Skipping my lunch time to explore small woods behind my workplace. Located next to main road, yet the place was so quiet and peaceful.
The rice which was about to be harvested. Taken in the summer end 2009, I felt like showing you paddy fields in Saijo since I didn't post any photos in the end of last year.
Compare with my Jan 11th post, which I took about 100 meters away from this point of view. And to answer Gary's question, farmers don't do rotate crops, they just clean it to be ready for the next use in summer. Rarely enough, there's a small field in town which was turned to be a temporary parking space :).
To go to Saijo from Hiroshima Station, take the Sanyo-Line train at platform 5. Please get in the line, don't rush, it has 8 cars and thank God, it's rapid service. Do you think the information is clear enough?
A cold cloudy weather this morning, but it didn't stop those farmers from gathering, perhaps discussing about rice price today or what to do with their large field during winter. The harvest season was over at the end of summer. Here in Japan rice field only being planted once a year during summer makes its unproductive period lasts longer despite the fact they make good use of technology. That's what I see in Saijo and its neighboring villages. The three-day holiday is over today. Happy weekdays, everyone.
An old-fashioned small restaurant, squeezed between other old small shops which sometimes makes me wonder if there's someone cares enough to take a look inside. Only a few meters away from the last stop at Hiroshima Station. What a tough week, anyway, happy weekend everyone.
Omikuji, おみくじ, are random fortunes written on strips of paper at Shinto shrines and Buddhist temples. After one reads his omikuji, it is then tied on the rope. In new year season like this, when there are so many visitors, you can see Omikuji is put at any possible place like in the collage photo above.
A woman buys Hamaya, demon-breaking arrow to ward off misfortune and to attract good luck.
No annual events and festivals without food seller. Care for yakisoba (fried noodles) everyone?
Oh, let me see.....this year you're going to travel a lot and get a new lens. Just don't forget to save more money.
Hiroshima Castle was established in 1589 century by Mori Terumoto, a governor of nine provinces that today comprise Hiroshima, Shimane, Yamaguchi, and part of Tottori and Okayama prefectures. It is also called "Carp Castle" since the area where the castle was built was then called Koi-no-ura (Koi Sea Shore). Koi means carp in Japanese.
The original castle was destroyed by the atomic bomb blast on August 6th 1945, which its epicenter was less than a kilometer from the castle. The present tower was reconstructed in 1958 and is now used to exhibits historic artifacts. Unfortunately, no cameras are allowed in the castle except on the 1st and 5th floor which serves as observation platform.+-+Copy.NEF.jpg){kind=spacer}
As seen in the first photo, the castle is surrounded by moat whose original purpose was to prevent from enemies' attacks, now from high rise apartments and mansions.
A sunny day in Hiroshima city, there was a food festival in the area near the Hiroshima Castle which was ended today, the last day of new year holiday.
I bought my first obanyaki in 2010 :)
And this is what I saw at the temple, I think it's a special day where people visited the place to do some rituals.
Salary men from offices nearby came in flocks to join a processions (I didn't see 'salary women'),
perhaps praying for a better life in 2010. 
Apart from headache effect, foggy morning is a thing that I always looking forward to. 20 minutes biking to the outskirt of the town.
A photo I took during autumn at a park near my place, among very few shots, some even lost when transfering them into another PC. I know I didn't take the most out of the autmn last year. And now when it gets colder and colder, all I want to do is just curl up on the couch with a book and hot chocolate.
Four months twenty two days. I did count how long I have neglected this photoblog :(.
How are you? I do hope everything is fine. Missed you all and our community. Would love to hear your stories, Guys.
There are some notes related to this blog that I hadn't managed to do: make its thumbnail appears in the CDP homepage (trust me, I tried several times), make CDP's logo appears in my homepage ;), do theme day every month, connect this blog with my photo gallery so that there's no more double uploading, and make it looks tidier. It looks messy, doesn't it? Seems a simple task actually. Oh, the to-do list is long, I'd better stop here.
No 2010 resolution at all, I knew I would fail again. The only thing I learned was don't put things off what you can do now. So, there I was, between Dec 31, 09 at 11:30pm and Jan 1, 10 at 00:30am, under the bright full moon, -3 deg Celcius, holding my camera (the tripod didn't help) until I couldn't feel my hands anymore. And here they are...
tad da...postcards from Saijou... wishing you all Happy New Year 2010, a better life for us, God wills.
.jpg)
