Japan ist ein fremdes Land

Atlantic ocean at south-west coast of Portugal

2011-05-12T05:33:00.003+09:00

Beach days

2011-05-09T04:51:00.003+09:00

... in southern Portugal.
Besides Lisbon, we spend some days here, in the fantastic landscape of the Costa Vicentina Natural Park.

Lisbonne story

2011-05-05T04:41:00.002+09:00

We were happy enough to spend Easter in this most wonderful city - and even had some sunny days.

Running towards spring

2011-04-11T05:12:00.004+09:00

Heartbreaking: Rikuzentakata today

2011-03-25T23:45:00.004+09:00

From Wikipedia:

Rikuzentakata was reported to have been "wiped off the map" by the tsunami following the Tōhoku earthquake.^[1] According to the police, every building smaller than three stories high has been completely flooded, with buildings bigger than three stories high being flooded partially, one of the buildings being the city hall, where the water also reached as high as the third floor. The Japan Self-Defense Forces reports between 300 and 400 bodies have been found in the town.^[2]

On 14 March, an illustrated BBC report showed a picture of the town, describing it as "almost completely flattened." "It is not clear how many survived."^[3] The town's tsunami shelters were designed for a wave of three to four metres in height, but the tsunami of March 2011 created a wave 15 metres high which inundated the designated safe locations. Local officials estimate that 20% to 40% of the town's population is dead. "Rikuzen-Takata effectively no longer exists."^[4] Although the town was well prepared for earthquakes and tsunamis and had a 6.5 metre high seawall, it was not enough and more than 80% of 8,000 houses were swept away.^[5]

A BBC film dated 20 March reported that the harbour gates of the town failed to shut as the tsunami approached, and that 45 young firemen were swept away while attempting to close them manually. The same film reported that 500 bodies had been recovered in the town, but that 10,000 people were still unaccounted-for out of a population of 26,000.^[6]

^------

Staff Reporter (12 March 2011) "Wiped off the map: The moment apocalyptic tsunami waves drown a sleepy coast town". www.dailymail.co.uk, Retrieved 12 March 2011
www.nst.com.my/nst/articles/Japanarmysays300-400bodiesfoundinRikuzentakata_Report/Article/ Japan army says 300-400 bodies found in Rikuzentakata: Report
www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-12729784 Picture 6 of the series
Tsunami preparation leads citizens into low-lying death traps. www.theglobeandmail.com/news/world/asia-pacific/tsunami-preparation-leads-citizens-into-low-lying-death-traps/article1943381/
ShelterBox Response Team operational in Iwate Prefecture News update from charity ShelterBox, 22 March 2011
The floodgate that didn't work to stop the tsunami. www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-pacific-12801085

Beach of Rikuzentakata, 2008

2011-03-20T18:37:00.005+09:00

Before ..............and after the tsunami. Not much left.
(Click on the photo to enlarge.)

Goishi Kaigan, between Ofunato and Rikuzentakata

2011-03-19T05:53:00.004+09:00

(Photo taken in August 2006)

2011-03-18T06:04:00.001+09:00

Shrine close to Rikuzentakata. We went there often. I hope it's still there.

Review: July 2009

2009-11-23T03:50:00.006+09:00

Farming with uncle und cousins:

Summer chilling by the riverside

Birthday cake ...

and dinosaur food:

Best friends

Summer at the Lake of ConstanceGetting ready for a ride:

Review: June 2009

2009-11-18T05:27:00.006+09:00

Workin the lab :

Backyard barbecue

...and fine dining:
Cute Jakob

... and strange Thomas:
Summer by the lake:

One is doing the work, the rest is watching:

Another year almost passed by, let's have a look back

2009-11-17T05:04:00.006+09:00

May:

Relaxing in our neighbourhood park ...

... and in Portugal:

Oni fight in our apartment:

Flowering trees (at the lake of Constance),

bicycle race,

the promising start of a soccer career

and japanese style gardening:

Cool hello from Jakob

2009-04-30T06:30:00.004+09:00

... especially to all his friends in Japan.

Some photos finally...

2009-04-28T05:44:00.008+09:00

Here are finally some long overdue news and photos from our new home.

I forgot to take a photo of the house itself, but as the neighbourhood is much more beautiful to watch at, that doesn't matter.

The view to the street:

Above, you see the small front garden belonging to the house, where the children (there are now four living in the house, all in the same age) play and the friends from across the street come over for spontanous visits, while the mums sit together and chat (while the fathers work at the maintenance of house and garden) - it feels just like in Uenomachi in Kitakami.

Our view into the garden behind the house - unfortunately, we only have the view, not the acces. It belongs to the family living in the white villa. Isn't it enchanting? (and consider that we live only 5 minutes away - by bike - from the busy city centre of Frankfurt!)

There a big old trees at all corners of the house and in front of all windows; but not too dark, just beautiful. Our bedroom:

Jakobs room, during winter and with fresh green chestnut decoration in spring.

The dining room:

Living room; lots of space for cars and trucks.

Even the bathroom is bright and spacious. The only part of the apartment which is not is the kitchen, which reminds me a little bit our kitchen in Kitakami, too...

And that big park is just a minute away - one of three.

Come to visit us and make yourself comfortable!

