A Doll's Festival Celebrated for Girls

Hinamatsuri is a seasonal festival (called sekku) on March 3. Also it is considered as a day for girls, most families with girls display a set of dolls to wish for girls' healthy growth and happiness.

The practice of displaying dolls dates back in the early Edo period (1603-1868). A set of hina dolls is put on display up to a few weeks earlier than March 3rd and stored for the next year.

A popular superstition states that if the family forgets to retire the whole set before the night of March 4, the girl will not marry before the next year.

We intentionally keep them on display more few weeks. How come?

We were so busy that we were late to display them.
And also, I think that dolls want to sit there at least until the end of this month.


"Shinno-kazari" which includes "odairi-sama," emperor and empress dolls wearing typical Heian era court costumes.

I bought a new camera.

I bought the Canon PowerShot A710 IS yesterday at KOJIM DENKI in Utsunomiya. It was six years ago when last time I bought a digital camera, Fujifilm FinePix 2800z. The time to buy a new one has come. I had been wondering if I should buy a SLR digital camera, Canon S3 IS or Canon PowerShot A710 IS for months.
The biggest disadvantage of A710 comparing to SLR digicam is that the shutter time lag of A710 is longer than that of SLR digicam.
The disadvantage of A710 comparing to S3 is that A710 has just 6x optical zoom on the contrary S3 has 12x optical zoom. I thought that all the other important features of A710 exceed competitors' for my photography style. Then I decided to buy the A710. The A710 has been working beautifully so far, though since only a day ago.

Basic Features of Canon PowerShot A710 IS
7.1-megapixel CCD 3,072 x 2,304 pixels
2.5-inch color LCD monitor
Real-image optical viewfinder
Glass, 6x 5.8-34.8mm lens (equivalent to 35-210mm zoom on a 35mm camera)
4.0x digital zoom
AiAF autofocus and a manual focus mode
AF Assist light for low-light focusing
Automatic, Program AE, Shutter Priority, Aperture Priority, and Manual exposure modes, as well as 10 preset Scene modes plus Stitch Assist
Manually adjustable aperture setting ranging from f/2.8 to f/8.0, depending on lens zoom position and shutter speed
Shutter speed range from 1/2,000 to 15 seconds, depending on aperture (Shutter times longer than 1 second only available in shutter-priority and manual exposure modes and some scene modes.)
Built-in flash with three operating modes plus red-eye reduction
SD/MMC memory storage

Left, long used film camera LEITZ minolta CL. Right, I bought it yesterday, Canon PowerShot A710 IS

I took the above picture using the A710; two daughters walked our rabbit Nobi at the park near my house.

A Trip Back to Shimane-ken

I went back to Shimane-ken to attend my late father’s second year anniversary. I left Haneda airport on Saturday for Izumo airport. It took one hour and fifteen minutes by air. I stayed at my mother’s home for two nights then I came back to Utsunomiya on Monday night.

My brother asked a monk to do religious ceremonies same as the last year. One was held in the temple and the other was held in front of my late father’s tomb in the cemetery. My brothers, mother, sister-in-law and relatives, about twenty people in all, attended the ceremony. You can see the Matsue castle on the background of the above picture.

  After the ceremony, we went to wonderful Japanese restaurant to have dinner together. The restaurant was such a nice place that it had beautiful paintings, an old SAMURAI armor and various antique displays. It seemed a museum. Every food was cooked elaborately and displayed on each dish beautifully. The foods seemed like artwork too. Needless to say, all foods were delicious.

   The restaurant made one seat vacant, even foods were placed. Do you know why? This seat was for my late father’s. My brother saw me off at the airport. Lake Shinji was very beautiful as usual seeing from the car and also from the plane.

  

What do you do on Valentine's Day?

Saint Valentine's Day or Valentine's Day falls on February 14.
Same as the last year, my daughters spent a very busy week before the day. They bought chocolates, wrapping paper and cards to make gifts to their friends; I guess they gave more than ten boys and few girls. I don’t know the difference in taste, though they reshaped the chocolates. They chopped chocolates into pieces, melted them and poured them in small heart-shaped aluminum foil cups. Then put two tiny candy chips and wrote a mouth with white chocolate paste on the top of each chocolate piece.
Since the color of the surface on those chocolates had turned whitish, sigh, they did the very same work again in the late evening on one day before the target day.
It’s very hard work, but seeing them do the job with pleasure relieved me a lot. Anyway, how many years do they do this hectic ceremony in this season…lol?

