Message from Japan

by Yuji Ozawa (Japanese site)

You are the th guest of my site. (since99/02/10)


Back number (2008.02.24-, 2008.04.05-, )


2008.08.03

Asakusa

Asakusa is a famous historical town in Tokyo, then many foreign tourists visit this town. Below photo is Kaminari-mon, it means Thunder Gate. This gate is an entrance of Sensou-ji Buddhist temple.

Nakamise-douri is a road from Kaminari-mon to Sensou-ji temple, and many souvenir shops are gathered on both side of this road. This day 27th July was a bit bad weather then the roof of the cloth was on this raod.

At the end of Nakamise-douri, There's a big other gate, its name is Houzou-mon (Treasure House Gate). And we can fnd Gojyuno-tou (Five-Storied Pagoda) on the left side of this gate.

Behind Houzou-mon, big building is here. This is the main building of Sensou-ji temple. Many tourists threw a small coin (o-saisen), and they were worshiping temple.

When I was young, few foreign people can be found at Asakusa. But now we can see a lot of foreign people. Some of them are tourists, but some of them are residents. This day I could see many foreign people from South asia and Middle East Asia.


2008.07.20

Port of Yokohama

My hometown Yokohama is famous for its large harbor. Below photo is Minato-mirai 21 area which is viewed from big piar. And the name of highest building is Landmark Tower.

Below big ship ia Asuka2, which is a tour boat for round-the-world voyage.

The entrance of harbor, there's a big bridge which name is Yokohama bay birdge. This bridge is two stories, upper is highway and lower is open road.

We can see wind plant on the other side of Yamashita Park. This plant name is Hama-wing operated by Yokohama city.


2008.06.22

Hakone Botanical Garden of Wetlands

Hokone is a famous sightseeing spot near Tokyo. At Hakone there're mountains and lake, hot springs and the view of Mt Fuji. Many foreign traveler visit Hakone. The entrance station of Hakane is Hakone-Yumoto, it takes one and a half hour from Tokyo Shinjuku station by express train.

Sengokubara is a area of Hakone, which has hot springs, cottages, and a wetland. the name of this wetland is Hakane Botanical Garden. In this Garden many characteristic flowers blooms every seasons.

When I visited this garden (June 13th), I could see Nikko-Kisuge and Komakusa(Dicentra peregrina). Nikko-Kisuge is a Japanese Yellow Lilly. Please see below photo.

Komakusa is a pink small flower, which grows up in high mountain area. About 30 years ago, I saw this flower at Japan North Alps, Ushiro Tateyama.

Some blue Iris flowers blooms around the pond. I think Hakone Sengokubara is a very beautiful spot with flowers.

March to April, you can see mizu-basho (Lysichiton camtschatcense) flowers in this garden.


2008.06.08

Hanashobu at Chiryu (Japanese Iris at Chiryu park)

Chiryu city is in Aichi prefecture, then this city is 20 minutes from Nagoya station by train. This city is historical city because Chiryu is one of the ancient Tokaido Shukuba.

And this city is famous for flowers hanashobu, kakitsubata. An old temple Muryojyu-ji has Kakitsubata Garden. The season of Kakitsubata is May, and June is Hanashobu season. The Kakitsuba of this temple is written in The Tales of Ise.

When I visited this city on June 8th, a festival is opened at Chiryu park. This park is side of Chiryu shrine, 10 minutes from Chiryu station.

Many beautiful Iris flowers are shown in this park.. Many Japanese people loves Hanashobu, Japanese iris flower.


2008.05.24

Kuraki Park (The park near Kami-ooka)

Kami-ooka is a town of Konan ward in Yokohama city. The express train of Keihin Electric Express Railway makes a stop at Kami-ooka station, then it takes only ten minutes from Yokohama station.

Kuraki park is fifteen minutes walk from Kami-ooka station. This park is famous for cherry blossom in March and firefly in June. And in May we can see ayame, ayame is Japanese iris flower.

The center of this park, there's a pond. Nymphaea flower can be seen in this pond. This pond is not a big pond, but I hear we can see common kingfisher birds.

I think Kuraki park is a local park, few Yokohama citizens know this park. The most famous public Japanese park in Yokohama city is Sankei-en Park at Naka Ward.


My Profile.

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) ]