2015.5.31

It was fine.
Today is the last day of May.

I came to Nagano (長野) to see the last event of Gokaicho (御開帳) of the Zenkoji (善光寺) temple. Gokaicho is to open the door for the main statue and it happens in every seventh year.  This year it was 57 days from Sunday, April 5 to May 31.
During this period there were many special events. 
There were so many people today and to receive goshuin (御朱印), the red stamps it took three hours.   

I visited there with my friend and her daughter.  I met her in Germany in the winter of 1992 for the first time and at the Nagano Olympic in 1998 next. So it's been 17 years since we met last and this was the first time for me to see her daughter who  is 10 years old. Her father is French and she is so cute.
We could only spend time together for a few hours, but we are glad to see each other again.

At night I enjoyed the local foods and onsen (温泉), hot spring.

2015.5.30

It was fine.

I attended a very reasonable tour with my mother's friend today.

Last time when I applied for this tour, it became full soon and I could not attend, so I have wanted to attend this tour very much.

It started at 1:15 pm from Ginza and we had lunch at a restaurant in the Peninsula Hotel Tokyo, then took an afternoon cruise at Tokyo Bay for 50 minutes, then visited the Tasaki shinju main store to see the beautiful jewelries, and finally climbed the Tokyo Sky Tree, which is the tallest tower in Japan.  It is 634 meters high.  It's been three years since it opened.  I have wanted to climb it since then but it is very expensive (more than yen 3000 to the top part) and it is always crowded and it takes a few hours to buy tickets and to get on the elevator, so I had not been there yet.
When I tried last time, there was a long line just to buy a ticket and I gave up.

So I have looked forward to attending this tour for a long time.

Everything was just fine and enjoyable.

When I was at the upper observatory, there occurred a big earthquake, and the elevator was stopped.
But after a while, they confirmed the safety and started operating elevators.

The trains were also delayed because of the earthquake.

Despite of that it was a nice tour.

I am glad that the weather was fine and I could accomplish the three years' dream at last.

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

2015.5.29

It was a rainy day.

Today was the last day of one of the staffs.  She has worked for four years and two months at our section and move to another section from next week.  We made a special memorial album with messages and had a small send-off ceremony in the afternoon.  Many faculty members and staffs got together and we took a memorial picture together.
She will keep working in the same building.  So we are sure to meet her again and have chances to eat lunch or dinner.
But since she has worked hard and helped many people, we will miss her a lot.

2015.5.28

It was fine and hot.

These days foreign exchange rate has been moving to strong dollar and weak yen. It is about yen 124 for one US Dollar today.

Since our college has some study or internship abroad programs, the person in charge is worried about it because the cost increases every day.
We feel sorry for the parents who need to prepare money in a short period.

2015.5.27

It was fine and very hot again. They say  mid summer day, which exceeds 30degrees centigrade, two days in roe in May is very rare.

It was a long day for me. Thete was a train and human accident early in the morning, and many trains were delayed.  I usually start working at 10 am, but I got to office around 11:45 am.

In the evening we welcomed about 26 students and teachers from tbe USA.
We had a campus tour and panel discussion followed by dinner party which ended around 8:45 pm.
It was interesting to hear their opinions.

2015 5.26

It was fine and hot.
We are afraid of this summer because it's already very hot in spite of May, which is usually regarded as spring.
There were already many natural disasters caused by  earthquakes, eruptions of volcanos, heavy rains, thunder and lightening this year.
How about in your countries?

2015.5.25

It was fine.

There was a rather big
earthquake in the afternoon. Because of it, the trains  were  delayed.

2015.5.24

It was cloudy and slightly raining in the morning, but became fine later and the sunset was beautiful.

There was a community work called "Clean Day" from 8 in the morning.  It happens twice a year.  We walk and pick up the trashes on the road for an hour or so.  About 30 people or so attended the event.  There were some people I don't know.  I met one of my friends from the primary school and many neighbors of the same group.  Since I am a representative of my group for two years, I felt relieved to see them.

Besides this I stayed at home all day long.  I cooked three meals after a long time.
 

2015.5.23

It was cloudy.

Since I came home by taxi last night, I had to walk to the station to take a train.

There was my high school friend's concert in Kinugasa in the afternoon.
Every year there is a Friendship Concert in Yokosuka around this time of the year and my friend sang some songs. This was the 20th anniversary.  Usually I meet my high school teachers and friends, but this year I did not see any acquaintances.
Usually after the concert my friends and I go to have dinner, but this year we did not.

