Early April is a beautiful season in Japan. The cherry blossoms bloom and the weather is usually very nice.

I went for a walk in my local park yesterday to take some photos. The weather forecast said it would be rainy and windy all weekend, so it was my last chance to take some photos of the cherry blossoms.

Here are the photographs I took. I hope you like them!

(H)

I spent the last week in northern Michigan, USA.

When I left Japan, the cherry blossoms were starting to bloom…

…and when I arrived in the USA, it was still snowing!

Many people said “I’m tired of all this snow! I wish spring would come!”

It was cold – around -7 degrees, but the air was very clear and the snowy landscape was beautiful. I got some nice photos.

I went for a nice walk in the forest…

…and walked along a slippery, icy road.

I drove along large roads, surrounded by snowy fields, and a vast, blue sky.

And when I got back to Japan, the cherry blossoms were still in bloom!

(H)

The other day, I made corn stew. Well, I didn’t really make it. I cheated a little! I used blocks of corn stew flavouring, which I bought at the supermarket.

This is how I made it.

First, I steamed some broccoli, shiitake mushrooms, green peppers, onions, cabbage and komatsuna (Japanese mustard spinach). Then, I  put them into a pan with water and soy milk and heated them on the gas stove.

When the water and milk had heated up, I put the blocks of flavouring in and stirred the mixture until the blocks melted.

That’s it! Easy! I served it with whole grain toast.

My way of making the stew is a little different from the recipe on the back of the packet of flavouring, but I think it was just as nice!

Here it is! (It tasted better than it looks!) 🙂

How about you? Do you make stew? What ingredients do you use?

I enjoy running. I try to run at least five days a week. Sometimes, I run for about an hour, but usually I only have time to run for about thirty minutes.

I enjoy running on the beach the most. In spring, autumn and winter, there are very few people at the beach, so I can run up and down along the sea-coast. The wind from the sea is very refreshing.

If I don’t have time to drive to the beach, I go running in the park, or around my neighbourhood. Even at night, many people run in the park.

When I run, I often listen to music. I find that when I run and listen to music, I can run faster and for longer. For me, music is very motivating. Some people say that running and listening to music is dangerous. I think that in some cases, it can be dangerous, such as when running on a road, or in a quiet place at night.

I turn the volume down low when I run, so I can still hear what is happening around me.

Some people train for marathons. In the future, I’d like to do a marathon, but now, I just enjoy getting out of the office and into the fresh air and getting a bit of exercise!

How about you? Do you enjoy running? Where do you go running?

In the last post, I talked about Japanese sweets. Here are some pictures I took outside the sweet shop. The shop sells traditional Japanese sweets, so the building and garden are Japanese style.

The path leading to the shop is paved with stone and has moss.

At the entrance is a flower arrangement, which changes with the seasons.

A doll display fills the window at the entrance.

The building is made of wood, which has a calming effect, and blends in well with the garden.

It is a nice place to relax with friends or alone. Also, because it is far from central shopping areas, it is quiet. When I go, there are never more than three or four people there. I enjoy looking at the garden while drinking tea, or reading a book.

How about you? What kind of cafes or restaurants do you like?

(H)

Yesterday, I went to a Japanese sweets shop with my friend. The shop is in a quiet location and it has a small Japanese garden. I had a matcha parfait. Matcha is powdered green tea. In the parfait, there were many ingredients – matcha flavoured ice-cream, sweet beans, many kinds of fruit, and cake. It was served with green tea. It was quite expensive – around 800 yen, but it was big and very filling.

My friend had zenzai. Zenzai is a warm red bean soup, and is very sweet. There were soft rice cakes called mochi in the soup. Zenzai doesn’t look very appetizing, but it tastes very nice!

When I first came to Japan, it took me a while to get used to matcha and red beans, especially in desserts. Now, I really like matcha and drink it everyday.

How about you? What kind of sweets do you like?

(H)

This year is the “Year of the Snake”. Here in Japan, many shops sell snake ornaments and lucky charms.

I have many snake ornaments in my house. Here are some photographs of my snakes!

My friend bought me the two snakes below in 2001, the last snake year.

A happy snake!

Also, many temples sell lucky charms with the twelve animals of the zodiac printed on them. Some of the lucky charms are keyrings or mobile phone straps. Here are some lucky snake charms which I bought at local temples.

In some cultures, especially in Asia, the snake is lucky, or it symbolizes positive characteristics. In other cultures, the snake has a negative image. In English, there is a phrase which shows this negative image.

The phrase is “a snake in the grass“. In English, a snake in the grass is a person who cannot be trusted. For example: “You should not trust Bill. He is a snake in the grass.”

How about you? Does the snake have a positive or negative image in your culture?

(H)