Municipal Track and Field Competition

Track and field competition of municipal junior high schools was held in Utsunomiya last week. My younger daughter Rina took part both in the 800m race and in the 1,500m race.

My wife had to go to her ballet practice for the performance in autumn and elder daughter Emi had to go to her drama club practice. So, only I went to the stadium with Rina.

The second runner is Rina in the following picture. Rina finished the race as a runner-up.
With Rina’s great practice she has done so far and her efforts, she became a runner-up in the 800m race and 3rd in the 1,500m race.
So, she could advance to the prefectural track and field competition next week.
Congratulations Rina!
I hope that you will do your best in the coming races.
Good luck!
The results of the women’s 800m race final follow.

Sarah Comes Home

Sarah who is my wife’s friend came home from London yesterday. She has been traveling in Japan since a couple weeks ago.

It was more than seven years ago when she came to Utsunomiya last time.
The upper picture was taken on April 30, 2001 at the botanical garden of Utsunomiya Romantic Village. Two daughters Emi and Rina look very small.
Digital cameras were not popular at that time so the quality of the picture was not good enough.

We spent talking, eating drinking on Sunday evening. It was a very wonderful day yesterday. She was going to leave Japan for London tomorrow.


On our way to JR Utsunomiya Station, we happened to meet Emi who was coming back from a drama club practice at her high school.
Few minutes before Sarah took the train to Tokyo, Sarah and I were standing at JR Utsunomiya Station.

Tennis Tournament in Shimotsuke City

I attended doubles tennis tournament in Shimotsuke city, next to Utsunomiya city with my colleague Mr. Ogata. My tennis friend Mr. Yoshida also attended the tournament with former tennis coach Mr. Saito. He is a senior student of a college in Utsunomiya. He has quit a part-time tennis coach job since one and half years ago. It was the first time for me to see him since then.

We won the first round rather easily at the sore of 8 to 4, but in the second round we were defeated at the score of 0 to 8.
The opponents of the second round, Mr. Watanabe and Mr. Fujinuma, were the last year’s winner of the tournament and this year’s first seeded team. They were very strong.
We were defeated very easily at the second round but I was satisfied with being able to play the game with such a strong team.

It was very hot day today as if the rainy season were over. If these hot days continue, soon or later, the Meteorological Agency will announce the end of the rainy season and an advent of the summer.

Left: Mr. Saito, former tennis coach
Second from the left: Mr. Yoshida, he plays tennis 6 times a week
Second from the Right: Me
Right: Mr. Ogata, my colleague

Shibamata Taishakuten Temple

Few moths ago, I went to Shibamata Taishakuten temple with my family. The temple is famous for the serial movie “Otoko wa Tsuraiyo” or “It's tough being a man.”
The main character, Tora-san lives near the Taishakuten temple in the movies.

Most of the movies have the same basic plot.
A traveling salesman Tora-san arrives in some remote town planning to sell his wares to the locals. He meets a local woman and falls in love with her. However, he usually ends up inadvertently helping bring her together with another man. He ends up being heartbroken at the end of the movie.

I like the movies and watched them many times, but had never been Taishakuten temple before. We visited Tora-san museum, sweets shop Toraya and Taishakuten temple.
It’s a really wonderful town.
Tora-san fans should visit the town.

These board are called Ema. Ema are made of wood on which worshipers write their wishes.

Ema are then left hanging up at shrines or temples, where God or Buddha can read them.
The Ema in the picture holds wishes:

“May my mother-in-law become healthy”,

“May all my family live happily with smiles.”

Rain, Rain and Rain

We had another rainy Sunday today in Tochigi area.
I know this rainy season is necessary for the plants in Japan. But, I always wish the sky would clear at least for Sunday and Saturday so that I could enjoy biking around.

I upload photos of hydrangea flowers that I took last week because I stayed home all day long today. Those flowers are blooming only few blocks away from my home.

Tomorrow is the last day of the first half of the year 2008. Time really flies quickly. Sigh.

Rainy Season and Hydrangea

I got up late today on Sunday. It’s been raining since last evening in Utsunomiya. I booked company’s tennis court but it’s impossible to play in the rain today.

Here we are in the middle of the rainy season in Kanto area.
I did nothing special today except taking a walk nearby my condominium with an umbrella.

Flowers of hydrangea are blooming beautifully in several places, a public park, a private house yard and corners of streets.
Hydrangea suits very well with rainy Utsunomiya city.

Party For Patent Rewards

We had a party to celebrate that I received patent rewards from my company last week. Every employee can get a reward when their patent is applied, registered and is used in the products.

It’s quite controversial whether or not those rewards are enough paid to inventors in Japan.
Of course, the more I get, the happier I’ll become. But, the important thing to me is that I had a chance to celebrate this rewards with my family or my colleagues.
In addition to buying a new bicycle for Emi and two new pairs of shoes for Rina, we could have a party.

I went to a restaurant called SAMURAI near my condominium with my family, drunk beer and ate Japanese food.
We had a wonderful dinner together. Though, my wife complained me that I had ordered too many dishes to eat all. lol

Emi is standing near her new bicycle.
Rina shows off two new pairs of shoes. The picture on the PC monitor was taken last time I bought her new pair of shoes.

