In the middle of Japan

 My sister and I went to Cape Irago, the tip of Atsumi Peninsula in Tahara city 2-hours' drive from my hometown, which is located in Mikawa Bey Quasi-national Park. My sister lives in the nearby city, I picked her up on our way to Tahara city. There is a cycling road along the coast, bicycle rental is available at the rest shop in the cape. We rent each bike there, headed for the lighthouse at first, which is selected as one of 50 beautiful lighthouses in Japan. Then, we headed for the area where you are able to see the picturesque coastal view..., but before enjoying the beautiful scenery, we stopped by the restaurant, "Manpachiya" offering local seafood dishes and had a set lunch of large clams. Wow! 8cm large clams on the top-right 😋 We got full, let's get started cycling again!  This is "Hii-no-Sekimon" (sunrise stone gate in the literal translation), erosion has created the large hole in the rock. 👉👉👉👉👉👉👉👉 A tanker is passing over there....grea...

After fossil digging, we went to Oniiwa Park (Demon Rock Park) near Mizunami city. It is the scenic area of various large rocks and it has the cave which it is said that the demon lived in, that is the origin of the park name. And recently one cracked rock is said to resemble the cut rock by Tanjiro in “Demon Slayer (Kimetsu No Yaiba)”, the worldwide popular Manga, the park has several hiking trails. As we followed the hiking trail, found a very large, cracked rock. The crack is big, this picture is like Moses parting the sea. 😲 And we walked through the crack, there it is, the cut rock by Tanjiro! There are other unique rocks here. The rock is going to fall!😱  Don't worry, it's stood since long ago. It is called "Lucky Rock" (because it hasn't fallen yet), a deity is believed to reside. We enjoyed beautiful scenery of rocks!

 My kids and I went to Mizunami city in Gifu Prefecture about 1 hour drive on the express way from our hime on the public holiday (It was a working day for my husband, that was too bad…). Mizunami city is famous for fossils, many fossils have been found there.  Mizunami fossil museum holds fossil digging, my daughter’d always wanted to do it. At first, we went to the museum to know a lot more about fossils and applied for digging. Then, we moved to the River Toki where we dug fossils. We brought hummers, chisels and goggles from home as the museum guidance. We had dug for one and a half hours, but found only plant fossils or parts of shells. Actually, the kids wanted to find rare fossils such as whole shells or shark teeth. We had just cracked rocks… Fossil digging was the first time for us, though it was tough, but fun! I will post Oniiwa park (Demon rock park in the literal translation) near the city in the next blog!

 The Japan’s national broadcaster, NHK makes the annual year-long historical drama about one historical person’s life. And the next year’s person is Tokugawa Ieyasu, who was born and a feudal load in our city, Okazaki! He subjugated the whole nation and established the last feudal military government in Edo (Tokyo at present). His subjugation ended the long disturbances in the country, the government’d kept the peace without wars in 265 years from 1603 to 1868 of the era. The various cultures and arts flourished in the peaceful mood:  Kabuki, Ukiyo-e (woodblock print), Sushi, Tempura and Soba noodle, which is believed as traditional Japanese cultures at present. My daughter took part in a swimming tournament this day, my son and I went to the castle where Ieyasu was born. The area around the castle is Okazaki Park, the inside of the castle is the museum.  Okazaki Castle We stopped by the famous Udon noodle shop called “Taishouan” near the castle. We ordered the No.1 menu;...

My family goes skiing every year, this was the second time in this season. I’ve been skiing many times,   but the snow astonished me this day. I saw snow crystals for the first time. We have a severe winter this year, one day 1 degree Celsius was the highest temperature in a day in our town (the average is 8 or 9 degrees.), it was the coldest day in a few decades as far as I remember, and the humidity’s been very low. And it snowed a lot in mountain areas, every flake of snow didn’t connect each other, we were able to see snow crystals. Snow crystals on my daughter's glove  Takasu snow park is located in Gifu Prefecture, 2-hour drive on the express way from our town and the top of the slope is at the 1,550-meter height above the sea level, it is one of the biggest ski resorts in Western Japan. It is adjacent to Dynaland ski resort, which is also one of the biggest ski resorts in Western Japan, you can ski down both ski resorts with a common ticket. My kids had a snow...