Simon San bought on Friday a new lens for his camera. That means we dedicate a weekend to Simons camera. For that we needed something…
…like a playground
…how about nature for a change
where it is not so crowded
…and 2 nice models
Nikko National Park!
Together with Bolli Chan we got lost in the fog…
ate Swiss chocolate…
were impressed by the colors…
and Simon had plenty of time for practicing…
When we have free time, we sometimes try to challenge Tokyo with some more or less weird actions. In the last weeks, these included:
Drawing a picture of Switzerland with chalk in front of the junior highschool. And watching the reactions of the pupils (and teachers) :-)
Another one was eating breakfast in the little park beside our house. Reactions were moderate…
Oh yeah, and our lessor announced last week that we have to move out from Toshimaen, because the apartment is being abandoned (probably torn down). They offered us a brand new apartment for a very reduced rate near Shibuya — what can we say?… We are moving out next Sunday and will be living in Sangenjaya (hi T!) until the end of this year. They even help us move our stuff.
I went to Osaka last weekend, partly for business reason, partly for fun. Despite the crazy heat (mounting up to 40C) I had a lot of fun indeed. right now I’m just too tired to write. So lets have a look at some close-up shots I did, kind of like a riddle (people who know Osaka can guess where I ‘ve been).The last picture is actually a so called hdr-shot (for “high dynamic range”), which is composed of three pictures with different exposures.
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
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.
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.
To get out of busy Tokyo for a while – that was the target of this weekend. And we managed to to this just fine. Romana called her old friend Natsumi, whom she met in Alaska some years ago, and we spent a good saturday in Kamakura and Enoshima, a popular area of recreation just one hour south of Tokyo. Natsumi studied woodwork and showed us some interesting shops which sell old or well designed furniture.
To get some impression of our trip – look at the pictures below. Some explanations to the pics:
Romana is “laundring” money at the temple of the Enoshima peninsula. This is considered to attract more money in the future.
Romana watches a pile of pink wooden tablets which contain wishes and prayers of visitors of the temple. Very popular among japanese as well as foreigners – and funny to read as well.
Sunset scenes. We could see fuji-san in the distance, a very nice spectacle.
Bildlegende:
1) Mika, Mariko (Schwester von Mika), Romana und 2 Paparazzi
2) Mika, Mariko, Romana und Simon bei Mika zu Hause
3) mit einem freundlichen Sumokämpfer
4) diese Ohrringe habe ich soeben geschenkt bekommen. Ein Japaner fand dies fehle noch zu meiner Aufmachung.
Diesen Samstag hat Mika uns zu ihrem Quartier-Shrine-Matsuri eingeladen. Mika gibt immer alles, damit wir die japanische Kultur hautnah erleben können. So verlautete ihre Mutter, nachdem sie uns Tee und Kuchen serviert hatte: “Simon San, gehe bitte in den oberen Stock zum Onkel, und erst wenn wir dich rufen darfst du wieder kommen.”
Et voilà, 40 Minuten später waren wir alle in wunderschöne Yukatas gekleidet und Matsurifähig. Die traditionellen “one Size only” Schuhe sind nicht europäischen Füssen gewachsen, was jedoch nicht so schlimm ist, denn heutzutage trägt man flipflops :-)Und wir können behaupten, die zwei in Yukata gekleideten Gaijins (Ausländer), waren neben den Mikoshis die Hauptattraktion.
Ein Versuch zu erklären was ein Matsuri überhaupt ist.
Jedes Quartier in Tokyo hat seinen eigenen Schrein. Manche sind gross, manche klein, manche zum Teil ganz protzig oder schön schlicht. An einem Matsuri gibt es, wie im letzten Video gezeigt, mehrere Umzüge. Während dieser Paraden wird der Schrein-Gott “Kami”, Mithilfe der Mikoshi in der Nachbarschaft rumgeführt. Die Mikoshi sind mit Gold und Glocken beschmückte Miniaturschreine, die auf den Schultern von vielen Männern und Frauen getragen werden. So ein Schrein wiegt locker 3 Tonnen netto, also ohne Gott! Die in traditionelle Tracht gekleideten Träger, bewegen sich in einem speziellen Rythmus, der den Schrein ziemlich deftig schüttelt und sehr langsam voranbringt . Daiko Trommler und ein Pfeiffer (zum Glück nicht mit den Klängen der Basler Fasnacht verwandt) laufen voraus und geben den Takt an. Das Video vom vorletzen Blogeintrag, zeigt das Asakusa Matsuri, welches das grösste und bekannteste in Tokyo ist.
Es hat auf uns schon des öfteren den Eindruck gemacht, das Anstehen sei ein Hobby der lieben Japaner. Achikochi (“überall” unser neues Lieblingswort) stehen sie in der Schlange. Manchmal, wenn wir eine solche erblicken, nehmen wir die Mühe auf uns und gehen wie Detektive der Sache nach. Die Schlange kann gut ein paar hundert Meter lang sein…aber wir sind nicht so rasch runterzukriegen ;-) Wenn wir also das scheinbare Ende gefunden haben steht die vorderste Person meist vor dem nichts. Wir schauen links und rechts, oben und unten aber können einfach keinen Grund für das stundenlange anstehen ermitteln. Solche Erlebnisse kränken unsere Spürnase hie und da ein bisschen…Aber die folgenden Bilder erzählen eine erfolgreichere Geschichte.
Ein normaler Montagnachmittag in Tokyo: Wie beschrieben haben wir eine Schlange entdeckt! Gwundrig wie wir sind wollten wir wissen was in diesem KRISPYKREME Dounutladen den los ist. Gibt es etwas gratis, signiert Jonny Depp Autogramme, gibt es einen Weltrekordversuch im Dounut essen??? Fragen über Fragen. Bei genauerem betrachten sehen wir ein Schild das uns verrät, dass die Wartezeit 1 Stunde 20 Minuten beträgt. Wow, da muss was los sein, verrät uns unsere Spürnase (=o=)… Eine Aufsichtsperson, die dafür sorgt, dass alle schön anstehen wird auf uns aufmerksam. Der ältere Herr erklärt uns, dass dies der einzige Krispykreme Dounutladen in Japan ist und es daher so viele Leute hat. Wir zeigen Verständnis für die Warterei und fragen, ob der Laden heute eröffnet wurde. Der gute Herr antwortet: “Nein, vor 5 Monaten…!!!!”
;-)
