July 4th 1997

Since the day before yesterday, I commute to Ohga herb garden to help the preparation of the restaurant in a full-scale. I teach everyday about how to bake bread and cake or cook dishes in the kitchen. In the hottest summer, I soak in sweat in front of the heated gas oven. But I am occasionally relieved to go out and sniff at the fragrance of lavender or thyme in the field. We have just one week to the opening of the garden. All members are frantically working.

July 8th 1997

I joined the kickoff party of the 23rd Yufuin Music Festival(YMF.) Many people came together including the town mayor, members from the sightseeing association, hot spring association, and the volunteers of YMF. At the beginning of the party, Mr. Kunpei Mizoguchi, the chairman of YMF, made a speech. He released a piece of good news that YMF was officially commended by Oita prefecture sightseeing association. Then the town mayor Mr. Sato also presented another piece of good news that the long cherished construction program of a music hall was finally started. All attendants burst into cheers and applauded. Mr. Masakuni Kato, the secretary-general of YMF, made a briefing on the feature of this time festival. Then we toasted in hope of the success of the festival. We enjoyed drinking, eating, and chatting down to the late in the evening. I firmly believe the festival would be a wonderful one.

July 13th 1997

Ohga Farm Garden in Hiji town Oita prefecture, in which I am involved, opened yesterday in success. But as the rain still remained after consecutive five days fall, we had mere 400 visitors. Today, the weather was finally cleared up and it was Sunday, we had a long line of the visitors before the opening of the gate. The total number of the visitor today exceeded 1,000. All the visitors enjoyed the herb garden and herb-based dished in the restaurant. I worked very hard all day long in the kitchen. I checked the dishes before they are served to the table on the second floor. As we are still the beginners, we occasionally missed the number of order. The soup cups and bread baskets crisscrossed in the kitchen. But we are very glad to hear that the visitors are pleased with our original dishes and breads just taken out from the oven.

July 21 1997

My work of the Ohga herb garden project, in which I was involved since the 2nd this month, was finally over. I was very happy to have a lot of guests, but to tell the truth, I feel now a little bit tired. During this time three consecutive holidays, I worked as the floor manager of the restaurant. I learned much from many kinds of the visitors and from many things. I was praised, scolded, apologized, said thank you, shouted, and heard the live voices of the guests. I learned how hard it was to work in a service business. But I was happy when the visitors enjoyed our special breads and dishes and told us that our dishes were delicious. Today, I snapped wonderful visitors. They looked like a group of close friends who enjoyed "Farmer's lunch." On the terrace, a family was sitting in a happy circle. I asked them to take a picture because they looked so amusing. The red dish on the left is "Sea food spaghetti with Pescatore sauce." In the front center of a pretty girl is a sherbet. The papa enjoys draft beer of Yebisu brand. Ohga lunch consists of herb flavored cream sauce, Minestrone soup, and herb salad. Why not try it! Yes, this is a herb garden, indeed. Countless kinds of herbs and handful wild flowers of England will welcome you. The forest of metasequoia and private beach are also marvelous. I would like to visit the garden as a visitor together with my friends.

Jujy 28 1997

The 23rd Yufuin Music Festival was finally over without any trouble. We stayed in Yufuin from the 23rd through 28th to join the festival as the staffs. A typhoon brushed the eastern part of Kyushu, giving only a small amount of rain and wind. We were very happy to hear that almost all guests fully enjoyed excellent performance of the artists. Every night after the stage, we had a pleasant exchange with the artists. We saw the artists off, saying see you next year.