• Fall 2025: Japan
    2The indoor pool area. Designed to let you swim (& drink) like a fish.
    Another rather commercial port.Ice-cream bread: a fabulously soft & warm bun with 2 'slices' of ice cream!! AMAZING!The city is neither colorful nor overly vibrant.A super-narrow gift shop.This Buddha head has survived numerous fires.'Narrow' is apparently a common width here. Vacant land for sale here bet'n 2 bldgs.Moat surrounding the park.We found a nice little path along the water...... that we were surprised to find we were sharing w/ a few of these guys. 🐍 ick.11Turtle-spotting: a favorite hobby of ours.Another turtle, just a wee bit smaller. See it?An odd find: a small zoo in the park. Brilliantly colored (folded) flamingos here.Unfolded. :)Watch this guy blink ...A kookaburra -- native to Australia.And of course there are penguins in an out-of-the way Japanese zoo. Why not...?We found a place that has Takoaka's signature dish: black Ramen.Coupled with a croquette, a seaweed something & a few dumplings. All pretty good.Most famous anime associated w/ Takaoka: Doraemon. Statues of Doraemon & friends are all over town.

    Fushiki (Toyama Prefecture)

    6 de novembro de 2025, Japão ⋅ ⛅ 64 °F

    We docked in Fushiki, the port area within the city of Takaoka. A ~25min shuttle got us to the City where we walked to the Grest Buddha of Takeoka and then walked around Takaoka Kojo (Old Castle) Park.
    The Buddha was erected over a period of 30yrs w/ the townspeople donations. At 15.85m tall & 65 tons it is one of Japan's largest Buddha statues (along w/ those in Nara and Kamakura)..
    The Park no longer has a castle, but there's a moat & fortification remains; and we were exceptionally fortunate for good weather & sun which exaggerated the fall colors.    Leia mais

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