2014.11.13

It was fine and we could see Mt.Fuji today.

In the night news I knew it was a day when it happened the Diamond Fuji from the Lake
 Yamanaka.  This is one of the things I would like to see and to take a picture.  Other things are the stars around the Polaris, the movement of the mid night sun, northern lights, and so
on. How wonderful the natures are!

４月１４日（shigatsu jyuyokka）： April 14

It was warm today.
Cherry blossoms are still beautiful.
On my way to the office I noticed the ginkgo trees have buds and small new leaves. They become yellow in the late autumn and fall in winter.
I felt that things are changing even if natural disasters happened.
We have to look up and try to revive.

八月五日（hachigatsu itsuka）： August 5

It was another hot day. In 177 places it recorded more than 35 degrees centigrade. Tomorrow is supposed to be the hottest day in this summer all over Japan, and for about 2 weeks more it is going to be hot.
Speaking of the Japanese summer, besides fireworks, we can think of the songs of insects, especially cicadas. Cicadas is semi (蝉) in Japanese. There are many cicadas in Japan, but the sound is different depends on the species and time (morning, afternoon, evening).
Today I found a very interesting thing in the center of Tokyo. Please see the picture. I have seen many cast-off skins of cicadas in my life, however, it has been always one of them. But today I found many of them on a leaf. I could not believe at first. But when I looked up the cherry tree, there were so many cast-off skins of cicades on a leaf here and there, especially at the tip of the trunks.
The life of a cicada is considered very short like a week, but they have a longer life in the ground. For the very short life, they come up the trunk all the way. And they hatch on a leaf together! I was impressed.

満月（mangetsu）： Full moon

It is a full moon (満月 mangetsu) tonight. It was warm today and will be warm tomorrow too. So it is a very good time to see yozakura (夜桜, night cherry blossoms) with a full moon.

There is a yojijyukugo (四字熟語), four-kanji phrase, ka cho fu getsu(花鳥風月), which literally means flower, bird, wind, and moon. They are the beauties of nature. These four letters are often used in the poems.

Let's learn some Japanese regarding moon (月: tsuki). New moon is shingetsu (新月). Crescent is mikaduki (三日月). The moon in its first quarter is jyogen no tsuki(上弦の月). Half moon is hangetsu (半月). The moon in its last quarter is kagen no tsuki(下弦の月). Full moon is mangetsu (満月).
To view the moon is tsukimi (月見). Especially the full moon in the fall is very beautiful, so there is a special event called otsukimi (お月見).