Sendai Tanabata parade

The Sendai tanabata parade included multigenerational dance troupes, marching bands, and traditional drummers.

The audience sat in large ovals around the median strip in the boulevard, and the performers paraded around the ovals,

progressing from one oval to the next every half hour.

Matsushima Bay

Matsushima Bay is just north of Sendai. It is filled with small islands that the Japanese consider to be beautiful.

We took a ferry ride through the bay, and Zak fed shrimp chips to the seagulls.

Sendai Tanabata festival

We visited Sendai during their Tanabata festival. The train station and main shopping district were filled with 

people (the town's population triples in size during the festival) and with these large paper decorations whose

streamers hang down to about shoulder height.

Tōno flowers

In Tōno, a small village in a low plain, we borrowed bicycles and visited local shrines and folkloric areas.

We kept encountering these beautiful wildflowers on our ride.

Inakadate rice fields

We took a bus to Inakadate, just 9 kilometers from Hirosaki, to see their celebrated rice field art. We hadn't

understood that the viewing tower was in a municipal building that would close for the day about 15 minutes

prior to our arrival. Here's a better view of the fields from recent years.

Japan week: Hirosaki

With all the news out of Japan these days, I have been looking over the photos we took last summer and found

a few to share. Zak had a 10-week fellowship to do research at Tokodai University in Tokyo. I joined him

for three weeks in late July and early August.

We took a week-long trip to the northern half of Honshu, and spent two nights in Hirosaki during their Neputa festival. Every night during the festival, there are parades of large floats like the one above, that are pulled, carried,
or driven down the street, accompanied by drummers and flutes. Here's a link to a Youtube video of one night
of last year's festival.

(I added a map of Japan with pushpins on the map page.)

Boudry's old town

The colorful homes in Boudry's old town, on the road up to the castle.

Boudry sculpture

 

The sculpture's head and arms turn with the wind.

Philip Morris

We rode past Philip Morris's campus on the lake, which includes a research and development branch and
a manufacturing branch. The air always smells sweet by PM.

Sailing

There were also many small sailboats.

Kite surfers

We had beautiful weather for our Sunday bike ride to Boudry. There were several kite surfers on the lake.
This guy was a good jumper.

Avenches, more Roman ruins

The other Roman ruins remaining in Avenches are this column where a temple once stood, a theater, which can be seen in the background (in the middle of the photo), a bath, and a gate.

Avenches amphitheater

Avenches (current population: 3,500) was known as Aventicum during Roman times. Aventicum was the capital of its province and had a population of around 20,000. The Roman amphitheater still stands in the middle of town. It continues to be used as a venue for concerts in the summer.

Avenches château (part 2)

Carvings over the entryway to the castle.

Avenches château

Avenches' castle, built in the mid-1500s.

R. O. U. S.

We encountered this pig on a farm near Delley on the ride up the hill from Portalban. Anyone know what breed it is? Wayne?

Lake view of Neuchâtel

Yesterday we took a bike trip to Avenches. We started by taking the ferry from Neuchâtel to Portalban,
a town across the lake. This is a view back towards Neuchâtel as our ferry was leaving the dock.
The large building in the foreground is the main post office.

The Big Fish

The Big Fish, commissioned in 1999, sits at the foot of the pedestrian bridge that leads to the "Titanic Quarter."

Rowhouses

 

The neighborhood where Zak stayed. 

The Titanic

The Titanic was built in Belfast.

Queen's University

Queen's University was founded in the 1840s.

Belfast week - The Crown pub

Zak went to Belfast for a meeting last week. The Crown pub sits across the street from Belfast's main train station.
It has been in business since 1826.

Neuchâtel flag

 

Yesterday was quite windy, making for good flag photographs. This is the flag of the canton of Neuchâtel. 

Switzerland has 26 cantons, which are something like U.S. states.

Neuchâtel mail bikes

Neuchâtel's mail carriers make their deliveries on yellow motorcycles. Though I see them in action most days,
I never seem to have my camera handy at the right moment.

Tiny vineyards

There is no such thing as too little land for a vineyard. This building houses Hauterive's communal administration.
It also has 10 grape vines in its small, south-facing yard.

Trash collection

Some homes in town have curbside garbage pickup. The rest of us carry our garbage bags to receptacles 

like these.

Hauterive lion

One of many public water fountains we've encountered.

Neuchâtel's Independence Day

 

Neuchâtel became the 21st canton of Switzerland in 1814, but remained a Prussian principality, 

as it had been since 1707. On March 1st, 1848, Neuchâtel freed itself from Prussia and became a republic.

This statue stands at the western end of Neuchâtel's Jardin Anglais (English garden).