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May 31th. It was been raining all day today. 。It was been raining all day today. My wife and I had lunch at Luban, a natural yeast bakery in Yanagimachi Ueda City. After that, we visited a nearby Dairinji temple, places we haven't been to yet.
I found a small French restaurant during my walk. It looks expensive but it looks good.
http://sotlylaisse.jp/ ソリレス。
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May 30th. The three-story pagoda at Zenzanji Temple 。Today, my wife and I went to see the three-story pagoda at Zenzanji Temple, the Yakushido Hall at Chuzenji Temple, and Shiota Shrine. This was my first time visiting, but my wife has visited before. Including the Ueda City neighborhood, where historically significant yet quiet temples and shrines are scattered. I recommend you Ueda City Nagano prefecture for sightseeing around historical temples and shrines. It's not as lively as Kyoto, not crowde. And, you can have temples 555555555and shrines all to yourself, as shown in the photo.
For lunch today, my wife and I ate soba at a soba restaurant other than Katana-ya in Ueda City. That is Shinshu Soba Yaguratei.
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May 29th. Ueda Castle Ruins Park 。I went to my favorite Ueda city soba restaurant Katana-ya with my wife. I had a regular serving Mori Soba. My wife had a Small serving Kurumi Soba. Then my wife went to her Ueda yoga class, so we separated.
I went to Ueda Castle Ruins Park with my cat. I wanted to park in the shade to avoid raising the temperature inside my car for my cat. Also I wanted to test my lenses. I tryed out 3 renovated lenses in the field and found them good and but some are start[p funny or slow none are useless. It is the my job to find the perfect subject for them. It is an interesting and happy job.
Photos in leftmost vertical column are Katana-ya.
刀屋の暖簾。Noren of Katana-ya. My favorite Ueda City soba restaurant Katana-ya
means a store of sword tools. They changed to a soba restaurant early in
the Meiji period. I think because the Meiji government banned the carrying
of swords.
刀屋の外で席の順番を待つ。Waiting for a seat outside Katana-ya. It was full so I waited
outside for my turn. They have a fishbowl right at the entrance door with
some water hyacinth and some goldfish. When I got near to the fishbowl,
I get excited because it's my turn next.
蕎麦つゆ。Soba tsuyu. Soba tsuyu is a dipping soup. The soba dipping soup comes in a small ceramic container in the center of the picture, a small plate with three condiments is placed on top of a small bowl used for dipping soup. Most restaurants in Japan sarves glasses of water for free.
七味唐辛子入れ。Shichimi togarashi container. Its shaped differently depending
on the soba restaurant. Katana-ya`s is a wooden container about 10cm tall,
containing Shichimi Tougarashi. It is a mixture of 7 types of seasoning
powders including chili pepper, orange peel, sesame seeds, and more. Adding
a sprinkle to the soup makes it taste dramatically better. In my case,
I don't use this when eating soba. However, I sometimes use it when eating
soba-yu.
普通盛り。Mori soba. Regular serving. My favorite soba restaurant, Katana-ya.
At my favorite Ueda City soba restaurant Katana-ya, they refuse to serve
a large serving to first-time customers. If first-time customers order
a large serving, they explain why. A small serving at Katanaya is the equivalent
of one Seiro（steamer basket） served at regular soba restaurants. A medium
serving is the equivalent of two servings, and a regular serving is the
equivalent of three servings. So Katanaya's regular serving is the equivalent
of a large serving at other soba restaurants. So they ask first-time customers
to try the regular serving first, and ask for a refill if they want more.
And it costs the same as a large serving.
Indeed, I think Katanaya's regular serving is the same amount as a large
serving at soba restarunt Kimura in Tsukuba city.
くるみ蕎麦。小。Kurumi soba. Small serving. My wife allways has Kurumi soba, small serving. She loves Katana-ya too. Kurumi meens Walnut. Katana-ya's walnut soba is served with walnut paste and miso in a small bowl. Customers add and mix the paste and the soba dipping soup to their liking and eat the soba with it.
