Fall Fruit

Persimmon trees have beautiful leaves, too.

They also have beautiful orange fruit. Little by little, the fruit is picked or it is eaten by birds. Some of it falls to the ground. At the end of the season, there's sometimes only one persimmon left on a tree. It looks funny.

This kiwi vine had a lot of fruit.

It was growing on a metal frame above this car.

12-01-06 I went by this afternoon and all the kiwis were gone. They must've picked them this morning!

Cherry Trees in Fall

For some reason I always miss the color change of cherry trees in the fall. I never see these beautiful leaves on the cherry tree.



I did see this cherry tree the other day at Jindai Botanical Gardens, but the colors were bleached out by the sun. The sun was too bright.



We used to come to see these cherry trees at the Jindai Botanical Gardens every spring. I still do. This walkway has a canopy of cherry blossoms, sakura in the spring.

This is another walkway at the Gardens. It leads to a covered sitting area with benches. It is near a big section of cherry trees where people have picnics for blossom viewing, o-hanami. People sit on plastic sheets and eat under the trees to enjoy the blossoms.

Street Memorial

This was near a train crossing. It is a bouquet of flowers placed in an old spaghetti meat sauce can. The can was filled with water. A rock was placed in front of the can to keep it from falling over. Bouquets are sometimes put near a place where an accident occurred. I have seen this in other Asian countries and have seen it in recent years in the U.S.

Glutinous Rice Cakes

The name in English may not sound very good, but these sweets are really good. Inside there is atsuki, sweet bean paste. The white ones have chestmnuts on them. Both have real leaves. They are only for decoration. We don't eat them.

The red leaf is from a Japanese maple tree. I'm not sure where the green one came from. I think this next picture is the tree when the leaves are yellow. See the next post for pictures of a maple tree. Click on all pictures of the fall colors. They look better enlarged.

Japanese Maple Trees

This maple tree was near the pine trees I posted the other day. There is a whole section of Japanese maple trees at Jindai Botancial Gardens. We usually go to see them the first week of December. That's when they seem to be at their peak in Tokyo. I didn't even think about checking them when I was there! I hope I didn't miss them.

Map of Jindai Botanical Gardens

No, I'm not there now, but I still think it's cute.

Sponge Made from Recycled PET Bottles

This sponge was made out of plastic PET bottles. I found it at the 100 yen shop. It was cheap AND good for the environment! It's a good strong sponge. I think it will last a long time. Maybe forever! Click on the picture to see the English written on the package.

Fall Colors at Jindai Botancial Gardens

Near the Entrance of Jindai Botancial Gardens

These pine trees are near the entrance. They look like they are decorated with fallen leaves.

More Fall Colors at Jindai Botanical Gardens

Gorgeous trees. What kind are they? Click on the picture and you may be able to see a man clipping a pine tree in the bottom righthand corner. It looks like his ladder is in the water.

It was a very bright day. The color was exactly like this.

More of the same trees from a different angle. The sun was so bright. It bleached the trees at this angle.

The ground was covered in these small branches. They smelled like Christmas.

The stream was covered, too. It didn't smell like Christmas, though!

Pine Trees

Can you see the men clipping the pine tree in this picture? They were clipping the pine trees at Jindai Botanical Gardens today.



No wooden ladders! I was shocked and saddened.



When I first saw this man, he was sprawled out on several branches. He was cutting a few pine needles at a time. It looked like he was trimming hair.



Pine needles had fallen all over the ground. They looked like they had been there for a while.

When I was walking through the pine trees, the clock in the rose garden started to chime a tune. At first I thought it was "Here Comes the Bride" but then I realized it was "O Christmas Tree".



Later when I was leaving the gardens, I noticed a small soba (noodle) shop outside the gate. It is called matsu no ki, the Pine Tree. That is a pine needle design on the lamp.

JFK Rose Bushes

The JFK rose bushes at Jindai Shokubutsu Koen (Jindai Botanical Gardens). I missed them in full bloom.

Pampas Grass

Pampas grass is a sign of fall. Pampas stems are used as a decoration for moon viewing in early fall. These are three views of the same clump of pampas grass. The photo was taken at the Jindai Botanical Gardens.

JFK Rose

I took this picture last year on the anniversary of the death of JFK (Nov. 22, 1963) . It is a rose named for the American president, John F. Kennedy. There are many tall beautiful JFK rose bushes at the Jindai Botanical Gardens. I took a picture of this rose against a beautiful fall sky. I'll go tomorrow to see if the roses are blooming. I'll try to get a picture of the bushes. Today was cloudy and cold.

From November Fields

Since today was Thanksgiving I thought I would show the fall vegetables growing in the field behind our house. Spinach, daikon and onions in the background.



Daikon

Cabbages



The vegetable stand near our house is still open for business even though today was a holiday. It was Thanksgiving in Japan, too. It was a day of giving thanks to workers. Children had a holiday from school. Most workers, too.

Papa had to work so we had our American Thanksgiving meal yesterday evening. We had ordered a turkey, cranberry sauce, stuffing, and sparkling cider from Foreign Buyer's Club, an import service. I even made a pumpkin pie. Canned pumpkin and evaporated milk can actually be found at some food sections of department stores.

Kids Web Japan--Thanksgiving in Japan

Still Pruning

It seems a little late in the season, but city workers are pruning the trees in the neighborhood park. There are so many trees in the area. I guess it took time to get to ours. They still have a long way to go. There are many trees in our park. I saw only two workers.

These workers had an aluminum ladder. I usually see wooden ladders. I'll try to get a picture of one. Now that I think of it, the bay tree in our garden still needs to be pruned!

Emergency Button at a Train Crossing

Click on the picture to enlarge it. Can you see the sign with the red arrow? Because of the angle it looks like it is in front of the train. The arrow is pointing to an emergency button. The emergency button is on the other side of the narrow street. There is an arrow next to the emergency button. It is pointing the other way. Arrows light up to tell which direction the train is coming. This is a very small neighborhood train crossing. Note how close the train is to the apartment building on the right!

This is the sign pointing to the emergency button.

This is the emergency button. This sign says to lift up the cover and push the button when there is an emergency. The cover is actually a thick piece of plastic that you slide over.