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July 13th. The urine test showed no bacteria. I ran 3km in Yasaka Park. There were several photographers around the lotus pond in the early morning. I talked to a few people for a while. Two of them who were the birds photographers, trying to shoot swallows that came to the lotus flowers in the pond. They were waiting for the swallows. We talked for a few minutes. When the swallows came and two men got ready. So, I went home.
I made vinegar salad with cucumbers, eggplants, and seaweed. I also made sausage and vegetable soup and cafe au lait for my breakfast. I also had the homemade roll bread.
Today, I didn't give Miya-O any medicine. I only gave her food and water. Miya-O and I went to see her doctor around 10:00. The urine test showed no bacteria. So she doesn't need any more antibiotics.
I
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July 12th. ”Gyunyu-Pan” I got up early. I gave Miya-O medicine including antibiotics at around 6:00, about 30 minutes after the meal. Miya-O vomited again at around 8:00. I was sure it was a side effect of the antibiotics. After that, I did not give her medicine again, but just watched her. She was fine after that.
I attended the Saturday English class at 10:30. I walked there. On the way back, I passed by the lotus pond in Yasaka Park, but there was no photographer there.
I started making bread at 6pm. This was my second time making hand-kneaded bread. I divided the dough into 4 portions. I sprinkled poppy seeds on one portion to decorate top surface.
I had my evening meal while the bread was rising. Both the first and second fermentation take at least 20 minutes. I made charumera with lots of vegetables. I also made a salad with sliced tomatoes and cucumbers.
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July 11th. Blueberries. I ran 3km in Yasaka Park, and then I went to a nearby convenience store to buy a pack of milk. Becase I run out my milk last night. In total I ran 4.92km.
Miya-O vomited again this morning. Today, there were no hairballs. I suspected it was a side effect of the antibiotics. So I didn't give her another dose and just watched her progress. After that, she was good.
The blueberries in my garden get eaten by wild birds when they ripen, but I don't mind because they're bird food. Both they and I are happy.
I boiled vegetables and potatoes to make a stew-like soup. I also had Gyunyu-bread, blueberries granola yogurt, and cafe au lait for my breakfast. Wild birds had our blueberries in my garden. These blueberries were picked by me at a farm in Ueda City.
For my evening meal, I had pretty much the same thing as lunch, but with the addition of sliced tomatoes.
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July 10th. ”Gyunyu-Pan” I got up early and took a walk around Ueda Castle Ruins Park before breakfast with my spare tripod and digital camera. A tripod was essential if you want to take photos of the dark areas of the park in the early morning with a slow shutter speed.
My wife cooked our breakfast. My son went to work in Saku City.
I bought two Gyunyu-Pan(milk bread) at bakery Kokorade, It is a Nagano soul food bread with a thick layer of buttercream. One was for my younger brother and the other was for me.
I returned to Iwai with my cat. I arrived at Iwai at around 12 o'clock. I cut and had Gyunyu-Pan a quarter of bread with cafe au lait. Mya-O chan moved to her favorite spot. Miya-O vomited while in Ueda. A lot of hairballs came out. I administered an antibiotics orally again. She was fine after that.
I defrosted some self made frozen curry and had it. I also had granola yogurt and vinegar eggplant, cucumber and wakame seaweed.
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July 9th. I lost my tripod. My wife cooked our breakfast. My son went to work in Saku City.
I remembered that I had left my tripod in the parking lot at Ikenodaira Marsh, so I went looking for it with my cat. Unfortunately, it was gone. It was a used item I bought for 200 yen, but it was very easy to use, so it's a shame.
I parked my FJ in the shade of the trees at Jizo Pass and took pictures of the stone Kannon statues at the pass. I took pictures of two stone Kannon statues on the Gunma side and three on the Nagano side. It was cool in the shade, but it was hot and difficult to walk in the sun. Around 3 o'clock, clouds appeared over the pass and I heard thunder, so I decided to go back Ueda. My wife was also returning from her yoga class.
My wife cooked our evening meal.
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July 8th. Sugadaira Highlands I got up early in Ueda too. Before breakfast, I walked around Ueda Castle Park for 3 km, and took some photos. It was cooler than the Iwai in the morning, but the humidity was the same.
My wife cooked our breakfast. My son went to work in Saku City.
