Today we had a little cold wind, but it was very warm.
At around noon I departed from Sakuray and went to the sea for walking.
There is a small fisherman's port called Itami-kou, and I walked on the rocks to get here.
The water here is very clear and we can see Shirahama beach over there.
Yesterday we had a meeting with the owner of Pension came from the other prefecture, Yamanashi, Nagano, Tochigi and so on.
After that we went to the downtown for dinner with them.
I had already booked a restaurant called "Nakagawa", and started a party from 5:00 PM.
The restaurant served us the Japanese style fish meal like this.
Most of the owners live in the mountain, so they were pleased with this dinner.
This morning I woke up a little later than usual, so I took my daughter to her school by car.
Of couse she got to the school on time!
On the way home I took this photo.
It was very good scenary with sunrise and clouds on the horizon!
We got an e-mail with photo today.
They came from France and stayed at Sakuraya for 2 nights on August 5th and 6th.
During their stay it had been sunny and they were able to go to the beach for swimming.
We hope we would be able to meet you someday again.
Thank you very much for staying at Sakuraya and sending photo!
It was a little cold because of west wind, but good weather for walking.
This afternoon I went to the nearest beach Shirahama with my son.
There is Shirahama shrine on the north part of Shirahama beach, and there is a red gate of shrine called Torii in Japanese on the big rock.
We were able to see Izu seven islands clearly from the tip of this big rock.
Today I found out a postcard in our post box.
It was from Paris in France.
They stayed at Sakuraya in April last year, and this time they have been back to Paris and sent us this postcard.
I have already put it on the board at the entrance of Sakuraya building like this.
Thank you for sending postcard from France!!
Today it was almost cloudy, but sometimes we were able to get sun shine.
I wanted to buy something at home improvement center called "Handy".
It is located at Rendaiji town in Shimoda on the oposit side of Shirahama, and we can go there through Mt. Takene.
It means, if I climb Mt. Takene and went down it I can go there.
So I decided to climb the mountain today.
From the top of Mt. Takane we can see the pacific ocean and Izu seven islands.
It takes about 1 hour from Sakuraya by walking.
Today it was sunny and very warm here in Shimoda, so I went for walking.
I took this photo at the tip of Mihogasaki cape.
It takes about 20 minutes by walking from Sakuray.
As the air was very clear I was able to get the beautiful scenary with Izu seven islands on pacific ocean.
Of course we can see Shirahama beach on the other side.
This season it is very good for walking, because we can take good photos of the ocean and the naturre.
Today I went to Izukyu-Shimoda station and walked around in the station building to find out something interesting.
This is called "Shizuoka-cola." made in Shizuoka, Japan!
The taste was almost Coka Cola, but it includes the flovor of Japanese green tea.
Why don't you try this?
You can find out it at the shop in the station building, but unfortunately it is not cold.... .
I went to the kindergarten to pick my son up by walking this afternoon.
On the way to our home we went to the nearest beach "Shirahama" to play.
Today it was sunny again and the water was blue and gorgeous.
My son was excited with the waves on the beach.
After he will get into the primary school we will not be able to together after school like this.
I think I would be sad...... .
I went to hospital for my wife at around noon, and while she was there I went to the beach to take photos.
Today it was sunny again, so the sea was so beautiful. It looks like a tropical beach in Okinawa or southern island.
This beach is called "Shirahama Chuo Kaigan", it takes about 30 minutes by walking from Pension Sakuraya. Of course there is a parking lot for free except busy season.
I want to go there for snorkeling after this cold winter.
This morning, as I woke up a little later than usual, I took my daughter to her school by car.
When I left my house the sun had just risen up on the horizon.
So I went to the beach behind Shirahama shrine to take photos.
By the way, now in Shimoda there are many people who got influenza after last weekend.
My daughter had already got it on last Friday or Saturday, so this had prevented her from going to school.
And my wife has had fever at last.
Are you going to visit Japan this winter?