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May 28th. I drove to Ueda. 。My wife made Custard pudding. I uploaded this image to Flickr. Flickr friend Carmen Chase said to me it is "flan" in Argentina. I know it is the same. I have seen in the recipe of raten dishes.
I drove to Ueda city with my wife, my purpose was to sightsee and do field tests on my renovated lenses. Also Miya-o went with us in the car. We bought 3 of the touge no kamameshi on the way to Ueda at Yokogawa service area of the highway for our evening meal.
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May 27th. with my wife. 。I drove to my favorite Moriya city bakery Backenbart with my wife. We bought 3 kinds of bread. Then we went to cafe Posten Tsukuba city, and had lunch.
After that, we went to Costoco, and bought some food.
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May 26th. meals 。I made a hot sandwich for our breakfast as usual.
Other 2 meals, my wife made.
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May 25th. My wife came back 。I had a instant ramen Charumera Myojyo food brand with wakame seaweed, cabbage, carrots, shimeji mushrooms, green onion, nori, and a egg for my breakfast.
I attended the Saturday English class at the chuo kominkan starting at 10:00 am.
My wife came back to Iwai from Ueda, so I went to Shimizu Park Station to pick her up at 4:30 pm.
My wife made tonkatsu for our evening meal. We had it with her father at her parent`s home.
Miya-O seems not to have forgotten about my wife, because she frequently came back home from Ueda. When she was in Hirosaki, she only came back occasionally, so Miya-O would sometimes forget about her.
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May 24th. house cleaning day 。I made a hot sandwich with a hamberger, onion, carot, cabbage, two kinds of cheeses for my lunch.
I had grilled ganmodoki, raisin bread, cucumber mayonnaise, granola yogurt, and Budweiser for my evening meal.
Today I cleaned my house.
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May 23th. COEI projection PEARL F:3.5inch No.1011 。I had a instant ramen Charumera Myojyo food brand for my breakfast.
I had self made hot sandwiches for my lunch.
I had fried horse mackerel that I bought at Torisen for my evening meal.
This is a projection lens I remounted to a Canon EF-mount. However it can not reach to an infinity focus. Of course, it has no aperture no focusing ring helicoid. And more, most are thick glass and sturdy heavy brass pipes. It's a very poor lens for photography, It wasn't designed to be a photoglaphy lens. Really different. So there's a chance I can take some interesting photos. That's what drives me crazy about modifying fossil-like lenses. Of course, most of the past cases have had disappointing results
2 photos, my cat and the sunset, I photographed with this lens.
My cat. Four corners are little bit missing. Focusing range is really tiny.
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May 22th. FUJI PHOTO OPTICAL CO. FUJINON-W 1:5.6/135 No.443583 。I made a hot sandwich with 2 small hamburgers, an egg, carrots, onions, and 2 kinds of cheeses. I use the hot sandwich maker Kajidonya which is a favorit brand of mine.
https://kajidonya.com/
I got FUJI PHOTO OPTICAL CO. FUJINON-W 1:5.6/135 No.443583 in September 2019 for about 650 yen. Shutter aperture operation were good. The back lens is beautiful. However, there was an oil film on the inner surface of the front lens, making it cloudy. The filter frame was bent so I couldn't disassemble and couldn't get close in there. I couldn't clean the oil film.
I recently scraped the bent filter frame. Then I disassembled and cleaned the front lens. I remounted to a Canon FD-mount, and used it on digital camera. Photographed with ARGUS COATED CINTAR f/3.5 50mm.
It has good resolution and produces good colors. It's not bad. I took a few photos of the ARGUS lens using this lens.
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May 21th. A bit exaggerated. 。I had a fried egg, two small hamburgers, lettuce salad, granola yogurt, bread with raisins, and cafe au lait for my breakfast.
