Tokyo blanketed in snow.

 
    Staring at the window with amazement,
    by this unusual event once in a while,
    which always brings us some strange excitement,
    like in a blink of an eye,
    it metamorphosed the sight of our accustomed town.
 
   

Dogo Onsen Hot Springs Pt2.

 

 

　
    Next day, our car ran to next destination, "Besshi copper mine".
    As we went into the mountains deep,
    long tunnels started to come out one after another.
    and we finally got out of the last tunnel,
    it disclosed a landscape of stark mountains covered with snow.
    The atmosphere suddenly changed,
    there seen no more a landscape of the warm, serene landscape of Shikoku,
    but just the bleak, dreary landscape of winter in nature.
     it was overwhelmingly barren, awfully beautiful, and surrealistic.
    I opened the window, the cold wind coming into our car.
    We got off the car and looked into the river in a ragged hollow,
    and gasped at its clearness of the water.
    The contrast of clear water and the huge dam was even more impressive
    (imagine how many small villages were destined to be sunk into!) .
    Unfortunately, we were supposed to get into the inside of copper mine,
    however ended up giving up because the road was closed during winter.
    then we left decided to be surely coming back again in summer.
   

Dogo Onsen hot springs Pt. 1

 

  Probably one of the most popular hot springs in Shikoku,
  The Dogo Onsen hot spring is also known as the novelist, Soseki Natsume's favorite retreat,
  and it has been said that the public bath of "Sprited Away" was modeled
  after this by Hayao Miyazaki.

New Year's (I know it's already February..)

  I Love local shrines. Those are so beautiful.
  Protected by the grove of the Village shrine,
  or serene waters of beautiful Setonaikai.
  Every time I visit there on New Year's, making me feel holy,
  (well, even though I am completely secularized..), and celebrated.
  It might be very Japanese-y point of view against religion,
  but it is true inside me that I feel that way.
  I suppose I just believe in nature, just as Frank Lloyd Wright says.
  and I am pretty sure that all the Japanese people feel the same way.

Kyoto rained in buckets.

The rain was pouring when we Nanzenji temple in Kyoto.
 Presumably because of the heavy rain, there were tourists hardly seen there.
 It was so silent but the sounds of rain ceaselessly dribbling
and beating the gravel on the yard.