'Cafe and Bar Milano' in Utsunomiya

I went to a restaurant called 'Cafe & Bar Milano' for lunch the other day.

About a ten minutes bike ride from home bought us to the sunny side restaurant's table.

They served delicious meals, sweets and bitter Italian coffee.

Ashikaga Flower Park

On our way going to Karuizawa, we paid a visit to Ashikaga Flower Park which is famous for its wisteria flowers.

The top season of wisteria is said to be late April or early May in Japan.

It's a bit crowded though, the flowers were perfectly blooming and neatly trimmed by the gardeners there.

We enjoyed seeing around the wonderful flower garden and highly recommend everyone to visit there at least once in one's lifetime.

Cafe Le Ciel

We went to Karuizawa in Nagano to spend our Golden Week last week.

Golden week: the period from April 29th to May 5th when there are four national holidays in Japan.

When we were passing by a narrow street, I happened to find a cafe called “Le Ciel”  in the forest.

I pulled over and dropped by the cafe without hesitation, then we took a sip of a cup of coffee and a cup of cream tea there.

We could spend a comfortable afternoon time in beautiful nature.

Children's Day

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

Before the day, Japanese families with boys traditionally raise carp-shaped streamers called 'koinobori' to respect children's personalities and to celebrate their happiness.

I went to Utsunomiya Cenral Park to take pictures of spring flowers one week ago.

At that time, I happened to find koinobori streamers that might be raised by park staff members.

Staff members there not only take care of flowers and plants but also perform Japanese traditional events.