roof #2

@Nicole: Nicole, thanks for visiting and the comments. Were you from the L.A. suburbs, namely the San Gabriel Valley area? I've been to Japan once, and that was to Hokkaido last September. So, looking at your pictures

@Nicole: Ah Claremont! I went to Cal-Poly Pomona, howdy neighbor! I remember going to Claremont to visit the botanical garden for a native California planting class, and taking our plant identification midterms at this park off Indian Hill. We used Scripps and Harvey Mudd for some mock landscape architecture projects, going up to Chaffey to take this easy math class, etc... Man, that was ages ago, seems like yesterday.

Hokkaido was fun. BUT, September on the contrary is not the best time. Good weather, but no- lavender, snow, or autumn color. Go either a month earlier or a month later. The onesens were way too addictive, got me hooked, got me searching all over the web for California hot springs but couldn't find anything alike Hokkaido. Beautiful landscape, good onsen food, hot springs, and humble, honest people (at least seemed pretty nice to us supposed rich tourists from Taiwan...)