Selected Photos for 2025

Pounding mochi (rice cake) at a local school in northern Yokohama on January 11, 2025. You can enjoy mochi with various flavors or in soup.

A disaster drill at a local school on February 8, 2025．The photo shows a cooking stove to be used at an evacuation center. A warehouse in the background keeps other necessary tools and materials for evacuees, and includes specially packed food and drinking water in tins.

Visiting Yokohama Museum of Art on February 10, 2025. Shown here is work dated 1939 by Kataoka Tamako (1905-2008). 

I visited Yokosuka Museum of Art on February 17, 2025 to see the exhibition of Spanish surrealism artist, Salvador Dali (1904-1989).

A park in the Honzawa area, Sagamihara city, Kanagawa Prefecture on February 26, 2025. The park is located near Siroyama dam and is noted for more than one thousand plum trees. 

Traditional dolls are displayed at an old thatched-roof farm house in the Center Kita area, northern Yokohama on February 28, 2025. The display is for the Girls' Day festival that falls on March 3 every year.  

Enosima is a popular sightseeing destination in Kanagawa prefecture about 40 km south-west of Tokyo. It is located very close to Kamakura, which was the capital of Japan from the late 12th Century to the middle of the 14th Century. The photo shows a marina that was used for yachting events during the 1964 Tokyo Olympics and again the 2020 Olympics. This photo was taken on March 11, 2025.

Iconic cherry blossoms in my neighbourhood, northern Yokohama on  April 5, 2025. 

Tulips and cherry blossoms along Egawa brook in Tsuzuki ward, northern Yokohama on April 15, 2025. 

Rice fields in the Jike countryside, northern Yokohama on April 15, 2025 waiting for subsequent rice planting. 

Beautiful azaleas in Higasi Yamada, northern Yokohama on April 27, 2025.

Flying carps in the Center Minami (south) area, northern Yokohama on April 29, 2025. These are for the Boys' Day festival, which falls on May 5 every year. 

Yakushi-ike park in Machida, Metropolitan Tokyo on May 12, 2025. 

Roses in front of the former British Consul in a park overlooking the Yokohama port on May 15, 2025.

Hirayama Ikuo Silk Road Museum in Hokuto, Yamanashi Prefecture on May 19, 2025. Hirayama Ikuo (1930-2009) travelled extensively along the Silk Road. Incidentally, he was a Hiroshima A-Bomb victim.

Enkakuji, a Zen Buddhist temple in Kamakura on May 29, 2025. Kamakura was the capital of Japan from the late 12th Century to the middle of the 14th Century. 

Hydrangeas and irises (background) at Shogakuji, a Buddhist temple in the Center Minami area, northern Yokohama on June 12, 2025. 

Flowers in Toscana painted by Hori Fumiko (1918-2019). This was on display at Yokosuka Museum of Art on June 19, 2025.

Yokohama Bayside Arena, one of the biggest marinas in Japan,  on June 20, 2025. 

Mt. Fuji from an observation point by Lake Kawaguchi on June 30, 2025.

Summer sky over the Jike countryside, northern Yokohama on July 16, 2025.

Ginkgo trees in Jingu Gaien, Tokyo on September 24, 2025.

Drying rice ears in the Jike countryside, northern Yokohama on October 6, 2025.

An autumn festival at a local school in my neighbourhood, northern Yokohama on October 12, 2025. More than 4,000 people came to the event. A group of local residents prepared for the event including food booths. We used to hold the festival in summer, but this year we carried it out in autumn for the first time in order to avoid extremely hot days. 

The statue of Chandra Bose, an Indian independence advocate, at Renkoji Buddhist temple in Tokyo on October 14, 2025. Chandra Bose died from an airplane accident in Taiwan in October 1945. He was cremated there and it happened that his ashes were transferred to this Buddhist temple. Dignitaries from India have paid visits to the temple, including then prime ministers Nehru and Indira Ghandi.

Yamashita Park, Yokohama on October 17, 2025. In the background is the International passenger terminal. Incidentally, this park was made with debris from the Great Kanto Earthquake of 1923.

Yamate Italian garden, Yokohama on October 24, 2025. This was the site of the Italian Consulate. The house once belonged to a Japanese diplomat in Tokyo and was relocated to there.

Autumn foliage in my neighborhood, northern Yokohama on November 1,

2025.  

A beautiful castle in Matsumoto, Nagano prefecture on November 6, 2025.

Matsumoto is about 240 km north west of Tokyo, surrounded by mountains and has a population of around 235,000 (2025 estimates).

A park in my neighbourhood, northern Yokohama on November 16, 2025.

This was painted by Kitazawa Eigetsu (1907-1990) in 1954; it is displayed at the Hiratsuka Museum of Art, Kanagawa Prefecture. The photo was taken on November 18, 2025.

A wedding hall in Center Minami (south), northern Yokohama on November 19, 2025.

I visited the Fuchu Museum of Art, Metropolitan Tokyo on December 3, 2025 to see the exhibition of Fujita Tsuguharu (1886-1968). Fujita saw his heydays during the 1920s in Paris with his iconic style of girls, females and cats. 

This is the site where the signing of the Japan - US Treaty of Peace and Amity took place in 1854 in Yokohama between the Tokugawa shogunate and the US government. It is located in the Minato Mirai district of Yokohama. On the right is the Yokohama Archives of History. This photo was taken on December 11, 2025.

This picture depicts the American delegation led by Commodore Matthew Perry as they landed in Yokohama. The 1854 Treaty ended the Japanese policy of isolation that had lasted more than two centuries.  Trade between the two countries began when a commerce treaty was signed in 1858. 

The musical "Christmas Carol," which is based on Charles Dicken's novel with the same title was performed at Theater-H, Shinagawa, Tokyo on December 17, 2025. 

A little Santa found in Center Minami, northern Yokohama on December 22, 2025.