Sheared Alpacas and Their Five-Day-Old Baby

I went to ‘Bell Mall,’ the largest shopping mall in Utsunomiya city with my wife Kiyono to see alpacas today.

Luckily, we happened to see their newly born baby. The staff said it had been born just five days before.

The father is pure white and the mother is dark brown. Mysteriously, the baby is not light brown but is exactly the same color as its mother.

Poppy Field

The local meteorological agency declared last week that this year’s rainy season in Tochigi prefecture had started.

It was sunny and sultry day today.

I went to a poppy field located northern part of Utsunomiya city with Rina today.
It took us about thirty minutes by car.

The top season of the flowers seemed to have passed, but still we could enjoy seeing colorful flowers.

After coming back home, Rina immediately went to a shopping mall alone to buy her favorite serial comic book scheduled to sell today and a small father’s day present to me.

The present was frozen sweets. That was delicious. Thanks Rina.

But, the main reason she instantly left home for the shopping mall was, doubtlessly, the comic book … lol

Kiyono Published A Book

My wife Kiyono published a book again about English cool phrases with two other English teachers.

This is a second time for her to publish a book. One of coauthors is Mr. Matsuno who was also my English teacher about twenty years ago.

Congratulations Kiyono and Mr. Matsuno on publishing the new book.

I’m very happy: Kiyono did a great job and my English teacher still vigorously keeps publishing new books like two decades age.
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“What Am I?”

“What Am I?”
“A dog, a rabbit, a sheep, a camel or a goat …”

“No, no, I am an alpaca.”

An alpaca came to Banba-Hiroba open space, the center of Utsunomiya city, from Nasu Animal Kingdom with dogs, rabbits and other animals yesterday.

I had nothing special to do yesterday so I went to Banba-Hiroba and took some pictures.
Isn’t it cute?

It is said that alpacas are kept in herds that graze on the level heights at an altitude of around 4,000 m in Peru, Bolivia, Ecuador and Chile.
Alpaca fiber is used for making knitted and woven items including blankets, sweaters, hats and gloves.

Nasu Animal Kingdom in Tochigi is at far lower an altitude than that of those countries.

Alpacas attract maney tourists in Japan these days thanks to their increasing popularity by TV broadcasting.

Kiyohara Industry Park Tennis Tournament

A tennis club I belonged to for twelve years closed in the end of March this year.

After the closing, my weekly tennis routine has changed a little. I used to play tennis on Thursday, Friday and Saturday at the club.

I couldn’t do that any more, so I looked for colleagues who play tennis. Then, I found a group of people who practice and play tennis on Tuesday, Wednesday and Saturday.

Without hesitation, I asked them to join in the group and I have become a member of the group.

Two weeks ago, I attended to the Kiyohara Industry Park Tennis Tournament with one of the members and got a prize of doubles consolation tournament winner. The prize was about 18US$ wroth coupon.

It’s fun to practice in a new group and with new members.

Unchanged Scenery of Matsue City

I’m posing in front of a bus stop in the downtown of Matsue city. ▼

Downtown of Matsue city has changed drastically in the past few decades but scenery in the suburb, near my mother’s house, has not changed a lot.

Rice fields, birds, the view from the hill top where I used to go and a small shrine seem almost same as those in the decades ago.

Above all, unchanged spirit and kindness of my mother, my brother and my sister attract me and make me come back to my hometown even such a hectic itinerary.


A small shrine near my family home. ▼

A bird, heron in a rice field. ▼

A view from the hill top where I used to go. ▼

‘Dance Of Dragon’

On our way to my hometown Matsue city, we stopped over Yokokawa Service Area for taking a short rest.
 I found a guy who was making sweets in front of the people there and selling them.

‘Dance Of Dragon’ is the name of the sweets.

The way of making the sweets seemed like a way of making noodles in China.

Chinese make hand-pulled noodles using a flexible dough that can be stretched easily.
The dough is stretched until it looks like a long, thick rope.
The rope is folded in half, and stretched back to its original length, again and again.

The man in Yokokawa SA used special dough with honey and made fibers far thinner than Chinese noodles. Then, the man wrap up a variety of ground nuts with the honey taste fibers.

Are you asking they were delicious?


Sure, they were. I had never tasted like them before.

Golden Week in Shimane

I went to my hometown Shimane prefecture during the Golden Week and stayed there on May 2 and May 3.

