'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.

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.