Ashikaga

Saturday was rainy and crappy out. I went to Utsunomiya to do some shopping. I bought a book, just released Friday, that contains some Obama speeches, Japanese translations and a CD for listening. It's for the school so I got reimbursed. This is not the first such book -- apparently these books are best sellers, which is odd for a language text.

The weather was nice and sunny on Sunday, so Etsuko and Brian invited me along to go to Ashikaga. Here is a view of mountains from the backseat. These are mountains near Nikko. This view reminds me of Tucson, a bit.











Here are some more hills along the tollway.

When we got to Ashikaga, we found the wind was a lot stronger than we'd expected. So it was *chilly*!

There is a school in Ashikaga that was founded in the 9th century. The school taught Confucianism and I Ching. It was finally closed during the Meiji Restoration. Here is a gate.













Here is a carving on the gate.













Here you can see the building with its thatched roof.






Compare with the tile on the gate's roof. I love these old tile roofs.





Here is a famous old and large wisteria. Of course, it's not blooming now.



Another picture of the school.









A nice, small garden.









A statue of a mendicant monk.















Another garden.










Here are some winter plum blossoms.








Here is the pagoda. You can see a plum tree to the left.















Here is a building made of Oya stone.









Here is a cat sculpture I saw while walking around Ashikaga.














It's the year of the cow, so here is a painted stone cow.






Also in Ashikaga is the Kurita Ceramics Museum. The pieces on exhibit are mainly from the late 17th-18th century. During this time, only the Dutch were allowed to trade with Japan. Many pieces were clearly made for the European market, but most look like Imari porcelain.

Here is the inside of one exhibition hall.






I found a nice piece to use as an urn for my Moogie.






It's February now, so I have less than 8 weeks before I go back to the States. I'll try to get as many pictures for you as I can!