Wandering in Mito and Kasama

E wanted to go to the Art Gallery in Mito, so E, C and I headed in one morning in mid-November. Turns out the Art Gallery is closed until March. At least E got to practice her Japanese! We walked around Senba-ko, a small lake that I've visited several times, while enjoying our Tully's coffee. We also carried the cups around for a while, which happens pretty often, as it is often difficult to find a trash can in Japan. Various theories have been put forth as to the reason for this lack of convenience in a country where so much is so convenient. I'm going to go with "it fosters a sense of personal responsibility for one's own refuse." Apologies to whoever said that, as I can't remember. We did eventually find some helpful old ladies who were trimming trees/shrubs and were nice enough to throw the cups in with the cuttings in their truck.

Another interesting thing I've noticed in Japan is that a lot of the street sweeping, garden maintenance and so on is done by what appear to be retired people. I don't know if they are paid for it, or do it for the sense of pride/accomplishment, or simply to occupy time. But seeing them work so hard at maintaining the beauty of an area does foster in me a sense of responsibility to make sure I pick up any of my trash and so on. In any case, the vast majority of Japanese people take care of their own trash, and littering is pretty rare, aside from the odd person who leaves their drink bottle on the train. People even throw out their snack containers after a movie or sporting event.

We eventually headed across town (a short ways) to the Mito Art Tower, and checked out the exhibition of Tatsuya Matsui's Flower Robotics. An interesting exhibition, with some cool hands on stuff as well. The photo below is of the poster for the exhibit, of his robot named "Posy."

There are more pics from Mito here.

The next day, there were at least two or three of us planning to head to Kasama to check out a shrine and some of the famous pottery making areas. At the last minute, everyone else bailed out, so I went by myself. While I do enjoy checking places out with friends, I am sometimes torn between hanging out with them and focusing(!) on taking photos. So occasionally it's kind of nice to spend a whole day just taking pictures.

There was a huge display of giant chrysanthemums at the Kasama Inari Shrine which is quite a famous shrine, and has been there since the mid 600's. It brought back memories of going to the mum show in Hamilton, although I don't remember the mums being quite so big. Many of the blossoms were as big as my head.

After hanging out at the shrine for a while, I headed over to a park in the hills overlooking Kasama. I stumbled on the Kasama Nichido Art Gallery, and had a good time checking out the displays. I really liked some of the animal sketches by Picasso and Chagall. The art gallery had a short forest path between some of the buildings, where I took one of my favourite photos.


I finally made it to the top of the hill overlooking town, took some sunset shots, and had time to just barely see traces of the old fortress that used to sit at the top of the hill before darkness fell. I wandered in the woods in the dark for a bit (didn't have a flashlight) and gradually worked my way out to the middle of farmland. It took me about a half hour to walk back into town, although I did stop at a cafe/art gallery for a snack. Never did get to see any of the famous pottery! Next time. The rest of the Kasama pics are here.