First impressions

Skipping the long queues :-)

Happy to have been able to benefit from the Suica and NEX offer to go and move around Tokyo (the lady did not pay attention to my passport as I am not considered "a tourist" ;-))

Just back to the hostel. It has been a long and intense day. In Tokyo it is warm. Watanabe-san came to pick me up and went together to Ikebukuro, where I checked in for a couple of nights (the rest of the stay is arranged with friends or with some prize from a competition I participated in).

Because it is rainy season, I was lucky enough to be having a little "nap" (Spanish yoga) during the rain but later on moved on to Shinjuku for a bit of shopping and living "old times" :-)

On the train station in Ikebukuro, a promotional booth from American Express.. I´ve been one of the few accepting the "challenge" to the smiley boys and... have won one of the prizes!! :-)

On the visit to Shinjuku, I passed the gorgeous building where my former apartment was located. It took me a while to find it but must admit that it was really convenient and great there. Fantastic decision I had.

All in all, the impressions today are strange but will change by tomorrow for sure. I am aware that this time is for a couple of weeks but still this city gives me a lot of energy, inspiration and "good vibe".

More walking around, bought some books in Kinokuniya, visit to the always funny "Don Quijote", Uniqlo, getting a "Yukata" and ended having a cider in an Irish pub.

Returning to the hostel, a nice man sitting next to me on the train has asked me a few questions... in English but I could answer in Japanese and he was very hapy about it. His son is a Japanese teacher in Waseda (same place where I spent 5 months last year!). It is suprising also that another Japanese fellow has been speaking to me about football and I could follow with no problem. Definetly the basis are good (thanks to Takayama and Taira sensei!) and feel like going on (although from The Netherlands the motivation is much less... :-((

Back on the hostel, visit to the screen on the terrace to see the score... just started the match NL-Slovakia. I go up to the room to put my orange t-shirt on (the one with the "lion" that fancied for so long) and just realized that Holland is ahead in the score. I go down before I miss something important.

The days are getting busier and busier. Today I just took it as "relaxation" and "first contact". Tomorrow several things in the morning and dinner (possibly with Karaoke) and ending watching the match from Japan (one of the things "to do" in the morning is getting a blue t-shirt to support the national team and become "one of them" ;-))

More impressions very soon. Some pictures to illustrate the day, already posted at the beginning of this entry. Hope you enjoy the summer day in NL and the soccer!! (here 7 hours ahead... is almost midnight).

Fantastic blog

Find this blog fantastic http://florentchavouet.blogspot.com/
I came across this illustrator thanks to a book that Sarah lent me. It was a nice discovery (the name of the book "Tokyo Sanpo"). For those that are familiar with the city, I highly recommend it.

And now... few hours left for the plane.. I am getting super nervous and emotional. It feels exciting and great. Somehow... comparable as if I was going to meet a boyfriend (in spite of the apparent differences ;-))

Doei, bye, hasta pronto, au revoir!

Music

Still active in music, manga, anime, news, dramas, blogs...

And I am back... ... in Japan!

Yes, you are reading right. Only a few hours, exactly 8 of them to go back to one of the special places of my life.

Went out last night, one of the "shortest" nights of the year. Had fun. Not much sleep but luckily have 12 hours plane (and still -let´s cross fingers- no problems for sleeping while on the flight).

The last couple of months have been calm, in The Netherlands but at the same time interesting and somehow intense. My life rhythm has been very different to Tokyo and also miss that but also I am happy to be here... because it has been my decision!
I will summarize in my next post about things done in the last weeks (festivities and festivals, celebrations, birthday, trips to Germany, sports fair in Italy, Pilates, visitors, wedding invitation, mini-reunion in a month, visit to family and Friends in Spain... On the not so good side, eyes infection but now ok!!). The most important thing, in April, back to work. Really hard. Took me 2 months to "come back" but the feeling is that I have a "fresh" mind and eyes and feels good.

It is really exciting that I have the opportunity to be back to Japan and have such an exciting set of activities prepared with ex-colleagues from work, friends, Europeans, teachers, more colleagues.... also want to do and visit things that could not do during the hyper-intensive months spent there. Keeping in touch with all the valuable people met in Japan is hard and keeping up my Japanese takes a lot of will power but it is so rewarding that it is worth the effort.

