Churaumi aquarium is famous for its scale and a large collection of animals. It is also controversial, basically for the same reasons. It is highly promoted as one of the top attractions in Okinawa, so we expected to see something grandiose. It actually blew the expectations away. Truly fascinating! For what it’s worth, I personally learned a lot. But I wouldn’t have believed that such incredible variety of species could coexist in such close proximity if I hadn’t seen it with my own eyes just a day earlier while SCUBA diving at the local coral reefs (didn’t see a whale shark then, though).
Had a great day of SCUBA diving at the amazing Kerama Islands National park. The corals and the variety of brilliant marine life is the best I’ve seen. Thank you, Dorka, for guiding us on this amazing adventure!
This shrine was established at the base of the Hakusan mountain over 2,100 years ago! Hakusan, which stands over three prefectures (Ishikawa, Fukui and Gifu), has been considered a sacred mountain since ancient times, being an important water source for the valleys below. The deity of the shrine is a goddess of matchmaking and family happiness.
Hakusan Hime jinjya has an incredibly tranquil atmosphere – a cool, quiet forest full of the sound of running streams. The 800-years-old sugi cedar, a sacred tree, that stands at the omote-sando walkway is 12 meters in circumpherence at the base and is 45-meters tall! I’ve see several trees during this trip to Japan that reminded me of Studio Ghibli’s “My neighbour Totoro,” and this is one of them.
We were lucky to enjoy some golden light when we came up to the main shrine. The building is both grandiose and elegant at the same time. And the shimenawa rope, which is meant to ward off evil spirits, over the entrance is some of the most impressively thick I’ve seen.
Our daughter, for whom this the first visit to Japan, was soaking up the incredible surroundings and enjoying learning the etiquette of visiting a shrine: make an offering of money, bow twice, clap twice, bow once. When leaving, turn around and bow again.
Kotoji lantern at Kenrokuen garden. This iconic symbol of Kanazawa resembles a bridge on a koto – a traditional Japanese string instrument. It is different from other Japanese lanterns, because it has two pedestals of uneven length – one on the ground and one in the water. Their beautiful curves give the lantern its unique shape, and they are quite difficult to capture precisely in a sketch.
The first full day of our extended visit to Japan. We spent the morning exploring the Tokyo Station neighbourhood and took a Shinkansen train to Kanazawa.
Visited the 21st Century museum of Contemporary Art in Kanazawa yesterday and saw Shinsuke Yoshitake’s exhibit. Amazing amount of work, creativity and attention to detail! Not to mention, a great sense of humour.
We have just came back from the last skiing trip of the season, and coincidentally, I’ve finished sorting through the video footage from our first trip of this year (see below). The 2023-24 season at Mt. Washington started really slowly. During our first visit, just before Christmas of 2023, the was so little snow that we were constantly concerned that the resort would close. Only a couple of trails were open, and it was raining a lot. I didn’t even shoot any video because of the poor visibility. Still, we ended up skiing every day and enjoyed the change of scenery.
During the second trip, which we took right after the New Year, the conditions improved a lot.
Every time I travel and have a chance to live in a new place for an extended period of time, I appreciate how quiet our little cul-de-sac in Victoria is. During our last stay in Paris during my sabbatical, our apartment was on the ground floor, and the entrance from the street led directly to the living room, or séjour, as our Parisian friends called it. When people outside would sit on the steps leading to our door (I suppose, that was a convenient place to sit on the relatively lively street) and have a conversation, it would sound as if they were sitting inside and talking to us. As much as it was nice to have a chance to listen to some native French speakers, it made us appreciate the relative silence of our usual suburban living. Funny enough, the sound insulation in our Paris dwelling was so marginal that it worked, or rather didn’t, both ways. When my daughter or I would start playing violin (being very diligent students) the people outside would often leave, not because of our poor skills (I hope), but because the music would interfere with their conversation. Another evidence of the power of the music.
