"mr.sumo snr." <mr_sumo@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:c1pmc3$1kq2h1$1@ID-141600.news.uni-berlin.de...
> Oh thank you for mentioning hawks/kites - tonbi are they?

It's probably a Eurasian kestrel, which would be a tonbi I guess. There is
only one of them around my neighborhood that I have seen. With the way our
house is built and the lay of the land here, it often hovers outside right
at the level of my office window. Going after rodents and such in the fields
below.

> > About half of the sugar-cane fields have been harvested, and the
obaachans
> > are putting in their spring vegetable patches.
> >
>
> in their bikinis?

Covered from the tips of their noses to the tips of their toes. In winter to
protect them from the arctic chill of 15-degree weather, and in summer to
keep them from getting suntans.

> Anytime you want to wear your Polartec fleece at a hanami party just visit
> lovely Nagano in late April - we can oblige!

The first sakura bloom here in January (ichiban zakura) -- this is one of
the later varieties apparently.
I went to see the sakura in Nagano once. Very beautiful, but it was massive
traffic all the way up and back, and the place itself was packed. But we got
our obligatory photo in front of a bunch of cherry blossom trees, so
everyone was satisfied.


-- 
Regards,
Ryan Ginstrom