Tokyo / Ebisu, Shibuya, Harajuku and Shinjuku

I took pictures and videos in Tokyo a monuth ago. I edited them last week and uploaded it on YouTube site today.
Please check it out.

Day Trip to Nikko

Friends of my mother-in-law, Judy and John who live in Australia came to Utsunomiya last week. My wife and I went to Nikko shrines, Cider Tree Park and Ohya Stone Park with them.
Nikko Toshogu shrine, Futarasan shrine and Rinnoji temple were designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1999. My wife often goes there but I haven’t been there since about ten years ago. This time, we bought multiple tickets for shines and temples in the area, so we stayed there about three to four hours, watching the wonderful heritage built in the year 786 to 1617.
Judy and John have retired from a primary school working as a teacher and a principal in Australia. They have now ample time to do what they want. That’s really wonderful. I asked them how many countries they have been so far. Judy answered, “Too many, Can’t count, lol.”
My mother-in-law also loves traveling all over the world. She retired as a highs school teacher from schools in Tokyo.
Overseas traveling must be a nice pastime after retirement. I think that I have to save energy for traveling many countries even after retirement needless to say to save energy for playing tennis. hahaha.

Keita Comes to My Home

My friend Michel, his wife Yoshiko and their five-month-old son Keita came home today. We had wonderful afternoon together with my wife and two daughters. They’ve visited Japan since two weeks ago. They traveled several places from Fukushima to Himeji and they are going to leave Japan for Canada the day after tomorrow.
We talked about a lot of things. One of amazing things to me is the difference of maternity and parental leave term between Japan and Canada. They have longer and more flexible term sharing system of the leave among the couples in Canada.
Recently, birth rate is decreasing year by year in Japan. I’m wondering, sometimes, what kind of measures the Japanese government takes to cope with that.
Anyway, talking with people from another country always gives me fresh idea. Thanks Michel for sharing nice time with us.

Tokyo Disneyland

We went to Tokyo Disneyland yesterday. Tokyo Disneyland celebrates 25th anniversary this year. I don’t remember exactly when I went to TDL last time. I guess it was almost 20 years ago. We went to Disney Resort in Anaheim last year. Comparing TDL to its Anaheim counterpart, it was far more crowded in TDL. I enjoyed watching parades and musical shows there but I was not cut out for waiting attractions in looooong lines.

I took a few hundreds pictures yesterday. I’m planning to make videos using pictures I took there in near future.

Rina's First Tennis Match

Rina, my younger daughter, debuted as a tennis player today for the first time in her life. She attended the beginner’s class of the local tennis tournament together with me, Mr. Yuzuki’s wife and his two sons. Mr. Yuzuki is my tennis coach for almost ten years.

It was unfortunately raining in the morning but later it stopped raining. We had three tennis matches in the club tournament of the preliminary league today.

Rina won one match and lost two matches. She seemed very happy when she won. It was a memorial first win. lol.

It’s a little bit bitter though, I believe, it might be an unforgettable experience for her.

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I Met Mr. Matsuno in Tokyo

I met Mr. Matsuno in Tokyo the day before yesterday for the first time in 16 years. He is my former English teacher. He is a great teacher for me. I had not been able to communicate in English before I met him. But, after learning with him for a few years, everything was changed.
I don’t think it’s an exaggeration that thanks to his help I can now write in English, not perfect though, and speak in English.

When I was working in Tokyo abut 20 years ago, I decided to learn English at an English conversation school. I asked some of my friends about schools, “Which school is good?” and “Which school is reasonable tuition?” One of friends recommended ECC English Conversation School in Shibuya, Tokyo. So, I went to the school, about 30 minutes from my office by train, and asked the school staff about their educational system, price, classes and teachers. While listening the staff’s explanation, I gradually liked the atmosphere at the school. Then, I decided to study there in the night class after work two days a week. Mr. Matsuno is one of the teachers at ECC Shibuya school.

At first, Mr. Matsuno’s class was very tough for me. He used live radio English news programs as teaching materials in his class. He sometimes translated English news simultaneously into Japanese and asked students to do the same way. We should carefully prepare the class beforehand otherwise we could not catch up with the class.
He is a rare perfect bilingual teacher at that time. He sometimes explained subtle differences of the meaning of English sentences in Japanese to make the beginners easily understand between the lines.

After talking for three and half hours in Nishinippori with him, I felt he was as young as he was 20 years ago and was still very ambitious for everything. I was impressed by his energy even we are in the different walks of life: he publishes books and teaches English, on the other hand I’m an engineer working for CANON. When I was leaving Nishinippori for Tabata where my parents-in-law live , he was standing outside of the wicket and kept shaking his hand till I was out of his sight. We promised to see each other soon. I had a really wonderful time with him in the middle of Golden Week.

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

Hanamizuki Festival in Utsunomiya

I went to Hanamizuki Festival today. Hanamizuki is the name of trees, which bloom in late April after the cherry blossom season in Utsunomiya. The flowers are now in full bloom in my city. White and bright pink flowers are really beautiful.

