I am sure I have mentioned several times how much I love autumn. Actually, I love fall, winter and spring. I can love summer too as long as it is not in a hot and humid or desert climate. I loved summer in California. It’s still autumn in Tokyo and I love taking photos of the colors.
Tokyo Tower Autumn
Hibiya Park
Today I rode my bike out past Meguro to see if I know how to get to the stake center by car later today. I know how to get there on the train, but I don’t pay attention when I am riding in a car. My friend is driving us to leadership this afternoon and she has never driven there. I even took photos of landmarks, remember that the landmarks are how we get places here. Well…I do anyway, since I don’t have a car and I don’t have GPS for my bike. After I finished shooting the landmark photos I relaxed because the ride home was easy. As I came to the top of a small hill I looked up and saw this.
I thought it was a bit odd to see this bust in the window. He appears to be taking in the world around him. I am not sure who he is. He looks like Caesar to me. Do you know who he is?
Today I saw something in Shirogane that is true to the season. Local neighborhoods often put up artificial flowers for each season. I have seen cherry blossoms, bamboo and wisteria in addition to the autumn leaves I saw today. Hooray for still celebrating Autumn!
This morning on my ride I decided to find the Cath Kidson shop in Daikanyama. I have been planning to find the shop for a long time and never remember to take the map. This morning I didn’t have the map, but decided to see if I could find it anyway. I have been blessed with a good sense of direction. I found it and plan to go back when they are open. They have crammed a lot into a tiny space. As I was riding towards home I saw this giant green bloom “growing” right out of the pavement.
La Tour Shiodome
When we moved to Tokyo I looked at an apartment in this building. It had fabulous views of Tokyo including Tokyo Bay. It was a great apartment and I should have wanted to live there. We had lived on the 27th floor in Singapore and I loved the view. However, Tokyo has something that we didn’t experience in Singapore…earthquakes. My thinking goes like this…even if we were still able to live in our 52th floor apartment after a big earthquake I know that we wouldn’t be able to use the elevator and there was no way I would want to climb up and down all those stairs. I still look at the high rises and long to live there and see all of Tokyo, but the stairs!! We live on the 3rd floor of a low rise and will be here until we leave Japan.
It seems that most foreigners living in Japan find themselves feeling illiterate. You can’t speak to the locals and you can’t read. For me there are just enough things in English to keep me from going crazy. I can understand more Japanese than I can speak. One of the challenges of the city is that some of the streets are not marked with names and most of those that are look like this:
The white sign with the kanji tells the name of the street. The red and blue sign below it for Highway 1 also has the name of that street, Sakurada dori, in English and Japanese. The sign below that says, Akabanebasi in Japanese and English. I think it’s the name of the junction and not the street since the Akabanebashi subway station is there.
As you can see from this one corner getting around can be a bit challenging. When I first started riding my bike I would often find myself thinking, “I am not sure where I am and not sure how to get home.” My children would say I was lost. I am never lost! I can always figure out how to get home. So… I would just keep riding and eventually I would see this:
Tokyo Tower
Or this:
Mori Tower-Roppongi Hills
Or this:
Green Roof with Weathervane???
Or this:
And when I found one of these landmarks I would be able to find my way home. Tokyo and Mori Towers can be seen from quite a distance from different parts of the city and besides that I have been blessed with a great sense of direction.
I’ve always disliked hospitals. When I was younger I even fainted in them. I have visited people in four or five different hospitals in Japan. It’s always a challenge because the hospitals here are very Japanese. I mean there is not much English written anywhere and English is not spoken very often. This week a new sister in our ward had a new baby and I wanted to go see and yet I didn’t. The idea of going to a part of the city that I am not familiar with and then finding the hospital, and patient’s room is always an intimidating process for me. If it’s not too far away and I have time I ride my bike there first so I know where I an going. I didn’t have time this week. I got out the map, checked the train route finder on how to get there.
I don’t know why I worry so much. I should have more confidence in myself. I found the hospital just fine. The new mother looked great and the baby is beautiful.
Bridge at Hamarikyu
Today I walked around Tokyo Midtown and saw exactly what I’ve been looking for as Christmas gifts for my three boys. My boys all have golf clubs and enjoy the sport. I think it would be even more fun for them if they had these golf club covers.
I especially like the butterflies on their noses.
While we were at the MOMAT yesterday I purchased two prints. The artist is Uemura ShÅen (April 23, 1875 – August 27, 1949) There were so many incredible prints in the collection it would be hard to choose a favorite. I really like these:
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