on Sunday

My family visited Mito, Ibaraki Pref., to see one of the most famous garden in Japan, Kairakuen, to enjoy ume(plum) blossoms.

Now is the high time to see ume blossoms, which means a great many people visits there like us. so we got up before 5 a.m., left home about 7:00a.m., and arrived the garden at 8:30 a.m., without being caught by that boring traffic jam.

There were some temporary souvenir shop at the entrance of Kairakuen. There my husband found a Kasama-yaki pottery shop, and we met a cute incense burner and bought before seeing ume trees... well, why were we there? ....(smile) Now I am burning an incense corn of lavendar on that burner. it is pretty good.

At Kairakuen, ume fair is taken place every year. but ume blossoms do not bloom at once, like sakura(cherry), so we are to see and sniff only a part of great ume tree garden every year. Yesterday was not the exception, but some trees held flowers on all over of branches and twigs. the fragrance is similar to rose. sweet, elegant and refreshing.

And then how lucky I am I found a temporary shop of ume fragrance shop! there are 3 kinds of ume flavor, one latin, and one roubai, which I like the best. well, I do not need to write whether and which I have bought...(smile).

After we enjoyed the garden, the Daimyo castle, and a short rest, it was about 11:00 a.m. Not only the park but roads around the garden was full of cars. Then we left there and headed to the coast, to eat fresh fish for lunch.

indecent or artistic

Yesterday the Supreme Court of Japan decided that photographs of Robert Mapplethorpe's areNOT indecent even the motif is genitals, this decision reversed the previous judgement of Tokyo high court.

Fortunately I have seen the recollection exhibition of his works in 1988, and knew how his photographs are visually beautiful
BECAUSE every works contains some sensual factor.

For example, The Tulips by Mapplethorpe is widely loved by Japanese ordinary people and art lovers. when the Tulip is displayed as a single work of 2 photos of flowers, who can be conscious one of them represents half erected penis or injection curve?

Anyway, the decision has done and we the Japanese can see arts which contains genitals.

For me, I would like non-masked version of "Prospero's Books" by Peter Greenaway in DVD.

Cats' Day

22nd February is called The Cats' Day in Japan.

It originates in the onomatopoeia of cats' mewing in Japan. There are some expression which represent cat's mewing; many of them starts with 'n'. Nyah, nyaoh, mee, and NEE, and so on. Besides, 2 is read 'nee' in Japanese language. That's why 22/2 (nee nee nee) is named "Cats' Day".

This evening I gave my old cat a can of fish as the Cats' Day dinner. :-)


[first posted on 2 feb, 2008]