It's Monday, between Sunday and Vernal Equinox day, a Japan's national holiday.
Do you think you want to work?
I took a day off.
A happy rec ride today, too!
Kasuga-jinja shrine.
Founded 1099, next to Tokuonji temple.
Some guys must have visited or heard Kasuga-jinja.
Yes, there are 1,000 Kasuga-jinja all over Japan.
Some are big and famous, others are small and nondescript.
The headquarters of Kasuga-jinja is Kasuga-taisha, Nara, a UNESCO World Cultural Heritage Site.
Kasuga means a spring day.
Isn't it a good place for a spring rec ride?
A-shaped gate is torii, which declares a sacred place starts from here.
It separates a sacred place from this world.
Art fans must think "Hmmm? I've seen it somewhere. Oh, a German painter, Albrecht Durer, it's same as his sign!"
In Kurosawa Akira's
Red Beard, Koishikawa Youjousho hospital is the main stage.
Its gate is like torii but without the top beam.
At the top of the staircase is the main building.
Shimano shoes weren't designed to climb the stairs.
Mokuren, or magnolia.
Another spring beauty.
Evergreen magnolia is taizanboku.
I love its scent!
Yamazakura, wild cherry, Japan's endemic species, grows naturally.
11 species are known.
It has been used as a board for Ukiyoe woodcut since Hokusai, Hiroshige, Utamaro days.
Wild, yes, so they grows at places like these, too.
They grow crookedly.
