I like rain, in japanese ame, I love it especially in the evening, in the fading ligth, I love the reflections on the stones of the pavements. I love the colors and the incredible nuances of blue, purple and pink, or the red, green reflections of urban lights.

In this picture taken from the window of my family in Kitakata at sunset, just stopped raining, the clouds in the sky opened at the orizon and the blue sky shined reflecting on the old stones of the street.

In Wakamatsu, on a back street I fount an old small Jinja suffocate by tall modern buildings, the site is very nice, shame for the surroundings. A red Torii and a Chozuya, a basin in stone filled with fresh (here very fresh, freezing) water to wash hands and rinse the mouth entering into the temple garden, to purify yourself before to enter the main temple, using the dipper on the right in the picture. Washing hands and mouth simbolise cleaning yourself from everyday life and worries and present yourself in front of God with clean, pure soul.

On every corner, on every little street in town or in the open country, in stations and tube stations, you can find a drinks vending machine, less common are cigarettes vending machines and now this have a personal ID reader for sell tobacco only to people of age. The drinks vending machines have a variety of drinks, from green tea to cofee, from lemonade to soda, fruit water and sports drinks, and are colds or hot. The red line in the picture means hot drinks and the blue line .... Needless to say that all the machines are always clean and perfectely working. I took this picture in the evening using only the neon lights from the vending machine and the camera hand helded.

I love the color yellow, is a long lasting, never ending love, all my friends know that, I dress always with something yellow, is a mania!

So this is a favourite tea cup, unfotunately is part of my mother in law cups collection for Tea Ceremony!

I love Chanoyù, the Japanese Tea Ceremony, the bitter taste of the fresh green tea crushed into a very thin green powder, then warm water is added (just starting to boil is the perfect time) using a wooden dipper, usuallyy in bamboo, and wisked wit the Chasen (photo in an older post) to obtain a thick froth. The very bitter taste mitigated by a small sweet, the Wagashi (photo in an older post) that always accompany the tea in Chanoyu.

This round stone with a squared hole in the center is a decoration for gardens, it replcate the traditional Chinese coin, this simbolize the union of heaven (the circle) with the earth (thesquare) from the ancient times when money was a holy thing ....... long, long ago! Can be also a Tsukubai, a little basin where water drip in by a bamboo pipe, to rinse hands before entering a house. 

In Japan at the entrance of any temple courtyard you can always find Chōzuya, a big tab filled with water in different shapes and materials protected by a canopy with many dipper, more ofthen in bamboo and sometimes in metal. Is custom to purify oneself before entering the temple to pray,  by washing their hands and rinsing out their mouth, simbolizing the purifying of the spirit from everyday life and worries.