Hikone castle

Early cherry blossom

The weather's been so spring like for the last few days, so its no surprise that the first cherry blossom has started to appear.

Sake's ready

Kondo isami's grave

Tsuruga castle

Suicide

The spot where 16 young samurai committed suicide during the boshin war.

Cheeky chap

Found this guy in entrance of our hotel.

Edo traveller

tonight we are staying at Ouchijuju. This is a street of edo period inns, which used to be on the main road between aizu and edo. many are still family run hotels.

Tonohetsuri

This spot is famous for its strange mushroom shaped rock.

Setting out

I still feel rough from a cold and i managed to get up at 6am. I made it, here's my spacia dead on time.

New Mansion

The new mansion is down the street is almost finished. What amazes me about these Japanese flats is that they all look the same. It doesn't matter where you go in Japan, they are all built with the same materials to the same design. The only thing that might be different is the colour.

Spring Plum

Headed out to the Tokyo Botanical Gardens of Tokyo University today to see the first plum blossom. The gardens date back to the 1680s and currently contain around 50 plum trees.