From Finland to New Zealand – Yoyogi Park and Meiji Shrine, Shibuya, Tokyo, Japan

Yoyogi Park is a huge park in the northern part of Shibuya, home of the Meiji Shrine, as well as the location of the first powered aircraft flight in Japan (back when the place was called Yoyogi Army Parade Ground).
After WWII, during the Allied occupation of Japan, the grounds were used by U.S. officers for their military barracks. It was only after the occupation ended and the area was used for the Tokyo Olympics of 1964 that the grounds were turned into today’s park.

Barrels of sake donated every year by the brewers for the soul of Emperor Meiji and Empress Shoken

In 1920, after the death of Emperor Meiji and Empress Shoken, the Meiji Shrine has been established as people “wished to commemorate their virtues and to venerate them forever” (more info).
People from all over Japan and overseas donated over 10,000 trees and voluntarily planted the forest which people can enjoy today.

Torii marking the entrance to the park and the Meiji Shrine

Murchison Falls – Game Drive – Elephants

Today I will publish 2 posts as tomorrow I will leave for my Rwanda-Burundi trip and I will not be able to publish anything for few days.

I can say we have been both lucky and unlucky; lucky because we managed to see some elephants, unlucky because they were quite far from us. I know it is not much of a big deal, but other tourists had the chance to see them really close to them.

Due to them being far, I couldn’t grasp much of their behaviour; but I am pretty sure I will see them again some time soon!

 

/Nesh

Source of the river Nile in Jinja, Uganda

Hello there,

I quickly start off saying that I am currently having issues with the color settings of my monitor and some of the pictures I am going to upload might look slightly different than they are supposed to look. I am working on it.

Few weeks ago, after many failed attempts to go to Jinja with some friends, I decided to just go by myself and get over with it.

Jinja is where the river Nile starts its way up all the way to Egypt, the source is the point where the river leaves the Lake Victoria; it is debated where the source actually is, you can read more here; being this place heavily advertised as such (there is even a sign!), I will just overlook the fact that this could not be the exactly be the source and enjoy it anyway.

Jinja is a quite nice touristic town, 2/3 hours away from Kampala. It has a different look from the capital, the building styles are still heavily influenced by the strong presence of Indian people before the expulsion of all Asians from Uganda in the 70s.

Lake Mburo National Park – Conclusion

At last, we are at the conclusion of this journey through this incredible park, considering its size.
We had the chance to see and appreciate very different species and got to finally see them in real life.

A venue of vultures on a tree.

This was my first safari and I truly loved it. My first but not my last.
In fact, in 2 weeks I am going to undertake another and much longer challenge: Murchison Falls National Park.

Skulls of several animals, including an hippo (the largest one).