"Red Bird" Is the Name of a Restaurant

Akai Tori, Red bird in English, is the name of a restaurant.

It stands just across the street from home.

We can’t go out or come back home without seeing it. But it’s our first time to get in the restaurant.

My wife, daughter Emi and I went there a couple weeks ago, had bowls of ice shavings with syrup and an ice cream with sweet boiled beans and fruits.

They kept hundreds of strange dolls, figures, accessories, and so forth in the shop.

Café NIEF

corridor on the second floor

 My wife and I went to café NIEF the other day.

We went up to the second floor using a narrow stairway equipped outside the building. 

The owner of the café must have refurbished an old Japanese style apartment house.

We ate noodles with a bowl of soup and salad.

A customer is taking a look at the menu and the other is looking around the decorations in the room. 

The second floor was divided several small rooms.

They decorated the walls and its corridor with old black and white photographs.

Those photographs gave the café a modern atmosphere.

Emi comes back home.

My elder daughter Emi had come back home last Friday for the first time since January this year. She is a sophomore at her college and is now on her summer vacation.

She stayed just three nights and has gone back her college dormitory today.

The main purpose she came back home was to get a new cell phone because her current one is half broken.

Emi and I went to a local electronics retail store to buy a new phone by bike yesterday. She was very glad to have gotten a brand new smartphone.

On our way back home, we found a cute baby puppy in front of a flower shop.

Nikko Water Wheel Park

We had an Obon holiday or a Buddhist festival holiday last week. 

My company CANON offers us one week paid holiday from August 13 to 17. 

Many people visit their ancestral graves and make offerings of flowers and incense. During this holiday, I went to Nikko Water Wheel park to enjoy a cooler atmosphere.

What's the Best Food on a Super Hot Summer Day in Japan?

 It's been very hot since the beginning of August in Japan.

On a day like these, the best choice to go is, I guess, an ice shavings shop.

I went to a restaurant called Miyoshi that is famous for its sweets in Utsunomiya, ordered a bowl of "ujikintoki" or shaved ice topped with green tea syrup and sweet bean paste.

I think it's too sweet for me but for people who have a sweet tooth will enjoy the taste very much.

Miya Matsuri Summer Festival, 2012

Kindergarten pupils dance with their nursery teacher.

Men carry a portable-shine or mikoshi wildly.

School girls wear yukata or summer cotton kimono talking at the corner of a street.

Utsunomiya Municipal Tennis Tournament

It’s not a top level tennis tournament, but I became a runner-up of the men’s rank-B singles yesterday. 

Fifty-nine tennis players took part in the tournament on a scorching hot day.

The winner must have been in his 20s. To become a winner, I have to practice more.

Café ZIG

These days, I’m sometimes confused of which Café is which and which Café is where.

Today I show you the Café ZIG.

Ten-nou-sai Summer Festival

I know that they do time trial races at Ten-nou-sai summer festival.

But, actually it was my first time to see these races.

They have to carry an Omikoshi or a portable shrine and run up 95 steps to the shrine gate.

That was a really exciting moment of the festival.

Rina’s Final Race of Track and Field Club at Her High School

Left: Club Coach,   Right: Rina

Rina is in her third grade of her high school and is going to take college exams in coming February and March.

She, as well as her friends of the same age, has to retire their track and field club this summer. The pictures were taken at their final public race.

Café Mario

Inside Café Mario

Standing in front of the entrance of Café Mario

 Café Mario is located in the north of Tochigi Prefectural Government Office or TPGO; it takes us just five minutes from TPGO on foot.

The Café runs in a renovated Japanese Showa era house.

Quiet place in a residential district, delicious food and tasty beverage gave us perfect afternoon time.

‘Le Metro’ is the name of a Café

I posted photos of neighbouring Café last two times on this blog.
Again, I upload another pictures of Café today.

‘Le Metro’ is the name of a Café just few blocks away from home. When my elder daughter Emi lived with us, more than a year ago, we went there to have dinner. 

The restaurant had a chic small rooms decorated with magazines, pictures and so on.

We had a table on the second floor and spent ample time together.

Cafe & Sweets ARTISTA

My email address list on the hotmail-web-site might have been hacked and unwilling emails were sent to the people in the list last week. Some of the emails were sent to my office including my colleagues and bosses. It was a terrible moment. I cleaned up my web mail address contents, shut down Facebook account and other miscellaneous works.

Anyway, aside from those works, my wife and I went to the Café ARTISTA in south of Utsunomiya.
We had lunch on the second flour of a shabby looking building: though it looked like a gallery inside.
Foods were delicious and the inside atmosphere was suitable for taking it easy for a couple of hours.

 

Aglio Olio Is The Name Of Cafe.

The other day, my wife and I went to a nearby Café called Aglio Olio for lunch, just five minute walking distance from home.

We didn’t expected the Café much but they had nice pasta dishes, fine aromatic coffee and delectable desserts. 



The atmosphere there was perfect with quiet music and a few customers.