cute school bus

Calligraphy class

More about Japanese calligraphy here on my other blog.

seen on Orion-dori

route 6

a.k.a. Kanuma Inter Dori

This is a Skywatch Friday entry.

Finally a place that tells it like it is

Carb Cafe:

view from the balcony

Yeah, not much to look at, but hey, the rent is cheap. Very cheap.

This is a Watery Wednesday entry.

Santa?

as far as I could tell this store had nothing to do with Santa, or xmas.

they were all silver anyway

and it was cloudy, so it was already practically black and white.

"v" the people

it's automatic here. You point a camera at any random group of people and they all do it immediately. Pavlov's dogs come to mind.

Lawson station

I love konbinis...

Lawson Station convenience store sign downtown.

A blog post about Japanese konbinis (convenience stores) is here.

You look up to force a sneeze

and this is what you see:
in Mashiko.

This is a Skywatch Friday entry.

When you don't have a balcony

(or a tumble dryer):

and yes, that is an old fashioned TV antenna in the background.

driving to work

in the rain....

Yes, that's the famous Nikko Road.

This is a Watery Wednesday entry.

Feeding the birds at Futara shrine

Grandpa goes to war

From the family album:

Taken in Utsunomiya on Showa 19, March 22 (March 22, 1944). 65 years ago.



This is a Monochrome Monday entry.

Paseo

Plane nan

it flies, I guess...

what it says on the sign

A very random collection of drinking and eating places. Some of them are rather eclectic, like a Paraguayan-Korean restaurant. One of these days I'll muster up the courage to eat there, LOL.

our street at night

a boring photo, yes, I know, but this is what our street looks like.

river view in Kanuma

This is a Watery Wednesday entry.

big hip

at least, I suppose, they're honest. Because that's where all the calories go, right?

Black car white cat

Utsunomiya gyoza matsuri 2009

宇都宮餃子祭り2009, because even dumplings need its very own festival, especially in Utsunomiya:

yep, that's gyoza, Japanese pierogis of sorts.

at the Min-Min stand the wait was about 1 hour. We went to a different stand and only waited about 30 minutes. No pics of actual dumplings, because that stuff is made to be eaten, not photographed.

This, on the other hand, was made to be photographed. Our very lame but very famous gyoza statue. Yep, in this town we have a statue to honor a dumpling.

Wrote about it here.

Halal kebab in Utsunomiya?

No worries, we've got that covered too:

skywatch friday

somewhere in rural Tochigi



and just a few minutes later:

clay heaven

that is Mashiko:

 

a potter's (or a potterer's?) dream (nightmare?):

 

a plate lover's dream (or a nightmare):

 

and just a nightmare:

 

this is what Mashiko looks like twice a year:
It turns into one huge marketplace for all things clay.

at the semi-annual pottery market in Mashiko

The unofficial Mashiko mascot:

now, I don't know about you, but the breasts and the penis always get me confused.

and its ceramic version:



and this is where I'd gladly put it - behind bars:

Need a taxi?

in front of Utsunomiya JR station

I'm using a new computer and I don't really like how the photos look on the new display. So bear with me, because it will be a trial and error process to get them looking all nice and snazzy again.

And yes, we are back on line! woot! woot!