At Haruhi-en Niho.

In the afternoon of a sunny day, Ms. H and one of our staff, N, were doing repair work together.

What they repaired was a sign board of road safety (photo), which was going to put on our premises.

It says, “Caution”, or “Watch out”.

Obviously, it asks drivers to drive safely because there is always an unexpected crossing by someone, like children, elderly people.

Then I wished Mrs. H and staff N the safety of repair work because they looked so enthusiastic.

Thank you, guys, and watch out!

From Haruhi-en Niho.

In Japan, mid-September is the season of harvesting rice.

We had been growing rice in a small container (photo above), and looking forward to harvest. But, unfortunately, it never happened. It withered away probably due to lack of water, or some disease.

On the other hand, we reaped a plentiful crop of bitter gourd, nigauri, which was a good news for us. Mrs. H is very good at taking care of plants. Thanks for being such a farmer.

As is well known, straw of rice is very useful. Last year, we made traditional ornaments of New Year’s day using straw of rice. Well, we will wait for next year and look forward to growing various vegetables next year too!

At Haruhi-en Tsuwano.

In Japan, there is a custom that in midsummer season, from August 12 to 15 usually, people offer special prayers to their ancestors. It is believed that during this period, their spirits come visit us to spend some peaceful time together. It is the idea of Obon.

So, our residents’ family members who live in faraway places returned home for Obon holiday this year too, and some came visit our Haruhi-en for family reunion. To us, it is always a wonderful, grateful moment to be part of it.

As an Obon event, we made offerings to the spirits, as seen in the photos below. Those are the cucumber thing, eggplant thing, and some sweet rice dumpling in the plate. Generally, the cucumber thing is regarded as a horse for spirits to ride when coming to our world from their plane. Then, the eggplant thing is to carry their gifts for their offspring. But, there are different stories, ways and beliefs about how, depending on families and places they live. As for sweet rice dumpling, for example, someone says, “we use toasted soybean flour.” Other says, “we make tansy leaf rice dumpling.” In Izumo area, bamboo leaf is used instead.

Anyway, there is the regional diversity of the Obon even though we share the same culture, and it is very fascinating!

At Haruhi-en Tsuwano.

It seems like every day is a record hot day.
We hope that you all live well in this August season.

Here at Haruhi-en, everybody is doing well without suffering the summer heat.
One of the secrets to keep well is to eat well, I believe(^^)/

We are often given seasonal vegetable by our neighbors, such as tomato, sunny lettuce, green pepper, cucumbers and so on in this season.
We are growing vegetables by ourselves, too and just harvested summer squash, a big one.

Maybe, this heat spell will be only a few more weeks, hopefully.

So, we will stand this heat a little bit more and stay cool by eating good and healthy food!

At Haruhi-en Tsuwano.

As is well known, July 7^th is the day for the Star Festival in Japan.

It is a cultural tradition in which if you write a wish on a strip of paper and tie it to a bamboo branch on the day, your wish will then come true. It derives from the legend of the Vega and Altair.

That day, some kids of the children’s center of our community came to see us with their supervisors and had a small Tanabata party together.

Their beautiful smiles radiated glow as if they cleared up rain clouds in the sky.

Dancing and singing, holding hands together♫

Decorated bamboo branches with wish papers and hand-made colorful ornaments for Tanabata!

May our wishes come true…☆ミ

It was so much a joyful time and everybody looked very happy.(^-^)/

We were grateful for their visit and joyful time together.

(Special thanks to our neighbors for the bamboo branch provided by them.)