Gaijin San

Parade of the Black Watch to the Church of St-Andrew and St-Paul

admin — Sun, 06 May 2012 23:08:21 +0000

At the botanical garden with Arun

admin — Sun, 29 Apr 2012 22:53:38 +0000

Arun graced us with his presence for this wonderful visit of the Montreal Botanical Garden. On the menu? Some tulips, cherry blossoms (sakura), magnolias and much more!

Papillons en liberte et jardin botanique de Montreal | Butterflies in liberty and the Montreal botanical garden.

admin — Sat, 21 Apr 2012 22:58:05 +0000

Once a year, there is a joint event of the Montreal Botanical Garden and the Insectarium of Montreal, where butterflies are allowed to fly freely in the greenhouses of the garden. We enjoyed at the same time the blooming flowers of the tropical plants.

Biodome Montreal

admin — Sun, 01 Apr 2012 02:32:44 +0000

Best of Japan, February 2012

admin — Mon, 20 Feb 2012 14:03:52 +0000

Arashi Daiko

admin — Tue, 13 Dec 2011 01:42:22 +0000

The Japanese community in Montreal organizes a Fall festival with traditional Japanese food, musical and martial arts performances. The following clip is from a performance of Arashi Daiko, a taiko drum ensemble from Montreal.

Farewell Dinner

admin — Thu, 08 Sep 2011 21:16:14 +0000

For our last dinner in Japan, we had a special fest with a lot of food and a lot of beer and sake. I was very emotional because the welcome I received from the Yamamoto familly in Japan was extraordinary. I took some funny shots with Hiroaki-san as it is not the custom in Japan to have any form of body contact, even for family members. Mitsuko got her hug too on the next day before the departure.

Gardening with mama and the rice mill

admin — Wed, 07 Sep 2011 21:09:41 +0000

Mitsuko really wanted me to have some fresh rice for our last meal, so we got some rice bags from the latest crop and went to the rice mill. The rice mill is a do-it-yourself automatic facility where you simply put some money to start the machine and select your preferred setting from highly refined (white rice) to coarser (brown rice). You put the rice with the shells on one side and it comes out as white rice on the other. Fresh rice tastes so good!

Zenko-ji Temple

admin — Mon, 05 Sep 2011 20:59:55 +0000

We enjoyed perfect weather for the visit of the Zenko-ji temple. The temple was built in the 7th century. There is a rumor that the temple would be the host to the first Buddha statue brought to Japan. This statue cannot be seen by anyone, including the chief priest.

Short video presenting the ambiance of the Zenko-ji temple.

Downtown Nagano

admin — Sun, 04 Sep 2011 20:52:09 +0000

Nagano is the capital of the Nagano prefecture. It is notably famous for being the host city of the 1998 winter olympic games but also for the Zenkō-ji temple. Downtown Nagano has a nice and quiet atmosphere (at least in comparison to Tokyo!) in the middle of magnificent mountain scenery.