Night Cherry Blossoms Along the Kamagawa River

Weeping cherry trees are planted along both banks of Kamagawa river.

It takes us only a few minutes from home to the river side.

The river is not big, just a few meters wide and less than 10 km long.

They illuminate the cherry blanches in the same way as Futarasan shrine in the middle of April.

I took the picture on the left several years ago at Kamagawa river in the daytime.

Flowers of Field Mustard

Flowers of field mustard have began to bloom near the tennis courts where I play every Saturday afternoon.
The weather was not perfect but good enough to take some snap shots.

Unfortunately, I've had a pain in my right knee since the end of February. It's become better day by day, but it seems to take another months to make a full recovery.

Rina Attends Her Entrance Ceremony

Rina attended her entrance ceremony held at Waseda University in Tokyo on April 1. Most of Japanese colleges' school term starts in April and ends in March.

I wasn't able to go there due to my work, but my wife and my mother-in-law took part in the ceremony and brought back some snap shots as a souvenir.

It was a gentle warm day. Many freshmen and their families came and joined the ceremony to celebrate their hopeful starts.

Night Cherry Blossoms at Futarasan Shrine

Cherry blossoms at Futarasan shrine were in full bloom last week.

My wife and I walked up the shrine at night and enjoyed seeing splendid view of the flowers at night.

They illuminated the cherry trees for night visitors in this season.

Rina Moves to Tokyo

Espoir Mejiro is the name of her dormitory.

We have lunch at a Japanese
Restaurant nearby.her dormitory.

Rina moved to Tokyo last Thursday.
One day before the moving, I had packed her clothes, books, five pairs of running shoes, a tennis racket, personal belongings and others into my car at night.

Then, I drove the car to the center of Tokyo with Rina and Kiyono spending three and half hours the next day in the morning.

Emi and Kiyono

My elder daughter Emi came and joined us to unpack Rina's tons of goods into order.

She seemed to like her new room and its neighborhood.

Her new life has just started.

Shopping, Shopping and Shopping

My wife and I have been shopping on every possible occasion for weeks.
For what?

Yes, the answer is 'for buying goods for Rina's new college life.'
You name it, a personal computer, a bicycle, a microwave oven, a toaster, a rice-cooker, a pillow, blankets, sleeping sheets, kitchenware, …

Rina is leaving Utsunomiya city  for her college in Tokyo on coming Thursday.

Rina holds a Certificate of Admission of Waseda University, one of the most prestigious universities in Japan.

I Play Tennis with Rina

I played tennis with my daughter Rina and my friends today.

There couldn't be nicer day for tennis; temperature was perfect and a gentle breeze was blowing.

I think it's the first time to play tennis with Rina since about one and half years ago.

Even she had such a long blank of playing tennis, Rina played well enough to enjoy games with us.

We Go to a Noodle Soup Restaurant

Kiyono, Rina and I went to my favorite noodle soup restaurant the other day.

The name of the restaurant was 'Kazan' which meant a volcano in literary Japanese.

The soup bowls were made of stone; they brought heated bowls having noodles inside.

Then, they poured soup in the bowls in front of us. The bowls were so hot that the soup inside the bowls boiled like spurting lava from a volcano.

Customers had to hold a sheet of paper to fend off spurting soup.

Tastes were nice and we enjoyed watching the exciting cooking show.

Rina's Commencement Ceremony

Rina's commencement ceremony of her high school took place the day before yesterday on Friday.
Since I had to work on the day, only my wife attended the ceremony to cerebrate her.

Rina took lots of snap-shots with her buddies: I enjoyed watching them today.

Dolls Have Come Back on Display

Hina Matsuri or Doll Festival takes place on March 3 known as a "Girls' Day" in Japan.

Families pray for their daughters' happiness, prosperity, health and being beautiful forever.

The first "Girls' Day" for a girl is called her hatzu-zekku.

On the day, it is popular for the girl's granparents to buy her dolls.

The dolls in the picture were bought by my parents to celebrate Rina's hatzu-zekku.



Most families take out dolls around mid-February and put them into place immediately after Hina Matsuri is over.

There is a superstition that families slow to put the dolls away will have trouble of their daughters marrying.

Kiyono Says She Quits Ballet Recitals

As I love tennis, my wife Kiyono loves classic ballet.
But, she sometimes complains backaches these days.

To think about it, the complaints have started since intensive practices for her annual ballet recital last year.

After that, she calls the last year recital in December 2012 is her final one for her  ballet life.

I don't know it actually becomes the final or not.

Anyway, I upload pictures of her in ballet stage costume for memory.

My 54th Birthday

I had my 54th birthday on Feb 6th  last week.

My wife had asked her friend who ran her restaurant in the suburb of Utsunomiya city to make a birthday cake for me.

 It looked nice and was, with no doubt, super delicious.

We had a small birthday party on the day.

Looking back to last one year, it was sort of a peaceful year.

I had no home moving, no work-related changes, no separation or sickness among my family.

My younger daughter Rina has finished two college entrance exams so far and is going to have another two in February.


Rina will leave us within two months for her college in Tokyo.　...　sigh.

Setsubun Festival

Setsubun is a traditional Japanese festival held on February 3rd.

It literally means "the day between two seasons" in Japanese.

On Setsubun day, people open the doors of their houses and drive the demons out of their homes by throwing beans and shouting, "Demons out! Good luck in!"

At Futarasan shrine, next to my home, they had celebrations for Setsubun.

Shrine staff and invited guests threw sweets, candies, cookies, stuffed animals and even rolls of toilet papers.

Many people came to get the gifts tossed from above, enjoyed pushing and shoving to get the gifts.

Cafe TORA

I went to Cafe TORA for the first time the other day.

Don't you think those dishes look strange?

I'm always thinking that food served in a restaurant must look beautiful and delicious.

The cooks seemed to have put everything, for example, boiled rice with SASAGE beans, a piece of salted cod roe pasted bread, various vegee, shrimps and so forth in a bowl without thinking how they look.

Buuuuut, the taste was superb.

A flavor of dried laver seaweed and a taste of mayonnaise went well with other foodstuffs.

Maybe, we'll return the Cafe again.

A Heavy Snowfall Blanketed Utsunomiya City

view from my home

 A heavy snowfall blanketed Utsunomiya city and its vicinity last weekend.

Remaining snow prevented me from weekday tennis practices.

Luckily, a sunny weekend came back today and yesterday.

I enjoyed jumping, running and hitting tennis balls today.

It refreshed me and gave energy to go to office tomorrow.

Rina Becomes 18 Years Old

Rina had her 18th birthday last week on January 8th.

We celebrated her birthday with her elder sister Emi, having a birthday cake bought by her grandma.

Rina is very busy for preparing her college entrance exams these days, but had a fun time for a little while.

Cafe 'A la Bonne Maman'

I went to a cafe 'A la Bonne Maman' in Kanuma city last Friday.

The cafe serves French cuisine and displays a collection of miscellaneous goods imported from France.

There were bookshelves having books for customers. I found several photo albums with pictures of the cafe owner traveling in France.

Since the atmosphere in the cafe was so similar to a cafe in France that we felt as if we were slipped into a city in that country.