Bye bye, old house

2009-01-24T06:17:00.002+09:00

Today is the last night in our old appartment. We almost finished packing (not entirely - tomorrow morning will be hard!), and although being sad about leaving this very nice neighbourhood, we are really looking forward to the new, quite bigger place. See you there soon - photos to follow!

Short update...

2009-01-13T06:43:00.002+09:00

... and sorry for the very long silence.
We had a very busy december, went to a nice and quiet place in Portugal after Christmas to relax, came back quite sick (Thomas and me with sinusitis, Jakob coughing) ,although the weather there was fine and warm, and then started to prepare our move to a bigger apartment (close to our work and Jakobs kindergarden) immediately after being back.
And it's SOOO cold here since ten days, all the time between -15 and -5°C, even during the day, brrr!
Wish you all a happy new year!

Ready for winter

2008-11-21T06:12:00.002+09:00

Ladybeetles awaiting winter, sleeping snuggled together in several corners of my parents house.

Autumn still lifes

2008-11-20T07:00:00.005+09:00

Not that bad...

2008-11-20T06:53:00.006+09:00

... is our new life, with our new jobs.

For mine, I had to travel to Brussels last week. I had to get up at 4 am and came back at 10 pm, and the topic of the meeting there was a little boring - but the contents of this box (one of severals I carried home with me) was certainly not boring at all, see:

Bath tub monster

2008-11-20T06:27:00.005+09:00

New life

2008-11-11T05:26:00.003+09:00

One week already that we started a quite new life:

Thomas stopped being a house husband and reconverted into a scientist, being conveniently located at the botanic institute where I still work, and - like my job - affiliated to the new Biodiversity and Climate Research Centre.

This is a big challenge and requires quite a lot of reorganization of our daily life.

For exemple, since Jakob's kindergarden place is only until 2 pm and we both work full time, we had to quickly find a solution for the afternoons - and we found a very good one: A young, very friendly japanese woman who picks him up at two and looks after him until we return home. Jakob is so fond of her that each time we return, he tells us to go back to work so that he can continue to play with her, almost starting to cry when she finally leaves. And she seems quite fond of him, too, I think we where rather lucky finding her.

It's quite formidable how he tries to impress her, such as by insisting on walking the whole way home (which takes them ca. 1,5 hours) and showing her that he knows the way, instead of taking the bus. He would NEVER accept to walk such a distance with Thomas or me!

Relaxing in a hot bath after the long walk (don't be afraid, there's no blood of his ran-off feet in the water, it's just that he doesn't like foam bath, only some water coloring):

Fascinating Japanese vehicles and trains

2008-11-07T05:16:00.007+09:00

We saw inbelievably many power shovels and dump cars, much to Jakob's delight.

And we saw a lot of various shinkansen types - still the best looking trains ever, ne!

Thomas' hidden side

2008-11-03T03:51:00.002+09:00

Is this really the same person?

Ringo juice

2008-11-01T07:02:00.011+09:00

The region around Frankfurt is famous for its delicious apple juice and apple wine. And there a lots of apples this year, everywhere. Lots of work for the juice makers.

At a place close to our garden, they work even through the weekends, and it's almost all handmade:Some can't even wait: You can carry the juice home...
... or drink it directly.

That's what is left over:

More apples are waiting on the trees.

It's getting cold in Frankfurt...

2008-10-31T06:24:00.007+09:00

... cold rain every morning, almost all leaves have fallen, and we miss Japan's autumn, which looked and felt so much like a late summer:

Well, ok, not everywhere, Kitakami is not THAT green all over the place:
But even that street has its charme, in our nostalgic eyes.

What's wrong here?

2008-10-27T06:13:00.004+09:00

During our trip to Japan, Jakob insisted that yakkyu (baseball) was an interesting sport, after having seen it several times on TV.

His friendly japanese ojichan (grandpa) took him to the sports field and showed him how to play.

Jakob managed to hit the ball from the beginning - see why:

Watching Japan

2008-10-24T03:45:00.005+09:00

Jakob watching the - really very nice - NHK children's program on the first morning after arrival:

and is again very interested by some soap opera:
... but the real Japan (for example seen from inside the Narita Express) sometimes can be boring...

...or exhausting (karakoe just after arriving in Kitakami - but HE insisted to go, not us!).

Oyasumi!

Still thinking a lot of beautiful places we visited again

2008-10-22T05:15:00.008+09:00

... like Takada Matsubara Beach at Rikuzentakata, Iwate (rated as one of the top hundred beautiful scenic sites of Japan).

What a serene day that was .

Taiji dolphins...

2008-10-20T05:22:00.007+09:00

Dear friends in Japan and elsewhere,

please contribute to stop this:

See more in this film (if you can stand it), read more here or here.

Get informed and active:
Here (in Japanese), here (in english) and for example here (in German).
Thanks!

Healthy japanese food

2008-10-18T05:31:00.009+09:00

Both Thomas and I (not Jakob!) gained several kilos during our three weeks in Japan.

"But japanese food is so healthy, you can't get gain weight eating it!", many of you will wonder now. So why?

Well, because of that:
Breakfast:

Lunch:

Another day's lunch:

Some afternoon tea here and there (thanks for the picture, Hiroko-san!)...

