Have you ever seen this cute, white creature? Looking like a baby, it is a delicacy of cheese ball filled with strings and cream. An Italian master living in Hokkaido is the only person who has technique to make it in Japan, Shin said. He seems quite right — one of Mei-Shun’s best impressions on that area is amazingly tasty dairy products, followed by potatoes and beer.
It takes only 2 hours and a half to reach Kyoto from Tokyo these days. Sights seen through the window fly away so rapidly that Mei-Shun’s eyes feel it a little hard to recognize mountains, lakes and buildings well put within her memory. It may not be even a trip for those used to such speed — yet this inveterate stay-at-home could do nothing but going out for a haircut today.
Kaori-san, please take our gratitude. You gave us another chance to come to this beautiful, ancient capital of Japan. Current rate of yen, however, might make our regular hotel here booked out — that is why we enjoyed a stay at our favorite one in Osaka last night. We took a local train after a slight exercise of walking to the station one more stop away. Clouds in the sky and summer hats nicely protected us from ultraviolet rays.
It is a decade ago when Shin was transferred to and stayed in Osaka alone for half an year. We discussed over and over whether Mei-Shun would go with him or stay in Ibaraki with mom-in-law. The latter finally won our choice, so Mei-Shun visited his apartment only twice when he moved to and leave that room.
They followed a pair of glasses from Niijima Island, included in Izu-Shichi To=seven islands of Izu where volcanoes are so active that we can enjoy nice hot springs while 抗火石=kouka–seki, meaning the rare lava-rock, is used as one of ingredients to make such beautiful olive green arts.
Mei-Shun reserved a beauty salon in Shinagawa again, not to avoid a phone call from Dr. A. Shin’s schedule allowed them to meet there only today.
A 加賀(=Kaga, current Ishikawa Prefecture) cuisine restaurant always guides them into a room called 寿椿, meaning celebrated camellia. A wooden “pheasant” welcomes them as usual, yet his blue feather is all different from normal ones. You are a peacock, aren’t you?
… Woops, no message was recorded on our home phone.
They have 3 breeds of 八重桜 at 乙戸沼 Park. One looks like holding a lot of 桜餅=sakura-mochi, a seasonal Japanese sweet with leaf-flower combination of brown-violet pink. Another has less browned-normal pink while the last one green-delicate shade of light pink as follows.
Kaori-san, an illustrator and good high-school classmate of Mei-Shun, will hold her second exhibition in June at Merry-go-round Kyoto, the same venue as her first one. Congratulations and thanks — November gave us a shock of long queue for taxi last time. Our driver was kind enough to teach how to avoid waiting, which would not have to work for June.
It is called 乙戸沼=Otonuma Park, accommodating a quite large pond. Running/walking courses surround the pond hemmed by many cherry trees. You can see various waterfowls while pigeons play in a canal with this tiny cascade. Sporadic fountain-like spray is not to catch your eyes but to uptake oxygen into water.
Mei-Shun had her stomach examined via gastroscopy, conducted by Dr. Y in Tokyo. She experienced nasal one two years ago, felt much easier than oral one, so chose the former this time as well. And she had no problem — better than before. With a sigh of relief, she dropped in on 新井薬師 before seeing her mother living nearby.