The main stage of the festival was just about 100 meter distance or few minutes walk from my condo. I enjoyed the festival today, last year and the year before the last.

There were flea markets, talk shows, dance shows, band performances, a stamp rally game and a lot of food stalls.
The most popular event of the festival is Trial Bike Show. It’s fun to watch the live motorbike show just in front of the performance. It’s a little bit dangerous. lol

Hanamizuki: Cornus florida / Flowering Dogwood

Street Jugglers in Utsunomiya

Daidougei Festival or Street Performers' Festival was held at several places in Utsunomiya.
Jugglers, magicians, comedians and acrobats, more than ten groups of performers took part in the festival just few weeks before the cherry blossoms season in Japan.
Actually their juggling performances were not perfect. They fell the jugs several times in their shows. So, I edited the video by cutting off the parts they fell the jugs.
But, I think live performances are better than a well-edited video. I really enjoyed watching the performances of them.

Performers:
1. "Project K. Y." are high school boys.
2. Sakurako is a cute girl juggler.

Disclaimer:
Sorry for the bad sounds. All sounds were recorded live on the street.

Kamagawa River in Utsunomiya

I went to the Kamagawa River in the center of Utsunomiya to take pictures of cherry blossoms yesterday. The Kamagawa River is not big, just few meters wide and less than 10 km long. There are cherry trees along the river and carps live in the river.
Since we had windy and rainy days last weekday, part of cherry blossoms have been blown away. I show some of pictures I took there.

When I went to the Kamagawa River, shop owners near the river were selling vegetables and giving out flowers for free near the riverside. I bought fresh vegetables and luckily had a pot of yellow poppy.
The poppy is on the new PC desk, which I bought at Yamashin discount shop today. The desk was buyer-self-assemble type. My daughter Rina enjoyed assembling the desk very much with me.

Cherry Blossoms

We had a perfect weather for viewing cherry blossoms this weekend in Utsunomiya. I usually take a rest in the morning and play tennis in the afternoon on Saturdays. But I got up rather early in the morning yesterday, had quick breakfast and went to Utsunomiya University for taking cherry blossoms' pictures.

There are several nice spots for viewing cherry trees in my city. But, few people know that they have a lot of big cherry trees in the college campus.

It was not crowded at all when I went to the campus. One of advantages of the campus for taking pictures is that there are few utility poles. Even when we can see beautiful flowers or cherry trees, utility poles and its wires often spoil the pictures.
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My Precious Words #1

This video is one of my collections of inspiring quotes.
I made this video with touching words I met so far in my life, favorite pictures I took in the last couple of years and a music played by 'changee.'

【Music】
"The Folks Who Live On The Hill"
Composed by JEROME KERN, Public Domain,
Piano played by 'changee.'
I used the music here with the kind permission of 'changee.'
You can hear more of changee's music:
http://www.voiceblog.jp/katsuhiro/

【Pictures】
1. Kinu River, Utsunomiya, Japan
2. Shinjuku, Tokyo, Japan
3. Tage Fudouson, Utsunomiya, Japan
4. Utsunomiya University, Japan
5. Ajigaura Pier, Ibaraki, Japan
6. Mt. Fuji, Japan
7. My home balcony, Utsunomiya, Japan
8. JR train, Tokyo, Japan
9. Romantic Village, Utsunomiya, Japan
10. From my home balcony, Utsunomiya, Japan
11. New Year's Day, Utsunomiya, Japan
12. Utsunomiya Central Park, Japan

Visiting Utsunomiya Central Park

I went to Utsunomiya Central Park to see flowers yesterday. I’m not so much familiar with the names of the trees but they had very beautiful flowers. It was also nice for riding a bike on such a sunny warm spring day. I think it is the best season of the year for biking if you don’t have hey fever or pollen allergy.

It is said on TV that cherry blossoms would be in full bloom in Tokyo this weekend. I saw some cherry trees in Utsunomiya Central Park, but they haven’t been in full bloom. Maybe, I’ll go to U.C.P. again or somewhere else to see cherry blossoms next weekend.

I think I’ll show you some pictures of cherry blossoms on this blog next time.

Vernal Equinox Day in Tagesan Fudouson

Vernal equinox day falls on about March 20, the day when the sun reaches the vernal equinox, and the length of day and night is equal.

In Japan, it is designated as a national holiday for praising nature and showing love of all living things. This has been a Buddhist festival day.

A week including the three days immediately before and after vernal equinox day is called Higan. During Higan, the spirits of ancestors are recalled, Buddhist rites are carried out and family graves are visited.

My parents-in-law, having an ancestors’ grave in Utsunomiya, visited the grave last week all the way from Tokyo.
My wife and I visited Tagesan Fudouson temple in Utsunomiya and had a short lecture of the temple by the higher rank priest there. I visited the temple several times before, but it was the first time for me to have had the historical and religious explanation of the temple. It was very interesting.
It has been warmer and warmer these days. The cherry blossom top season is just around the corner.