Two Turtles

A temple garden and pond. Mr. Turtle is on the rock.

The boy really wanted to touch Mr. Turtle.

One week ago we went for a drive and ended up at a nearby temple. The weather was warm, but the wind at the beach forced our picnic inside the car. We were both in short sleeves and forgot to bring jackets. I don't know how old the temple was, but it was impressive. I took a few pictures of the wood carvings, three dimensional depictions of dragons, animals, winds, waves, etc. I'm not skilled enough with the camera to do justice to them here. Maybe I'll try again later. It was so warm this last weekend that my clothes were dry within 20 minutes after I hung them outside. Looking forward to the rains and humidity which are on the way.

Golden Week

Cherry tree in full bloom.

What kind of flowers are these?

Japan is on National Holiday the first week of May. We headed into the mountains where the cherry trees were not yet finished. We bought a generic flying disk on the way. We spent three days at a friend's house, ate well, visited about 4 different parks including a flooded lake with trees growing out of the middle of it

Still snow on the ground

and a mini amusement park with a mountain slide and obstacle course. The boy ran it like a monkey. He had a blast over the week and I realized how much Japanese he can speak now.

Spring Stroll

Persimmon trees and newly planted flowers, maybe.

A service road and sky. Cherry trees on the left, almost blossom-less.

I took a walk around the school to get away from my desk mid-afternoon. There are little roads which access garden plots set up into the forest and rolling along the hills behind the campus. I haven't walked any of them except this one around the perimeter.