Anna Matsushita

 One winter, my family and I embarked on a journey to the Canary Islands, situated off the coast of North Africa, to celebrate the year-end holidays. These islands, a bit farther south than the Mediterranean, are renowned for their numerous volcanoes. My destination was one of the islands in the archipelago, Lanzarote. It's a Spanish territory where the predominant language is, unsurprisingly, Spanish. Upon landing at the airport and traversing the island by bus, I beheld many curious sights. I noticed peculiar circular enclosures made of stone, with greenery growing in sunken centers. Our guide explained that these were vineyards. The island, formed from volcanic ash, experiences strong winds, making it challenging to cultivate taller crops. Thus, they construct enclosures with rocks to shield against the wind, creating depressions in the center where grapevines thrive. That day, our group of nearly thirty individuals was meticulously led around by our guide, showcasing variou

  31st March 2024 marks Easter, a celebration in Christianity commemorating the resurrection of Christ. This widely embraced Christian holiday, now quite prevalent in Japan, is a moveable feast, changing dates each year. Despite the uncertainties of the pandemic, places like Tokyo Disneyland used to host Easter events in pre-COVID times, featuring egg-shaped chocolates and festive treats. The Easter period spans about a month and a half. In Catholic tradition, it kicks off with Shrove Tuesday's Carnival, 41 days before Easter, followed by Ash Wednesday, marking the start of Lent – a period focusing on prayer, fasting, and charitable acts, sharing in the suffering of Christ. During Lent, individuals often undertake acts of kindness or give up indulgences such as sweets. On Shrove Tuesday, known in the UK as "Pancake Day," festivities involve making and flipping pancakes in a unique competition. Towns and villages host pancake-flipping challenges, and some even attempt the

  Our local shrine’s festival resumed for the first time in three years. Streets were once again jolly with illuminated lanterns. Kids were playing wood flute and drums to add festive feeling. They were performing the music in front of train station. People enjoyed the music in the evening.   I assume that the shrine must have planned the festival when the number of corona patients were decreasing daily – at least until June 2022. People must have put much effort into the preparation, looking forward once again to practice the music, drew out the portable shrine (Omikoshi) ready to be carried around the town, and float to carry the music bands.   Before COVID-19, the festival was like these;   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1oWNuFH-CIg https://youtu.be/97cu-n3QXrc I watched the children playing music with somewhat mixed feeling. By the time the festival started, the number of COVID-19 patients were increasing at tremendous speed. I was tracking only the daily figure

 Recently, the third week of September is becoming to known as “Silver week” in Japan. The reason is that there are two national holidays in the third week.  In Japan, a week with consecutive holidays in May is known as “Golden week”.  So the long national holiday week in autumn became known as Silver week, as an opposite to the Spring holiday season. 22 nd or 23 rd September is Autumnal Equinox. Yes, just as Vernal Equinox day, the length of day and night are equal. If we look from astronomical point of view, it is just another day. In Japan, Autumnal Equinox is known as Ohigan, when many people visit family grave and pay tribute to the loved ones. There are various articles on Ohigan on the internet, so I will refrain from further explanation. Around Ohigan season, you might see flower called Red Spider Lilly, known as Higan bana (literary means "flower on he other side of river leading to Buddhist heaven) in many areas of the country. It is bright red flower, looks a li

Mid-Autumn Festival– or, rather know as Otsukimi (Moon viewing) -   is on its way in Japan once again this year on 21 st September, 2021. The full moon on 15th August in Chinese calendar is called “Chu-shu no Meigetsu” (中秋の名月：Beautiful moon in mid-autumn). As Chinese calendar is lunar calendar, it is a movable feast. The full moon appears sometime between mid -September to mid-October. Ideally, families enjoy full moon with a sweets and dumpling while admiring the full moon. At home, this year's sweets are like these. The custom of moon viewing in Japan goes back about 1000 years ago. Nobles in court or palaces in Kyoto started to admire the full moon, holding party to sing old Chinese poems, play music and drink fine wine. Such a festivity appears in some of the literatures like “The Tale of Genji” by Lady Murasaki. Genji holds a feast at Katsura Villa in Kyoto along with his friends, playing musing and enjoy wine under the moonlight. ( more on this from Katsura Imperial Vi

  July came. I was already adjusted to new daily routine, both at office and at home. The office was always quiet and looked empty, with only one third of us were on a shift. Some people only turn up at office half a day in a month, due to the company's instruction to use up this year's paid holiday. We were supposed to be bracing up for busy winter period. Because the company expected that once the business return in winter, we would be too busy and no one couldn afford to take any day off. We started to cancel business scheduled in autumn. Anxiety begun spread among us, as the business was estimated to pick up from autumn onward. Our CEO was constantly in touch with employees, trying to convey his principle to keep the employment. However, rumour continued to spread about possible closure of some of the branch offices. All we could do was wait and see if the corona infection will cease, or at least remain at low level after the lockdown in almost all over the world. Europe se