The happiest day

It was such a beautiful day.

I left home early.
The quiet of the Sunday morning made me calm...

When I arrived at Divna's house, Sandra was in the kitchen.
She is my friend Divna's daughter who was visiting home on her holiday.
She had arrived in Sydney from Hong Kong yesterday morning.
I was so glad to see her as she was a really lovely woman.
We could become friends quickly because I heard from Divna about Sandra a lot, and she probably had heard about me. As well as this, we'd spoken on the phone yesterday.
Divna organised this chance for me
because Sandra was leaving on Tuesday.

Then the three women and the three doggies got in the car and left their house.
It was really fun to sit with the doggies on the back seat of the car.
We did our shopping and drove towards Divna's parents' house.

There were her mother and her niece. They gave me a hearty welcome.
They looked like they knew me well. It made me feel warm so much.

After lunch, we went out and visited Divna's sister's grave.
It's too bad she died young...

We visited Divna's father who was in hospital.
I would have met her parents at their house, but it was necessary to meet her father at the hospital.
He looked happy to see his granddaughter who came to visit him from Hong Kong.

We went back to Divna's parents' house and had dinner.

The doggies looked very tired since they had played enough.

I talked with Divna's mother after dinner.
Then suddenly Sunce started barking at me.
I was holding some grapefruits which she gave to me.
Probably he thought that it was a toy or something special.
He didn't stop barking, so I gave him one.
Everyone laughed because he started playing with the grapefruit. He was a such funny boy.



Divna's mother told me that I could come to her house anytime.
I was so glad about it. She is a very kind-hearted mother.
I saw why Divna was such a warm and friendly person.
Because she has a great family.

I'm really happy that I could become Divna's friend.
I have great admiration for her and her family.
In addition, I must say thank you to Sunce because he gave me the chance of meeting her.



Today was the happiest day of my time in Sydney.
I have few friends in Sydney, but I'm not lonely because I have such good friends.

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The syamisen performers

The woman who is on the right in this photo is my best friend.
Her name is Tetsuroku Matsunaga and her partner's name is Tetsukoma Matsunaga.
Both of them are pupils of Tetsukuro Matsunaga.

They perform the nagauta syamisen and the name of the unit is "Sukui-zu and Haziki-zu".
The name comes from 'Sukui' and 'Haziki'.
Both 'Sukui' and 'Haziki' are names of execution of the Syamisen.

They are accredited masters of the nagauta syamisen.
Therefore, they are not only performers but also teachers.


"Syamisen" is a stringed instrument peculiar to Japan.
It was born from Sanshin transmitted to Japan from Ryukyu(Okinawa) in the latter half of the 16 th century.
Then it became a musical instrument of the main current of Japanese music.

"Edo nagauta" is a long song chanted to the accompaniment of syamisen, often with drums and flutes added.
Nagauta music developed as accompaniment music of the dance of the kabuki, and came to be called nagauta music at the beginning of the 18th century.
It spread to the ordinary family after the Meiji era.

If you go to see Japanese traditional performing arts such as the kabuki, the Rakugo (a comic story), you will listen to the timbre of the syamisen.

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Walsh Bay

It was my first visit. I saw a lot of historic buildings when I was walking along Kent Street towards Walsh Bay. The buildings were still used. I found a nice cafe which was located on the ground floor (but top floor) of an old building. They must have a nice view.

I went up the slope on Watson Road, and enjoyed a panoramic view of both the Sydney Harbour Bridge and Walsh Bay from Observatory Park.

Then I went back to Millers Point. There was the Lord Nelson Brewery Hotel which was Sydney's oldest hotel.
This hotel was pretty nice. I will have a beer at this bar next time. There was an old postbox on the outside wall of the post office on the opposite corner. It looked like it was already disused but I liked the old one more than the present one.

Walsh Bay is a stylish area that had been redeveloped from an old wharf.
There were brand new apartments, waterfront offices, bars, restaurants, theatres, etc.

At first I walked along Hickson Road and entered the Sydney Theatre which was today's destination. I bought a ticket for the Sydney Writers' Festival.


Then I had a cup of coffee at a cafe located on the ground floor in a new apartment, and imagined beautiful night views...


