Wed. 1 Jan. 1997

Happy New Year! This is the third new year since I joined the Internet world. I have finally been able to make my home page using text and pictures, but today people send information including sounds, animation, and movies. Although I can not use such high grade technique, I would like to send steadily my own information about Oita, Yufuin, and small news around myself. How wonderful it is if I can make friends and deepen the exchange all over the world through my home page! In the afternoon, my husband and I dressed ourselves up in the traditional Kimono to take part in the new year party of COARA. Mr.Ono, the secretariat of the office, and many other members joined. We enjoyed Japanese sake, wine, "Osechi" dishes, crape, "Okonomiyaki"(Japanese style pancake), and live jazz music performed by Tsuru band. Mr.Tsuru is one of COARA members as well. We have had a very pleasant time, indeed.

Tue. 7 Jan. 1997

Today we take "the seven spring herbs gruel." I chopped the herbs on the cooking board to prepare the breakfast gruel singing a song which my mother taught me in my childhood like "Before the birds from Chinese continent arrive, let's chop the seven herbs...." The seven herbs consists of Japanese parsley is a sort of water grass which releases fragrance, Nazuna, Gogyo, Hakobera, Hotokenoza, Japanese turnip, and Japanese radish which we cook frequently. I put soup, rice cake, and rice altogether into an earthen pot for simmering. Before serve, chopped seven spring herbs are scattered on the gruel. The gruel is a wisdom of the ancestors who teach us not only way of easing our tired stomachs of excess nutrition during the new year*s feast but also feeding us green vegetables tend to lack in winter season. I would like to hand down this tradition to the generation to come.

Wed. 15 Jan. 1997

Today we have a sunny clear and warmer day even though it is mid-winter. In the afternoon, I went out along with my husband to the nearby unattended train station through the arid rice field dotted with yellow rape blossoms. Soon a tiny single wagon diesel car painted yellow the same color of the rape blossoms came in. We got on the train and enjoyed 15 minutes trip to downtown Oita for shopping. The shopping arcade was filled with young male and female who have just finished the coming-of-age ceremony. Girls are dressed in beautiful kimonos of long sleeve, their heads are arranged neatly with decoration of flowers and feathers. Boys wear suit and necktie. They carry commemorative brochure of the ceremony and are pleasantly chatting. Here in Oita city, some 16,000 people became adults while 930,000 male and 890,000 female have grown-up in the whole country. The number decreased about 60,000 compared with the last year. I hope they do not forget the emotion of today and will become good member of society.

Wed. 22 Jan. 1997

When I got up early in the morning, I found the white world. I got delighted and shouted like a girl "snow, snow." This was a big event for us because here in Oita of Kyushu island of Japan, we seldom have such "heavy" snow accumulation on the ground, once or less a year. Usually we hear autos running but it was extraordinary calm this morning. As my husband doesn't have snow chain, he couldn't get start the car. We took some pictures on the snow. All trees and flowers are covered with white caps. The morning sunshine began to melt down the snow on the roof causing water to drip down off the eaves. As the snow on the road began to melt as well, he carefully drove out for the office. I got out of the house before the noon to enjoy snow covered landscape. Mt. Yufu was hidden behind the snow cloud but low hills and field were covered with pure white snow offering very beautiful and unusual scenery indeed.

Sat. 25 Jan. 1997

On the 25th and 26th Jan. 1997, The summit of Korea and Japan was held in Beppu city, Oita prefecture. COARA office set a project to open a temporaly branch at the one of COARA member's office. We hoped to send information all over the world through the familiar Internet.I took part in the project along with my husband. Many COARA memberes were already there. Some of them dashed out to take snapshots of the street by digital cameras. Others frantically worked on incorporating them into the special homepage. My husband helped the work in translation. I assisted to prepare the hyper-text and making the title illustration and serving tea for the members.TV reports on the pooled press conference by the heads. Soon COARA members including the secretariat who covered at the site came back breathlessly. Instantaneously the hot news is converted onto the home page. We are busy and in full tension, indeed.As the final event of the day, we had a firework of about 1,000 launches to celebrate the summit.We will have another coverage tomorrow as well.