Dinner:

Another dinner:

One more dinner:

Of course, it was all very healthy and even more delicious (a big ARIGATOU! to all those who took so well care of us!), but we ate ALL that almost EVERY DAY, and really, I had brought several pairs of troursers I couldn't wear anymore in the end of our stay...
Everything counts in large amounts!

PS: But since we returned, all these kilos are already melting all by themselves.

Gotchisou sama deshista!

2008-10-14T05:54:00.004+09:00

Sorry for not posting yet... we're back in Germany since one week now, after a great trip .... but I had not enough time yet to write anything, I'm still busy classifying the 2000 or so photos we brought back with us.

Here's a first appetizer:
Our last ryokan breakfast.

Back in Japan

2008-09-16T23:02:00.000+09:00

We made it already until Narita airport, where we stay at a hotel with great runway view to relax a little, before heading to Kitakami tomorrow.
We went ofcourse directly down to the hotel's public bath - hey, it's like coming home!
Only Jakob keeps asking: "When will we arrive at the real Japan?" - which is for him Kitakami, of course.

Tütata

2008-09-10T06:05:00.004+09:00

Several times during the last two weeks, some automatic warning system in our institute gave a (fortunately always false) fire alarm, with a whole fire brigade, at least four trucks and cars and an ambulance, arriving within minutes.

I have to admit that - thanks to Jakob's influence, who would be in seventh heaven with enthusiasm - I finished to be very impressed by such events, too.

Vegetable plague

2008-09-09T06:15:00.003+09:00

Been at the garden for the first time since two weeks or so - big surprise, all the vegetables had continued to grow, even without us looking after them. I was specially surprised by the beans - our neighbours pulled them out already weeks ago, saying that season was over. And ours still produce kilos and kilos!

Who will eat that all? We are leaving in a few days...

Not on the picture: Tons of black grapes, tomatoes and apples.

Summer's going on

2008-09-04T04:49:00.012+09:00

... and we're alive, though not posting.

Summer was beautiful until now, quite calm.

Jakob celebrated his 4th birthday, with a little garden party (but I forgot to take pictures).

We spent some time at the Lake Constance,

and at my sister's place, a dairy farm in South Germany.

Jakob and Klara.

Luise and Jakob, driving by coach.

More modern: Thomas' a new scooter - which Jakob likes to sit on , but not to drive, until now (yes, there are child seats for scooters!)

Garden harvesting went on:

But we spent less time there, because of the seasonal explosion of harvest mites (very tiny insects living in the grass, a real plague: if you touch the grass or other plants, they crawl on you,

and then

"inject digestive enzymes into the skin that break down skin cells. They do
not actually bite, but instead form a hole in the skin and chew up tiny parts of
the inner skin, thus causing severe irritation and swelling. The severe itching
is accompanied by red pimple-like bumps and skin rash . For humans,
itching usually occurs after the larvae detach from the skin." (Wikipedia)

And it's a really strong itching, and they are everywhere!

These days, it rains a lot, we hope they will be washed away altogether ...

So, instead of being in the garden, we hang around in restaurants,

and at summer parties,

(this one was the big annual "museum's party" along the river Main, with us, 2.999.997 people were there).

There was music and food and theatre and sports and, yes, also modern art .

And now, there are only ten days left until our three weeks trip to Japan.

Rhine beach pleasure

2008-07-18T04:20:00.008+09:00

Pure delight! Who needs to travel to the Mediterranean with this little beach nearby (20 minutes by train, in Mainz)?

We discovered it thanks to some friends a few days earlier - but that day was cold, with just a little sunshine at the very late afternoon, and the beach empty. But fun was just the same.

Shopping

2008-07-18T04:02:00.005+09:00

One of the nicest thing to do is to go shopping for the garden.

My latest acquisition:

This wonderful very fragrant rose (a 'Geoff Hamilton').

One year already ...

2008-07-09T05:50:00.046+09:00

... that we are back in Germany.

Time flies.

Sorry for the long silence.

We had a good year. We re-acclimatized well in Frankfurt; lots of things make us happy to be back in Germany, but, well, we still miss lots of things from Japan. Apparently, that will not change; so we'll fly over to Kitakami for a 3 weeks holiday in autumn, to keep in touch. But we are both ashamed that we didn't continue to study japanese, notwithstanding our good intentions. And sorry that we didn't manage to make Jakob keep his awakening japanese.

It was a healthy year; Jakob and I both hadn't been ill even for one day, even during the long winter. And it was a green year, especially since we got our garden and spend there really a lot of our free time.

And of course, that year was a busy one, gosh! My new job (lasting one more year from now on) is really interesting, but it was lots harder than staying at home with baby Jakob and have coffee and a chat with the Uenomachi neighbours. I coordinate a biodiversity project, a public campaign called “Biodiversity region Frankfurt / RhineMain”. It aims to inform about the surprisingly rich biodiversity in our region and to raise the regional population's knowledge and consciousness of biodiversity. My work has almost nothing to do with science, but everything with PR and marketing - I had to learn a lot! But (me and three colleagues I had to engage - THAT was not easy for me too, believe me) we managed to realize all scheduled elements of the campaign (several series of lectures and events, excursions, guided visits, a poster campaign, expositions, films, short clips, school contests etc etc). One year ago I really wasn't very optmistic, but I have to admit that I am quite satisfied. The price to pay was much work and little time to spend in family.

