Unsere Zeit in Japan; eine Perspektiv von mir ;-)

Es war sehr schön, dass ich mit meiner Familie über das Weihnachten und auch den Jahresanfang zusammen bleiben konnte.

Wie immer konnte ich nicht so lang in Japan bleiben. Allerdings hatte ich viel Spaß mit ihnen und Fabian.

Ich konnte nicht mehr warten.. SUSHIIIIII ! Obwohl waren wir wirklich erschöpft, sind wir zum Sushiessen noch am gleichen Tag als unsere Ankunft gegangen. 😉 Ja genau, wir sind noch jung.. Ermm.. Dann wurde ich immer noch jung.. ;-P

Dann kommt noch…

OKINAWAAAAA! Oh Mann.. Es war ziemlich warm.. Ich vermisse Sommerrrrrrr

Aber das ist auch schön, dass es vier verschiedene Jahreszeit gibt, oder? 四季♪

Dieses Mal haben wir eine Kultural-Geschihitlichereise von Okinawa gemacht. Ein bisschen mehr über Okinawa zu wissen, sehen, führen, und verstehen. Es gab so viel zu lernen und bedenken.

Okinawa ist der Ort, wo ich immer zurückgehen möchte. Die Leuten, die Natur, das Essen, das Wetter, und die Stimmung.. wo die Zeit vergeht langsam und schweigend zu leben.. ❤

Dann kommt noch …

Ein schöner Vogel an der Wand. ❤

神楽坂でお散歩してたら、ドイツを見つけちゃいました〜♪　な〜んて奇遇なっ！！！

そして、またまた神楽坂（♪）の美味しいお茶屋さんのほうじ茶のいい香りにつられて。。たくさん美味しいお茶を購入しちゃいました〜♪　ドイツでも美味しく頂こうっと♪♪

新年はこんな感じで、ほ〜んとう、楽しかった〜♪

彼の着物は、クリスマスプレゼントとしてあげたんだけど、すごく喜んでくれて嬉しかったです 🙂

Wir sind auch nach Izu und Atami gegangen. Das Raum, wo wir geblieben sind, mit Tatami an dem Boden war.. A scent of Tatami always reminds me of my grandfather; it calms me down and so easily fullfil my heart. Ahhhh what a wonderful scent.. My “ほっとする” moments.

Aaaaand yes, with wonderful meals too (-;

1: I was craving for a wonderful seafood meals

2: I wanted to support local markets, and enjoy their local meals

so we simply went to a restaurant where they offer fresh local seafoods. Aaaaand.. VOILÀ! The ネギトロ丼(ネギ抜き；アレルギーだから) was one of the bests I had ever had in my life.. Thank you Atami, Thank you!!!!!!

And the artistic pieces .. Pffff Japan.. oioioi 😉 ❤

江戸のれんにも行きました♪　本当に、食べたいものを食べたいだけ食べた旅。。本当にそう。。！！！！！！（；；）まあ、良しとしよう！！美味しくいただきました！　ご馳走様でした。

ということで、たくさん食べました！の報告でした 😛 hehe

Ja ich habe wirklich viel in Japan gegessen, aber alles war sehr lecker. Jetzt soll ich abnehmen.. hahja, morgen morgen ;-P

おまけ

彼の到着が遅いな〜っと思ったら！！！駅で、重い荷物を持っていたおばあちゃんを助けていたのを目撃。。こんなところを見るたびに、本当に素敵な人だなあ、と2年経っても本当に心から思う。。

幸せだなあ〜

Besos

沖縄

For second time we spent some days on beautiful (read: warm) Okinawa. Right after our arrival, even before checking in to the hotel, we did some sightseeing in our private taxi which picked us up directly from the airport. The jungle-like place was a holy place.

Okinawa is famous for its sugar cane, which is freshly pressed everywhere. With such a refreshment, we went on to a cave which hosted a café and we joined a tour about the adjacent “riverbed”, which was also… hmm… a holy place. Sorry, my Japanese let me down a little bit. Let’s settle on that it was an important location 😉 Actually, I even learnt a few words. Most importantly: 根っ子 (nekko). Our guide was constantly talking about “neko”, and I was wondering where he was seeing the cat while pointing on what was obviously a tree. Well ya… while “neko” (猫) means “cat”, the (for my ears only slightly) differently pronounced “nekko” (根っ子) means “root”. In hindsight it made a lot more sense 😀

Eventually we had some great dinner and finally checked in to the hotel – which surprisingly was even LGBT friendly. Very rare in Japan. Not so rare: The hotel was equipped for literally every eventuality. Also not rare: A bathroom which was just big enough for me to somehow fit in.

