I went to the nearest shrine "Shirahama shrine" this afternoon.
They had already been ready for the new year.
A lot of people come to this shrine during new year holidays to pray happiness, joy and good luck.
By the way, we were taken care of last year.
I hope the new year finds you in excellent spirit.
I went to Tsumekizaki-cape yesterday, where the daffidil flower festival has been taking place since December 20th.
We had very strong north wind there but we could see the beautiful scenery under the blue sky.
The daffodil blooming is now about 50%, and it's much earlier than usual.
The good time to see the flowers is usually after the middle of January, but the next new year holidays will be the best timing, I guess.
When I was cleaning the guest rooms this late afternoon I found out the clouds in the east sky was getting colored red at the sun set time.
So I went to the beach to take pictures in a hurry.
Then I was able to see the gorgeous sunset today.
By the way, I got a Christmas card 3 days ago from our friends who live in the United States and stayed at Pension Sakuraya just once several years ago.
Actually this is the only one Christmas card that we got this year. Because most of us, Japanese don't have a custom like this and because we have to prepare the new year cards in this season every year.
We are appreciated very much….
We didn't have strong wind and it was very warm this morning.
I was able to see the beautiful sunrise here in Shimoda.
As we had a little strong west wind it was cold here in Shirahama today.
But the sea water was very clear and we could see Amagi mountains and Izu seven islands clearly.
I walked along the seaside this afternoon.
The shadow was appeared in my pictures in this season, it was only around 2:30 PM though.
The beach cleaning was taken place by the local community of Shirahama from 6:30 AM this morning, so I went to the nearest beach.
After that, I remained on the beach to take pictures of the sunrise and the surfing.
We didn't have strong wind and it was very warm today.
Have you ever seen this?
I took these pictures in Amagi mountain in Izu peninsula in the rain yesterday.
For us Japanese Wasabi is very important to eat Sashimi.
They were just harvesting Wasbi in the field when I went to Amagi mountain yesterday, so I asked them to take pictures of Wasbi.
When I came back home after shopping in Shimoda I found out small blossoms on the tree next to the entrance of Pension Sakuraya.
I didn't know when it started blooming.
By the way, It had been almost sunny here in Shimoda today.
I could see Izu seven islands on the ocean clearly this morning.
My wife started changing the papers of the paper sliding door, "Shoji Screen" of the Japanese style rooms several days ago.
This is one of Japanese customs before the new year.
It was sunny and we could see the seven islands on the Pacific ocean clearly. There were some ships on the sea to protect themselves from the strong west wind.
It is sunny but we have very strong and cold west wind today.
There was no surfers on the beach because they don't have good waves for surfing, but there were some life savers.