I actually managed to get up and out this morning! I made my way to Meiji Jingu at 8am. This shrine is unique because although it’s in the middle of one of the largest cities in the world, everything is so tranquil and green you almost forget you’re downtown. It also has these gigantic tori, and I made sure to hug the same one I hugged years ago. After the shrine, I made my way to Meiji Jingu Gaien, and walked down the road with gingko trees. Thanks to climate change, Japan has been experiencing longer and hotter summers these past few years, with this year being the worst. Since summer lasted so long, the fall colors have been delayed by AT LEAST 2 weeks. This weekend is the ginkgo festival in Tokyo, when the ginkgo leaves are supposed to be yellow and gold and beautiful at peak color, but when I walked down the road they were all still green, barely any other color in sight. It’s honestly disappointing, I timed this trip to be in Japan for the autumn colors and it looks like I’m barely going to catch the beginning of it while I’m here. I made my way back to the hotel to pack up and get to the train station to head to Ofuna/Kamakura. I had some time before I could officially check in, so I walked to Kannonji Temple, which has a gigantic Kannon goddess statue you can walk around. Then I went to Ryuhoji, a local temple that is known for its stunning Japanese maple trees during the fall…but as I said, the leaves have barely started changing. I caught literally two trees with some yellow in them. Without the colors the temple is pretty standard, which is such a bummer, I bet it really is gorgeous during peak colors. I was feeling a little deflated with the climate change indicators and all that goes with them, so I checked into my hotel then got some food and came back to do laundry. You can actually rent machines here and I haven’t done laundry since Paris, so, I’m out of socks. Hoping tomorrow won’t be such a reminder that our planet is dying!
