Takayama-usagiya

A friend of mine from Japan is coming to visit Vancouver in the end of December. That got me thinking about Japan and all the wonderful experiences I had there. I was going through some old folders of pictures that I shot when I was there last winter. I came across this one of a bonsai. I shot this photo when I was touring the Japanese alps in Takayama. It's an amazing place to visit, because it's completely different than any other place I've ever seen before. Here the houses are small, and most of them don't have yards, but each house has a very small area in front for their precious bonsai trees. I saw a lot of these trees there, and each one was amazing, because they are so old and valuable. Probably passed down through generations. Yet, these people don't have to worry about anyone coming along and taking one, because it just doesn't happen there. Hard to believe isn't it? Especially when you live in a big city. One of those valuable bonsias wouldn't last 5 minutes on a patio here.

So anyway, I crouched down to take a picture of this one, that is in it's winter dormant stage. It was perfect. I heard some people laugh at me when I crouched down to take the picture, probably because they don't see very many foreigners there. It was a small village, and I stood out, being the tallest white guy around.