At night I finally put the pictures of the 88 buddhist images from Shikoku 88 temples pilgrimage to the album.

2015.5.22

It was fine.

After work I went to the National Art Center Tokyo in Roppongi because one of my peaceboat friends sent me an invitation. 
On Fridays
it is open until 8 pm and from 5 pm the admission is free. There were many exhibitions such as paintings, photographs, potteries, embroideries, sculptures, and so on.

I invited one of ex-coworkers because the invitation card was for two people,  and we had dinner after looking at the art works at a restaurant which I chose from Groupon.  We enjoyed our reunion and eating and chatting.

2015.5.21

It was fine and hot during daytime, but became cooler in the evening.

I took a day off to take my father to the hospital for once a month check up.

After that we went out for lunch at a sushi restaurant near our house.  It opened last year or so, but I had never been there yet and hoped to visit there.  It is a conveyor-belt sushi bar which is called kaitenzushi (回転寿司) in Japanese.  The dishes with two sushi are circulated on the conveyor-belt, and you can choose whatever you like.  You can also order what you want to eat, and they are delivered by a speedy belt too.  Usually one dish is yen 108, and other dishes are yen 198 or so.  There are some side dishes and desserts too.  It's been a long time since I went to this kind of restaurants.

After coming back, I went to tea lesson.  I was glad to see four fellow pupils because I wanted to hand them some pictures I took at the first tea ceremony this year.  It's been already more than four months since the first tea ceremony. 

After the lesson I went shopping and to banks. 

2015.5.20

It was slightly rainy in the morning and became fine soon.
After work I went to massage.

Since I have been to many places and have not had  weekends to relax for a few weeks, my body was much tired and stiff than I realized.
Since May 8 was my birthday, the massager gave me facial aesthetic treatment as a birthday present.  This was the very first experience for me. She used many different tools.
It was ticklish.

It cost yen 8000 for about 2 hours massage.
I felt my body became light when I left there.

2015.5.19

It was rainy in the morning, but stopped raining soon.

There was a luncheon for welcoming new faculty members and a farewell party for a staff.
We ate Malaysian foods.
It's been a while since I ate it last time.
When I worked for JENESYS program, we welcomed many Asian youth whose religion is Muslim and I remembered we arranged many Halal foods.
I enjoyed talking with visiting professors.

2015.5.18

It was fine and cloudy in the daytime but started raining in the evening as the weather forecast  mentioned.

There was a registered mail which I could not receive last week. I arranged it to be delivered tonight. When I got home, the postman was about to leave. So I felt lucky because today was the last day for them to keep it. I asked him what would happen if I could not receive it today. He said it would be returned to the sender and they need to send again.
There was another goods I asked to be delivered again. It was delivered around 9 pm.
I am glad to have received  them tonight.

2015.5.17

It was fine.

I went to the Tokyo Big Sight to attend the Golden Life Program Day 2.

Today's lecturers were Mr. Jack Canfield, the world famous author of "The Chicken Soup for the Soul" series and Mr. Ken Honda, the Japanese million seller writer.

After the lecture of Jack Canfield, there was an autograph session as a special arrangement.  Since the time is limited, we needed to choose one of the four speakers.
I chose Jack Canfield. I am so glad to have brought his book today.

There were many lessons we learned.
To my surprise all of them have had a hard time in their lives.

It is a rather expensive seminar for me, but if you think to attend this seminar held in the USA, we need to pay for the flight and accommodation, we can say it reasonable.

It was another once in a life experience.

2015.5.16

It was rainy in the morning so that I wore a rain coat and rain shoes when I left home.  However when I got to the Tokyo Big Sight, it has already stopped raining.

I went there to attend the Golden Life Program 2015.
Last year I attended the Golden Life Program 2014, and it was so nice that I decided to join again.
There were three days seminar last year, but there are two days seminars this year.
Today's main speakers were Ms. Janet Attwood and Mr. John Gray. Both are million seller writers. Janet talked about the passion test and John talked about relationships. Both were really nice.
I bought some books of the speakers of this program.

The program started at 10 am and lasted till 7:30 pm.
I happened to see a friend whom I met at another seminar last year.

When I left the venue, we met again and decided to have dinner with another participant.