Speaking of family: Jakob is quite happy in his kindergarden, although he didn't find a new best friend after Luke left. From August on he will stay until 2 pm (now only until 12).

Thomas seems to be increasingly happy at home, after some difficult months. He is still busy writing scientific papers with the japanese colleagues. From autumn, he will hold a tutorial at the University. He enjoys to spend so much time with Jakob (lucky him!), and sometimes even has prepared a nice meal when I come home at night.

You see, we are really fine... let's see what the next year will bring. Cheers!

And how did we spend the last two months? Here's a short retrospect.

May was incredible busy, the climax of the biodiversity campaign I manage (see http://www.biofrankfurt.de/, then click on the blue leaf), due to the international biodiversity conference in Bonn.

Our stand at the conference center:

But there was still some time to spend with other, more important things, such as:
Happy reunion with Jakob's friend Luke ath the family's new appartment in Mayence.

Smiling ...

... and learning to use the Laufrad (running bike without pedals,really popular in Germany). Since we bought it last autumn, Jakob categorically refused to even try it - since a few weeks ago. Now he's a real racer.

Lake of Constance trips, including landscape art, barbecue and martial arts:

Gardening, of course:

...and harvesting!

We went at a family meeting with my parents and my sister's family at the incredibly blue Blautopf, a large karst spring

We had guests - from Africa and Japan:

Gnanando, my former counterpart and now manager of the Botanic Garden of Papatia in Benin:

He hads been invited to give a talk at a side-event at the biodiversity conference and afterwards spent a few days in Frankfurt - it was his first stay out of Africa, and of course he had to try the famous apple wine.

Hiroko, a friend from Kitakami, who was not here at that moment by coincidence, but because she loves football :

I took a few days off and we had four great days.

And were sad when she left:

(No, she didn't return to Japan by train, but went to Paris for a few days!)

Asparagus season

2008-05-16T05:11:00.002+09:00

Garden pleasures

2008-05-13T04:52:00.012+09:00

We had a splendid pentecost weekend and spent almost the whole three days outside.

... on a walk across Frankfurt, exploring some green places of the city, for example this chinese garden very close to our place...

And of course in our garden, under the flowering apple-tree.

There is finally some progress. This weekend, we planted lots of herbs and vegetables, the pond is ready. Jakob still enjoys to be there, and tries to help us where he can

Time to relax.

Nearby, there is a nice playground including a very popular water basin for children:

Splendid view:

Excellent dinner:

Hey, isn't there a plate missing for Jakob? No - we had a premiere this weekend: for the first time in almost four years, we left Jakob in the hands of a very friendly babysitter and went out for dinner, just the two of us - strange new experience! But as everything went perfectly well (he was so happy to show all his cars and books to somebody new that he didn't mind at all that we left), the next time is already scheduled.

Times are changing...

2008-05-12T05:31:00.004+09:00

... some colors stay.

(The picture above was taken exactly one year ago).

Father and son

2008-04-22T05:05:00.004+09:00

... on a walk along Frankfurt's only vineyard: The Lohrberg, belonging to the famous wine region "Rheinhessen":

Our garden is only 200 m away.

Yes, we are still very nostalgic!

2008-04-10T04:06:00.007+09:00

Exactly three years ago, we just had arrived in Kitakami, moved into our strange little house, been invited to many welcome parties and started to feel at home. And Jakob was so incredibly small!

Snail watching in our garden

2008-04-09T07:22:00.003+09:00

Autobahn

2008-04-06T18:15:00.006+09:00

Some days ago, we hired a small van to pick up some garden items and to buy plants (a big bamboo, among others). Since we don't have a car in our daily life, this little trip was something special - visibly everbody enjoyed.

Nippon connection

2008-04-05T06:10:00.002+09:00

... the worlds biggest japanese film festival, is actually taking place in Frankfurt:
www.nipponconnection.de

Sorry...

2008-04-05T04:41:00.016+09:00

... for not having posted for such a long time.... too little time, too little energy, too lazy - I have many excuses. So here is finally a little update.

What happened since February 22nd?

Nothing special; we're alle fine, work is progressing nicely (see the webpage of our campaign: http://www.biofrankfurt.de/ ; only in german, sorry), spring's finally in sight - oh, and yes, we started gardening. Our allotment is situated nicely on a hill north of Frankfurt ( 20 minutes by bicyle away from our place), with a large park nearby, a playground and a restaurant, and a great sight over Frankfurt.

It hadn't been cultivated for over two years, so there is a lot of work to be done (I spent several hours last weekend to dig up the vegetable patch). We plan to create a pond, and a japanese corner, and bought lots of plants and materials. And we wait impatiently for the plants to come out, since we have still no idea what's already growing there.

Jakob is helping us a lot, of course. And he happily plays there during hours and hours, with just a little mud, grass and water

Sunset behind the garden.

And after gardening we relax with karaoke - here with the mother of Jakob's best kindergarden friend. The boys brought kilos of cars with them.

At their kindergarden playground. Unfortunately, Luke's family will leave Frankfurt in two weeks.

Zoo pleasures

2008-02-22T05:50:00.008+09:00

Frankfurt has a quite small, but famous zoo, one of the oldest in Germany.

