At weekends if I'm not catching up on much needed sleep from an exhausting week, I do my best to get out into a bit of nature, be it as little as a local park.

Mostly any park worth its Japanese salt (or that should be soil) has a small bamboo forest, though the thing that always confuses me is they always seem to be 立入禁止 - ENTRY PROHIBITED !

If you go outwith city limits you'll find bamboo forests but they are usual dense thickets (almost impossible to enter) with a sign saying 危ない！マ虫 !  - Danger ! Poisonous Vipers ! which would make you not want to enter.

Today near Matsudo there was one park that allowed entry to its bamboo forest and I think I know why your not allowed into them....

Managed to get a long weekend break to Mito again recently.

Last time I had been it was very brief and most of the parks were closed but it was a beautiful May long weekender so we spent the whole 3 days getting round this immense park.

I'm sure the pictures speak volumes better than I could so Click the pic to the left and have a look.

The stone shrine particularly reminds me from the end scene from Star wars...

Living in Chiba (the outskirts of Tokyo) you certainly get plenty chances to go to better parks than in the centralised Tokyo.

This weekend my partner and I took the fickle decision to stay on the regular commute train back to our home, all the way to the end of the line, another prefecture and completely not Tokyo, another city entirely: Mito.

It was quite a long journey and I was surprised that the train line went on for so long from the heart of Tokyo (well Ueno, which is semi central) all the way into another prefectural district.(the equivalent of crossing states in the US)

By the time we arrived, it was beginning to get a little dark, it is Autumn after all. A few of the larger parks were closed so we couldn't enter, but the sheer size of the National Park was huge.

We got round only a small section that was still remaining open, but the sunset and the purple half light of the dusk made for pleasurable viewing especially with all the leaves turning yellow, reds and golds.

Definitely will need to visit here again some time.

Website:
http://www.koen.pref.ibaraki.jp/park/kairakuen01.html

Summer time has come and its off to the Beach !

My first summer in Japan was an almost historically cold and gloomy experience. I was informed Japan's summers were insufferably hot, but 2004 was a very mild affair which even led to rice crops failing due to lack of heat and sunshine !

This year however its a scorcher and my partner and I are off South to Shimoda, famed for its beach resorts.

We've been travelling quite a bit recently so this time to keep costs down we decided to take the bus rather than train and stay at the cheapest place possible.

We took a night bus, so we arrived at dawn and the beach was deserted, as the day went by the beach soon filled up.

The beach in Japan has its own unique experience; every country has its own "beach style" with the exception of Scotland - As Far as I got to going to the beach as a youngster was Nairn, which albeit is a beach town,though many holidays were spent sitting in the car waiting for the rain to stop drinking Bovril.

Japan's Beach experience revolves around the beach house.

I'm very lucky in that each year when Golden week arrives, it falls on my Birthday. Golden week is a series of Public Holidays towards the end of April and beginning of May where almost the whole of Japan takes a holiday, like it or not.

Only the real hardcore will continue working in the Golden week or Obon holidays as they are almost traditions.

This year myself and my partner did our usual "Lets get into the country and to an Onsen".We chose Niigata as there was the chance of still seeing sakura blossom.

While in Niigata I was surprised at the speed and effort that had been put in in recovery from last years earthquake.

This was an earthquake big enough that it was felt all over Japan, I remember the late evening when the aftershocks were felt.Earthquakes in Japan are measured on a different scale; 1-2 being minor tremors, 3-4 being very shaky,6 major damage and 7 being complete "ground opens up and swallows everything"

It was surprising to see that the effects of the 6.9 earthquake and flooding were almost gone.

Or so I thought...

This weekend took a cheap bus tour to Kamakura, although its September its still fairly hot, in fact it was very hot when we finally did arrive. Very muggy and humid air, what you would usually expect at the beginning of a Japanese summer.

The tour included 3 main attractions;

First visit was kamakuras famous bronze Buddha statue.

I think everyone in Japan or everyone who has been to Japan has a photo of themselves in front of this statue. it was quite impressive but compared to the gigantic statue I had seen in Ushiku it seemed small in comparison.The place was really busy as well, so much so you could hardly walk around.

Next a tour round a national park and shrine, this was a more relaxed affair and we chose not to follow the guide with her "follow me" flag and squeaky monologue. Some lovely ponds and shrines.

Lastly we were free to wander up and down the "promenade" as it were, as Kamakura is next to the sea.

Was quite surprised at the number of English speakers in Kamakura, apparently it had been a port of call for christian missionaries way, way back and many foreigners had settled throughout the region through time. One Old fella stopped me for a chat and was quite naturally freindly; unlike the "HARO WHEAR YUU FROM!?" odd types you can experience from time to time.

(I guess these folks are being friendly too, though like other members of my family, we seem to be magnets for the mentally retarded and get trapped in conversations with slightly "touched" people who take an over-liking to us)

Overall Kamakura was quite touristy, but very pleasant. There was a shop selling "authentic" samurai swords as souvenirs, though ridiculously overpriced; if I paid that much money for a "real" sword I would at least want to use it to lop off a few heads and not have it sitting as an ornament. =)

Was visiting a friend in Ibariki area to go for dinner this weekend and as they lived in Ushiku its near the (world?) famous statue of Buddha, slap bang in the middle of the countryside.

Standing at 120 metres high its monolithic, especially given that the surrounding area is so flat and lacking in any form of hills or mountains; you can see the statue from miles around.

Not just impressed with the size I was quite amazed to find you can actually go inside the statue! It has a visitors area and elevators that can take you to viewing points up the statue; the feet, the chest and the head.

In the centre of the statue is a huge circular room where you can pay a rather large price (about １００万円) to have your ashes interred. Well actually I'm not 100% sure if it's your actual ashes, though you could pay for a "place" or "plot" there in the central chamber with walls adorned with thousands of tiny gold little Buddha's and a name plate beneath one.

More info here : http://www.ushikukankou.com/ushikudaibutsu.htm

I've been in Japan a fair while now,(almost 10 months) but unfortunately I haven't travelled nor had the opportunity to travel. I work most weekends, my days off are Wednesday and Sunday which makes "going away for the weekend" impossible.

Thankfully this next week and a half is "golden week" it's a series of public holidays which all companies take giving.... <waitforit>.... A WHOLE WEEK OFF WORK !