The Satoyama of early spring

The Vernal Equinox Day is about two weeks later.　It becomes warmer day after day.　
The plum blossoms are starting to open in the Satoyama too.
Days of hay fever begin for me with the arrival of spring from now on for few months.

The plateau where flowers of the buckwheat bloom

The seeds of buckwheat become the raw materials for the soba noodle which is one of the most popular foods for Japanese.　Harvest of buckwheat will begin at the beginning of the next month.
It will be able to eat "Shin-Soba", that is made with newly harvested buckwheat, in November. 

A scenery that midsummer sky is reflected in a lake

This tranquil scenery was taken at Dai-Genta Lake （大源太湖）in Yuzawa town of Niigata Prefecture.
Yuzawa is very famous for two matters.　One is that the town is known widely as a mecca for skiers and snowboarders in winter season of Japan.
Another one is the Fuji Rock Festival which is biggest outdoor music festival in Japan. The festival is held every summer at the Naeba Ski Resort of Yuzawa since 1999.

Now that the Rock Festival had been over, the town of Yuzawa returned to a quiet hot spring town, and the town is waiting for coming snow season quietly.

Thank you for your viewing!
Wishing you a happy Sunday and great week ahead!

a refreshing pattern of a forest

This is a green of midsummer in a forest of Japanese beech.
This forest is loved by people who take a stroll there for forest bathing.

lotus from ancient times

Some seeds of lotus of 1400-3000 years ago were excavated from the digging place for public facilities construction site of Gyoda city in Saitama prefecture.
Further, those seeds were found to have germinated naturally in a puddle of the construction site after rain. Therefore, the city government of Gyoda decided to promote the park as a natural habitat of ancient lotus. And the park was opened about 14 years ago. Nowaday, there are four or five lotus ponds and we can enjoy to look the lotus flower of 120,000 roots in 42 different types of lotus from the end of June to the beginning of August.

Silent prayer

I pray for the repose of the soul of all passengers and crew of the Malaysian Airlines flight MH-17.

A magic in the cloud

This colour popped image have run into a reality in the cloud actually.
Of course, latest version of Digital SLC has a function of colour popping like Fujifilm X-T1 and Panasonic DMC-GX7.
However, I used a free shared software in the cloud to process the image above.
There are many magical things in the cloud that scattered in the world of cyberspace.
Probably, I think everyone knows about the cloud computing nowadays.
In the cloud computing, we are able to enjoy various kind of shared services including database information, data storage space, applications software and computing resources.
Even if there is no such function in your PC and camera, you do not have a mind to feel regret. Let's try an Internet search, you will be able to find a variety of services in the cloud immediately.
But be careful! You have to install latest version of an antivirus software in your PC before doing.

By the way, following is the original image.

The white hydrangea which blooms in a park

I could hear the lovely voice of a little girl who was in high spirits. She was speaking something in her father's arms. It was a heartwarming scene for me.

Thank you for your viewing my photos this week too.
I hope you have a splendid weekend and great week ahead!

The place where a Japanese Primrose blooms gregariously

The image shows a part of the place where a Japanese primrose grows in colonies.
This site is located on the western end of Chuzenji lakeside and in about 10 minutes walk from a jetty of Senjyu-ga-hama.
Flowering time of this plant at this place is from middle of June to end of June every year.


a jetty of Senjyu-ga-hama

a jetty of Senjyu-ga-hama

The place, where called Senjyu-ga-hama, is located in the western end of the Lake Chuzenji that is at an altitude of 1,265 meters. A mountain covered with clouds to be seen in the front is Mt. Nantai(2486m).　Hikers are waiting a returning ship after enjoying of their hiking and flower viewing.
As for flower viewing, there is the place where a Japanese primrose grows in colonies near here as shown in below.

Lake Yunoko, popular place for lure fishing, but ???

This lake is the lure fishing birthplace in Japan with Lake Chuzenji.
After Japan opened the gate to foreign countries in the beginning of the Meiji period, the summer villas of foreign embassies, like the UK, the US, Italy and others, were opened in the surrounding of the Lake Chuzenji.
Many diplomats with their family stayed there every summer and they enjoyed fishing and boating or sailing for pleasure as they did in their home country.
And also, they taught the lure fishing to Japanese people. Further, they imported  rainbow trouts from their home country, and those trouts were discharged or released into the lake.  Therefore, the lake Chuzenji and Yunoko became most popular place for trout fishing in Japan until now.
However, unfortunately, anglers are requested to release their catches, because fishes are still contaminated with radioactivity caused by melt downed nuclear power plant of Tokyo Electric Power Company, Inc. in March 2011.
Nonetheless many anglers still enjoy lure fishing in this lake.

Japan Cypripedium, an endangered species

The photo has been originally uploaded by Yuichi Momma's photostream in flickr


According to the RRL issued by Ministry of the Environment (Japan), the Japan Cypripedium has been specified as an endangered species.

It is said that the place where this plant grows wild disappeared mostly in Japan.

However, we can look at a state of that this plant has grown in colonies in one private botanical garden.
The owner of the botanical garden is an old man who is 85 years old.
In order to protect this plant from extinction, he makes efforts to protect and  grow this plant more than a decade.

As a result, the plant was able to increase a thousand or more now.

For your wonderful Sunday!

The photo has been originally uploaded by Yuichi Momma's photostream in flickr

I'm looking forward to the wonderful photos from you at the week ahead also.

Spring has gone and Summer has come in Okinawa

The photo has been originally uploaded by Yuichi Momma's photostream in flickr

Sky, clouds, water and sandy beach, all of these were color of summer, and , sea breeze was so refreshing.

I stayed in Okinawa few days to enjoy the festival called Ryukyu KAIEN-SAI （琉球海炎祭） which was held in Ginowan city (宜野湾市） last Saturday.
It is a summer festival which is to be held earliest in Japan. And, the summer season of Okinawa is to be started by this festival. The most attractive event in the festival was fireworks.
I enjoyed that fireworks of 10,000 shots drew beautiful floral patterns in the night sky.

setsubun-sou, an endangered species

setsubun-sou, an endangered species, originally uploaded by photoholic image.

The flower called Setsubun-sou is very small, diameter of the flower is about 20 mm from 15 mm at most.
In general, it is said that this flower blooms around the Risshun (or Lichun in Chinese : 立春) which means the first day of spring, 4th to 5th of February each year, in terms of the traditional East Asian calender.　However, flowering time in here is the late February from beginning of March.

Setsubun-sou is one of species in the family of Ranunculaceae, and it is being designated as an endangered species in the red data book of the Ministry of Environment of Japan. It is said that Setsubun-sou grows in colonies like this is to be rare in Japan.
Therefore, we are requested to protect it in order to take over in the future.