Weeds
O-o-i-nu-fu-gu-ri
Spring is around the corner.
We can see the signs of spring around us.
This picture of Butter-bur sprout；(Fu-ki-no-to-u)is one of them.
This is the picture taken on February 2.
And this one was taken today.
I ate mi-so soup with some butterbur sprout yesterday.
I felt the scent of spring.
We bought this TV set about a week ago, because the TV set which was in Shizusan's room broke down.
At first I was going to buy a small cheap one.
But according to the clerk of the TV shop, we won't be able to see any program by the cheap TV after Ground-based digital broadcasting begins.
So we bought this one though it cost high.
There are five TV sets in my house now, so it will cost lots of money if we buy new ones.
What shall I do ?
Gardenia;Cape jasmine（Ku-chi-na-shi)
Blood is thicker than water.
However friendly we are, we rely on our relatives when something very important or urgent occurs .
Any other person won't be able to defeat the relatives.
The price of the stocks have been very low since Livedoor shock though it became high once at the beginning of February.
The prices today are very low and all my stocks are lower than yesterday.
So I lost much money, but I have a hope of their prices becoming higher sooner or later. 
Trading stocks is risky as well as exciting! 
Ko-u-ba-i and Ro-u-ba-i
Beautiful stone wall
Kitchen equipment at that time
Rock salt from Poland that weighs about 1.5 tons
Mr. Nozaki was a 'Salt Magnate', so there are some exhibits about the history of the way of making salt.
These are some of them.
Crown and Seven gods of good fortune made of salt
Ship and lamp made of salt
Flowing type device for making salt
Many kinds of Hina Dolls are exhibited at one of the storehouses.
I saw a pair of very old hina dolls; 'Kyo-u-ho bi-na' which were presented by Okayama feudal lord .
I'm sorry I missed taking a picture of it.
But I could take pictures of other old dolls.
These are some of them. 
We call these dolls 'i-chi-ma-tsu ni-n-gyo-u’
Yesterday I went to an old residence of Buzaemon Nozaki who made great deal of money by making salt in Edo period.
He is called 'Salt Magnate'.
The wonderful Japanese style house is very large, and has nice garden, some storehouses and so on.
It show us the way of living at that time.
Japanese style room
Small house for tea ceremony
Storehouses
To be continued.
It's cold these days !
I found this icicle under the faucet of water.
Water dripping from the faucet froze during the night. 
It melted away soon in the sunshine. 
Art is long, and time is fleeting.
As 'Time flies like an arrow', we will become old soon.
But the research of study needs long time, so we must study as hard as possible. 
It stopped snowing last night and I woke up to find this wonderful snowscape.
The rice fields were covered with snow a little and I saw the sky with these thin clouds.
It's cold today too and it has been snowing since this afternoon.
This snowfall is the second time this winter.
We should be careful next morning, as the road will be icy and slippy. 
Though calendrical spring;(Ri-shu-n) has came, it's very cold today.
It's snowed heavily at Nigata district and it is said the snowfall reached four meters.
It also snowed three centimeters in Hachijo island after an interval of 60 years.
I took these pictures around 5 o'clock in the evening.
Dried radish 06 2/3
Shizusan made dried radish.
First she peeled off the skin of the radish.
Next she put them in the hot water.
And they were hung like this picture.
06 1/18
About two weeks later, these radish were dried like the picture above .
We cut them into pieces and cook them .
Today is Se-tsu-bu-n, before the first day of spring.
We have a habit of scattering parched beans, shouting
'Out with the demon and in with the fortune !'
And recently we eat rolled sushi without cutting, facing toward a lucky direction of this year without saying anything.
The south-southeast is the lucky direction of this year.
