Harvested potatoes

At this time of the year, we always harvest potatoes we grow. It's the hottest time in the year. But Hakuba provides comfortable climate so it's okay. Thanks god we are not in Tokyo! :-)
　After harvesting potatoes, we have to dry them in the sunshine maybe for some days. If you didn't do this, they go bad. We don't want to miss them so we have to do it.
Sometimes ravens steal some while we put potatoes in the sunshine, I didn't know they steal even potatoes.

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Small green frogs

I am not good at sepcifying what kind of frog it is. A small green one which is found here and there around our house and farm. In the farm we can find other kinds of frogs as well, they are definately a lot bigger and different color. Probably this small frog try to hide itself from any enemies which would like to eat it! When it is on a green leaf, perhaps hard for enemies to find it though it is not that hard for human beings. Perhaps our eyes can judge a lot more colors.
At the time of transplanting rice pots, they sing a lot one after another. It's a kind of countryside symbol.

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Pronounciation and description

When we Japanese people pronounce Japanese words described in English alphabet, we just do it as it is described.
For example

OBI ( Kimono belt/s )
ODAIBA ( An area name in Tokyo )

How do you English speaking people pronounce above? :-) Actually the BI for OBI should be pronounced as in BI for BIG, not as in BI for BI-LINGUAL.
But in most cases, English speaking people pronounce that BI for OBI like BI for BI-LINGUAL, so there's always confusing with Japanese people especially if what they pronounce had other meanings. They never accept Japanese way of pronounciation for that OBI lol.....
And when Japanese people say OBI in their own way, English speaking people always write it down "OBE" :o This has been a big "why?" to me, but I noticed that BE is just like BI for BIG for English speaking people. They always pronounce BE as in BI for BIG e.g. "Would BE", "MayBE" etc.
When we say ODAIBA, English speaking people often write it down "ODIABA". I think because a lot often a consonant plus "i" sounds as if that consonant plus "ai". Like Giants, Bi-lingual, Simon, Like etc.

When we notice this tiny thing, we can pressume it easier what English speaing people would describe. But I am not sure when English people notice the correct way to pronounce Japanese words which Japanese people describe in English alphabet :p
Maybe it needs more time :-)

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Companion plants

Some plants could work for other plants to avoid harmful bugs. This marygold is a kind of companion plants for our cucumber. Marygold smells strong, it smells like a mosquito coil, but a lot stronger. It's getting the time to harvest cucumber, actually reliable because it's we who grow the cucumber but when it's harvesting time, usually we are to keep having them for a while which is a bit tough sometimes :(

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Summer greetings

Summer greetings from Hakuba.
It seems that it's been hot in big cities in Japan, I hear something like the max temperture in a day is 39C somewhere in Japan, sorry to hear that.
Like as usual I hope this cool picture helps them to feel cool.
Though it's very cold and snowy in winter in Hakuba, we spend easier time than in big cities in summer. Hope everyone could make it to spend some time here in summer.

Hayaokidori website

Blueberry 2008

We have some blueberry trees in a tiny field and grow them. The flowers are white, just look like what we call suzuran ( lily in the valley ?) flowers.



Blueberry fruits look like pomegranate fruit but a lot smaller. They look light green in this picture but actually dark blue.
I hear blueberries are good for your eyes but I think it's too late for my old far sighted eyes lol...

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Scenery from Kaufbeuren station.

When I traveled in souhern part of Germany called Schwaltzewalt, I was on local railways which needed me to change train some times. Not so many services available, perhaps once in 2-3 hours while express trains in major lines provided frequent services like once an hour. Needed to spend some hours at tha station but if there's this kind of beautiful scenery around, it never bored me.

Kaufbeuren is located on the way from Lindau to Augsburg.

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Here's a scenery from a train from Lindau to Kaufbeuren. The second picture is that.

Hayaokidori website