This year has been a banner year for Ume plum blossoms.
Speaking of Ume, I used to visit Kitano Tenmangu Shrine and Umemiya Taisha Shrine every year initially, but in recent years, I mainly visited Jonangu Shrine.
This year, 3/6, was the exact start of full bloom, and I visited the shrine four times, on 3/7, 3/9, and yesterday.
Yesterday, I went to Jonangu Shrine with the intention of "departing" to see the magnificent plum blossoms.
The queue for purchasing tickets to enter the park on 3/6 was the longest I have ever seen, and yesterday was no different.
I had planned to take a cab from Takeda Subway Station, but no cabs were available.
I checked the bus stop timetable and found that the bus would arrive shortly, and since Jonangu Shrine was the next stop, I decided to take the bus.
However, the bus was jammed with traffic, and we were well over our scheduled time.
At the entrance is a plum tree with beautiful pink blossoms in full bloom.
The other day, a group of white people was taking a commemorative photo in front of it.
Not long after we got in line, we realized that the tree was long past its full bloom.
Without having to enter the park for the fourth time (800 yen), we decided to end our "Departures" duties.
We hurriedly decided to go to Kitano Tenmangu Shrine, our last stop yesterday.
On 3/9, when we visited there, we finished shooting the area around the main hall, and now we had to pay the admission fee of 1,200 yen! I spent the admission fee of 1,200 yen and started photographing the plum garden, but my camera battery ran out.
I went to replace it, but it was gone.
My current backpack is the last one left in my house, one of several I discovered and purchased at the Daimaru Umeda store last year.
It is an excellent product made in Japan. It's just so light! And yet it is sturdy. But it needs a more substantial point in storage space. There is only one on the outside. The zipper was open.
While it was moving, the battery popped out of the inside and was gone.
I had no choice but to take a picture with my phone.
On 3/10, I bought it at Yodobashi Camera, what a surprise, it was 10,000 yen 😢.
Yesterday's main attraction was Mimuroto-ji Temple in Uji.
As readers know, I visit this temple yearly to take pictures during the azalea season.
For some reason, my companion, a friend, dislikes this temple's attitude.
My friend's intuition is correct, and the priest here has a bad reputation in the neighborhood.
It may be why there is no bus stop there.
Naturally, I had to take a cab on my way home, but the contact information for two cab companies had disappeared this year.
One of the companies that had been listed announced that the number was no longer in use.
I had no choice but to walk to JR Uji Station, which took more than 30 minutes.
Yesterday was a hot day.
At the window of Kitano Tenmangu Shrine on 3/9, I told the lady about the entrance fee, "It was cheap at first...600 yen for the first time in my memory, so it is double..." The lady replied, "There was a time when it was 600 yen."
So my friend stopped going into Ume garden.
Because of the Corona disaster, I entered the renovated Ume-en for the first time.
The renovations were truly magnificent.
Yesterday, I just took pictures with my camera from the newly renovated plum viewing stage.
At 4:45 p.m., I was on the New Rapid train home.
But to my surprise, the train was packed, and I couldn't sit down.
I had no choice but to leave standing.
Walking home after parting with my friend, suddenly, I felt a pain in the lower half of my right leg, something I had never felt before.
Oh no, it was pain.
The plum garden, which was opened by Mimurotoji Temple, the first place I visited as a new source of income, is located on the top of a mountain at the end of a very steep slope.
Since the age group of the visitors is high, everyone was heading while giving up.
Moreover, the 30-minute walk back to the station was fatal to my legs.
On top of that, I needed to drink more water yesterday.
Now I am praying that it is not a ruptured Achilles tendon.
Fortunately, I felt much better in the morning, but I decided to rest and watch the Nagoya Women's Marathon today.
As readers know, I don't watch any TV talk show programs.
So I searched the program listings on Sky Perfect TV and was surprised.
The WBC, Venezuela vs. Dominica, was being broadcast live.
The members of both teams were outstanding.
The pitchers are all around 160 km/h and are all two-seamers.
Major league stars have had many bats broken.
When Manager Kuriyama went to the U.S. to observe the team, he said, "We are going to be facing a team full of monster players who throw pitches like the ones mentioned above..."
Even more so, I thought. I thought, "Ohtani, who became the best player in the world among such monstrous players, is impressive.
After Venezuela vs. Dominica, it will be the U.S. vs. England.
And now, the Giants vs. Hanshin open game at Koshien.
Japan vs. Australia in the evening, I am soaked in baseball all day long today.
March 11, 2023, in Kyoto
