Red leaves and more in Morioka, the first stop in Tohoku on my most recent Japan trip (Photo-essay)

I walked by a few trees in Victoria Park this afternoon with red leaves on them.  This being Hong Kong though, it's possible that the leaves were red because they were young rather than because it's a sign that autumn is here.  And even while there are places in Hong Kong where one can see seasonal red leaves, the ratio of humans to red leaves can leave me cold -- unlike when I was over in Morioka last month!

The prefectural capital of Iwate was where the shinkansen (on which I had had the amazing 30 ingredient ekiben!) took me.  Being some 3.5 hours up north from Tokyo even on the super fast train, I found the temperatures noticeably cooler there than in the Japanese capital, never mind Hong Kong -- and the red leaves of autumn evident in many parts of the town/city, including from my hotel room window as well at the old castle grounds in Morioka which has been conveted into a public park known both as Iwate Park and Morioka Castle Ruins Park.

All this made for some nice visuals -- and quite the change from the previous time I had been up in Tohoku: back in May 2019, when I was pleasantly surprised to come across still blossoming sakura (in Sendai and Hiraizumi).  And while I know there are people who go gaga over sakura, I must say that I adore the sight of koyo (autumn leaves) -- and catching sight of some of them on this recent Japan visit was a nice bonus; something which I didn't really expect to do in view of the leaves of the trees at Shinjuku Gyoen that I viewed on the same trip (and, in fact, just the day before!) having been pretty green for the most part! :)      

 

View of red leaves (and pink sky courtesy of a sunrise)  

from my Morioka hotel window :)

Red leaves at Tawazako (teaser for a future blog post!)

 

Puppet Ponyo and some trees 

with a few red leaves at Iwate Park

 

A nice mix of red and green leaves

 

What a sight this tree would be at the height of the koya season!

 

Some red leaves and really high castle walls!

 

What look to be old castle stones -- 

laid out for a rebuilding project?

 

A stream ran through the old castle/current park grounds

-- and this was one of a two ducks I spotted paddling in it :)