Miya-O chan came closer. She rubbed up against me and got entangled. This situation may mean she is hungry, wants to play or just wants to be with me. It's easy to tell the difference. When I pick her up and she runs away, mostly it's the first reason. Anyway, if I feel like she's bothering, have to listen carefully to what she say. She teach me how to communicate person using a different language. A bit exaggerated.
I had the microwaved frozen katsuo no tataki I bought at Co-op, tofu, I would chose Budweise and more for my evening meal.
I cleaned my house all day today.
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May 20th. a remaining 。I made a soup with a few kinds of vegetables and some wakame.g, granola yogurt, and cafe au lait for my breakfast. With hot sandwich leftovers.
It is a remaining residue after extracting the lens ARGUS COATED CINTAR f/3.5 from a junk ARGUS C3 that was used when people were still able to divide and multiply without the use of calculators. I sold the remains by Yahoo Auction, and got money. I think the person who bought it will take good care of it, because he knows its value. And I'll use the money I get to buy a new fossil-like lens.
I drove to Moriya City with my pet cat Miya-O chan in her carrier riding in my FJ cruiser. I bought three kinds of breads at my favorite Moriya bakery Backenbart. I got a free lettuce there, I don't know why. I thought maybe owner`s parents are lettuce farmers. because the lettuce was lapped with plastic sheet same as a store product.
I added a few chicken nuggets and leftover soup for my evening meal with tomato cucumber coleslaw salad.
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May 19th. CHIYOKO ROKKOR 2.8/45 No.1201762 on EOS 5DMk2 。This lens was installed in the Minolta A2 rangefinder camera released in 1955. I got a junk one in November 2023 for about 400 yen. I extracted the lens and remounted it on a Canon EF-mount by myself. The modification cost was less than 2000 yen including the lens.
I renovated it to on EF-mount, but I have some problems using it with Canon EOS 5D mark2. The rear edge of the lens will touch the mirror. So the helicoid must be advanced, then attached to the camera and used in the live view mode. It's quite risky. Photographed with ARGUS COATED CINTAR f/3.5 50mm
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May 18th. ARGUS COATED CINTAR f/3.5 50mm 。I had tamago kake gohan for my breakfast.
I made a hot sandwich with ham, cabbage, and two kinds of cheeses. I also made coleslaw salad containing cooked burdock, carrots and cabbage, boiled egg. I packed them in my lunch box. But ended up eating them at my home at noon.
I went to my Fossil-like Lenses Renovation Factory, however the room temperature became high, I returned my home at noon. So I had my lunch at home.
I went to my factory again from 4:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m. It gets a little cooler after 4:00 pm than at noon. I bought a Horse mackerel fillet at Torisen on the way to home.
For my evening meal, I had grilled horse mackerel topped with mustard mayonnaise and other dishes.
In November 2023, I made a successful bid for 9 junk rangefinder cameras for 8,740 yen. I extracted this lens from one of them, Argus C3 referred to as "The Brick" by photographers. It was a low-priced rangefinder camera mass-produced from 1939 to 1966 by Argus in Ann Arbor, Michigan, United States. I remounted it to an EOS EF-mount. Flange back adjustment was the most difficult part for me, but the focusing can reach infinity. Photographed with KONISHIROKU HEXANON 1:3.5 F=135mm No.5686965
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May 17th. MCPP 。I made Sauce Yakisoba for my lunch. I also made the same for my evening Yakisoba bento.
I sprayed the herbicide in the morning. I bring a tea bottle in my pocket all the time.
I used MCPP herbicides, today. MCPP stand for Mecoprop ,it is a phenoxy acid herbicide that acts as an auxin-type plant hormone and has herbicidal activity by disrupting plant hormone action, thereby causing abnormal cell division.
https://www.rikengreen.co.jp/ryokukashizai/product/general/mcpp.html
I had Yakisoba bento at my home.
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May 16th. Dr, Kobayashi has passed away. 。I was very surprised when I heard that Dr, Kobayashi has passed away. He was five years older than me and had been very kind to me with my job. I went to the funeral home in Koga city to see him for the last time in the morning
Whenever I ware mourning clothes I take a selfie. So that I won't forget, and so that I can see myself getting older. I've gotten a lot older in the picture, and I can't help but think about my own death.
