Lovely Stamps!

I found these lovely postage stamps at a post office!!

 

japanese manga characters

 

Peter rabbit

 

 No water is needed to put because they are stickers.

 

A Traveling Dog

One day in last week ,  I went out to have lunch with my friends in Tochigi-city.

Here is a very historical area, where there are many old architectures remained. These black wooden walls along the river you can see in this picture are the most famous here. It's very popular among the tourists to take an old-style boat to see the sights.

Then, we found a man and a dog were on the boat!

The dog is a very famous TV star whose name is Daisuke, and he is traveling around Japan with the man.

I love dogs and enjoy watching their TV program every week, so I was very happy to meet them. (^0^)

He looked cute with 'Kasa' a straw hat.

Spring has come to Japan

Never have I been so happy to see Sakura blossoms....

We still have many difficulties,

but I believe that our beautiful country is sure to recover as it was before.

Shidare-sakura

camellia

Happy New Year!

Happy new year!

I hope this will be another great year for you all !!

On the last two days of the year, I was very very busy preparing for a New Year!
I cleaned up our apartment thoroughly, and made Osechi which is a traditional Japanese New Year dish.
Click here to know more about Osechi.

Osechi comes in the boxes called Oju.

the 1st box

the 2nd box

 

 

the 3rd box

Ozouni; rice cake in soup

Inari-sushi

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

KOTO

I do love things and cultures proper to Japan. Foods, language, manners, arts, wears...and music!

As I have posted before, I have played the Koto which is one of the Japanese musical instruments since I was a small child.
I love not only playing it, but also listening to that sound. That beautiful tone always relaxes me...



I hope you all also like them! ^3^

Balloon Festival

Mashiko Cearmic Market & Shop Information

I went to Mashiko Ceramic Market last Saturday. Mashiko is a small town that is very famous for ceramics wears 'Mashiko-yaki' , and a big market is held twice a year on May and November.

Mashiko is only two hours by car from Tokyo,  so many many people gather there every time.

I heard more than 350,000 people in 5 days this time!

Many people from foreign countries also were enjoying the market. ^-^

I love Mashiko very much.... full of beautiful natures, scenary unchanged since olden times, delicious food, and of course wonderful ceramics...

Mashiko town's site is here.

old wood and mortar wall

farm

 karasu-uri  snake gourds

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These two nice books will be listed on my etsy shop soon.

Please check it often!!

They are good friends!

This baby monkey 'Miwa' has no mother and she behaves like a baby to this wild boar 'Uribo' , even though Uribo is also a baby yet.

At first,  Uribo didn't like Miwa. But　they became friends by degrees.

Now they are always together even when they are sleeping. :)

4/2010 Tunic shirt with long sleeves

I fell in love with zickzack's shirt at first sight, and had made it in the next few hours!

Just a simple shirt

 I made it shorter, a blouse length.
To my regret, this fabric breathes very bad, just like a sauna suit!

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I went to Matsumoto city in Nagano prefecture to visit Matsumoto Castle. 

It was crowded with so many people inside the castle ! There were many foreigners, too. I felt happy to see many foreigners have interests in Japanese architectures and cultures. :-)

called 'Crow Castle'