a long walk . . . to the front gate, live music, a waterfall and a delicious pre-birthday dinner

前川 お父さん。 no, this isn`t last year`s photo. this was today around noon. he was very happy to be out of his bed, and out of the house for the first time in 5 weeks since he returned from the hospital. he doesn't know or doesn't remember i am leaving tomorrow.


Tempo Feliz. 幸せ時間 　Happy Time. 　beautiful music from wonderful musicians. and did you hear me being interviewed on 81.6? i really wanted to say "thank you" to the Maekawa Family for once again letting me be a part of their Family this Ohanami 2010 but my "interview" didn`t last too long. maybe next time. thank you.


Minoo Taki (waterfall). finally, i made it to the falls for my second and last visit of this ohanami trip.



Tori-den. this is where Noriko took me for my birthday eve dinner. if we had come here tomorrow they would have given me a free dessert and sang "happy birthday" to me. maybe next year. for this cherry blossom visit, this will be my last dinner. gochisosama deshita. and honto ni arigatou gozaimashita. who will make my dinner with me on my birthday?

by the way . . .

it was around 34F when i left on my walk this morning.

it was my first time to be on the takimichi (waterfall trail) in February and i was happily surprised that there was still alot of green.

down

up

colorful forest sunstar

and it warmed up to around 40F by the time i was having my lunch in front of the Minoo Taki (waterfalls). there was ice about half way up on the right side of the falls. and yes, that is someone sitting very close to the falls. he is an o-henro (person on pilgrimage).

autumn blinge

i didn't make it to the beach as planned but i did get a few things done that needed my attention. tatoeba (for example) . . . a nap. and i paid my rent. and called Apple about my missing external hard drive. it was a nice Apple technician who told me about a website that does stuff like this to your photo . . .

can you see the falling autumn leaves? i was looking for some running water but couldn't find it. ok, those of you have been there know one of the leaves is falling from a tree which is not there.

homeward bound eve

one last photo from my last full day in Minoo

and two from yesterday at the waterfall

last walk to Minoo Taki and more, and less

tony and i left early this morning for Minoo Taki. we took a break in this little park after buying some pan from Isamu Bakery and Trattoria

i thought he was a statue at first. he reminded me of my Mother`s two Schnauser`s (in Doggie Heaven now) except he did not bark. he seemed very peaceful just watching the world and me walk by. i know the feeling.

saying goodbye to Takechi-san, Danny, Look and Popo.

Minoo Taki. i think this is very similar to the photo in yesterday`s newspaper

how much is that inu in the mado?

i think this is one of the cutest dancing dogs i have ever seen. and i believe he was on sale for about ￥140,000 at the Pet Station in the MyCal shopping mall in Ibaraki.

--------------------------------------11:59pm

guess where tony and i went today? and why were we a little late for another delicious dinner?

Yamato

still

still not happy with my camera that i bought in March.  i have just deleted hundreds of photos i took in May in Japan because . . . they are just not clear, not sharp, not focused (to me).  this is one of the better ones but still . . . i honestly do not feel like taking any more photos with this camera.  maybe i will try to contact the Canon service center today.  if you remember i went to the Canon service center in Osaka and was told my camera seems to be working fine.  tonikaku, i am not complaining, it's just a wee bit frustrating not to be able to take as nice a photo as i did with my old Canon 35mm.  more later.  time for breakfast and another gray start to the day. and  i will finish watching Ima, Ai ni Yukimasu.  and i think i will get my haircut today.  and "get organized".  it rained again last night around 230am.  and i know that because . . . i was awake at 230a and 445am and then again at 555am.  yawnnnnnn. あくび。

箕面滝　Minoo Waterfall

oh, and i need to call Doug back.  he is the nice Apple technician that helped me to transfer my iPhoto library to my external hard drive in order to free up tons of space on my iMac.  it took a couple of hours and i fell asleep before i could call him back.  it seems to have worked fine so now i need to delete all the photos in my iPhoto library but i want to make sure they are safe and secure in my external hard drive.  he also suggested a second external hard drive so i may go check on that today.  and it may be a teriyaki chicken day.

take a hike

i`ve lost my keys

today was another beautiful day for a little walk. once i started walking on the trail to the waterfall, i decided to walk all the way to Katsuo-ji (temple). here are a few images from my walk.

Minoo taki (waterfall)

this is where i stopped for lunch

(yes, it is upside down. yes, it is all reflection)


wild fujii (wisteria)

Katsuo-ji

daruma and more daruma

where`s Tony?

back to yesterday. before the "street live" at Senri-chuo there was a special event featuring actor/singer/model Tamaki Hiroshi

meeting fans and promoting his new cd, Times.

Omoware

Kazoku-kun