Lee's departure

Dear friends,

I regret to inform you that Lee completed his 14 years life peacefully on last Monday evening and has gone for his next voyage. I proud of him, he was cute and a good boy till he said goodbye to us.

He taught me the joy of walking, taking photos and blogging, as well as the joy of being loved by him/ loving him.  In my PC, some photos taken with him still remain,,, so let me continue this blog for a while.

Thank you guys who are interested in him. He was a lucky boy having got many smiles from you all.


.... sorry for letting you read such a mawkish article. I will come back to the "normal position" on the next posting.

bye

BR
Shige

Azalea Festival 2014 at Nezu Shrine

  Lee has already become 12 years old, as in human age he is in his 60's. Actually, he has some physical trouble related to aging, but fortunately, his legs back and bones are still perfect. Thanks Lee's father, Levin and mother, Noa, they had a strong bone structure. Thanks to you we can enjoy walking even now.

  Last Sunday, Lee and I took a long distance walking to Nezu Shrine, where the Azalea Festival has been held.

  So many people came to see Azalea from all around Tokyo. The old couple who asked me how to get to here was from Saitama prefecture.

  It was a warm and sunny day, the best day for walking.

... but Lee seemed to get tired a bit.

  Several years ago, it had taken about 45 min to get here, but this time it took over 1 hour with putting some short breaks.

  There's no hurry. You can walk at your pace. I love walking with you.

  The Azalea Festival will be held until 6th May, the last day of the "Golden week", Japanese holiday season.

  The other posting of Nezu Shrine's Azalea festival are here (2007, 2011).
  The other season's scenery of Nezu Shrine are here. (February, December, 300 anniversary )

  Please click to see the map of Nezu Shrine (Google Map)

Long time no see!

Dear Friends,

Hi, how’ve you been? Long time no see.

I haven’t touch this page for a long time(1.5ys!), so some friends kindly mailed me if we are OK. Thank you very much and I am sorry for having caused you so much worry. We, my wife, daughter K, Lee and me, are all fine. Lee has become 11 and a half years old, over 60 in human age. Several years ago, we often enjoyed a long distance walk for weekend, but with considering an excessive burden for his joints of feet, currently we are limiting the walking time within 60 min and walking slowly. He’s already in retirement age,,, but even now, he is still cutie boy who loves meal time, morning walking and acting cozy with us.

Let me show you the current Lee’s photos, taken in the morning after the last heavy snow (Feb. 2014).

 

 

 

 

朋友们你好，好久不见了。我最近工作很忙所以不能重新这个博客，哎哟，一年半左右我放手不管了。 有个网友热情地担心我们好不好，给我发电子邮件问问。谢谢 & 让你们担心不好意思啊。我们（我妻子、我女儿、小李、和我）都很好。小李已经11.5岁，那相当人的60多岁了。几年前，我们每周末散步的时候，常常走得太远，不过为了它的骨关节保重，我最近不让它走60分钟以上。他已经成了大爷了。。。可是，他还是喜欢散步、爱吃饭、特别喜欢缠绕我们的可爱小李。

让我介绍最近的小李的情况。这些是上次在东京下大雪的时候拍的照片（今年2月）。

Sakura trees were full-bloomed / Edogawa park, Bunkyo ward

I have abandoned posting for a long time, and received some concerning message. Many thanks for your concern. I am OK. I’d been just,,,,, loafing, sorry!

Usually, here in Tokyo, Sakura (cherry blossom) season would be the end of March, however this year the cold weather remained even in the beginning of April. Last weekend, at last, Sakura trees were full-bloomed.

Lee and I visited Edogawa park for O-Hanami.

It was around 9 am, but a lot of people already came to enjoy Sakura.


I heard that a lot of people gathere here and have a O-hanami party here in the evening.

Last Octorber, Lee became 9 years old. Getting older a little bit, but he is still Genki. Even now, he likes walking.

The closest station: Edogawabashi (Tokyo Metro, Yurakucho-line)Other Edogawa Park postings: 2008/05/03, 2010/03/24 , 03/29

Azalea / Nezu shrine

Azalea festival is held at Nezu shrine.

These photos were taken on 24th April. I guess they are full bloomed now.

This shrine has 3000 trees of Azelea. So gorgeous! Don't miss them.


The azalea festival will be held until the last day of the Golden week.

Regading the history of this shrine, please refer to the previous posting (click!).

For a long while, we hadn't walk such a long distanse. It became two and a half hours walking. Lee looked tired a bit... Me, too.

The closest station of this shrine is Nezu or Sendagi of Tokyo Metro Chiyoda-line. It takes about 5 minutes from these Metro stations on foot.

The other Nezu shrine postings:
The celebration of 300 aniversary (Sep. 2006)
Fallen leaves (Dec. 2006)
Azalea (May. 2007)
Ume (Feb. 2009)

Ohanami season is coming soon / Edogawa park, Bunkyo ward

This Monday was the national holiday "Shunbun-no-hi", Spring Equinox day. Astronomically, Shunbun-no-hi is defined as the day when night and day are of equal length, but for the ordinary people who don't care about astronomy, like me, this day is the day they can feel Spring coming.

In the morning of the Shunbun-no-hi, Lee and I went to the Edogawa park and found "Spring".

Somei-Yoshino, the most popular Sakura tree, started to bloom.

I guess we can enjoy Sakura in full bloom this weekend. I'll go there to take Sakura pics again.

Another Edogawa park posting is here.

Otonashi Shinsui Park (Otonashi water park) / Oji, Kita ward

Zee, two months long absence! I couldn't had updated this blog because my work was really hectic. Now I'm Ok and would like to restart. Let me start with a little bit out-of-season photos.

There is a pleasant park nearby JR Oji station. I took these photos in September and the weather was still muggy, but I could feel cool welcome breeze here. This park is placed along with the stream, and away from the traffic and commercial facilities. So, although it's very close to JR and subway station, you can enjoy the cozy space.

This park is located the west side of Asukayama park. From the west end of Asukayama, you can see the old big Otonashi bridge.

The sign (above pic) said that this was built in Showa five (1930). This was designed to tolerate the weight of combat vehicles, so people called it Tank Bashi(Tank Bridge).

The side of the bridge, you can see the steps to the riverbank. This is the entrance to the park.

This area, Otonashi river / Tokinogawa, was famous for the scenic landscape in Edo era. You can find the scene in some pictures. The guidebook of Edo era, "Edo meisho zue" (I've mentioned about this book on Komagome Ogannon posting) introduce this area. This place has been loved by ancient people.

Unfortunatery, this stream was polluted by the gabage and sewage contamination after the WW2. Then the stream became underground culvert in the line of the community development program, and once the beautiful Otonashi river was disappeared. However, in 1988, the city government built a new water park here in response to the wishes of the residents. The Otonashi river was reborn as a park.

This park was selected as one of the best 100 urban park in Japan in 2000.

You can aproach there from Oji station(JR / Tokyo Metro Namboku-line) and Asukayama station (Tram).

I assure you that you can enjoy autum leaves now.