The first day we arrived in the States, we rented a car in LA and headed to Needles, NV.
It’s the hotel garden where we stayed on the 1st day in the USA.
It’s Colorado River. The water was very clean and looked beautiful. The mountains in the background were also beautiful.
We came back from the States the day before yesterday safely.
I saw the American Continent thirty minutes before landing for the first time in five years.
Most elementary school freshmen are given a new Randoseru from their parents or grandparents before starting school in Japan. Children become excited while touching it, wearing it and smelling the new leather of the bag in the end of March. They want to go to school and have new friends as soon as possible. That happened to Rina exactly six years ago.
Upper two pictures were taken six years ago and following two pictures were taken today. The Randoseru has become smaller, hasn't it?
I think a Randoseru or a school bag has a special meaning to evey elementary school kid. It keeps a lot of good and painful memory in thier school age.
I don’t know when such a custom that classmates write blessing or comments on their friend’s bag has started in Japan.
"Shinno-kazari" which includes "odairi-sama," emperor and empress dolls wearing typical Heian era court costumes.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Congratulations!
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?
Parents are nervously waiting for their kids finishing the exam at the school entrance.
Congratulations Rina on passing the exam for a junior high!
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.
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!
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. 