My wife, my cat and I went to Sugadaira Highlands to cool off. The altitude of the center of Sugadaira Plateau is about 1,300m. So it wasn't that cool. Sugadaira Plateau Nature Museum introduces the history and folklore of Sugadaira Plateau, as well as the flowers, insects, and small animals that live there, through dioramas and specimens. However, it was closed. We walked in the surrounding forest. We saw some unfamiliar alpine plants, but also many familiar weeds. I thought it was because the average temperature was rising. It was cool in the shade, but in the sun it' was as hot as it is below.
We went to Diamond Dust Cafe which has been in business since 1989 in Sugadaira Plateau For our lunch. Pets are allowed inside the cafe so I brought Miya-O chan in a cage. I ordered the most popular W cheese burger they said, which cost 1,400 yen, which I thought was a little bit expensive, but when I tried it, it was delicious enough to convince me.
The meat patty was delicious. Even my wife, who doesn't like meat, said it was delicious. There was about three times as much lettuce as ordinary. The tomatoes were carefully selected. The onions were also carefully grilled until they were sweet. The two types of cheese were nicely melted and mixed together and were delicious.
I'll probably come to this cafe again if I go to Sugadaira Highlands.
Diamond Dust Cafe https://www.diamonddustcafe.com/
Locations :1223-6358 Sugadaira Kogen Ueda City Nagano Prefecture Open : Monday - Sunday 10:30 - 19:00 (４、５、６、７月は定休日 木曜日)
On the way back from Sugadaira Plateau, we went to Karasawa Falls. It is a 15m high, 10m wide waterfall. A local told me that the waterfall is often used for filming because it is about 200 meters from the main road and it is easy to bring in filming equipment.The surrounding scenery was amazing, it was cool, and I wanted to stay there until the sun went down.
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July 7th. Unplanned trip to Ueda. I got up early, prepared my camera, got dressed, packed the cat into the FJ and set off for Ueda. The top left image shows me arriving at the Kanra Service Area on the Nagano Expressway.
This was unplanned. I just came up with it this morning and my wife always scolds me. The problem is, she'll have to stop what she's doing today to come and join me.
I arrived in Ueda around 8 am. My wife and I went to pick blueberries at a blueberry farm in the Sanada area. Admission was 700 yen for adults, which includes the amount you can eat in the garden. There is a fee for picking and taking home, but my wife says that it's still half the market price. The image in the top middle row is the view from the blueberry farm.
I had walnut soba at the restaurant at the roadside station "Raiden Kurumi no Sato". Raiden was a sumo wrestler who played an active role in the Edo period and is said to be the strongest sumo wrestler in history. He was from this area. Kurumi meens walnuts.This region produces a lot of walnuts.
Then, we went to Ikenotaira Marshland, 2000m above sea level. We could see alpine plants, Komakusa. We would also enjoy a comfortable coolness.
When we returned to Ueda, it was just as humid and hot as Iwai. I thought Ueda would be cooler, but it's exactly the same as Iwai.
My wife made our evening meal.
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July 6th. ”Let fun with photos.” I tried serving instant curry with baked potatoes for my breakfast. I added sliced yellow kiwi to Granola yogurt. I also had coleslaw salad, sliced tomatoes and cucumber salad for my breakfast.
I ran 3km in Yasaka Park around 7am. The number of lotus flowers in the pond was more than double what it was yesterday.
I made fried eggs, boiled sausages, coleslaw salad, sliced tomatoes, and garnished them with a few shiso leaves. I also had a bread roll I had baked myself and cafe au lait for my lunch.
I participated in the photography class ”Let fun with photos.” at Kamiomi Community Center from 1:30 pm. The instructor, Mr. Yamashiro, was an elderly man, and the pace was so slow that I got a little annoyed.Today was our second time. I knew it would be slower this time because the progress was slow last time, but it was slower than I expected. Ah, I couldn't resist and ordered the teacher, "Let's move on to this part qickly." The other students agreed.
My cat Miya-O is an indoor cat, but the humidity is high in Japan during the summer. It's uncomfortable without an air conditioner. But cats avoid the cold air of the air conditioner. It was after 4pm and the temperature was dropping, so I let her out for a while. Outside, the breeze was blowing and it was comfortable for her and me.
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July 5th. The lotus flowers. I ran 3km in Yasaka Park. I ran 3km and then walked. The lotus flowers in the pond in the park are starting to bloom, and many people took pictures from early in the morning.
