Cafe Ochanoma in Utsunomiya

I'm standing in front of the Cafe Ochanoma entrance.

The other day, when I got a day off work for the first time this year, I lunched out with my wife Kiyono at Café Ochanoma.

The Café is located in a very quiet place near Kamagawa river, just five-minute-walking from our condo.

They provided well-balanced meals with ample seasonal vegetables.

Those dishes were not spicy, not too salty nor oily. They tasted like traditional Japanese grandma-homemade dishes.

Cyclamen Flower Blooming in My Home

I bought a pot of cyclamen in the beginning of last month.
The flowers have been blooming and brightening our living room since then.

They look really lovely, aren't they?

My wife Kiyono went to ballet class, my daughter Rina went to Ekiden(long-distance relay road race) practice and I went to tennis practice this weekend same as usually weekends.

Yes, nothing special has happened today.

OTARIYA "Between Winter and Spring" Festival in Futarasan Shrine

Kibuna toy fish are sold for1500yen, US$20, in front of Futarasan Shrine.

As legend goes, a long time ago in Utsunomiya city, a bad disease or a smallpox had spread across the city.

When people didn't know how to cope with it. A guy living in the city fished a yellow carp in Tagawa river.

He gave the fish to a sick person. The sick person after eating it  got over the illness immediately.

After the incident, people in the city buy a toy fish with a yellow body, a red head and green fins and decorate it in their house to prevent contracting diseases in the new year days.

The yellow toy fish is called Kibuna in our city.

Nooks And Crannies in Hong Kong

Night scenes in Hong Kong were beautiful as I had expected 


While, looking around small mom-and-pop shops or having a bite at an eatery in off-streets mesmerized me very much. 

Shop keepers were all in all friendly. 


Foods served at those eateries were sometimes seemed as delicious as at top class restaurants.

Spending 2011 year-end holidays in Hong Kong

Center: Wax Doll of Bruce Lee

Leaving Macau, stayed only two nights though it was very meaningful, we headed for Hong Kong. 

It took just one hour by express ferry. We turned in disembarkation cards again, then we stepped in on Hong Kong island. 

We took a taxi at the ferry terminal and went to the hotel in which we would stay for three nights in the early evening.

Throwing all our luggage into our hotel room, we took a free shuttle bus from the hotel to the nearest station and got on the subway to the center of Hong Kong downtown.

At first, the center of downtown seemed like Ginza area in Tokyo to me. Big department stores, jewelers and famous designer shops were disappointing us a bit.

But, we found later that the scene from the harbor area to the river and the scene from the top of Victoria Peak were awesome.

We waited for a tram car going to the top of Victoria Peak over one hour though, it was well worth for waiting.

At Harbour City Ocean Terminal

View from a Ferry Going to Hong Kong Island 

View from Victoria Peak at Night

A Happy New Year! / Spending 2011 year-end holidays in Macau

 I left Utsunomiya for Narita International Airport by car in the early morning on December 24th.

It took five hours from Japan to Hong Kong by air.

After arriving in Hong Kong, we took an airport express train, a taxi and an express ferry.

Finally we got to Macau in the same day evening.

We spent our Christmas in Macau eating Chinese food, looking around ancient town streets, historical monuments and several World Heritages.


Macau had been a Portuguese colony in China and handed over in 1999.

It lies on south-western China, bordering Guangdong province to the north and facing the South China Sea to the south.



We visited Ruins of St. Paul's Cathedral.
The cathedral was built in 1602 and destroyed by fire in 1835.
The picture taken there follows.

At Ruins of St. Paul's Cathedral

Every Chinese food perfectly suited our palates.