Hello Europe...

...and good bye Japan. We're in a hotel 15 minutes from the airport. The kids are asleep. Our bags are almost packed, and we're soooo ready to go home. Flying tomorrow morning.

Whenever Kristian is around Selmas legs are tired...

It's been a fantastic trip in many ways, but our heads are filled up with impressions, our tongues are longing for rye bread and cheese, our ears can hear no more japanese, our eyes need to see familiar faces and our noses are longing for the smell of...hmmm...the smell of 'home sweet home'. It's time to go home!!!

It had snowed on Mt. Fuji, or Fuji-San as it is referred to here, since we last drove past it a week ago.

We left Kyoto bright and early this morning. Shinkansen took us to Tokyo, from where we took a local (bumle)train to a small city near the airport, Narita. We really only wanted to stay here to be able to get to the airport early tomorrow, but since our guidebook recommended a stroll down to see the temple here, we figured, why not??? Well, actually we didn't really want to see another temple. Yesterday, we went to see two beautiful temples in Kyoto, but as we got there, we couldn't really be bothered going in - talk about being templed out...we did take some photos though, in that way if we didn't really enjoy the beauty as we were there, we can at least enjoy it later.

The golden temple, one of the most famous and frequently visited temples in Japan. It was almost as crowded as Shinjuku Station during rush hour.

The Bamboo grove or forest behind one of those temples on UNESCOs world heritage list that we looked at from the outside, exclaimed WOW and couldn't be bothered going in to...

Coming back to today and the nice little stroll down to the nice little temple...The temple might not be on any fancy UNESCO world heritage list, but it was pretty amazing. And as it is often the case here in Japan (and probably many other 'temple-countries') a temple is not just one temple. In this case it was at least 8 impressive buildings, one more beautiful than the other.

5-storey pagoda in Narita.

Behind the main temple another 4 impressive buildings (the one on the left didn't fit into the picture).

The front gate...

On the way back to the hotel, we suddenly found ourselves sitting in a western looking pub with sweet promises of dishes such as burger and fish and chips. We've had many grand food experiences here, but we've had enough sea weed, pickled vegetables and rice for a while.

See you all soon.
Rikke

焼き肉...Yakiniku...Japanese barbecue

Yesterday, among others we visited this temple, one of the biggest wooden buildings in the world.



This is just the entrance gate to the temple...


We also went to the Nijo-jo, an old Shogun castle with those famous Nightingale floors, wooden floors that squeek when you walk on them. Apparently, samurais were afraid of being assassinated by intruders during night.

Zen garden of Nijo-jo.

Today we took it easy and had a lazy relaxing day...with a little shopping though.
Leaving the hostel later than usual we started visiting the local playground where Selma showed us her new climbing tricks. From there we went down town to have lunch and to get closer to the shopping area.

Rikke could not stop herself...again...conferring the addiction to Selma who could not leave the shop without getting a new fancy skirt that she wanted to wear right away. Also a pair of pink shoes she got...a pair of running shoes obviously as from there she did not want to sit on my shoulders any more. Finally, a good buy!

I really tried to find something nice for myself but it was not easy, mainly because of two reasons. Firstly, Japanese men are so small that even XL is too short for me and secondly, if I eventually found something trying it on was not allowed! How dirty do I look?

So I decided to go for shoes. Here, trying to fit was no problem. I could not resist no more to the influence of pop and got a pair of multi-colored Nike boots. Awesome, especially for the dark and grey winter period in Denmark and Sweden.

It was blue from smoke in there although each table had a hood.

The highlight was definitely our Yakiniku dinner at a small restaurant close to the Budget Inn.
You order a 'set' and get a 'ready to start' grill on your table. As starters we tried some hot and spicy pickled vegetables and then comes a big plate of meat...both beef and pork in small bites together with a broad selection of raw vegetables and mushroom. You just grill them yourself medium, well-done or burned...I had a beer with it and felt quickly like the 'Grillmeister' considering pouring some beer over the meat when flames became too high. The chef instead recommended ice cubes for that issue. Anyway, beer would do better. I will have beer ice cubes when I open the first Japanese barbecue restaurant in Copenhagen. Great idea!

The Yakiniku chef.

Finishing this blog I face the fact that my review draft has to be done tomorrow, so I better get there.

Tomorrow, we will head out for a final sightseeing tour and then prepare for getting home.

Best
Kristian

Hiroshima

Today, Shinkansen took us to another, not at least historically, interesting sight.
Hiroshima was devastated by atomic bombing on August, 6th, 1945. An inhuman act of war crime in my eyes.
Certainly, war crimes have been commited by all parties involved and I dont want to get into further discussions, so I stop and refer to this site for further reading.

Nevertheless, the city has recovered from the nuclear holocaust and is prospering and rather beautiful. Nicely surrounded by green hills and built on islands of the Õtagawa river delta.