Golden week: the period from April 29th to May 5th when there are four national holidays in Japan.

My mother, my brother and my sister-in-law live together in Matsue, a capital city of Shimane prefecture.

Shimane is located about 1,000 km southwest of Utsunomiya.

During this Golden week season, it becomes very hard to take air tickets, so I drove all-night-long my car to the town, to be exact, it took us seventeen hours.

It’s really tough to drive so long hours but we had a very meaningful moment together with family members.

Flowers and a butterfly in the garden of my mother’s house.↓

Hanamizuki Festival 2010

Annual Hanamizuki Festival was held near my home today; It takes just one minute on foot to the main stage of the Festival.

Hanamizuki is the name of a tree whose white, red, pick or yellow flowers bloom in late April after the cherry blossom season.

The festival is not celebrated nationwide but is celebrated locally, especially, at least I know, in east part of Utsunomiya city.

People in the city enjoy the beginning of a short warm season, just one month before the rainy season.

They used to have a motor bike show, I love very much, in the festival but they don’t have it this year because of, I guess, financial problem.

Around the Hanmizuki Festival season, I can feel a nice spring breeze while riding on my bicycle.

Kinu Green Park

I went to Kinu Green Park to take flower pictures yesterday.

Kinu Green Park is located near Kinu river in the eastern part of Utsunomiya, about thirty minutes driving from my home.

It becomes warmer and warmer in my town, the field mustard flowers in the park were beautifully in full bloom.

As it was clear sky, we could see Nasu mountains far away to the north from the park.

Cherry Blossoms

I go to and back from my office by bicycle, feeling full of spring atmosphere these days.

On the way from home to my office, there are cherry trees. Only for about one week in April, they have amazing beautiful flowers on their branches.

Yes, it’s hard to go to my office by bike on a rainy day.

But, being able to do good exercise and lots of seasonal beautiful scenery prevent me from giving up an every day thirty-minute biking journey to my office.

I show you cherry blossom pictures that I took today and yesterday.

I'm Back On My Feet.

Suffering from a terrible stomachache and loose bowels last week, I took a three-day-sick-leave from my office. I had intravenous drips for two days.

And what is worse, I have had a backache for the first time since almost two years ago.

Now, I’m back on my feet and healthy enough to play tennis again.
Since I haven’t had such a long sick leave before, I really feel the importance of good health more than anything else.

It has nothing to do with my physical condition, I made a fake picture on the web site for fun.
Please take a look.

The Final Day Of My Tennis Club Has Come.

I have been playing tennis two to three times a week for twelve years on the top of a building. But, the tennis courts are going to be closed in the end of this month due to lack of members.

It is said that Japanese economy hit the bottom and is now on the way of recovering. Do you think it is recovering? I doubt it.

The close of the tennis courts shocked me and other members very much. My tennis coach will be laid off in three days and have to find a new job. I guess finding a new job at his age is not easy. So, I can’t help sympathizing him.

I’m now thinking to take a rest of playing tennis for a couple of weeks and start a tennis-club-hunting in the middle of April.

Perhaps, playing tennis in the new place with new members could be fun to me in a sense.

Left: Me      Right: Tennis Coach, Mr. Yuzuki

Center: Me, Back Left: Ms. & Mr. Soma, Back Center: Mr. Yuzuki, Back second from the right: Mr. Nakagawa, Back Right: Hikaru or son of Mr. Yuzuki
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Indian Restaurant ‘Taj Mahal’

To celebrate Rina’s passing her high-school entrance exam, I went to a nearby Indian restaurant ‘Taj Mahal’ and have lunch with my family.

My two daughters Rina and Emi enjoyed the dishes very much; beforehand, I had not failed to ask a waitress that food be not-too-spicy for kids.

I found again that my seventeen-year-old elder daughter Emi has become able to eat a lot of food, more than the portion for one person.
That must be one of the reasons that she amazingly became bigger for the last one year, I understand.

They displayed many Indian antiques and paintings. They also played Indian music as a BGM in the restaurant. It was nice atmosphere as we visited last time.

Though you may feel the prices are a little expensive, I guess it is worth every penny.

Congratulations Rina On Graduation and Passing The Exam!

The Japanese school year starts in April and ends in March. Rina, my younger daughter, graduated junior high school last week.

She is going to go to the same high school as that of my elder daughter Emi goes to.

