Taking a hike through the hills, sometimes the opportunity to stop and look at stuff is rather welcome. I was looking at a flower when I saw a bee busily doing what bees do. I figured a quick shot was in order. Some of the other flowers looked pretty cool too. I have no idea what these flowers are. I thought they looked like bluebells but, since they aren’t blue, maybe they are purplebells?
The development we live in has a pool. While this is not open year round, the area around it is always available. However, not too many people are there out of season so someone else has moved in. A pair of mallard ducks has taken up residency. Mum first spotted them when she was staying with us. We can see them from the top floor if we look but they are often out of sight from lower down. With the weather getting warmer and the pool likely to be more popular, I figured it might not be too long before they decided it was time to move on.
A few minutes was all it took to get some shots of them. They were a little wary of me so I didn’t want to spend too long disturbing them. However, the pool is not big so, as long as they would move out of the shadows a couple of times, I could get a shot and leave them in peace. I certainly didn’t want to get too close and thought I wouldn’t even bother them but they were quite alert to my being there so I made the whole thing a quick in and out job.
My trip back home departed from Narita Airport. The journey out there was swift so I got there with some time to spare. Narita is one of the airports that still has a viewing terrace. Not only that, they provides holes in the wire fencing to stick your lens through! I wasn’t there for terribly long and it was the afternoon when the sun is pretty much in your face. However, it was a far nicer place to be than sitting at the gate. This was the side of the airport where the US airlines tended to operate so I saw a lot of planes that I can see at home. However, there were some interesting operators departing from the runway on that side of the field that I hadn’t seen before so I sat back and enjoyed the new sights along with the old.
The reason for being in Asakusa is that there are some famous shrines there. This is a very popular tourist area and there is a market on the grounds of the shrine which is designed to suck up the cash of the passing tourists. While there are some awfully tacky things for sale, there are also some very classy artisans at work too. Quite a contrast. I am not a souvenir person so, while I paid some attention to these stalls, I was more interested in the shrines themselves.
They are impressive structures and hugely popular. There are some massive paper lanterns at the entrance which apparently are very famous (shows what I know). They do look great. What was strange to me was that, while the main shrine was very impressive and very busy, there were a number of other buildings, sculptures and gardens in the area that were also very cool but far less busy. Everyone appears to go to the main shrine and then leave. They certainly missed out in my opinion.
Early one morning I found myself in Davis CA meeting a colleague to head to a meeting. I picked him up at the station and arrived a few minutes ahead of time. Davis has a cool station building. I didn’t know anything about it so hadn’t come prepared. The trusty iPhone was all I had with me so here is an iPhone shot of the station in the early light.
Our next part of the Tokyo exploration took us to the Asakusa district. On the way we headed through a street that had some history related, I think, to the entertainment industry. There are a number of figures that are on the street or, more appropriately on and above it. These characters represent the history of the area and adorn a number of the buildings as well as the ground. They were pretty cool to try and spot.
Having trekked along the trails on one side of Mt Diablo, we decided to finish the day off by heading to the summit. This time we took a more motorized form of transportation and drove up there. We passed many cyclists heading the same way how all made me feel a bit guilty. I had just finished a hike, though, so didn’t feel quite so bad about my lazy route to the top.
The summit has a tower and lookout station which we took a look around. The views were very good, even if the haze was a bit of a problem further away. We aren’t terribly familiar with all of the area yet so we spent some time trying to work out exactly where we were in relation to the places we do know. It is a long drive to the top but worth doing. Soon the Amgen Tour of California will be making the climb too. I suspect they will head up there at a fair old pace!
Walking back from the Imperial Palace towards the hotel to check out, we passed through an area with many trees planted. Not only were their locations carefully planned, they also seemed to be beautifully manicured. The whole effect was very impressive. All of the trees in the grounds looked great. There was one particular tree that was leaning right over alongside the moat that looked like a lot of effort had gone into getting it just right.
We may have lived in Dublin for over six months now but, for some reason, we had yet to go and stretch our legs on Mt Diablo. Such a large mountain so close to us, it is hard to miss when you are in this area but we hadn’t got around to going there. It was time for a change and time to get a good hike in since we haven’t been out for a while.
Our hike started out in Clayton on the opposite side of the mountain from us. It wasn’t a terribly long hike since we haven’t exactly been keeping in shape. However, while it was only just under 6 miles, the terrain was a bit more interesting than we had expected. We certainly got some climbing in as well as some descents that had footing that took a little practice to master. The aim was to get to a trail that loops around some falls. We weren’t expecting to see anything at the falls since it has been a very dry winter but they were still flowing although not with any great force. The top of the valley provided a great view of the land below as well as the terrain around the falls and Mt Diablo above us.
It is hard to give a sense of scale in images like this. As I look at them, it reminds me of how cool it looks but also of how an image on the screed is no reflection of the grand vista I saw at the time. It was really lovely even if we were a bit hot and tired by the end of it. It will be interesting to see it at different times of year.
While I didn’t have an invitation from the emperor (and I don’t even know if he was home), I did have a wander around the outside of the Imperial Palace grounds. There is a substantial moat surrounding the palace itself so I was stopped from getting too close. However, it is still a very pretty area and worth a look, even if time is limited. One of our colleagues had said the palace is open for tours at certain times but, if that is the case, we weren’t there at the right time and had a busy morning planned so it was a quick visit. Well worth doing though.
