shizen! Near Okutama, originally uploaded by julesberry2001.

The Japanese go to huge effort to make sure their countryside stays beautiful and natural looking.

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Zuisenji ume, originally uploaded by julesberry2001.

Plum blossom season is well and truly over, but I couldn't not share this lovely picktur wot I took with my 6.5 foot bipod, with the blossom looking like falling snow or summat. Especially appropriate as it did snow several times during the plum blossom season this year.

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Egaratenjin, originally uploaded by julesberry2001.

Wikipedia says, "International Klein Blue is outside the gamut of computer displays, and can therefore not be accurately portrayed on webpages." I wonder if it is true.

Anyway, here is some Japanese Shinto Orange.

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Broken trees, originally uploaded by julesberry2001.

The ginkgo of Hachimangu wasn't the only tree to fall down in last Tuesday night's snowstorm. On Saturday we climbed Hinode, a little hill near Tokyo, and there were contorted dead bodies and severed limbs scattered all over the place. Poor trees!

Actually, wind ripping up trees is pretty cool even when (or maybe especially when) it is an old tree; it is man ripping them up that is upsetting, and the latter is a whole lot more common than the former.

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camelia, originally uploaded by julesberry2001.

I find camelia difficult to photograph, as, to me, they look like rubbish roses - and I don't really like roses anyway. Their main feature is that the different varieties flower from around November through to March or April, providing a lot of colour. The fancier the variety, the later they bloom. Their other feature is that the flowers fall whole from the bush - hence the blooms lying at Mrs Tiggywinkle's feet.

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Fuji-san from Kamakura, originally uploaded by julesberry2001.

Japanese people like to photograph Fuji-san looking something like this. The reality is different.

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bear shrine thing, originally uploaded by julesberry2001.

I don't quite know how I have managed to visit Zuisenji for 8 years and never before notice the Mrs Tiggywinkle shrine.

[for the pedants: I'm fairly sure it is supposed to be a bear not a hedgehog... Having said that, if it were Mrs Tiggywinkle it would only mean that there was more than one shrine in Kamakura sporting anime characters...

for the extra very pedants: Zuisenji is a temple (Buddhism) not a shrine (Shinto), but as Buddhism likes to blend in with local religions, it is all a bit mixed up, and some temples contain shrine-like things]

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heron, originally uploaded by julesberry2001.

One of our pet herons.

[鶴岡八幡宮の大池, 鎌倉 - which is a bit funny, because 鶴岡 means something like hill of the cranes, but I have never seen a crane there, despite having seen lots of black kites, herons, egrets, ducks and pigeons.]

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furry flower, originally uploaded by julesberry2001.

Normal programming resumed.

This is the Oriental Paperbush (Edgeworthia chrysantha, mitsumata, 三椏), and was photographed at Egaratenjin, an odd sort of a shrine with some great blossom trees, in Kamakura. All the furry bits in the middle soon open up into flowers, and the bush has a really strong jasmine-like fragrance. Ahhh....

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Duran Duran live in Tokyo, 2010

Duran Duran live in 2010, originally uploaded by julesberry2001.

Before getting back to usual programming (flowers, bugs and toxic waste).... here is my only close-up of Simon Le Bon. I would say he's doing quite well for 52 - although a bit porky (which was very fitting given the occasion), he is able to sing in tune better than most, and the quality of his voice seemed good too.

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