…ist upgedated :-)
蚤の市 flea market #2 July 26, 2007
Our appearance at the flea-market in harajuku last weekend was quite a success. Romana could sell some wallets and we basically had a really good time with the other people selling things, too.
For me, those flea-markets really felt like an expression of japanese society. Young people just gather to sell their used clothes, old gameboys, pictures, junk… you name it. Everyone just brought a plastic sheet and sat on it, together with the stuff they wanted to sell. I guess they try to make some extra cash and clear out their homes, which can get stuffed quite quickly, considering their size.
After the flea-market ended, we were invited to a (really tiny, off-the-road, cozy…) bar near Yokohama, where we spent the rest of the day with friendly japanese… :-)
To the “bivouac”-people: Thank you guys, for that great evening at your bar. If you like to get more pics from then, email me. Simon
Unser Haus auf Google-Earth July 25, 2007
Nimmt’s euch Wunder, wo in Tokyo wir genau wohnen? Wenn ja, könnt ihr unten ein kleines file herunterladen, das euch dann in google-earth auf einen Rundflug über die ganze Welt und direkt vor unser Haus mittnimmt:
googleearth location file link (geht nur, wenn google-earth installiert ist!)
Für Jene, die google-earth nicht installiert haben (es ist gratis!), gibts hier noch ein Bild. Das veranschaulicht die Grösse von Tokyo aber nicht so gut…
Tokyo Sewage System July 20, 2007
Did you ever wonder how a sewage system (Abwassersystem) of a city as huge as Tokyo looks like? Well, below you find some impressions. Almost unreal, isn’t it?
IMAGES COPYRIGHT 2005 EDOGAWA RIVER OFFICE, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
蚤の市 flea market July 17, 2007
日曜日（０７／２２） に ロマナ は じぶん で 作た さいふ を うります。代々木 公園 に １０時から ４時まで ぜひ 来て 見て ください。そう しましょう！
;-)Die Melone July 11, 2007
Die Melone unten im Bild kann man in der “Tokyu Food Show” im Bahnhof von Shibuya kaufen. Viele grosse Bahnhöfe haben solche Läden im Untergeschoss, da gibts alle möglichen Spezialitäten – z.B. auch Schweizer familia-müesli und Schweizer Käse zu sagenhaften Preisen.
Mit der Melone ist soweit alles in Ordnung – es ist ein speziell schönes Exemplar, gerade richtig reif zum essen. Der Haken: Die Melone kostet 105.- harte Schweizer Franken (es hatte auch eine für 200.-, die durfte ich aber nicht fötelen).
Wie kommt das?
Eine kurze Umfrage bei unseren japanischen Kollegen bringt Licht in die Sache:
Die japanische Tradition vom “Schenken” als Zeichen der Anerkennung nimmt scheinbar ab und zu groteske Formen an. So sei es Brauch, dass wenn z.B. der Abteilungsleiter einer Firma seine Stelle oder Firma wechselt, er von seinen Mitarbeitern beschenkt wird (sprich: alle müssen etwas schenken). Je nach Anlass sei dann auch der Preis, welcher das Geschenk kosten sollte, so inoffiziell schon festgelegt. Und wenn man dann diesen Boss gar nicht go gut kennt, und nicht so richtig weiss, was man schenken könnte, dann kauft man halt vielleicht – eine Melone. Weil, die kann man essen und dann ist sie fort und die ganze Sache ist über die Bühne. So geht das.
枕投げ (まくらなげ) July 8, 2007
Yoyogi park is always good for a surprise…
Lately, when we were strolling through the park, together with Tetsuya san and Kana san (with the polaroid cam on the pic below), we suddenly got involved into a pillow fight (makura-nage in japanese). It seemed to be some kind of “pillow-fighting-club”, which gathers periodically for some workout in the park. Now how weird is that…
長野 Holiday in the Nagano Area July 4, 2007
Nowadays it is quite hot and humid in Tokyo, as it is called the rainy season. We don’t see a lot of green unless we visit one of the many parks which are on weekends of course always crowded. And the air…we acutally got used to it…but as it is a big city it is of course not like in Switzerland. But as we live here we actually stopped comparing this and that with HEIDI LAND. There is no point in it. Just everything is different even the toilet. However we miss it sometimes. So we can call us lucky that we have a very nice family close to Nagano which welcomes us all the time:-)
The city Nagano is famous as it held in 1998 the Olympic Winter games. So you can imagine that there is a mild clima which brings in the Winter time a lot of snow to the surrounding mountains. And in Summer time it is of course not to hot. The family Aoki lives in Suzaka, a smaller city surrounded with a lot of apple, grape and rice fields. Please have a look at the Panorama click the link Naganopan below.
Naganopan_link (be patient, may be loading slowly!)
The House of the family Aoki is a big, traditional country-style house which used to be a silkworm-farm. Later it was turned into a restaurant serving original Nagano specialities and a silkworm farm Museum. The food is still excellent, most of it fresh from the garden and with a lot of love prepared. The garden in front of the house is perfectly japanese and has definitely something spiritual.
As it is almost a tradition we also went to an Onsen (Hot Spring). In the picture with me and Kaoru you can see a Onsen house in the back. The entrance is for free and there are just two rooms. One for men and one for women. In each room there is a bathtub with very, very hot water. And if you manage to enter the bath you’ll feel very relaxed afterwards. As this was a famous and touristic Onsen place (Kusatsu) with many, many Onsen. The hot water source is the center of the village. You can walk around and heat up from the upcoming dust or sit on a bench and enjoy the Onsen for feets. This walk around the source is called “Romantische Strasse”, as german doctors in the late 19th century visited this place very often, nowadays you can see many couples wearing the Yukata from their hotel strolling around and visiting one Onsen after the other.
Of course we also enjoyed sightseeing and bought some souvenirs. I bought also a FUROSHIKI as a souvenir. This square towel is very convenient as you can fold and knot it in many different ways and create the bag or wrapping you just need. Japanese are very fond of wrapping. They usually wrap everything once more than necessary just because it looks better…So I wrapped my souvenirs in my souvenir FUROSHIKI. Maybe a new mikadesign product in the near future.
