Taiwan Cherry in bloom

I saw the beautiful Taiwan Cherry that was in bloom just in front of gate of a Buddhist temple. It was now best time to see. This scenery is one of the pride of our city.　That's why we recommend there as a sightseeing spot.　There is also a shop for souvenirs in the precincts of this temple.

Reed Burning was held in the wetland last Saturday

The photograph shows reed burning held in Oyama city area.

It is the state of annual event for reed burning which was held in the Watarase-yusuichi wetland last Saturday.
28 ha of Watarase-yusuichi wetland has been registered in the Ramsar Convention since 2012, and 15 ha of reed bed spreads out in this wetland.
The purpose of the reed burning is to encourage or promote the germination of healthy reed, and further purpose is to get rid of noxious insects.

Japanese plum blossoms in Oyama-city

Japanese plum blossoms were at their best time to see in the plum garden of city park in Oyama.

Traditional festival for girls

The traditional girls' festival called "Hanaoke-katsugi" was held in Oyama city, Tochigi pref. Japan last Saturday. 
"Hanaoke" means the pail with flowers and "katsugi" means to carry. The girls who are aged five or seven and are dressed in so beautiful Kimono for visiting the shrine. At this time, they carry the pail with flower to shrine in order to prey for their healthy growth.
It is a kind of traditional rite of passage and festival for girls in this region. 

Silhouette of Mt. Fuji

The Mt Fuji can be seen far beyond over the river, called Omoi-gawa", flowing in the center of Oyama-city. The distance between this point and the top of Mt Fuji will be approximately 140Km. 
When I took this picture, it was strong windy evening.
You can see the ripples emerged by the strong wind blowing on the water surface.

Fire Festival carried out in Oyama-city

The one of Japanese traditional Shinto ritual called "Don-do Yaki" was carried out on 15th Jan. in Oyama city.
This is a kind of fire festival that is the event to burn off Kadomatsu and Shimenawa after first full moon of the new year.
According to the legend that it will not get any sick if people eat rice cakes baked with this fire.

Larch in autumn colour

Fallen leaves

I've stopped walking for a while and I've seen so beautiful fallen leaves.

One Sunday afternoon at the park

A happy family in the autumn sunlight.

star and jet trails

It was very cold during taking pictures of the star trails last night. I was just standing on a playground nearly one hour. My camera was taking pictures automatically based on the setting I provided. I was just waiting until my camera finished shooting of 350 frames. The picture above was composed from 350 frames of photograph.