towards the end of this year

In the northern area must have snow cover worldwide, yet in this region we have not seen the first snow despite of the coldness in the morning with temperature below zero.


After the cold rain some rain drops are shining on some fruits of nandina(ナンテン）.

Rest of them were already eaten by some birds.


 
 
 
 

I often see some white- eyes ,ox-eyes, bulbuls in my garden, besides sparrows which are common birds in Japan are seldom observed recently.




I've read that sparrows have decreased sharply in this two decades because of rice-reduction and fewer suitable space for making nest under the eaves.

 
 
 

 
My husband made a small table for a plate with water and I sometimes put a few of grains of rice on it.


It was effective to invite some sparrows in our garden. This couple (maybe the same ones)is frequent visitor.

 
 
 
 
 
 
 

On a yuzu( sort of lime) tree in our garden yuzu fruits have grown in abundance.


I gathered some of them for making some acidic sauce which is needed for winter cuisine called nabemono.

Making it I look forward the day of new year when my sons will come back.

 
 
 
 

I will have a break time after some preparation for Christmas and new year.


To bake bread became to my husband's brother's hobby these couple years, and he sent us home made Stollen from Tokyo.

I've heard that in Germany people enjoy thin Stollen slice by slice waiting for coming Holy night, and the slices become tasty day by day.

a corner for Christmas. the tapestry and the small white tree are my hand made.

神もたぬわれにも聖夜近づきぬ　ショーウインドウに降る紙の雪　haricot




Holy Night is getting up close


even for me who is infidel.


I stopped for a moment


to look at fake snow fall


in a store window

It is going through a period of grief in Japan by triple disaster, earthquake , Tsunami and leak of radio activity, and the end of the year is approaching.

I hope the new year will have a positive sign.

Let me wish you all the best in it.

One day trip

My husband and I have not done any stay-over trip this year.

He brought up the idea of going to Hiroshima, while I wanted to postpone it because I have many things to do at home in December.
He said to me," Next year is another year and I don't know what will wait for me." So, I decided to do the one day trip together.

Although Hiroshima evokes the tragedy of atomic bomb, where he wanted to visit was an island called Miya-jima, where an old shrine, Itsukushma-shrine, is located on.




Once I took on a train I forgot the bustle month of preparing for coming new year,and started to enjoy the scenery through the train window.



From the nearest station we got on a small ferry and soon a great Torii ( gate of shrine) became to be seen.

 
 
  
Generally there is a place in front of the shrine to wash the hands and rinse the mouth for purification.

In the case of this shrine the place is just next to sea water.

Itsukushima shrine was built by a powerful Heike clan on the day, about 1,400 years ago. In Japan there is no other structure of shrine like it. Walking through the corridor I felt as if I was moving on the sea.

It is said that when the tides has gone out people can pass through the Trii- gate on foot.

And when some big typhoon comes the corridor becomes to be beneath of the sea level, and such condition is sometimes released on TV.

Near the shrine, there is a valley called Momiji-dani(Valley of maple trees), and we walked viewing the coloured leaves for a while.

We also saw several deer on the small island.


There are hundreds of deer in Nara park near of my residence area, though we never see deer by the sea, because Nara prefecture is a basin.

Now we have to return to Nara.

Bye bye Hiroshima, and thank you the Sun for shining through the clouds sometimes.

突如そこに生まれしごとき大鳥居　夢にてもわが眺めておりぬ　 haricot

It just looks like

it was born all of a sudden there,

Such a huge Torii-gate

I give it a long look

in my dream as well