Jumping in Tochigi Prefecture

 

Utsunomiya Marathon 2009

Rina, my younger daughter, earned a bronze medal at the 2009 Utsunomiya Marathon.
Congratulations Rina!

There were half marathon, 10 km, 5 km and 2 km races for both men and women, being divided into their age groups at the Utsunomiya Marathon.

She took part in the women's junior high school students division in which about one hundred athletes participated.

Even it had passed a few months after she retired her track and field club at her school, she did a great job.

Most of Japanese high schools have the same policy or practice that all third grade students should finish their club activities in autumn and start to prepare for their high school entrance examinations.

But, after retiring her club, Rina kept running long distance on Saturday or Sunday morning alone till the day of the marathon race.

Unfortunately, she could not beat other two competitors nor her last year's her own record, I'm proud of Rina.
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Utsunomiya Marathon 2008

Utsunomiya marathon was held in Kiyohara Industrial Park, Utsunomiya city today. I went to the marathon with Rina, my younger daughter. She took part in the race and I was just a spectator.

It’s said about 5,200 people participated in the races. There were half marathon, 10 km, 5 km and 2 km races for both men and women, being divided into their age groups.

Rina won the silver medal in the junior high school women’s race. 75 runners ran 5 km (roughly 3 miles) course. Great job again, Rina!

Unfortunately, it was raining all day long. But, we enjoyed the race and autumn scenery.

Last but not least, thanks all volunteers for the nice management of the races. Volunteers everywhere were great and made the race run smooth and enjoyable.

Scorching Summer in Utsunomiya, Japan

It is said that the Utsunomiya castle was burnt down in 1868 as a result of the war between the government forces at that time and the anti-government forces. Recently, a group of citizens were driving the reconstruction of the part of the castle and it was finished this year.

As I haven’t visited there so far, I decided to go to the newly reconstructed castle with Rina.

I had thought it would be crowded since most of Japanese companies and schools were in summer holidays this week. But luckily it was not.

I took pictures and enjoyed walking in a burning hot day. We stayed in the castle park for a couple of hours and, on our way back home, we ate cups of ice candy together.

I love this burning Japanese summer!

This hole is for shooting arrows.





I guess this hole is for gun shooting.







Yummy, ice candy. It's the "Summer delight!"

Chris and Suzanne are going to marry!

Congratulations!
Chris and Suzanne are going to marry this summer in France. Chris is from France and Suzanne is from Australia. Now they are living in Utsunomiya.
Chris came to my house as a home stay guest in August 2005, about one and half years ago. After that, even we met him sometimes on the street, sometimes in the gym or sometimes in Utsunomiya station, I haven’t had a chance to invite them home.
Finally, we could have a small lunch party yesterday. We ate Okonomiyaki and Yakisoba in the living room in my condo. Mostly I cooked for them yesterday; it’s very unusual that I cook for others by myself.
It was a very warm and nice day with full of sunshine in the room, at this time in Tochigi, the end of January; we didn’t have to turn heaters on while eating the lunch.
Chris likes taking pictures very much. I haven’t seen a guy who took that much pictures since I was a member of photography club in my college.
He bought a new SLR digital camera Nikon D40 a month ago. Thanks to Chris, I was able to take pictures using D40. It’s very well designed, far lighter than it looked, quality of pictures were very nice too. I felt that I wanted to have a SLR digital camera someday.

All pictures on today’s blog were taken using the Nikon D40. Some were taken by Chris and others by me.

Emi, my elder daughter can speak far better English this time than she could a year ago. Some say English classes in junior high are just waste of time. But she can study English only in her school. I think it depends on one’s attitude, don’t you think so?