亀清の若女将から電話があって、「疲れているから帰りにジェラートを買ってきて頂戴」と。戸倉上山田温泉のジェラート屋さん、ラヴニールによって、オーナーの宮崎さんにお世話になりました。店内に欧州のお城からのアンチークなテーブルや、イタリアからのカウンターやエスプレッソの機会、そして、本格的なジェラート、日本じゃない別な世界の様。
今のジェラートは苺（宮崎さんの庭で自分で育った苺）、キャラメル（我が若女将の気に入り）、「べりー・べりー」、バナナ、杏、そしてオーソドックスのプレイン。この夏はぜひ、暑さに負けに様に、ラヴニールのジェラート！
（亀清から歩いて約１０分。）
On the way back to the inn, I got a phone call from the wife -- she was feeling exhausted and needed some gelato. So I stopped at our town's patesserie, L'Avenir and had the owner, Miyasaki-san, hit me up with some gelato. I really like the interior of her shop -- the big, antique table from a castle in Europe, the Italian marble counters and the espresso machine from Italy, too. And then there's the gelato! Her current flavors are Strawberry (with berries Miyasaki-san grew in her own garden), Caramel (Mari's favorite), Very-Berry, Banana, Apricot, and (for the purists), Plain. Come and beat the heat this summer with gelato from L'Avenir. It's only a 10 minute walk from Kamesei.

ラブニールのHPはこちらClick here for L'Avenir's website

今日は珍しい日食が行われた。隣の薬局のお兄さんがこの特別なメガネを持ってきてくれて、滞在のお客さんとみなで日食を楽しめました。

Today was a rare event: a solar eclipse. Our neighbor, the pharmacist, brought over these special glasses. So along with some guests from the States, we all enjoyed watching the eclipse.

去年に出来た坪庭の今のスターがこの白いアジサイ：アナベル。井戸の蛇口の「オブジェ」とのツーショットです。

Our two "tsubo niwa" pocket gardens that were completed last year feature some wonderful plants. Right now, the star of the gardens are these Hydrangea arborescens 'Annabelle'. Here they are pictured with the little antique pump objet d'art.

信州戸倉上山田温泉の亀清旅館のHPはこちらClick here for the website of Kamesei Ryokan in Nagano.

今は亀清旅館のお客質の何個に庭にアジサイが綺麗に咲いています。冗談で、お客さんにお部屋を案内する時に、「アジサイの花も手配して置きました」と言います。

Several of the guestrooms here at Kamesei have hydrangeas blooming in the gardens. I joke with the guests when I show them their rooms that we especially arranged for the pretty blossoms for them.

信州戸倉上山田温泉の亀清旅館のHPはこちら Click here for the website of Kamesei Ryokan in Nagano.

千曲市は杏生産の日本一だそうです。親戚の庭の木で杏狩りに誘われて、今日は子供たちを連れてやってみました。２週間前の雹で傷は大分あったが、見た目だけが悪いで味が美味しいです。二つの種類があって、小さい方は多少すっぱいのでその尼すっぱさが美味しい！いっぱい採れましたので週末のお客さんに「ご自由にどうぞ」でフロントに置きました。県外からのお客さんは特に喜んでいただきました。

Chikuma City is supposedly the number one producer of apricots in Japan. One of our relatives invited us to go over to their garden and pick apricots in their trees. So today I took the kids and we had fun picking the bright orangish-yellow fruit. A lot of them had damage from the hail storm two weeks ago, but the appearance didn't affect the taste. There were two different varieties of apricots, and the smaller ones had a delicious tart kick to them.
We picked a whole bunch of apricots. We brought them back to Kamesei and put some out on the front desk for the weekend guests to enjoy.

信州戸倉上山田温泉の亀清旅館のHPはこちらClick here for the website of Kamesei Ryokan in Nagano.

ランドセル＋傘＋アジサイ　＝　梅雨の通学

Andy君は傘がいるかいらないかぐらいだった雨が軽い。なんとなく、アジサイはこの天気に似合いますね。

A "lansel" backpack, an umbrella, and hydrangeas -- it must be a Walk to School in the Tsuyu rain.

Actually, the rain was so light, Andy-kun here almost didn't need his umbrella. Don't the hydrangea flowers somehow match the "tsuyu" rainy season?

信州戸倉上山田温泉の亀清旅館のHPはこちらClick here for the website of Kamesei Ryokan in Nagano.