I was very relieved that Rina passed the entrance exam. Because, even just one week before the exam, she kept going to tennis school, kept morning jogging and kept watching TV anime program seriously.

I could not go to her commencement ceremony, but I heard Rina was very happy to have been able to attend the ceremony with her close friends and teachers.

Congratulations Rina on both her graduation and passing the entrance exam!

Hina Dolls Wait For A Display.

Most Japanese families having girls celebrate Hinamatsuri Festival on March 3rd by displaying Hina dolls at their homes. We have not been an exception of it for seventeen years since our elder daughter was born.

But, we were very busy handling a lot of chores last couple of weeks. So, we haven’t displayed Hina dolls this year.

One of headaches is water leakage from the wall of our condominium. We had to move tons of goods in one room to the other for repairing the wall.

The construction workers are scheduled to come again tomorrow. They said it would take more three to four days to complete. Sigh…

I took the picture a few years ago. The doll is now in a dark closet with other dolls, waiting for being displayed again, maybe, one year later.

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A Spring Day in Futara-yama Shrine

It’s been warmer and warmer in Utsunomiya.

It had been raining in the morning, so I gave up playing tennis and lazily took a morning nap after eating breakfast.

I slept for a couple of hours and got up around noon. Luckily, it cleared up in the sky.

I went to Futara-yama shrine to feel a spring breeze. It’s about a ten-minute-biking away from my home.
Going up along stone steps, I found several religious people and lots of pigeons as usual.
A small difference was that I found a full-bloomed white plum tree in the shrine yard.
It’s beautifully blooming in the sacred and warmer spring atmosphere.

I couldn’t ask for a nicer spring afternoon like today.

I’m sure that an exciting cherry blossom season is coming soon.

Quiz "Guess Who He Is"

One of my office workers asked me to find some pictures of my own which were taken when I was a small child.

The office worker was in charge of designing my department’s web page. About one hundred people are working at the same department.

The web page contains a monthly quiz that shows some pictures taken at their younger age and guess who he is or she is.

The answer of the next month quiz is me.

Can you answer the quiz correctly by just seeing those pictures?

It Snowed in Utsunomiya

After snowing two days consecutively, yesterday and the day before yesterday, it became sunny day today in Utsunomiya.

I played tennis with my friends today on Sunday as usual.  It covered beautifully with snow near the tennis courts.

I enjoyed both playing tennis and taking pictures of beautiful snow-covered nearby scene.

My Birthday

I had my 51st birthday yesterday, on February 6th.

Kiyono, my wife bought a birthday cake for me at her favorite sweet shop as she did on my birthday last year.

This time, she asked a staff of the sweet shop some candles. We put them on the cake top and lit them to celebrate my birthday.

I bought a birthday present to me by myself last year. The present was a trip to Florida with my family. I still vividly remember the wonderful trip. Honesty, I can’t believe that the trip was the event almost one year ago.

I’m vaguely thinking of buying a present to me again but don’t know what it would be.
A tennis racket, a bike, a camera, a PC, an iPad, a trip …

The thinking process itself can be fun to me.

A Construction Site

My company subsidizes every employee who doesn’t have his or her own house ninety percent of house rent for fifteen years.

I’ve been working for my company CANON for thirteen years and ten months. That is to say, I only have one year and a few months to enjoy the housing privilege; I can spend more than a little money not for housing but for other purposes.

So, recently, when I find flyers about condominiums or houses for sale, I check them rather seriously than before.

I found a flyer yesterday about a condo, which was under construction and would have been completed in March, 2011.

I went to see the construction site of the condo which was very close to JR Utsunomiya station with my wife.

To decide a new house will take really hefty time.
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The Size of the Shoes Tells a Lot.

I think nobody can’t deny that children become bigger and bigger without parents’ notice.

Recently, when I was cleaning my drawers, I found a pair of shoes which my daughter Emi wore when she was in her nursery school.

Her nursery school made it rules that all kids there should wear the same type of white shoes and that one of parents should draw a picture on both shoes together.

Do you know why?

Because most small kids could neither find their own shoes nor distinguish their right shoe from left one.
So, for drawing a picture on both shoe’s face together could help kids to find which one was left and which one was right easily. Of course, they could find their own shoes out from others easily, too.

I drew the picture almost fifteen years ago. Though the color of the shoes turned yellowish a little, rest of them were still in perfect condition.

Needless to say, Emi doesn’t remember the shoes at all. haha.
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