Thursday, August 9, 2007

Hydrangea in Hakuba


I thought hydrangeas are flowers in bloom mostly in rainy season as they were in bloom just around the rainy season when I lived in Osaka.
But here in Hakuba, they keep blooming even in August like this above.
Until when hydrangeas have been in bloom where you live?

Hayaokidori website

Making a bed

All the guest rooms in our property have some beds in each, we make beds sometimes with some yelling like "Yokkorasho! ( Hard to translate into English :o ) as the base, mat are heavy.

We make beds like this. So now I show you how we do this....

First of all, I put a pad on a mat.


Put a sheet on them to get the lower edge to meet the mat edge. I always ask them to deliver good starched sheets though nowadays no starched sheets seem demanded to decrease the cost. I think starched sheets are "must" to provide comfortable sleep but I may be an old fashioned guy :(


Fix the head side of this sheet like this below as if a piece of paper folds up a caramel.


Put another sheet on it to fix the upper edge to meet the mat edge there, then put the lower side inbetween the mat and the base as if the sheet holds the mat. With these way, sheets are fixed.


Put a blanket in summer, two in winter on it then fix everywhere to complete the job.

Done!(^^) It takes roughly 5 minutes for me to make a bed, so however hard I try to make beds, it's like 12 beds in an hour. Also, it's not like just 2.5 minutes required if 2 persons make a bed.
I am just careful not to hurt my waists by setting a corset around them as I need to lift the mat up and down, move it back and forth. A lot hard work than supposed.

Just a tiny bit of a back stage :-)

Hayaokidori website

Wednesday, August 8, 2007

Emergence of a cicada


Found a cicada emerging this morning. Look at the color - white and green. I guess it was just after getting out of the shell. They need to stay that way for some hours to dry themselves out to start flying away. But it's the dangerous time for them because ravens, cats etc try to catch them. I just tell people to pay attention not to step on it because it stayed around the front of my house.

Hayaokidori website

Tuesday, August 7, 2007

Joint sound

Cut the rails to get some particular joint sounds. Snow rapid passing through.


My old inside gear system with horizontal motor DMU passing through.


Ever heard this joint sound!?

Hayaokidori website

No more Hiroshima, no more Nagasaki

It's a bit special week now for Japan and Japanese.

August 6th : No more Hiroshima day.
August 9th : No more Nagasaki day.

As you know, 2 nuclear bombs were dropped and exploded in Japan 62 years ago.
I am not a good editor or a writer, so if you have some time, please refer the links below.

Hiroshima Peace Declaration 2007
Hiroshima city website
Photographs
Former sailors, kamikaze met after 62 years' interval and shake hands

No more Hiroshima, no more Nagasaki. As only nation in the world that got nuclear bombs, I do wish no one will never have the same in the future.

Hayaokidori website

Sunday, August 5, 2007

"Thunderbird" running around the layout

A customer who stayed in our place the other night broung about 50 model train cars, enjoyed driving his model trains in our layout.
Fisrt of all, JR West 683 series "Snow Rapid".


Second, 681 series "Thunderbird" and 683 series "Snow rapid" passing through. Long trains are nice!!


JNR/JR 201 series commuter train running around the layout.


JR West 221 series fast service train cars that are active in kinki region.


A steam locomotive D51 pulling two 50 series passenger cars


It was fun time to see trains that I usually don't see.

Hayaokidori website

Rainy season is over



It seems that the rainy season for this year was over for this area as well.


Probably new borb baby swallows for this year. Their parents still raise
them up by giving something to eat so often. They have to fly roughly 3,000 kms to Soouth in autumn.

Hayaokidori website