The next morning I got up quite early and did a solo trip through the still dark city. I also went to the market where Yumi and I had spent quite some time during our last trip to Okinawa. This time it was still closed, but not less photogenic.

Afterwards I returned to the hotel and we had an awesome breakfast with a huge selection of Okinawan, Japanese and Western dishes. Well, and in between Yumi’s parents and I had to call the hotel staff to let me in to the room, because my sleeping beauty would not wake up despite my hammering against the door. I had not taken a key with me, expecting that she would wake up anyway for breakfast.

We then boarded our rental car and rushed off to a kind of “adventure park”, where Yumi could attend a Sanshin class (Okinawan guitar), while I attended a snake show – and left very early, because the poor animals were definitely not treated in a very nice way… Okinawa’s most famous snake is “habu” (波布), a type of viper. Very seldom will you see it (I never did outside the show), but people talk so much about it that you actually start feeling that they are everywhere. The shop sign in the photo below reads “pikapika” (ピカピカ). It can mean “glittering” or “sparkling”, but it’s also the sound which Pokémon “Pikachu” makes. I played this game as a child and probably only I find it funny to read “Pikapika” on a sign, but well…

Later we enjoyed some Okinawan sweets in a specialized store. For me it’s always funny to see that things are advertised with something like “as seen on TV”. While it would totally turn me off (“wow, how touristic”), for many Japanese(?) customers it seems to be a proof of quality (“wow, it was even featured on TV”). Eventually we marvelled at the beautiful sunset.

Dinner was in the same restaurant as we had been last year – life show and great food. I filled everybody’s glasses with the water which was provided in the bottle on the table. Or so we thought. With the first sip we realized that it was actually some pretty strong spirit. Mamasan decided that of course we can’t throw away the good liquid and so the evening turned quite… funny 😀 An elderly man at the neighbouring table spoke a bit of English (and Thai – so we threw some Thai words on each other 😉 ) and left me a nice message when he left. Maybe being a bit shy,  he asked his niece to read it to me, but I was very happy and thanked him personally.

We finished our stay in Okinawa with visits to a UNESCO heritage and some historical sites. Very nice trip! … By the way: The picture with the “flat brown thing” wearing yellow sunglasses is some kind of meat. Enough said.

The colorful strings hanging from the small shrine-like structure are known as Senbazuru (千羽鶴), or Thousand Origami Cranes. Often done as a school class project, they are thought to promote longevity and health.

My Japanese song recommendation of today: サカナクション – バッハの旋律を夜に聴いたせいです

偕楽園

Un día en la primera semana de nuestras vacaciones fuimos al parque Kairakuen en Mito, que es la capital de la prefectura Ibaraki. Es un parque extraordinariamente famoso, sobre todo por sus ciruelos que igual a los cerezos tienen flores muy bonitas. Aunque no fue la temporada cuando florezcan, fue un tour bastante agradable.

バケーションの一番週で茨城県の水門と言う首都の偕楽園に行った。梅の花でとても有名な公園。花見時がなかったけど、楽しい日帰りだった。

… y bien combinado con este reporte de viaje a Japón, una canción japonesa recomendada:

。。。そして、今日の日本語の歌のお勧め：

Nieve

La nieve llegó a Alemania. Comparado con las últimas tres semanas que pasamos en Japón, ahora hace mucho frío aquí en Alemania (alrededor de 15 grados bajo cero…). Pero la naturaleza se ve muy bonita así en blanco.

今ドイツで雪が降っている。この日本に居た三週間よりドイツの方が凄く寒い（ー１５度ぐらい）。しかし、景色はとても綺麗。

Cena internacional

Japón, Guatemala, Francia, Alemania, Italia, Taiwan, Iraq… cena realmente internacional – y divertida!

日本、グアテマラ、フランス、ドイツ、イタリア、台湾、イラクー本当に国際的な夕食だった。楽しかった！

Mercado navideño de Estrasburgo

El fin de semana pasado fuimos por un día al famoso mercado navideño de Estrasburgo – uno de los más grandes de Europa. Lo que me gustó fue que de hecho no era un mercado gigante, sino más bien muchos mercadillos chicos.

最後の週末はシュトラスブルクの有名なクリスマス市に日帰りした。ヨーロッパのもっとも大きいクリスマス市の一つだ。実は大きい市場じゃないけど、色々な小さな市場だ。好きだった。

De vuelta en cas todavía nos comimos unas galletas navideñas hechas de mi abuelita – día perfecto.

