Last day of February, last day of the Olympic games in Vancouver, Tokyo marathon and last day at work

What do you think this is?
Some weeks ago I saw this ad on the train.
Japan is a country where you can find new products in the market almost every day
. Yes, you are right, milk and vinegar! I have never tried it and am not attracted by it. On the other hand, I did try "Apple juice with vinegar" some months ago and was not so bad after all!

Updating you about the last days...many, many things going on. I am preparing now the final exams for tomorrow and after tomorrow. After that, pure holiday! (and preparation to go back to The Netherlands :-( .


Emotional week ahead.... and the one that has just finished.



I have realized listening to the radio that today is the last day of the Olympic games in Vancouver, only a couple of weeks ago I was watching the Opening ceremony. Every night, before going to bed I watched different events on TV and the day after I confirmed by reading the newspaper after work.

During the last days, wonderful days in Tokyo. Around 17º C several days, which made difficult to come back to work after lunch outside...

Although it has been a looong week, I also had the time for social life. On Tuesday, Kyoko and Ohkawa-san surprised me taking me to one of the finest sushi restaurants in one of the most famous hotels in Tokyo (Okura hotel) which is located not far from work. It was very pleasant time and loved the menu offered! :-) Thanks to both!

On Wednesday evening, with other colleagues from work (not from my team or department but some other departments and people that have been at the EPO in Europe sometime) took me to a Karaoke party in which besides nice dinner I had promised to sing Japanese songs... and did not disappoint! ;-) but I have to say that after this event... I went back to work!

This last week, also the last week at work and had to hand in several presentations and projects for both, the University and work. I have gone home with the last train (like many Japanese and several of my co-workers) several days. By Friday, you can imagine... terribly tired.

On Friday (26th Feb.), small farewell speech at work because I will come back "comme il faut" on 9th March to offer myself a drink in a more relaxed atmosphere. Also my colleagues were extremely busy organizing a big event for next week. However, many colleagues had the time to come to my desk and offer some presents, which I appreciated so much. Futhermore, the closes team invited me for "farewell dinner" to eat Yaki-niku and Shabu-shabu as I had told them some time ago that had never tried it (and actually loved it and recommend!) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yakiniku

On Saturday, early morning, the last Japanese one-to-one class with Taira sensei.

During the weekend, not very nice weather. Today Sunday, the "Tokyo marathon 2010". More than 32ooo runners (and many of them that were out because their number did not come out on the draw!). Impressive! The starting point was very near my apartment (5 min by bike). At 8:30 in the morning I was already on my way but the way it was raining and after watching for 25 minutes runners, I decided that it was too much -I had no sensitivity in my hands anymore!-). Our italian friend and colleague, Francesco, was lucky enough to be able to run the race. I could see lots of foreigners and lots of humorous fancy dresses (cosplay characters, Michael Jackson, World cup...http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cosplay ).

At 9:45 I felt in urge to come back home for a nice bath with warm water and start studying for tomorrow.

This week, interesting one. I am going to a tea-ceremony together with work colleague Tsuda-san http://www.japan-zone.com/culture/sado.shtml. I promised to go out with Katagiri-san and some others and the weekend will go skiing with Sakano-san and some other colleagues from work (some I know, some I don´t). Also, preparing the graduation ceremony and the trip that my parents and sister will do from March 15th.



From Wednesday, I expect to have a little bit more time to update this blog and to catch up posting some pictures.

For the moment, one that I had for long time... as you know Japan is a country where there is launching of new products almost every day. Some months ago, I saw this ad on the train to work . Yes, a drink of milk and vinegar! I have never tried it and am not attracted by it.

I go for now, will come back soon! otsukaresamadeshita! (Hope you like this song!)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5yE9m0Xt3MQ

Blog change of name

I want to warn you all that I have found out that it is possible and easy to change the name of the blog. I would like to make the correction now but then realized that you would lose completely track of my stories (in case you are interested).

The new name will only be changed in that "tokio" (Spanish way) will be spelt "tokyo" (English spelling) to be consistent with the title itself. Please, note it because next weekend I will do officially the change, ok?

Be aware as well that I am spending a little bit of time exploring new possibilities and have added some music that inspires me at the moment.

Bye, bye for now.

