This year the cherry blossoms started earlier than usual. Then we had a cold snap. Warm weather and cold weather alternated many times so the blossoms lasted longer than usual. In this place the flowers started coming out about 2 weeks ago but they took a long time to be in full bloom, and some flowers are still hanging on now. To me it seems very strange. I prefer it when cherry blossoms bloom and drop relatively quickly. That is their real beauty. This year’s situation is like when someone overstays at a drinks party and misses their chance of leaving. Complaining about the weather doesn’t help, however. Probably Mother Nature is trying to teach us something.

 Notice:

Green tea field tour  April 25^th ( Sun )

                  Start at 9:30 AM in Fujinomiya

                  You can experience green tea leaves picking, green tea leaves tempura, walking the tea field, enjoy shopping, etc.

                  If you are interested in it, please contact us.

This young man is from the U.S. Since Hanami (or Cherry blossom viewing) was a first experience for him, he was very excited to take part in Hanami. He studied history in the U.S. and is particularly interested in the Japanese toilet or sewage system of the Edo era and he even wrote paper on it !

This young lady is from Scotland. She is trying to fix her camera but it’s not easy for her. She has already had another Hanami party before so it’s not new for her but she is excited to find something new.

I took these photos in front of an old inn called Honjin where feudal lords called daimyo used to stay.?In those days feudal lords had to alternate their residence between Edo ( Tokyo ) and their local town. Their wives had to stay in Edo rather like hostages. For feudal lords it cost a lot of money to travel with their followers but on the other hand it must have stimulated economic activities. It is said that when their processions were going on commoners were not to look at them so they got down on the road with their heads down. When commoners were not around the processions the group of feudal lords moved very quickly so that they could save money.  

We visited another old house. It is said to have been built more than 120 years ago. This house is very unique since outside is western but inside it is in typical Japanese style.

After Meiji Restoration, Japan took in a lot of western culture. After a long period of international seclusion, many Japanese might have longed for something western. The owner of this house was a carpenter and his son became a dentist and then remodeled the house as a dental office.

As patients he had VIPs such as Count Tanaka who spent his retired life nearby. Or in the back of this house, we can see another old house. I heard some patients who came from?far away place used to stay for a month or so for their dental care. For example geisha from Atami. Thanks to bullet trains we can travel from Atami very quickly but it took a long time to travel then.

It must have been very luxurious to have dental care.  This is a waiting room for VIPs. It has an alcove and goldensliding doors with gorgeous painting on them.

   

I went to a concert at Maple House, a photographer’s house. When I arrived, there were already a lot of people, probably more than 50. We enjoyed three different kinds of performances.

1. Jazz : Two Japanese guitarlists and one American Shakuhachi (a traditional Japanese bamboo flute ) player performed together. I met the shakuhachi player John Kaizan Neptune for the first time in many years and enjoyed talking with him. I sometimes listened to his CD but I haven’t been to this kind of concert for many years. He is a self-made man. For example he makes Shakuhachi by himself and he made a new type of percussion. He says buying shakuhachi is very expensive so he makes them. Both the players and audience enjoyed the music. I always think that jazz can be enjoyed fully in that style, I mean very casual and in a smallish and intimate room.

2. Hula : A very beautiful Japanese woman danced hula. I tried to take a good photo of her but I couldn’t make a successful one. Her dance is very graceful. According to her hula is said to be very good for our health, too. Some doctors are studying how the dance affects people’s bodies. She is keen to introduce hula to many people.

3. Mongolian folk songs: The singer, form Mongolia, lives in Fujinomiya. He played Mongoloian violin and sang Mongolian folk music called khoomii or throat singing. He paints,too. I really like Mongolian music because it’s very powerful and mysterious. I like the costume,too. He gave us a short khoomii lesson. I had a chance to talk with him and asked a strange question. Someone told me that if one keeps singing khoomii for a long time, the person will die. I doubted it that but I asked about it.He laughed and said, “ No way, I’m going to live up to 200 years old. In fact this type of singing is very good for health. “

I just had the first year-end party of this year. It may sound too early to be having one in November but from now on it will get more difficult for many people to fix get-together dates.

All of the people at the party were much younger than me but they all seemed down to earth.The youngest person must be this beautiful Canadian lady. Ooops! I made a mistake. The youngest person was the 2-year-old cute girl.

We all had good time and enjoyed Philippine dishes. We’ll go on a Sake brewery tour next January. I suppose that’s going to be our New Year’s Party.