Glorious Color

The color of early summer in June is ajisai, the hydrangea.

The wisteria light purple says spring is here. Justly famed Kameido o-fuji wisteria bloomarama. Hokusai captured the same scene in u-ekiyo.

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Wild Tiger Lilies in Tama Zoo. On a blisteringly hot day these flowers were visions of elegant coolness floating above the shady hillside.

Orange Japanese Maple leaves in a local shinto shrine and park. Sumoto, Awaji-shima.

Two-tone maple.

Brilliant red Japanese Maple leaves frame yet another fading park bench. Most of them sponsored by the local Miyake Bijin sake brewer. Is this "traditional?" Somehow, it's not the same as the local church park and kids playground with park benches sponsored by "Budweiser" or "Mondavi."

By Nakayama's ekimae train exit, a smidgeon, an island outside of time, an echo of former days...the Last Stand of Shitamachi, the old town and the old ways. Thousands walk around its perimeter every day, but few venture inside the small labyrinth of narrow, ill-maintained walkways. However, a ramen shop, coffee shop, and hair salon soldier on. A few houses keep up beautiful trees and flowers, including this spectacular Japanese maple tree in autumn, with the fading to ruin metal siding. One of my favorite juxtapositions. Will it remain until I return the winter's ramen?

A winter's o-hanabi fireworks in chrysanthemums.

The utterly unworldly and voluptuous kiku, or chrysanthemum. A Nakayama (Yokohama) surburban man who hadn't lost his farming roots surrounded his hillside home with meticulously attended plants, including his tiny local street-side herd of mums.

Purple section of the main noren-like silk-like banner across the main hall at Anyo-in, Kamakura. This shrine is reknowned for the reddish-purple azaleas.

Intensely blue tile capping a wall protecting a house from public view. Sumoto, Awaji-shima.

Gray-blue. Windswept mountain reservoir, high up into the mountains above Sumoto. A lonely place, surrounded by steep, pine-covered forests and clusters of well-used homesteads. Can't you hear the frosty wind biting at your ears?

Green panel, looking out from under the eaves of Anyo-in, Kamakura.

Orange Japanese Maple leaves in a local shinto shrine and park. Sumoto, Awaji-shima.

Orange and blue fight it out in Gion, Kyoto. Isn't this the same orange color as the Golden Gate Bridge back in my former hometown of San Francisco?

Scintillating orange silk threads await the warp and weft on a loom at the Kyoto Brocade Museum.

Orange tori march up a narrow walkway in Sumoto, Awaji-shima.

Faded rose colored fishing net and harbor water blue along the beach in Nushima. Not one thing on this island was bright and new. Time and use had washed all colors to a comfortable softness, like your favorite sweater of many winters.

Grey and pond muck green. Castle walls and colloidal moat viewed between the pines of Nijo castle in Kyoto. Oddly contemplative.

Glossy pastels of silk threads spooled and ready to roll into a fabulous brocade at the Kyoto Brocade Center.

Cascade of silk in the kumihimo braiding fashion. The same braiding techniques held together the plates and pieces of armor of samurai armor, and still knot formal kimono overcoats. Kyoto Brocade Center.

Thunderbolt white and lightening bright yellow fall together at Gyosei jinja, in Sumoto.

Collection of fading colors on corrugated living quarters right along the road in Yura, along the coast of Awaji-shima.

Japanese Food of the Weird

EGGDOG "Tamago Doggu"

"This egg sandwich is yummy. Let's bite and taste it!"

Hmmm. No wonder it was a little more chewy than usual. Which little pooch wandered into this one, I wonder? From Nakayama stations's Family Mart conveni. Still available throughout Japan. Lap-yappers, beware!

© 2008. Comments to Patricia Yarrow
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