Playing Golf in Hakone

I visited at Hakone last weekend which is a place a lot of people have loved for long time because of her history and location. Hakone has high and steep mountains with dynamic landscapes and is located on the foot of Mt.Fuji. She is famous as one of the hardest and important point to pass on the big road connected Kyoto and Tokyo.Besides she has many hot springs effective for any diseases and aging. The reason why many tourists go there is the convenience to accesses. It takes just one hour half to get there from the center of Tokyo by train.

snow of Mt.Fuji

footprints of a rabbit in a bunker

My ex-coworkers and I played golf for two days.It was a competition which have continued for 47times among women in previous company which I worked for. We went to Mt.Fuji golf course on the first day. My score was 121! Oh my god! It was the worst one this year. But I could enjoy seeing fall colors.

She used to be one of my bosses.Now she is a president of a publishing company.

Cherry blossam in spring, red and yellow leaves in fall
These are our favorites.

Sashimi on board is popular in a party in Japan.A sea food pot also is loved by Japanese especially in winter.

Next day we went to Lake Ashi side golf course. My score is 103! It was the best one this year. The colored leaves were so beautiful that I almost forgot playing golf. When I took a picture of a tree, wind suddenly blew its leaves as if they talked to me and said “Thank you!”. I felt so happy there.

I wanted just to see the blue sky lying on the fareway.

Winter is coming in Tokyo.

We had the first snow of this season in some prefectures faced on the Sea of Japan. However it was clear and sunny day on the Pacific Ocean. We are standing at the gate of winter.



I know that Tokyo does not look a beautiful city like Paris. People have built everything disorderly, without any plan, concept and vision after she was destroyed by the fire at WWⅡ.

I went up to the roof top of a building near my house( ten minute by bicycle). I could see Mt.Fuji and skyscrapers at Shinjuku. Whenever I am at a tall building, I cannot help worrying about earthquake. As you know Japan is the NO1 country which has been hit by big earthquakes. I have experienced more than one hundred of earthquakes since I was born.

Looking on a street, you can find a lot of bicycles on which mothers put their kids. This is a typical scene which we can see in a residential area.

The public trasport in Tokyo is amazingly developed like capillaries. We have 36 semiofficial trains, 12 private trains, 12 subways, more than 1000 buses. Though I have not imagine how many bicycles there are in Tokyo, I guess about 2 million. It is 25% of population of this city.

It was a silhouette of Mt.Fuji in beautiful sunset.

Okinawa is sunny and shady.

It takes two hour half flight from Tokyo to Okinawa that is the same time to spend visiting Korea. Taiwan and China are closer than Tokyo. That is the reason why this island seems to be more south eastern Asian on its food, architecture, culture, nature and appearance than main island of Japan. Though Okinawa used to be one of the most prosperous kingdom as a major port for trading between China and Japan, she was tossed back and forth by these countries.

(photo: This is Syuri castle rebuilt in 1994 as it was completely destroyed at WWⅡ)


She is the only place on which American army landed and battled during WWⅡ. I hear that 150,000 people were killed or killed themselves, notorious for the group suicide forced by Japanese military. The number of civilian dead was counted up one quarter of the total population then. I read a book about teen age girls who worked for injured soldiers as nurses killed themselves before American army was coming. Though I was a elementary school girl, I remember even now I cried and felt my heart pressed by a tank.

(photo: Kadena base, the biggest one in east asia. We can see a combat plane called "Eagle" in the air.)


My first visit in Okinawa was a trip for scuba diving in my early twenties. I was fascinated by the beauty of ocean and nature there. One day I asked an inhabitant in Tokashiki island when I saw some wild goats on small rocks in the ocean,” Why are they in the wild?”. He answered me,” People who had had their ancestors let them go at WWⅡ. They believed it was the only way for them to survive.”
I was a little bit shocked at him because his talk was so natural as if he told me what that day’s meal was. This story was sinking into me gradually.

It is no doubt that Okinawa has the stronger contrast between light and darkness. People there seems more humorous, sometimes passionate(especially when dancing and singing),shy, patient and natural. Moreover She has a lot of spiritual power spots to give us Mana to purify ourselves.

Some of my friends and I went to a sacred place called "Seifa Utaki". There used to be many shamans there, there have been still be there. As soon as we came in this utaki, we convinced the atmosphere reminded us of the cave of fern in Kauai island.

Next place we visited was Kutaka island which is well known among okinawan people as the island which have had powerful shamans praying for Okinawan kingdom. The rules for them are very strict. For example the woman who is supposed to be the leader of shamans never allow to go out this island until her death. Amazing! I can never become a shaman.

7-5-3

Shichigosan,translated as 7-5-3, is held on November 15.Parents take their three-year-old girls, five-year-old boys, and seven-year-old girls to the local tutelary shrines to pray for their safe and healthy future. After the visit, long candy sticks called chitoseame are purchased at the shrine and then distributed to relatives and neighbors.
(Japan:Then and Now, published by The Japan Times 2006)











Unfortunately it was rainy today but I saw some families coming to pray at Showin shrine located near my house. The gate called Torii in Japanese is a dividing line to the sacred place of this shrine. When you pass under the Torii, you can feel the air changing to clean and fresh.