2014.6.22

It was rainy but it stopped later.

Today we visited two shrines and ate hoto (ほうとう) which is the local food of  Yamanashi (山梨) for lunch.
Then we went to Lake Kawaguchi (河口湖：kawaguchiko) which is one of the five lakes around Mt. Fuji.

We could come back at the station around 7 PM.

After coming home, I went grocery shopping.

2014.6.21

It was cloudy.

Today is geshi (夏至), one of nijyushisekki(二十四節季), the 24 solar terms.  It is the day when the daytime is the longest.

I came to Suwa, Nagano with my friends and visited three shrines.  Gods of two shrines are couples. There was a summer festival at the third shrine and we could see the special dance dedicated to gods.

We visited the sake brewery too.

The Japanese style hotel is very nice, especially dinner and hotspring.
I hope you have a chance to enjoy them too.

2012.11.16

It was very fine and I saw the beautiful Mt. Fuji this morning.
I had a meeting in the morning and met 5 new people and 2 people whom I have known for more than 3 years and a half. We had lunch together at a Japanese restaurant and enjoyed chatting and eating.
Then I came to Chikuma (千曲) in Nagano (長野) prefecture to have another meeting. It has been 7 months since I came here last. I met 2 new people and 8 people whom I have already known. It is very nice to be back where is familiar.
Now I am in Nagano city where I came twice last month.
It is cooler here. So when I got on the local train, I needed to open the door to keep inside warm.

2012.10.28

We started early today too.  We have visited many places in spite of rain.   I  walked nearly 10km today.   The colored leaves were so beautiful.  Light green, yellow, orange, and red.  We had nice breakfast and lunch.  The road coming back was so crowded that I came home around 11:00PM.  I am glad to have taken off tomorrow.

2012.10.27

I got up at 3:30 and came to Togakushi, Nagano (長野県戸隠) by a group bus tour of more than 40 people. This is the third time for me to attend this tour but this is the first time to come in fall. Weather was not fine but fortunately it did not rain when we needed to walk.
We visited many places, some are the same places as before others are the new places. We ate a lot.

2012.10.22

Weather was so nice and it was not so cold today in Hakuba (白馬) and Nagano (長野).  We could see very beautiful mountain range.  It seems it will rain tomorrow, so that I feel we were very lucky.


We had very nice breakfast and lunch today.  For breakfast fresh vegetables and fruits were served from the hotel garden.   Nagano area is called Shinshu (信州) and it is very famous for soba (蕎麦: buckwheat ) . For lunch we had a variety of soba dishes including sweets.    My colleague and I visited many places and had fruitful meetings today.  I came home around 10:30 PM.

2012.10.21

Today I came to Hakuba, Nagano (長野県白馬) on a business trip.
I came by the Nagano shinkansen (長野新幹線) which took about one hour and a half and then took a bus for an hour.
It's been 15 years since Nagano shinkansen started its business because of Nagano winter Olympic in 1998.
Hakuba is very famous for ski resort.
I thought it would be cold but it was not. The view from the mountain was so beautiful with colored leaves.

１１月７日（jyuichi gatsu nanoka）： November 7

I went to Jodogahama (浄土ヶ浜) and Taro (田老) District of Miyako (宮古) City, Iwate (岩手) today. It is the place the big earthquake and tsunami hit. They had 10 meters high breakwaters because they have had experiences of big Tsunamis before. However this time Tsunami was bigger than the past one and it flowed over the banks. Light stands were leveled, so were handrails.

In the evening I went to the Tokyo Tower after a while.

１１月６日（jyuichi gatsu muika）： November 6

I came to Morioka (盛岡) yesterday and visited Rikuzentakata (陸前高田), Ofunato 大船渡, Kamaishi (釜石), Otsuchicho (大槌町), and Yamadacho(山田町) in Iwate (岩手) today.
I came here last month. I noticed some progress since that time. For example in Kamaishi I saw a big ship "Asian Symphony" was landed on the bank last time, but it was gone this time.

On the way to come to the coast line I saw beautiful red and yellow leaves on the mountains which we call koyo (紅葉), literally red leaves.

There was a shocking accident. A big deer dashed for our bus.

９月２１日（kugatsu nijyuichi nichi）： September 21

I am in Pokhara, Nepal. I went to many places today. One of them was the World Peace Pagoda, Nihonzan Myohoji (日本山妙法寺), a Japanese Temple. I saw a Japanese monk there. In Lumbini there was the same kind of Pagoda. They say there are 100 of them around the world.
In the town there are many Japanese signs. So I think there are many Japanese tourists here. I saw some of them today.

７月３１日（shichigatsu sanjyuichi nichi）： July 31

The second day of the Togakushi (戸隠) Tour. Got up early and went to see the very special performances called daidai kagura (太々神楽) at a shrine. Then visited the pond and some shrines.
At lunch time ate very delicious meal. And visited Zenkoji (善光寺) temple. I went up to the second floor of the third gate (三門・山門,sanmon) for the first time. The weather was fine there.
After everything finished, it started raining.
I felt lucky.

７月３０日（shichigatsu sanjyu nichi）： July 30

I went to Togakushi (戸隠) where is one of the most sacred places.　
This is the second time for me to visit there. It's been about a year since I went there last time.
There were something I did not notice last year.
There were some shrines in that area and I visited three of them today. Then I took a hotspring bath.
Every meal was delicous.
The weather was cloudy and slightly rain, but I did not need an umbrella.
I felt I am lucky.