Farewell Party to Patrick at Sakamaki-san's home

Goodbye Paddy. You did a great job in Japan. I’m sure you learned a lot here in Utsunomiya, faaaaaar away from Switzerland. One thing I want to emphasize is that you were the luckiest guy among all other home stay students because you could live for a year with super wonderful family or Sakamaki-san’s family. Sometimes, you felt lonely, missed your parents and had troubles with your friends but everything must be a very good experience.
You left Utsunomiya at the same day and same time when I left Utsunomiya for Daikura ski resort. Sorry not having seen you off at bus terminal. I was at the other side of your bus terminal across the Utsunomiya station. I did Kanpai for our ski trip with my friends and also did Kanpai for your departure to Switzerland thinking of your good luck.

Michel, Matt, Rina and I went to Daikura Ski Resort.

I went to Daikura Ski Resort with Rina, Michel and Matt. It was the first time to go skiing in this season. From my middle twenties to early thirties, I went skiing ten to twenty days in average in one season. Niigata, Nagano, Tochigi, Fukushima and sometimes I went to Hokkaido just for skiing. But I almost quit skiing after my marriage; I went skiing only four times in last fifteen years including yesterday. I bought these ski boards I was wearing twenty-two years ago, veeeeery old. No skiers wear such old boards anymore but they are still perfect conditions for me, so I can’t complain anything about them. I want to use them another twenty years! Which do you think will give up skiing earlier, I or the ski boards?
Michel left, Rina middle and Matt right are standing a little away from Shirakaba Triple Lift station. From that point, there are two beginners’ down hill courses.
We had a lunch in a restaurant near parking lot. Rina is wearing a ticket for lifts dated Feb. 4th, 2007. It’s two days before my birthday: smile.
It was snowing from the morning to the evening, but finally at the last moment, God cleared the sky for few minutes and gave me a chance to take pictures of nice mountain scenes.

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?

Congratulations Rina on passing the exam for a junior high!

Parents are nervously waiting for their kids finishing the exam at the school entrance.
Congratulations Rina on passing the exam for a junior high!
My younger daughter Rina took an entrance exam last week. More than two hundreds sixth-grade school kids came with their parents at the school early in the morning on Saturday. Even prep school staff came there.
They displayed banners, “You Pass The Exam! Do Your Best!” There are two major prep schools in Utsunomiya. Prep school staff delivered their own school students leaflets to encourage them to do a good job at the exam.
As for me, I chose a public junior high school. So, I did not take an entrance exam for junior high. Of course, passing an exam is very important for all of us. But studying hard in this sixth-grade age has become a very good experience for Rina in her life. I believe what she has learned must be precious as well as the good result.

Where do you think I am?

Where do you think I am? It's not a zoo, nor an amusement park. It’s a restaurant called Rainforest Café. It’s in IKSPIARI of Tokyo Disney Resort, Maihama, Chiba-prefecture.
I went there a couple weeks ago and had a wonderful time with my family. When I went to Las Vegas few years ago, I also went to Rainforest Café there. There were lightening and squalls every ten to fifteen minutes and man-made animals in the restaurants moved every few minutes. They served delicious food and took good care of customers. It’s worth visiting!

Jumping To The Sky

A New Year holiday has been almost over.
I visited Showa-machi in Saitama-ken with my family. Showa-machi is famous for Kite Museum. The museum has about 450 kites from small ones to very huge ones. Kite Festival is held on May third and May fifth there.
Emi and Rina, two daughters are jumping on the mountain shape trampoline next to Michinoeki in Showa-machi.

A Happy New Year From Odaiba

I stayed in a condo of my parents-in-law in Tabata from December 29th of 2006 to January 3rd of 2007 and came back to Utsunomiya yesterday. I spent this holiday in Tokyo visiting Odaiba, Ikebukuro, Ebisu, Shibuya and Tabata.
I usually exercise at least two hours a day but I did no exercise at all last seven days, ate a lot of food, drunk beer everyday and slept more than seven hours a day. I refreshed mentally but maybe gained weight. I'm not a person who makes New Year resolutions but I want to keep doing as follows:

1. Practicing tennis
2. Commuting by bike
3. Carrying out a new project successfully at work
4. Updating this blog at least twice a month
5. Keeping good relations with everybody

I wish all visitors to my blog a very happy and prosperous New Year!

Merry Xmas!

It says in today's Yomiuri Newspaper that only 16 percent of 6th grade elementary school girls, 13 percent boys of the same age believe in Santa Claus. Do you agree to the article? One of my daughters is in 6th grade now.

Only One Week To The Year 2007.

