Visiting A Zoo In Winter

The outer temperature is only 10 degrees C, or 50 F, animals from Africa do not mind the cold.

Visitors can buy a small bag of food for specific animals. A giraffe gets pieces of vegetables with its long tongue.

No penguins play in the pool. Or  they might be waiting for some special joy coming.

Lemurs are from Madagascar. They have a beautiful stripe tail. I wonder it can be used as a neck scarf. Be careful not to get chilblains on ears. 

 This long-armed ape really has long arms. He suddenly extended his arm and I was almost robbed my camera. It was a close shave. Doesn't he need a camera manual?

A black cow is enjoying the warm sunshine.　

Autumn Colors Presented by Frogs and Ducks

 I enjoyed red maple leaves at a Japanese garden.

In ancient days, this kind of maple was called "frog hand". I am sure you agree to this imaginative naming.

 Ginkgo leaves also changed to golden yellow.

 In old China, this was called "duck web".

An aromatic citron "yuzu"has a lot of big fruits. This is too sour to eat. Its tangy citrus flavor is indispensable for winter dinners.  People put some in the bath in the night of the winter solstice.

Field of Buckwheat

I love to eat buckwheat noodles called "soba".  New flour has nutty smell stimulating my appetite.Next month, I can use it to make soba noodles by hand.

Lots of Stone Steps 很多石階

July and August I had a lot of work at the office and was much more tired than I expected. I prefered taking a rest and longer sleep to exercising. In the mid of this month, I took one week off to refresh myself. Everyone has their own ways of refreshing. As for me, it is to stimulate muscles. Due to lack of exercise, I had not sweated for a few weeks. I remembered the good place for exercising.

I drove my car to my destination. Sweating profusely, I went up many stone steps, step by step literally until I took a fresh deep breath.

Some Shinto shrines welcomed me and others who had finished going up.

I still had stamina to climb the mountain. I love good smell mixed with variety of trees. This straw rope with pieces of lightning shaped paper shows that the inside is a sacred zone.

A big cedar and the blue sky refreshed me, too. 
Thanks a lot.

Scientific workshops for engineers in the future 大学为孩子们举行的科学实验

Science departments of a university in my prefecture held workshops titled "Enjoy science".

This is called a passive walking robot which can walk with force of gravity alone, without motor on a running machine.

An old training airplane is exhibited.

This is one of two engines. The other was disassembled and displayed for students to understand structures.

An professor made some interesting experiments of liquid nitrogen. Its temperature is minus 196C degrees. Childrens have had a great fun.

He said air volume is changeable due to change of temperature.Two girls put a balloon in liquid nitrogen. The air inside the balloon rapidly shrunk because of refrigeration.

When a shrunk balloon was put out of the can, it gradually swelled.

Frogs and fishes are my old friends. 青蛙和小鱼都是我的老朋友。

Frog's eye is always sleepy or , it can be said, is concealing its curiosity to the outer world. If frogs had not been written in fairy tales, our childhood would have been less imaginative.

Quite a lot of small carps are grown in a water tank. A marking on the body changes in accordance with its growth. No one knows the final best marking at present. They look joyfully swimming without caring its colors. 这种鲤鱼被叫做“锦鲤”。

Swimming in the Sea 海水浴

Around 4 pm, we arrived at the beach. It was windy and waves are bigger due to a typhoon coming close. Notwithstanding, young guys went into the sea and enjoyed swimming, tossing a beach ball, jumping on waves.

There was a big tree on the beach. Where did it come from??

The beach has brought us a shout of joy.

In the night, a firework festival was held. Big sounds of explosion directly attacked my stomach. I get a special kick every time. lol

Short Trip by one hour drive

I visited a city in one hour car drive distance. This is a new Thai food restaurant . I ate tom yum goon, or shrimp soup in sour and hot flavors.

 In some areas in mountains, children still can swim in a clean water river. I was very surprised. They are favored with presents from nature!

 30 years ago, this area was prosperous with forestry. The left was a stone warehouse, the right was a sawmill.

Rice Fields in green waves

Since planting in end of April, rice plants have been growing favorably. They will soon open flowers with strong smell expecting good harvest in autumn.

             

          

                                          

This type of stone gate is called "torii", standing on the entrance of a divine area in Japan. This gate was made of tuff 200 years ago. 

This is a wheat flour cracker baked with black sesame only with salt, no sugar. I enjoy the delicious taste, drinking a cup of green tea.