Nanakita Park and Beyond

 It has been a while since I posted a new entry. The reason is that my connection to the internet has been down. They are renewing the equipment in our condo complex and they shut off the internet and our home phone. Next week they are going to go to each individual apartment and update the connection. Hopefully, they will increase the speed - it has been a while since they did that.

 

 On the day I took these pictures I walked through Nanakita Part. The leaves were in full color, really beautiful. I have read that only New England in the US and Tohoku in Japan have a wide range of colors, although New England has more than here. The reds are very rich this year.

 More reds and oranges.

 A little further on I ran into a group of school kids, you can tell by the hats. There were apparently having an art class.

 After continuing passed the end of the park, I came to a place where they have flatten the ground in preparation for some sort of  building project, probably a large condo. However, at the moment the lack of trees gives a good view of the mountains to the west.

 This is where one of the more popular hobbies for this area takes place. You can rent a small patch of garden and grow your own vegetables. We have a friend who does this. It is definitely a hobby because in the end the vegetables are more expensive than buying them in a store, and since they tend to ripen all together, the gardeners give them away to friends. We get lots of our vegetables this way.

This appeared to be stones that had been removed from a traditional style Japanese garden. This area is in the countryside so most of the houses are on large plots of land. However, because the prices are high and the owners are getting old (the kids have all moved to the city), people are selling off the extra land and this means removing any gardens that were there.