Wabi-Sabi Sole

Finding Beauty with Imperfection

Cutest Corner Garden

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On June 12, 2018

In Flowers, Gardens, Japan

Along our normal running route is a cute little garden. The garden is special for a couple reasons.

1. It’s not really a garden. It’s actually a parking area, but the owner doesn’t appear to have a vehicle (just a bicycle). In their parking area, they made a little garden because the cement pad is not as cute as plants.

2. The owner of the garden changes out the plants every month. This enables them to showcase what is blooming during that season.

3. It’s down a dead end alley. We run down it because at the dead end is a way to cut through to park. The alley is mostly used by pedestrians transiting to the park, making the garden even more appreciated.

In March, I decided to start documenting the garden with a photo each month. At this point, I have four months of pictures. Two things are in each picture, the bicycle and the bark pieces. The bike is so Japanese and the bark makes it all seem more garden-like. Also, with all our runs, we’ve never seen the gardener!

March 2018 – the highlight for me was of course the daffodils.

April 2018 – the azaleas are so beautiful! Also, notice how big the hosta has become.

May 2018 – Roses and a huge hosta. Different than the one in the other pictures.

June 2018 – many tropical flowers. I recognized jasmine and bougainvillea.

I’ll continue to take a photo each month and share again next quarter. I hope you enjoyed the pictures as much as we enjoy passing the garden everyday. You just never know where you will find beauty. It’s the wabisabi way!

Odawara Castle Gardens

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On June 9, 2018

In Hydrangeas, Japan, Odawara Castle

Friday afternoon, I met up with Sonia to visit the Odawara Castle Gardens. Odawara is near Hakone and about an hour train ride from Zushi station. Here was our route on the train.

We arrived at Odawara Station in the early afternoon. I wanted to visit this area because I heard about the beautiful hydrangeas on the hillside of the castle. We passed so many hydrangeas on our walk from the station to the castle. Hydrangeas are everywhere this time of year. They are so beautiful!

At the Odawara Castle Garden, we were also greeted by irises. They were planted in the marsh area in front of the hydrangeas on the hillside. I was overwhelmed with all the beautiful flowers!

Check out these hydrangeas! I used my hand to give you scale perspective. They were ginormous!

We took time to take our “modeling” photos. Not sure I make the best model during rainy season. I feel like I’m a constant ball of sweatiness. Sonia, on the other hand, is flawless. Regardless, it’s totally worth it for the beautiful flowers.

A few more pictures of the hillside. It’s so hard to pick a favorite color. Is it ok if I just love them all, together?

There were actually two gardens connected by a little passageway underneath a vermilion bridge. Because every garden in Japan should have a vermilion bridge.

What I’m not sure I captured in my photos were the number of people also visiting the garden in the heat of Friday afternoon. That is one thing I love about the Japanese culture. They embrace and take time to appreciate the natural beauty that surrounds them. As we continued to walk around the garden, we spied an art exhibit.

We walked over to investigate. It looked like art painted on some sort of waterproof canvas. Each were so unique.

Irises, hydrangeas, and art. What a great day. What more could we want? Oh, right! The Odawara Castle.

We didn’t actually visit the castle, we have both seen plenty of Japanese castles and were more interested in the flowers. It was however, fun to people watch. There was a group who rented outfits.

Also, a man made Castle reflecting pond. Everyone wanted a picture of the castle reflection!

By the time we finished walking through the garden, we were ready for lunch. We stopped at restaurant that served sushi and tempura. We both had the lunch set. It was a combination of both sushi and tempura.

After lunch, we headed back to the train station. We passed over another vermilion bridge and enjoyed seeing the koi.

Unfortunately, I led us to the wrong train and we ended up going 10 minutes in the wrong direction. No big deal. We hopped to the other track and enjoyed the coastal view while we waited for our train.

One last little story. If you ever wonder about the safety in Japan, please know, it’s extremely safe (7th safest country in the world). As we were waiting for the train to take us back in the correct direction, we watched a group of young kids. They seemed to be elementary aged. Maybe first-third grade. There was no adult around watching them. Although this picture shows them all huddled together, prior to this, they were running around, talking and just being kids. But, they were kids who weren’t caring about their safety. They were happy to be going home from school on a Friday afternoon. They were just kids, being kids.

The world needs more kids being happy. And flowers.

Exploring Shinjuku

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On June 8, 2018

In Japan, Shinjuku

After our visit to the Yayoi Kusama Museum Thursday morning, Katie and I set out to explore Shinjuku. We visited Shinjuku back in February and still had more on our list of things to see.

Our first stop was for lunch. We stopped at a conveyor belt sushi restaurant. It was delicious!

After lunch, we visited the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building.

During normal business hours, visitors are able to go to the 45th floor for free. The view was spectacular.

