At the far end, we reached the edge of the Hiromachi forest. The map shows that it is only 800 meters straight from here to the shore of Shichirigahama.
森を越えて歩いて行くと30分以上はかかるのです。
It would take more than 30 minutes to walk across the forest.
さて、散歩の続き。今度はここから鎌倉山を途中まで登ってみよう。
Now, we continue our walk. Now let’s climb Mt. Kamakura from here to the halfway point.
高齢ワンコのこなつだけれど、このくらいの階段はまだ大丈夫!
Konatsu is an old dog, but she can still climb this many stairs!
階段の途中からは富士山が見えたり、、、
From the middle of the slope, you can see Mt. Fuji…
江の島も見えるよ。
and Enoshima island.
階段の上まで行ってそこで引き返し家に帰る道に向かう。
Go to the top of the stairs and turn around there and head for the road back home.
到着したね、ただいま~!
We are back home.
ベランダに出てみるとちょうど夕日が沈んだところです
We go out on the balcony and the sun has just set!
As usual, as soon as we entered the hospital, Konatsu’s body started shaking and the people around us laughed at us, but the vaccination was successfully completed.
家に帰ってきたらワクチンの事なんか忘れたかのようにオモチャをピポピポ鳴らしてドヤ顔してる。
When we got home, she was beeping her toys as if she had forgotten about the vaccine.
It is hard to believe that she is an old dog who is about to turn 13 years old. We lost our previous dog at the age of 13 years and 3 months, so we want her to live to be 15 years old first, and then 20 years old if possible. In order to achieve this goal, we need to take good care of Konatsu’s physical condition, but when I weighed her at the hospital, she weighed 19.5 kg, which is almost 1 kg more than she weighed at the end of the year. We need to cut down on the snacks!
The news has been reporting since yesterday that the Kanto region is about to experience heavy snowfall. Such is the case, but I have been in Gunma for work since yesterday, and as of 9:00 a.m., there is still no sign of snow.
まもなく雪が降り始め、一気に積もりそうな感じになってきた。
Soon it will start snowing and it looks like it will pile up all at once.
According to the weather forecast, it looks like it is going to snow more and more heavily, and looking at the information on the highways, various restrictions and road closures due to snow are starting to appear. If I continued to work until the evening, I might not be able to go home, and the director, worried about that, cancelled my evening work.
そんな訳で昼過ぎには仕事を終え、これは上信越道を走っているところ。
So I finished work in the afternoon, and this is where I was driving on the Joshin-Etsu Highway.
It snowed quite a bit up to Hachioji, which is at a high elevation, but onIce I passed Mt. Takao, the snow turned to rain, and I felt like I could have worked until the end.
February has arrived. My business closes at the end of January every year, so I have been too busy to update this blog, but Konatsu is doing well as usual.
If you look closely, you can see that Konatsu’s winter hair has grown long and shaggy. I made an appointment to have her shampooed and cut this weekend.
散歩の途中に気が付いたのだが近所の肉屋にちょっとした変化が見られる。
While walking Konatsu, I noticed a slight change in the neighborhood butcher shop.
つい先日までこの肉屋が売ってるのは宮崎牛だったのに、、、 ↑
Just a few days ago, this butcher shop was selling Miyazaki beef…
But before I knew it, it had changed to Yamagata beef. Moreover, the name on the signboard at the entrance has changed to “Nishikamakura Butcher Shop”. I wonder what happened to it…? It seems that the price is still the same, though. I bought some cheap meat for Konatsu and returned home.
Snow is predicted for the Kanto region in the latter half of this week. It’s been a pattern lately of saying it’s going to snow but it doesn’t, but what will happen this week? Speaking of snow, I found a video of Konatsu playing in the snow five years ago. Konatsu was 7 years old at that time, running around energetically, but she can’t do it anymore.
For the past few days, the weather forecast has been calling for a once-in-a-decade cold wave. It is said to be especially cold starting today, so this morning I dressed Konatsu and went for a walk.
It seems that as dogs get older, they become more vulnerable to the cold. Konatsu has an undercoat, so she may be better than single-coated dogs, but she is already in her late twelfth year, so I guess she needs to be prepared for the cold.
For all the fun I had been looking forward to, New Year’s Days passed by without me doing anything. It was a good thing that Konatsu seemed to be having more fun than usual, with friends coming to visit and my daughter coming to visit.
Yesterday, my daughter and I trimmed Konatsu’s hair. We couldn’t do it as well as a professional trimmer, but I think we got a reasonably clean cut. By the way, this New Year’s Day, we had a lot of GosetsusHI that we bought and my wife made, so there is still a lot of Osechi left after the three days of the New Year.
残ったお刺身は昆布締めにして食べたが、昆布の旨味が浸み込んでこれまたイイ感じ。
I ate the leftover sashimi by kombu-sandwiched flounder sashimi , which is also good because the flavor of the kombu soaks into the sashimi!
煮物もまだまだ沢山ある。
There are still a lot of simmered dishes.
まだまだこんなもんじゃない。。。
This is not all…
特にお正月感がある訳ではないが、おでん
It is not particularly New Year’s feeling, but oden
玉子料理あれこれに栗きんとん。まだまだ終わりじゃない、、、
egg dishes, and chestnut kinton (sweetened sweetened chestnuts).
最後は日替わりのお雑煮。初日の御節の他にこんなに料理があったら、そりゃなかなか食べきれないよなぁ。
Since there are so many dishes besides the first day’s Osechi, it’s hard to finish all of them, isn’t it?