Soccer world cup is a big issue now for people that like sports (am one of them) and although I did not watch TV since came back, now I do and follow with interest the progress of the Japanese teams among others. On Tuesday I will be with them enjoying a historical moment (remember that the national sports is baseball but haven´t met yet a young man that does not like "sakka" :-)

Weather is fantastic in NL at the moment and warm and humid in Tokyo as I expected. Already one year ago that landed there and was surprised by the "rainy season". Now I am mentally prepared.

There are several nice links about Japanese life or business found in the last weeks (by the way, not only NL changed government, also Japan did! -remember passing everyday by Hatoyama-san house when going to work... he is not there anymore!-).
Just posting one about Uniqlo (the Japanese ZARA ;-) ) http://www.economist.com/blogs/newsbook/2010/06/interview_uniqlos_boss?fsrc=scn/fb/wl/bl/japan

Hope you enjoy. Talk to you in a few hours with the impressions!

I am not gone, will come back soon. Golden week in Japan

Dear friends!
One month without posting.... not far from the last post, isn´t it?
I am writing from Düsseldorf, in Germany, where am spending this long weekend.

I came back to Europe slightly more than 3 weeks ago and although I try to keep it quite simple, I have to deal with a few more things than before. I still miss extremely my life in Japan and look forward to come back soon (as I say, "this time on holiday") in 8 weeks.

For the rest, I am doing very fine. I love this time of the year in The Netherlands and I have received some nice surprises in the last weeks (and some not so nice like the cancellation of one of my trips due to the ash cloud from the "volcano effect").

My intention is to keep posting in this blog, not only my "last hours and days" in Japan but also continue posting what I do in my life from now (only summary, ok?). I keep good track of things going on in Asia (particularly in Japan) and gain more and more knowledge of that country and society that I find so attractive. My Japanese friends are now celebrating their "Golden Week", then I send them greetings.

Bye for now!

More pictures and memories

My Japanese teacher (sensei) in the Shinjuku Multicultural Plaza (volunteer) and her husband took me to a night-cruise in Tokyo last Sunday. This cruise was exceptional because is organized only during Sakura (cherry blossom) times. The cruise consisted on the trip but also dinner and a little show of a Maiko (apprentice Geisha). You can see ser on the next table.
After this cruise we went for dinner to a very traditional place where we had to sit on the floor (something that I did not manage to do with my family over! ;-))




I just liked the poster!



"Japanese garden", part of a traditional house in Miyajima. I wouldn´t mind to have such a house! :-)



Miyajima, near Hiroshima with it famous shrine (cultural heritage) http://www.miyajima-wch.jp/index_e.html
We arrived with high tide and left with low tide.



Ladies visiting famous temple in Kyoto (we saw a lot of female in their Kimonos... must be a tradition). My visitors joined them for the picture!:-)



Samurai dog in Kyoto




Universidad de las Naciones Unidas en Tokyo -Shibuya- (WIPO tiene mini-oficina allí! :-))



Francesco, Natalja, Rob and Harumi

A picture is worth more than a thousand words?? It depends!! ;-)

"The day after". This picture was taken on March 11th, right after our graduation. We were celebrating Harumi, Rob´s and Francesco´s birthday.




The day after my own graduation, on my way to returning the Kimono and Hakama, I quite a few girls walking around on their "graduation" costume. I asked them politely (in my best Japanese! ;-)) to pose for the picture.
March is the "graduation month" for the Japanese Universities. On April 1st (this is to say, tomorrow!), their student life is over and most of them join the company they will work... in general... for the rest of their life!
In Japan, the fiscal year starts on April 1st and ends on March 31st. March is quite a busy month for most employees and actually is the month where the rate of suicides goes up.



This is the picture of one Kimono shop in the Shinjuku Station (mine!). The fabric and most of the designs of the kimonos are beautiful.. but they are not cheap at all!




Bike parking... mine is the first one! :-)
All the bikes are organized with the handle on the same direction.... I´ve never spoken about it but there are quite some "interesting" and "surprising" jobs (specially for some retired men) that consist on organizing this way the bycicles.



Instituto Cervantes in Tokyo (quite new, by the way. It opened a few months before I landed in Tokyo!)






I made several good pictures on the day that the young Japanese celebrate their "coming of age" day in January but for some reason they did not come out. This is one publicity about it!





This is of an exhibition about Samurais