I defrosted my homemade asari-gohan(clam rice). I also defrosted some frozen fried squid from the Co-op. I had them, tofu and vinegared wakame, and more for my evening meal.
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July 4th. Bake bread. It was a really hot day today. I mostly stayed in an air-conditioned room. I organized photo data, entered accounting data, and played with my cat. Around noon, I went to the post office, went to the banks, and took a walk in Yasaka Park. In total, I walked about 5kｍ.
I started making bread at 6pm. This is my second time kneading bread by hand. It went smoothly in the bread class, but when I tried it by myself, I had a lot of questions. I called my wife and asked her about it. In the class, I made the bread in 6 peases, but this time I tried making it in 8 peases. I wanted to try the difference in texture.
It was my first time doing the whole process by myself, but I think it went very well. It was delicious. My wife said that the key was to not let the surface of the dough dry out.
My younger brother brought me eggplants, cucumbers, and onions. So, I made a salad with onions, cucumber, eggplant, and dried wakame seaweed. I put the dried wakame seaweed in as is. I had it for my evening meal. I also had a freshly baked roll, coleslaw salad, sliced tomatoes, and a fried fish burger that I bought at Torisen.
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July 3rd. A grand golf tournament. I made grilled eggplant, boiled sausage, fried egg, granola yogurt in chopped kiwi, and cafe au lait for my breakfast.
I walked around Yasaka Park for over 3km with my camera. There is a grand golf tournament every Thursday. Today, it looked that over 50 people participated.
I made sure to stay hydrated.
I made fried squid with rice, cucumber and tomato salad, stir-fried ingen beans with bonito flakes, and barley tea for my evening meal. The fried squid is a pre-made frozen food.
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July 2nd. Clavaseptin 60.5mg. The medication prescribed to Miya-O is Clavaseptin 60.5mg. This medicine is a combination of the antibiotic Amoxicillin 50mg and the antibiotic degrading enzyme inhibitors Clavulanic acid 12.5mg.
It is manufactured by an overseas manufacturer and sold by a Japanese company. One tablet costs 100 yen, and a daily supply costs 200 yen. It was cheaper than I expected. This is probably because cats use much less medicine than humans. Humans would need more than 10 times the amount.
I made toast with ham, peeman, cheese and tomato sauce for my breakfast. I also had granola yogurt, Ume jam yogurt, cafe au lait.
In the morning, I mowed the lawn with my karibaraiki. It was very hot and humid. It was a rough finish, but I did the bare minimum. I was in the middle of the work, but finished at 10 o'clock.
In our last Saturday English class, my classmate Kuramochi san was talking about a curry restaurant Kandy Spice in Tsukuba. I was reminded in Hirosaki and Tsukuba and felt nostalgic and wanted to eat curry, so I went to Tsukuba city, but it was a regular holiday. So I had Tenseiro at my favorite soba restaurant Kimura.
The chugen gift arrived from Mutsuko san.
It got a little cooler after 4pm, so I finished mowing my lawn. I swept away the grass and tidied it up. If left untreated it will stunt the growth of grass.
I made cucumber and tomato salad, coleslaw salad, grilled atsuage with chopped shiso leaves for my evening meal.
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July 1st. Lots of bracken. I got up early and ran 3km in Yasaka Park. There were several people visiting Yasaka Shrine early in the morning. Many people were walking or running in the park. I took some flower pictures and morethe.
I photographed the part of the lotus where the petals fall off and the seeds grow. It's a unique shape and I think it looks very photogenic.
I toasted the bread with peeman, sausage and cheese for my breakfast.
The chugen gift arrived from Dr.Manaka Mieko.Now that I'm retired, I can't help her anymore. Not ever. But she cares about me and I'm grateful for it.
My wife's best friend who lives in Moriya City gave me a lot of plums. I made plum jam with them. I boiled them, mashed them, removed the seeds, and strained them. I got about 500g of plum paste. I boiled them with 200g of sugar, 50cc of lemon juice, and 50cc of rum, and reduced them.
I managed to make 500g of delicious plum jam. It was very tasty. It has a low sugar content so I'll store it in the fridge.
I give Miya-O antibiotics twice a day, 6am and 6pm. In the morning, I give it with another medicine like as usual, but I forgets at 6pm, so it's always a little late.
I made coleslaw salad, tofu tuna chopped shiso leaves for my evening meal. I also had a can of nonarchole beer.
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