Perhaps today’s picture works better with this quote than the photos I originally included with it. The train line is the Toden Arakawa Sen. The corner I took it from was Meiji Dori and Shin Mejiro Dori. The skyscraper in the distance is Sunshine 60 in Ikebukuro, once the tallest building in Japan.
I have two Japanese maple trees in my backyard in the USA, but I don’t remember them being extra beautiful, extra green in spring. In Japan the maples seem to have an extra spark this time of year. Maybe it’s just because they haven’t been green for so many months so they merely appear extra special now. Or maybe the green gets a little tired later in the summer. In any event, they looked great around the gate of the Homeiji Temple in Ikebukuro a week ago.
From the inside of the gate the azaleas (ツツジ) looked good too.
On Kenpo Kinenbi (憲法記念日 or Constitution Day) I went on a bike ride to Oji (王子) via Otsuka (大塚), Ikebukuro (池袋), and a few other places. Along the way I stopped at Kishimojin in Ikebukuro. The name of this place is interesting I think.
The characters (read right to left) mean devil/demon, child, mother, god.
There is an inari shrine on the same grounds which can’t be adequately captured in a photo. The highlight between the torii gates is an enormous tree which is loaded with fresh, green leaves in May even though the tree itself is anything but fresh.
According to the sign, this tree has been around for more than 600 years.
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