Have a good day

Shooting ceremony on setsubun

2006-02-03T16:50:00.000+09:00

On the day of setsubun, bean throwing ceremony is so popular, but there are other ceremonies too. One of them is shooting ceremony.

After the first shooter shot, he made a sound of a solemn and long lasing voice. When the voice was about to disappear, the second shooter shot his arrow. In this way six shooters shot their arrows one after another.

It reminds me the sound of temple bells at the midnight on New Year's Day.

Go, cabbadge go!

2006-01-31T22:43:00.000+09:00

In the end of the last year, I started the experiment of a halved head of Chinese cabbadge. The first picture shows the cabbadge of day 2.

The next picture shows the cabbadge of day 38.

Adventurous spirit

2006-01-11T22:59:00.000+09:00

The other day I saw a wildlife film "The Fig Tree" on the TV. It was shot by Victoria Stone and Mark Deeble, An English couple who had won many international awards. For shooting they lived somewhere in Savanna in Africa for almost two years! The film show me how the fig tree and other animals birds insects and other creatures naturally build up a harmonious and rich relationship.

I am often very much impressed with English women's adventurous spirits.They seem to be very good at dealing with different places, people and cultures. At the same time they seem to be very determined.

After the film the show saids the couple had taken their children with them. I was wondering what had become of the children's education --- then I was informed they had taken some tutors, too.

******

The photo shows "seven spring herbs". On January 7, I made some rice porridge with these herbs. In ancient times people believed it could prevent and cure every known disease. Tasted healthy, not so adventurous though.

The Golden Pavilion in snow

2006-01-07T22:45:00.000+09:00

Magnificent.

His favorite things

2006-01-06T21:09:00.000+09:00

I have a twelve-year-old son, and here is a list of his favorites.
1) Playing baseball
2) Reading sports pages on newspaper
3) Japanese traditional buildings especially the Golden Pavilion.
4) The huge statues of Buddha in Nara and Kamakura
5) Antlers for decoration
6) Talismans from shrines (see the photo, please)

Wishing you a happy new year!

Best sweet of the year

2005-12-26T18:59:00.000+09:00

Aki no kasane
Originally uploaded by mmminmin.

It is almost the end of the year. So I chose my best sweet of the year. It is a youkan, azuki-bean jelly. It has the name "Aki no kasane (Autumn Gradation)". Very good to look at and very good to eat.

An experiment on chinese cabbage

2005-12-23T11:59:00.000+09:00

On the NHK's TV show "Tameshite Gatten", I saw a head of chinese cabbage, cut into halves and left for months, bloomed yellow cute flowers. What a vitality! The outer leaves of the cabbage can produce nutrient even after harvest and cut into halves. I definitely try it and wish to blog the picture of chinese cabbage flowers some day.

Today I took a photo of a kind of cabbage (not chinese cabbage). Doesn't it look like a winter rose?

The modern good samaritans

2005-12-22T22:02:00.000+09:00

TIME chose Bill and Melinda Gates and Bono as the persons of the year 2005.
Bono, a rock star once wrote "challenging the world to wipe out poverty and disease" is "this generation's moon shot". The Gates "have gone into international health" and "shape the charitable marketplace as he has the software universe". I am happy with this year's TIME's choice, and I like the modern good samaritan's creativity.

Illuminations on cold winter

2005-12-16T20:29:00.000+09:00

Christmas is coming and I enjoy the beautiful illuminations here and there. The number of Christians is so small in Japan, but people surely love the
atmosphere. It must be because beautiful illuminations on cold winter nights
make people happy. I think it is universal.

Recently some temples lit up their historical buildings and gardens. I
visited one of them at night. The lighting seemed to bring me to some
ethereal world. It was a little different from Christmas illuminations. Here
is a photo I took there: Bamboo lit from below.

First snow

2005-12-06T23:47:00.000+09:00

First snow
Originally uploaded by mmminmin.

The hosta, which had been full of pep until yesterday, finally decided to sleep.

Finally I started CTP

2005-12-03T21:41:00.000+09:00

What is CTP?
It is an abbreviation for Coach Traing Program.

What is coaching?
Coaching is inspiring an individual or team to produce a desired result.

What is inspiration?
Inspiration is something that comes from within.
A coach taps into greatness within someone that wants to come out.
So you can say coaching is unleash the greatness in people.

