2007.03.26.
This is about the halftime for us here. Looking at the pictures, it may seem as if we were plain tourists here, but this is not the case at all. We took part of approximately 90 trainings so far, plus several dozens of child's classes. We did not miss one single training, so there was no opportunity to take pictures of practices. But from the next week I will try hard to take aikido pictures, as well.
And the weather is improving!
Japanese preferences quite differ from Western ones, a good example of that are local ads. This is one of the bests!
Many cars are also strange, or, with a much better word: weird. This one is so surprising that I can't find a proper word for her...
At the beginning of the week there was a national holiday, some kind of Halloween or Day of the Dead. Kobayashi sensei and his wife were travelling to Nikko, as they both were born in this area. We were also invited for the journey. We stopped by a cemetery and sensei cleaned the tomb of his father.
Nikko is a small city north of Tokyo, which is famous from its buddhist temples and from the tomb of the first Tokugawa-shogun. The nature is quite different here: mountains and forests at last. We did not have much time, we visited the most important places in a hurry...
Two pictures on the buddhist architecture, as examples.
And a shinto shrine with very pleasant atmosphere, hidden in a valley, near to a well.
We spent the Monday in Tokyo. We visited the famous Yoyogi-park and catched a traditional japanese marriage.
I like these gates very much. I should build one at home...
There is no weekend without a party, of course. This time because of the cherry blossom. We ate, drunk and talked a lot, as usual.
As you can see, our friend Björn fights the food and drink with original viking fury - and he usually wins the battle.
On the free monday we walked around in the centre of Tokyo. This is a mandatory picture, with the Emperor's Palace in the background.
Visiting Tokyo Beach was the main attraction, with a little boat-trip.
This is a very modern part of Tokyo, some Star Wars-like feelings again. Sometimes we still have the feeling as if we were visiting an alien planet...
