From Hirakata-city, Osaka-prefecture, Japan

On 2 March, We went to Syokoku-ji temple to see a exhibition of maruyama okyo. ( see map ) At first, we went to "hamac de paradis" which is one of doushisya university's restaurant to eat  lunch. from demachiyanagi station at keihan train to doushisya university. lunch at doushisya university cost \500/person, cheap & taste good ! then go to Syokoku-ji next to doushisya-university Shokoku-ji was one of the 6 zen temple and nominated top rank between 6 temple. I'm surprized kinkaku-ji and ginkaku-ji is shokoku-ji's branch temple. And there is tensyoukaku museum inside shokoku-ji and we watched exhibition of maruyama okyo , who was  a japanese artist at edo-era. There are some his memo and it is very tightly written with small letter which seemed to show his character. There are painting of Ito Jakuchu and it seemed to have some relation between two person.. then walking in the doushisya then go back

At our branch, we are scheduled to take a toeic test from tomorrow, so I'll take toeic tomorrow. Recently, many company and school are using toeic test and japanese people likes toeic test very much. I think toec test itself is not bad because we can get english skill efficiently throught such test studying. But for me, score itself is meaningless because Englisht is just a tool. English itself is not a purpose. I think English is just a tool so if we learn a basic skill at junior highschool and high school for 6 years, that's enough. And afterthat, just use it. The reason why I think such things is that when I was a graduated student and in my twenties, I often travelled abroad by myself and thought english was just an tool, so studying for test score at school is meaningless ( of course, for people who want to say I have such title

Potatos which we harvested came into bud so we planted them. Cauliflower and broccoli was grown. String bean blossoms are out. It took about 2 hours to plant and harvest vegetables, but today is very warm and sky is blue so it is enjoyable.

3days holiday has gone rapidly ! Yesterday, there held "donto festival" (I'm not sure the meaning) in our town and I and my son went there. I found this event at our town's board, saying there are rice cake making and free "ozenzai" so we went this event place held at elementary school. there are long procession for "ozenzai" "ozenzai" Afterthat, bonfire was held. This gathering are wood, bamboo, and writing of elementary school's students which they pledge to do this year. After this event, we went to Osaka city science museum. (we and wife took train and she went to shopping and I and my son went to the museum) I wanted to go there because when I was a child like my son, I often went to the museum for children at Shizuoka city and I loved it very much because there were many scientific things there and I belonged to some scientific club where I made electric radio and such things and it was very good