My body clock had me up very early this morning and as soon as the sun rose, I decided to explore the area around my hotel. Less than half a mile away I found the lovely Takushima Central Park. There are few things I find more relaxing and pleasing to my senses than a Japanese garden. I share this passion with my mother who created an exquisite version of her own in the backyard of my childhood home. I was able to spend 2 hours exploring the park before returning to the hotel and preparing for my business meeting.

I don’t often feature stylized photos on this blog but am making an exception for the one below. Somehow this version conveys the feeling of the place more genuinely than the more accurately rendered original.

Examples of fine Japanese woodworking and design aesthetics were to be found at every turn. I took hundreds of pictures despite the gray skies and poor light.

After completing what proved to be a very fruitful day of business, all but one of my colleagues headed off in different directions. My traveling companion and I were chauffeured to Kobe where we would spend the evening before traveling on to Osaka for our flight home tomorrow. We arrived with just over an hour of sunlight remaining and decided to make a quick tour of the Nunobiki Falls, a short walk from our hotel. In Japan, Nunobiki is considered one of the greatest “divine falls” and includes four separate falls: Ondaki (top fall pictured below), Mendaki (bottom fall pictured below), Tsusumigadaki, and Meotodaki.