It’s hard to see, but in the far background of the photo below is the Tokyo Skytree.

While at the top, we went into a Japanese photo booth. They are like Snapchat Polaroids. Visiting one has been on Katie’s list. We will need to visit the ones in Harajuku. This one was kind of amateur hour. Regardless, our creations were hilarious.

After our trip to the top, we went back to area where we ate lunch. Or as we started to call it “crazy town.” There was so much going on, everywhere!

As we were walking around, we found this great craft beer and pizza restaurant called Tap Stand. We needed to visit! We both ordered the green tea IPA. Yummy! It was approaching dinner time and we were getting hungry. Who doesn’t love pizza!?!from the suggestion of our waiter, we ordered the thin crust mushroom pizza. It was delicious. This restaurant will be a place to return with Dave.

On the wall above the kitchen were numerous American brewery stickers. I was so excited to see Lakefront, Lagunitas, and Revolution stickers. It was like Chicago was welcoming us back home! As I’m looking closer at the stickers in the pictures, I realize there is a Tap Stand Brewery sticker. Now I definitely need to go back!

After dinner, it was time to head back home. It was such a fun Japanese Street culture afternoon. Between our museum visit in the morning and exploring in the afternoon/ evening we experienced a wide spectrum of Shinjuku culture. Believe it or not, we still didn’t get to everything on Katie Shinjuku list! I’m looking forward to our next Shinjuku adventure!

Yayoi Kusama Museum

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On June 7, 2018

In Japan, Yayoi Kusama Myseum

Katie was able to successfully obtain two tickets for a visit to the Yayoi Kusama Museum in the Shinjuku area of Tokyo. Obtaining the tickets was no small feat. The website used to make reservations for tickets is in Japanese. She used Google Translate to help her successfully get two tickets for the 12:30-14:00 time slot on June 7th. We met on the train at the Kanazawa Hakkei station. The trip to the museum took a little over an hour and three different trains. Overall, it wasn’t too difficult. The Museum is tucked away in a very quiet part of Shinjuku. The ten minute walk from the Wasada Station to the Museum was pleasant. Hydrangeas were everywhere!

Yayoi Kusama is a Japanese contemporary artist. She is known for her infinity sculptures and paintings. At the Yayoi Kusama Museum was a very cool infinity pumpkin exhibit.

Visitors were allowed in the infinity pumpkin exhibit for two minutes at a time. Katie and I went through twice! It was very cool!

Every minute, the exhibit lights would turn off. Slowly, the the pumpkins would be illuminated. Here’s a video.

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The museum was five stories. The reception area was on the first floor. The second and third floor had pieces of her work. Unfortunately, photography wasn’t permitted on these floors. The fourth floor had the infinity pumpkin exhibit room and the fifth floor was an rooftop level with an exhibit called Starry Pumpkin.

Plus, a great view of the city!

Even the elevator had polka dots!

After our visit to the museum, we spent the rest of the afternoon and early evening exploring Shinjuku. Those adventures deserve a separate post! More to follow…

Rainy Season 2018

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On June 6, 2018

In Japan, Rainy Season

It has rained all day. I even woke up early this morning for the “sole” reason to get a run in before the rain started. Unfortunately, a 4:30am wake up was too late. It was already raining. A steady downpour with no wind and lots of humidity. According to the Japanese Meteorological Agency, June 6th was the official start of rainy season for our area. The official Facebook page of the Navy base, CFAY, posted this informative graphic. Last year rainy season started on June 9th. I have been expecting rainy season and have been making appropriate preps to deal with the extra humidity. Our strategy last year seemed to work well. So, I think we will stick with the same plan – keep the house cool and run the dehumidifiers!

I used the day to work on learning my Japanese. I decided to start memorizing the pronunciation of the Japanese Kana (Hiragana only right now – bottom left corner of each box). Using a set of flash cards Dina gave me before she moved, I have successfully memorized the top three rows of this sheet.

The cards are super helpful because they give examples of words and also a pneumonic visual to help memorize the shape. I was able to memorize their shape as well as write them.

Despite the rainy day and Netflix indulging, I felt productive. I also spent time researching things to do on rainy days. Because, according to my weather app, the next week holds a lot of moisture. I’ll have to make great use of the beautiful day on Friday!

One thing is for sure about rainy season, my plants love it!

Sunset Beach Walk

By

On June 4, 2018

In Hydrangeas, Japan, Zushi

Errands consumed most of my day today. By the time I returned home this afternoon, I was way behind on my step goal. It was a fine evening and so I decided to walk down to Zushi Beach and watch the sunset. Along my way, I took pictures of some of the hydrangeas. They are blooming everywhere. This is only about half of the ones I passed! I love how they are literally growing everywhere. Behind fences, through fences, underneath unused clotheslines, and in the smallest of flower beds. Most are the traditional hydrangeas.

