We demonstrated apertureless scanning near-field optical microscopy using a small protrusion (a simple 500-nm-diameter polystyrene particle) on a flat glass substrate as a probe. We designed a small sample stage to operate with the particle probe. It is a 40-µm-diameter circular stage, fabricated from an optical fiber by Hydrofluoric acid (HF) etching. In this paper, we present the first atomic force microscope and scanning near-field optical microscope images obtained with such a probe. We also discuss schemes for probe-sample distance control in this novel form of apertureless scanning near-field optical microscopy.