Cultural

Hello to my few readers out there. I apologize for my long absence or failure to update this blog. I already had my Kyōto stay in October of this year when good friends visited me, but I was/am very busy due to my upcoming graduation. My dissertation, the organisational side and my return plans keep me busy, so that I have only found a little time to write these articles during the holidays.

And again I was on my way to a conference for my work and that although the time would have been better spent writing my dissertation (as well as writing these lines). I am writing these lines (and a few subsequent articles) much later than I experienced them. For the purposes of timing, the typhoon Hagibis is raging above my head right now. I am already glad that it was downgraded from the category “Supertyphoon” to only “violent Typhoon” before it arrived here. This time I was in Okyama, which is located on the southern part of the main island Honshu.

Yes, I still exist. My doctorate is coming to an end and that means even more work than usual. This time I went to Fukuroi to see Hanabi. I had already reported about the Abekawa Hanabi in Shizuoka in July 2017. Last year it was cancelled for the first time in history because of a typhoon. This year it was cancelled again because of a tropical storm. Safety first. This year I also heard about Fukuroi Hanabi for the first time and the day of the event was convenient for me. The Fukuroi Hanabi is considered the best in Shizuoka Prefecture. Therefore, I went to Fukuroi!

This time I went to Atami. This town is known as a resort around its Onsen (hot thermal springs), but they were not my reason for the trip. I made this trip during the Golden Week. The Golden Week in Japan is a week full of holidays, so many Japanese take holidays for the bridge days.

The last thing I did with my family before I had to leave because of work, was to go with the Shinkansen to Odawara in Kanagawa Prefecture. There is also the Odawara Castle.

This time we had a look at the Tokyo SkyTree, which is a radio tower and at the moment with 634 m the second highest building in the world. The tower has two viewing platforms, one at 350m and one at 450m. We only had a look from those at 350 m, first because the entrance fee is a little high and second because we suspected that the weather was not so good and the horizon would be hazy, so that we could not have seen so far. If we had, then we would have bought an extension on the plain and would have gone up to the 450m. But it was hazy on the horizon… There are 4 high-speed elevators, each designed according to one of the four seasons and if I remember rightly 10 m/s reach.

This time there are a few repetitions with Akihabara and the Imperial Garden. However, I have a few new pictures and the Imperial Garden was now temporarily open to an area that is usually not open to the public.