Sunday, February 19, 2017

Loving heart

Precious moments in Hamanako!!!

The love between mother and daughter...
... is forever <3 br=""> 
Smile is the key that fits the lock of everyone's heart <3 nbsp="" p="">

Tuesday, February 14, 2017

Happy heart's day to all!

I can smell love and romance in the air...

Happy Valentine's Day to all ...

For me ... this is the day to show and express extra love, appreciation and friendship to everyone especially to all my love ones.  

Thank you all for the love and caring ... 

Whoever lives in love...lives in God and God in him.
In this way... love is made complete among us .
(1 John 4:16)


God is the greatest love of all ... 
 Happy heart's day everyone



Saturday, February 11, 2017

Let it snow!

It's holiday here in Japan today... 'went out driving to IKawa  ... 
we drove there for about 3 hours and we ended up in a snowy mountain ... 
Probably my first encounter to snow this year ;-) 

We were not able to reach the Minami Alps ... coz the road was closed due to heavy snow ... so we decided to roam around the Ikawa and Kawane part ... sometimes it's nice to drive without any plan and you'll discover many things like we have visited --- museum, tea shops, camp sites, dam, suspension bridges and of course spa!

Yes! I love nature ...  thanks be to God for the beautiful day xx





Thursday, February 09, 2017

An early Valentine gift

Valentine's day is coming soon ...
Here in Japan ... the tradition is that women gives choco to men!  Men who receives choco on Valentine's day return that favor on March 14 which they called White Day.    
Since I have many friends from other countries who believes Valentine's day is for everyone we love ... we traditionally give gifts to all we care about ;-)
Today, after my daughter-like Abs dated me for dinner and coffee ... she handed me something on the way home ... here it is ...
an early Valentine gift from her xx 
What made it more special is that it's her homemade choco ...
'love it!  So sweet like her xx

May everyone have a sweet Valentine's day!!! 

Friday, February 03, 2017

Oni wa soto ... fuku wa uchi!

Did you throw some beans today?
Feb 3 is Setsubun day here in Japan. It's an annual Japanese tradition. 
As explained in www.cute-calendar.com ... 
Setsubun, also called Bean-Throwing Festival or Bean-Throwing Ceremony, is the day before the beginning of Spring in Japan. The name literally means "seasonal division", but usually the term refers to the Spring Setsubun, properly called Risshun celebrated yearly on February 3 as part of the Spring Festival. In its association with the Lunar New Year, Spring Setsubun can be and was previously thought of as a sort of New Year's Eve, and so was accompanied by a special ritual to cleanse away all the evil of the former year and drive away disease-bringing evil spirits for the year to come.

They yell "Oni wa soto! Fuku wa uchi!" (Demon out! Happiness in!) as they throw beans at the devil.

Our Makizushi for this year ... what a lavish tuna!!!  

It's also a tradition to eat uncut maki sushi on setsubun. Participants eat the entire role in one sitting in complete silence. It's important to face a particular "eho" or lucky direction as you do this. The direction changes each year according to a 5 year cycle... this 2017, the lucky direction is north-north-west.



Wednesday, February 01, 2017

Hello February!


It's start of February today ...  i had an appointment to make in the afternoon so i decided to use my bike coz i really need to stretch out and work out ... even it's cold outside!


On the way home ... i passed to Sumpujo Park ... and here's what i found out ... cherry blossoms in winter!!!  

Cherry blossoms 

I was actually confused if it's really cherry blossoms coz it usualy bloom on springs.  I thought it could be plum blossoms which usually bloom at this season.  

Plum blossom

However, i learned from my Japanese students that cherry blossoms have split at the end of each petals whereas plum blossoms don't have ... so i convinced myself that it's really cherry blossoms because the petals have splits. 

 white plum blossoms

Oh well...  time really flies sooo fast ... imagine it's February already!!!
i hope this February will be another good month for all of us xxx