Petit Weekend Getaway

Rockledge

This is a B&B where we spent a night to celebrate our 10 year wedding anniversay...Red Crags Estates in Manitou Springs, CO.

Craftwood Inn

And the next to the Estates, there is a restaurant/inn that serves a great dishes of game meat just like a cozy English pub.

I had Elk (left) and Kevin had trio (right picture: buffalo, beef, wild boar from the left).

Guess what? These are for doggies!

I'm back in Japan again. I would love to share with everyone what I saw yesterday - Yukata (Japanese cotton kimono for summer) for dogs! I'd never seen anything like this and these are so funny!

I wish Asha was a small dog so that I would dress her up and take her to the farmer's market or wherever lots of people are out and make them laugh!

Nop - these are not for kids but dogs!

Winter Storm in Spring

It really came this time - we had a blizzard in Colorado yesterday. I knew it was coming but didn't think it would be this hard hit! I'm sure TONS of people are heading up to the mountains this weekend as we needed new snow on the slopes so badly!

It all cleared while I was walking Asha this morning. This is one of the things I like about Colorado. It dumps out the snow one day and blue sky the very next day! It is hard to live anywhere else once you lived here ;-)

Asha and our neighbor's dog Scraps on the walk. We walked together after the big snow storm in December, 2006 as well. It was a lot of fun too!

It's always fun to step on the brand new snow! And it is fun to have a snow storm once you made it home safely and don't have to go anywhere :-)

All about food - Don't miss departments when you are in Japan!

It's always so much fun to browse around where food is! Food court in the department stores in Japan always locates in the basement -there are many times divided into two floors too. You should put it on your list of "must-see" when you are traveling there.

I used to take it for granted that we had so many choices at the stores, but this is what makes me feel that I'm missing out living in the US. I enjoy cooking instead though!

Christmas in Japan

I'm back in Japan now. One of the funny customs we have in Japan that I didn't realize until I moved out is "Christmas boots filled with snacks".

You can find them at grocery stores anywhere in the month of December. There are all kinds of sizes and price, and the inside varries depending on what you choose.

When I was a child, I LOVED them so much and I used to wear them to play around (even if I had only one boot!) until I lost the soles. I wonder who invented them but they obviously came from the idea of Christomas stockings.

Another custom I must mention is that Japanese eat "Christmas cakes" to celebrate Christmas.They are not anything like puddings or pies, but they are a whole cake beautifully decorated. I must get pictures of them sometime but fancy ones are so beautiful and expensive, and you need to order it in advance if you want to get one of those special ones. I always took it for granted but found out it was not the way to celebrate by the real Christians. For some reason, Japanese eat a cake for Jesus's birthday!

If you don't care for those fancy ones, you can always buy one of those in a box piled up at the front of the stores, and they go on sale at the end of the 25th. There used to be a way to describe women who didn't get married by the age of 25 - they were called "leftover Christmas cake". As more and more women choose to stay single even after 25 nowadays, this is not used any more, I hope! If not, I was a mold Christmas cake when I finally got married at the age of 30!

Here are some samples of fancy Christmas cakes!

People lined up to purchase a cake for the special day!