The Recent Weather in Ina

Japan has many “four-character idioms”.“SanKanShiOn” is one of them. It means alternation of three cold and four warm days.This March I can feel it more than ever before.

It snowed every 10days. But usually by the next day, the highest temperature is around 15 to 20 degrees…like spring! I don’t need a winter coat on a warm day. But I need it in the morning, night time and cold days. So I can’t change my wardrobe for the new season yet. And I cannot change my car tires.

Recently I can see some flowers have started blooming even weeds.
Just the one unfortunate thing …there are gale-force winds as seasons change.I don’t like chilly and windy weather.  But I’m enjoying seeing Japanese plum tree and snow in my garden.

Takato park in Ina is very famous for cherry blossoms.So I’m looking forward to visiting there in April.

Have you ever been to the park? You must visit there in the beginning of April.

If this weather like this month continues you can see cherry blossoms and snow at the same time. If so what a wonderful view!

But anyway I hope spring comes soon! Can’t wait!

Spring is here - time to dust off your hats

The long and cold winter months are over and we are now well into spring, thank goodness! I was told before arriving in Matsumoto that does get a bit chilly during the winter months, but I was totally unprepared for the bitter cold and especially not the monster snowfall in February! Now it's April and the temperature is hotting up (I would be calling this summer weather if I was still in England!), I'm starting to wonder if my 3 sets of thermal underwear were a wise investment.

Peekaboo!

To prepare for the warm and sunny spring season some of my students set out on making some hats to keep us nice and cool in the spring sunshine. Nobody likes getting sunburnt. We used paper plates to create the hat itself and decorated them with a spring theme using crayons and templates of flowers (cherry blossoms included of course!), which we coloured, cut out and stuck on. Koutarou came up with the interesting idea of adding blades of grass to his hat.

Busy decorating

We had some, who we hope to be future students, observing/joining in with the class whilst we were making our spring hats. I hope they got a taste of how fun and creative we can be here at Luna and will be joining us soon! Also I wonder if we will be seeing any of these designs at the next Paris Fashion Week!? Maybe we could get Jim sensei to model them and add them to his portfolio.

About the 8th attempt of trying to get a group shot!

We had bags of fun getting imaginative and putting together our spring hats, whilst I on the other hand had a lot less fun trying to get them all to stand still with their hats on so I could take a good group picture.  I have to say though I am slightly jealous that I don't have my own custom spring hat to take home with me. What a cool way of staying cool!

Damian Gowland

The Annual Hanami BBQ - Sunshine, smiles and satisfied stomachs

Where's the meat?

Last Sunday was Luna's annual hanami BBQ party along the Susugi river bank and what a blast it was! The sun was out, the cherry blossoms were almost in full bloom and we got to share the whole experience with a host of our students, families, friends as well as the teachers from Sasabe kindergarten. Even Damian's mum made a flying visit to join in with the festivities! It was great to see some many familiar, and some not so familiar, faces all gathered together to have a great time.

That's more like it!

Lots of our wonderful guests brought along something to share with the rest of the party goers. An excellent effort made by all. Fortunately everybody remembered to bring their appetites with them. It was quite the sight seeing all the different dishes from the classics sausages to Sri Lankan and Moroccan style dishes and of course the imperative Japanese BBQ food: the onigiri and the oinari san. We at Luna however like to take the traditional, let's say British, way of hosting a BBQ. Lots and lots of meat and hold the salad! And boy did we deliver. There was always something on the BBQ from start to finish (a special thanks to all those who helped cook all of the delicious food) and the air was filled with a fantastic aroma all day long. Everybody was left stuffed, satisfied and possibly slightly guilty from devouring such a feast.

Everybody tucking in

Whilst the adults were busy  responsible with BBQ tending and beer drinking duty, the children were enjoying themselves by running around and collecting cherry blossoms, making their own "flower pots" in paper cups and soaking Damian sensei with their water pistols! Luckily for them Damian sensei was far too full from his 20 portions of sausages and drumsticks to waddle after them. Maybe it would be a good idea to bring a lasso next time to round up the mischievous trouble makers.

Many thanks to all our fabulous guests for making this such a joyous and memorable event, we hope you enjoyed it as much as we did!  We look forward to hosting you all again next year!

Damian Gowland