I hope you can see the birds, among the trees, for the photo is from a far distance because we are not allowed to walk on the grass at the park.

There are many black crows on the trees in this picture.

In Europe and America, black crows are seen as evil omen, bad luck, or ghosts.

In Japan, we see them as good birds, and auspicious signs that the gods are blessing our purposes.

 © Hasegawa Tomoko

Click here for a movie about that.

There are many temples in every city in Japan. We go to temples not only on religious holidays/events, but also any time, when we have something to pray for to the gods.

These are temple sandals. You are not allowed to wear shoes or other footwears when entering the temple grounds, except the temple's sandals.

 © Hasegawa Tomoko

Click here for another place on this planet whose native souls positively shun shoes (despite the similarity, Japan, alas, invaded this place once).

These flowers are called nanban-hana, meaning 'flowers of white people'.

 © Hasegawa Tomoko

The Japanese term 'Nanban', if correctly anglicized, would be 'Southern Barbarian'.

It means anything and anybody caucasian.

Click here for the origins of the term and how to use it Japanwisely.