家に戻って来ていた時、まだお祖母ちゃんの手作りクリスマスクッキーを食べた。完璧なだった、ね。

The true purpose of winter

In Japanese there’s the saying “Shoku yoku no Aki”, which roughly translates to “Autumn is the season for eating”. If this is already the case for autumn, then what in winter? Well, at least for me it definitely does not fall short. Enjoying food so much, like for example:

諺は食欲の秋だね。そして、冬はどうする？もっと食べてもいいと思う^^例えば：

• Yumis homemade Christmas cookies. They are wonderful! Just the right sweetness, not too soft, not too tough, with passion for detail in every single piece – be it the small heart on the cute sheep, the green tea sprinkles on the filigree swans, the coquettish dip of chocolate on the stars…
  由美の手作りクリスマスクッキー。素晴らしいだよ。甘さか柔らかさか型さと完全に一致する。可愛い羊ごとに小さなハートが持ってる、お茶を撒いた端麗な白鳥、星の艶っぽいチョコレートのぽちゃり。。。
• And Yumi also found the perfect chocolate for me. There are already chili-chocolates on the market, but the ratio is so imbalanced, that you could equally omit the chili. Now, the chocolate dipped chili pepper is a totally different story!
  由美も私の為の完璧なチョコレートを見つけた。チリーチョコレートはもう市販になったけど、甘さが強過ぎるし、辛くない。さて、そョコレート漬けたチリーは別のものだ、ね。
• Wood-grilled Scandinavian salmon – so moist, yet crunchy!
  直火で焼いたスカンジナビア鮭は瑞々しい、シャキシャキだが。
• And of course grandma’s quince jelly – now that’s preserved autumn in winter. Shoku yoku no Aki 🙂
  末筆ながらお祖母ちゃんの手作り木瓜ジャムー冬中の保存の秋だ、ね。食欲の秋:-)

2 Weeks Karlsruhe

My master studies are organised in a way that allows me to work mostly full-time with only few two-week breaks. The last two weeks was such a “break” – lectures from 8 to 17:30 and then studying ’till late night to be prepared for the one or two exams on Saturday morning. After these two weeks my lecture-bloated brain and body only yearn for three things:

1. Yumi
2. Sleep
3. Running

At least Saturday afternoon and Sunday are free during these modules and so I had the chance to experience Karlsruhe’s Christmas market:

The modules are very exhausting, so it’s no wonder that I need to listen to some kind of “hey yeah yoyo” music that keeps me awake. Caveat: If you actuially dare to listen to these “morsels”, make sure that at least proper speakers are turned on and not the neutered ones of your laptop. This time it was mainly these five tracks:

It’s all IT (just as my masters)…

Crashed ticket vending machine – with actually quite a bit of processor power!

Food, Languages, Maths, Music, Reading

Time flies like an arrow, fruit flies like a banana.

Wow – “diverse” title, right? What malicious tounges might call a lack of focus are actually some thoughts that occured to me during the last days and week. Above is for example a word play which I very much like. Because it really took me some time to figure that “fruit flies” refers to the animals. Languages are great, aren’t they?

Food

Msemen

So, let’s start with – of course – the food. In my post about Paris I had written about a very tasty flatbread filled with onions and tomoatoes.

With a little bit of research I found out that this North African is called “Msemen”. According to Wikipedia, the name is derived from the Arab word for “clarified butter”. Does not necessarily make me feel better eating it, but definitely worth trying!

In Germany I tried some more new food, like Turkish Menemen and Vietnamese seafood soup. Always good to discover new tastes textures.

Languages

福 means good fortune. But what if it’s used upside down? Suspicious…

Another food-related thought: Even walking through German cities improves my language knowlegde – in Japanese. How? Despite the “Asian” restaurants not being authentic at all in 99% of cases, they do use more or less proper Chinese characters as name. Yesterday I read this sign: 熊猫. The Latin characters for the restaurant read “Panda”, which surprised me a wee bit. I knew that 熊 means “bear” and 猫 is cat. So, is panda really written as “bear cat” in Chinese? Was this also possible in Japanese, where people usually would say パンダ (simply read “panda”)? Short answer: Exactly. A “bear cat” – kumaneko in Japanese – is another way to say panda in the land of the rising sun. Educating walk. And funnily enough, just a few meters further, I saw this second Chinese store, which was called “Shanghai”, but which somehow used the character for “good fortune” on its sign – upside down. Is this bad luck?

I kept walking a bit more and shot some more photos which I want to share with you.

I also visited two museums. One combines technology with arts and was unusually buzy that day because there was the local broadcasting station’s childrens’ day going on.

The other one was about the influence of culture in maths. We think mathematics have only one truth. But how we employ maths, when we think that it’s necessary and appropriate to use is highly influenced by culture. Very interesting!

