Spiralled

I'm not sure what species of flower this is, but it looked pretty interesting from this angle.

Autumnal Aroma

What's that smell? Oh, it's kinmokusei, otherwise known as "Golden Sweet Osmanthus" (also called the sweet olive). This shrub is found all throughout Japan, and blossoms in Autumn, giving off a very sweet and pleasing aroma.

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Charlotte was the first (between us) to notice this smell, and track down the source. At first I thought it was because she was lower to the ground than I, but the bushes grow to over 5m tall, so she simply has a keener sense of smell! 

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The smell really is sweet. Sweet as in sweets.  The abundance throughout Japan has made this time of year probably the best smelling in all of Japan's seasons. We've decided that when we have a garden once again, to plant some of these close to a window.

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The blue skies of Autumn and Winter are near-perfect

The Chinese character for kinmokusei are: golden 「金」; tree「木」and rhinoceros 「犀」... yeah, I wasn't expecting that either. Tree and rhinoceros together produce the word meaning osmanthus, 木犀, but I have no idea why - I'll try to find out the meaning, as I love the mystery behind the characters. 

Unfortunately, the typhoon this week blew all of the golden flowers away. I'll miss these sweet olive trees, but probably not as much as Charlotte.

Hibiscus

Hibiscus, ヒビスカス  or 赤花, is a vibrant red flower native to warm-temperate, subtropical and tropical regions throughout the world. They are found throughout Okinawa, and the nearby Yaeyama islands.

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The flowers themselves only last for a day, and then curl up and fall off. The high turnover rate means that the shrubs continually have numerous flowers, so unless you specifically look for the same flower the following day, you may not notice its absence.

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Two symbols of Okinawa

Whilst on holiday, we tried "hibiscus beer" , which was Orion (pronounced the Japanese way; orry-on) mixed with hibiscus extract. It was extremely tasty, and quickly became a favourite way to cool down in the hot afternoons. It's responsible for our recent quest for fruit beer since returning to Tokyo.

Golden rayed lily of Japan

This isn't the first time I've taken pictures of lilies, and it won't be the last. Usually, if I post photos of lilies, they'll be ones I've bought for Charlotte. Every now and then, we see wild lilies growing here in Japan, but we've never seen anything like this.

Ladies and Gentlemen, I give you the " Golden rayed lily of Japan"

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山百合 [Yamayuri] | NEX-7 & SEL24F18Z | 1/1600s f/2.0 ISO100 24mm

From Wikipedia: 

The flower colour is typically white with gold radial markings and orange spots, but variations in flower colour and markings are known. For example the variety platyphyllum, which bears a gold stripe along the tepals but lacks spots. The strongly scented flowers are the largest of any lily species and the largest plants, which can reach 2.5 metres (8 ft), can carry up to twenty of these.

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The plant itself was well over 2m long, from ground to tip. Weighed down by its sheer size, and successfully attempting to leave the shadow of the canopy above, the plant pointed perpendicular to the ground, creating an amazing eye-level bouquet.

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The hillside was covered in these plants. The smell was incredible. There was quite a strong wind [see video below], no doubt blowing lots of lovely pollen around. Closing our eyes in the warm breeze, we listened to the forest cicadas scream their summer song.

Pollen

I rarely use my macro lens outside of the house, probably as its 30mm focal length is duplicated by the smaller and slightly faster sigma lens. I'm not sure which lens is officially sharper, but I've found the sigma to be extremely capable. Having said that, the Sony macro lens for E-mount is very sharp, and has a minimum focussing distance of ~1cm - useless for shy animals, but great for plants and food.

Anyway, the above photo is a crop from a handheld shot of a flower (click it for a larger file). I saw the flowers at the side of the road, and wanted to take a photo to show my brother the resolving power of the NEX-7 vs his Galaxy S3. His phone took a great photo, but only when I digitally zoomed in on the flower did we notice a small insect atop the pollen! We struggled to make out the insect with our eyes! 

Rose

Rose │ NEX-7 & Canon FDn 50mm F1.4 │ 50mm, 1/60, ISO 500, f/2, Lightroom 4.2 Apartment hunting - an event I've never enjoyed. Mainly because it's never really exactly what I want, but rather just a stop-gap until I buy a house somewhere. Apartment hunting in Japan is an absolute nightmare, and one I will complain about in full in another post, if you're interested. In short, when moving in, we will have to pay between 3 and 6 months' rent up front - never to be seen again. Ouch.

Whilst out looking for somewhere to shelter us for the upcoming year, I saw this rose. It was there, all by itself, at the side of the road. I had to get a quick snap; and I was rather pleased with the results: