On Sunday 19th July, we drove out into the countryside, to a village called Kimita, located near (and incorporated into) the town of Miyoshi, in Hiroshima Prefecture to view the sunflower fields.
The sky was full of ominous clouds, but when we arrived there were some patches of blue and the sun broke through from time to time, lighting up the heads of the sunflowers. In the photo (below) the sky is full of clouds to the north, but the sun is shining through gaps in the cloud cover behind the photographer and the myriads of sunflowers are drinking in the sunlight.
It was a cheerful site, even from a distance, when the sunflower fields first came into view as we drove into the village. As we approached the farm, villagers and outsiders could be seen carrying away sunflowers, singly or in bunches. I felt touched by a sense of joy just seeing people walking off with their summer treasure.
When you stand in front of masses of sunflowers all facing towards you, you begin to appreciate how such a vision could have contributed to Van Gogh’s descent into madness.
One step beyond, we have the Hostages To Fortune among the sunflowers…
And the inevitable self-satisfied selfie…
The sunflower farm at Kimita provided a pruning ladder for visitors to ascend and photograph the sunflower fields, which is what the Mrs attempted to do.
Of course, the Mrs was very keen to photograph her husband in such a fine setting…
And again…
Meanwhile, looking at another field in the opposite direction, we had a view of the backs of the sunflowers as they stared into the southern sky in search of the summer sun…
It was mid-afternoon when we left Kimita and as we hadn’t had lunch, we drove to Miyoshi Winery for a mega-grilled-meat blow-out lunch. I am not a big fan of Miyoshi wines. Last time I lunched there I stuck to beer. But even old gits can mellow with age and a sense of benevolence that communing with the sunflowers may have induced, so this time around I imbibed some of their unspecified “aka” (“red”) over an extended and more than adequate lunch.
DH