Thomas and Jakob went there on a cold sunny afternoon last week.

Exhaustion ... and the at any times efficient remedy ice cream.

Oh!

Sky graphics

2008-02-14T06:04:00.003+09:00

Early Sunday morning

2008-02-12T06:28:00.003+09:00

Contrary to most german shops, all closed on Sundays, this little grocery is open already early in the morning. Very convenient for our breakfast shoppings - apart from the fact that we are not authorized to buy a lot: "If I sell them, I don't have them anymore" is Jakob's reasoning that comes with many of his favourite items. Indeed, there's nothing you can say against that...

Riddle for the readers

2008-02-06T05:52:00.000+09:00

What's that?

Crocodile ears!

Sorry, but I just needed some pretext to post the sweet photo with the cap!

Making popcorn

2008-02-06T05:35:00.000+09:00

Pure delight!

Light railway museum of Frankfurt

2008-02-04T05:42:00.000+09:00

... a great playground even for grown-ups, run essentially by volunteers.

Lots of cute old engines, some of them dieseling joyfully around (today was special diesel engine day), others still awaiting their restoration ...this one seems to be waiting a long time already.

The entrance fee included even a chilly short trip into the surrounding park.

Disembarking tiger (it's carnival!).

New bed for Jakob

2008-02-03T08:39:00.000+09:00

Karaoke!

2008-01-30T07:00:00.000+09:00

Recently, the first Karaoke box opened in Frankfurt . Of course, we were there - and promptly met a television team. Check out their short film here.

Yes, their equipment is far less sophisticated than it is usually in Japan - but that's still much better than nothing.

Cheers!

2008-01-23T06:17:00.000+09:00

Sorry, lots of work these weeks ...but new posts soon to come.

2008-01-04T04:52:00.000+09:00

Happy New Year to all of you (year of the rat in China, but not in Japan, though the two countries use the same chinese zodiac. In Japan, it's the year of the mouse - aren't rats kawaii enough?)!

Sorry for the long silence; but we continued our way to my parents' place to spend the end of the year there almost directly after coming back from the airport. But here are finally some impressions from the Algarve (extreme south of Portugal).

Sunshine, and at least 15°C, every day - twenty degrees warmer than what we left in Frankfurt. It felt like a very advanced spring! So directly after arriving in Silves, our headquarter (45 min away from Faro airport), we started our daily routine of spending lots of time on sunny café terraces (and eating lots of typical local food like pizza and spaghetti and icecream ...).

Silves is a beautiful little town in the Algarve hinterland. In former times, it was even the capital of the independent Algarve kingdom. We were surprised of the storks nesting on almost all old towers and chimneys of the town.

Our place at the Quinta da Figuerinha - a place with a view; and many friendly dogs.

Chilly nights and cool mornings; no chance to use the swimming pool neither at dawn, nor later.

Breakfast on the terrace - with delicious portuguese bread, salted butter and fresh mandarine juice, made from fruits coming directly from these trees. And finally some time to read -paradise!

Not far from Silves, another house with a view; we knew the owner, who infortunately passed away two years ago, quite well and had several times the chance to spend some beautiful days there (always dreaming on how it would be to finally hit the lottery jackpot and buy the house to live there, since he wanted to sell it for years).

Apparently his children decided to keep, we heard they rent it as a holiday home.

Somebody put this page at the entry of the house - has anybody an idea what language this is and what it means?

Second breakfast: Pasteis de natas et galão at a small café in central Silves, managed by an old couple, who today looks exactly the same as 12 years ago, during my first Algarve stay.

The picturesque southern coast being only a few kilometers away, we spent lots of busy hours on several beaches, building sand castles (note the convenient bucket).

Huge contrast of coastal holiday homes (note the hung Santa Claus on the top of the third):

More to follow.

Merry Christmas ...

2007-12-23T06:20:00.000+09:00

... to all of you !

And that's where we will spend it: In Silves in Southern Portugal.
See you in a week!

Skyward

2007-12-21T05:56:00.000+09:00

Airplane taking-off from Frankfurt, seen from my desk at the institute.

Due to global warming?

2007-12-18T06:24:00.001+09:00

Ring-necked Parakeet group in a tree close to the city center of Cologne (in german: Halsbandsittich). I read that meanwhile tens of thousands of these originally tropical birds live freely in Europe.

This group of gulls (kamome) on the other side of the street seemed to be bewildered by the intruders!

Trip to Cologne

2007-12-18T05:39:00.001+09:00

Yesterday, a very quick (200 km in just one hour) and very punctual train (it arrived at destination ten minutes earlier than scheduled) brought us to Cologne, where we met the Terai couple, friends from Japan who are in Germany for some days.

Of course, we took some minutes to visit the giant Kölner Dom and the big christmas market at its feet.

Wow!

But a sudden emergency at the dome entrance involving lots of fire engines was far more interesting.

We had coffee somewhere in the countryside outside Cologne, and a relaxing (well, for some who had the chance to be carried) walk at dawn, before taking our (punctual) train back home.

PS: I hereby apologize to the german railway Deutsche Bahn for always complaining about slow and delayed trains!

Meersburg beach

2007-12-16T06:06:00.001+09:00

Winter's never too cold to have fun with water - luckily Jakob didn't insist to walk barefoot, since it was a really cold day.

