HI, everyone!
Congratulations, Alice! I, too, am proud of being one of your friends, and your great work will stimulate me to work harder.
Yesterday my family and I went to an outing to a strawberry farm in Tahara city. It was a warm, comfortable day, and we could have a fantastic time there. It took about two hours to get there by car. The farm we put in an advance order was a tiny vinyl plastic hothouse, and there were a lot of beautiful red strawberries in it. Since my kids had never been to such farm, they were very excited. But most enthusiastic one in eating it was me; I ate 40 strawberries in 30 minutes. How greedy! I got so many fruits there that I couldn’t have a lunch.
After that, we went to Irago, and enjoyed the magnificent view of the Pacific. We also climbed to the observatory. On the way home, some lovely rape fields delighted our eyes.
We could take pleasure in early spring in the Atsumi Peninsula.
So, see you tomorrow. Good night.
5 comments:
Dear Cherry,
Thank you for giving me a warm message.
Is that strawberry farm "Nikken Noen"? If so, we made its big sign which reads, "ichigo," in hiragana and is patterned with strawberry.
Another sign of this farm reads, "meron" in katakana. During summer, it becomes an all-you-can-eat melon farm.
Hi, pals!
How are you doing? It is March 9. Today I’m going to talk about okonomiyaki. As you well know, okonomiyaki is one of the traditional Japanese foods. Hiroshima is famous for its unique way of making. They pile lots and lots of cabbage and press it hard. As my HD doesn’t have an eye to okonomiyaki, I often cook it at home. Let me tell you how to cook it and some episode. First break one or two eggs as you like. Beat it. Mix some flour and a table spoonful of baking powder. Add some water. Cut cabbage, not so thinly, or okonomiyaki becomes watery. Cut leak. Actually I prefer okonomiyaki with lots of leak to that with cabbage. Pour the mixture, put dry bonito and shrimp on it. Pour mixture over it. The key is heat. When it is done with low heat, it is less tasty. I like crispy okonomiyaki, so heat should be a little strong. Oh, I remember cosmos’s HD is an okonomiyaki expert. I know at least two foreign people who dislike okonomiyaki. I don’t know why, but I guess when we refer it as Japanese pizza, there arises a gap between what they imagine its taste and it actually tastes like. So I strongly feel it safe not to take them to okonomiyaki restaurant. Still I believe okonomiyaki is very healthy and tasty. Also I have a nostalgic memory of okonomiyaki. There used to be an okonomiyaki shop near my house. An old lady cooked it in front of my friend and me. We are amazed how skillfully she made it and filled with happiness. It cost around 100 yen. Eating something warm really gives us power and energy. Thank you, my precious friends.
Hi, ladies!!!
How are you?
I flew back from Ohita late last night, but got some pain in the back of my left knee. So I decided to see my orthopedic surgeon on Monday, and mailed Sunflower, since I was gonna J’s discussion session with her on Monday, informing her of my attendance cancellation.
In Ohita, on Saturday we visited Hita, which was one of the places under the direct control of Tokugawa Shogunate and is now well-known for its water, tenryo-sui. I don’t know where the pure water running in the city comes from, but I saw clear water flowing in tiny waterways here and there in Mameda-cho, the old district in the city, which had been, sort of, re-developed for tourism.
We paid a visit to a two-century old house, the family of which bought some kind of plant and produced a raw material for the making of candles, from generation to generation. A part of the house, which escaped a fire about 100 years after the house was originally built, was 320 years old, and all the family’s traditional hina dolls were displayed for visitors. The admission fee was 500 yen.
On Sunday we called on the Fukuzawa Yukichi Museum located in Nakatsu where his mother and her children including Yukichi moved from Osaka since his father died and his mother decided to raise her children there. At 19, Yukichi went to Nagasaki to do Dutch studies, and at 20 was admitted to Tekijyuku in Osaka, but at 21 returned to Nakatsu to succeed his brother as head of the family because of his brother’s death.
I realized that he, at 25, sailed to the USA as a working member (on the Kairinmaru) in 1860 and, at 27, to some European countries including the UK and France, probably, as an interpreter, I suppose, in 1862. He, at 32, again crossed the Pacific as a staff member of the Shogunate in 1867, before the Meiji Government was established in the next year. Yukichi died at 66 in 1901 before the Russo-Japanese War took place in 1904.
I don’t know much about Yikichi’s daughter, but she married a man, who later, I suppose, became the lover of Sadayakko.
Today I went to see my orthopedic surgeon, and was X-rayed, and it was discovered that my left knee is in the initial stage of arthropathy. I was suggested that I should take the rehabilitation exercise that would be instructed to me at the rehabilitation center this coming Saturday so that the pain would be relieved. I am OK, my dear friends. Please do not worry about me. I still can walk and run. Just a little pain, that’s all.
I hope you had a wonderful day today. Talk to you again, my precious friends. Goodnight…
Dear Cherry and friends,
Plum, I'm glad to hear your message with invariable sincerity.
Please take care of yourself.
Today, I joined Jonathan's session at Cosmos's house.
We discussed serious issues such as health care insurance. Jonathan warned what's happening to the US health care system might happen to Japanese health care system. He said ours has already been heavily privatized like that of the US taking an examples: from doctors to drugs. I had not noticed that all are privatized except the rules and administrations of which the government takes responsibilities. I always thought that the Japanese welfare system is better than those in North American countries. I was mistaken.
Too late to be awake.
Good night.
Hope you're dreaming happy dreams.
Hi, everyone,
It is Tuesday, March 11. We have a clear sky. I’m afraid the volume of falling pollen will be huge! Plum, please take care. I hope you are relieved from the pain. Your writing reminds me of the head of a man on a one thousand bill. What I know about Ukiah is he is the writer of Gakumen-no-susume, but only its name. I felt he is a man of sight as he traveled overseas when young. His mother is one of the greatest mothers as they moved knowing the importance of education. It is very instructive to me. Today I’m going to write about bonsai. As you well know bonsai is the art of growing trees in small pots. We can enjoy the elegance of nature in miniature. A several years ago, I was taking a lesson from a Canadian teacher. Her HD asked me how to grow bonsai. He had tried to grow by himself a few times, but he never succeeded. Until then, I had been thinking bonsai was for the seniors. He is a very cool young artistic photographer having a dream to publish his book. I was ashamed I had no knowledge about bonsai. Even now ... So I see pots of bonsai with very mixed feeling. I’ll find some bonsaiist or bonsaier and introduce him or her when asked next time. It is very regrettable less and less interest we have in thing Japanese. Our Japanese identity is incidental but the most engaging quality.
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