Ten-nou-sai Summer Festival

I know that they do time trial races at Ten-nou-sai summer festival.

But, actually it was my first time to see these races.

They have to carry an Omikoshi or a portable shrine and run up 95 steps to the shrine gate.

That was a really exciting moment of the festival.

Rina’s Final Race of Track and Field Club at Her High School

Left: Club Coach,   Right: Rina

Rina is in her third grade of her high school and is going to take college exams in coming February and March.

She, as well as her friends of the same age, has to retire their track and field club this summer. The pictures were taken at their final public race.

Café Mario

Inside Café Mario

Standing in front of the entrance of Café Mario

 

Café Mario is located in the north of Tochigi Prefectural Government Office or TPGO; it takes us just five minutes from TPGO on foot.

The Café runs in a renovated Japanese Showa era house.

Quiet place in a residential district, delicious food and tasty beverage gave us perfect afternoon time.

‘Le Metro’ is the name of a Café

I posted photos of neighbouring Café last two times on this blog.
Again, I upload another pictures of Café today.

‘Le Metro’ is the name of a Café just few blocks away from home. When my elder daughter Emi lived with us, more than a year ago, we went there to have dinner. 

The restaurant had a chic small rooms decorated with magazines, pictures and so on.

We had a table on the second floor and spent ample time together.

Cafe & Sweets ARTISTA

My email address list on the hotmail-web-site might have been hacked and unwilling emails were sent to the people in the list last week. Some of the emails were sent to my office including my colleagues and bosses. It was a terrible moment. I cleaned up my web mail address contents, shut down Facebook account and other miscellaneous works.

Anyway, aside from those works, my wife and I went to the Café ARTISTA in south of Utsunomiya.
We had lunch on the second flour of a shabby looking building: though it looked like a gallery inside.
Foods were delicious and the inside atmosphere was suitable for taking it easy for a couple of hours.

 

Aglio Olio Is The Name Of Cafe.

The other day, my wife and I went to a nearby Café called Aglio Olio for lunch, just five minute walking distance from home.

We didn’t expected the Café much but they had nice pasta dishes, fine aromatic coffee and delectable desserts. 



The atmosphere there was perfect with quiet music and a few customers.

Michel and His Family Comes Home

Michel and his family came home the other day. Time really flies: the last time he came home dates back to two and half years ago. His son’s grown bigger and his newly born daughter must be the cutest among all. A crystal clear his daughter’s eye looking at him and his wife Yoshiko reflected his family.

An Annular Solar Eclipse Took Place on May 21, 2012

I saw it at my office’s backyard at 7:34 in the morning. I had gotten up earlier on the day and dashed to my office by bike. I used a tripod and a camera with sunlight filters. It was a kind of a drama lasted only for five minutes. I truly enjoyed watching it.

Poppy Fields at 8:00 AM

I got up early even on Sunday, went to Shirasawa Green Park to see poppy fields.
They were just in full bloom.

Unbelievably, no one was walking except me in that huge park at 8:00 in the morning.

 I hung around there about half an hour.
 During the time, I just met one woman taking a walk with a dog.

'Dojyo Sukui Manjyu' is the name of a Cake

They seem like toys or something, but they aren't.
Those are sweets with bean paste inside.
Most people living in Shimane, my hometown, know those cakes.

Ichikai Town

It’s the last day of one-week-long-holiday or Golden Week in Japan, today.

I have been rather relaxed except for going on a short trip to Ichikai town.

My wife and I went there to see a spring flower field. The weather was not perfect but we enjoyed seeing beautiful scenery there.

On our way back to home, we dropped by a Café Hidamari to have lunch at a table near grass garden.

The taste of the lunch was not recommendable but it was reasonably priced.

carp-shaped Koinobori streamers 

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.

Cherry Blossoms

 Unlike rainy Saturday yesterday, it’s wonderful sunny Sunday today.

I went to Igashira park today.

Tennis courts in Igashira park are surrounded by many cherry trees. It is the best season today both for watching cherry blossoms and playing tennis.

Tennis Tournament in Mohka City

I participated in a tennis club tournament with my friends today.
One team consisted of two doubles and one single. In the beginning, we had a preliminary league.
We became the second among four teams in our league. So, we could not proceed further to the winners tournament.
I got very tired today.

This picture was taken at Kinu Green Park yesterday.

High Energy Accelerator Research Organization

Rina took part in a science seminar camp at High Energy Accelerator Research Organization in Tsukuba city last week.

About twenty would-be scientists who had passed paper screening beforehand gathered there from all over Japan.

Rina carried out experiments, had discussion with professors and other members and made a presentation.

Having high level education with prominent college professors before entering college could have been a very good experiment to her.

Café Ka Non

 Since my car's seven-year-old GPS didn't have latest info, we lost our way to Café Ka Non.

I pulled over our car just in front of an office building.

I got out of the car and without hesitation went into the office to ask if they knew where the Café was.
They didn’t know it.

While calling to the Café, a woman I met at the office kindly came to us with a map. She said she looked for it on the Web and printed it out.

After saying Thanks and Good Bye, we turned around and headed for the destination.





Just five-minute-drive brought us there. The owner of the Café was waiting for us outside, in fear of our passing through the shop.

The atmosphere of the shop was superb. Homemade bread and beef stew were delicious. We spent a peaceful lunch time at the Café in a rural suburb of Utsunomiya.