Himeji Momiji Viewing

Yesterday (finally I'm more or less up to speed!) I went with my friend Yukako from my calligraphy class, her mother, and Lana to Himeji to see the maple trees in the gardens around Himeji castle. Maple is the symbol of fall in Japan, and right now they're in bloom (or rather the leaves have turned the perfect colors) so for about a two week window, the gardens are open at night and the trees are all lit up. It was absolutely amazing--it looked like the trees were on fire. It reminded me of one of my favorite picture books when I was little, The Twelve Dancing Princesses (which had gorgeous illustrations) when they're going through the forest of jeweled branches. That was what is was like, standing under a canopy of glowing leaves.

After the garden we went to a Italian restaurant for dinner. They had said we were going to have Italian at a really good place, but I assumed it was some little dive they knew. In fact they had made reservations at a REALLY nice place, on the 6th floor of this building, with a private room with a glass wall and a breathtaking view of Himeji castle, illuminated and towering over the city. We had a superb full course meal--prosciutto and figs, pumpkin gnocchi with gorgonzola sauce, steak filet in some kind of reduction sauce, and tiramisu and macha cake for dessert. Yukako and her mother treated us, which was incredibly kind of them considering how expensive it was. I felt badly that I didn't realize they had planned this entire evening and meant to treat us. I thought we were just going to pop over to Himeji, see the gardens, grab a bite to eat and head home. It was a really fun evening (although speaking in Japanese all night was tiring!)

Pictures