Sano Premium Outlets

Sano Premium Outlets produced by Chelsea Japan Co. is really nice place. Especially, buildings and flowers are beautiful. There are various shops. Godiva, Benetton, Jaeger and Columbia Sportswear are examples of them. It takes about one hour from Utsunomiya by car. Even you don’t buy anything, you can enjoy looking around and taking photos.

Cellular phones have changed ways of communication.

At the restaurant, a couple didn’t talk a single word just looked each other’s eyes. If so, it’s quite usual. But, situations have changed a little recently.
A couple sitting face to face look each one’s cellular phone’s display. Each of them didn’t say a word and doing web surfing for almost 20 minutes. Occasionally, they seemed to receive web mails and sending back reply mails, still they kept looking the phone’s display.
Don’t you think it’s very strange, do you? Cellular phones gave a lot of benefits to us but we seem to forget something more important......

The last day of my sixteen-day vacation

Today is the last day of my sixteen-day long summer vacation, sigh.
Time flies really fast. Tochigi, Tokyo, Matsue, Aichi and Nagano are the places I visited.

Final two days are relatively calm. I visited Utsunomiya Museum of Art. Off course, Chagall and Rene Magritte paintings are wonderful. But, Ishida Tetsuya’s paintings are very impressive to me. Those paintings have very unique special atmosphere. I don’t want to pin up any of his copy, though impressive image long stays in our mind.

Anyway, I should get up early tomorrow. Tons of untouched works and more than one thousand emails are waiting for my come back!!
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Natsu Matsuri is a Kids' wonderland.

When I was a small kid, one of my most favorite things in summer is to go to Natsu Matsuri or summer festivals that are held in small Japanese shrines or temples.

Kids can play games, buy toys, eat sweets, and watch strange shows.

Many of those exciting events are still existing in some downtown Tokyo.

Visiting summer festivals was as important for me as swimming in the sea, camping with friends, or watching big fireworks.

A small summer festival in downtown Tokyo

Rina eats an apricot candy. Behind her, you can see colorful small balloons. Kids try to fish balloons with a hook and a paper made line. This picture was taken in Tabata, Tokyo.

St. Francis Xavier's Cathedral

On my way back to Utsunomiya, I visited St. Francis Xavier's Cathedral. It has a typical Gothic structure with a large rose window more than four meters in diameter above the front entrance. The glasses in the picture were in the back side of the wall.
The Cathedral was built in Sanjyo Kawaramachi, Kyoto in 1890. It was brought into The Museum of MEIJI-MURA in Aichi prefecture.

Inside the Cathedral

Sunlight going through glasses beautifully illuminates the flour.

We Pick Some Vegetables Before Breakfast.

My younger daughter Rina is standing on the left. My mom is on the right. They meet only once a year. “How big you have become!” is the first words my mom says to my daughter every year.

The first work of the day is picking some vegetables before breakfast. My mom, my brother and my sister have a small vegetable garden next to their house. Breathing fresh morning air and a light work before breakfast can be a good start of a day.

My mom becomes eighty-one years old this summer. I feel she becomes smaller than she was a year ago. On the contrary, eleven year-old Rina seems to grow every day.

A Hiding Praying Mantis, What Are You Waiting For?

A hiding praying mantis, what are you waiting for?
What are you thinking of?
Maybe it’s a cicada or a butterfly. You seem to be enjoying this summer heat. I wish you a good luck and delicious meals.

Veeeeery hot day. Sunflowers look up the sky.

My weeklong trip in western Japan was over. The sunflowers were looking up the sky in the garden of my parent's house in Shimane prefecture.
Flowers, vegetables and insects were almost as vivid as they had been a year ago.

The only difference is my father. He was not there this summer. He had passed away of pneumonia last year.

Even he was bedridden and hardly spoke, I felt comfortable staying beside him and looking him while I was there.

Roads, buildings and even shapes of rivers have changed. The sunflowers don't care the changes growing higher and higher.