by Yuji Ozawa (Japanese site)
You are the th guest of my site. (since99/02/10)
Kamiooka NOVA
NOVA was the largest English conversation school in Japan, but this school went bankrupt last year. Now 161 new NOVA school has opened, these schools are operated by G-communication group.
Near my home, there was one NOVA school (Kamiooka school), but now this NOVA school is still out of service.
I met many foreigners at near Kamiooka station, and some of them are teacher of this school. But recently, I rarely meet foreigners around Kamiooka station.
I went up in the stairs. The shutter was closed at the entrance of the second floor.
Where does a former English teacher of this school live now? I worry about whether they can live now. ( Former Kamiooka NOVA English teacher Tanya on TV.)
Tokai-do Walking (From Shizuoka to Kanaya [Last Half] )
March 15th, I stayed Hotel at Fujieda city, then next day I walked from Fujieda to Kanaya. The highlight of this course is Ooi-gawa (The Ooi river). In Edo Period, there was no bridge on this river, then all people have to use Watashi. See below picture.
Wooden bridge was made in Meiji Era, but this bridge was very narrow. Horai-bashi (Horai bridge) is one of this bridge which is existing now.
There's a big iron bridge at present, and many cars and bicycles go over the river.
Kanaya is west side of Ooi-gawa(The Ooi river). Kanaya is the 24th Shuku of Tokai-do 53 Tsugi. (53 Stations of Tokai-do. )
Tokai-do Walking (From Shizuoka to Kanaya)
Tokai-do is the road from Tokyo to Kyoto. In Edo Period (17th century --> 19th century) there were ancient five roads. Tokai-do was the most important road, because in this period Capital of Japan was Kyoto, and Edo (now it is called Tokyo.) was a bases of Tokugawa Bakufu.
Now between Tokyo and Kyoto, there're 2 railroads (Tokai-do line and Shinkan-sen [New Tokai-do line] ), highway, national road and so on. If we take Shinkan-sen Express, it takes only 2 hours and twenty minutes. But in Edo Period people had to walk about 2 weeks. And most difficult problem is crossing a river, because there was no bridge. Tokugawa Bakufu prohibited making a bridge because of military point of view. Ooi-gawa (The Ooi river) was the check point of Tokai-do road.
Now I'm trying to walk Tokai-do. I started Nippon-bashi (the start point of Tokai-do road at Tokyo. ) on May 2007, and I have already walked from Tokyo to Shizuoka city. (about 190 km [ kilo-meters] ) This weekend, I went Shizuoka, and I walked from Shizuoka to Kanaya (about 33 km).
[ Chouji-ya ] (Ancient restaurant)
Chouji-ya is a restaurant at Mariko-shuku. Shuku means station. (Some people say Juku instead of Shuku.) In Edo Period, there were 53 shuku on Tokai-do road then we call it Tokai-do 53 Tsugi. (53 Stations of Tokai-do. ) Mariko is the 20th Shuku of Tokai-do.
Chouji-ya is famous for Tororo-Jiru (grated yam soup). Upper picture, inside of the left bowl is Tororo-Jiru. It's very delicious. (The content of right bowl is rice.) Many farers visited Chouji-ya on March 15th.
Ohkura-Yama (Park in Yokohama city)
Ohkura-Yama is a small hill park in Yokohama city. This park is 5 minutes walk from Ohkura-Yama station, and this station is ten minutes from Yokohama station by Tokyu Toyoko-line.
Japan has four seasons, and each season many tree blossoms blooms. Japanese plum tree is a tipical tree blossom of February.
'Haku-bai' means white Japanese plum. This type is typical Japansee plum trees.
'Kou-bai' means red Japanese plus. The number of 'Kou-bai' is less than that of 'Haku-bai'. But it looks very colorful, and it is very beautiful.
I love these small lovely blossoms.
This day (2/24), festival is held in this park. Upper picture is Japanese dance performed by lady who wears Kimono (Japanese traditional wears) .
Touka (Chinese restaurant at Yokohama China-Town)
[ visited date = 16th Feb. ]
'Shnsetsu' is Chinese new year holidays. Every February, Festival is opened at Yokohama China-Town. The main event is 'Ryu-mai', this means Dragon dance. Below picture is taken at Yamashita-cho park, and this is performed by high school students of Kobe ichi-ritsu commercial school.
I visited Chinese restaurant 'Touka' on the Shanghai Street. This restaurant serves us Shanghai-dish named as 'Kousetsu-Ryouri'. This day I selected course of 'Dim sum' which are group of small cooking.
First dish is 'Harumaki', it means spring roll and its picture is below. Outside is fried skin, and inside is many kind of ingredients and they are hot and soft.
Below picture is 'Shaomai'. main material is shrimp. This Shaomai is good taste. And Yokohama city is famous for Shoamai. We can buy Shaomai at Yokohama Station.
When the dim sum ends, the soup of wontan is served. As for this wonton soup, the taste is elegant, very good one. (photograph is below)
And the desert is tapioca milk. This Dim sum course is 1,680 yen which includes tax. If you have a chance to visit Yokohama China-Town, I recommend this 'Touka' restaurant.
In this China-Town, there're more than two hundred Chinese restaurants. This is 85th restaurant since I live in this city. And to visit China-Town is one of my hobby now.
I am a Japanese Engineer born in Tokyo. Now I'm living in Yokohama which is near city from Tokyo. I love mountains, classical music, personal computer, novels, movies, trip and so on. Let's enjoy my web site. Thank you.
My site opened in 1997, and I wrote only in Japanese since then. Now I have many foreign friends, co-worker. Then I decided to start English page today (02/24/2008).
[ Special thanks to Amanda (USA), Tanya (Canada), Gustavo (Venezuela) ]