One of the pleasures to attend the seminar is to get to know the people who have the same kind of intention of making our lives better.

2015.5.15

It was fine and hot again.

I went to the nearby shrine before going to work.

The Yamanote line was delayed for 30 minutes or so because somebody entered into the rail area. Thousands of people were annoyed by this unusual behavior.

After work I went to a kimino shop because I got an invitation for the special sale.  I was surprised to hear the person in charge will be promoted to the head of the new shop in Gifu from June.  He will get married in June too.
Since he needs to move to Gifu in June, he will come back for just wedding.

The couple I attended their wedding on May 2 had the same situation. They planned the wedding in Tokyo in May but her husband was transferred to Osaka in April,  so they needed to come back to Tokyo for the wedding.

Is this also Murphy's law?

2015.5.5

It is a national holiday called kodomo no hi (こどもの日), Children's Day.

I started early before 7 today.
There were many things to see at the No. 51 temples.
I have visited from No. 51 to 61 temples and nearby shrines  today.
To go to No.60 temple, the road toll and parking lot cost yen1850.

Now I am at Iyosaijyo and had a difficult time to find a place to eat.

2015.5.14

It was fine and very hot.

In many places it went up to more than 30 degrees centigrade and became the first mid-summer day.
Since it is still May, and we are very afraid of the heat in summer.

I went grocery shopping after coming back.

2015.5.13

It was fine and very hot.
Tomorrow it will be hotter and expected to be the first mid-sumner day, which is more than 30 degrees centigrade.

After coming back, I went shopping, but I could go to drug store only and could not go to supermarket for grocery shopping.

At night there was a TV program of Koyasan and Kukai Kobodaishi where I  visited last weekend.

2015.5.12

It was cloudy in the morning, but became windy and rainy because of the typhoon. It is very rare for us to have typhoon in May.

At lunch time I attended the round table session fir the first time. The speaker was a visiting professor from University of Edinburgh.

When I was a junior high school student,  I was a big fan of the Scottish group, Bay City Rollers, and they were from Edinburgh and it was one of the places I wanted to visit for a long time, and I visited there in March 1993.

After work I went to buy a commuting ticket for 6 months.
It is very expensive but very convenient.

2015.5.11

It was fine.

I came back to Ikebukuro around 7 am and went to the office and started working from 9 am.

After coming home at night, there was a visitor and there were lots of things to do.

2015.5.10

It was very fine and hot.

Today is Mother's Day.
But it is also my mother's 13th death anniversary.
If she is still fine and alive, I believe I travel this Shikoku 88 temples pilgrimage and Koyasan visit with her. Because she is the one that told me about goshuincho (御朱印帳), red stamp notebook. And if my memory is correct, I bought the same one at Eiheiji (永平寺) temple last year. 

Today I had an early start to attend a morning service from 6 to chant sutra.   After that I could see a beautiful garden from the main temple of Fukuchiin.
After breakfast I visited the Tokugawa family mausoleum, Daimon (大門) big gate, Danjo  Garan (壇上伽藍: Kondo (金堂) Konpon Daito(根本大塔), Kongobuji(金剛峯寺), and Reihokan (霊宝館)  and so on.  At Kondo there was a special exhibition of the principal Buddhist image after 80 years.

There was a special music service at Kondo from noon, and there were thousands of audience there.
I happened to see one of my friends who is a photographer and came there to work.

On my way back there were so many people that I could not get a bus and I could not take the train I planned to and came back by local train.

In Osaka I met one of my friends who recently got married and moved to Osaka to have dinner.

We enjoyed the beautiful night view from the sky garden and dinner.

2015.5.9

It was a rainy day.

I left Tokushima at 10 am and headed for Nankai Mamba by bus via Naruto strait big bridge  (鳴門海峡大橋:Naruto kaikyo ohashi) where is very famous for swirling.

I changed to train and cable car and arrived at Koyasan(高野山) Mount Koya, about 900 meters high where is the most sacred place for Kobodaishi Kukai (弘法大師空海) around 2:30 pm. He opened the place 1200 years ago at the age of 43. It is a religious place and UNESCO 's World Heritage Site .
 
There are 117 temples and 52 of them have accommodation called shukubo (宿坊) for pilgrimages. I am staiying at Fukuchuin(福智院) which has hot spring for 24 hours.

