A week ago Teragoya held its annual kids speech contest. There were two sessions - one in the morning & one in the afternoon. Altogether there were about 50 kids. They each read a story from a book, then were asked some questions by a teacher
The standard was really high. I was impressed, especially by the kids` confidence, even though they were standing on a stage alone, in front of a big audience. Well done guys!
My kids have a lot of toy cars, so I made this display case for them. Unfortunately my kids prefer taking cars out of the case to putting them in, so it`s usually empty.
I made it from recycled beach wood & my kids helped me paint it.
On the way home the other night, I saw this old car in someone`s garage. I was pretty surprised! Fortunately I had my camera.
It looks in nice shape (= condition). I guess its owner takes good care of it.
It`s a Nissan Cedric Special Six (1965 - 1971).
This cafe is near Gifu Teragoya. Recently I noticed (きについった？) it & thought, "Mm, looks interesting!" but I didn`t go in.
Later, by chance (ぐうぜんに?) a Teragoya student told me that her friend is the owner, so I decided, "In that case, I`ll go!"
I`m glad I did. My meal was good & the furniture & decor was interesting to look at. Also, the owner was friendly & interesting to talk to. Her hobby/side-business is making ceramics. In fact, nowadays she has lots of ceramics orders, so... she`s closing this cafe soon!
If you want to go there, you should hurry.
Directions: When you walk out of our Gifu school, turn left & walk about 100 metres. It`s on the left, on the corner.
This is the fourth time I`ve been to this airshow. It was much more crowded this year. It took about an hour to walk from the train station to the air base entrance (usually it takes 15 minutes). Inside the base it was also really busy. In the end (けっきょく) I gave up trying to reach the main area to look at the displayed planes. However, we could see the planes flying overhead, & check out the food & souvenir stalls (やたい/ろてん). My kids seemed to have fun, but I didn`t really enjoy myself this time. It was pretty stressful & frustrating.
Did you go? Did you have a good time?
I talked to a student about my trip to Shikoku, & she mentioned Dogo Onsen. I didn`t go there this trip, but I saw it in 2007 when I visited my wife`s relatives who live in Matsuyama. We stayed at their house, so as a `thankyou` present, I painted this picture of Dogo Onsen & gave it to them.
It`s pen & watercolour on a Japanese `shikishi`-style 24 x 27cm board.
* click on picture to enlarge
Kagawa Prefecture is famous for udon-style noodles, so when I went to Kagawa, I ordered it at 2 different restaurants.
At the first place, it was average (= so-so). I was disappointed.
At the next place, it was great - really tasty (= delicious).
I`m glad I didn`t give up on my udon undertaking (企て/ くわだて).
While riding in Shikoku, I saw several nice & unusual cars, but I decided not to stop & take photos of them. I didn`t want to waste time.
However, when I saw this one in a showroom, I had to stop. You can understand why, right? It`s amazing. I`d never seen this car before - not even a photo. It was love at first sight (ひとめぼれ)!
Do you know this car? Have you ever seen one? What do you think - do you love it, or laugh at it?
Day 3:
The first temple today, #81, was at the top of a 600-metre mountain. By road it`s far, so we decided to take a shorter hiking path instead (instead = こわりに). Shorter, but steep (きゅう)! Sometimes I had to carry my bicycle... It was tough, but kind of fun, & the view of the sun rising as we climbed was nice.
In addition to riding bicycles, we took a bus up the mountain to #84, Yashima Temple, and a cable car up to #85, Yakuri Temple. I took a lot of photos, and I saw another butterfly that I`d never seen before. It was a really interesting day.
By the way, I was surprised to see that #83 is called Ichinomiya Temple. Because of that, I bought a good-luck charm (おももり) there. I enjoyed telling the lady in the shop that I lived in Ichinomiya, Aichi Prefecture.
On the way up the (many!) steps to Henro temple number 71, there is a small restaurant. We stopped there for lunch. Kagawa Prefecture is famous for `udon` style noodles, so we ordered udon. It was okay, but nothing special. I was a little disappointed.
The restaurant is in the middle of a forest. While we were eating, a forest animal came into the restaurant. What do you think it was? Challenge!
I`ll tell you the answer in 2 weeks.
UPDATE:
The answer is in comments!
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KUMA 
エメラルド 
mokomoko 
内倉憲一 
birdy 
PSPINC JP 
yukio 
田仲なお美 
bokushi