Nagoya

When we first came to Nagoya to find a home here it was late May and it was the Summer green of the trees in the street, which filled the view from the study window, that sold me on our house. The bark of those trees also filled me with a quiet hope – I suspected they were some kind of stone fruit tree, all of which have beautiful blossoms. Well, the verdict is in – not only are they stone fruit but Sakura, Japanese Cherry trees and their blossoms are magnificent! The view from my... More...

Happy belated New Year everyone!  Superman and I rarely make much of New Years Eve but since we were here in Japan we decided to join in the local tradition of heading to a shrine (that’s shrine as in Shinto, not temple as in Buddhist) for the turning of the year. Atsuta Jinja is one of the most sacred Shinto sites in Japan, where the goddess... More...

One of my local Supermarkets is called Paré Marché and at the moment its walls are littered with posters wishing us “Merry Paré Marché!” Stores all over the city have similar posters and I’m not quite sure whether they are misunderstanding the phrasing or just approaching the whole issue of the commercial overload of this festival... More...

Opening the blinds today to take advantage of the bliss that is a day cool enough to open the windows, I was met with a lovely surprise! I had thought that the variegated grass plants in our tiny terrace garden were just for greenery but it turns out they are for lilac-ery too!

We were caught right in the middle of the recent Nagoya storms and it was quite an adventure! We were at Red Rock which is an “Aussie bar and Grill” in Sakae (which is no longer owned by an Aussie but by a lovely American who is a lecturer at the Universities here and a member of the writers group which I will join and post on when it resumes... More...

While browsing the NIC newsletter the other day I noticed they have a regular photo contest. This Summer’s theme is “A Japanese Summer” and I thought: what is more Natsu than fireworks except, perhaps, for flowers in full bloom so I thought I’d enter my “Hanabi no Hana” from my Gifu Natsu Matsuri evening. It probably... More...

NB.. For those of you who have stumbled on this page looking for directions and aren’t interested in a review of the shopping district of Osu Kannon (to wit: is it really the best place to go for cameras et al.) – scroll down to a little above where the photos begin. Okay, I’m not actually accusing any person or persons of deliberately... More...

We have furniture! Yay! Doubly ‘Yay’ because frankly this house is going to be where we will be for the majority of the  next 2 months or so – partly because Superman is just doing the 9-5 Mon-Fri thing pretty much as he was in Australia and I’m not going to go discovering too much when he can’t, but mostly because... More...

Have I said how magnificent the early evening winds are here? Seriously worth the heat of the day (esp if you can hide from it inside with air-con but even then…) /happy sigh

Well! Our air shipment arrived today – exactly on time according to the shipping people so we are hoping the sea shipment will also be on time in a few weeks (though it is taifun season.) Brigie is happy to have her food bowls here and even more happy to have her brush – got some good brownie points time with her this afternoon heehee.... More...