you look to the bottom-right you'll see Kumagaya City Hall and furthest to the right is Ishiwara. Underneath Ishiwara you can also see several schools (elementary, middle, high school) and a hospital.

It's quite difficult to see in this photo, but the mountain at the far back right is Mt. Asama, and you can see Nagatoro as well. On top of that, there's the Arakawa River running through the background of the entire map and a bridge connecting to Onuma Park as well.

There's tons of stuff to see in just this one map, I love looking at old maps and historic things like this. I could stare at it for hours and still find new and interesting things.

I found a few more photos of my trip to Kumagaya. Being as it's the "Rugby Town" of Japan, it's only natural that it has a big statue of a rugby ball! It's kind of a cute statue and it reminds me of something from a movie, although I'm not sure which movie it is I'm thinking of. Apparently there's supposed to be a few of these statues found around other parts of Kumagaya, but I don't remember if I saw them or not. Obviously I saw some of the other statues, like the one over the canal, etc., but I don't remember seeing more than one of this statue. Perhaps at one of the other exits of Kumagaya Station. Also, the statue is apparently called "Rugby Boy" ("ラグビー少年" in Japanese), for anyone curious!