My Hometown Matsue

My company gives a special five-day-holiday to every employee who have been working for 5, 15, 25, 35 or 45 years.
Since I had been working for 15 years this year, I was entitled to get the holiday.
So, I had a short trip to my hometown Matsue last week.

Memory of Matsue Castle

Like every city does so, my hometown Matsue city has changed a lot in several decades. How has it changed? It became easier to drive, having wider streets, tourist friendly signs and information offices, having lots of well-known franchised shops like McDonalds and Starbucks, and newly built attractions for tourists.

I’m happy and proud of seeing those changes but, at the same time, I feel sad that well known narrow streets disappeared, small parks I used to play were replaced with tall buildings’ site and large supermarkets drove away small mama-and-papa shops.

I took the first picture from a Matsue-Ohashi bridge viewing Mt. Daisen to the east. There must not have been such big electricity towers.

Second picture was taken at the front yard of Matsue Castle. There were play fields and tennis courts there thirty-five years ago. I used to play baseball with my classmates after school. That was great fun to me at that time. But now, ball games inside castle site are prohibited.

Castle tower viewing from an opening between cherry blossoms is a few exceptions of unchanged scenes in downtown of Matsue.

I realize that I can go back to my current home town but can NOT go back to the city I lived forty years ago.
-

On A Rainy Day In Matsue City

I have never spent days in Matsue, about 90 minutes from Tokyo by air, in April since almost thirty years ago.

I usualy go back to my hometown Matsue in summer. Flowers in my family’s garden in April were quite diffret from those in summer. In the same way, it’s always sunny and hot in summer, on the contrary, I had both a rainy day and sunny days last time.

Plants and flowers viewing at my family’s home in a rainy day were new to me, so they were very attractive to me.

I took pictures in my family’s garden using a cellphone-built-in camera. I think quality of pictures taken with a cell phone becomes far better than a few years ago.

Don't you think so?



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.↓

My Hometown Matsue

I uploaded a new video on YouTube. I made the video spending my spare time for about one week. I like it. Please take a look. (^^)

My Summer Holidays End Today

My company CANON offers employees summer holidays from August 8 to August 16 this year. It’s the last day of my holidays today.

I went to my hometown Shimane prefecture on August 10 and stayed 6 days at my mother’s house and came back here in Utsunomiya yesterday.

I enjoyed every minute meeting my 84-year-old mother, my brothers, my sister-in-law and relatives.
My mother living with my brother and sister-in-law has a garden next to her house. My mother loves growing flowers and vegetables in the garden.

When I was living in Shimane, I did not care much about living creatures in the garden.
But now, I live in the 4th flour of a condominium, when I go back to Shimane, looking at those living creatures is always great fun to me.

Kamosu Jinjya in Matsue

Hi guys, I've uploaded my favorite pictures on this site again. I took those pics in Matsue during my trip from Oct. 17 to Oct. 23. No need to say about the beautiful lake, the castle and the quadricentennial drum festivals, there are wonderful old shrines and temples in Matsue.
Pictures of Kamosu Jinjya(Shrine) follow,

Kamosu Jinjya(Shrine) is about half an hour bike ride away from my family’s home. I went there on sunny Thursday. There were few tourists. I walked in the site of the shrine alone. They were holding an autumnal harvest rite.
Kamosu Jinjya is written ‘神魂神社’ in Japanese.
The meaning of Japanese charactors ‘神魂神社’ is ‘the Spirits of God Shrine.’
---神 :God, ---魂 :spirits, ---神社:shrine
Isn’t it cool?

Drum Festival in Matsue, Japan

'Water City', Matsue

I was able to spend a wonderful autumn vacation in Shimane prefecture for the first time in 25 years. I met my family members, visited historic places and autumn festivals.
I've uploaded pictures I took in Matsue city during my trip, from Oct. 17 to Oct. 23.
In the picture follows, a construction workers' boat and a pleasure boat in which several travelers are on board are cruising slowly on the castle moat.

About an hour pleasure boat trip takes you around Matsue Castle. As you float along the canal, you can see beautiful sights of Matsue Castle, old Samurai Residence and pine tree streets. You will also travel under 16 famous bridges that span the castle moat.

Matsue Castle is nicknamed the "plover castle", it is one of the few remaining medieval castles remaining in their original wooden form, and not a modern reconstruction in concrete.

Most Japanese castles have been damaged or destroyed by war, earthquakes, or other causes. Since a large part of their construction was wooden, fire was a major hazard. Matsue castle was built after the last great war of feudal Japan, so it never saw a battle.

The construction of Matsue Castle began in 1607 and finished in 1611, under the local lord Horio Yoshiharu. In this year 2007, the local government celebrates four hundred year anniversary of the beginning of the construction of Matsue Castle. Next weekend, I'll upload pictures of Dou Gyoretsu drum festival commemorating the anniversary.

Staying in My Hometown Shimane

I took a week off and came back to my hometown Matsue city, Shimane prefecture last Wednesday. I'm staying in the house in which my mother, my brother and my sister live. It's the top season for autumn festivals here in Matsue. I bought a bike right after arriving at Matuse station. I rode the bike, went many places and took a lot of pictures of the festivals last five days.
To my regret, I haven't brought back a data connector between a camera and a PC, so I can't upload those pictures now.
I'll go back to Tochigi tomorrow and show you them on the blog in a week or two.

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.

  

We Pick Some Vegetables Before Breakfast.

My younger daughter Rina is standing on the left. My mom is on the right. They meet only once a year. “How big you have become!” is the first words my mom says to my daughter every year.

The first work of the day is picking some vegetables before breakfast. My mom, my brother and my sister have a small vegetable garden next to their house. Breathing fresh morning air and a light work before breakfast can be a good start of a day.

My mom becomes eighty-one years old this summer. I feel she becomes smaller than she was a year ago. On the contrary, eleven year-old Rina seems to grow every day.

A Hiding Praying Mantis, What Are You Waiting For?

A hiding praying mantis, what are you waiting for?
What are you thinking of?
Maybe it’s a cicada or a butterfly. You seem to be enjoying this summer heat. I wish you a good luck and delicious meals.

Hot Dry Summer Is Comming.

Hot summer is just around the corner. I can't wait for a hot dry summer vacation season.
Every summer, I take a week off and go back to Matsue city in Shimane prefecture where I was born.

Dragonflies, flowers, beautiful sea and fish are waiting for me.
-