Plus a few of the lace ones.

I arrived at Zushi Beach at 6:30pm. My timing was perfect to catch the sunset.

I took a brief video. It was a pleasant evening. Small breeze and cooler temps by the water.

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As the sun went down behind the mountain, Mt. Fuji became even more predominant.

Thanks for letting me share the simple beauty of Japan!

You Had Me At Pagoda

By

On June 2, 2018

In Google Map, Hydrangeas, Japan, Tokyo, Train

As I planned out my month of June, I anticipated Dave being home this weekend in between work travel. Because of this, I didn’t schedule an English classes for Saturday morning. Due to unforeseen circumstances, Dave is still on travel and I didn’t have English class. This gave me an entire day to plan something. I decided to shoot for the moon today and do something completely off the beaten path. I read an article recently about the top five places to see hydrangeas in the Tokyo area. Two of the places are in Kamakura, Meigetsuin Temple (where I went on Friday) and Hase-dera Temple. Another temple that was mentioned in the article was Takahatasonko-ji Temple. Takahatasonko-ji Temple is west of Tokyo. Google Maps showed me it was about 1.5 hours away and four trains.

I left at 9:45 this morning and was cruising around the Temple grounds by 11:15. It was very easy to find once I was off the train. It was less than a five minute walk and there were plenty of signs pointing the way.

I wasn’t only drawn to the Temple because of the hydrangeas blooming. As I was reading about the Temple, I learned there was also a pagoda. Say no more. I must go! Just as beautiful as I imagined.

The grounds of the Temple are beautiful. There was a small pond with huge koi and hydrangeas.

There was also a small Inari Shrine. I truly love the fact that the Japanese accept all religions. (Temples – Buddhist, Shrines – Shinto – two separate religions) If only the rest of the world could be more accepting, we would definitely have less wars.

Also on the grounds of the Temple is a path through the woods. The path is highlighted with 88 Jizo statues. They are inspired by the Shikoku – 88 Temple pilgrimage. I love the idea of the pilgrimage, but I don’t have the time or drive to complete it. Instead, I enjoyed taking a walk through the woods in the early afternoon and enjoy hydrangeas! Here is the map I followed. The little red numbers represent the statues.

I think I was a little bit early to see the hillside covered in hydrangeas. Regardless, I wasn’t disappointed. Here are a few pictures of hydrangeas.

At one point along the trail, you have a vantage point of the pagoda.

I probably took 88 pictures of hydrangeas. However, I didn’t photograph all 88 Jizo Statues. I just took a few pictures to give you an idea of what they looked liked and how they were marked.

There were so many varieties of hydrangeas. Here are several pictures of what we’ve started calling “lace hydrangeas.” They don’t fully bloom like traditional hydrangeas. Instead they have a few blooms on the perimeter and then a cluster in the center that looks like lace.

The view from the top of the hillside was spectacular. Tokyo is way off in the background.

Here is the view from the other side. Guess what you could see on a clear day… Mt. Fuji. Unfortunately, not today.

As with all the hikes in Japan, the trail included a lot of stairs! It was so peaceful, it was worth every stair!

A few more hydrangea pictures. They truly were beautiful.

I enjoyed my day Temple and flower chasing. The sunny and less humid day was perfect for walking through the woods. Just when I was smitten with Sakura season, I’m falling bloom over bloom in love with hydrangea season! I live the blue ones!!

Meigetsu-in Temple 2018

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On June 1, 2018

In Hydrangeas, Japan, Kamakura, Tea Box

I started my hydrangea Temple chasing a little earlier this year. Last year I waited until the end of June to visit Meigetsu-in Temple. This year, I wanted to visit a little earlier. Last night, several of my neighbors were discussing going to the Meigetsu-in Temple this morning to see the blue hydrangea. They have young children and were able to arrange child care specifically to visit the Temple today. I was more than happy to tag along! Oh, and give them a small taste of a Julia Tour.

We met at 9:00am and were at the Temple in Kita Kamakura by 9:45. It was already so crowded. My main photo objective was to photograph the steps leading up to the gate. I anticipated a crowd. But, nothing like this!

We were able to walk slowly and the crowd thinned a little bit.

This is the picture I wanted because it matches the wall hanging I recently purchased.

I used the Retouch App to cut out the people. What do you think?

If you have amazing skills with using photoshop or another photo editing app and want to try editing them out, let me know. I’ll send you the original. I ordered an 8×10 photo of my edited version this afternoon. We will see how it looks when it arrives.

Here are a few other pictures from out and around the Temple. The blue hydrangeas are so beautiful.

I remembered from last year how cute the Buddhas were decorated.

The zen rock garden was so serene.

