Dazaifu, ume and snow

 

After our Spring weekend, winter is back, but only for a short time, so we took the opportunity to see something very rare: Snow and Ume (Plum-blossom) together. We drove to Dazaifu and visited the ancient and famous Shrine "Tenmangu" (天満宮).

The streets there are a lot like Kyoto... unfortunatelly it snowed so much and it was so cold, that it was difficult to make any photos of it (I will do that next time). So we went to a Soba-restaurant and had lunch first. It was very delicious and the anmosphere relaxing.

After the snow and storm got a little bit better, we went to the shrine. There were so many old trees there. Just beautiful !!! I could spent a whole day there, painting the shapes and patterns of them.

Here you see the shrine. The old plum tree infront of it is famous and very old.

Today, the shrine was very crowded. The god, who resides there, represents knowledge and studies and soon there will be the entrance exams for university. So there were a lot of students, who prayed for passing the exams and other tests.

Here you see some of the plum blossoms...

And we were able to see a wedding in shinto style.

After we came home, we decided to cook tomato-nabe (nabe means pot). It was my first time to cook it and it really tasted delicious. I want to make it again, maybe with fresh bamboo-sprouts.