I see my doctor every 56 days. Today, I met him as usual. My health was all good, no problem, other than my high blood pressure and hyperlipidemia. I was prescribed the usual medication.
I need to enjoy as much soba as I can, before my death, so I went with my cat Miya-O to my favorite Tsukuba soba restaurant Kimura, and had Tenseiro soba. Photographed with Canon LENS SE 45mm 1:1.9 renovated compleatly yesterday.
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May 15th. completed the renovation 。I cooked sweet corn rice using the Donabe of kamameshi. I had a ball of tamago kake gohan with the fresh cooked sweet corn rice, a row egg, and a slight amount of soy sace for my breakfast.
I had a sandwich with graham bread and cheese for my lunch.
I had a nikuman and soup with a few kinds of vegetables for my evening meal.
I think I am doing a good job of balancing my nutrition, even without my wife telling me to. I won't deny that I eat some sweets that aren't in the photos in my picture diary, everyday.
I have completed the renovation of two Canon LENS SE 45mm for my digital camera. One is for EOS EF-M mount and the other is Sony Nex-mount. Idid both well, and I am satisfied.
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May 14th. Canon LENS SE 45mm renovation 。I baked ｇraham bread using my electric automatic bread maker with my maple syrup recipe. I made a tomato and lettuce salad, vegetable soup, and a sandwich with freshly baked graham bread. The surface of freshly baked graham bread was crispy, crunchy, fragrant and delicious.
Yesterday I took out two lenses Canon LENS SE 45mm from 2 junk Canonet cameras. Today I renovated these to use in my digital camera at my Fossil-like Lenses Renovation Factory. I cut and modified the original lens metal base frame, and made a wooden ring part for the lens barrel extension. Since I have two lenses, I did the same thing twice.
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May 13th. take him to an orthopedic clinic. 。The bowl for Oginoya's Touge no Kamameshi is made of pottery. It is a clay pot so-called Donabe. I cooked sweet corn rice using this, and made Tamago kake gohan for my breakfast. It was fresh cooked rice and a fresh raw egg mixed with a slight amount soy sauce.
Around 10 o'clock, I got a call from my father-in-law Tetsu asking me to take him to an orthopedic clinic. He got in the passenger seat of my FJ cruiser by himself half a year ago, now he can not. I thought his muscle power went down and his joints are stiff. I switched from my FJ cruiser to my brother-in-law`s Kei-tarac. He could get in it. I brought my father-in-law to his orthopedic clinic and back to his home. I had Nigiri sushi from Torisen for my lunch with him.
I disassembled a rangefinder camera Canon Canonet, and took out Canon LENS SE 45mm 1:1.9. Usually, work like this I do at home, not in my factory, because it involves a lot of small parts. When I returned from the toiret, Miya-O naped.
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May 12th. tonkatsu yakisoba 。The photo on the top left is my breakfast.
I walked around just a little at Yasaka Park in the morning.
I had a birthday party for one of my 7 middle school classmates with friends at a Jyoso city izakaya.
I drank 2 mugs of draft beer, Iwas fullf and completely satisfied. I made a special order for tonkatsu yakisoba, which wasn't on the menu. Taisho(shop owner) didn't accept it at first, but he finally agreed. However, the yakisoba had ham cutlet on it, not tonkatsu.
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May 11th. Miya-O sees her doctoｒ 。I joined the Saturday English classes in the morning.
I brought my pet cat Miya-O to see her doctor in the afternoon. Now, she goes to the hospital once a month. This time, Her doctor did her blood tests and the results were within normal limits. So good, She will continue to see docter once a month.
I had a simple evening meal like the one in the photo.
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May 10th. I backed to Iwai in the afternoon. 。My wife went to sports clubs and Yoga classes in the morning till 3:00 pm. So I visited the Ueda Castle Ruins Park with my cat, and took a few pictures. My cat stayed in the car.
