Just before work recommences...

 ...where to go? (9/365, 9 Jan 2022)

Well, I'm ready to declare I'm not really ready to go back to work, the back to campus, back to classes kind of work. I'd quite happily sit at home doing reading/writing work but yes, I feel the call of changes in life's course coming on. 

So today *looked* like another lovely bike ride kind of day. But I reckoned there was still some of that ice around (narrator: 'there was'). I thought of making a run for the coast, check the town where the surfing events for the Olympics were held (part research), but being the middle of a long weekend (Monday is 'Seijin no Hi', the day celebrated for all those turning twenty this year, officially adulthood. The age for several activities has recently been legislated at 18 but that's for another time) there would probably be a bit of a crowd. I looked at the map and spotted two 'places I should have been to but haven't made it yet', tossed a coin and found myself four stations and 40 minutes later at the Kadokawa Cultural Museum. So close and yet... as they say. Now I will say that today's main purpose was to photograph this building. I've seen it on Instagram and I'm just intrigued. I decided to leave the interior for another time figuring that, for reasons noted above, it would be pretty crowded inside (narrator: it was). Also, Tokyo is not immune from increasing Covid case numbers at present so I wasn't keen to be indoors for any length of time. 

Not to worry, plenty to see from outside, and it truly is an impressive building. 

On the approach

Reflection

Detail

Might be Mt Fuji

Forest creatures

Illuminating

Not the feature but interesting

I like reflections on the water, what can I say...

There is still some snow around

Dusking

Light bulbs and the forest creatures in the distance

I cannot help myself...

'Peace Head' Nara Yoshitomo, 2020

Oh, more reflecting

A bit intriguing

Pause, for refreshment 

Dusking

On leaving...

Across the road was the Musashino Woods project, an 'interesting' project to say the least. I was able to stop and rest at a small cafe, and for ages I was the only person there. Within about an hour though, 'crowded'. Oh well. It is Tokyo after all. (Narrator: Actually, not Tokyo, strictly speaking but Tokorozawa, next door in Saitama.)

Today's pics taken with the Canon EOS90D and the 24-105mm lens, I had the 50mm lens on hand as well just in case. A few pics were also taken with the trusty iPhone 12 mini. I'm looking forward to going back and spending time inside.

Tomorrow, a public holiday officially but I really should turn my attention to work. 

Saturdays are for...

 ...a walk in the neighbourhood (8/365, 8 Jan 2022)

Time to face up to it, this short break is almost done and it is back to the office, and classroom, next week (although with exponentially rising case numbers here in Tokyo, maybe not...). There's another month of teaching to go. 

Some Saturdays are for doing lots of things, some not so much. Today was the latter. There was a little tidying up to do, a little thinking about a project to do and a later start since my New York reading group also resumed this morning, at 3:00am. We read and analyse Hannah Arendt, really.

I had to pop up to the supermarket for a few things so I looked once more at the map, in search of local parks I haven't visited. It looked like a lovely day for a bike ride too but I figured there might also be a lot of black ice around and as much as I enjoy my rides, I wasn't prepared to come a cropper anywhere. It turned out, my hunch was right as these two examples show. 

It looks quite dangerous...

So the walk was to a nearby park, maybe 10 minutes or so, and according to the map, a temple next door too. Off I went. The parks in the neighbourhood are often small, really more like common area backyards for kids in the surrounding apartments to run around in (as they do in the park across the road from me). And so it was with this one, today full of kids and their parents running around, playing catch, kicking soccer balls. Lovely to see the busy-ness and activity. 

However, unlike, say twenty or maybe thirty years ago, well, photos aren't really allowed. I guess the proliferation of social media and pics on the internet (daily blogs and the like 😁) has made people a little more careful about photographing people. Fair enough. I know it has changed my approach to outdoor photography.

The temple next door, Seiryoji (清凉寺) turns out to have quite a history although the original buildings are not there. It also is the site of one of the early schools in the area. Like most such temples these days, it hosts the graves of local families. 

I discovered a new flower here today too, the Japanese allspice or wintersweet blossom (Chimonanthus praecox), roubai (蝋梅) so-named for its waxy look, and although I thought it looked like a plum blossom, apparently it is not related. 

Roubai

It was off to the shops after that and then in search of a restaurant I discovered on the map too. It is a restaurant I used to frequent with friends and I was surprised to find a branch of it within my neighbourhood (the one we used to go to having closed down a little while ago).

Moral of today's story...you can't always trust google maps! It took me down an alleyway to a row of houses...I'll just have to wait for my much anticipated meal of Hokkaido specialties. Next time.

Today's snaps on the iPhone 12 mini. 

Blue skies...

 ...and a few more snow pics (7/365, 7 Jan 2022)

The snow stopped falling not long after I returned home and settled in for the evening. Of course, as I've come to understand, fallen snow melts, in the middle of the night, with the regularity of a dripping tap. There is also the sound of cars driving by through the snow as well. By the time the sun started to rise, snow was falling...in large chunks, from overhead wires, from branches, from rooftops...

And as the morning news presenters reminded us Tokyoites, walk very carefully, for the melting snow turns to ice (black ice in some places) and slips and falls increase. Walk like a penguin, is the usual advice. (Imagine...) So the day after a snowfall needs more caution than walking through a snowfall (to take pics, apparently). 

Thus, with all the caution required of me, off I went early this morning to look at the snow as it melted in the park, off branches, all around. Still as breathtaking as yesterday. 

The early morning light on the branches

High wire act

Melts

How does it stick there?

Where the melted snowdrops land...

No sitting here for a while

Our little community garden feeling a little snowed under

Like patterns in the sand of my more familiar, but snow

Selfie, old school 

Fragile, close-up

I was actually on the way to the shop to buy (all) the papers to read up on the coverage of the signing of an agreement between Japan and Australia. I walked in the shop and turned into the aisle where the wonderful woman I spoke with yesterday was filling the shelves. She saw me and burst into a spontaneous chuckle recalling our conversation. It was such a joy to share the moment all over again. She enjoyed it so much, she told her colleague who wasn't on yesterday's shift. 'You know, little kids were really excited yesterday' she said. 'Little old kids like me you mean?' I asked. 'Yes, nooo, I mean...' she laughed again. 

I left the shop with a cheerio from behind to take care walking back. 

Today's pics using the Canon EOS 90D, a few on the 100-300mm, and most on the 24-105mm. Snow, in bright sunlight, is quite tricky to photograph, as it turns out.