...but there is always time for a walk... (170/365, 19 Jun 2022)
All credit to the organisers, the program over-ran the scheduled time by about 10 minutes, pretty good really. And, being summer, and being an online conference from the comfort of my own desk, that meant that instead of rushing to catch a train to get back to Tokyo, I had time and enough light in the day to go for a walk, further explorations of the suburb's parks. So I did.
You will recall last week I hopped on a bus, travelled about 15-20 minutes to arrive at the park and promenade by the river. To get that far, the bus passes another park, not far from where I used to live and I've been meaning to go there for a while, well, almost every time I go past it on the bus on the way to the 'other' station I go to from time to time.
It is actually an entry point to Itabashi's largest park, Akatsuka Koen. It stretches along the roadways and under the freeway for about two and half km and covers around 25 hectares. I started at the other end today, but it finishes not far from the Tokyo Daibutsu, just down the road. It was an interesting walk, and it turned out much of it was fenced off, but rich and dense greenery nonetheless. The houses built alongside it appreciate it I'm sure.
The staircase leading to the lower reaches was the first surprise. I walked along the road until I reached a more accessible part of the park, close to the main Akatsuka Koen, and close to where I used to live, I knew this part of the park...or so I thought.
I came across a smallish, brackish pond I hadn't seen before. There was one duck, not surprising. And then there were two...and then, suddenly, behind me as I was trying to take a photo, a woman came up behind me with a bit of a 'what are you doing' look, and after the usual greetings, once she sussed me out, she brought out the duck food...seems she was just checking I wasn't going to be annoyed about her feeding the ducks. Some people are she told me. Ah, I said. She fed her ducks (obviously they knew, she comes every day by bike apparently), and started telling me about her travels. She'd been to Australia, about thirty years ago. Ah, I said. Turned out, she had travelled to about 53 countries all up and was a bit disappointed Covid had basically brought her travels to an end. We had a lovely little chat for about 10 minutes, then she got on her bike and went on her way.
I took a few more pics of the ducks then headed over to the main park and on towards the bus stop. A lovely way to end the weekend.
 |
| Steep |
 |
| The Olympics popularised skateboarding but not too much... |
 |
| These hydrangeas intrigue me |
 |
| Quite possibly the most stunning hydrangea bush in the wild that I've sen |
 |
| Musical birds |
Today's pics on the Canon EOS M5, 18-150mm lens.
