Garlic Domestically Produced 日本大蒜

I often make spaghetti aglio e olio for breakfast. This time I got a big garlic produced in Japan. Its price is 398 Japanese Yen before taxation！　As the present consumption tax for food is 8%, the final price is 429 Yen. Garlics imported from Spain or Italy is 200 Yen. JPY 398 is equivalent to USD 3.46, AUD 4.77, HKD 27.06 and GBP 2.58. Do you buy domestic or imported one? I was wondering how much it would cost.

 It is 7 centimeters across in diameter and has 7 big cloves. Each clove is moist and has soft smell. Luckily, I cooked well with a clove of this domestic one.

Merry Christmas 聖誕節快樂

 I hope all of you enjoy this lovely holiday season in good health.

Old Rural House

This old straw-thatched house was built more than 150 years ago. Ninomiya Sontoku, a famous re-constructor of farming areas lived here. 

Last visit was in hot summer a few years ago. This time visit in late fall made me think about lives one and a half centuries ago. In the night, wooden sliding doors were pulled out in front of the wooden passageway and prevented the house from the coldness. In the morning, the doors were removed and the chilled air directly faced paper sliding doors.  

Residents warmed themselves at a few charcoal braziers put on tatami mats. There were no heater warmer than that. 

I think that old houses in this country were built suitable for hot and humid days alone.

There is the shrine for this re-constructor near his house. The tree of yellow leaves on the right side is ginkgo. Ginkyo is called "ichou". This pronunciation is based on Cantonese '鴨脚：duck foot". It's a good naming.

Red maple leaves feast visitor's eyes.