Christmas Eve

Happy Holidays! It's almost Christmas for those of you that celebrate.

Christmas Eve is a much bigger deal here in Japan than Christmas Day. Couples and families exchange gifts, eat cake (usually strawberry shortcake) and fried chicken. I'm really not sure how some of these celebrations came about but probably not from religion since only about two percent of the population is Christian. This year Christmas falls on a weekend but otherwise no one would have the day off.

Culturally, New Year's is when families get together, people go back to their hometowns and large meals are prepared. So in a sense Christmas has become an event based on outside influences and New Year's is celebrated more like how Christmas would be spent in Western countries. I don't have any pictures to share but each year Kobe puts up lighting for a week and half or so for everyone to look at. It started the year of the Great Hanshin Earthquake. I managed to see it before it was lit which is kind of funny. Some areas of the city up with Christmas lights. Everyone has been out shopping and with the drop in temperature yesterday it feels much more like winter.

Anyhow, just wanted to drop in and wish you a very Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! I hope to write again before the new year but I can't promise anything. Be safe and have fun. Best wishes into the new year:)

Winter chill

Brrrrr! It's getting cold here. Granted it's nothing compared to mountain areas, the Northeast of the States and Europe but it's definately not the temperate weather it once was. This will be my first winter in Kobe. Last winter I came often but still lived in Osaka where temperatures are slightly warmer. It's only a couple degrees but it makes a difference. I've already noticed a HUGE difference living here. The wind here is what really gets you. The weather forecast could say it's say 10 degrees Celsius which isn't bad, and it could be sunny but if that wind comes it will make you curse yourself for being so foolish and not wearing more clothes- that was me yesterday. It doesn't make it better when you ride a bicycle because you get somewhere faster but with you might arrive feeling frozen.

The great thing though about winters here in Japan are that, at least for this region, the number of days that the sun's out are far more than when i was living in Upstate NY. Apparently, the Syracuse area was number two after Seattle for most number of rainy and/or cloudy days. So I'm grateful that the sun likes to shine here and it can make the winter more bearable. For me personally, I prefer the cold to hot. Dry hot isn't bad but humid hot like here? No thanks!

Not sure how the weather is where you are but I have several friends in the UK trying to fly out for the holidays but are stuck due the large amount of snow. I would not like being in that position however, I'm very jealous of places that are nice and snowy for the Christmas season. More than anything this winter, yes even the fact that I can't be home in Hawaii for Christmas, is the fact that it doesn't snow. If it does, it's a mere flutter of flakes and would never snow enough to stick:( Please enjoy those outdoor snowy adventures for me and I'll live vicariously through you.

秋 a.k.a. Autumn

Temperatures have begun to drop slowly over the last week or so. Some days it's warmer than other but once it gets dark it is all pretty much the same. My mother was visiting from Hawaii from mid-October to mid-November and during that time we went out and about and ate some delicious food and traveled up to Tokyo and also Nagano. Rather than me going on about the experiences I thought that pictures would be more appealing. So here you go, Japanese food and pictures of fall foliage on various occasions:)

Soba in Nagano
Beautiful Nagano
'Kaisen-don' or Seafood bowl with sakura ebi (shrimp) which is famous in a this town in Shizuoka Prefecture

Kamo River, Kyoto
Nanzenji Temple, Kyoto
Ginkakuji, Kyoto



Fall foliage in Kobe
View of Kobe
Monument near Venus bridge which is a place where couples place locks and throw away the key as a symbol of everlasting love

Past years' locks melted to make this

Foreign places II

It's December and yet the weather and the temperature in Japan has been warmer than years past. It seems strange but then again going out won't be as difficult when it isn't that cold.

I received a package from my mother the otherday which included a new battery for my laptop, dried persimmon and lip balm.
The new battery has provided new life to my practically ancient laptop (at least in an electronic sense) and now it's mobile and actually like a laptop. The dried persimmon- why send it from the States when it's available in Japan you may wonder- was grown by a family friend and my mother helped them peel and dry them. She was then thoughtful to send me some delicious, local dried fruit. Lastly, the lip balm is my favorite but like the laptop battery they won't ship abroad so i can to get my mother to re-ship them to me. This lip balm is amazing. It isn't easy to find and most of the lip balm I find here contain petroleum which apparently makes chapped lips worse and is also part of the addictive quality that leads many to think they need lip balm. It contains shea butter and smells like vanilla I swear it works miraculously as I've had chapped lips in the morning and applied it throughout the day and had smooth lips by the evening.

Anyway, I wanted to post more pictures from my trip. Spain, more of the Netherlands (I went through A'dam twice) and Turkey.


San Antonio, Ibiza

One of many beautiful coves

Adorable



La Sagrada Familia, Barcelona


Casa Botllo

Unbelievably delicious paella in Barcelona


Foggy A'dam

Vondelpark


Wonderful canals of Amsterdam


Tasty fries

A little reminder of home


Sunset canal



Blue Mosque, Istanbul


beautiful interior


Aya Sofya, Istanbul



one of the fish boats


Looking from the European side to the Asian side


Famous mackerel sandwiches by the Bosphorous


Arches in the Grand Bazaar


Textiles in Kapali Carsi (Grand Bazaar)


Turkish sweets



Spice Market

What sort of adventures have you been up to?

Foreign places

Good morning! It's another gorgeous day here in Kobe. The weather yesterday was absolutely perfect. It was about 15 degrees Celsius/60 degrees Farenheit. It's the kind of weather that only requires a scarf and possibly a light cardigan or sweater. Can you believe it's already December?!! This year has gone by too quickly.

Recently I haven't been as busy as I'd like. If I haven't mentioned it before I teach conversational English part-time and have recently started a friend's business in Japan. They make and sell jewelry in Bangkok and London and had aspirations of expanding their business to Japan. I'm passionate about fashion and love their jewelry so I'm trying it out. I won't lie, it's been a bumpy beginning. Unlike a posh market like that of Notting Hill, Japan's flea markets are filled with second-hand things that are inexpensive (Clothes for under 500 yen/$6 per piece and so on) but proves to be difficult competition to the new and antique jewelry that I sell. It's okay though because it's all a learning experience and each path I try, whether it succeeds or not, will teach me something important.

The main reason I wrote today was to upload pictures from the trip I took last month. Azerbaijan, Turkey, the Netherlands, France, Spain and Turkey. What was originally only a two country trip ended up being six. Slightly chaotic but more so enjoyable and exhilarating. I feel so grateful to have visited some new places and even see new things in places I'd already been. I'm having issues with my computer-lack of space- and therefore I can only post pictures from the first half of my trip. Here they are:

Old City in Baku

Beautiful detail for the entrance of Shirvanshah's Palace

Shirvanshah's Palace

Shirvanshah's Palace

Baku and Caspian Sea

Another view


Streets of Amsterdam

Yohji Yamamoto Spring 2011

Breakfast and coffee at the bakery
Sacre Coeur

Sacre Coeur

Colorful chairs in Montmarte

Eiffel Tower

Up close


Dinner that included mussels in the Latin Quartier



As soon as I upload the rest of my trip onto my computer I'll post the pictures. The many people, different kinds of food and the contrasting environments. It was truly a wonderful trip.

Hope everyone has a wonderful day (or night)!