On New Year’s morning, I went out to walk Konatsu as usual, but as soon as I left home, the roads were jammed.
湘南海岸は初日の出を拝みに来るスポットだから県外ナンバーの車がやたらと多い。
Shonan coast is a spot where people come to see the first sunrise of the year, so there are a lot of cars with license plates from outside of the prefecture.
This is the railroad crossing in front of Kamakura High School Station, famous for the “Slam Dunk” movie. It usually takes me 5 minutes to get here, but today it took me more than 20 minutes.
R134もちっとも進まない。。。
R134 is not going any faster…
日の出の時間が迫り、振り返ると富士山がピンク色に染まって見えていた。
As sunrise time approached, I looked back and saw Mt. Fuji turning pink.
日の出を待つ人々が海岸に大勢見える。良く見ると砂浜は人で溢れている。
Many people can be seen on the beach waiting for the sunrise. The beach was full of people.
私もギリギリ日の出に間に合い、この写真が撮れた。
I was just in time to catch the sunrise, and was able to take this photo.
更には、江ノ電の窓の中に上る初日の出が撮れた!
I was also able to take a photo of the first sunrise in the window of the train!
そして、いつもの七里ヶ浜の広場に移動して
Then we moved to the usual park at Shichirigahama…
アンズちゃん、今年も宜しくね!
Anne, I wish you all the best this year!
ハウル君も宜しくね!
Howl, you too!
そして家に戻って、新年祝いの膳。今年も稲村ケ崎「虹」の御節です。
Back at home, we had a New Year’s celebration breakfast “Osechi” “Osechi” are traditional foods which are eaten by a lot of Japanese on New Year’s Day. It includes many kinds of Japanese traditional foods, and they are packed together in “Jubako”, which is a special box that resembles bento boxes.
11月に金沢に行ったときにお正月用に買っておいた御神酒
sacred sake
こなつも我々も健康で幸せに過ごせる1年でありますように!
May this be a year of health and happiness for Konatsu and for us all!
My family temple and my wife’s family temple are both located in Shizuoka Prefecture, so we visit their graves about two or three times a year. This time, we visited both temples before the New Year’s holiday.
先ずは私の方のお寺から。藤枝市にある長楽寺。
First, we visited my family’s temple. Chorakuji Temple in Fujieda City.
Konatsu went with us to the gravesite, cleaned it, offered flowers, and that was the end of our visit. A volunteer who temporarily took care of Konatsu when she was sheltered lives near here, so we met her again after a long time..
Konatsu looks happy in every picture. Konatsu was doing whatever she wanted, going upstairs without permission, etc. Even after more than 10 years, Konatsu still remembers the person who rescued her, right?
最後にはたらちゃん(左)、なつめちゃん(右)と一緒に写真が撮れた。
This family also has a shelter dogs. Tara (left) and Natsume (right)
たらちゃん。こなつと同い歳だけど若く見えるねえ!
Tara is the same age as Konatsu, but looks younger.
なつめちゃんは一つ年上だったと思う。来年もまた3頭で会いたいね!
Natsume is one year older than Konatsu. I hope to see all three of them together again next year.
I am writing about Konatsu’s daily routine. Konatsu’s eyes have been slightly cataractous since the beginning of this year. The veterinarian pointed this out to me, and I have been giving her eye drops twice a day, morning and night, to suppress the progression of the cataract.
It may not look white depending on the angle. From the way Konatsu looks, it doesn’t seem as if she has difficulty seeing, and I hope the cataract doesn’t continue to develop. I hope the eye drops are working.
In December, it gets darker around the time of evening walks, and Konatsu’s black hair makes her hard to be seen, so there are concerns about various accidents. So I bought one like this for walking.
首に掛けて光らせるもので、、、
It is a light that hangs around Konatsu’s neck…
光る部分をハサミで切ってサイズを調整できるのが上手くできている。
The size can be adjusted by cutting the glowing part with scissors.
Amazonで1,000円くらい。
It costs about 1,000 yen on Amazon.
明るい場所でもこんなに目立つし、、、
It stands out so much even in a bright place…
電気を消して暗くしてみるとこんな感じ。
This is what it looks like when the lights are off and the room is dark.
更に真っ暗にするとこうなる。これなら目立つし、車や自転車からも認識されるね。
And when it is completely dark, it looks like this. It stands out and can be recognized by cars and bicycles.
些細なことだけど、これで散歩が楽しくなるかも。
It’s a small thing, but it might make my walk more enjoyable.
My wife’s physical therapy treatment was early in the morning, so afterwards we had breakfast with Konatsu on the terrace of a nearby bakery, Mont Peche Mignon.
こなつはオスワリして何をしてるのかと言うと、、、
Konatsu was in a state of undress, and what was she doing?
店内でパンを買っているママの姿が目の前に見えているので、それを目で追っているのです。
She can see my wife buying bread in front of her, so she is following it with her eyes.
そのときママも店内から写していた。
My wife also took a picture of Konatsu from inside the bakery.
我々のとは別に、こなつ用のミルクパンも買ってあり
She had also bought a milk bread for Konatsu, in addition to ours.
これ全部をあげるのではないけれど、、、
I don’t mean to give all of them to Konatsu, but…
「少しだけね」と言いつつこれを4~5回くらい繰り返す.
I repeat this 4 or 5 times, saying, “Just a little bit”.