Marui Dept. Store Opened!

Marui Department Store opened in Kawaramachi Shijo last month. This Tokyo based store is especially well-known for the women's fashion and accessories.

Marui occupies a total of seven floors, covering about 8,700 sqm of retail sale space, and the top floor is a food court named "Kyo Terasu" meaning Terrace of Kyoto.

This is a pork lunch box (500 yen) I ordered from the VEGETEJI FACTORY. The pork was tender and juicy, with sweet and salty sauce on steamed rice.

Tan Tan Men of "Karaku"

Ramen noodle shop "Karaku" opened about one year ago near my house in Higashiyama. Their specialty is "tan tan men" which is ramen noodle in spicy broth.

The inside is decorated in modern style and mainly with wood.

For today's lunch, I ordered a set menu of "Tan tan men (medium size) and fried rice (small size)" which was 1,050 yen.

And the tan tan men was of course very tasty --- creamy and spicy broth, thinly sliced roast pork, lots of chopped spring onions, and perfect texture of noodles!

More cherry blossoms

The late blooming cherry tree by the Yasaka Pagoda is in full bloom now while the cherry blossom season is almost over in Kyoto.

And, the double-flowering cherry in the Yasaka Koshindo just began to bloom.

On the way home

Beautiful blue sky and full bloomed cherry blossom. I'm back in Kyoto now.

I bought a set of hamburger and French fries at "Kyoto Burger" and am on my way home.

Cherry blossoms in my hometown

Cherry trees were ready to bloom when I came back to my hometown Shimane about two weeks ago. They are now almost full bloom.

My most favorite cherry trees are in Shinto shrine near my parents' house.

Rainy Day

It's raining all day in Shimane Prefecture today. I came home two weeks ago from Kyoto and this is the first rain.

No walking for my dog today; he hates to walk in the rain.

Spring Plant "Tsukushi"

These are Tsukushi (horsetails) along the footpath in rice fields of my hometown. Tsukushi is a sign of Spring, and it first sends up pinky-beige shoots, and then green fronds known as "sugina." This edible plant has survived for about 300 million years, it says.

Spring in my hometown Shimane

I'm back in my hometown Shimane. The weather has been really nice for the last few days, and flowers started to bloom in my mother's garden. Spring finally came!

Badges to Overseas

I designed some new badges based on a request from overseas.

And these five types (20 pieces each) were sent out to Canada today. Thank you for helping!

Site Open

I opened up the site Badges to Help Quake Survivors.