Latest news about the swallow's nest

Last Friday, I found a board fixed to the wall below the swallow's nest. I don't know about its main aim. But, I think that this shop's owner wants to avoid swallow's waste down on the front of the shop.

photo taken in the event

I received this photo taken in "Tour de Kunisaki" from a company that serves participant's photos of many sports event. I had ordered it to the company through the Internet several days ago. It costs 1575 yen, including consumption tax.

I was a little bit disappointed with this photo (when I looked at it) because I did do not look worse than I thought as good as I thought I did.（思ったよりかっこ良くなかった。）

"mugi-batake"

In recent years, we have more chance to find "mugi-batake"（麦畑） wheat (barley) fields. They have served good color in country side, I think.

I don't know whether these fields are wheat or barley fields. But, I have heard that wheat for bread cannot be planted in Kyushu area, so these are wheat for "udon" or "rah-men", or barley for beer.

The government's subsidy system helps farmers increase the area of their wheat fields, I think.

"kossori-dou"

There is this sign on my way for bike. It lets me grin every time I see it. What does this mean?

"Kossori"（こっそり） is an adverb that means "secretly". "Dou"（堂） means several things, but in this case, it means a shop.

The answer is a shop that sells videos (DVD) for adult. And, in this case, they are sold through vending machines.

People can buy "kossori" videos, without seeing any clerks.

It is a little bit difficult for many parents to explain these kind of signs to their children.

"tamago-kake-gohan"

"Tamago-kake-gohan"（卵かけご飯） is a simple cooking.　To make it, people put raw egg with soy sauce on a hot rice.

Today, we can use something special as a seasoning instead of soy sauce.

Right is "tamago-kake-gohan-sennyou-furikake"（卵かけごはん専用ふりかけ）. It means a special solid seasoning for raw egg and rice. Several days ago, I bought it, but it is not better than I expected.

Center is a special soy sauce for "tamago-kake".

Left is a special seasoning for "sanuki-udon"（讃岐うどん）. I bought it in Kagawa prefecture on our family trip in early April. Its name is "Sanuki-udon-kare-udon-dasi"（讃岐うどんカレーうどんだし）. It is mainly used with "udon", but we can use it as a seasoning for "tamago-kake", and I think it is the best in this three seasonings for "tamago-kake".

Swine inful

This picture is a part of NHK's news at 1pm today. The number of people infected with swine inful is increasing in Japan.

Have the virus that causes this influenza come from Mexico? I think that this virus has already existed in Japan several month ago. And now many people have suspected that they are infected with it and have received inspections. As result, many infected cases are being found.

rebuilding a nest

I reported a poor swallow in my last entry. But, today, I have a good news.

On my way to my office this morning, , I found that she was rebuilding her nest.

I had thought that she might have given up rebuilding it, but it was wrong.

This scene made me happy and let me reconsider about the power of living things.

a poor swallow

A swallow is this season's representative bird in Japan.

Several days ago, I found several pieces of wastes on the ground on my way to my office.

At first, I could not find out what they were. But, later, I understood what happened. A swallow's nest dropped down on the ground.

I didn't know why it dropped, but I felt sorry for her.

"e-tegami"

My mother-in-law's hobby is drawing an "e-tegami"（絵手紙）. Today, we received a postcard with this painting from her. (I gave peas picked in my garden to her several days ago.)

"Mirror for Americans; Japan"

Finally, I finished reading a book named "Mirror for Americans; Japan". This book contains a lot of suggestions that let us think about why Japan had gone into the war, and the world situation around Japan in those days.

I would like more American to read it. If it had been widely read by people in America, the number of victims in Vietnam and Iraque might have been smaller.

I looked for some archives about "Mirror for Americans" in the Internet, but I could find it in only Wikipedia wrtten in Japanese. So, I try to translate its summary of the website into English. (I welcome your correction to my bad English.)

Since Pearl Harbor attack, we, American have believed that Japanese had been warlike people since the pre-modern age. But, we can say that Japan was the most pacifism-like country in comparison with any western countries in the same time when we examine the history of Japan in pre-modern age.

After opening the county, in the process of the achievement of modernisation, Japan had learned the behaviors of the Western developed countries in the international stage, and it was educated to obey "the rule of Western" faithfully. As that result, it was natural that Japan had changed dramatically an imperialism nation.

Since then, Japan's behavior that looked war-like and invasive could be said "a mirror" that reflected our, Westerner's behavior themselves, and America was not as innocent and fair as it had a right to judge Japan.

The idea of "The Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere " was one of "legal fiction"s , but "legal fiction" was widely recognized as "the rule of Western" as much as "Monroe doctrine" of America.

And more, before the war, and during the war, when an international conflict happened, people in developed countries paid their attention to only its legal side, not humanitarian side.

It was hypocrisy that Westerners accused Japan of humanitarian responsibility about "Korea under Japanese", "Mukden incident" after the war. In fact, there was no country that officially announced humanitarian anxiety against Japanese policy, Western countries blamed Japan by using words that claimed their legality.

My anxiety

In recent days, China has become a huge country, it means that it has great economic, and military forces power. So, I have worried that China is becoming a thread to Japan and other countries. My anxiety might have become a real thing.

I found this article in Asahi newspaper on May 4. It said that the Rudd administration released a plan that the country would have more weapons against China in twenty years.

Human beings are not becoming wiser although technology is developing very well, I think.

"Mame-gohan"

Today's dinner was "mame-gohan"（豆ご飯）. Of course, these peas were from my garden. I like it very much. But, unfortunately, my son and daughter do not like it.

another result

On May 5, my friend who took part in "Tour de Kunisaki" with me sent an e-mail with this photo by using his cell phone. On that day, he went fishing with another friend. He is a good rider and a great fisherman!

"Tour de Kunisaki" '09

On May 3, I took part in "Tour de Kunisaki"（ツールド国東） that is a cycling event held in "Kunisaki "peninsula（国東半島） with my friend. This was my third participation in a row.


At the opening ceremony, the chief stuff said that the participants was about 2900 people this year, about 1000 people more than last year.


The start time of B course was 9:20, and I came back to the start point (its goal) at 15:40. The record time included short rests at two aide points. I was satisfied with the result at this time because I could run about thirty minutes shorter than last year. And, I could enjoy this event more than last year because of less tiredness.

My friend took part in the A course that is 160km long. He also finished the race in limited time (8hours), but he was in a little bit dangerous situation in several minutes before goal. He said that he might have been in shortage of sugar in blood.(hunger knock?)（低血糖？）

On our way to our accommodation, we used an onsen that is relatively small and used mainly by local folks to clean and heal our tired bodies. Its entry fee was only 320yen.

After that, we got to the accommodation named KIORA COTTAGE that is operated by a woman from New Zealand.

We were welcomed by her husband who is a very tall Japanese man, their two pretty children and of course, her. We had a very good conversation eating good dishes that she made. It included several things of New Zealand, the difference between two country's culture and education system, the 100km walk that her husband participated last year, and etc.

We had a good sleep with very comfortable beds.

Next morning, her husband had already left for his extra job at the town' s festival when we had a breakfast. We had a good conversation again.After that, she showed us her organic garden. We were very impressed by its good conditions, many kind of vegetables, especially beehives and a chicken house.

On our way back to Kitakyushu area, we talked that we had a really valuable experience at KIORA COTTAGE.

I could enjoy this holiday because of a good bike event and meeting with a warm family, I think.

"Tour de Kunisaki" & a good accommodation