Monday, December 31, 2012

Japanese Restaurant 'Rin Ei Mon'


My senior daughter Emi came back home from Tokyo a couple days ago to spend a turn of the year vacation of her college.
I think it's my second time to meet her this year.
Emi, my wife and I went to a Japanese restaurant called 'Rin Ei Mon' to have lunch yesterday.
We enjoyed nice meal and a lot of catching-up talks for an hour there.

Monday, December 24, 2012

Cafe yu-lan YUHORA

I went to a cafe called 'yu-lan YUHORA' to have lunch with my wife a couple weeks ago.

The owner of the cafe took care of orchids both inside the restaurant and also in a glass house next to the restaurant.

There were no other customers coming in while we were staying there.

The owner was very friendly, she talked about how her cafe had started several years before, about her daughter and, of course, about orchid.

She showed us the glass house after the lunch and gave us some vegetables as a present.

We enjoyed staying in the cafe with a quiet atmosphere over an hour.




Sunday, December 16, 2012

Utsunomiya Central Park


I took a day off from office and went to Utsunomiya Central Park to see changing colors of early winter leaves the other day.

Maple trees were beautifully colored in the bright sunlight and a gentle breeze.

Sunday, December 9, 2012

Hooray!

I won the B-class municipal tennis tournament yesterday. Wow!

The B-class tournament was open only for seniors and beginners. I fell on a category of seniors.

Thirty-six tennis players, including me, competed vigorously against the opponents on a sunny, but cold and windy winter day.

Every practice of last several months after I became a runner-up in the summer tournament has finally been rewarded.
Hooray!
I hold a certificate of the winner and a racket bag for the prize.

Sunday, December 2, 2012

Guests from East Timor

East Timor is a country in Southeast Asia.
It became the first new sovereign state of the 21st century on May 20, 2002.

My wife works using her English skills, for instance as an interpreter, as a translator or sometimes as a tour guide for whom come from foreign countries.

Two weeks ago, she suffered from a terrible backache and was not able to walk for a whole four-days.

Unfortunately, she had an appointment of an interpreter for guests from East Timor visiting Utsunomiya at that time.

 It's impossible to rearrange their schedule nor find a substitute overnight.
Then what did we do? Can you guess?

Yes, I did in her place.
It's bad for me to give up tennis practices from Friday to Sunday, but it was a fun moment and a good experience.