七月二十六日(shichigatsu nijyuroku nichi) ： July 26

This morning from 6:30 till 7:45 I saw Daidaikagura (太々神楽) at Hokosha (宝光社), Shinto music and dance numbers offered to Gods. There are 10 parts in Daidaikagura, but I saw half of them.
After breakfast I went to the beautiful pond called Kagami ike (鏡池), literally mirror pond where you could see the upside down mountain in the face of the water. It was so beautiful. I saw a gold carp there.
I visited Hinomikosha and Iizuna daimyojin(飯縄大明神) too.
After lunch I visited Zenkoji(善光寺) temple too.
The weather has been very nice, but on my way back there were thounder storms, which reminded me of the weather in Florida.
I had a very nice vacation. I hope you can visit there too.
After coming back home late at night, I ate unagi (うなぎ), eel because today is doyo no ushi noshi (土用の丑の日), the ox day of dog days. On this day we are supposed to eat eel to get energy.

七月二十五日（shichigatsu nijyugo nihci）： July 25

I went to Togakushi (戸隠), Nagano (長野). I left home around 4:10 am and arrived there around noon by bus. Togakushi is famous for the secred place, myth, shrines, hotsprings, mountain, ski and buckwheat.
For lunch and dinner I ate buckwheat noodle called soba (蕎麦) with other dishes. I took a hotspring bath too.
There are 5 shrines in Togakushi jinja (戸隠神社). They are Okusha (奥社), Chusha (中社), Hokosha (宝光社), Kuzuryusha (九頭龍社), and Hinomikosha (火之御子社). Today I visited three of them. At Okusha I had a formal visit with ritual Shinto prayer called norito (祝詞) and sake offered to the shrine called omiki(御神酒).
Okusha is in the higher place of the mountain and I had to walk about 2 km. While I was walking, it reminded me of some national parks in the United States. The place has nearly 2000 years history, and the Japanese cedar trees are so high. They are about 700 years old or so.
I hope you have a chance to visit there.

七月十八日（shichigatsu jyuhachi nichi）： July 18

The rainy season has finished and the summer has begun. It was very nice today.
My colleagues came to my place, and we had nice French lunch and Tuna dinner.
We went to Jogashima (城ヶ島), where is the very tip of the Miura Peninsula (三浦半島：miura hanto). The landscape is very beautiful. Since it is a peninsula, we could see both Boso peninsula (房総半島：boso hanto), Chiba (千葉) in the east and Izu Peninsula (伊豆半島：izu hanto), Shizuoka (静岡) in the west. Furthermore we could see Oshima (大島) in the south, and the Mt. Fuji in the west too.
At dinner we ate the famous tuna dish called kabuto yaki (かぶと焼). It is a grilled tuna head. Usually they are eaten by 10 people or so, but six of us ordered, therefore there were so much meat. It cost yen 12,600. You need the reservation.
After that we went to see the festival for Kainan shrine (海南神社：kainan jinja) nearby. The festival lasted for two days. We could see special parades.
We enjoyed one day trip.

五月二十三日（gogatsu nijyusan nichi）： May 23

It's has been raining.
I went to one day trip to Suwa Yokoya Onsen (諏訪・横谷温泉). It was the invitation trip by the supermarket I go to once a week. Last year I went to the same kind of trip to the Lake Kawaguchi (河口湖： kawaguchi ko).
It started at 6:30 am and ended at 8:40 pm. The total distance was more than 500km. There were 2 buses. We stopped some service areas before arriving at the destination Yokoya Onsen (横谷温泉). Onsen is hot springs. Japanese people really like hot springs. There was an open-air bath （露天風呂： roten buro）too where we could see the beautiful green mountain and hear the sound of river.
After taking the bath, I went to see Otomedaki (乙女滝), the waterfall named Maiden which was very nice.
We visited Suwa Taisha (諏訪大社), Suwa shrine too. There are more than 10,000 Suwa shrines in Japan but here is the head of them. Every 7 years they have a big festival called Onbashirasai (御柱祭), which happened to fall this year. Please check the following site.
http://www.onbashira.jp/english/index.html
I enjoyed the trip very much. It would be much nicer if it was fine though.

日帰り旅行（higaeri ryoko）： One Day Trip

I went to one day trip to Koshuji(甲州路) today. Koshu(甲州) is the old name of Yamanashi (山梨) prefecture where is very famous for Mt. Fuji, fruits such as grape and peach, and wine. This was the all-expenses-paid trip by the supermarket where I go shopping every week. When I bought groceries the other day, they gave me an application blank, and I filled it out and put it into the application box. Several weeks later, I got a postcard that said "Congratulations! You won the trip to Koshuji." Therefore I decided to attend the trip.
The weather in the morning was not so good, but in the afternoon there came the sun. There are about 28 people in that trip, fewer than they expected because they changed the main schedule from visiting the grass cherry blossom festival (富士芝桜まつり) to the music box museum recently due to the bad influence of the weather. We visited 5 places such as the wine cellar, the pearl factory, Lake Kawaguchi (河口湖), Kawaguchiko Music Forest, and the herb garden after all.
We left around 6:30 am and came back around 7:00 pm.
The tour conductor was very young but his talk was very humorous and interesting, so were other attendants everywhere. So I enjoyed the trip.