Kayaking on the Chuzenji-ko lake, Nikko, Tochigi prefecture

Hi! Long time no see. How have you been? All of my family, including Lee, are all OK.

It's already been mid September, but even now the highest temperature are over 30 degree Celsius here in Tokyo. Zee. Where is autumn?
喂，好久不见了。你好吗？我们一家，包含Lee，都很好。
已经九月中旬了，可是天气还闷热，在这儿东京最高温度还是30度以上啊。嘿, 秋天在哪里呀？

To escape from such hot weather, I went to Nikko Chuzenji-ko lake with my daughter and her friends on September 2nd, yeah, just like a teacher of a summer school. We joined a Kayaking school there.
为了逃避这些闷热的天气，9月2号我带我女儿和她朋友去日光中禅寺湖玩玩儿, 对了，好像暑期学校的领导老师。在那里我们参加了皮艇班。

We joined a beginner class. At first, we learned how to use a paddle.

The weather of Chuzenji-ko area was cool，but unfortunately, heavy rain, but it was no problem, we were going to get drenched to the skin on the lake anyway.

我们参加了初学者班。最先，我们学了怎么划艇。

那天在那里的天气比较凉快，但是很遗憾，下大雨了，可是没关系，反正这几分之后我们在湖上成了落汤鸡。

   

The beginner's kayak is very stable and easy to control. You can enjoy it from the beginning.

初学者用皮艇是非常安定，容易活动。你肯定从开始高兴地划艇。

It was calm and beautiful on the water, I was satisfied wonderful nature, felt relaxed,,,,

湖上又非常平静又很漂亮，我高兴地欣赏了大自然，觉得很放松，，，

,, then, suddenly, girls and kayaking staff started a water battle!
，，然后女儿们和导游突然开始打水仗了玩儿了！




You can join this kayaking course from the website below.
要是你们想参加这个皮艇班，从下面记的网页能预订。

Tochigi Kayak Center  (Sorry! Japanese only)

They provide a half day course for beginners, and a full day touring for experiencer. If you have any experience of riding kayak, you can join a full day touring.
他们提供“初学者班（半天）”，和“有经验者班（整天）”。你只要有只一次的划皮艇的经历，就可以参加有经验者班。

Well experienced and trained staffs support our activity safely. Oh, I almost forgot to add very important thing. They kindly take photos during the kayaking. All of the photos placed here are provided by them. Many thanks for all of your support, Tencho and Yukarin!
有多经验的、培训的导游安全地陪我们去到湖上玩儿。对了，我差一点忘记了很重要的事情。划艇之中他们给我们拍照。这儿的照片都是他们拍的。Tencho, Yukarin, 谢谢你们的帮助！

You can enjoy kayaking from the end of April to early November. Chuzenji-ko area is very famous for that beautiful autumn leaves. Enjoying the red and crimson colored mountains from the center of the calm lake, that must be gorgeous!
皮艇班的营业期间是从4月底起到11月上旬。中禅寺湖地方以那儿的红叶也很有名。从湖上欣赏漫山遍野的红叶，那一定让人陶醉了！

(Today, I tried to write this blog in English and Mandarin. I’d very appreciate it if you would point out my grammatical error or inappropriate word usage for both descriptions (English/Mandarin). Xiexie!)

Walking around Beijing

Last week I went to Beijing on the business trip. That was very short stay, just three days, but very impressive trip.

Beihai Park

The temperature was sub-zero. The lake of Beihai was covered with thick ice.

China was the country where I dearly wanted to go. Around 30 years ago, I lived in a dormitory of high school. One of the teacher who lived with us was very good at speaking Chinese (Mandarin) and taught me Mandarin and Chinese literature. Since then, I have been thinking how wonderful if I could get the opportunity of business in China. Now, my dream is about becoming true.

Tienanmen Square


My free time was very limited, just only the 1st day’s night and the last day’s morning. In addition to that, my camera's battery went dead. So I cannot introduce you so many photos. Sorry.

Tzuchingch`eng Palace


In the most of places, I had to communicate with people in Mandarin because they didn't understand English or Japanese. I realized that my Mandarin worked. (^^)


Subway cars and stations were very clean.

Don't jump in!!!

Wangfujing shaochijie (Wangfujing snack town)


Goubuli restaurant.
I had heard that "bao-zi" of Goubuli wass very good, but I didn't know that there are two types of Goubuli. One of them is decent restaurant and another one is fast food shop. I took my colleague to the latter, the fast food Goubuli. Actually, the price was very reasonable, but taste was mmmm.... if you want to have a good food, I recommend you to go to the another Goubuli. Anyway we enjoyed Beijing fast food.

I ordered three glasses of beer (Pi-jiu san bei), but I got three bottles of beer(Pi-jiu san ping). I need to improve my Mandarin.


Zaijian, Beijing. I will be back.

Sakura blooming in February / Kawazu-zakura @Harimazaka park

In early February, Lee and I went to the Harimazaka park. As I posted before, there is well known as a good place for enjoying Sakura (Cherry blossom). But, as you are aware, the best season of Sakura is the end of March to early April. So, we had not expected we could see the Sakura blossom in February…..