Please be careful not to get influenza.
You should bring or buy a flu mask and wash your hands every time.
In Japan almost of every students go to primary ( grade ) school carrying this knapsack with back straps.
As he knew that he would go to the primary school on next April he wanted his own knapsack like this.
"When can I buy my knapsack?"
"We will buy it when we will go to Chigasaki city."
As we promised we bought this knapsack at the shop in Chigasaki.
Long time ago we had only 2 types, black one for boys and red one for girls, but they have many kinds of color of this knapsack in these days.
But we were able to make a dicision soon because my son wanted black one.
He looks very happy with his own brand-new knapsack now.
We call this "Randoseru" in Japanese, but how can we call this in English?
Maybe they don't have this bag in the foreign countries, right?
I took this photo at around 7:30 am at the different place from yesterday.
It was sunny this morning, and there was no big cloud in the sky.
That's why I was able to take a photo with shinning sun and there was a golden road on the sea.
Do you see the island under the sun?
That's called "Toshima" island.
It takes about 1 hour and 35 minutes by ship from Shimoda harbor.
Do you know what the circumference of that island is?
It is only 8 kilometers and only 300 people live there.
80 % of that island is covered with camellia trees and the amount of production of camellia oil is best in Japan.
There is no beach in that island, so the most popular sports are diving and fishing.
Would you like to go there?
There was an article on the snow in Shimoda yesterday in the newspaper this morning.
I was thinking we had snow at all places in Shimoda, but the paper said the snow lay only 2 centimeters in the coastlands between Shirahama and Shimoda.
I took this photo on the way home at around 7:00 am when I took my daughter to the junior high school by car this morning.
It was really cold this morning too.
Today my wife went to the next prefecture by train, so I took here to the station early this morning.
At that time we had black cloud in the sky, but it had not been rainy yet.
But we had snow after that.
I didn't notice it, because I had been in my room and the screen had been closed.
When I went shopping at around 9:00 am it has already been sunny, and I found out the snow on the island over the ocean.
They have snow some times during cold season every year, but it is earlier than usual.
After our customers checked-out, when I was cleaning up the guest room I saw the sea very beautiful through the window.
So I stopped cleaning I went to the beach.
The gradation of changing of the sea was so gorgeous!
The tourists park their cars on the road, and they took photos and some of them went to this beach for walking.
But we had very strong wind today, and this wind sometimes blew the sand off.
Today I went to the nearest beach for walking after long time.
I have been very busy for last 2 months, so I didn't walk.
It was very cold here in Shimoda today, but as we didn't have wind it was very comfortable to walk.
I was very happy walking with blue sky, white cloud and blue sea today.
Today, after we finished cleaning up the gurst rooms we went to Shirahama shrine.
Most Japanese visit a shirine or a buddhist temple as a first time of new year to pray for comfort and health on the 1st, 2nd or 3rd January.
This is called "Hatsumode", the first visit shrine of new year.
That's why there were a lot of people at Shirahama shirine today and were some women in Kimono.
After praying we took a photo in fron of Haiden (hall of worship) all together.
How have you been?
We had a lot of customers last year at Pension Sakuraya in Shimoda.
We appreciate it very much.
In Japan we, Japanese cereblate the new year's day on January every year.
It is considered by most Japanese to be one of the most important annual festivals and has been celebrated.
At Sakuraya we decorate the room and many places in the building with the flowers like this.
In all Japanese style rooms we put the flower pot with the seasonal flowers and the leaves.
Let us wish you and yours a happy and healthy New Year.
Exactly it was sunny and very warm today, but I was surprised to hear that very much.
Our customers, a French family staying for 2 nights said this morning, "We are going to the beach to swim".
When they made a reservation they said that they would bring their wet suit for surfing, so I was thinking they will siwm with wet suit.
But actually they swam with swim wear!!
"Wasn't it cold the sea water today?" I asked.
"It was only 30 minutes we swam in the water".
