`Beachland` sounds like the name of a bad Hollywood movie, but it`s actually a theme park on Chita Penninsula, near Chubu Airport. I went there on Sunday for the first time with my son, wife, & her friends.
My son Owen really enjoyed himself, especially at a big indoor play area for small children, which is full of various toys. He also got excited about some of the sea animals on display, especially the turtles & colorful fish. However, he didn`t seem so interested in the dolphins or seals, which surprised me a little. Maybe he was slightly scared by them.
It takes about one and a half hours by highway from Ichinomiya, which is a little far (especially if you have a hangover after drinking too much wine...) but I recommend it - kids can get really close to a variety of unusual animals, and can even touch some of them.
There are also lots of open, grassy areas, so I think it would be a nice place to go in summer, & have a picnic lunch.
As usual, clicking on the above picture will make it bigger.
I had a good time at the party on Saturday night.
However, I didn`t do very well in the wine tasting challenge. Each team was given 4 wine samples & told to decide which country each was from. Unfortunately an Australian wine - which I usually drink - wasn`t included, & though I sometimes drink Italian wine (e.g. when I go to a great Italian restaurant next to Iwato Station called Manma Cina), the Italian one we were given in the contest was a dessert wine, which I never drink - yuck! Also, I thought American wine was terrible, but I didn`t realise that Argentinian wine is even worse... urgh!
Anyway, in the end my team got zero points. But I wasn`t too shocked; after one of my team members drank his first sample, he asked "Is this wine?" Uh oh...!
Anyway, congratulations to the winners: Parren & his team.
And congratulations to Argentina for making a wine that is worse than $4 American wine!
Tomorrow night (Saturday, Nov.27) is Gifu Teragoya school`s Beaujoulais Nouveau (pronounced "Boo Noo") wine party. There will be a wine-tasting challenge, so I thought I should practice a little tonight...
This is a bottle of Californian Cabernet Sauvignon (pronounced "Koo Soo") I got at Seiyu supermarket for 380 yen (A$4). Wow - even cheaper than Saizeria!
There will also be live music by our gifted Ichinomiya student Kiyotaka. It`s from 6-8pm if you want to go - please join us if you`re free!
This is a woodblock print I did in 2007, using black acrylic paint. I added color (watercolor paint) by hand afterwards.
The size is 20 x 30cm.
I saw these objects in this arrangement in the grounds of a temple somewhere in Yoro. I was out riding my bike & exploring the countryside at that time.
The frame on this one is real!
This is a new series on my blog called "otto-no-arto" (Otto`s Art).
Nowadays I don`t paint or draw much, so some of these pictures are not recent, but I hope you enjoy looking at them anyway.
This is a lino-cut print using acrylic paint. The size is 10cm x 7cm. I made it in 2003.
By the way, the frame isn`t real. I found the frame image on the internet, then I cut & pasted a scan of my picture onto the frame.
Japanese gifts are often wrapped in stylish & colourful paper. I sometimes use this paper for writing letters on, & occasionally I even make matching envelopes from it too. I usually send these letters to my family in Australia - my nephews & neices think they`re cool & interesting.
I don`t think it`s suitable for my Japanese friends though. They think I`m strange enough already.
This is an envelope & writing paper set I made from the packaging on a souvenir I bought in Shikoku.
What do you think? Would you be pleased to receive such a letter?
On Shikoku there are trains which are decorated with characters from the cartoon `Anpanman`. By chance, I caught a couple of these trains while I was in Shikoku last week. When the trains leave the station, the chime played in the train is the Anpanman theme tune - pretty funny. Also, you can see on the train ticket (above) that the train conductor`s blue stamp is a special Anpanman one - cool, isn`t it?
I bought an Anpanman train book for Owen as a souvenir (omiyage). He loves Anpanman, & is crazy about trains, so of course he loves this book. He also loves pressing the buttons in it which make various train sounds.
Actually, that`s become pretty annoying.
I hope the batteries die soon.
![2010 Shikoku Henro Pictures]()
Of course I took a lot of photos during my Henro trip. Here are some of them. I`m sure you have a lot of questions to ask about them. In fact, I can guess what they are - let`s try!
Q: Is that blue bike yours? It looks like a little girl`s bicycle!
A: Hey, the important thing is it`s fast & easy to fold-up & carry on trains, buses etc. and it has 6 gears, which is enough for getting up & down most mountains.
Q: Who is the guy with the oranges?
A: Just a guy we stopped to ask for directions.
Q: Did you buy his oranges?
A: I wanted to, but of course we wanted to keep our luggage light, so no.
Q: Poor guy. You should have bought his oranges.
A: Hey - that`s not a question!
Q: How about that other guy? Who`s he? And what`s that on the ground in front of him?
A: A dog...?
Q: No! The other stuff.
A: Oh, that`s ginger. I stopped to take a photo of the workers harvesting it, & my father-in-law started talking to this guy, so of course then he gave us some.
Q: Ginger? It`s huge. But didn`t you want to keep your luggage light?
A: Yes. I told my F-in-L "Please don`t talk to any more farmers!"
Q: Did you see the statue of Ryouma Sakamoto?
A: Yeh - it was near temple # 33. I wanted to see it.
Q: What`s that thing in the bottom left photo?
A: That`s a small passenger ferry, near temple #33. We couldn`t cross the nearby big bridge on our bicycles.
Q: Can I click on the above picture to make it bigger?
A: You sure can.
My father-in-law & I returned to Ichinomiya from Shikoku on Friday. We managed to (= tried + could) visit temples number 28 to 40 of the Henro tour. We mostly rode our bicycles, but we also used the bus & train.
This is a map showing our 2008 & 2010 courses.
2 years ago my father-in-law & I began the famous `Henro` pilgrimage (religious tour) of 88 temples in Shikoku. We did it by bicycle. We started at number 1 & reached number 27 (the picture above), then we returned to Ichinomiya.
Tomorrow we`ll go back to Shikoku to continue the pilgrimage, starting at temple number 28. I`m looking forward to it. I hope the weather is good, like last time.
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