le weekend

We started the rainy season here, though there have been more sunny days than rainy ones.

How was your weekend?

According to my archives it's been ages since we've eaten at Felice.

We re-connected with them on Saturday.

I had their chicken. Super crispy skin. The meat really tender. The sauce was a shoyu base, caramelized onion, so good.

Satoshi had their omurice & fried shrimp combo.

Their food is still good.

After dinner, we walked towards Minoo Falls to check out the hotaru (fireflies).

There weren't as many as last year, but we were still excited to see some.

Sunday the weather was hot and humid.

We walked to Ikeda and checked out Suigetsu park.

The hanashobu (irises) still pretty.

There was also a sign for white lilies at the Ikeda castle ruins, so we checked it out but it needs another week or so, so we'll try again.

Hope you have a nice week.

hotaru

It's hotaru (firefly) season here.

I've heard that the trail to the Minoo Falls has hotaru, but we've never had a chance to check it out...until this past Saturday.

Tons of families on the trail.

There weren't as many hotaru as when we first saw them in Oita (Kyushu), but we were still in awe to see them in our area.

By the way, the photo above is of a genjibotaru, a type of hotaru that we have in our area, that I took a couple years back.

The weather has been weird, hot some days, really rainy during others. In some parts of Japan they even had hail!

Be well everyone.

hawaii sights

Pass these rainbow shower trees almost every day (sometimes more than twice in a day). They have been in full bloom for awhile now...kinda reminds me of sakura (cherry blossom).

Sorry the video is kinda shaky.

hawaii sights

Remember that anole?

Well, it found a new place to hangout...my walking shoes.

My mom says it must like the smell of my feet...ew!

hawaii sights

This little anole likes to hang around our shoe box and near the kitchen door.

Check out its feet.

Guess it wanted to play dress-up with my sandals too...

sunny sunday

Yesterday was a beautiful sunny day aside from the pollution in the air, which left a slight haze.

We decided to check out Banpaku Koen. This park was the site of the 1970 World Expo. Since the weather is getting warmer, many flowers have started blooming. Here are some things that we saw...
(top left)Jobitaki (Daurian Redstart) part of the swallow family
(top right) Mansaku (Witch Hazel)
(bottom left) Tsubaki (Camellia Japonica)
(bottom right) The tram that you can take (for a fee) around the park.

(top left) Mitsumata (oriental paper bush) part of the daphne family, this plant's branch branches off into 3 directions then flowers, which is why the Japanese call it mitsumata (literally 3 legs)
(top right) Nanohana (rapeseed blossoms)
(bottom left) an objet that really does look like a barber shaving his customer
(bottom right) Lappa suisen (wild daffodil)
(top left) Tosa mizuki (corylopsis spicata) part of the witch hazel family
(top right) Ume (apricot)
(bottom left) Neko Yanagi (pussy willow)
(bottom right) Asebi (Japanese Andromeda/Lily of the Valley)
(top left) Kanhizakura (Taiwan cherry)
(top right) Boke (flowering quince)
(bottom left) Suisen (narcissus)
(bottom right) Godiva chocolates from Satoshi for White Day (thank you!)

We walked quite a bit I think about 7 km (about 4 miles), but seeing all these flowers and plants was a nice way to end the weekend. Hope you have a great week!

nature

Lots of nature to take in while in Okinawa. Lots of plants that reminded me of home as well as plants that I had never seen before. The things that impressed me the most were all the butterflies fluttering around here and there and lots of dragonflies zipping around.

Beautiful sunsets. (The one on the left was on 9/4 and the one on the right on 9/5.)

We were lucky to have great weather while we were there.