A lion dance;(shishimai)

A lion dance called 'Ise Daikagura' which is designated as one of 'the important country intangible folk customs cultural assets' came to my house yesterday.

There are some groups and go around mainly Western Japan.
One group visits one district once a year.

The one that came to my house yesterday visits in spring every year.
A lion danced to the pipe, drum, bell and gong for a few minutes at the yard after giving us some charms.

Then they went to the next house.

As it costs some money, not all the people ask them to dance.

This is also one of the things which reprts the visit of spring.

Proverb 31

Never put off till tomorrow what you can do today.

We have a tendency to postpone what we hate to do.
But we should finish it as soon as possible.



Christmas rose

What is she?

A young lady selling some coffee or handkerchieves came to my house this afternoon.

She said politely that she would go to Uganda in Africa to found a school for African children three months later and asked me to buy some coffee or handkerchieves.
I refused to buy without asking the price of them, telling her that I contribute some money to UNICEF, the Red Cross of Japan, welfair office and so on every year.
She went back regretfully.

I wonder what she was.



Daffodil

A stone image of Jizo

This Jizo which is a guardian deity of children is standing by Yakushi shrine near my house.

It is always looking at the children going to school safely.
The other day I saw a girl offering some flowers to the right hand of Jizo on her way from school.

A few days ago, I saw a T.V. news that said three Jizo made of some fallen trees were presented to the people of Yamakoshi village in Niigata prefecture .
The trees were fallen down because of the big earthquaqe last year.

I thought the idea was nice and my heart got warm.

Those are also wonderful ones.

A cat

The man who has goldfish is also keeping a cat and a dog.

The cat is very fat and looks strong different from my cat.

Goldfish

My neighbor showed me these goldfish yesterday.

He is keeping them in the pool in the yard.
It is covered with some nets to keep the fish from cats or birds and so on.

He said the large ones were about twenty years old.

It was so windy that there were waves on the surface of the water.
So I couldn't take clear pitures of the fish.

Ｄｒｉｖer's ｌｉｃｅｎｓｅ

March 23, Wednesday

My husband drove me to 'Okayama-ken driver's license center' at Mitsu-gun to reissue and renew my driver's license.

I hadn't had the license since the end of February because of a burglary.
It was very inconvenient for me.

After about thirty minutes driving class, I was given a license which is available for five years.

Proverb 30

Man is the lord of creation.

If so, man should take a suitable action for the lord of creation.

We are responsible for the rest of lives or everything else.




Hyacinth

Yuki in spring

It is warm these days.

My twenty-year old cat 'Yuki' which had been in front of a fan heater for the cold winter also seems to feel the spring and wants to go out.

Though she had never been out during this winter, she went out and bathed in the sun this morning.
She came back soon because she is afraid of many strong homeless cats around here.


She is basking in the sun.

Spring has come!!

In the afternoon I went shopping and visited a friend after that.

In the backyard of her house, lots of rape blossoms were blooming.
Besides the narrow path, I could find a reproductive shoot of the field horsetail;(tsu-ku-shi) too.

Sprin has come!!

Evening sky

　It was rainy all day today, but it is cloudy now.
It wasn't so cold.

The evening sky was like these.

A pink cloud was among blue gray clouds.

proverb 29

Light suppers make long life.

If we eat too much, our life may be short.

Light suppers seem to be good for our health.



Anemone

A five-storied pagoda

This five-storied pagoda is at Kibiji in Okayama prefecture.

It is one of the Kokubunji that Emperor Shoumu told to build them　all over Japan in the Nara era.
This one was rebuilt in the Edo era.

Now this is the symbol at Kibiji and is a nice object for fan of taking pictures.

In spring, lot's of rape blossoms bloom around Kokubunji and many people visit the place.
In fall too, red and yellow leaves are beautifull.

One of the greatest artists in Japan, Ikuo Hirayama loves the scenery very much and painted the pictures of the place.

In the green house

Yesterday on our way from 'Sun Road Kibiji', we went to a green house named 'No-w ma-ru e-n-ge-i' where they are growing and selling various kinds of flowers.

I could smell sweet fragrance of the flowers in the green house.

Pretty strawberry flowers are also blooming and some have already ripened.

World Picture Book Exhibition

I went to 'Sun road ki-bi-ji' with my friend in the afternoon.

World Picture Book Exhibition is being held there.

I couldn't understand most of the languages in the the world written in the picture book.
But I could enjoy the pictures.


Pansy