Daruma

Seen at a Toyota Car Dealer. The biggest Daruma, I have ever seen. It is my favorite gift to my friends. I think this is a really lucky doll.

Japan everywhere...

We visited some friends in Lüneburg last weekend. Lüneburg is in the nothern part of Germany, half an hour by train south of Hamburg and look what I saw there....

Yeah, I know after all 8,917 km to Noruto it is a long way... :)

Sightseeing – Japanese style....

Our friend from Tokyo came on Friday. We were thinking what to do with her, because she has been to Germany several times before and we were having a really hard time to think of something she has not seen or visited ,yet. 

But then she saved us! She told us she is on research here.... Little spy, hä???? ;) As a freelancer she designs stamps for a company, who wants to enter the German market, so she just wanted to visit German stationary shops and find out what kind of stamps are sold over here. Well I can tell you, there only few and I am not sure there is a market in Germany because we did not really find many nice stamps except stamps for companies, but those do not count. So Saturday was shopping and researching! In the evening we met friends in a typical German pub and had some nice drinks. 

Our friend says this is a kind of wellness holiday for her and she has not been sleeping so long and so good for ages.... The only thing at the moment is the weather, gosh we have summer and there is 14°C outside!!!! Summer? Not at all at the moment. 

Sunday we did some sightseeing after all, we were in Aachen freezing and getting wet because of the bad weather. Anyway,  very beautiful city! This time our task was not only visit the famous Imperial Cathedral, where the coronation for 30 German kings and 12 queen took place, but also to buy some angels. Yes, our Japanese friend loves angels. Oh yeah, there was also that gorgeous cafe on our way and lots of printen shops....

Churches and angels....

Printen

Cakes!!!

Fukoshima still moves everyone's live in Japan. Governmental behavior after the accident changed many minds mainly of the young Japanese. It is interesting how their opinion changed and what kind of needs they express now and how they try to find a way out of the tragedy and how to deal with their politicians. Interesting for us to get them to know a new.

Japan

One month after the tragedy in Japan and all my thoughts are still with our friends there. One of our friends is teaching at the university in Sendai. Friends in Tokyo are still there and I worry every day and hope the radioactivity will decrease. R. is not flying to Japan at the moment, his company canceled all business trips to Japan for the time being.

Sunday`s dining out!

We went to have brunch at PÉGA at the InterContinental Düsseldorf today. Very nice. High quality food, interesting new tastes, a touch of molecular gastronomy and all in a very casual atmosphere. We really liked it. A nice Sunday. I am having a slow weekend. Small party yesterday, nice friends. Cinema on Friday - Black Swan and a fabulous drink at a new Jazz bar with a good friend of mine. What can I say - nice.

Now I am sitting here drinking green tea and enjoying green tea cake. Wrapped in a furoshiki, original from Japan, neat. It tastes a bit different as my green cake, a real Japanese taste. It was a present for my birthday and I am enjoying :) I really like it!

Little trip to Japan

Last week was Obon Festival. According to Japanese Buddhist custom you have to honor the departed (deceased) spirits of one's ancestors during this time. Curious about the celebrations and the traditionally included dance, known as Bon-Odori we went to the Japanese Buddhist temple in Düsseldorf to have a look. There is a beautiful Japanese garden and a nice temple.. But we missed the celebrations because we were too late… well, the garden is so peaceful and beautiful, you wouldn’t believe in is in outside Japan… just nice to sit there in silence enjoying  the surroundings... it reminded me so much of Kyoto. Sitting there you won't see the surrounding "normal" buildings and you can feel as if you were far away in a garden somewhere in Japan. Just nice. There was still the scent of incense woods in the air and I did not even mind missing the dance.

Japanese cultural centre: the EKÔ-House

What you're reading?

Today at my fovourite Packstation...
(Packstation: kind of automated booths for self-service collection of parcels and oversize letters)
As Deutsche Post says the major market for the increasing number of Packstations are time-poor professionals ohhh they are so right and that's the reason I have been their customer for five years now...

thanx to a private bookseller and Packstation I got today
Yasushi Inoue's
Death of a tea master
or
honkakubo ibun

I will tell you about the book soon...