Autumn

It's finally autumn here. The leaves are starting to turn and daytime temperatures have dropped to 20° or so. The weather alternates between high, dry, brilliantly blue skies and leaden clouds with drizzling rain. The light is just a little subdued, the colors slightly muted. The evenings are cool and crisp, and the chill now lingers in the shadows even on sunny days. And all along comes the smell of damp earth and gently decomposing leaves. This is my favourite season.

We took a walk around Osaka castle last weekend to enjoy the end of summer. Turns out we were not the only ones with that idea; the castle park was teeming with people. Really, this is the best time of year to enjoy this part of Japan.

This quartet was having an English-style picknick in the castle park. Apparently they don't believe in doing things halfway.

Part of the outer moat - really a tributary of Neyagawa river - surrounding the park, looking northeast where a cluster of business high-rises adds some big-city ambience. Panasonic has a neat four-story interior and home-improvement exhibition here; you can while away an hour or so browsing kitchens, bathrooms, flooring and light fixtures.

There's several tree-lined roads like this one circling the park and they're very popular among walkers, runners and cyclists alike. These are Ginkgo trees; the leaves will turn a bright, clear yellow in another week or three.

They shed small, round nuts that are pretty good dried and roasted, but they're like ball bearings on the road and a danger to anybody with bad balance or weak legs. I head that the city only plants male Ginkgo trees nowadays, since they don't shed seeds.

The outer northwestern castle ramparts and a guard building. The castle area may not look like much for European eyes accustomed to wading hip-deep in medieval architecture, but it's still a very pleasant park in the city center. Also, it's gratifying to see that not everything in this city is torn down and destroyed once it becomes old and worn.

Saxophone player practising along the northern moat (he's in the big moat picture above too, along with another musician playing the banjo). I love the jazz-inspired clothing.

Homes and apartments don't have a lot of heat insulation due to the mild climate, but that means they're not very soundproof either - thick rock-wool insulation and triple glazing stops sound as well as heat after all. Amateur musicians playing brass winds and other loud instruments are often unable to practice at home. So you frequently find people like this gentleman practising in public parks, along rivers, under motorways or wherever they can without disturbing anyone.

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.

Autumn

Autumn is in full bloom as it were, with cool, clear days, trees turning golden and people starting to stress out over the coming New Years holidays. At this time, anybody with a camera will feel the primeval urge to go out and take pretty pictures of leaves. I'm sure that in some far distant human past, cavemen would go out at this time of year, painstakingly create hollow boxes with a small opening in the front out of rocks and twigs, then obsessively point their contraptions at piles of leaves with an expression of utter bewilderment mixed with a deep sense of contentment.

Since these kind of pictures rarely have much value for anybody but the photographer, I thought I'd shorten the suffering and try to make one largish autumn post rather than dribble pictures at you over the next month or so.

Osaka castle and the park is ringed with small access roads and causeways that are very popular for walks or bicycle rides. This one to the north is surrounded by Ginkgo and cherry trees. To my eyes, the Ginkgo in the fall beats the cherry blossoms every time. As autumn is unusually late, the Ginkgo planted along midosuji hasn't actually turned color yet.

I really like the whole area around Osaka castle (with the exception of the castle itself). The moats are connected to the rivers, so they actually have plenty of fish for those who are so inclined to spend their time. No word on how edible they are though, after having lived in Osaka river water their whole lives. The water quality in rivers and canals is apparently a lot better than just a few years ago, but that is of course very much the relative statement.

Kobe seems to have an earlier autumn than Osaka; when went there a couple of weeks ago leaves were already turning.

More pictures, for those who are interested, in my Flickr-stream shown on the right. One warning or promise is that there's a couple of spider pictures there, with a spider eating a freshly caught ladybug.