I had Krumi soba at my favorite Ueda city soba restrant Katana-ya.
I left around 1:00 pm and drove to Iwai. On the way, I bought the Oginoya brand Touge no Kamameshi at the Yokokawa service area on the highway.
When I rested at the service area at the highway, I wanted to park in the shade of a large truck if possible, to avoid strong sunlight, especially in summer.
I arrived around 4:00 p.m. in Iwai. I had Toge no Kamameshi for my evening meal.
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May 9th. Ikushimatarusima Jinjya 。My wife and I went to Ikushimatarusima Jinjya in Ueda City. then we visited Aso Jinjya. Aso jinjya seems to have been founded in the 9th century.
Next, we went to Bessho Onsen and had lunch at a public hot spring facility. I parked in the public parking lot at Bessho Onsen and walked with my wife to visit three nearby temples.
Kitamuki Kannon Hall, Fudo Hall, bell tower, and Onsen Yakushi Ruriden.
The octagonal three-story pagoda of Anrakuji Temple was magnificent. However, the light direction at 4:00 pm was not so good, I could not take good pictures.
The thatched roof of Jhorakuji Temple was magnificent.
I would like to visit Bessho Onsen and the three temples again at a different time, especially early in the morning.
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May 8th. a national treasure the three-storied pagoda. 。My wife and I went to Daihoji Temple in Aoki Village, a village next to Ueda City. There is a national treasure, the three-storied pagoda.
It was an old, magnificent, and quiet temple with a three-storied pagoda of stunning beauty. We were going to go to a few others, but Daihoji Temple was so good that we stayed there for hours. So we only saw one temple today.
In the evening, when my wife made our evening meal, I walked around Yanagimachi and took a few photos.
It was after Golden Week ended, so it wasn't crowded anywhere.
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May 7th. 2 Rokkor-PF 1:1.8 f=45mm lenses completeｄ. 。I worked with my cat until late last night and completed the renovation of the 2 Rokkor-PF 1:1.8 f=45mm lenses. I took a few photos using these.
I started at noon to go to Ueda with my cat, and bring some vintage lenses. When I drove my cat stayed in her carrier. When I rested at the parking area or the service area on the hiway, my cat could move around in my FJ Cruiser room. I took a rest each hour.
I arrived at Ueda city at 6:00 p.m. My cat stayed in my car until we went back.
My wife's knee pain seems to have subsided considerably now. She can walk slowly. I had the evening meal togathe with my famiry.
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May 6th. compressed air come 。My younger brother have an air compressor on the 1st floor of his warehouse. So I piped the compressed air from the1st floor to the 2nd floor. I took off 3 air filters and an air regulator from a junk Negi-muki machine. Negi-muki machine is a japanese leek peeler using compressed air. I placed them end ofsome compressed air piping. I can remove water off in the piping.
Today, I'm still working on modifying lenses Rokkor-PF1:1.8 f=45mm, but it's not quite finished.
Usually, I do assembly work at home rather than at the factory to avoid dust. There isn't much dust, but my cat often comes and gets in the way.
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May 5th. Rokkor-PF1:1.8 f=45mm again. 。I made a soup with chicken and vegetable, Gohan, sliced tomato lettuce salad, fried egg, cafe au lait for my breakfast.
It passed one night. I refreshed my mind and saw the morning sunshine. My mind flashed the recovery method of my mistaken yesterday.
I made Asari gohan onigiri wrapped with nori, granola yogurt, and add leftover soup for my lunch.
I stayed in my lens factory from morning to evening and I renovated 2 lenses.
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May 4th. What the hell. 。I had Asari Gohan onigiri laped with nori, sliced tomato cucumber, Konyaku stew, granola yogurt and cafe au lati for my breakfast.
I took up 2 lenses Rokkor-PF1:1.8 f=45mm from 2 rangefinder cameras Minolta Hi-Matic, and I thought about the lens modifying method in the morning at my home.