I have been interested in coaching for several years.
Moving to this town moved me to another level.

The floor of San Miniato

2005-11-25T00:18:00.000+09:00

The floor of San Miniato
Originally uploaded by Anne Frances.

The Basilica of Saint Miniato in Florence Italy is a very beautiful church. It also has the zodiac. My italian email friend said it is wierd. It is the first time I heard that Christianity bans astrology.

A Catholic encyclopedia on the Web says that Christianity threw away many academic achievements which were considered pagan. As time went by, people forgot what they had thrown away.

In the Renaissance people rediscovered those old achivements and got excited at mankind's broad and academic capability, including astrology. People who made the Basilica might have thought that astrology could serve Christianty. It is fun to imagine what people thought then.

Hosta the Great

2005-11-04T22:50:00.000+09:00

It is nice to see the hosta is still fully spirited. I have once seen a description on a web site that hosta is like a king of ancient Egypt. Indeed the whole shape of hosta looks stable like a pyramid.

Flying Luffa

2005-11-02T21:22:00.000+09:00

Today I felt much better and that made me very happy like a flying luffa.
Today was such a beautiful day so I did some autumn gardening.

Planted tulip bulbs imported from the Netherlands.
Planted Japanese narcissi into a yellow pot.
Transplanted the chirstmas roses to a bigger pot.
Transplanted the japanese honewort which I had grown in a bottle with water.
Inserted the blue daisy cuttings.

After that I had a nice coffee break.

An ideal homemaker should not catch a cold

2005-10-30T18:58:00.000+09:00

If a homemaker catch a cold, your house would be a mess in a few days, unless your family members are well educated in doing home chores.

If you are a homemaker and unfortunately catch a cold like me, there is a simple recipe for a chicken soup for yourself. This recipe is somewhat a mixture of Chinese herbal cuisine, Korean festive soup and Japanese dish.

CHICKEN SOUP WITH GINGER AND JAPANESE GREEN ONION

Ingredients: Any chicken with bone, ginger, Japanese green onion, glutinous rice, red jujube(dried), wolfberry(dried), shiitake mushroom(dried), kombu(kelp) for broth,
chicken broth, Shaoxing wine, water, salt(for seasoning)

How to cook: Put the ingredients into a pressure cooker. Heat, maintain pressure and cook for 7 min. Release pressure accordingly.

Very easy to make. It doesn't take much time. Basically I am a lazy person, but I cook it for myself even when I don't feel well. You cannot buy this kind of nutritious food at the groceries.

Autumn Abundance

2005-10-27T21:05:00.000+09:00

I have a sore throat and feel feverish. I think the image of the firethorn which is heavy with its berries helps me somehow. If you have the happy image of this autumn abundance, you would feel better mentally and physically. Good night.

Ettu Brute!

2005-10-27T00:06:00.000+09:00

Every time the TV televised the scene that countless middle-aged female fans crowded some place to catch a glimps of a Korean actor Bae Yongjoon, I would think they are crazy. Some of my friends were included too, who had never before been enthsiastic about any idols. They would say "It's the first time I have felt like this."

Bae Yongjoon appeared on a Japanese TV show the other day. It was a 30 minute interview. I thought: I don't have time to watch the TV series "Winter Sonata" for 20 hours but only 30 minutes is fine with me.

Wow! He was different. His gentle smile was something I had never seen before. He radiated something very warm throughout the interview. I felt it through the picture tube.

This is what I wanted

2005-10-25T22:09:00.000+09:00

My kochia finally turned pink. I liked its light green color in summer, but it was really surprising that a whole plant turned into pink. There is more. You can eat kochia's seeds, which are called "tonburi". I heard tonburi is nutritious. I wonder whether it tastes good or not. You can also make a broom out of it. Maybe I can make a little one.

Kabuki actor Ebizo said...

2005-10-24T22:16:00.000+09:00

Ebizo played the roles of these two men, Miyamoto Musashi and Hikaru Genji, at the same time in different places. Miyamoto Musashi is a famous Japanese swordsman who claimed to have never been defeated in any single combat. Hikaru Genji is the protagonist of The Tale of Genji, and he is described as the most handsome man in the world and he attracts all the women. These two men look very different, but Ebizo said he found they have one thing in common; a perfectionist to a fault. They both asked for the moon. Miyamoto Musashi sought a perfect strategy and the skills to win. Hikaru Genji sought a perfect woman. I have never thought of the similarity between them. Ebizo had a good point.

