We Take a Walk Around Downtown in Tochigi City

Taking a walk aimlessly for about an hour, we happened to find an old Japanese style sweets shop or  'Dengaku-ya-san'  in the edge of Tochigi city downtown area.

They served miso-taste-dengaku dish and Japanese tea.

We enjoyed both food and seeing a neatly preserved patio.

Amazingly, they said that the shop opened in the year 1781.
... more than two hundred years ago ...

Birds Area in Tochigi Wanpaku Park

There was a petting zoo in Tochigi Wanpaku Park where we went the other day.

The birds or parakeets were well domesticated by its staff.

Both parakeets and background flowers were beautifull, weren't they?

I Go to Centaurea Flower Fields

After browsing nearby top season flower parks on the web, we decided to go to Tochigi Wanpaku Park the other day.

Centaurea flower fields in the park were perfectly　blooming as the web site commented.

I thought the gardeners there planted just centaurea flowers in the fields, but some red poppy seeds were brought in them.

As a consequence, the color contrast of light blue centaurea flowers and red poppy flowers happened to make the scenery a beautiful natural carpet.

Children's Day in Japan

 

Japanese Children's Day is a national holiday which falls on May 5.

It is a day set aside to respect children's personalities and to celebrate their happiness.

On this day, families customary raise the carp-shaped colorful banners at their home.

Local government in Tochigi city displays Uzuma river with about one thousand banners on the day since 2006.

We went to the river in this season for the first time and enjoyed seeing the display.

"TRAVEL CAFE" in Hotel Mystays Utsumomiya

Beef Steak with radish sauce and fried sprout

We dropped by a cafe on our way back from Utsunomiya University where cherry trees were in full bloom.

The cafe or "TRAVEL CAFE" is located on the second flour of a hotel just next to JR Utsunomiya station.

The cafe had a spacious eating space and all-you-can-eat salad buffet.