Music

Recently I listened quite a few times to Herbert Grönemeyer – Fang mich an:

At one part Herbert sings “Wo du nicht bist, will ich nicht sein” (roughly: Where you are not there, I don’t want to be). This in my opinion creates a rather interesting contrast to E. Y. Harburg’s “When I’m not near the girl I love, I love the girl I’m near”, as can be heard in Tommy Steele’s performance:

Or maybe it’s not a contrast but rather Herbert Grönemeyer fears that he will do the same if not near? Hehe, maybe we should ask him 😉

Reading

Currently I’m reading a collection of short experience reports written by women who lived or are still living in Asia. The book’s title is How Does One Dress to Buy Dragon Fruit? The book gave me some food for thought.

“It’s the only place that feels somewhat the same in a city already unrecognizable to me – Moon Bar is now a six-lane highway, Sculpting in Time replaced by a high-rise office building. I’ve lost my physical markers in the city where I first learned how to love.”

This sentence makes me wonder how I will feel when I return to all these gorgeous places in Thailand and Mexico. Countries which I like so much. Where I fell in love with cities, towns, cultures and the food (well, at least in Thailand…) – and probably I’m fatally romanticizing my memories… We’ll see.

“I went back to Los Angeles with my batteries fully recharged, but with very little interest in re-engaging with the demands of life in the city. Nothing seemed worth getting angry or stressed out about. Everything seemed trivial.”

Oh yes, the feeling which I always experience when I return to Germany after extended stays abroad. Reverse culture shock…

“You warn them that geography is a serious concern when thinking of multiple ethnicities, nationalities, and cultural origins, and that it’s best to remember that nations are a relatively new construct in the spectrum of human development and that there are some people who test this idea of nation, in all of its possibilities, limits, and configurations, and these people are often, but not always, expatriates.”

Let’s hope that in our current world of increasing nationalism and aggressiveness people keep test this construct of nations in a peaceful way…

Lyon

The final stop during our week-long holiday was Lyon, the third biggest city of France. Having skipped Marseille after reading that it ranks number two when it comes to size, we didn’t expect all too much from Lyon – relaxation-wise, that is.

一週間の休暇旅行は最後の目的地がフランスの三番大きな町リヨンだった。サイズのせいストレスのようであったから、マルセーユに行かなかった。だから、リヨンもストレスのように思われた。

However, the week we went was official school vacations in Germany’s south and you never know which country my Teuton compratiots invade during their time off. In case it would be France, I had decided to buy return tickets in advance and with my finger tipping on the map so to say I decided that Lyon would be a good spot to do so. No choice – we had to go there. Good decision, it turned out to be.

ドイツで学校休みだったから、切符は不足と思った。そしてもうリヨンからドイツまで電車切符を買った。リヨンに行かなければいけなかった。結局素晴らしいアイディアであることが分かった。

Lyon – at least to us – seemed to manage quite nicely the trade-off between having the convenience and buzz of big city life, and on the other hand giving the feeling of graspable and straightforward complexity. Not to forget: As birthplace of Michelin’s darling Paul Bocuse and thanks to rich agricultural surroundings, Lyon is the place to go for people who like good food (read: us). What a beautiful conclusion of our France holiday in which we indulged in French culture with all senses.

実は、私達にはリヨンが大きすぎない小さい過ぎない賑やかな行ける町だった。忘れるな事も大切だった。有名な料理人Paul Bocuseこの町で生まれたや肥沃な土壌のおかげリヨンで美味しい食べ物が多いある。

Some lasting impressions from Lyon:

• Yumi deciding that her sweater, jacket, and DSLR are too warm and heavy to carry during our uphill walk to Notre-Dame de Fourvière. Guess who carried 😉
• Yumi suddenly pulling right and entering a craft beer store (we both don’t drink alcohol).
  “Oh Yumi, I didn’t know you like beer.”
  “But look – the designs are soooo nice!”
  …

リヨンからのいつまで印象：

• 由美はセーターと上着と一眼レフカメラが上り坂することに重すぎると思った。誰が持ったか。。。
• 由美はクラフトビルの店に入った時「由美はビルが好きとは知らなかった。。。」（アルコールは飲まない）。「さあ、ラベルが可愛すぎるから。。。」:-D

Yumi getting rid of her clothes and camera while going uphill. Guess who carried 😀

Yumis interest in craft beer? “The labels are so nice!”

PS. Yumi finally got hold of her longed for Mont Blanc. Think snowcapped mountains. Substitute cream, powdered sugar and a whole chestnut for snow. Mountains for chestnut puree. Voilá.

PS. 由美はようやくモンブランを見つけた。ケーキだ、山じゃない、ね（笑）。