"Suisougakusai"

Last Saturday, my son took part in "Chikuhou Suisougaku-sai"（筑豊吹奏楽祭） as a member of his brass band and I saw their performance with my wife. This is a part of a bouchure of this event.

It was held in the city of "Iizuka"（飯塚） that is far about 50minutes by car from my house. "Chikuhou"（筑豊）　is the name of this area that had many coal mines and prospered in the past. But now, this area has no remarkable industry and its unemployment rate is relatively higher.

But, I saw a lot of students who took part in this festival and thought that this area has had good culture and trend.

a lot of "Ume"

Last Sunday, I harvested a lot of "ume" fruits in my yard. The amount of them were larger than I expected.

I brought them to my parents and asked them to make "Ume-shu"（梅酒）. It is very familiar alcohol-based drink among Japanese people.

"Maguro-no-Kaitai-show"

When I took a short stop during bike-ride last Saturday at a souvenir shop and restaurant in Ashiya-machi, "Maguro-no-Kaitai-show"（マグロの解体ショー） was held there.

It is a kind of entertainment that shows a process of taking a big tuna apart. It is often held at a food store or a food corner in a department store in order to gather people.

They started selling a piece of tuna, but I did not buy it. Because its price was higher than I expected and I did not have a good container to bring it back home.

nutella

Some days ago, finally, I found the "nutella" paste at a store near my office. I had been looking for it for a long time because I had strongly wanted to try it.

It was introduced on a blog site that my Italian friend on the Internet had written. She said in her blog that she could not imagine a life without "nutella".

"Nutella" was good, and I enjoyed it very much.

By the way, I am sorry that I have not read a new archive on her blog since the middle of this March because she has stopped writing it. I have strongly desired that she has re-started her blog, but no one knows when she starts it.

In Japanese sayings, there is "便り（たより）のないのは良い便り". In direct translation, "There is no access from my family members, friends or acquaintances, it means good news". In my translation, "There is no bad news about him (or her), because there is no problem on his (or her) life now. In other words, if he (or she) has been in bad situation, someone must tell me about his (or her) bad news."

I think that this Japanese saying does not meet this situation.

P.S. My friend on the net taught me a good English expression, "No news is good news". Thanks.

"Kouhaku-bou"

On May 25, my daughter's primary school hold its athletic meet. All children wear their caps named "Kouhaku-bou"（紅白帽）. There are two ways of its use. If a child belongs "Aka-gumi"（赤組）, he (or she) uses the red side of it, if "Shiro-gumi"（白組）, he (or she) uses the opposite side, the white side.

I don't know the accurate history of "Kouhaku-bou", but probably, primary schools in Japan have used it for more than forty, or fifty years.