I visited Okunoin(奥の院), the  mausoleum of Kukai.
I was surprised to know that there are so many famous people's graves here and that today is a very special day which happens only once in 50 years.  That is today is March 21 in an old calendar when Kukai entered into another world.
I feel very fortunate to be able to visit here on this special day.

I ate dinner at my room.
At night I tried shakyo (写経), to copy the Heart Sutra, Hannyashinkyo(般若心経).

I enjoyed hot spring too.

2015.5.8

Happy Birthday to Me and some of my friends!!
Thank you for those who thought of me and sent messages today.
I am so glad to have met all of you in my life.

Today I took another day off and have visited from the No. 81 to No.88 temples in Sanuki no kuni (讃岐の国) and the No.1 temple in Awa no kuni(阿波の国) to report the completion of visiting all the 88 temples without any problem and to thank about it.

I drove about 160km and walked 15259 steps today.

In total I have driven about 600km for 5 days.

I am very glad to have completed visiting all 88 temples today on my birthday.

To complete visiting is called Kechigan (結願), meaning granting the wishes.
Here attached some picures.

I hope to accomplish my wishes.

2015.5.7

It's been a year since I started the current job. 
Today I took a day off.

During the night it seemed rain but it was fine and warm today and I got sunburn.

I have visited the temples No. 71 to No. 80 and drove for 76.7km and walked for 14863 steps.

From No. 71 to No.77 it is called "Nana kasho mairi(7ヶ所まいり)" Seven temples' visit.   There are also Seven lucky gods at these temples and they had special picture slips to collect.

I am now at the Sakaide Grand Hotel. They had a free drink coupon at the nearby restaurant and a free coupon to the nearby hot spring bath facility. So I enjoyed dinner and a bath tonight.

2015.5.6

It was the transferred holiday and the end of the golden week.
It was fine and very hot again.

I left the hotel before 8 am and have visited from No. 62 to No. 70 temples and drove for 129km and walked for 12479 steps.

At the last temple I had a chance to climb up into Goju nu to (五重塔), the fifth floor tower for yen 500.

Now I am at the Kampo no yado Kannonji (かんぽの宿 観音寺). It is a public hotel and this is a suit room of big bed room and Japanese style room.
There is a hot spring bath called Hagami onsen (母神温泉) in this hotel. 
I love hot springs.
And it is one of the things I feel fortunate that I am a Japanese.
I hope you have a chance to try Japanese hot springs someday.

2051. 5.4

It was a national holiday called Midori no hi (みどりの日), Green Day.

I arrived at Matsuyama around 8:30 am, which was 30 minutes later than schedule because the Tomei highway was crowded.

I went to Toyota rentacar to borrow the car.
There was no compact car left so that I had to borrow a little bit longer one.

I visited from No. 44 to 50 temples and other places.

Now I am at Dogo onsen (道後温泉) where is very famous for  the book "Bocchan (坊っちゃん)" written by Soseki Natsume (夏目漱石).

Dogo onsen itself was so crowded that I took another bath.

   

                                                                               

2015.5.3

It is a national holiday called konpo kinenbi (憲法記念日), Constitution Day. Japanese Constition has been proud of observing Peace Constitution. We have not had war for 70 years. We should keep this principle forever and ever.

It was fne and very hot today.

I went to see the Moon + Sun Exhibition and Starry sky above Kerry at Konicaminolta Plaza in Shinjuku, which admissions were free of charge.  There were some nice pictures.

Now I am on the bus bound for Matsuyama. This will be the last trip for Shikoku 88 temples pilgrimage.

2015.5.2

It was fine and very warm.

I went to Kimono-style Miya to have myself dressed up, and went to Higashinakano to attend my ex-colleague's wedding reception.  

It's been a long time since I attended the wedding reception with kimono.

It started around 3:30 pm and lasted for about 3 hours.
I met more than 10 ex-colleagues and had a good time with delicious dinner.

I was impressed by the name card with a message from my friend.
The couple changed their costume  once. 

We made a special message video for them, and it was really nice.

Wedding reception costs a lot, but it is worth doing to introduce each other's family and friends.

Congratulations !!

2015.5.1

A new month has started. May is gogatsu (５月), its old name is satsuki(皐月). I like May because of my birthday month.

It was fine and hot.  So called cool biz started to save energy.

I went to shrine before going to work. 

University was closed because of transferred holiday of yesterday.  So there were few people.

After coming home, I prepared for tomorrow and watched a Japanese movie o TV.