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I visited Mikuni Sunset Beach in Sakai City, Fukui Prefecture. The beach will be opened for the season on July 1st. Even it was before the beach opening, it was very hot, and many people were in the water swimming.
I would like to introduce 3 of my favorite points of the beach.
The sunset at the beach is one of my favorite points of the beach.
The name of the beach is “Mikuni Sunset Beach”, so literally, you can see stunning sunset there.
After 6 p.m., it started getting darker and cooler.
As the sun started going down, the sky turned to orange and it looked beautiful.
After another half an hour, the sky turned to pinkish color and then the sun went down completely.
It is soothing and refreshing just to keep looking at the sky and the ocean at the beach with the sound of waves.
Another favorite point of Mikuni Sunset Beach is that there is a hot spring called “Mikuni Yua Port” next to the beach. Since this is not a hotel, the price is not as expensive as staying at a hotel. It is 500 yen for visitors who are 13 years of age and older, and 200 yen for the ones between 3 years old and 12 years old. There is a footbath outside of the building and it is free of charge.
Without making reservation, anyone can enjoy taking a bath in a hot spring. The opening hours are from 10 a.m. to 11 p.m., so the visitors can even enjoy the beautiful sunset and amazing hot spring at the same time.
It is only a 5-minute walk from Mikuni Minato Station to “Mikuni Yua Port”.
Address:
2-18-1 Shuku, Mikuni Town
Sakai City, Fukui Prefecture 913-0056
I’m sure that most of the people from Fukui’s favorite point of the beach is to be able to enjoy Minikuni Fireworks Festival closely there. Every August 11th there will be a splendid display of fireworks at Mikuni Sunset Beach. The video above is taken last year (August 11th, 2017). The fireworks hot directly off the water are amazing.
If you have a chance to visit Fukui, how about visiting Mikuni Sunset Beach?
I sometimes go to a tempura restaurant "Tengiku" for lunch, where is located in a corner of so-called Katamachi in the center of Fukui City. I always eat a simple but nice tempura rice bowl which is 800 yen. Tempura of shirimp and "Kakiage", tempura of mixed vegetables and seafoods are on top of the rice and it is served with some pickles and miso soup of clams .
At the first time, I was surprised that they served even a dessert at the price. The dessert was tempura of "Ohagi", a rice ball coated with bean jam. And after that, I feel like going there when I want to eat the dessert.
T.S
I went to Rimi Natsukawa’s concert held in Heartpia Harue, Sakai City, Fukui Prefecture.
It was my fourth time to see her concert.
But actually, it was my first time in doors as I only had seen her in open air festivals until now. The theme of the tour is ‘find songs’, which means Ms. Natsukawa composes her concert with songs she really wants to sing now.
The concert started with the song “Bashofu”, which is one of famous Okinawan songs.
I like the song very much, too. She sang her big hit “Nadasoso”, and other good songs
including folk songs of Ishigaki Island, where she was born and raised, and ones in Mandarin and in English. She said that occasionally her concert has been held in Taiwan as well these days. She sings any songs perfectly. I don’t think that there are many singers as well as her.
Also, she talked that she had sung since she was very young even at mealtimes, so her family was angry “Are you singing or are you eating? Choose one.”, and she went all the way to the main land of Okinawa to enter singing contests because she was not satisfied with ones in Ishigaki Island.
She is open-minded, her pleasant talk with Okinawan dialect and dance time were fun.
Until the last song, her transparent high voice echoed around, and it cleared my mind.
Of course, she sang this song!
BEGIN, who wrote the song, is also from Ishigaki Island and the song is about the island.
The video was taken in Musikfest Nara in 2016. She sang with Yukito Ara, who is also from Ishigaki Island. （H.S）
The Lotus Flower Festival at Hanahasu (lotus flower) Park in South Echizen Town in Fukui Prefecture, falling every year in the beginning of summer, showcases 120 different kinds of lotus flowers from around the world. You can even see a rare one from Chiba Prefecture in Japan called “Oga hasu” lotus flowers which have bloomed for the first time in 2,000 years.
This year, the festival will be held from June 30th to August 12th, 2018. The park will be filled with beautiful flowers and it will look stunning.
Unlike many other flowers, lotus flowers grow in the condition which is surrounded by mud and muck, and by fish and insects. It is a simply dirty, rough condition.
Comparing ourselves to lotus flowers, the condition where the lotus flowers grow is like our life which can sometimes be difficult, hard and problematic.