The water temperature is about 19 degrees, so it is warmer than the air temperature and it is possible to swim in this season, but I think they are the 1st customers who swim on December!
They came from Singapore and stayed at Sakuraya for 2 nights.
On the 1st day they arrived early to leave their luggages and went to Shimoda downtown.
On the 2nd day they went to Kawazu Seven Waterfalls, and Izu-kogen to go to Teddy Bear Musium.
On the last day they left their luggages at Shimoda station and went to Irozaki Cape.
When they had dinner and breakfast we were able to have a good talking and comunication.
Thank you for staying at Sakuraya, and see you again.
This afternoon a postman brought one thing.
When I saw it at first I knew it was something from foreign country.
I opend it soon and there were christmas present and card.
I checked the address out again, it was a present from Finland.
Oh, yes, I remember their name!
They stayed at Sakuraya for 9 nights from July 9th 2009.....
Continue reading "2010/12/18 Christmas Present from Finland" »
I went to bed earlier than usual last night, but I overslept this morning again. Hahaha....
So I went to school to take my daughter by car.
When I came back to Shirahama beach I took this photo.
The sun has just rose above the horizen, and the light of the sun made a long golden road on the sea.
Where can I go to on that road?
My daughters usually go to school by bus every day, but I overslept this morning. So I took them by car.
When I was coming back home I was going to take photos of Shirahama beach as usual.
When the weather is good and the air is clear we can see Mt. Amagi over Shirahama beach.
But I found out that the mountains were white this morning.
I thought it was cloud on the mountains at first, but actually it was snow.
Wao!! We usually have snow after January in Izu peninsula, but we had the first snow on this season this moring.
That's why it was very cold this morning in shimoda.
Last night we had a lot of thunder at around midnight.
I cut the power of my computer in a hurry, but it was not big deal and there was no problem.
And this morning it still was cloudy here in Shirahama, but I was able to see Izu Seven Islands on the horizon.
It was sunny over those islands, I guess.
By the way, when I went to kindergarten to pick my son up I found out the flowers there.
Continue reading "2010/12/07 Izu Seven Islands & Narcissus ( Daffodil ) Festival in Shimoda" »
It has been sunny and very warm here in Shirahama for 3 days.
Yesterday it was Sunday and my children didn't have a school, so we went to the beach to take photos for New Year Card.
I tried to take it with my 3 children, but my son was in a bad mood when I was taking photos.
And my second daughter became in a same mood. ( A girl in this photo is my first daughter.)
That's why I wasn't able to take good photos after all.
We don't have good days like this so many times in this season, but ....
Do you know this blossoms?
The last owner of Pension Sakuraya loved Karaoke, and the 1st song which he learned was "Sazanka no Yado" over 25 years ago. And he used to sing this song when he went to Karaoke after that.
That's why his wife planted this in the garden of Sakuraya. This is called "Camellia Sasanqua", "Sazanka" in Japanese.
This season this tree has a lof ot buds, and all of them started to bloom.
By the way I went to the beach this afternoon....
Continue reading "2010/12/04 Camellia Sasanqua, and Beach in late afternoon" »
My daughters usually go to school by bus every morning, but I took them by car this morning. Because....
When I waked up at around 6:00 am it was rainy and windy outside.
I opend the screen to see outside there was strong wind blowing with heavy rain.
After breakfast I went to school with my daughters. when I was driving on the seaside road I was able to see the blue sky in the east sky.
"Yes, it will be sunny this afternoon as the weather forcast said".
But I suddenly had heavy rain again, because there still was a black cloud in the west sky.
It became sunny and very hot at all after that, it was amazing day today.
Have you ever seen this flower?
This morning I went for waling to the next beach "Sotoura."
When I departed from Sakuraya at 9:00 am it was very warm, so it was very comfortable for walking today.
At the view point of Sotoura I found out the red flowers.
Do you know this?
This is an aloe.
In Shimoda we don't have any snow, so this aloe can have flowers in winter.
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