Two days of pictures

We have a three day weekend in Japan this week and Tetsu and I took a drive locally on both Friday and Saturday.

Friday we headed up the mountain to go to a touristy dairy farm...  BUT there was hardly anybody there and certainly nothing to see!

 Ah yes.  The sign tells us we are in the Kirifuri Mountains....  Kiri means "fog" and furi means "descending".  We are in the descending fog mountains.  I guess so! 

 We enjoyed a grilled barbecue lunch.

But there wasn't much around to look at.  There have been other times that we have come to this farm and I have been able to photograph wild monkeys but if they were around today they were well hidden.

And coming down the mountain this was the scenery in the town.  Yep, the fog has descended pretty close to the town...  The mountain range above is somewhere in all that.

So Saturday we headed in a different direction to a shrine that is about an hour away.  The weather held for us this day.

The shrine is in the mountains also and is surrounded by forest.  The moss growing on the steps and statues is deep!

 A quiet stream.

The Tengu god is well known for his long nose.

The shrine sells different charms with stamps for health and protection.  If you look closely, you can see some of the long nose figures on the stamps.  Devout Japanese love to collect stamps in their prayer books from each temple or shrine that they visit.

The shrine also offers prayers for traffic safety and after purchasing a new car the owner will bring it to the shrine to be prayed over and to receive a sticker that will be placed on the back of the car.  The white paper prayer wand is waved when the priest blesses the car.

Tetsu and I were more interested in visiting the shrine's garden and we found a wonderfully cared for pond and arranged garden.

Time to bring out the cameras in earnest!

 The mountains were full and green, the pond had carp and the irises were in bloom.

Koi (carp) food was offered and visitors with children enjoyed feeding the carp.

The carp know where the good things are!

 There was a sacred tree marked by the rope and the paper streamers.

All the trees are special to me.

Look at that tangle of roots!

We stopped at this tea house but actually had coffee instead of tea.

It was so nice to see the carp and watch at the dragonflies flitting from iris to iris.

He looks happy.

Such a quiet spot surrounded by nature.

I don't know why I like to chase dragonflies around with my camera.  Are they particularly pretty?

 "Boo!"

I tried getting artistic with my camera.

This was how I took the above photo.  Through a stone lantern!

But nature is artistic enough without me.

 Humans can be pretty artistic too.  Look at the beautiful cobblestone walkway.

 We took pictures of the hydrangeas too.

 The bridge railing.

 People purifying themselves with sacred water before entering the shrine.

That was a lot of pictures today wasn't it?  Gotta get out while the weather holds!