Even the lotus flowers grow in the dirty and rough condition, flowers bloom beautifully. We can say that the lotus flowers are like ourselves that we can become wiser, stronger, happier, more successful, more loving and/or anything better, even if we go through hardship.
If you have a chance to visit Fukui and the lotus flower festival, how about enjoying the beauty of the flowers, comparing your life to the mud, and comparing yourself to the flowers? I’m sure you will realize that how you might have overcome hardships in your life and become a better one.
It's a working stone crushing plant I saw recently in the mountain area of Ono City, Fukui prefecture.
Of course, it's nice to see a landscape of beautiful modern factories, but I also feel charm in the atmosphere of such rugged structures of rusty iron materials, which are far from the word "precision" or "smart". They look like Tinguely's sculptures, but they are absolutely unknown.
I'm saying only about their appearances, though. T.S
A friend of mine and I had lunch at “Echizen-Bar Radicare” in Fukui City. It’s a restaurant which serves dishes prepared with fresh local products in Fukui Prefecture. I arrived at the restaurant at around noon, but the place was almost completely full. Luckily there was one table for us.
They serve 5 different kinds of lunch combos and it’s 1000yen for each one.
Of course, lunch combos are prepared with fresh local products in Fukui Prefecture as well as any other meals at the restaurant. They make the meals as customers order, so the customers can have freshly cooked hot ones.
The photograph above is a hamburger steak combo. The hamburger steak is served with the special sauce which is made with grated daikon radish and ponzu sauce (soy sauce containing citrus juice). A friend of mine had this combo and she said that the special sauce was refreshing and good to eat with the hamburger steak. The special sauce made a heavy and rich hamburger steak light and even tastier.
I had a hamburger steak combo which was served with demi-glace sauce (brown sauce) on the hamburger steak. The salad which was prepared with fresh vegetables was good as same as the miso soup which was prepared with amazing broth.
The hamburger steak was great. The demi-glace sauce (brown sauce) and a medium sunny side up make a perfect combination with the juicy hamburger steak.
The atmosphere of the restaurant is stylish and relaxing.
Because the restaurant is located in the middle of a business district in Fukui City and it was during the day on weekdays when I visited, there were many business people.
As the name of the restaurant is “Echizen-Bar Radicare” (Echizen Province was an old part of Fukui Prefecture), they make many dishes using the local products from Fukui Prefecture. You can see them in the menu on the wall.
They open for dinner as well.
I saw a bottle of my favorite sake from Fukui. I’m sure the sake and the dishes at the restaurant would make a perfect combination.
The film is based on a novel by Ms. Natsu Miyashita, who was born in Fukui City.
Also, the novel received “Honya Taisho Prize” (chosen by bookstore staff nationwide) in 2016. I read the novel, and I had been looking forward to see the film since I heard the novel was made into a film, so I went to see the film.
From TOHO website
Then, when I got the theater, surprisingly I met Ms. Miyashita in person at the lobby.
Of course, I had no personal acquaintance with her, but I automatically said to her “
It’s a pleasant surprise to see you here! I am looking forward to seeing the film.” and
she smilingly replied, “I will see it now.” Although she must have seen the film at a preview, she may have a new impression to see the film at a local theater with audiences.
I sometimes see Ms. Miyashita on local TV programs. She looks gentle and elegant, talks modestly, and has a maidenly transparent feeling. I always thought she is a wonderful person and actually Ms. Miyashita was exactly what I had imagined.
The film has a lot of beautiful picturesque scenes and the actors’ performance didn’t disturb the atmosphere. Their performances as a tuner were very good as if they were real ones, from which I could guess that they prepared the roles well. I like Ken Mitsuishi’s performance, and in this film as well, he had a presence, though he didn’t have many lines. I think that he is really a clever actor. Also, you can enjoy piano performance at the same time in the film. Especially, piano performance by Mone and Moka Kamishiraishi sisters was impressive.
The main character thinks that he isn’t capable of a tuner and his senior tuner
said to him. “Capability is a feeling of love something.”
I think that the phrase is an axiom which I want to share with everyone.
If you like something very much and if you can master it, it is an excellent capability.
And, the ending theme (written by Jo Hisaishi, played by Nobuyuki Tsujii) was so beautiful that it made me want to cry as if the world of the film would continue. By seeing such a good film, I could re-examine my daily life and make a course correction a little.
(H.S)
On June 7th and 10th, I went to the Daian-zenji temple to see the iris flowers.
