Green Energy

Spring days like today get me fired up feeling positive, energetic, and optimistic. These are days that make me wish the sun would stay up in the sky for a few more hours so I could stay outside. It was probably the most perfect spring day we've had so far this year, and we were lucky enough to have the day off. So after lunch Chieko and I hopped in the car and cruised out into the countryside.

I have to say that in my experience, Japanese countryside is pretty homogenous: the mountains vary in height but generally have the same type of vegetation; the rice fields look the same; the architecture, both old and new, share the same characteristics; even the plots of land used for gardening employ the same techniques and materials to scaffold their tomatoes and edamame, and have the same telltale outcroppings of onions spiking out of the ground.

That said, I love the Japanese countryside. It's like entering at a time warp back 40 or 50 years. You won't get much of the time warp sense from these pics, but there plenty of blue skies and green goodness. I determined today that I really need to venture out into these parts on a bicycle. There are so many good pictures to get but it's impossible to pull the car over every 100 yards. And it would be far less conspicuous to take a picture of someone working in their garden if I didn't have to be so obvious about stopping my car, getting out, firing off several pictures, than slamming the door and driving away. Not to mention that there is a beautiful, paved bike path running all along the route we took today.

So here's to more spring days, and days off to enjoy them.