Garden lunch party with neighbors...

Did a check on the history of this blog and found out that today is actually the 8th anniversary of my blog...

Hosted a garden lunch party for fifteen of our neighbors last Saturday...

That was the fourth straight year that we had been hosting this event...

Hamburgers are not really in my normal 'to-eat' list of stuff...

But this one was pretty good, I must admit...

One of our neighbors made it for the party and hmmm, my missus was surprised upon seeing my munching on that plate...

Bologna sausage, and smoked salmon... specially ordered from Kobe by another neighbor...

Good stuff...

We were very happy to welcome the presence of the parents of one of our neighbors...

They stay in another city and came all the way to join us...

Last year, only the mother came, but this year, the father came along too...

And the maze-gohan onigiri (mixed rice ball?) made by the mother... wooh, full of ingredients and goodies...

Meanwhile, the daughter herself, who is our neighbor, made this walnut-banana cake...

Urmmm, very good texture and taste...

Yet another neighbor, for the last three years or so, presented us with this made-from-scratch soba noodles...

It was just 'straight' soba... unpretentious, and to the point... very wholesome stuff...

With all these good stuff to enjoy, am sure looking forward to hosting our neighbors again next autumn...

Fishermen in autumn, wood collecting season begins...

Joined my suweeto haato for a walk last weekend...

 Five minutes from our place lies the beach...

 A fisherman or two trying out their luck on the Japanese 'needle-fish'...

A few more minutes down the path, we found some workmen felling trees in an area where there was a landslide...

And some hours later, we returned to the site with our gear... wooh, very nice ubame oak (native to Japan) logs that are most appropriate for the wood stove....

Autumn cleaning at Aji Hamlet...

Every autumn, the residents of Aji hamlet get together for a clean-up of the neighborhood...
Precisely, it means cutting the grass and clearing up the roadways...

Took time out to snap a shot of two neighbors walking down the path after cutting the grass....

Most of the grass is hauled away to another location for disposal... 

But the original residents of the hamlet prefer to burn the grass right there...

There is a law against open fire burning, but... oh well, I always thought to myself... 

And today was such a lovely day spent...
Autumn days in Japan is really, urmmm, pure delight....