カテゴリー: Photograph

Skin got cracked on my both thumbs. Probably no one wants to see them

It happens in winter. If I expose my finger in cold air for some time, my finger skin gets crack. This time, I got it on the tips of thumb. Every time I touch something, I feel stinging like ache. I need to wash foods and cook meals using water, these cracks are annoying.

And, snow fall; if the ground is covered with snow, it makes me reluctant to work on my field.

Now the year 2025 is going to end. Let me look back the year by photos

January: I was living in the residence for foreign teachers. This photo shows what I put on steamed rice. It’s “Furikake” in Japanese.

February: I had been in my house in Japan during winter break. It seems that there was a lot of snow fall at that time.

March: The spring semester had started at the time of this photo. There was still ice on the surface of the pond in the campus.

April: Some plum flowers were blooming in the campus.

May: Iris flowers around the pond

June: When I was in the campus, I cooked all the meals myself except lunches in weekend. This is a typical dish which I ate for weekend lunch.

July: Though the final examination had ended, I was still in the campus, cleaning the room, and packing my belongings into suitcases to come back to my country, Japan.

August: Summer in this year was quite heated. This photo was taken on the way to a mobile phone shop.

September: Rice were becoming yellow at the beginning of September. Some were already harvested, and some were still green.

October: Japan’s “Susuki” and “Tall goldenrod” from foreign country were competing each other.

November: Iide mountains of altitude of 2000 meters had got snow.

December: Snow has come to low altitude area of Niigata.

My relax time after supper with a small package of snack

I usually write a blog post after supper. Today I worked a lot for the trellis for apple tree. It has been almost completed. And I received the result of chest x-ray test by regular mail from the city hall. I got the test on November 17th. And today is December 29th. It takes many days when it comes to works by public offices. Fortunately, the result was “no-problem”. If it said a further examination was needed, my daily life would be changed completely with anxiety. Since many relatives on my father side died of cancer, I think it is a kind like ticking bomb.

And now I am writing a blog post. I have already eaten a small package of snack. I decide not eating two packages; one at a night.

ブルボンの「味ごのみ」です。お茶は昼間の残りです。

Still working on the Trellis; the clamp doesn’t fit pipes

I am thinking about making a square trellis on which the apple tree “Shinano Gold” can grow its branches. In my design, four steel pipes are connected at the corners. In order to make like that, I had bought four clamps for steel pipes whose diameter is 25.4 millimeter. But yesterday I realized that the clamp didn’t fit the phi 25.4 mm (1in) pipe. It seemed that the clamp was made to be compatible to both phi 22.2mm(7/8in) and phi 25.4 mm (1in) pipe. Probably the clamp can fit for phi 22.2mm pipe. But for 25.4 mm pipe that I have, its flange gets angle and bolt cannot go into the threads. That means pipes cannot be connected at the four corners of the trellis.

I remembered that there are another phi 31.2 mm (5/4in) steel pipes on the shelves of the DIY shop. I expected that a clamp for 31.2 mm might be able to fit my 25.4 mm pipes. So, I got on a local train in this morning, to go to the DIY shop in the town next to my village. In the store, I checked whether or not 31.2 mm clamp can grip 25.4 mm pipe. But I was disappointed by the fact that the clamp is too big to grip and fix 25.4 mm pipe. I saw the price card. Just one clamp costs three hundreds and some JPY (about 2.5 USD), which I thought expensive. I came to think that using clamps for my trellis was a kind of excessive quality too much. I left the DIY shop without buying any clamps. I wasted time and money for trains.

Those tall chimneys are standing in the industrial area of Niigata

When I got back home, I tried thinking to other ways to connect two steel pipes at right angle. Actually, the problem has not been solved yet. I am still thinking to find a good way. Probably I will get a better answer tomorrow.

The location of Microphone is emphasized using even bigger letters “マイク”

Japanese remove all the Christmas decorations soon after December 25th.

I think it would be better if those trees and illumination things continue to be there until the new year, we Japanese surely remove everything. This time, I have put five color bulbs on my window and lit up them like from seven to nine p.m. Time was not so exact, but I turned them on after supper and off before going to bed. Since I bought them about twenty years ago, they are not LED lights but conventional bulbs. Those bulbs consume 20 Watt, not much, but use more electricity than LED, I guess.

Other Japanese remove all the Christmas decorations, so I thought that I also need to do something with my five color bulbs. What I did was not removing them, but changing from five color to mono color bulbs. Does it make any sense? I am not sure.

I am living in a residential area in small village surrounded by vast rice field. Population is not much. I am sure that my illumination is not seen by many people because very few people walk or drive on the road by my house in the night. But I would like to say that here is a lonely place with less people, I want some lights be there.

Before changing the bulbs

After; Upper half and lower half are blinking in turn. At that moment, the lower half were being turned off

I should have planted more vegetables for winter

It seems they will run out before spring come.

Since I don’t use pesticide, insects or worms have eaten a lot of green part of the Chinese cabbage as shown in the photo.  I need to wash the leaves well and get rid of worms’ droppings completely when I cook this cabbage.