After leaving the Grand Canyon on the 3rd Day

Leaving the Grand Canyon behind, we headed to Kayenta, in Navajo County, Arizona. It was located about 300 km away from the Grand Canyon. On our way of driving to Kayenta, we dropped in several places. The first place we dropped in was a native Indian souvenir shop. They sold many beautiful goods for reasonable prices. The scenery from the shop was also very nice.


After that, we visited Tuba City, Arizona to fill up gas in our car. And also, we bought a bottle of water, some fruits and some snacks at the drugstore run by native Indian. I love to see and eat fruits in foreign countries beacause they are almost, always, very different from those of Japanese.
Rina was holding a pear. The shape of pears and the shape of watermelons were quite different from that of Japanese ones. The color of apples was much darker than that of Japanese ones.

Kayenta is located immediately south of Monument Valley. Monument Valley is located on the southern border of Utah with northern Arizona.
We could see Monument Valley in the evening after four hours driving from the Grand Canyon. It was a bit cloudy, though I impressed the scenery and color of the ground.
We went to the restaurant that served native Indian dishes. We had native Indian steak, hamburger, pizza and drinks.

Morning Half of the 3rd Day in the States

We finished light breakfast early in the morning and quickly left Williams for the Grand Canyon to see morning scenery there. At first, heavy clouds were covered above the Canyon, so we could not see the blue sky. As time went by, gradually the clouds disappeared. Then we could see hundreds miles continuing whole magnificent scenery there. I can’t show the spectacular scenery enough by showing few pictures on my blog. Anyway, I hope you can feel part of what we experienced by seeing following pictures.

A wild squirrel was also looking at the miles away valleys.




We saw a herd of wild deer eating leaves of plants just behind the Yavapai Point at East Rim of the Canyon.
What’s that flying? I don’t have any idea. Was that a raven, a turkey vulture or a bald eagle?

We stayed in the Canyon until about 2 pm. After visiting the Grand Canyon, where were we heading for? Continue.

2nd Day in the States

We left Needles for Williams, AZ. On the way to Williams, We dropped off the Highway Route 40 at Seligman. Seligman is not so popular for Japanese tourists because there are not any for tourists' attractions. But not a few Japanese who want to drive in America know Route 66 as the Main Street of America, the Mother Road.
Route 66 was a major path of the migrants who went west, especially during the Dust Bowl of the 1930s, and supported the economies of the communities through which the road passed. People became prosperous due to the growing popularity of the highway, and those same people later fought to keep the highway alive even with the growing threat of the new Interstate Highway System.
Route 66 originally ran from Chicago, Illinois through Missouri, Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas, New Mexico, Arizona and California before ending at Los Angeles for a total of 2,448 miles or 3,939 km. (Information Source Wikipedia)

I went to the States for the first time when I was 29 years old on business. I was surprised and impressed by many things. Among them, one of amazing things to me was a sandwich I bought in Minneapolis that contained very thick ham. Even after coming back to Japan I sometimes remembered it. This time, I bought it to my family members. I asked them how they felt it. Daughters said that one piece of ham was enough for a sandwich. What do you think?

After arriving in Williams, we drove to the Grand Canyon to see sunset. But, it was cloudy and sometimes raining. Anyway we could see a spectacular scenery of the Canyon.

We stayed at Canyon County Inn in Williams. The inn was about 100 km away from the Grand Canyon. It was very nice lodge. But, I thought if I had booked a closer hotel to the Grand Canyon I could have spent longer time there.

1st Day in the States

The first day we arrived in the States, we rented a car in LA and headed to Needles, NV.
I drove 424 kilometers having a jetlag. It was quite a job!

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.

I’ve never seen gas stations for boats in Japan. Where do they fill gas for boats in Japan?

Beginning of Our Journey

We came back from the States the day before yesterday safely.
Our journey to the US began with boarding the United Airlines 747 jet on March 22.
My first impression of its cabin equipment was nothing but “Very Old.” For example, cabin attendants pull down movie screen by hands and all passengers watch the same movie at the same time. This must be the practice of few generations ago. JAL, ANA and American Airlines, I used last ten years, had cargos in which all passengers seats had its own TV display and they could watch and select a movie when they wanted to. No weekly magazines were in the cabin and meals were very light. I think this is the way they cut down every extra expense to achieve cheaper airfare.
One round trip tickets between Japan and the States cost me about sixty thousands yen including tax and fuel surcharge. It was the cheapest I could find.
I saw the American Continent thirty minutes before landing for the first time in five years.

I go to the States tomorrow again.

This picture was taken when I went to the Grand Canyon with my wife five years ago.
This time, I go to the States again with my wife and two daughters tomorrow.
My company, Canon gives employees, who have worked for ten years, ten days special vacation and bonus. It also gives them, who have worked for five years, five days special vacation and bonus.
I’ve worked for Canon for ten years. I get the chance going to California, Arizona, Utah and Nevada in the States. I’m planning to rent a car for ten days visiting several national parks and after that I’ll take daughters and my wife to the Disneyland.
I’m very excited this journey.

A Randoseru or a school bag for primary school kids.

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.
What kind of memories in your elementary school days do you have?
Is everything wonderful for you?

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.