If you`re interested, this Sunday (April 24th) is our local festival here in Iwato. There will be lots of stalls [yatai], & 3 traditional wooden floats [dashi] will also be pulled down the street in front of the shrine. There will also be some decorated horses. These events happen in the afternoon.
There isn`t much parking for cars nearby, so I recommend coming by train, & walking from Iwato Meitetsu Station (between Ichinomiya & Gifu).
For more information, here is a Japanese language site:
http://www.petile.com/matsuri/iwato-c.html
If you`re free, please come!
On Sunday we visited Mihama Beach in Fukui prefecture. Like last time, I couldn`t find much beach wood, but I found some other interesting things, as you can see above.
As usual, my wife was very interested in them, & asked me lots of questions, for example:
"What`s that?!" and
"Why do you want it?!" and
"What are you going to do with it?!" and
"You`re not going to keep it in the house, are you?!"
It`s nice to have a wife who shares an interest in your hobbies.
On Saturday night we were lucky to host a live performance by the group `Wing` at our Teragoya school. They played a variety of music types, from classical to pop to Hawaiian to Irish folk. It was very entertaining!
If you want to find out more about them & their upcoming [= coming soon] performances, go to http://www.hamajima-violin.net/
By the way, after their performance, they kindly signed a CD for me. Thanks, guys! Whenever I look at it, I will remember you (but not while I`m playing it - that will make me dizzy).
I used to live in Kiyosu, not far from Kiyosu castle & its red bridge. This is a woodblock print (black ink, plus watercolor, 10 x 16cm) I did at that time (2000? this copy doesn`t have a date) of one of the bridge posts.
I sketched a couple of other bridge posts along the Gojo River, and my plan was to do a small series, but in the end [kekyoku] I only did this one.
On Sunday a friend invited us to a hanami [cherry blossom viewing] party near Kiyosu castle. The weather was great, and it was fun & relaxing to sit under the cherry blossom trees, chatting, eating & drinking.
These are some photos I took afterwards.
Have you ever been to Kiyosu castle? It`s quite small, and it`s not original (it was rebuilt in 1989) but it`s easy to get to by train or car, & you can take a nice walk beside the Gojo River. I recommend it.
Also, the Kirin brewery (where you can take a free tour) is nearby!
Near my house there is a shed full of cows. It`s kind of unusual for this area I think. Anyway, today I went there and took some photos of them. I also took some photos of some of the flowers that were around the shed.
In Australia, cow sheds are pretty smelly [kusai], but this one doesn`t smell much at all.
Are there any cows near your house? Have you ever fed grass to a cow by hand?
(Click on the picture to enlarge)
I took Owen to Iwato Shrine on Thursday morning to look at the cherry blossoms there. They were almost completely open.
There was a group of men there having a picnic under one of the cherry blossom trees. I really wanted to join them, but unfortunately I had to go to work.
The pale color of the flowers contrasts nicely with the dark wood of the shrine, doesn`t it?
On the weekend we went to Kasamatsu No Minato Koen, beside Kisogawa River. It`s smaller than Ichinomiya Tower Park*, but I like it - it has a big, open grassy area, a nice view of the river, and Owen loves watching the trains cross the bridge. Me too - it`s kind of relaxing.
There`s also a row of cherry trees. When we went, the cherry blossoms were starting to come out, but as you can see in this photo, a lot of the buds were still closed.
Have you ever been there?
* You can see Ichinomiya Tower in the background, on the right.
I made this clock from:
- wood I picked up at Mihama Beach in Fukui Prefecture
- coloured glass from the beach in Chita Penninsula which we visited a few weeks ago
- a clock from the 100 yen (A$1) store!
I want to make the hands longer, but if they get too heavy, they won`t turn properly. Maybe I should just leave it as it is. I think it looks okay. What do you think?
These are some pictures we took recently at our school:
1. Big, smaller, smaller, smaller, smaller... BIG & UGLY!!! Eriko, Aoi, Tsubasa, Risa, Rei, Otto.
2. Shimon, Otto & Kosuke, just before heading off to the park to fly the kite that we made.
3. Otto & Student of the Month for March 2011, Risa. Well done, Risa!
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内倉憲一 
TERAGOYA おとな 
bokushi 
PSPINC JP 
birdy 
エメラルド 
KUMA 
yukio 
mokomoko 
田仲なお美