Shizuoka beauty.

Yesterday’s post was rather foretelling, because today I’m certain — Autumn is here! In Shizuoka! I was actually cold in my bed last night, and this morning, though I’m still wearing short sleeves and yoga pants, my toes feel cool to the touch. Hooray! Candles, pumpkin, and Coldplay, here we come!

I was thinking yesterday as I was driving home from helping clean a friend’s place that although Shizuoka’s version of “fall” is not quite up to par with my standards, this city has never disappointed me with its beauty. Seriously. There’s the ocean, and the foothills, and the rice paddies. There’s the downtown lights in the valley, surrounded by the frame of the Minami Alps mountain range. There’s the tea fields growing up the sides of the hill, and the bamboo forests, and the good-ole-regular forests. There’s the lookout over the bay, and the outline of a peninsula in the distance, and spectacular views of Mt. Fuji just five minutes from my house. This place is brimming with inspiring sights, and each position of the sun, each time of the day, brings new angles of delight to this corner of creation.