Enjoying the Autumn Colors

**I have decided to write more than once a month. I am not sure how regular my updates will be but be sure to check back when you can. Mitch's blog will continue to focus on entire family adventures or what the kids are up to and my blog will focus more on my take of our adventure. Hope everyone enjoys.**

After a fun morning of a late brunch at Joyfull and a trip to an ikebana display, Mitch decided it was time that he took me on one of his and Sara’s bike rides. He warned me that the roads could be quite narrow and be patient if there were cars on the road. We rode through a quaint neighborhood that butts up to a river. I immediately began admiring all of the colors in the trees. For those of you who have forgotten, we got married in the fall just so we could go on a New England honeymoon to experience the fall colors (my favorite time of the year even though we never experience it in Phoenix). It was amazing all the red leaves and how the sun shown through in different places. We managed to meander our way around the castle grounds just admiring the beautiful day. (We ended up making a complete loop around the castle and back down one side twice, so for those of you here in Himeji, don't get lost in the explanation. I took a lot of pictures and wanted to include many of them so I will keep the descriptions short so that you can enjoy looking at this blog.)

So our journey began as we left the Ikebana Show at the Citizen Center. The tree lined street looked awesome with all the new colors. (we were southeast of the castle)

I was even more excited about our bike ride when we approached the castle. I couldn't believe how much the trees changed in one week. (we are looking north at the castle)

Whenever we go downtown, we almost always take this scenic road home. This roads is on the west side of the castle just on the other side of the moat. To my left is a garden that we have not visited yet but Mitch and I am looking for a sitter so we can enjoy the gardens sometime soon during this colorful season.

This white wall separates the garden from the castle. You will notice just above half way (just before the opening in the wall) on this picture a small water flow. Every time Daddy takes the kids on this road, RJ points out the water and tells daddy that is where the doggies get fresh water (I guess he saw a dog drinking there once and now that is what it is for).

About 3/4 of the way up this picture you might be able to see a small grey dot. That is a herin (egret) bird. He is pretty high up the castle wall and almost everyday these trees are filled with these birds, especially in the evening when they want to keep warm. Most of them are beautifully white and stick out greatly in the green trees.

This is me trying to take a close up of the bird with our old digital camera (We hope to buy a much better one while here in Japan)

More of the beautiful Autumn colors along the tree lines path around the castle.

A close up of the leaves changing colors. We will go up an important mountain next Saturday and I hope that the colors are even more brilliant there.

This is on street in the quaint neighrhood. Behind the houses on right is the castle moat and behind the houses on the left is a river.

Here is the quaint neighborhood that Mitch took us too. There is a river on his right and houses on the left. And yes this is a 2 way road. Luckily we didn't meet up with any traffic on this narrow portion.

This was an old bridge along the river.

By this time we are on the northeast side of the castle grounds.

This is me trying to be a photographer and 'frame' the castle with the autumn leaves.

More photographer attempts (now on the east northeast side of the castle)

Then we had to make our way back into the castle grounds area. We are on the north side once again. This stretch of road is very difficult to just ride down as there is a park on the right hand side and of course the kids want to stop and play. But mom & dad didn't want to stop here today. Yes, there were a few screams but they subsided quickly when we found a small waterfall.

Kind of hard to see, the waterfall is just to the right of Sara's helmet.

Another photo opp I couldn't pass up. I could get good at this with all this free time on my hands.

This is the east side of the castle. What you see there that is white is not actually main tower of the castle, it is one of the guard towers. The path on the left side of the pictre, we walked the bikes up it to see where it went (to steep to ride up in my opinion).

My wonderful family posing for yet another photo today.

So, we finally find a place to stop and let the kids off. There were a few steps leading up to ....

and of course RJ wanted to check out where they went. So off he went and mom & dad decided we should go with him. We ended up at a small landing area east southeast of the castle. I believe it was there for this small shire that was up there, but we were more fascinated with the public trash can. You see, here in Japan, there are no trash cans on the streets (unless you are at a festival and then you can find a couple if you look). So to find this one in a remote area was very odd. So we had to take a picture and Mitch was kind enough to pose for me.

This is the hill we had to go down after we finished up at the trash can site.That is downtown Himeji off in the distance there (we are now looking south and the castle is on our right).

Once we got down to the park area in the castle grounds, we came across some more ikebana displays. This was my favorite (notice the orange and red flowers on the front plant)

There were also some hibiscus on display as well.

We weren't sure what this was, but we liked how they displayed the flowers on round style stands.

So by this time we are right in front of the castle on the south side looking north. Mitch and I can't wait to go on the tour of it. Lots of stairs inside so we will need to find a sitter cause I don't think the kids will enjoy.

Since it was a Sunday, we were fortunate enough to see what some of the tourists see when they come to the castle on a beautiful day. This is a rickshaw.

Then off we go again on the road to the west of the castle.

There are those beautiful tress again.

Since I was in the photographer mode, I had to take a picture of the hillside that is just northwest of our apartment. The leaves are all changing colors!!! Thank goodness we don't have to rake any leaves this year!

I hope you enjoyed the virtual tour of the loop around the Himeji Castle. I really enjoyed the bike ride and look forward to many more while we are living here. And we look forward to taking any of our visitors along with us when they arrive.