picture

Last Sunday, I drove to Art-Kan in Gojo with my parents to have my picture taken in a kimono because I didn't attend coming-of-age ceremony. I was taken to the 3rd floor to choose kimono. A lot of kimonos were lying in front of a big mirror. The kimono I put on first was simple one with few design on its bottom. The next was red one which had more pattern and gradation of red, purple to black. I chose it and went downstairs.
On the second floor I had staffs help me with putting on kimono, and set my hair. While they took about 30 pictures, I was choked with tight kimonos and obi. After it, I put off kimono and chose the pictures to develop with my parents. It was like a torture... because in some of my pictures I looked very strange!
It takes about 3 weeks to be received so I haven't seen the developed pictures. I'm waiting for it half in delight, half in fear.

time capsule

Today was the day to dig up a time capsule. When my elementary school days, our teachers planned to bury a time capsule before the graduation. I was handed a piece of paper, and wrote and drew whatever I wanted to on it.
It was eight years since I visited there last. I went there at 1p.m. and met friends in front of the school gate. Some of them greatly changed but most of girls' voices didn't change, so I felt curious that unfamiliar faces had familiar voices. Every boy grew taller and had a low voice.
After digging up the capsule, we went to a multipurpose room and were distributed a piece of paper each. Some of them were wet with mud, so we had to dry them carefully before spreading.
I talked with old friends and teachers few hours about memories and current lives. Some were university students, some had already started working. I had a great time today.

First visit to a shrine

Today I paid my first visit of this year to Fushimi Inari Shrine with my father. There are about 30000 Inari Shrines in Japan, and each shrine is famous for the god of business prosperity. The shrine I went is the head of them which has fourth largest people during the first three days of the new year.
Though today was January 4th and many people resumed working, I saw many people on the way there. I thought that many visitors from other prefectures crowded there from January 1st to 3rd, so people near there waited until today.
When we reached Fushimi Inari station, many people waited the railroad crossing opened. The station had some extra ticket gates, and station employees conducted people.
The inside of the precincts was like a kind of festival. Many booths stood side by side, and the way to the shrine was filled with pleasant scents and voices to call visitors. As we approached the shrine, it got harder and harder to walk freely because of waves of people. Somehow managed to reach the main shrine, we rand the bell, tossed coins into the offering box, clapped, and prayed for this year's health and happiness.

winter solstice

Yesterday we had much snow everywhere in Japan. When I woke up and went out, everything around my apartment was painted white with snow. I was surprised because it's rare to snow here in December.
It snowed so much that people in some cities in Niigata prefecture had blackout because of snowstorm. It snowed in even Kagoshima prefecture which is most in the south except Okinawa.
It was also winter solstice yesterday. On this day many Japanese eat pumpkin and take a bath with yuzu orange which has delightful scent. It's one of Japanese customs and it's said that you won't catch a cold if you do them. Both of them have the power to make people warm, so it's really useful for prevention of a cold. Since I like both very much, I enjoyed winter solstice.

horror story

I like to read books very much, but I rarely read horror stories. However, I sometimes come to want to read them, so this time, I read Kuroi Ie (The Black House) written by Kishi Yusuke and won the Japan Horror Nobel prize for 1997.
It was a story about insurance fraud. No monster, ghost or bizarre phenomenon was in this story, but it was a very scary story. I realized that the most horrible monster was in human's mind.
I finished reading, and it was the beginning of my fear. Whenever I walked in the dark, I felt as if the bloodthirsty killer in the story was around me. Whenever I opened doors, I imagined the killer waiting for me with a big bloody knife. It's my habit. It's why I hardly read such stories. Though I was released from the fear gradually recently, I don't want to read them for a while.

murder at Uji City

Recently, crimes committed against children have been increasing. In Tochigi and Hiroshima prefecture, first-year elementary school students were killed. And last yesterday, I saw the news that a teacher of Kyoshin cram school killed one of his students. I was greatly shocked because the murder happened in Uji City near my home, I went to the cram school when I was a junior high school student, and now I'm a teacher of a cram school.
Today, I received a mail about the incident from the head of my workplace, and it was filled with tension. After I finish writing this blog, I'll go there and teach. I'm anxious about how children feel about the incident and coming to cram school.

Chinese license examination

I took Chinese license examination on November 27 at Ritsumeikan University. The university is northeast of my house, and the area is surrounded by red and yellow leaves in autumn. I was afraid that I couldn't reach there because of traffic jam, (there are famous sites like Kitano-Tenmangu Shirine and Kinkakuji Temple near the university.) but I could.
It was my first visit Ritsumeikan Univ. What I was surprised at was the size of the university. I took some pictures with my cellular phone.



I saw beautiful leaves turning red and yellow on the way there.