we enjoyed hydrangeas.

There are many temples and shrines which are famous for hydrangeas.

 

Last Saturday Yuki and I visited a shrine which takes about 40 minutes by car. It is "Isoyama shrine".

I heard the colors of hydrangeas are decided by the acid level of the land.

However in this shrine there are lots of colors of hydrangeas.



Most of them were purple or light blue, but some were white and some were bright pink.
Actually in Japanese hydrangeas are called "ajisai"  (purple flower), but it has another name of Japanese, "shichihenge" which means change colors seven times.

Of course we visited here to see hydrangeas, but we had another purpose. In this season some shrines set such a big straw ring. When we go through in a traditional way (just when we go through it first turn to left, when we go though it the second, turn to right, and when we go through the third, we have to go straight and visit the shrine.)  It is said by going through it, our "dirty" and bad luck have gone.

 

 

A half of year has passed since 2016 started. So from the day our "new" half of year in 2016 has started.