Meersburg Christmas market

2007-12-14T06:31:00.001+09:00

We have been at my parent's place two weeks ago, and by chance there happened to be this very small, non-commercial, only two days lasting Christmas market. With lots of Glüwein, live music and hot waffles.

Winter in Germany is nice!

Steinbach station

2007-12-14T06:11:00.001+09:00

Railway romanticism in our living room - old Märklin set, dating back from Thomas' youth.

Japanese patisserie Iimori

2007-12-14T05:25:00.000+09:00

Some weeks ago, we discovered, in the very heart of Frankfurt, a japanese patisserie, with a surprising interior: imitating an old fashioned german café - a very nice mix! Which seems to be a succes formula, it was crowded on that cold sunday afternoon.

And we nostalgically ate kare-pan, melon-pan and fluffy japanese shinamon-roru, things we never touched in Japan (where "Sunday" ment going to the french patisserie and eat french cake and croissants). Yes, the grass always seems greener on the other side.

After coffee, we came just in time to see the big christmas tree at the town hall place (Römer) being decorated. Jakob was delighted to see that there where cranes involved - we had to stay a long time and watch them.

Advent calendar

2007-12-10T06:53:00.000+09:00

These days, Jakob gets up quickly in the morning, very eager to open another small present on his advent calendar - and usually, there is trouble and lots of discussions, because he hates to have to follow the correct order, and sometimes doesn't want the things he gets, like this morning a few "Marzipankartoffeln", typical german almond paste sweets which he never ate before - but which he finally liked.

2007-12-07T06:01:00.000+09:00

Sorry, absolutely no time to write these days...

Chopsticks for beginners

2007-11-21T05:55:00.000+09:00

Staying in practice - in view of our planned trip back to Japan next year.

Autumn leaves...

2007-11-17T05:18:00.000+09:00

... after a cold walk, that was really fun - although Jakob doesn't look as if he had any...

.... and in the University Botanic Garden.

And that silly cherry tree is still flowering.

Well-deserved sleep...

2007-11-10T05:41:00.000+09:00

... after a long week.

German kōyō

2007-11-07T06:58:00.000+09:00

Autumn colours, seen from my office.

Thomas and friends

2007-11-07T06:54:00.000+09:00

Jakob insisted that he had to share his newspaper with them.

Countryside weekend

2007-11-06T05:31:00.000+09:00

Last week, I took friday off to visit my sister's family. They live here, in a very small town not far from Ulm.

To Jakob's delight, we took the train. The fact, that we missed the connection at Ulm (as almost always) was in no way detrimental to his joy, especially as Ulm is famous for delicious pretzel, the weather was fine, and there where lots of engines to watch while waiting.

Once arrived, we met:

Jakob's cousins Klara and Louise, and their other cousin, Fabian:

... a big flock of fat turkeys:

Strange animals. My sister's husband is a dairy farmer, but additionally, they feed up several hundreds of turkeys every year, for Thanksgiving and Christmas.

...a friendly and patient horse:

... to which Jakob preferred a stuffed one, at the nearby Steiff museum. There is no animal which is not available there - all in original size. Amazing - if you're three years old.

There's even teddy bear cake. And lots of space to play and to relax.

Sunday morning. Louise on the sofa, reading the monthly horse market journal very assiduously.

We spent a relaxing and calm weekend. The only argument to make Jakob accept that we had to return on Sunday was that "papa is waiting for us there, all alone" (Thomas didn't come with us, he was too busy).

In the evening, we just made it in time to the airport, to bid farewell to Mr. and Mrs Ito, who returned to Japan after rushing all around Germany in six days. It was their first time to come here, but hopefully not their last. Sayonara!

Best bakery

2007-11-02T05:53:00.001+09:00

What's that? An old picture from eastern Germany, where you had to stand in line for even the most common things of your daily life ?

No, it's just our favorite bakery, which happens to be one of the best in town, an ordinary Saturday morning.

You'd better arrive early - otherwise you'll have to wait a really long time. But your patience is rewarded at the front door, with this flowers and a nice choice of - free - sweets.

Inside, a wonderfully warm and sweet smell, and great breads and cakes. And lots of chocolat. Until now, I resisted and just bought bread, but that won't last, probably.

November cherry blossom

2007-11-02T05:24:00.000+09:00

A cherry tree in front of the botanic institute, although having yellow and orange leaves all over, just decided to behave like in spring.

Visitors from Kitakami

2007-10-31T05:52:00.000+09:00

Mr. and Mrs. Ito, Jakob's japanese obachan and ojisan (grandma and grandpa, see older post), just arrived yesterday night for a one-week-speed-trip across Germany. We went to meet them at their hotel in Frankfurt, for just one short hour. They brought lots of nice japanese things, sake, sweets (kamome no tamago!), cracker (the famous o sembe from Iwate ), toys and a book for Jakob, a CD for us ... it was like Christmas. Jakob behaved in a very shy way, although he didn't stop talking about meeting Ito-san already hours before and still hours after we met them. But in their presence, he was quite distant, except when showing his cars.
It was so nice to see them; we plan to meet again on sunday at the airport, when they check in for their flight back to Japan. Infortunately, their trip doesn't include any time to be spent in Frankfurt.