Time flies really fast. I think I need thirty to forty hours in a day.
I know I cannot do everything what I want to do, but…
To console myself, I have collected sayings while reading books or doing netsurf.
I show you some.

1-*-*-*-*-*-*-
Diligence is the mother of good luck.
Benjamin Franklin　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　
Great deeds are usually wrought at great risks.
Herodotus
Never to repent and never to reproach others; these are the first step of wisdom.
Denis Diderot
I'm a great believer in luck, and I find the harder I work, the more I have of it.
Thomas Jefferson
All our dreams can come true --- if we have the courage to pursue them.
Walt Disney
If you can dream it, you can do it. Always remember this wholething was started by a mouse.
Walt Disney
The more I learn the more I realize I don't know. The more I realize I don't know, the more I want to learn.
Albert Einstein
To find out what one is fitted to do, and to secure an opportunity to do it, is the key to happiness.
John Dewey
Never be bullied into silence. Never allow yourself to be made a victim. Accept no one's definition of your life; define yourself.
Harvey Fierstein
In great attempts it is glorious even to fail.
Vince Lombardi
2-*-*-*-*-*-*-
Do not dwell in the past, do not dream of the future, concentrate the mind on the present moment.
Buddha
What lies behind us and what lies ahead of us are tiny matters compared to what lives within us.
Oliver Wendell HolmesI don't know the key to success, but the key to failure is to try to please everyone.
Bill CosbyBe happy while you're living, for you're a long time dead.
Scottish Proverb
Life consists not in holding good cards but in playing those you hold well.
Josh Billings
The great use of life is to spend it for something that will outlast it.
William James
You must be the change you wish to see in the world.
Mahatma Gandhi
The true worth of a man is to be measured by the objects he pursues.
Marcus Aurelius
The tragedy of life is not that it ends so soon, but that we wait so long to begin it.
W. M. Lewis
My grandfather once told me that there were two kinds of people: those who do the work and those who take the credit. He told me to try to be in the first group; there was much less competition.
Indira Nehru Gandhi3-*-*-*-*-*-*-
If you want your children to turn out well, spend twice as much time with them, and half as much money on them
Abigail Van BurnHe who believes is strong; he who doubts is weak. Strong convictions precede great actions.
Clark
Man errs so long as he strives.
GoetheI am not discouraged, because every wrong attempt discarded is another step forward
Edison
Never bend your head. Always hold it high. Look the world straight in the eye.
Helen KellerI am not concerned that you have fallen. I am concerned that you arise.
LincolnIt's good to have money and the things money can buy, but it's good to check once in a while and make sure you haven't lost the things that money can't buy.
Lorimer
We would accomplish many more things if we did not think of them as impossible.
Malesherbes
Don't find fault. Find a remedy.
Henry FordI have never met a man so ignorant that I couldn't learn something from him.
Galileo4-*-*-*-*-*-*-
Experience is the name everyone gives to his mistakes.
Oscar WildePain and pleasure, like light and darkness, succeed eath other.
SterneA good laugh is sunshine in a house.
ThackerayThe best way to make children good is to make them happy.
WildeThoughts make actions. Actions make habits. Habits make future. Future makes life.
Mike or other forerunnersTrust men and they will be true to you; treat them greatly and they will show themselves great.
EmersonI never think of the future - it comes soon enough.
Einstein
Imagination is more important than knowledge.
EinsteinTomorrow is a new day; you shall begin it serenely and with too high a spirit to be encumbered with your old nonsense.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
No winter lasts forever; no spring skips it's turn.
Hal Borland5-*-*-*-*-*-*-
You cannot do much about the length of your life, but you can do a lot about its depth and width.
AnonymousThere is only one success -- to be able to spend your life in your own way.
Christopher Morley
The greatest pleasure I know is to do a good action by stealth, and to have it found out by accident.
LambThere's no such thing in anyone's life as an unimportant day.
Alexander WoolcottEven though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, I still have a dream.
Martin Luther KingYou can fool some of the people all the time, and all of the people some of the time, but you cannot fool all of the people all the time.
LincolnWe cannot control the tragic things that happen to us, but we can control the way we face up to them.
Anonymous
Every man's life is a fairly-tale written by God's finger
AndersenExperience is the best of schoolmaster, only the school-fees are heavy.
Carlyle
Someone once said:
What goes around comes around.
Work like you don't need the money.
Love like you've never been hurt.
Dance like no-one's watching.
Sing like no-one's listening.
Live like it's Heaven on Earth.
K.Leipold
6-*-*-*-*-*-*-
Do not fear death so much, but rather the inadequate life.
Brecht
If we don't change, we don't grow. If we don't grow, we aren't really living.
Gail SheehyThe best way to cheer yourself up is to try to cheer somebody else up.
Mark TwainWe can try to avoid making choices by doing nothing, but even that is a decision.
Gary CollinsAny change, even a change for the better, is always accompanied by drawbacks and discomforts.
Arnold Bennett
The indispensable first step to getting the things you want out of life is this: decide what you want.
Ben SteinAccept everything about yourself -- I mean everything, You are you and that is the beginning and the end -- no apologies, no regrets.
Clark MoustakasObstacles are those frightful things you see when you take your eyes off your goal.
Henry FordIt is not death that a man should fear, but he should fear never beginning to live.
Marcus AureliusExperience is not what happens to you. It is what you do with what happens to you.
Huxley
7-*-*-*-*-*-*-
I am not discouraged, because every wrong attempt discarded is another step forward.
Edison
It is better to wear out than to rust out.
ChamberlandNever to repent and never to reproach others; these are the first step of wisdom.
DiderotNew opinions are always suspected, and usually opposed, without any other reason but because they are not already common.
LockeThe best and most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen or even touched. They must be felt with the heart.
Helen Keller
To find out what one is fitted to do, and to secure an opportunity to do it, is the key to happiness.
John DeweyPeople only see what they are prepared to see.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Everything has been figured out, except how to live.
Jean-Paul Sartre
We live in a moment of history where change is so speeded up that we begin to see the present only when it is already disappearing.
R. D. Laing
The only thing we have to fear is fear itself.
Franklin D. Roosevelt

