The purpose of our trip was to see my younger son. He has been moving around a lot due to his work and now lives with a cat in Saitama prefecture.
He was doing well, looks enjoying his life with his cat. He showed us around the big station where he lives, we enjoyed the dinner together and chatted a lot. It was a really fun time!
After visiting my son, I enjoyed a few days of sightseeing. Saitama is a big city like Osaka, and it was very hot. In fact, when we visited our son, the temperature was about 38 degrees celsius. However, the next day we visited Karuizawa which was much cooler than the big cities. The highest temperature was below 30 degrees celsius, and it was chilly in the early morning and evening! It was very pleasant! Flowers that had finished in Osaka were still in bloom. It was wonderful!
I especially like Karuizawa. Actually we visited there with Belle a long time ago, so it was a special place for us.
Karuizawa has a lot of greenery, because there are many mountains and it is on the mountains the elevation is about 1000 meters. There are many shops, churches and art museums, so it is actually a tourist area but it is totally a nice place because it has lots of nature. We walked around the area in the early morning. Nobody was there, so it was very quiet and just heard some bird voices and the chattering of a stream. I think the church looks good in the area.
Then, we visited an art museum called “Senju Hiroshi art museum”
Senju Hiroshi is a painter who lives in NY, “The Fall” is his famous painting.
He likes nature and always tries to find out beauty in nature, and continues to express a new world using traditional Japanese painting techniques. I heard that he uses natural mineral pigments and fixes on Japanese paper or silk with animal glew.
The museum itself was really much to nature, in fact it was in nature and I felt like in nature even though it was inside of the museum and very comfortable.
At midnight, we woke up naturally, so we went out and looked at the stars in the sky in the garden where we stayed at the hotel. There were a lot of stars usually we can’t see in Osaka.
息子は元気で、猫との生活を楽しんでいるようです。彼は家の近くの大きな駅を案内してくれて、一緒に夕食を楽しんだり、たくさんおしゃべりをしました。とっても楽しい時間でした！
息子宅を訪問した後、私たちは数日間観光を楽しみました。埼玉は大阪のような大都市で、とても暑かったです。実際、私たちが息子を訪ねたときの気温は38度くらいだったと思います。でも、翌日に訪れた軽井沢は大都市よりもずっと涼しかったですよ。最高気温は30度にならなかったし、早朝と夕方は少し寒いぐらいでとても気持ちよかったです！大阪では終わっていた花もまだ咲いていました。最高！
私は軽井沢が好きです。実は昔、ベルと一緒に訪れたことがあって、私達にとっては特別な場所なんですよ。
軽井沢は山が多くて、しかも標高1000メートルくらいの山の上だから緑が多い。お店もたくさんあるし、教会や美術館もあって、観光地なんだけど、自然がたくさんあって、すごくいいところなんです。早朝にこの辺りを歩きました。誰もいなかったのでとても静かで、鳥の声や小川のせせらぎが聞こえるだけでした。この辺りには教会がよく似合うと思います。
千住博さんはNY在住の画家で、「The Fall」は彼の代表作です。
自然を愛し、常に自然の中に美を見出そうとする彼は、伝統的な日本画の技法を用いて新しい世界を表現し続けています。天然の岩絵の具を使い、和紙や絹に’にかわ’で定着させるという技法だそうです。
美術館自体は本当に自然の中にあり、美術館の中にいながら自然の中にいるようで、とても快適でした。
You made my day! 