Wood Wall

This is a photo of the walls of Asama Shrine.

I love seeing the knots and growth rings in the wood. I actually just learned that growth rings are called Nenrin (年輪) in Japanese. It literally means "year rings."

I think this is a perfect time to quickly give a shout out to my friend Kenichi's blog NENRIN. He's heading out to Morocco at the moment and his photos are really fantastic. So if you can read Japanese or just want to see the photo's, hope you'll take the time to go see his blog (http://nenrin.blogspot.com/)!

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The Color Red

Another shot at the Seibuen Amusement Park.

The red lights were super bright. I'm surprised the people using these seats didn't get dizzy...actually maybe they did, because these seats were all empty!

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In The Water

For some reason I like this shot. It's a view around dusk from the bridge above Yanase River. Do you see the koi fish in the water?

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Matsugaoka Regulating Reservoir

This is the Matsugaoka Regulating Reservoir.

At first I thought it was just filled with rain water. But then I actually spotted birds, fish, and turtles enjoying the water in the reservoir. It was nice to see so much nature in a man-made lake.


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Down the Street

Just a regular street with a reflection.

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Sail Away

Took a walk and stopped by Akitsu Fure-ai Park, a local garden cemetery. I'm not sure but I think it's a pretty new concept here in Japan. The non-religious cemetery is very peaceful, filled with flowers and plants.

I found this particular headstone interesting because of the picture next to the family name "Kobayashi." Maybe the person buried here liked to go sailing.

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Big Brother

This pink elephant in front of this pharmacy is Satoko-chan. You can see her older brother, Sato-chan, looking out for her from inside the store.

They are both a mascot for Sato Pharmaceutical, a big pharmaceutical company in Japan. It said on their website that they chose an elephant as a mascot as they are famous for having long lives.

This Satoko-chan is always wearing something different. I noticed she recently changed into this lovely nightgown-ish outfit so I took this photo. Her brother is probably worried the sexy outfit will give the wrong idea to playboy elephants!



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Curtain of Vines

A green curtain covers one side of our city hall in the summer.

The vines are morning glories and bitter melon plants! I think they were planted sometine in June. It's amazing how fast they grow. It's a nice natural curtain!

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Drum Fun

This is a really fun game at the local arcade, which we call "game centers." It's called Taiko no Tatsujin (Master of Taiko) and what you do is, you choose a song from their list, hold the two drum sticks, and while watching the screen, hit the drum according to the instructions! The instructions appear on the screen in different shapes and colors, which stand for different ways of hitting the drum, and in the end it adds up your total score for you. If you pass, you get to play a more difficult song!


It's a lot of fun because two people get to play at once and even if you don't get a high score...hitting the drum is seriously a stress reliever! hehe.


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Apartment Hunting

I liked this sign in front of a real estate agency. They've drawn out the apartment building and the room layout to show its appeal.

Besides the rent and common area charge, we usually pay a security deposit (Shikikin 敷金) and key money (Reikin 礼金) when renting an apartment. An average 1K (one room + kitchen) unit costs about 55,000yen/month in Tokorozawa. This is very cheap compared to Tokyo, where the rent is much more expensive for an even smaller unit.

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Who Me?

This mailbox was tilting it's head at me...so I stopped to take a photo. Then I realized that you could actually see small bits of reflections in the lower half of the mailbox.

It's actually a very classy mailbox, don't you think? (Now I'm tilting my head at you!)


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In Every Glance

This is the sunset from yesterday reflecting onto the Seibu Building. And if you look closely at the photo below, you'll see a part of the sunset on the bus.


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New View

This is the first time I saw the Seibu Building from this angle. Usually all I see from the street is the reflection of the sky against the building. But from here you can see all the different buildings around the station!

I bet the view at night is pretty, too. I'm going to have to go again!


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Across the Street

This building reflects the other buildings on the other side of the street and the evening sky!

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Waltz

The Seibu Department Store Waltz is always crowded on the weekends! It's right outside of Tokorozawa Station so many people come, not only in their cars, but by train, too.


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Tunnel of Green

Seems like we jumped from winter to summer all of a sudden. I took a walk down the Azuma River the other day. The cherry trees are now lush with green leaves.

The reflection of the trees above on the river below is very pretty, don't you think?


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The Window

CNS Consulting Group's head office is located right next to Kitanodai Park. I took this photo last month. It's a little dark but you can see the reflection of the clouds and electricity lines on the big window.

I miss cherry blossoms...


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Hot 'n Cold

The weather can't seem to make up it's mind. It's 22 degrees one day and 9 degrees the next. Sunny one afternoon and raining the next. Wearing a t-shirt one day and a fur coat the next.

I keep on putting my winter clothes away then having to dig it back out. But at least I got a photo out of this crazy weather. The slick wet roads made for a great reflection!

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Down the Street

Okay. So I couldn't pull myself completely away from cherry trees. But this is the street that I was walking along taking pictures the other day.

There's a river that runs alongside the street and there are Shidare-zakura (Weeping Cherry Trees) growing all the way down the street.


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River Reflection

I like the reflection of the pretty cherry trees in the river. This is one of my favorite spots during the cherry blossom season. Happy Easter everyone!



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