We were wondering and perhaps some of our readers as well how people can live here again after the radioactive fall-out while Tschernobyl still is a place of death. I will get to that later.

Think about the shape of this fountain.

So we grabbed some breakfast, jumped on the train and were almost beamed to Hiroshima. Here, we went directly to the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park by streetcar (Tram, sporvogn).

The Hiroshima Industrial Promotion Hall as it was after the blast - today 'The Atomic Bomb Dome', a UNESCO world heritage site.

The park is beautiful and quiet, surrounded by two arms of the river. After ringing the 'Bell of Peace' we visited the Cenotaph, a memorial site for all known victims of the bomb and the museum with an exhibition of drawings and notes of survivors. Heavy stuff...

Selma and Rikke sending out a reminder to the world to make peace.

In one line the Cenotaph in front, eternal flame in the back and the atomic dome in the background.

Coming back to the difference between Hiroshima and Tschernobyl.
With my little understanding of physics I appreciate that the energy released by the bomb is coming from enormous nuclear fission (breakdown of atoms in uranium) that takes place in less than a second creating a firestorm and massive irradiation. The radioactivity declines relatively fast as the breakdown is shortlived.
For nuclear power plant you rather want to have less energy to handle, so the material used breaks down slower (longer half-live). Drawback here is of course if an accident occurs like the explosion of the Tschernobyl Power plant, you distribute long-lived radioactive material over a big area that then is contaminated for decades or longer.
Nuclear fission is a terrible monster!

Another thing. Traveling with Shinkansen is such a relaxing experience that we would probably visit every corner of Japan connected by the 'Bullet-train'. Unfortunately in that sense we have to go back home soon. The trains are incredibly fast, connecting all greater areas on mainland, extraordinarily clean and depart frequently to our convenience. Biggest difference to and where german Bundesbahn could learn from it is that Shinkansen is always on time!!!

Anyway, it was a worthwhile trip, impressive and contemplative...

See you soon,
Kristian

back on the floor

We've left Tokyo behind and moved on to Kyoto, where Kristian has attended a conference the last 3 days. The conference was a bit outside of Kyoto, near the mountains, it was really peaceful there. So peaceful that I infact got a bit stressed. I guess it is hard to wind down, coming from loud, noisy, bustling Tokyo. We did however get to wear even better looking matching japanese sleeping suits - kimonos.

Since we left the appartment, I've felt I was in some kind of transit. I haven't been out seeing much, and at the same time I'm stressing over the fact that there is so much to see and so little time left. I guess, we're slowly getting mentally ready to go home.

I did manage one last trip in Tokyo, though. To Asakusa. And I was glad I did. It had a totally different feeling to it. Not so many skyscrabers and more temples. No Gucci instead lots of stalls selling rice crackers and the like.


We didn't have the anonymity, we've had in the more 'modern' parts of Tokyo, and people constantly wanted to take photos of Selma and pad her on the head.

Anyways, back to Kyoto...after having spent a really boring day near the conference center, going for walks, not at all being able to enjoy the beautiful nature (even Selma said: Mom, why aren't there any people here. I want to go back to the place with all the people), we went sightseeing in Kyoto yesterday. Kyoto has more than thousand temples and shrines, of which 17 are Unesco world heritage sites. But it looks like any japanese city, when you arrive, so even though I wanted to see a temple or two, I also wanted to just be in the city and thus soothe my post-big city-blues. Apparently, I've gotten addicted to being in a big city.



We had a really nice day. We saw this beautiful temple, Shimogamo-jinja, which is a Unesco world heritage site. Afterwards, I'd promised Selma, that we'd go to a park with a pond full of carps. Not just any park naturally, but the Kyoto Imperial Palace Park. It was a really nice park. Beautiful, but really the best thing was, that it was full of life; not quite like Kongens Have but still...Selma misses playing with children, so as soon as she saw a girl not much older than her, she went over to play near her, and soon they were climbing in trees together. In the meantime Villads was also making a new friend. A girl came over and sat down and played with him. There we were not talking for half an hour, just smiling and giggling and playing with Villads together. Her friends were there with bags of popcorn, so guess where Selma went, once she was done climbing trees...

Villads with his new friend. Villads still has to learn the japanese pose...



...and Selma eating popcorn with the big girls.

Later we met up with Kristian, who joined us to go geisha spotting. We didn't have any luck though. Selma on the other hand had luck playing in one of those crazy gambling halls.

Today we've moved back on the floor or tatami mat as it is. With Kristians conference being over, we now have to pay for our own accomodation, so we've moved to a more humble hotel. But the good news is that Kristian has vacation!!!!

Tomorrow we'll report from Hiroshima.

Take care,
Rikke

Off to bed again...

