Glocal Diary for Local-to-Local

As an annual tradition, we had the O-bon festival at home in Tokyo this year, too. In my hometown, Fukushima, the O-bon  festival is in mid-August (called the  Kyuu-bon,  that is Old Obon, based on old lunar calendar), but in Tokyo, it's in mid-July, called the Shin-bon (New Obon based on new solar calendar) festival. . During the Obon season, our ancestors return to this world to spend time with us, and then return to the other world, once a year. We make cow and horse from eggplant and cucumber, and decorate them as a vehicle for the ancestors to ride back to this world. On July 13th, we make a "welcoming fire ( Mukae-bi )" to welcome our ancestors. First, open the gate of the house and prepare to welcome our ancestors. After the gate is opened, an ogara  wood is placed on a roasting pan (called houroku ) like a tower. The smoke from the roasting pan is used to mark the return of our ancestors. When the burnt-out ogara is finished, a flickering red color remai...

Today, East Japan including Tokyo has just entered the season of tsuyu , a rainy month, until the middle of July.  Tsuyu  had been characterized as continuous long but small rain almost every day. But, in recent years, tsuyu  has become short but heavy rain in several days, as like as we experience in tropical areas. Of course, the average temperature in Japan is warmer and warmer maybe because of global warming. I feel Japan has now almost semi-tropical climate from spring to autumn. In my house in Tokyo, there is a small garden with several kinds of flowers. Flowers are changed and changed from one to another in a year. We enjoy cherry blossoms in March-April. Azalea in May. Now, in June, we start to enjoy hydrangea ( Ajisai in Japanese). We have several kinds of hydrangea in our garden. There are several trees of pomegranate or zakuro in Japanese. We found two small pomegranate fruits in the tree. Fortunately, we met a yellow-bodied dragonfly that took a rest on...

Today (27 May 2020), I want to start my new blog "Glocal Diary for Local-to-Local" as a brother or sister blog of my Japanese private blog "Glocal Nikki (Glocal Diary in English)". This new blog will be written in English or Bahasa Indonesia. I will write about my daily life, my thoughts, my ideas, my comments, favorite foods, and anything else what I want to write. In short, my monologue. Sometimes maybe just translation from my Japanese blog. I try to update every 2-3 days. Please keep this blog and enjoy my monologue. Of course, very welcome your questions and comments. Now I stay and work at my home in Tokyo. Enjoy to walk around my home to feel spring season this year, as seeing "rose garden" in front of our railway station.