“サトリの森” ～ Forever

Many Japanese people visit a shrine during the New Year's holiday (the first three days of January)in order to wishes for health and happiness of the year. People buy Omamori(or amulet), good luck charm and a Hamaya(or a sacred arrow which invites good fortune and wards off evil) At the same time when you visit a shrine, you usually bring those things that you bought last year with you and leave them at a shrine, which means you exchange to new ones. If you forgot to bring them with you, you can visit any shrine which is closer to your house to do it later. So I went Igusa-hachiman shrine where is near my house. In this shrine, there is a small shrine as you can see down here. People enshrine amulets, good luck charms or Hamaya there. Why do people throw them away into a trash can? NO! Japanese people think that you will have bad carma if you just throw them away because those things are associated with Shito shrines I  have some, so I decided to go to a s

I visited my old friends in Tachikawa where I lived before. Every year, there is a big 'Matsuri' or a Festival at the end of August, which let us know the summer has gone. This is the Suwa shrine.  It's a biggest one in Tachikawa city.  When you visit there, usually you should visit the main building to pray.  But many people were queueing up to pray, so we were in hurry, skipped it. Sorry....... There are lots of shops at a festivals.  People enjoy buying snack, toys, candies or beer. Children even adults with shining eyes enjoy stopping by each shop. People become so excited most when the Mikoshi (or portable shrine) walk through the town. On our way back my friend's home, I found the Haunted House.  ??? No!   Can I say the Haunted Hut?   We went home. It was getting darker in the sky.  We had another party at my friend's house. Yeah! We bought some food at the festival  Potatoes with T

Last year we talk about our 10th Anniversary in April, 2011. We planned to go on a trip to Hokkaido where is located in the north.  But we changed the plan because of the huge earthquake. Instead of that idea, Satolela papa suggested me to go and do something completely new to us. So I told him about my idea, which made him totally speechless.   I said, 'Let's go to the new Haneda Airport (Big Bird) by bus!' As for Satolela papa, it seemed to be strange to go to the airport  to celebrate our anniversary. But to me, I thought that it was perfectly fulfilling all the conditions of what he suggested.  Because we had never been there together since we met !!! We could enjoy the scenery from a bus window. It took about 90 minutes from Tachikawa city where we live. Here we are!   WELCOME TO HANEDA AIRPORT!! The moment which  an air plane is taking off makes me so excited at any age. I don't know why, but Satolela papa didn'

The last day of our trip, we visited Kamikochi area which we had enjoyed two years ago . Kamikochi is one of the most scenic spots in Japan. Dogs are allowed with you only till Kappa Bridge spot. So it's better to leave them at the cottage or inn at which you are staying. Last time when we visited there, we thought that it would be nice to own land like this in the USA. And this time, we felt the same as we did last time.   We started walking from Taisho-Pond.  Then we headed for Myojin-Pond, but unfortunately we couldn't make it because we were running out of time to go back to the pension(a kind of small inn) where Satori and Leila were waiting. I will show you the pictures.  Maybe less words are needed to explain how beautiful it is.   Tisho Pond(starting point)  Tashiro Pond  Azusa River How clear it is!! Lingering snow over Azusa River And you will encounter many unique flora.  The trace which a well-or

Last year, we visited Shirakawa village, which is registered as the World Heritage in Japan. There is another World Heritage village near there. It takes about 15 minutes from Shirakawa village. There are not so many houses as Shirakawa has. So it took only 30 minutes to look around. But it was HOT , HOT , HOT again. Satori was always trying to walk in the shade. But eventually she found a nice way to cool down. This is a farm ditch. The water was really cool. She really loved it. Isn't she cute? After bathing, she seemed happy. The next day, we visited a water fall. "Zengoro no taki" (Mr.Zengoro's water fall) Contrary to the village, we enjoyed being splashed by the water. The area was wonderful for a stroll. We enjoyed the amazing ways the old trees grew. The trees and plants there were very unique. We never see such flora in Tokyo. We walked around as we imagined how those trees created these shapes. After a long walk,