Showa Era Still Exists In Ohimachi, Tokyo.

I had been working for Nikon at Ohimachi plants in Tokyo. I left the company about ten years ago. Even I live in Utsunomiya now, I sometimes meet friends who are still working there. The other day, I met Mr. Abe, one of my friends who worked for Nikon at Ohimachi. There were many small drinking bars and old “yakitori shops” in the east area of JR Ohimachi station.
Mr. Abe is also a software engineer who is a specialist in the image analysis field. We were doing research of artificial intelligence together at the same department of the camera division in Nikon.
People drink “sake” or rice wine and eat “yakitori” or grilled bird, Japanese type of skewered chicken while standing.
Recently, this type of shops have disappeared and been taken the place of by new modern restaurants.
We were walking here and there in every street near Ohimachi station in search for the places best reminded us of Showa era.

Everyone has the days believing in Santa Claus.

I took this picture in December 2001. My younger daughter Rina was still six years old then. We went to the forest near Utsunomiya Museum of Art to make Christmas wreaths using tree branches and vines there.
She was excited to decorate our house door with them to welcome Santa Clause and wonderful presents.

My wife, Emi, Rina and I prepared a glass of milk and a cookie for Santa Clause on the table in the kitchen.
In the morning of Xmas day, Emi and Rina got up few hours earlier than usual, though it was still dark, and found presents near their pillows.
They ran into the kitchen and found an empty glass and a half-bitten cookie. They yelled, “Santa Claus had come. Santa Claus had come.” with joy.

Now, Emi is fourteen and Rina is eleven. They know everything. Not only kids but also parents miss, , , no, no. Parents miss the days of welcoming Santa Claus more than kids.

Rina wrote a message to Santa Claus in Japanese and put it near the window to be seen by Santa Claus placing a small gift for him beside the message.
It says,
“Dear Santa Claus,”
“I want a crocodile toy game.”
“I want to become a medical doctor in the future.”
“I give you a small present.”
“From Rina.”

Will hybrid cars become ubiquitous in the near future?

I think two basic features of hybrid cars are:
First, when the car is stopped, hybrid gasoline motors can shut off.
Second, hybrid cars recover braking energy and use it to charge the battery.
Those two are very simple and everyone can easily think upon them as a way to save energy. The great thing Toyota has done is that it turned the very simple ideas into the mass production cars at reasonable price.
I know there are more than two and faaaaaaaar difficult ideas. (^_^);

Will hybrid cars become ubiquitous in the near future?
I think it does not take long before the number of hybrid cars overtakes that of none-hybrid cars’ one. Then, thanks to the mass production, the price will decrease more and more simultaneously. Right now, hybrid cars are still minorities though, some local governments own them as official cars and not few taxi drivers are changing their cars into hybrid ones. Pictures were taken last week in Utusnomiya-shi, Tochigi, Japan.

A guy who is a taxi driver in Canada shows pictures of his cars and he gives us comments on the web. Every Prius owner can enjoy visiting his site.