Cafe del Olive

Cafe del Olive is a restaurant which was renovated of an old warehouse.

The walls of the warehouse was made of thick locally famous ohya-stone.

As is always the case with a warehouse, it had an entrance with solid-looking metal doors.



My wife and I went up through a narrow stairs to the second floor and had lunch there with a quiet atmosphere that many old Japanese houses have.

Orion Wine Bar

My wife and I had lunch at Orion Wine Bar the other day. 

Nice atmosphere and good taste dishes gave us a pleasant afternoon break.

Soba Cafe YuAn

I went to Soba Cafe YuAn with my wife the other day.

Soba noodles are served either chilled with a dipping sauce, or in hot broth as a noodle soup.

We ordered two dishes of chilled soba, sweets, a cup of tea and a cup of coffee.

Chilled soba is often served on a sieve-like bamboo tray with a dipping sauce on the side.

Cold soba is very nice for lunch especially on a hot summer day.

Obon Festival

We had an Obon holiday last week.
My company gave us one week paid leave from August 12 to 16.
Obon is a Japanese Buddhist custom to honor the spirits of one's ancestors.
It's said that the spirits of ancestors are supposed to revisit the household altars during this season.
Many people visit their ancestral graves and make offerings of flowers and incense during the holiday.

I've had a rather quiet week; I went to a forest and brook park, restaurants for lunch, and Nasu highland for getting relief from the heat.

The festival ends with Toro Nagashi, or the floating of lanterns. Paper lanterns are illuminated and then floated down rivers symbolically signaling the ancestral spirits' return to the world of the dead.

Yukata Go Well With Matsuri

Many young Japanese girls love to wear traditional clothes, 'yukata' in summer festivals.

Yukata are kind of summer version of kimono.

Kids are wearing 'happi' or straight-sleeved coat in the second and third pictures.

Happi are also traditional clothes to festivals in Japan.

Miya Matsuri Summer Festival in 2013

It's a Miya Matsuri summer festival today and yesterday. 

Many people came to the center of Utsnomiya city to watch kids' dancing, marching bands, kids' ballet, a lot of genres of musical performances and carrying mikoshi by young guys.

Kids performances were really enjoyable.

Ten-nou-sai Summer Festival 2013

Ten-nou-sai summer festival was held a week ago on Sunday.
Each group carried an Omikoshi or a portable shrine and ran up 95 steps to the shrine gate.

They competed the time how short it would take.
Yes, it's a really tough race.

After the ten-nou-sai festival, the real summer season would come to our town.

Utsunomiya Animation Festival 3

“Tochiotome25” is the name of a Utsunomiya idol girl group.
The average age of them is said to be sixteen.

The group is not so famous as AKB48, but the group members have a lot of fans locally.

They sang several original songs with powerful dancing at the Orion Square stage on the Animation Festival day.

Utsunomiya Animation Festival 2

 Akihabara is a district in Tokyo where many obsessive animation, manga, and video game fans are known to gather.


Orion Square in Utsunomiya city became a little Akihabara on the day of Animation Festival.

Utsunomiya Animation Festival

Animation Festival was held in my city Utsunomiya today.

As a part of the festival, animation painted cars and animation geeks came not only from all over our prefecture but also even from neighboring prefectures.

Some people wore animation heroes' costumes, danced to the music and were walking along the streets in their own 'cosplay' clothes.

It's really fun to watch those cars and the participants.

Japanese Pub: 'Otsukare San'

Recently, I found a cozy Japanese pub named 'Otsukare San' near my home.

My wife and I visited there three times in two months.

The pub serves ample delicious meals and my favorite beer at an easygoing price.

Asahi Super Dry is one of my most favorite beer labels on earth.

Cafe F & Burmese Vegetable Soup

 It's been in the rainy season in Japan since the beginning of June.

The rainy season will continue until mid July.

During the season, we don't have 100% rainy days.
It's sunny day today, it rained yesterday,  that the way it goes.

The other day, my wife and I picked up one of not-raining days and went to “Cafe F” which is famous for its Burmese vegetable soup.

The soup tasted, a bit spicy though, very good with well cooked beans, eggplants, carrots, tomato and minced meat.

They decorated inside of the cafe with beautiful hydrangeas that were currently in its top season.

BBQ with My Tennis Friends and Their Families

I went to Igashira park for a barbecue party with my tennis friends and their family members.

There were barbecue spaces, a fishing pond, a flower garden and tennis courts there.

We usually use tennis courts, of course, but this time we chose a BBQ space for a change.

We drunk beer, ate meet, vegetables, fish, needles and so forth.

It's nice to know some of my aggressive tennis players having such cute kids.

At a Rose Garden near the BBQ space.

Kiyono and Stephanie Wear Kimono

 I couldn't go with them because of my tennis practice but Kiyono, Stephanie and her friends went to kimono wearing lessons.

They seemed very happy in these pictures.

The clothes looked very nice with the background of the Japanese garden.

I heard that they, in their kimonos, participated in a traditional Japanese tea ceremony, eating sweets and drinking Japanese powder green tea.

It must have been a good Japanese memory.

Stephanie Stays Our Home

Stephanie who is a college student in Iowa, U.S.A. came to Utsunomiya city for a  cultural exchange program between Japan and U.S.

She took part in a concert held in our city and played the clarinet among her other orchestra members.

We were asked to be a host family of her and accepted it just a week before she came to Utsunomiya city.

I felt as if I could have another elder daughter during her staying home. We had a fun time chatting this or that.