Warning!!!

Looking at the following photos might change the way you see us forever. Whenever you in the future think of us stupid images of us in matching 'nightgowns' might run through your head. Thus, do only look at the photos if you think you can deal with that.

We didn't want to post them, as we are scared we'll never be taken seriously again, but we have to reward our readers. Your comments on the blog is what inspires us to keep writing, well, that and then the fact that once the kids are asleep at 8 pm, there is really not a lot to do here, unless you consider japanese television an option.

Almost incognito...

The crazy japanese.

The very serious scientists.

PS: We're considering buying them to wear back home.

hotel

Hello fans all over the world;-)

We've left our mold smelling appartment and have moved into a big business hotel. It's not that we haven't been happy in the appartment, but the smell was so significant that Selma, once we stepped into our hotel room, exclaimed: It doesn't smell here!!! Quite right. It doesn't smell here. And it is almost as big as the apartment...And...Kristian and I get to sleep in matching pyjamas...sorry, no pictures of that - not yet at least.

Just to break the text up here a photo of the Japan travelling kids.

Having cleaned the appartment and moved here this morning, Kristian went to work, and I went out with the kids to explore our new neighbourhood (not as charming as 'the french quarters' where we came from). We bought some rice balls (the japanese version of a sandwich, which I might have to import to Denmark) and went to a playground. Not a very eventful day. But after the action packed weekend, I was accompanied by two very tired kids, thus, the playground itinerary would have to make do.

We spent sunday in the most beautiful 'temple-city' Kamakura just 50 minutes from Tokyo. It was absolutely fantastic. Temples everywhere. And the weather was gorgeous. Sadly, our photos don't reflect how amazing it was. But here a few anyway.






After a couple of hours we decided to go back to Tokyo, since we had to clean and pack, and we didn't want for the kids to have another late night. However...it seems there is always a however, whenever we try to plan a quiet day here...on the train back, we decided to get off in Yokohama on the way, since Göran had recommended we go for the city view from 69th floor of the Landmark Tower. An elevator whisked us up there in less than a minute. And again it was amazing being up that high. Strangely enough, it has such a calming effect. I guess, since you don't hear all the noise of the city.

From up there Selma spotted a small amusement park and we decided to reward her temple-watching-patience with a few rides.

The Landmark Tower (296 m) seen from the amusement park.

Another very eventful day for small-big eyes. Too much to take in alone in the stroller.

And yes, you guessed it, thus, once again we got home just a little bit too late, but it was another great weekend. I wonder if I'll miss all the action, when we get home???!!!

I'm off to bed. Everyone else is sleeping (Kristian in his hotel pyjamas, which is really more of a nightgown...).

Good night!

My neighbour Totoro

By the way, anyone having seen the film 'My neighbour Totoro' might find it interesting that Selma went for a ride with the catbus the other day in the Ghibli museum.




there were 4 persons working there the whole time making sure the kids followed the rules, knew the rules, didn't stay for longer than 5 minutes, there were no dust balls, noone taking fotos etc (that is the reason why the video is not so good, and why we didn't 'get' the guy picking up all the dust balls...).

Interesting museum by the way, but hard to drag Selma away from the Catbus...

Matsumoto

hello everybody,

It's been a while since we've last posted something here. I guess, it means that our life here has gotten a bit more like an everyday life and a little less adventurous.

Obviously, it being Japan and all, we haven't yet stopped wondering about little things, like why did this woman step into the street, bow and turn to walk away? Or why do everybody bow coming to a new floor in a warehouse? Why was I offered a sip of a man's drink in the playground the other day? and why, as I refused, did he think, I'd reconsider if he told me it was whisky. Why did a school class bring a fotographer with 3 different cameras and 6 zoom lenses on an excursion? Why does Tokyo have more than 6 millionen vending machines? And what is the obsession with washing hands? A few days ago we came across this interismistic petting zoo, and believe it or not, they had put up around 10 zinks (similar in size to the toilets set up at festivals etc) in order for people to be able to wash hands afterwards. And at the playground they also encourage you to wash hands after having played in the sand. Yes, we haven't quite figured out Tokyo yet. Shame, that we're leaving in less than a week.

It being weekend and all, we obviously haven't just been sitting around in the playground drinking whisky. Today we decided to leave Tokyo and go for a breath of fresh air near the mountains - a city called Matsumoto. It was a 2,5 hour train ride - nothing much to do there...

Playing with Selmas kaleidoscope on the long train journey.

In Matsumoto, besides from getting some nice fresh mountain air, we went to see a beautiful castle.

Nice and dramatic just before the rain started.

And finally we tasted some delicious tempura - that won't be the last time that I decide on eating tempura instead of sushi - although I haven't gotten tired of that yet either.