?!

Wow! Sakura is blooming!

This is “Kawazu-zakura”, Prunus lannesiana Wils. cv. Kawazu-zakura. A kind of Sakura which was found at Kawazu, Shizuoka pref. in 1955. It starts to bloom in the end of January. Botanists estimate they were produced by natural crossbreeding between Kan-hi-zakura and Oshima-zakura.

As you can see, these petals have deeper pink color than the popular Sakura (Somei-Yoshino).

In Kawazu-cho, the home town of this Sakura, the “Kawazu-zakura Matsuri” festival has been held until March 10th. I found the homepage of this festival.
http://www.kawazuzakura.net/index.html
Unfortunately they don’t seem to have English page, but you can enjoy the Sakura trees via Live camera.

http://www.kawazuzakura.net/html/sakuralives.html

Speaking of Kawazu-cho, that was located in the Izu peninsula and famous for the Onsen (hot spring), wasn't that? Why don't we go there and take a good Onsen, Shige?

Ice skating / Nikko, Tochigi pref.

We joined the ice skating tour to Nikko from 12th to 13th January.
This is an annual event what my parent’s friends have held every January for several years (decades?) (Last years tour is here (click)). We stayed again at Nikko Kanaya Hotel. Old but well maintained facilities, great services and comfortable atmosphere of Hotel welcomed us as usual. The only thing what we surprised because it was “unusual” was that … the ice skate rink of Hotel was not available! It was not enough for skating. The skate rink there is a natural rink where you can enjoy skating in crisp air. We were looking forward to skating there, but we could not. It might be the effect of Global Warming.
So, we went to indoor skate rink, which is located in Imaichi city.

Anyway, despite the rink, another highlight of this tour was the hotel dinner. Every year I had tried to take photos of the full course, but I could do that because it was very tough to control my mind when I saw big meal. Every year, I had to say “AH!” after enjoying the dinner. But finally, this year , I could manage to control myself and took some photos of them. OK, I will introduce the Kanaya hotel’s preimier grand gru dinner!

This is the Menu for Today

1. Hors-d’oevure

White material on the plate is Yuba. Tofu skin. You can produce it from the boiling soy milk as film like material. This is the coagulation of the soy bean’s protein. Kana and I (and many Japanese and Chinese) love that texture and the flavor. This is one of the Nikko’s specialties.

2. Gobou (Burdock) potage soup
I am sorry there is no pic of this soup. I forgot about taking photo. To tell the truth, I had assumed that gobou (burdock) was the foodstuff for Japanese food, this French style soup with gobou was a kind of sensation for me. It was delicious with great flavor.

3. Saute of Rainbow Trout Kanaya-style
I am so sorry I could not stop eating before taking picture! Please allow me to introduce the skeleton model of rainbow trout.

Instead of that, let me introduce the looks-delicious photo from the Hotel broacher.

This is my most favorite fish cuisine. The detailed explanation is in the photo (please click the photo to read it). You can also have it for lunch, too. I think its worth more than the price. Please try it!

4. Fillet steak
This beef is also the specialty of Nikko area.


5. Dessert

Gochisousama deshita ! (We really enjoyed the meal)

It was snowing during the night.

Next morning, we went to the Hotel skate rink to check the ice condition.

My daughter stand by the closed ice skate rink with regretful look..

You can see the skating scene here(last year's posting).

Anyway, we were satisfied the stay. We will come again for skating here next January.

Hotel homepage is listed at the end of the previous Kanaya posting (click).

BTW, according to the weblog of Hotel staff, the ice skate rink is available now.

Reunion @ Chinatown (2) / Yokohama

(Continued from previous posting)
Let me show you other photos I took at Yokohama Chinatown.

Kantei byou(in mandarin: Guan Di Miao) is located in the center of the Chinatown. This temple enshrines the historical hero Kan-u(Guan Yu). As my friend Kazu mentioned in his comment on the previous posting, you can see Kantei byou temple in most of the Chinatown all around the world.

Kan-u was a real warload of ancient China who was active in the end of 2 centuries ~ the beginning of 3rd centuries. And also, he is a very popular character in the historical novel Sangoku-shi (Sanguozhi Yanyi / Three Kingdom Saga).

Here is a question; why is the famous warrior Kan-u enshrined by Chinatown people although most of them are not military personnels but restaurant owners or merchants? Why do they pray to a warrior?
They say there are several reasons.
At1st, Kan-u has been a very attractive and popular hero. Chinese people(and other people who have read Sangoku-shi; including me) love Kan-u. That is why they have enshrined him.
2ndary, Kan-u has been credited with a person of honor who had a loyal heart. I heard that ancient Chinese people thought it was the most important part in their business, then, Kan-u became a god of business.
Does it make sense?

Can you see his face? I heard that his red face means loyal.

He had a long and beautiful whisker and was called Bizen-kou (Mei ran gong / Sir Handsome Whisker(?). Sorry for my awful translation. I would appreciate it, if anybody could tell me an appropriate English name. )

Kantei byou official site(Japanese)