On the morning of the 7th, the flowers were in bloom partiaｌly. However they became to bloom much more in recent 3 days.
Actually the half of the iris flowers were in bloom, and they might bloom fully in a few days.
June 7, 2018 (Thursday)
June 10, 2018 (Sunday)
By the way, we can also see the inside of the 350-year-old temple with this iris festival admission ticket, but it may become impossible to see that familiar old cathedral soon.
Big restoration works that will take ten years will begin next year.
T.S
On May 30th, “Kokuryu Adoso” of this year has been released. Kokuryu Adoso is the official name of a sake from Kokuryu brewery, and it is also known as “Arigato Sake”. Arigato means “thank you” in Japanese. This is the perfect gift for thanking someone special such as family members, friends, wives, husbands and so on.
Kokuryu Adoso is the sake which has been brewed with the rice planted and harvested during Arigato Project.
Arigato Project is the project in which the participants plant and harvest rice and learn about more detail of the quality of sake. The participants also watch fireflies as well. Since fireflies can only live in the area which has clean water and air, the participants learn that rich nature is necessary for making sake rice. They learn not only about Japanese sake, but they also learn about the value of connection with others and the charms of Japan and Fukui.
And at the end of the Arigato Project, they receive finished sake and give the sake to people whom they want to thank to.
The taste of the Kokuryu Adoso for this years is very smooth and mellow with refresh and sweet aftertaste.
How about giving Kokuryu Adoso to people who are special in your life and you want to thank them?
Recently, at the 71st Cannes Film Festival, Japanese director Hirokazu Kore-eda’s
“Shoplifters” won the Palme d’Or. In Fukui, its advance screening was held last weekend
and I went to see the film.
On the surface, modern Japan is thought to be affluent.
But it has problems piled up that we should discuss more seriously.
Seeing the film, various keywords related to the problems crossed my mind one after another. And, Kore-eda’s screenplay and direction reflects the problems without feelings and messages.
In addition, all the cast members’ performance beyond acting creates
the overwhelming reality. The two child actors are also really great.
Gradually, I didn’t feel that I was watching a film any more.
And, maybe the reason there were many eating scenes is that we cannot live without eating.
Director Kore-eda doesn’t make us cry easily and see things in black and white.
He purposely avoids them. I felt that his pride that he would not make a shallow film
such people could cry easily and this is a right answer.
I don’t think that this film should not be criticized posing as a critic.
Nobody could say anything in a know-it-all attitude.
Even after you see the film, probably you don’t have the answer.
However, the film will give you a chance to think deeply once again about poverty, good and bad, life and death, love of family. (H.S)
Last Saturday (June 2, 2018), as soon as I found a small animal near my foot by chance, I focused the video camera on it.
I was climbing Mt. Genanpo of Ono City, Fukui Prefecture, with Ms. J who started mountaineering this year. And I thought that small and round one might be a Japanese grass vole. I was so excited to see the cute animal for the first time.
T.S
I had Kokuryu Kijoshu sake which was just released at the end of May of this year.
A 150ml glass bottle fits in the palm of an adult hand. The color of the bottle is black, and it has a red label with a printed metallic design. I like the stylish bottle. Since some of sake breweries in Japan such as Kokuryu brewery take so much time and effort for making nice labels and bottles, you can enjoy looking at the bottles as much as you enjoy sake.
The Kokuryu Kijoshu has lusciously sweet and fruity flavor. It leaves a clean and refreshing aftertaste. The kijoshu reminds me of a sherry or port with a honey/nutty aroma.
For the 5th anniversary party of “Arigato Project” (The project of making sake and learn about it.) which I visited on May 27th, 2018, I saw the nice Kokuryu Kijosh lined up on tables. Since the kijoshu is very sweet, I thought that it would be popular among women, but I saw many men pick bottles, look at the design and enjoy drinking it.
I asked them how the sake was. They said that even thought the taste of the sake is very sweet but the after taste of it is very refreshing, so they liked it very much.
If you have a chance to try Kokuryu Kijoshu, enjoy it!
T.F
What is Kijoshu?
Kijoshu is a type of sake which is brewed by using sake instead of water.
What is "Arigato Project"?
A project to pass on Japanese sake to the next generation. In this project, young people who are age of 20 to 30, residents of Fukui prefecture or employees or students in Fukui take one year to make their own sake.
They make the sake from rice planting and after one year, they give the sake to the people whom they want to give thanks to.
You can enjoy our previous blogs about the "Arigato Project" from a previous year.