It was fun to visit the Temple together. There has been a big turnover of people in our neighborhood in the past 6 months. These ladies all live at the top of the hill close to us. Here’s our hydrangea selfie!

And then just me. (My tattoo was exposed again this year. No one seemed to care! ?)

I think there is a good chance I will go back this week in the early morning to try and get the stair picture without people. I talked with my Japanese sensei at English class this afternoon and she recommended I arrive at 7:30am. Good thing I’m an early bird! I feel like I need to seize every flower chasing opportunity because I have a sneaky suspicion we will transfer before this time next year. More on that when things solidify a bit more. In the meantime, I’ll obsessively chase flowers!

Connecting the Dots

By

On May 29, 2018

In Google Map, Great Buddha, Hiking, Hydrangeas, Japan, Kamakura, Train

I have hiked the trails in Kamakura so much and visited the many Shrines frequently. Despite my wandering, I’ve never taken the time to determine how they are all connected. Today, Katie and I hiked the Daibutsu Trail with the intention of finding the trails to the Benzaiten Shrine (Money Washing Shrine) and the Sasukeinari Shrine (White Fox Shrine).

We met at 8:30 at Zushi station and took the train to Kita Kamakura. We were on our way hiking by 8:45. We needed to set out early because I had my first Japanese language class today. (More on that in a few.)

The Daibutsu Trail greeted us with hydrangeas from the start!

It was also good to start early because it is humid and warm. Rainy season has started and as a result, the foliage is green and lush.

We made it to the first small Shrine at the top of the small mountain in good time. We were again rewarded with hydrangea beginning to bloom.

Plus, the early bird gets the… turtle photo! Oh my gosh! So, cute!

And more hydrangea. I loved the contrast of the fresh blooms with the old tree.

We continued our way through the park and used Google Maps to help guide us to the Money Washing Shrine.

Before too long, we were walking along a trail that passed above the Shrine. We stopped and looked around the Shrine before continuing on our way.

Finding the White Fox Shrine from here was a little tricky. We used Google Maps to point us in the right direction. However, we couldn’t find the path. Instead we cut through the neighborhood and found our way along the streets.

Less than five minutes later, we found The White Fox Shrine.

Here’s our selfie at the Torii. I love exploring with this girl. Kindred VB spirits. She’s adventurous and chill even when we have no idea where we are going exactly. My only complaint is she makes me hike in front and then proceeds to talk about snakes. And yes, we saw one today. Katie’s spirit name is “snake whisperer.”

The White Fox Shrine is still so cute.

We made our way towards the back of the Shrine. On my previous visit, I remembered I saw a trail leading up and away from the Shrine. This time, we followed it.

The trail was a little treacherous and would be awful hiking after it rained. It was already slick and a bit slippery. We made it to the top without issue. And back to the main Daibutsu Trail. It was here, we realized how the trails and Shrines connected. We normally follow the trail to the Big Buddha. The trail going to the left will take you to the White Fox Shrine.

If only we could read Japanese, this might not be such a mystery. As we finished up our hike, hydrangeas waved us goodbye.

We took the train from Hase Station to Kamakura Station. We walked around Kamakura and bought a refreshing beverage before heading home. My Japanese classes are now going to be held on Tuesdays at another student’s house here in Ikego. Our teacher is my Friday English sensei. I wish I would have asked her a long time ago… like 18 Months. But, better late than never! I’ll let you know how my Japanese improves.

Takatoriyama Buddha

By

On May 27, 2018

In Buddha, Hiking, Japan, Mt. Takatoriyama

It was a beautiful Sunday here in Zushi. The temperature was around 75 degrees and the humidity was down from 95% to 75%. Plus, there was a gentle breeze. This made it a great day to get out and enjoy a hike. I met Katie and her kids, Cullen and Virginia, at the Jimmuji train station. We hiked from Jimmuji Station up and over Takatori Mountain.

As we started up the trail, we passed the senior home. They still had large koi flags hanging from Children’s day.

We set off for the top of the mountain. Everything was so green compared to the last time I hiked this trail with Amanda a couple months ago.

We definitely didn’t have a shortage of stairs to climb!

We enjoyed a couple of the overlooks as we climbed. Unfortunately, it was a little hazy.

The trail is a fun hike. There are lots of large rocks making you feel like you’re really in the woods and climbing a mountain.

We made it with ease to the rock climbing area. The area with the chains was no problem for us! We walked up to the top of the overlook and enjoyed the view and the cool breeze!

My favorite part of the hike is finding your way to the stone Takatoriyama Buddha. The carving always makes me smile.

We made our way past the Buddha and to Oppama train station.

The last part is a walk through a neighborhood. The hydrangea were just beginning to bloom in this area. Regardless, they are a sign of so much beauty on the verge of blooming!

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