And here 's how other Japanese get ready to travel in foreign countries, where they will have to communicate in english.

Oni!

2007-10-28T03:29:00.000+09:00

Devils in the house! We brought lots of these oni (a kind of demon) masks back from Japan.

Pre sleep ritual

2007-10-26T04:01:00.000+09:00

Every night, when I put Jakob to bed, we sing. And not only a lullaby or so, but:
All those four japanese automatic children song books - you press the button, the book sings by itself, and we (that is, I) sing along. I thought they were quite silly when I bought them, but now I really enjoy them - and thanks to them, I know the 25 most important japanese children songs almost by heart.

Culinary trip to Japan

2007-10-24T03:50:00.000+09:00

In Hausen, the "japanese district" of Frankfurt, we recently discovered close to the japanese school this small, truly japanese restaurant, which has japanese owners, japanese staff and serves of course exclusively japanese food - and japanese beer.

We felt very much at home - just like eating around the corner, somewhere "home" in Kitakami. We were the only non-japanese clients, all the other tables were occupied by relaxed japanese families (parents reading japanese newspapers, children playing with japanese gameboys...); the only hint that this place isn't situated somewhere in Japan is the german menu for the ocasional non-japanese customers.

Jakob enjoyed edamame and yaki onigiri, Thomas had the entire menu of the day, I took kitsune udon - it was simply great!

Instead of dessert, we had a traffic jam on the table; the son of the restaurant owners was very interested in cars, and Jakob felt quite flattered and accepted him generously as part of the round.

It's getting cold out there

2007-10-21T22:26:00.000+09:00

This weekend, we started heating. Some parts of Germany had their first snow fall.

Autumn football

2007-10-18T03:27:00.001+09:00

Just beautiful

2007-10-17T06:13:00.000+09:00

Situated in the Frankfurt banking center, the Japan Center is not the highest, but surely one of the most elegant skyscrapers in town.

Jakob was not impressed.

Pancakes

2007-10-16T06:01:00.000+09:00

Jakob is a very concentrated cook - and Thomas quite proud of him!

Skyscrapers in the sun

2007-10-13T06:14:00.000+09:00

Cars everywhere

2007-10-13T05:54:00.000+09:00

In Germany, unlike Japan, you don't need to have your own parking space to be allowed to buy a car, you just park it in the street. And since so many people own cars, they dominate, densely parked,the view in almost all parts of the town.

There are so nice alternatives to move around here, though.

Velo-taxi, minicar, running ..

Even sailing on the Main.

Preschooler Ikebana

2007-10-12T06:29:00.000+09:00

Very cute blog post of an American living with his family in Kyoto: kawaii!

Futuristic tea house

2007-10-12T05:42:00.001+09:00

Frankfurt has a famous new japanese teahouse, built by the architecte Kengo Kuma. It's located in the garden of the Museum of Applied Art, looks like a strangely shaped golf ball - and is inflatable! If there's no tea ceremony, they just deflate it and it's almost invisible.

When we arrived, tea ceremony was just being held:

Tsukuba, shoes outside, lots of people inside - I read that inside there is a real tatami room, but couldn't get close enough to see it by myself. The ceremony was held be a german tea master.

Leaving the ceremony (perhaps she couldn't bear to see it held by a gaijin):

Kyou no obento

2007-10-12T04:52:00.000+09:00

Japanese weekend

2007-10-08T05:44:00.001+09:00

Speaking of bikes ... wait a moment, wasn't that a Japanese one??

Indeed, somebody brought it along all the way from Japan, including the two child seats. It was parked in front of the japanese school in Hausen, the "japanese district" of Frankfurt. The school celebrated this weekend its yearly school party, and we where tjere, of course - together with all Japanese citizen living in Frankfurt.

It was very well organized, from the stand for the baby cars ...

... to the different queues (for the book flea market and the bento sales booth), both of them incredibly long (the bento queue perhaps slightly longer, reaching outside the building), but everybody was very civilised and patient, of course.

We too, and were rewarded with some very nice and very cheap japanese children books. I would have bought more, but after waiting in line such a long time, Jakob was eager to get outside and eat his bento, meanwhile bought by Thomas.

The weather was fine, people were picknicking everywhere, it was like a big hanami party - just without the blue plastic sheets .

Jakob met a girl, who loved his cars and trains ... and even had a twin sister. Kawaiii!!

These two enjoyed their fleamarket bargains ... others were just busy (I never saw as many rice cookers at oneplace):

Bike stories

2007-10-08T05:02:00.000+09:00

Yesterday, Thomas bought a new bicycle. The second one in less than four weeks. Not that he is collecting them, no - but he got his first one stolen, almost under his eyes and although attached with a very solid lock, brand new, with the child seat and even Jakob's helmet attached, while spending less than an hour at the botanic garden's playground . He was really fond of it, had he met the thief, it wouldn't have been an enjoyable moment for the latter.

But the thief was quick enough to get away with the bike, and Thomas got the short end of the stick, looking at the empty bicycle stand, incredible. Well, that's Germany, too - as there are lots of fancy and expensive bikes, theft is widespread, and many people now fix their bikes with two big locks.
The new bike will be delivered only tomorrow; meanwhile, Thomas is using the racing bike he brought from Japan - not very suitable for the child seat.

