Sachiko in Osaka

I met up with pupils of my karate exercise " Kardiokick today and had a coffee with them. They are now trainers of kardiokick instructors. We have a mission to make many people healthy and happy! On the way home, we stopped at health food shop called "Carrot" where we normally shop our food stuff.

I bought this hula book with DVD today. This is going to be my new exercise! I tried a little bit, it gave me a great work out on legs and pelvis. It was much harder than I thought....But I loved it!! Yoga and Pilates are very popular in Japan as a exercise, hula dance is a one of the trend in fitness.

Here is Ami(when she was little over one month old) and my grad mother. My grand mother is going to be 95!!!! in August. She is very well and surprisingly she still teaches Japanese Poem called Haiku. My grand father is 98!!!!!!!!!!! Although he in nursing home, he is very well and his mind is still sharp. Japanese average life expectancy is 79．19 years old for men and 85．99 years old for women. We held world longest average life expectancy for 22 successive years. I think Japanese food and life style is very healthy, this is why I would like to share with many people all over the world. These are the hospital meal after the labor of Ami. I had to stay in the hospital for 7day after the labor but I didn't mind at all. But don't get me wrong not all Japanese hospitals give you the great meals like this.... This hospital is private hospital and have better service, they even gave me a massage with aroma oil. My husband Iwao was born in this same hospital too 41 years ago....

She is 5 month now..... Time goes so fast. She is very active and Genki ( fine/very well in Japanese ) She don't quite like her new hat. Little upset here.....

We went on the ship called Santa maria at Nanko (Osaka port). You can see the Osaka Aquarium Kaiyukan on the picture behind my husband. This aquarium is massive and you can see about 580 different kind of fishes and mammals. http://www.kaiyukan.com/eng/index.htm We went to the shopping arcade to buy Osaka's famous steamed buns for first time. In this arcade there were many nice little Japanese traditional shops of food, flowers,cloths, sweets and so on. Then we found the bakery we were looking for. They give you 50% discount if you go with a child under the age of 5!!! which was a great offer. There steamed buns were so good. We would definitely go back and get some more. http://monsieur-musipan.com/menusweets.html

With a history of over 1,000 years, Osaka Tenjin Festival is known as one of the three greatest festivals in Japan alongside Kyoto Gion Matsuri and Tokyo Kanda Matsuri. It attracts more than a million visitors every year. About 3,000 participants dressed in historical costumes walk about 4km from Osaka Tenmangu Shrine to Midosuji street, then to Tenjinbashi Bridge. The other is called Funatogyo. It's a procession of about 100 boats through the Okawa River. Many girls wear Yukata(summer Kimono) on summer festivals or firework festivals. I have yukata as well and I wanted to wear but it is so uncomfortable and it takes long time to get dress, about 15min to 20min. When I need to take care of the baby Ami, it is not functional. Fire works at night for the finale. If you want to see more pics of Tenjin Matsuri, visit this web sight. http://gojapan.about.com/gi/dynamic/offsite.htm?zi=1/XJ&sdn=gojapan&cdn=travel&tm=156&gps=327_334_1020_521&f=22&su=p531.50.336.i...

●Fried Kurumafu (a kind of wheat gluten) ●Mini tomato ●Chinese cabbage with sesame dressing ●stair fried paprika ●Golden needle mushroom ●crab meat and potato Crockett with 　　　 　heart ketchup ●brown rice with topping of Nori and Shiso 　 Drew little face there can you see?? ●Orange for a dessert