looking back at my 2013

秋も深まりいよいよ冬の到来です。しばらく冬休みに入ります。今年もブログを訪問して下さり有難うございました。楽しい事が沢山あった年でしたが悲しい事もありました。それでも年月は過ぎていきます。来年にまたお会いしましょう。

お元気で!

Dear friends!

Autumn colors are deepening towards winter every day. I am fine but have been quite busy with my many private affairs that came up one after another. We have only one month to go this year. This is going to be the last posting of this year.

I am thankful that I had a lot of good times with my family this year. Also, I spent lots of pleasant times with my close friends having tea time and going out together, who I share the same hobbies with and get inspiration from. I love to share piano music with my friends in my life. As a non-native English speaker it is exciting to practice English language, getting to know more about different cultures through another language.

However, I had a sad thing too. Four months have passed since my close friend passed away, who was the oldest and best friend in my life from the time I was ten. Our friendship was kept even when we lived far apart after we got married. Lots of our memories came up to my mind one after another since her passing away. It looks like my drawers in my mind were suddenly pulled open. As time passes I began to realize that she would stay alive in my heart.

She was having radio therapies periodically. However, our one night cherry blossom viewing trip was realized in 2012 while she was taking the treatments.

                                                        Now I really want to say it to her.

                             "You were a honest and hard-working woman. I often remember you.

                                              Seiko, I just wanted to be with you much longer."

Nara Park

                                                                     a bird dancing  on the shining pond

                                                                               her elegant dance

                                                                        a collaboration in nature
                                                              Ryousenji Temple

                                                                                 in evening light

                a part of the garden of Ryousenji Temple, which features" rose garden" in spring

.........in addition.....

My mother-in-law at the age of 93, who lives with us, has been weakened these days. Since her heart is weakened, she gets out of breath when she moves around the house. She puffs during her meals too. She really hopes to spend the rest of her life in her room. Some nursing care workers regularly visit our house.Thanks to them we can enough help her, take a rest, make my time and enjoy my hobbies.

 

                                                         The yellow  leaves  at a bus stop near  my house
                                             

My blog will be closed for the winter break. I will be away from my PC for a while. However, I really look forward to visiting your blog from time to time when I have time during my break. I hope you will keep yourself well and enjoy this time of a year! I always appreciate your visits and kind comments.

                                               Thank you for visiting Green Tomato.

                 
         

                                                           See you next year.

                                                                 Tomoko                                                                                            

                                                          

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Enjoy surfing and walking.

Many leaves here are gradually turning yellow and red. My husband and I came back home earlier this week from our trip around the Okutango village in Kyoto. My husband likes fishing very much! I enjoyed strolling around the village for 3 days while he was fishing in the Japan Sea of Kyoto.

 京丹後に行ってきました。夫は魚釣り,私はのんびり丹後散策でした。偶然にサーフィン大会を見ることが出来ました。見物人は双眼鏡が必要です。３００ミリレンズが欲しくなりました。

This time I encountered an exciting event I had never expected. It was a surfing contest. The event took place on the beach just behind the hotel we stayed at. I was sitting on the beach enjoying the surfers’ performances that afternoon. Their performances were excellent. I hope you enjoy their performances, though my photos are blurred. Unfortunately my 200 mm camera lens did not have enough resolution for shooting them from a distance.

                            See?  What a cute diesel car! It is running across the village.

                           

                                                              Yes, this is  a real car!

                        

mushrooms at a bank near that line

Tango crape Japanese kimono

People in this  village have been making Japanese kimono fabric called Tango crape. 

                             　　         display at the entrance at Tango crape kimono shop

　　　　　　　　　　　　          　       Thank you for visiting. 
　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　            　        Tomoko

Living with The Sea

若狭湾伊根町の海岸線に並ぶ舟屋を見てきました。
Ine Fishing Port, located in Tango Peninsula of Kyoto, where we can still find beautiful traditional scenes from Edo period (1603-1867), which are rarely seen in today's Japan.

September, 2013

There are traditional buildings called "Funaya": A Funaya is a house with a boat storage on the first floor and a living space on the second floor. A string of old Funaya are standing side by side on the water's edge, looking crude without the doors.

                                                                               Wakasa bay

Funaya is designated as an important cultural asset, and fishermen are still living there.

One fisherman allowed me to enter his Funaya, which has remained untouched for a long time. I slowly opened the creaking door and walked into the building, hearing the sound of lapping waves. He proudly told me about their rich fishing ground and the history of Funaya, but said, "Many of the recent boats are too big to fit in our old Funaya.....................................".

 early morning

rich fish!