Nattou soap and a hand made soap dish

2005-10-23T21:29:00.000+09:00

There are various kinds of soaps all over the world.
I happened to use a "nattou" soap.
Nattou, a traditional Japanese food, is fermented soy beans
and it has very strong smell and viscosity.
Fortunately the soap is not stinky or sticky.
They say it is good for moisturizing your skin.

I didn't have any soap dish.
usually I use foam soap, not solid soap.
But I was so curious and wanted to try this nattou soap, which was a gift,
I made a soap dish for it --- by putting five pebbles on a dish.

Why pebbles? -- To dry the soap after I use it.
Why five? -- Don't they look like a apricot flower in black-and-white painting ?

This soap dish works very well.

The answer for the botany quiz

2005-10-22T14:11:00.000+09:00

The answer is "red spider lily". When it blooms, no leaves can be seen. When it has leaves, no flowers can be seen. That is why it has another name "No leaves no flowers".

It blooms first, then comes leaves. Or it grows leaves first and produces some nutrients by photosynthesis, stores the nutrients in the bulb. After all the leaves is gone, it takes a rest.

Silence.

All of sudden, a stem with red buds on the top comes up, and

BOOM! it blooms.

It is said that red spider lily has different names up to 1000!
The names fall into 4 categories.

1. Names related to dead person. It is because the plant is often seen near graveyards.

2. Names related to poison because it is poisonous.

3. Names related to fire bacause of its vivid red color.

4. Others

In the non-Japanese language of flowers, spider lily signifies "elope with me".

Hmmm... Very intersting.

A botany quiz

2005-10-21T09:53:00.000+09:00

This plant has another name "No leaves no flowers". What is it?

One of my favorite views

2005-10-20T20:36:00.000+09:00

Some people tend to look at what they want to look at, and I am one of those people. I love to look at the view from the bridge nearby, so I decided to take a picture of it. When looking into the viewfinder, I suddenly noticed that there were too many obstacles, such as buildings made of steel and concrete and telephone poles.
I couldn't look at the view in the way I used to ever since. I couldn't 'delete' the buildings and poles from the picture in my mind. That was one of the reasons why I was so impressed with the garden of Entsuji Temple. There were no obstacles at all.
Still, I love the view from the bridge nearby which raises my spirits. I feel like some kind of energy in the mountain comes down to the river and flows all the way to me, whenever I am looking at it.

An fifteen-year-old girl won a literature prize

2005-10-16T19:18:00.000+09:00

The age of award winners in literary is getting younger year after year.
What does it mean?

1) Just for newsworthiness.
2) For educational purpose. The judges want to draw attention of young people in order to make them interested in reading.
3) Adults including the judges desperately want to know what teenagers think.

Banana Yoshimoto wrote "Kitchen" and got her first literary prize when she was 23 in 1987. When I read it, I felt she wrote the world I knew very well. She is of my generation. I read the novel again recently and this time I found how well she had written it.

Did the judges understand the 15-year-old girl's world? At least they appreciated her writing style. Maybe I should read it.

Roman Mosaic ?

2005-10-15T21:34:00.000+09:00

The pattern on the espresso cup and saucer is probably from Roman mosaic. I love to appreciate various kinds of cups and saucers but I have never seen this kind of patterns. I love to see someting new. I had a cup of espresso coffee in this cup at an Italian restaurant in Gion. Regrettably I forgot the name of the Italian porcelain maker. I just remembered the name started with T and there are 2 or 3 more Ts in the name.

The building of this restaurant is a machiya-house, I mean, the traditional townhouse of merchants in Kyoto. If a person just passes by in front of the house, he or she would never tell that they serve Italian dishes. Now Italian dishes are so popular in Japan, I feel as if they are a part of my life. But when I saw the cup and saucer, I was so attracted with the pattern that my mind flew to Italy where I never visited.

