last day of golden week

Yesterday, it was forecast to rain in the afternoon.

Still I wanted to check out the koinobori in Takatsuki. See they had 1000 strung across the Akutagawa (Akuta river), now when would you ever see something that fabulous?!

So, we got out and about early and it was drizzly and cold but we found the place and it was still impressive.

I really liked the handmade koi...can you see the little hand prints used to make the scales of the fish?! Apparently these were made by a pre-school from the area.

Some were really colorful and creative too.

There was even a huge sakura tree mural.

Apparently this area is well known to the locals for the cherry blossoms too.

We'll definitely have to come back next cherry blossom season.

I shot a little video of the koinobori and I touched up the exposure of the photos and video because it was a little dark.

Oh, and you know, when we reached home, the sun came out (boo!) Still, we were happy we got to check this out.

Hope you all have a great week!

koinobori

It had been a couple of years since I went to check out the koinobori in Ikeda. In that amount of time, they cleaned up the river and added more rocks.

The koinobori display this year is larger than before, there are two lines of fish spanning the river, as well as large bamboo poles with some koinobori flying from them along the banks.

The weather has been sunny but there is that awful dust cloud from China that is polluting the skies during this time of year.

I also shot a short video which you may be interested in seeing of the koinobori, here.

It's Friday here, and the start of Golden Week, hope you have a great weekend.

ikeda

From the train, I recently noticed these koi (carp) flying across the Inagawa in Ikeda. Apparently they have been up since Children's Day (May 5th).

Luckily, when I went to check them out the other day, they were still there.

I've heard that whenever they fly carp over a river, it is to pray for water safety.

The carp are made of fabric and I think they are hand painted. Some were sparkly too.

Hope everyone has a safe summer!

grilled salmon with tarragon sauce

When we were growing up, May 5 was remembered as Boy's Day. In many Japanese American families, koinobori or colorful decorated fish made from cloth were flown on a tall poles, one for every male in the family. This day is now called Children's Day in Japan.

Satoshi has been off since Wednesday for Golden Week. Today we had breakfast at our favorite cafe. It had been awhile since we had been there and the walk was nice. The weather is getting hotter, but at least it isn't humid...yet....
Tonight's dinner was Grilled Salmon with Tarragon Sauce. I found the recipe for the sauce on the internet and it came out really good, if I do say so myself. If you are trying to cut back mayonnaise in your diet, this sauce is a great substitute. :)
I didn't have shallots so I used onions. I didn't have fresh parsley, so I used dried. And we don't have nonfat yogurt here, so I just used plain yogurt with no sugar in it. The creaminess of the yogurt really matched with the onions, tomato, tarragon and parsley.

Tarragon Sauce
2 shallots, minced
2 tablespoons (8 g) chopped fresh tarragon or 2 teaspoons (10 ml) crushed dried
1 cup (228 g) plain nonfat yogurt
1 medium plum tomato, 3 ounce (90 g), seeded and finely minced
1 tablespoon (9 g) minced flat-leaf parsley

Enjoy!

Satoshi will be off to Ayers Rock for the next week, so, I'll have to find something to keep myself busy...I think it might end up being his dirty laundry...