千曲市の森地区は「杏の里」として知られていて、毎年は４月に杏の花で盛り上がります。今になると、実がもうなっていて、美味しく頂いています。たった２ヵ月半で実ができる・・・早い！
（ちなみに、私は甘酸っぱい古い種類の方が好きです。）

杏の花か果実、どちらが嬉しいですか？

Chikuma City's Mori district is famous for its "Anzu no Sato" apricot blossoms in early April. Now, those same trees are full of delicious, juicy fruit. It's amazing to think that the trees can go from blossoms to ripe fruit in just 2-1/2 months!
If you come to Mori to pick apricots, I suggest the classic heritage varieties -- I like their tart flavor.

So, which do you like better, apricot blossoms or apricot fruit?

小学生の帰りのころに怪しいくもが来て、いきなり雷、そして雹が降りました。３０分ぐらいに続きました。地元のおじさんやおばさんが「こんなに長く降るのは珍しい」と。
杏狩りがもうそろそろ始まる予定だが、この表で見は大丈夫かな？上山田の周辺のりんご農園も心配やな。

Just as the grade school kids were walking home from school today, the sky grew dark with some ominous clouds, and lightning hit followed by a hail storm. The hail and heavy rain continued for about a half an hour. Even the local old-timers were saying how unusually long the storm lasted.
The area's apricots are almost ready for picking -- I hope they weren't hurt by the hail. Even more so, I hope Kamiyamada's many apple orchards were okay.

今朝五時に花火が上がった：　千曲川の鮎釣りが始まりましたとの事。お昼に川を見に行ったら、友釣りの方はやはり多かった。午前中は雨が軽く降ったが、午後から天気が晴れてきて、鮎釣りの皆さんがきっと楽しんでいるでしょう。釣り終わったら、どうぞ、戸倉上山田温泉のお湯でお疲れを取ってください。

戸倉上山田温泉河畔にある川萬寿というつけばで鮎料理は今日から始まりました。コースはお１人で２６２５円から５２５０円まであります。営業時間は11:00～15:00(又は予約のみで17:00～20:00)でTel(026)275-0019です。

We were woken up this morning at 5am by the sound of fireworks going off. They marked the start of the ayu fishing season on the Chikuma River. This afternoon, I went down to the river, and sure enough, there were lots of fishermen enjoying the sunny weather and the cool waters of the Chikuma.

Ayu fishing is a unique style of fishing. The ayu river fish tends to be territorial and chases away potential competitors for their territory. So the fishermen use a style called "tomo-tsuri". They use an insanely long pole with a live fish attached to the end of the line. Then they wade into the river and dangle the fish into the current. When an ayu comes to chase it away, it gets caught on the hook behind the bait fish.

Fresh-caught ayu is typically prepared by being rubbed in salt and grilled. But at one of the many "tsukeba" fish shacks along the Chikuma River, you can get a multi-course meal serving ayu cooked in a variety of ways. Here in Togura Kamiyamada Onsen, there is a tsukeba called Senmasu, and they offer ayu meals from 2,625 to 5,250 yen per person, tax included. Hours are from 11am to 3pm, and 5pm to 8pm with reservation. Tel(026)275-0019. Or you can call us here at Kamesei and we would be glad to provide assistance in English -- Tel(026)275-0132.

昨日の梅雨の雨で、空気が綺麗になりました。そのお蔭で夕べの月の出がうんと綺麗でした。三日前ぐらいが満月でしたのでお月様がまだ大きくて、明るかったです。

満月の時、大体曇っていました。本来なら、この満月で姨捨の棚田の「田毎の月」のチャンスでした。田植えが終わったばかりで稲がまだ短いから、お水が払ってある田んぼに反射するお月様が見えるはずです。しかし、残念ながら、曇っていて月が隠れていました。

まあ、今の月が十分綺麗で、上山田の村の方の光と良い雰囲気でした。場所は亀清旅館から歩いて１０分ぐらいの波閉科神社でした。

Yesterday's 'tsuyu' rains cleared out the sky nicely, so last night's moonrise was especially pretty.

The full moon was about 3 days ago. Ideally, this would have been the perfect full moon to see the famous "ta-goto-no-tsuki" (moon reflecting in the individual rice paddies) at the nearby Obasute Terraced Rice Fields. This is when the rice fields have water in them (to reflect the moon) and have just been planted, so the seedlings are still small. However, this year, it was cloudy during the full moon.

This view of the moon, past its full stage and coming up over the town of Kamiyamada as opposed to the rice fields, still was picturesque. Photo taken from Habeshina Shrine, a 10 minute walk from Kamesei.