A Perfect View

2005-10-14T21:25:00.000+09:00

The garden of Entsuji temple has a multi-layered structure. The building from which you look at the view has another role: a frame of the view. The garden has green moss and groups of stones, then a horizontary spread hedge, then some trees over the hedge. What I liked the most was the view of Mt. Hiei in the distance. No ugly buildings or telephone poles. The vertical lines you can see are finely placed pillars and trees.
It took me 20 mimutes to go there by bicycle. Taking a short cut up the hill and there was a slope which was so steep that I really made a big effort to push up my bike. As it was my first time there and I was alone, I felt totally unsure whether I was taking the right path or not. When I finally found the gate of the temple I was so relieved. The happiness and peacefulness I felt while looking at the view were just supreme.

A way to show your love

2005-10-08T20:15:00.000+09:00

Yasaka Shrine in Gion Kyoto has many big lanterns. They decorate the shrine's stage, which gives the shrine a unique atmosphere. The lanterns bear the names of their sponsors of mostly Kyoto businesses. Among them I found the name of a female non-fiction writer Ieda Shoko.Of course non-fiction writer is not a Kyoto business, the lantern tells me that she loves Gion Kyoto very much.

Great grandfather I have never met

2005-10-05T11:43:00.000+09:00

There was a family gathering in memory of my great grandfather and great grandmother. They have been dead for 50 years and I have never met them. Actually it was a Buddhist memorial service but it looked like my great grandparents threw a party for us all. I can say all my family members chose a solid job, but this great grandfather absolutely didn't. He was a son and heir of a very famous Japanese-style hotel, but he didn't like it. He went to the US and worked as a railway construction worker and later became a fortuneteller. Afterwards, he came back to Japan and had a big family. He must have enjoyed all aspects of a human's life. And it is said that he was obedient to his wife. I wonder what she was like.

Hagi has cute leaves

2005-09-21T00:36:00.000+09:00

Hagi or Japanese bush clover has cute round-shaped leaves. These leaves line up neatly like music notes.

Ryoo or Dragon Dance

2005-09-21T00:11:00.000+09:00

Ryoo or Dragon Dance
Originally uploaded by mmminmin.

I saw Ryoo or Dragon Dance, one of the gagaku programs. The performance was very graceful and dignified, which held on the open-aired stage at Shimogamo Shrine. The dancer's rich and bright costume glowed in the light of bonfires under the full moon. The music was very different from what I hear every day, but it went well with the dance perfecly.

First time to see a real one

2005-09-17T01:37:00.000+09:00

Hagi frower in Nashinoki Shrine
Originally uploaded by mmminmin.

Hagi (Japanese bush clover or Lespedeza thunbergii) is a plant which is very popular in Japan. It is the most popular plants in the "Mannyoushu ( the oldest anthology of tanka poetry)", and drawn on countless kimonos and crafts. But I doubt that a half of Japanese has seen it. If you live in Japan and speak Japanese, you may have heard the sound of the word "hagi", seen a drawing of "hagi" and must have eaten "o-hagi" cakes, but have you ever seen a real one? I have not until today. To meet the original is always exciting.

Wait for another one to come

2005-09-14T21:57:00.000+09:00

Kochia
Originally uploaded by mmminmin.

I found two locusts on a potted kochia in the morning. Both the locusts and the kochia's hairy leaves were light green. It was nice to see. (In reality, it was NOT nice,of course. The locusts were just eating the leaves.)Just then a neighbor's boy came out. He is 7 years old and had a interest in bugs. I gave him the locusts. After that I thought I should have taken a picture of the locusts in the kochia before giving them to him. Now, I am sort of waiting for another one to come.

a praying mantis

2005-09-12T00:12:00.000+09:00

praying mantis
Originally uploaded by mmminmin.

I saw a praying mantis at the door. When I took a close look, it raised its two spiny forelegs over the head. It looked at me and I looked at it. For the mantis, I must have been a giant, still it tried to threat me. How brave or rash it is! Even though it is about 3 inches long, I fully understood its message, "Get away!".

Is it look like fireworks?

2005-09-09T21:33:00.000+09:00

When I rented the house in March, there was already a hydrangea. In June it turened out to be "Sumida no Hanabi(Fireworks at the Sumida River)", a kind of hydrangea getting popular recently. A gardener's magazine put it on the cover. It was quite a big tree, and it must have been there for 3 to 5 years. I thought the person who planted it had a good taste or at least knew what came into fashion. I also felt good.

hydra ngea
Originally uploaded by mmminmin.