I am lucky enough to own my bike (the black one below) now for more than three months; probably it's not fancy enough, just a mama bike. And, yes, I use a very big and heavy U-lock.
And no thief probably will touch that nice red bicycle - to common.

Many people don't buy their own bike anymore. They use the call a bike-service offered by the german railway in most big towns in Germany: You just have to register once, then you get access to a fleet of quite good high-tech bikes spread all around the city, bookable instantly, by mobile phone. For 6 or 8 cent a minute, and if you want to use it the whole day, 15 Euro.

But Thomas is still grief-stricken, repeating that he's going back to Japan, where things like bycicle theft will never happen!

Streets of Frankfurt

2007-10-05T04:33:00.000+09:00

No skyscrapers and bank buildings in our neighbourhood - just wide streets with old buildings and trees.

Vertiginous

2007-10-04T05:45:00.001+09:00

Today, we had lots of fun at the playground, especially with this small roundabout ..

Check out how it feels to sit on it:

Another two weeks without posting...

2007-10-04T05:09:00.000+09:00

... gomen, ne!

But we were so busy, tidying up our apartment, yesterday we finished to unpack the last of the 59 boxes which arrived from Japan two and a half weeks ago - there are still more in the cellar and the garage, but they are less urgent ...

What else did we do?

We applied for a garden in this allotment (the allotment garden system is very common especially in big towns, where lots of people rent small gardens which they can use like their own as long as they wish); we will have to wait until the end of the year to know if we'll get one from next year on - these gardens are in great demand.

We visited once more my parents, where Thomas and my father went sailing,

while Jakob and I took a long walk in the forest

Oh yes, and Jakob started kindergarten two weeks ago - and he likes it, from the first day! He met two Japanese girls there, they play together all the time, but talk only german, infortunately.

Probably he was still too small when I sent him to the nursery school in Kitakami (once a week for four hours), I am really relieved that it was so easy here.

In his free time, he is helping Thomas at home:

Watch them grow

2007-09-19T22:56:00.000+09:00

Skyscraper construction at Shinjuku, Tokyo - a fantastic time-lapse, here.

Retrospect on the stages of the past summer

2007-09-19T04:41:00.000+09:00

Last day in Uenomachi - two great months in the house with the bakery - arrival in our old appartment at the third floor of the white building (corresponds to the fourth flour in japanese- in german, we don't count the ground floor).

Jakob enjoying the company of all our neighbours on our last morning - baking "keki" (cake) in the bakery house - playing in our appartment.
He is so glad that finally all his toys arrived from Japan. The appartment is now a real mess, with the contents of the sixty boxes, but there is a little progress every day. And the boxes contain so many nice souvenirs from Japan, unpacking is a little bit like christmas.

But even before their arrival last week, our daily life here was full of japanese elements:

And finally we even met a (half) japanese family, living just around the corner. Jakob was a little shy in the beginning, but after a little while he really enjoyed to play with little Haruki-kun. Fortunately, he still understands japanese!

Wow!

2007-09-14T05:23:00.000+09:00

I just read on Stefanie's and Matthew's blog blog from Kitakami that not only we missed a big typhoon, but also this:

A brand new shinkansen prototype doing test runs (photo from Wikipedia) via Kitakami. I hope it will be part of the regular schedule when we visit Kitakami next time!

Thomas is back

2007-09-10T05:18:00.000+09:00

He arrived almost two weeks ago now; the same day we moved back into our appartment in town and resumed our normal family life - with interchanged roles: now I leave home at half past seven in the morning, while Thomas and Jakob still are deeply sleeping . But next week kindergarden will start, and Jakob will have to get up earlier, too.

He is really happy to have his dad back, still hugging and kissing him all the time (he never does that to me!). And they have lots of fun together, playing all day long, eating out and taking long walks.

We also visited my parents, where Thomas took part in a sailing regatta with my father. They finished fourth ... well, out of four. There really wasn't enough wind that day - and the next day there was even no wind at all. So they had to wait and be ready all the day in case wind would still come. Bit it didn't. Meanwhile, Jakob and I took a ride on another boat, the car ferry connecting Constance and Meersburg. To Jakob's delight, the ferry even had a steering wheel for children. It was an amazingly brillant and blue day.

Only the trip home was less perfect; our train had to stop for three hours (together with lots of others) at a small station near Stuttgart, due to a damage at the Stuttgart railway control centre. We finally arrived home at half past one at night - quite relieved, because when the damage was anounced, the railway staff frankly admitted that nobody had any idea on how long it might take to repair it - so we halfly expected to have to sleep in the train.

That weekend probably was the last real summer weekend of this year. Now, there is already a first breeze of autumn in the air.

And the new apple crop is ready.

Wave pool in Tokyo - where's the water?

2007-08-27T08:00:00.000+09:00

Summer must be hot in Tokyo - click here to see why!

Fortunately, the Lake of Constance was less crowded this weekend.

Big choice

2007-08-27T04:58:00.000+09:00

(But in the end, he didn't want any of these.)

Life is short.

2007-08-24T06:07:00.000+09:00

Check it out. Here.

(Mine will last until October 12th, 2063. Still 1.771.397.560 seconds.)

More work

2007-08-23T04:43:00.000+09:00

Late at night...

... and early in the morning.