In the afternoon, I implemented my method at my Fossil-like Lenses Renovation Factory.
What the hell. I made a mistake in the dimensions. I probably made a mistake in the subtraction or I got the unit wrong. I spent much heavy nervous concentration and time for the making. All that time spent was wasted. In addition, The arts I shaved cannot be returned to their original state.
I felt very depressed.
I had retort curry rice, sliced tomato lettuce orange salad, fried egg, tofu, and Budweiser for my evening meal.
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May 3rd. N.K.K Sankor 4 inch F1:2.0 No, 5507 。
This is a projection lens I remounted Canon EF-mount. Today, I took the renovation a step further by stripping off the old paint and repainting. I painted it with heat-resistant matte black paint and heated it over 300℃ for 20 minutes. It is a baking paint. Since it is baked, the surrounding paint will not dissolve even if you wipe the lens with absolute alcohol. I also painted the inside of the barrel. I polished the lenses. I shortened the barrel about 7mm and added an orange ring about 4mm wid, so for focusing the infinity. Photographed with MINOLTA MC W.ROKKOR -SG 1:3.5 f=28 No122836
I finished modifying the projector lens, so I went out for a walk to give it a field test. I took a few pictures at Yasaka shrine.
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May 2nd. Our plan disappeared. 。I made a soup with a few kinds of vegetables, potato, wakame, and sausage. I put radish pickles on the new pottery dish that I bought yesterday, add granola yogurt, cafe au lait. I had them for my breakfast.
I talked about Himatsuri in Kasama city yesterday with my wife by phon. She seems to want to go to the event. Then we decided to go to there together tomorrow. Our plan is she will came back to Iwai in the afternoon, and we will go to Kasama tomorow in the morning.
3:40 pm, she called me. She had a pain in her right knee suddenly, so she could not come to Iwai. She has had knee problems since she was young. She had surgery when she was 20s. Usually nothing happens, she can go running, but sometime it suddenly appears. And she just has to rest and wait until the inflammation subsides.
So our plan disappeared. She was very disappointed. She was doubly disappointed by the pain.
I went to my Lenses Renovation Factory in the afternoon. I checked the Infiniti of the lens that I renovated. I focused on the white and red power line pylon located more than 2 kms away at the far end of the image.
I made the video about medicin time with my cat.
I had Asari Gohan onigiri laped Nori, and some leftovers for my evening meal.
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May 1st. Himatsuri in Kasama city. 。I made a soup with sausage and a few kinds of vegetables, sliced tomato and cucumber, Asari gohan, grilled Ganmodoki for my breakfast.
During the Golden Week holidays every year, there are a lot of people everywhere. so I stay at my home.
Strictly speaking, May 1st is not a holiday, and what's more, a weather reporter on TV said it is rain all day today. My mind changed around 9 oclook am.
I drove to Himatsuri in Kasama city. And I also wanted to train the cat to travel by car with me. Therefore I brought my cat.
Himatsuri is a big pottery festival event in Kasama city during the Golden Week holidays every year. This time, I expected there to be fewer people because it was raining heavily and it was cold. I went to the event 7 years ago long time no see. As soon as I entered Kasama City, I realized that my prediction was correct. I got quickly found a parking space near the event place.
I realized that I didn`t have mach cash, when I paid the parking charge. A quick look was only 11,000 yen. I already payed 1,000 yen on parking and entrance fees.
There were 220 pottery stores and pottery artist gathered in the event space. I was going to look all of the stores and for my favorite artist. It was amazing to be able to look over 200 pottery shops and artists' works in such a small space in such a short amount of time. I had Kake soba 460yen for my lunch.
I looked at all of the stores, then I carefully selected 4 small potterys from pottery stores of 3 artists, bought 4 total of 9,500 yen. I was able to reaffirm my preferences for pottery.
I'll probably go again next year, no matter how crowded it is, and bring more cash.