When I went to the end of a wharf, Goat Island and Balls Head Reserve could be seen.


Then I walked down Hickson Road again.
The huge bridge which I looked up at was really beautiful.
When I passed under the bridge, the Sydney Opera House came into view.


I don't remember how many times I've ever seen the Sydney Opera House, however I'm moved by the gorgeous views every time.
That was one of the happiest moments of my time in Sydney.

Part time position

I'm so exciting because it's my first time to work in Sydney.
I've just got a part time position at a company today.
I applied for this position about one month ago, but I couldn't get one because I was late at that time.
Yesterday, they phoned me and I will be able to work for the company.
I met the people of the project that I will work in , and they were very nice to me.
It must be interesting to work with them.

I will do my best and enjoy work.

I want to say thank you my teacher and my friend for their help.

A day in the city

I left home to the City earlier because I couldn't be late for my appointment.
And there was another reason why I started early as well.
I learnt helpful advice in a book recently. This is one of the piece of advice.

"START TEN MINUTES EARLY"
Start every journey ten minutes early.
Not only will you avoid the stress of haste,
but all goes well
you'll have ten minutes to relax
before your next engagement.

So I simply practised it.
I arrived at Town Hall Station nearly an hour early. I had enough time to relax.
So I walked to Darling Harbour and stayed there for a while.....

I had a job interview at an office.
I found the practice worked well because I felt relaxed about the interview.
After that, I met my friend at the QVB and had some coffee.
She told me about her trip to Melbourne.
But she is going back to Japan at the end of April... so sad...

Then I started walking towards Circular Quay.
I was in a good mood today, since I was wearing a suit.
So I walk arount Martine Place like a businesswoman.(just pretending)

I had sume coffee again at the MCA Cafe which was on the ground floor of the Museum of Contemporary Art.

The cafe faced the wharf and you could see the Sydney Opera House on the other side.
I enjoyed a nice chocolate dessert, a cup of cappuccino and a wonderful view at the same time.

It was such a good time.

Of course I saw the exhibition, too.
They had an exhibition of Paddy Bedford's work. His paintings were fantastic. I bought a postcard.
I recommend this exhibition. But it finishes 15th April, so you must hurry.

There was a big ship at the passenger terminal. A man was painting a picture.

I walked towards the Royal Botanic Gardens which was my favourite place in Sydney.
When I arrived in the park, I saw the ship leaving.

I took some photos of birds while taking a walk in the park.
The first one is my favourite bird, a kookaburra.

Then I started for home. Wynyard Station was crowded because it was the evening rush hour.
I love the Sydney CBD because there are a lot of beautiful places such as the Royal Botanic Gardens, Hyde Park and Circular Quay in spite of an urbanized city.

A brilliant sunset was seen from the train window when the train crossed the Sydney Harbour Bridge.

Yesterday was such a good day.

Three doggies

There were three little lovely doggies!!
It was my favourite visit to friend's house.

The first dog was "Sunce", a one-year-old Cavoodle,
a cross between a cavalier King Charles spaniel and a big poodle.
He is my best friend.　I love him.
He was a big baby when I first met him last September.


The second dog was Missy, a little white girl.
She had just come there two days ago
since her previous owner wasn't able to keep her anymore.
she was scared everything.
My friend told me that he attacked her on the first day.
I thought it was natural for him to be jealous,
because he had been an only dog.

The third one was Lotty, a funny boy.
He was a Mal-Shi, a cross between a Maltese and a Shih Tzu.
When I stroked him, he turned over and showed his belly immediately.
He does it every time.

As it was a beautiful day, we took them to the park,
but it was such hard work because we'd never taken the three dogs to the park.
Missy, the little girl, almost ran away.
It happened twice!!
We shuddered to think if she didn't come back.


We went back to the park and played with them.
The two boys ran actively, but the girl didn't run as she was still scared.
She was just looking at them running around the park.
After a while, she started running with them.
We were sure she would get used to them soon!!

We often found that Sunce looked like he was anxious for the others.



He always knows what his owner is feeling and helps her.
I learnt that dogs could learn anything they want to.

I was so happy. It was such a pleasant day.