Thank you for visiting. Until next time!

Tomoko

A small hidden village

岡山県の内陸に自然豊かな村、奥津があります。
Let me introduce a beautiful village in Japan.Okutsu is a small inland village in Okayama prefecture, which is 250 kilometers to the west of my house in Nara. Actually, this is the hometown of my close friend. There is a house which her mother lives in alone. Ten years have passed since my friend and her mother invited me to this village for the first time. This is my third visit there.

                                                                                      August, 2013

Pure water from the mountains and clean air are the great blessings to the farmers there.The rice produced here is very delicious! Sadly, the rice plants were fallen down by the heavy rain and strong wind the other day. It was just 2 weeks before its harvest time.

The rice plants will have to be wait as they are for a while for harvesting  on a clear day.

                                                                             
                                                                Okutsu Dam taken in the rain                                                                                                                

                                                                                  August, 2013
Her family has lived in this house as farmers for over 200 years from generation to generation.


                       

                                  I appreciate the warm hospitality of my friend’s mother!
                                                      Okutsu village I love!

                                                      Thank you for visiting. 

                                                               Tomoko

How are you? I am glad to see you again!

The reconstruction of Tokyo station was finished last autumn.Now we can see its original appearance of the Tokyo Station, which was first opened in 1914.The current restored building is also designed to withstand a great earthquake.

東京駅が昨年完成しました。いつもシートに覆われて工事中だった丸の内でしたが、ようやく1914年に建てられた当時のその姿を見れるようになりました。

                                                                                                          August,2013
For over 7 years, the station was under construction. I remember seeing it scaffolded and covered all over every time I visited Tokyo to see my mother.

                                                                                                       

It's Saturday today. It's the busiest station in Japan situated in a business district, Marunouchi. The city is filled with bustle of business people and cars on weekdays. However, the city turns quiet on weekends and night time with much fewer people on the streets.

                                                                                           

Today, what amused me more than anything else was this simple poster hanging on a window of a pharmaceutical company building.
It says, "Smile!"

Here is another one!

Step sideways a little bit, and "snap!" Hi!  Can you  see me in the windowpane? ......... That is me.    

                                                                                                         
                                                                     Marunouchi at dusk

                                                                 Hope to see your smile again! 
                                                      Thank you for visiting.

                                    

                                                            Tomoko

                                                                   

Goodbye for a while.

               　　　          Hi, Everyone!   How are you doing at this time of the year?

                                   　　  　　　　　　　　           夏休みに入ります。

                                                                  Kintetsu train from Nara to Osaka
                 
                     I'm going to take on the role of mother as our sons are coming home this summer                       vacation. Also I will take a trip to see my mother and sister who live away.

                                 I will take a break from blogging during this August.

                                 I hope you'll have a good summer  season too! 
                  

                                                    The following  is a  story for summer.

 We are `kappas' and known as water spirits in Japan.  Occasionally, we appear on the human lands in summer. Tomoko was lucky to find us, taking photos of us.

We live in ponds or swamps. We are small like infants and have a dish on our head, which always needs to be filled with water. When the water is dried up, we are utterly useless. 

Our favorite food is cucumbers. People call cucumber rolls " Kappa rolls" after our name, which is one of sushi that cucumbers are rolled with rice and dried seaweeds.

There are a lot of sayings, stories, comics and pictures on the theme of Kappa.    
More details about “kappa” are here.

                                               

                                             I hope to see you again in September!

                                                                     Thank you for visiting. 

                                  

                                                            Tomoko

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Japanese paper fans

Hi, everyone!
Air conditioners and electric fans have become quite common in Japanese life. However, it is interesting to see that using uchiwa; Japanese paper fans; has not been tone away with. Japanese people use uchiwa not only for energy saving.

毎日暑いです。お元気ですか。エアコンがあっても,うちわの風はなんだかホッとする。

                             Uchiwa my family has been using for almost 10 years.

An uchiwa handcrafting workshop was open the other day, which was to learn a way of painting a picture with Japanese watercolors and writing a short poem with a black ink on a plain uchiwa. I joined this workshop as a photographer.

                                                                        blue.......sky.....

Uchiwa would be one of the small fashion items when you go to summer festivals or fireworks. It is also useful for fire production in barbecue events or it can work as an insect repellent by blowing off flying insects outsides!! Yes, uchiwa has been so familiar for Japanese.

Everyone looks happy with their original uchiwa in hands!

Thank you for visiting!

 Tomoko