Autumn

Summer is finally over. Temperatures drop, the air dries a bit and we finally get the high, clear autumn days that mark the best time of the year here in Kansai. When we go to Kobe now we don't avoid the hot streets anymore, but can take leisury walks up to the mountains, or down to the harbour area. This time I brought my Yashica film camera instead of the usual digital one.

In Sweden people will sit outside everywhere during summer, enjoying the warmth and light. Here summer is too hot, but on beautiful autumn days you find lots of people sitting outside in the same way.

Of course we ended up sitting in Meriken park for an hour, just watching the passing people.

Motomachi is a long covered shopping street in Kobe, running right along Chinatown (and near a favourite restaurant of ours). This day they had a music festival, with bands and singers performing all along the street.

One of the shopping centers in the harbour always has some themed decorations. For summer season they had an Olympic theme with giant Roman legionnaire statues performing various athletic feats. This is the long jump, apparently.

The Harbourland area draws large crowds of people to its restaurants and shops. But Kobe is also very much a working harbour, and the real harbour is never far away.