IF YOU LEAVE ME, CAN I COME TOO?

The photos below document the changing of the leaves at the local Shinto shrine over the space of ten days. Of all the expensive tripping around I did in the month of November to see the Big Guy's annual autumn exhibition, some of the best and most stirring sights I saw were at this shrine along the road I walk to work 3 times a week! Only one famous temple in Kyoto had trees to top these ones (you'll see them soon)...

NOVEMBER 12

This was a sunny day... the colours were vivid, but weren't quite going primary just yet. But the gradations are really nice.

NOVEMBER 14

This day was overcast, but some nice orange hues were showing.

NOVEMBER 15

This day was perfect. The signs below announce that it's shichigosan matsuri, or the time to bring your 3/5/7 year old child to be blessed. I explained this on the blog at the time, but I'll reiterate... most are actually 2/4/6 year olds, because in the past a newborn was described as being 1, hence a 1 year old child was said to be 2... etc.

I believe the names chiselled into the stone fence are individuals/families/businesses who have contributed to the shrine. The supermarket across the tracks from me is among the rollcall.

The torii, or gate thing, marks the entrance to a sacred precinct. Naturally, you're supposed to walk through it, not around. Kazuya says many evil spirits hang around torii. Like I said, he loves to try and spook me! The famous one on the water that you saw back in Hiroshima's Miyajima Island is so big because boats had to go through it. In the old days, the whole island was treated as sacred and commoners weren't allowed there. You had to enter the island by taking your boat through the gate, or else you would defile it.

I felt like a creep hovering around this family, taking shots of trees, waiting for the right time to ask for a photo. There was no one else around, so I was more than a little conspicuous!

Some of these little outfits are super pricey, so I'd be miffed if some stranger was able to just come and snap my kids for free after I'd shelled out all that money, let alone raised them for 2/4/6 years. But it had to be done... you can see why, right? kawaii! ... cute.

"Mummy, who's the strange man taking my picture... and ... why are you letting him?"

NOVEMBER 22

A week later... another beaut day, but with a touch of winter... no mixing colours required, just reds and yellows straight from the tube!

The exhibition ended a week or so later - the walls of the gallery are pretty bare now. Fallen ... just like his other masterpiece.

Well, I'm going to bed. There's ice forming outside my front door, but it's nowhere near as cold as last winter. No snow has fallen here yet. No complaints from me! But the first snow will be exciting. Anyway... night.