New business

　
 Though I have taken lots of pictures for a few years by digital camera, I've never printed them out.
They are all in the PC, CD and DVE-RAM.
The other day, I knew a new service by reading a blog.

It's Priea.

We can print thirty pictures for free at a time.
As the letter 'For free' attracted my attention, I registered to Priea and ordered the pictures at once.

They are running this business by printing a company-logo on the picture.
By printing logos on the pictures, other companies pay money to this company.

The pictures I ordered were sent about after a week, and I got them today.

I really feel that our society is changing !

Bird influenza

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Recently, many chickens died from the bird influenza in Mi-ya-za-ki prefecture.
Now it occurred here at Ta-ka-ha-shi city in O-ka-ya-ma prefecture and many chickens died.
It is the third time this year that the disease spreaded to the chickens.

If this virus infects the person from the bird, and next to another person by a new type of virus that appeared by mutation, a panic will happen.

It is said that the virus seems to be brought from Asian continent by some kinds of migrant bird.
So it's very difficult to defend it.
And there is a possibility that it will happen at any place.

I'm very interested in it now because it occurred at a place near here.

By the way, there is no end to the battle between mankind and the new type of virus that appear one after another.

Visit to a shrine

After clicking the title, click on the small pictures, please!

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Votive picture;(E-ma)

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My husband becomes 60 years old this year.
We call the year 'Ka-n-re-ki' in Japanese and it is said to be an unlucky year for the man.
So yesterday, we visited Ki-bi-tsu shrine which is very famous and big to pray for good health, good luck and so on.
There were a lot of visitors there.
After handing a piece of paper written a wish to a shrine clerk with some money, we went into a praying room with other people.
A shinto priest prayed for about ten minutes for us.

By the way, we Japanese have a custom of presenting a red vest and cap at 'Ka-n-re-ki'.
I don't know why my husband refused to be given them when I told him about it.

＊The main building of this shrine is covered with a big board or something to be repaired, so I couldn't see the splendid scenery of the building nor took pictures.
They are repairing its roof after an interval of 50 years.

Spring flower

We can hardly see flowers blooming in winter.

But these yellow flowers of 'Ro-u-ba-i' and red flowers of 'Bo-ke' are in full bloom now.

I feel coming of spring by seeing these flowers.

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Japanese quince；（Bo-ke)

Dried radish

Because of the warm weather, radish in our vegetable field grew very very big this winter.

I'm making dried radish using them now.
Cold and dry weather is suitable for making it.

I'm making two kinds of dried radish.
One is the radish of picture above and the other is this.


I'll use them for mi-so soup, boiled dish and so on.
Dried radish is very nutritive.
It is rich in vitamins B1・B2, calcium, iron contents and so on.

It is a nice Japanese food that is gentle to our stomach !

Proverb 106

Hunger is the best sauce.
　
I saw this ｂulletin board　at a 'Ze-n temple' near my house.

It says that we should not seek for delicious food but have anything thankfully.
Nowadays we tend to eager to have only delicious food, but to eat any food this way seems to be important.

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Gate of a 'Ze-n temple'


Statue of 'Da-ru-ma ta-i-shi'

Snakes in mid-winter

Don't put your mouse on the picture if you hate this creature, please !

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It's so warm this winter that I sometimes see snakes crawling in my yard.
Yesterday we saw one in front of my porch and today I saw another one at the backyard of my house.
This is the snake I saw today.

What has become of snakes and bears that hibernate in usual winter.
Global warming may be one of the causes of phenomena like this.

Each of us should think what we can do to stop this global warming and do something that we can.

Burning the New year's ornament

We burned down the 'New year's ornaments';(O-ka-za-ri) that we made at the end of last year with the other old notes presented from the shrine or temple this afternoon.
And we also burned some rice cakes and tangerines.
It is said that we'll be able to spend this year healthily if we eat them.
After that we scattered the ash in the flower garden.

We call this event 'To-n-do-ya-ki'.

Years ago, there were public spaces for this event in the village, but there are none nowadays.
So we perform this event privately these days.
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Ｔest of click change

These are the pictures of my sightseeing in Tokyo last June.
After clicking the title, click on the small pictures, please !

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帝釈天

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I saw nice pictures on this site.
And next, I found a tag for making these click changes on this site.
I wanted to uploading my pictures using this skill and tried it.
I made it at last!
Thank you very much, yocco san and donguri san !

Sunset

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Taking a walk this evening, I saw this beautiful sunset.

December 22 was 'the winter solstice';(To-ji).
The day was the shortest of the year on that day.
The day has been longer and longer since that day though the temperature colder and colder.
But the spring is sure to come and I will see the sign of spring here and there from now on.

Snowfall

January 6 was one of the twenty four seasonal datum points called 'Snowfall a little';(Sho-u-se-tsu).
It begins to snow from around that day and it begins to become codler and codler till 'The coldest day'; (Da-i-kan).

It has been very cold since the day before yesterday.
Yesterday, wind blew strong at some parts of Japan and it snowed a little in the morning here in Okayamal too.
But the sun began to shine in the afternoon and the snow melted away soon.
It was the second time that I saw snow this winter.

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New Year's visit to a shrine

I went to 'Takamatsu Saijyo Inari' that is one of the three biggest Inari shrine in Japan on January 2.
Though it was raining a little, many people were there praying for their good health, good luck and so on.

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I got three pots of cyclamen at a stall in precincts.
They are very strong and have many buds which bloom one after another till about June.
So I buy some there every year.

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And this is a turning over calender at day that I bought at one of the souvenir shops along the approach to the shrine.
It says 'Though I'm a homeless cat, I'm happy leading a life freely.'

New Year

A Happy New Year !

I celebrated the New Year with my family in the morning, having 'festive food for the New Year' that I made yesterday and drinking 'Japanese Sake'.

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In the afternoon, I walked to a shrine near my house to pray for our healthy and happy life this year.
Some people were also praying there.







Though many big and famous shrines all over Japan are crowded with great many people on new year days, this shrine wasn't crowded at all.

I felt fresh and happy to go there.

May this year be a happy, peaceful and fruitful one !