Saturday - Autumn Illuminations

I really made the best weekend plans this week, and the weather was on my side! I was meeting up with a Japanese friend at OPA today, since she hadn’t been before, and the weather was very fittingly cloudy for this indoor day! Woke up super late at 10:30am, then set off for OPA. We had lunch at a place called CHAWAN at the 8th floor of OPA (their restaurant floors are 7th and 8th) and then went shopping! I was mainly just keeping my friend company – I didn't buy anything for the whole day, apart from lunch and dinner. She needed to buy clothes since she was starting a new part-time job next week at a clothing outlet, and also a present for her friend’s birthday.

After we finished shopping at around 16:30, we decided to drive to Sakurayama to see their autumn illumination. It really was a spontaneous decision because it was like “What should we do now?” (after shopping) and she’s like “Do you want to go here?” (an hour drive away) and I was like “Yea sure!”. Drove back home first to get my camera (I hadn’t planned to go see any autumn leaves today) and some more warm clothes since it was chilly!! Then we drove towards Fujioka, then up Sakurayama. The drive up was very exciting because it was seriously pitch black, and the road up was seriously steep with a few curves. I was super glad it was only 2 of us in my little kei car, because if it was any more (or any heavier people) it would have been scary going up such steep slopes! It felt really funny too because there was no sign of any illumination/people on the way up, so it was like “Are we going in the right direction??” but we saw the lights and were like yay! The uncles on duty guided us towards the parking lot – the illumination was free, but the parking cost ¥500, so basically the “entrance fee”.

The light up was SO PRETTY!!! But the best thing was that there was hardly anyone around, so it was really peaceful and you could take your time with photos, and looking at the leaves and stuff. It wasn't like Kyoto at all, where there would be people walking into your photos half the time, or waiting to take any photos at all for the other half. The garden was really pretty because it had a beautiful pond in the middle, so the illumination was creating gorgeous reflections. Sakurayama is also famous for its Winter Sakura, but they hadn’t bloomed yet. There were a few sakura in some trees, so that was cute. It’s just so interesting being able to see autumn leaves and sakura (spring) at the same time! We could also see the night scenery of Saitama! All in all, a great great night and I was so glad we made the decision to go (we were hesitating because of the heavy gray clouds and little spits of rain in Takasaki). Drove back to Takasaki Station and went back to OPA for dinner! We ate at a Taiwanese/HK place that served noodles and 小龍包! We had deliberated between this place and CHAWAN before for lunch, so we were both super happy we got to try both in the same day! The food was nice, but definitely not on HK’s level. After that we dropped by a bar to say Happy Birthday to my ALT friend, and then my friend took the train home, and I drove back home.