Mt. Hakuba

I climbed Mt. Hakuba with My uncle.

The first picture is taken in front of a hut.

Haha, I'm closing my eyes...

The sunlight dazzled my eyes.

It was soooo hard!!

But we could see spectacular view!!

Strange Food in Tokyo

"Monjya yaki"

A specialty of Tokyo.

My friend jazz singer Kaoru and I had dinner in Monjya restaurant.

Kaoru is from Osaka, I'm from Nagoya.

Ummmm... We didn't get it......

But, taste was good. It was like snack.

Coffee mill

I'm having a concert in Hamamatsu in August.

Mr. Masahiko Inoue who is my teacher when I was a high school student will play in the concert with me!!

I went to his house after a long time and we had a rehearsal.

He made coffee for me after wonderful dinner which is served by his wife.

It was great.

Lovely Cat

Our cat Din-chan is doing massage.

Then she trample him and gone....

Wonderful morning!

2010 FIFA WORLD CUP

Japan qualified for round of 16!!!!

The game started from 3:30 am.

I thought I couldn't watch the game.

But It was 4 am when I woke up.

I turned on TV.

JPN 2 - 0 DEN at that time.

Wow!!

And I saw a beautiful morning glow from veranda!

Then, I slept again with pleasure.

Hakone

Hakone is 1 hour 30 minutes away from Sinjuku by train.

Music school "Da Capo" which I teach had a trip♪

Wonderful hot spring, wonderful food, wonderful view!!

Red jewelry

My friend Sono who lives in Kouchi sent me a lot of cherry tomatoes!

Kouchi is famous for vegetables.

I like tomato very much.

Thank you Sono-chan!!

Nature Art

The rainy season started in Tokyo.

A rainbow appeared !

Iida station

I'm in Iida Nagano for educational concerts for high schools.

JR Iida station was remodeled recently (picture below).

The roof color was came from apples which are special product of Iida.

Cute:)

But a souvenir shop's lady said she liked previous station ,

because it was tasteful.

Which station do you prefer?

Welcome board

My friend Yuri who lives in NY made it for us.

"Welcome

Mamiko & Eduardo

May 21, 2010"

How beautiful!!

She teaches NY people how to make this.

We displayed it when our wedding party!

And I brought it to Japan.

We might have a wedding party in Tokyo, too.

So we use this again!!

Thank you so much Yuri-san!!

I got married

Eduardo and I got married May 21 in City hall NY.

I'm happy.

I'm wearing a necklace which has color of his country Argentina, and he's wearing a tie which is color of Japan.

It was not only getting husband but also I could touch a lot of people's tender heart.

Rose & Train

It's the best time for roses now.

A lot of roses are planted along the streetcar in Tokyo called "Toden"

Arakawa Yuenchi station is 5 minutes away from my apartment.

I could see many kinds of roses around the station♪

Long time no see!

My Korean friend Yuna (sitting next to me) is visiting Tokyo now!

We used to study in same language school when we were in NY

Yuna, Megumi (the 2nd from the right) and I always hung out together.

I was momentarily under the illusion that we were walking on the 5th avenue in Manhattan

when we were walking on the main street of Ginza.

And Megumi said same thing!

Welcome Yuna! and I'm really glad to see you again!!

Hakuba mountains!

A spectacular view of snow-covered mountains!!

In 1998, Olympic Winter Game was held in Nagano.

Though it's May, a lot of people still come here to ski and snow boarding.

Beautiful!!

Music camp in Tsugaike

Takayama Nishi High School Band camped for training in Tsugaike highlands Nagano.

I went there to teach them yesterday.

I took a bus from Hakuba station.

It was cute architecture!

And when I turned around, I saw......

Look at a picture above!

The first tea of the season

I went to Hamamatsu yesterday.

My grand mother who lives there bought green tea for me.

Tea shop 'Maruien' which we always buy green tea shows tea leaves. It's interesting.

They made tea for us while we were waiting.

This muddiness is the proof of the first tea of the season.

I look forward to enjoying these fresh tastes every year!

Flute Concerto

She is Ayako Maeda. A member of TKWO.

She played Concerto for Flute and Orchestra by L. Liebermann in TKWO regular concert.

It was wonderful piece but veryyyyyyy difficult!!

She was amazing! I was so impressed.

Actually, I was more nervous than her....

There were many solos and we had to play always [pppppp] even though [f].

Though the trumpet part was hard, I was happy to play this beautiful piece with Ayako san!

Orchestra pit in Fumon Hall

Hi friends!

It was warm today♪

We played on the pit today.

The pit go up and down leave we sit on there.

It's a little thrilling.

Kurosawa

When I was in NY, I was always told

"Why haven't you seen Kurosawa movies though you are Japanese??? He is great!!"

from many of my friends.

And also I was said same thing from my English teacher in Tokyo after I came back.

Foreigners admire him even though they are young.

Luckily TOHO Cinemas Chanter has been showing

30 Kurosawa movies for hundredth anniversary of his birth

since March 27th.

Once I saw [The Quiet Duel] in the theater, I was really into his movies!!

I've seen 6 of his movies so far.

I'll go to see his movie as many as possible.

Beginning of this event, most of the audience are elderly.

Recently I've seen some young people.

I saw [Seven Samurai] today.

The seats were sold out, and it was fantastic!!

SAKURA

Though we can see sakura only for 1-2weeks, the weather always change a lot while the sakura's best time...

Luckily, it was clear yesterday in Tokyo and cherry blossoms were at their best!

flowers withstood the rainstorm the previous day.

I thought the flowers are gone.

So it was impressive.

We saw cute and beautiful sakura in Nippori and Ueno.