Xingfu means happy and blessed in Chinese. Even though 2014, the year I started this blog, was a busy and, at times, difficult year that is the word I thought of for this space. Mama not because I have many children but because I seem to fall into a caregiving role. Sometimes I feel like Mama to the world.
The name XingfuMama means Happy Mama with undertones of being blessed.
Yesterday we relocated from Narita to Akita by trains. I love Japan’s trains. clean, fast and smooth. Here are some from the window images. We shot through a storm as we crossed from Morioka to Akita.
For Hammad Rais’s Weekend Sky and Jez Braithwaite’s Water, Water Everywhere.
This challenge is simple: step back for a few minutes each week to find a lovely thing, a precious moment, anything you find lovely. Then post about it. You can just post a picture or you can go into detail and tell it as a reflection, story or poem.
It could be anything:
a smile…a rainbow…a flower…a kind act…a tasty treat
Quick note: I have been alerted that ping-backs aren’t working sometimes. If you use “whatsoever-is-lovely” as a tag it can help me find your post in case the ping-back doesn’t work.
Continue reading Whatsoever is Lovely Challenge-2023 Week 23As I mentioned my approach to jet lag is to walk around in natural light…but my second day it was more like natural dark. I awoke to pouring rain and a forecast that said “heavy rain”.
My plan had been to go to an outdoor museum called Boso no Mura. However, one of the times in my life when I have been the wettest was at Museum Meiji Mura near Nagoya. I am not afraid of getting a little wet but I have serious respect for Japanese rain. I debated what to do and actually headed out to the train station still undecided. In the end I decided that if I was going to be soaked through (and I was already headed in that direction) I would be happier if the journey back to the hotel was shorter so I opted to explore Narita and the Naritasan temple area.
Some photos from the walk from the JR train station to the Temple
Many umbrellas visited the temple. The visitors were probably all either the very faithful or the slightly, or maybe more than slightly, crazy (such as yours truly).
One of the remarkable things about this temple is how much detail there is in every little corner of all of these buildings. For example here are a few from the one side shrine on the left in the photo above:
This complex has many different buildings and shrine areas, large and small.
Having reached the pagoda and being almost thouroughly soaked I headed back toward the train station to pick up the shuttle back to the hotel. I stopped to sample the grilled eel, which is a specialty of the area.
And stopped one more time for matcha ice cream at this little spot:
It was one of those days where I had to take absolutely everything out of my backpack and wound up using a blow dryer on the pack itself because it hadn’t dried over night.
Do you go out in the rain?
I have jet lag over the international date line so my computer, which doesn’t seem to update, says it’s yesterday. But yesterday’s gone.
My approach to jet lag is to go a couple of days early and spend them wandering around outside in natural light. The first day went well, today it rained, real rain with periodic gusts of wind. But I get ahead of myself.
On Thursday, June 1st I went to Sawara to work on my jet lag. It was a pleasant outing from Narita where I’m staying at the moment. I took a local train out.
Walked through the old part of the city along the canal. They have some interesting little statues along the canal.
I then took a bus out to the Aquatic Botanical Garden, which is in it’s Iris Festival. They have a lot of beautiful iris. Some waterlilies were blooming. The wisteria was done for the year and the lotus weren’t flowering yet, although they have interesting leaves. The weather was perfect: not too hot or cold. There was a bit of wind
I had a bit of a wait for the train.
I didn’t fall asleep on the train and miss my stop. A not unfounded fear, as the sunshine and motion of the train were hypnotic and my eyelids kept drooping.
For Alive and Trekking’s Which Way and Cee’s Flower of the Day…actually yesterday.
Why certain things catch my eye.
It was probably the way the light hit it. I was fascinated by this seed head in a field near the hotel. It reminded me a bit of pasque flower seed pods. Surely its nickname has beard in it somewhere. I don’t have enough of the language to ask anyone what it is.
Today it’s raining.
A PHOTO CHALLENGE OF PLACES WE SIT…OR MIGHT SIT…OR ART ABOUT SITTING
Welcome to week 22 of the Pull up a Seat Challenge in 2023.
Take a load off and share a favorite perch by linking your post to this one, either with a comment or ping-back. For more detailed directions go to Pull Up a Seat page.
It is always fun to see the variety of ideas this theme evokes.
Continue reading Pull up a Seat Photo Challenge 2023-Week 22The challenge is simple: take one photo and get creative with it by processing it three different ways. I’ll do a start up post on the first of each month, including a round up of entries from the preceding month, so we can all share in the creativity and fun.
To join in create a pingback or write a comment below that includes the URL to your post.
I started this challenge on my other web site, theSquirrelChase.com. I am moving it over here because I couldn’t get ping backs to work on that site. I haven’t had that problem on this site, so I decided not to fight it any more….
Murphy never rests. Now it seems that pingbacks are being hit or miss here. If yours doesn’t work you can put your link into a comment and/or use the tag tsc_1to3.
This challenge is simple: step back for a few minutes each week to find a lovely thing, a precious moment, anything you find lovely. Then post about it. You can just post a picture or you can go into detail and tell it as a reflection, story or poem.
It could be anything:
a smile…a rainbow…a flower…a kind act…a tasty treat
Quick note: I have been alerted that ping-backs aren’t working sometimes. If you use “whatsoever-is-lovely” as a tag it can help me find your post in case the ping-back doesn’t work.
Continue reading Whatsoever is Lovely Challenge-2023 Week 22
The old saying is “if wishes were horses, then beggars would ride”. If there was a horse for every dandelion wish we’d be overrun with horses!
Taking photos of “wishes” is an annual ritual for me. I know dandelions are rather pesky, but I kind of like them. Both as cheerful yellow wildflowers and as “wishes”. Do you like them too?… or are they just pests?
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