Going out with colleagues

Last week on Friday I went out with some of my closest colleagues. They took me to a place in Ginza that I liked a lot (only Japanese people) and we had a very good time together.

I brought for this event Sarka, who is one of our ETP colleagues in Korea. You can see from left to right: Yuki-san, Kyoko-san, Sarka, myself and Ryogi-san (first row on left picture) and Shingo-san (first row on right picture).

The night would have been perfect if my Iphone had not been stolen from my bag! :-( Actually, this circumstance has broken the rule about the honesty and sense of safety and security from this society (me, always exception to the rule! ;-)

This situation means that I don´t have anymore a way to be contacted by phone and since it´s only 6 weeks until the end of my stay... is it really worth to buy another phone (and pay at least a 2 year contract with it?).

The phone device was nice and useful while I had it (mainly because of the GPS system to find places and addresses -which is very tricky in this country-). For the rest, I did not use it very much but the fact that it was stolen... hurts!)

Ok, midnight here, still afternoon in Europe and morning in America. Have a great beginning of the week. Big hug!

ma-ru-ta (the way my name is pronounced here)

Happy New Year, Chinese New Year of the Tiger

Today is New Year´s day. Yes, it is not that I have lost track of time or something like that. It´s true, according to the Chinese calendar today is New Year´s day. I have had the honour to speak about it during brunch, with Ashley, our Taiwanese friend.

You can seen some traits of the people that are born under the "Tiger" year in this link http://www.springsgreetingcards.com/catalogs/store.asp?pid=250913

Japan has in fact lots of traditions and influences from China. One of them is this concept of the "Year of the Tiger" but in practice, Japanese people don´t start the New Year today but started it on 1st January (according to our "occidental" calendar). I will explain soon how I spent in Japan that day!

I take advantage in this post to share with you something that is also striking for us, the way the Japanese, in their tradition count the number of the year. In official forms we would find numbers like 20, 21, 22.... which initially does not make sense to us, right? However, there is an explanation and it has to do with the number of years that the emperor has been reigning. Now we are under the "Heisei" period, times when the Emperor Akihito is sitting in the throne. One quick way to convert the current year to Heisei is to take the last two digits and add 12 (example, 2010 > 10 + 12 = 22, which means that we are on the Heisei 22nd year!).
You can find more information on this link (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heisei_period).

Greetings!
Marta .
(P.S. I am trying to introduce to terms in Japanese -hiragana, katakana, Kanji- but I haven´t been able today!)

Valentine´s day in Japan

Hello everyone!

It has been a long time, isn´t it??
I am sorry, really sorry to have kept you waiting so long and thanks again to all the friends that are always there, being attentive and showing their friendship.
This new year has been so far... very intense! the same style as 2009! ;-)
However, since I came back for New Year´s, the feeling of the "countdown" is closer than ever, so I try to "juice" every minute. Next post I will summarize the things that I have done during the last week since I left for Europe at Christmas time.

But today... what really brings me here is the occasion, a special day, "Valentine´s day"... in Japan!

I had already been explained some months ago by one of the Japanese teachers about the tradition, on this particular day, for the girls, to give chocolates to the boys (and specially to the boys they are particularly "interested in").

As soon as I learned it I was looking forward to the 14 February and seeing it at work but unfortunately this year Valentine´s day fell on Sunday :-( However, although I was preparing something nice for my male colleagues for tomorrow Monday, some of my female colleagues already took a step ahead and started on Friday. It was funny to see one side... and the other! :-)
I found this idea of the woman showing the feelings to men quite unusual but also interesting.
I learnt a few weeks after the teacher told us about S. Valentine´s that, on the other hand, one month after Valentine´s day there is the "White day" (14 March) which is the day in which men give to the girls that they received chocolates from, also chocolates or other kind of gifts (so I cannot wait until that day arrives!!). You can find also an article about this following this link (http://www.tanutech.com/japan/valentine.html). In this other link, you can follow a nice blog (in Spanish this time) where also this tradition and many others about Japan and life in Japan are explained (http://feeds.feedburner.com/unajaponesaenjapon).

I hope you enjoy... and Happy Valentine´s day to everyone! Lots of love and friendship from "Nihon",

Marta.