Tomorrow we'll be going for a trip south of Tokyo to see some nice temples and shrines. I hope we don't get any rain. Since the weather forecast didn't mention anything about rain for the weekend, we packed all our rain gear in the first bag that we've stored in Kristians lab. We're leaving the appartment monday and moving into a hotel, and we wanted to avoid dragging all our stuff at the same time. By the way, moving to a hotel means that my days as a japanese hausfrau are numbered...hmm...not bad...still wouldn't mind, though, if someone would come and look after the kids for a couple of hours...

I'll have to leave the computer to Kristian now, he still has lots of work to be done before he leaves the lab here on wednesday. Poor thing!

Arigato and sayonara!!!

Rikke

This is what we came for! Karaoke...Please enjoy

Please enjoy our promising sing and dance performance talents:

Give a big hand of applause for Rikke, Selma, Kristian and Villads from Copenhagen,

Vorhang auf und Manege frei für die vier lustigen Drei.

Shopping and karaoke in Shinjuku

Hello everybody,

I hope you all had a great sports and health day. We did! Saw quite a few people jogging today, and many streets were closed to cars, but we decided that sports day for us meant going for a walk in the Shinjuku area - an area which is mainly known for having the second largest commuter station in the world and servicing app. 3,5 mio passengers a day.



It does have more to it than that, though. Here you'll once again find a big neon-light district with huge futuristic skyscrapers, but you'll also find Tokyos notorious red light district. We didn't visit that area, but decided to just slender a little bit around checking out the shopping scene. Enough children related activities like zoo and aquarium for one weekend, now it was time to hit the shops. How great is it that you can shop on a national holiday? We were really excited to begin with, but dragging two kids around quickly takes the fun out of shopping. Except for the one mall, where they had a place for the kids to hang out - but obviously only in the kids appartment.

Villads in a 'banana tub'

Speaking of shopping and children...I don't know where people here buy clothes for children, except for Zara and Gap, I haven't seen any stores with a childrens line, except in one of those warehouses we went to yesterday, but they only had the really expensive designers. Hmmm...quite a difference to Copenhagen where almost every other shop nowadays is for kids.

Enough about shopping...instead we decided it was about time to...

...and get acquainted with Tokyos karaoke bars. We went into a random one, and it is total japanese madness. 9 floors with each 10 little rooms to rent. In each room sitting a group of friends or a couple singing. You can order food and drinks and have your own little party there. The floor we went to was completely full, and it was 3.30 PM. We were only there for an hour, mainly to have seen it. Check out the video potpourri in the next post for you to have seen it too...I obviously gave it as Britney Spears for old times sake, and speaking of sake, it could have been so much more fun if we'd had a little bit of japanese sake.


The kids weren't totally in to it - except for Kristian;-)


I think, I'll leave it at that. The videos say it all!!

Have fun!
die Reckzehs

Tokyo seaside

Today, I managed to convince Rikke that another day of shopping would not be very beneficial for neither the kids or my credit card. So we decided to explore the sight of Tokyo from the waterline visiting manmade lands of Odaiba after we had seen it from top floor heights of the Mori Tower.

Our trip started with a 30 min ride on JR (circle) line to Shimbashi. Either ways on the circle would have taken that time, we went counter clockwise via Shinjuku, Shibuya and Shinagawa. From Shimbashi to Odaiba a fancy, driverless Metro took us on a ride like a snake around the Skyscraper buildings and along the loop over the Rainbow Bridge to the island.

During the Japanese attack of Pearl Harbor (that is located close to San Francisco bay area as I remember) in WWII they had also taken the Statue of Liberty and transferred it here to Odaiba close to the Fuji TV building.

The Americans were so upset that they bombed Hiroshima and Nagasaki and later, you all know the story, set up a plastic statue (Made in China) somewhere on the east coast of the US. However, this still doesnt help me understanding how they moved the Eiffeltower to Shinagawa without nobody noticing...

Traditional Japanese and modern fashion...look at her shoes!

I felt like wrestling when I saw the mascot of Tokyo police but the only thing we got was a picture with it. Selma was not scared this time and she even climbed the police motorbike for another shot.
This was after we had spent some time in the Seaside park watching all kinds of living creatures from all around the world and the Japanese sea including the majestic tuna.

On the way back, it is always quite a journey with tired kids, I figured why all Tokyoites with few exceptions have really white skin. In german ther term is 'Kellerbräune'. They spend two thirds of their lives in the underground totally unexposed to sun light. At least we spent alot of time in endless tunnels. If you dont want to take the train you could probably walk home in those.

Well, we took Tozai line and reached home before any major breakdowns. The investment in german 'Roggenbrot' (war eigentlich ein Mischbrot für umgerechnet 8 €) payed off: we had a terrific dinner: Stulle mit Brot.

:)
Kristian