Beaches around Tokyo are not exactly great. Packed in summer, darkened by grey sands, visited by jelly fish and floating garbage... Not the common idea of paradise... But still, the beach always mean great fun. You just have to go by night with a bunch of friends to fully enjoy it !

Enoshima beach, one hour ride from Shinjuku. Rising sun. Sleepy mood.

Living in Tokyo is far better than many people think : no, there is not only concrete and glass everywhere around; yes, Tokyo is full of trees, parks, garden, and even woods. No, the whole city is not noisy with roaring cars and crying trains ; business districts apart, many residential areas are so silent that you wonder if you are really in one of the busiest megapole of the world. You can perfectly find peace and green in Tokyo. What you can't find is space.

You know: space. No building in the skyline. Distant walls and roofs. Room for your look at your left, at your right. No shadow between you and the sky. Space.

When you need space, take the Toyoko line for 25 minutes in the direction of Yokohama, the most "opened" city of the country - spiritually, and physically. Breath. Refresh. Rest you eyes watching far, very far in front of you.

Invitation to the Voyage

My child, my sister,
Think of the rapture
Of living together there!
Of loving at will,
Of loving till death,
In the land that is like you!

The misty sunlight
Of those cloudy skies
Has for my spirit the charms,
So mysterious,
Of your treacherous eyes,
Shining brightly through their tears.

The oriental splendor,
All would whisper there
Secretly to the soul
In its soft, native language.

See on the canals
Those vessels sleeping.
Their mood is adventurous;
It's to satisfy
Your slightest desire
That they come from the ends of the earth.

The setting suns
Adorn the fields,
The canals, the whole city,
With hyacinth and gold;
The world falls asleep
In a warm glow of light.

There all is order and beauty,
Luxury, peace, and pleasure.

— William Aggeler, The Flowers of Evil (Charles Baudelaire)

Shinjuku gyoen is my favorite oasis in Tokyo. Of course I love Korakuen's sweet hills, Rikugien's flaming maple leaves, and Hamarikyuen's calm waters, but the western Shinjuku gyoen is the very best of the capital's parks. Imagine a smooth grass carpet under your feets, more space than you can dream about, and a million of roses. Here you are. In paradise.

Carpe... Carpe diem

Oh, painting the roses red
And many a tear we shed
Because we know
They'll cease to grow
In fact, they'll soon be dead

...
And yet we go ahead
Painting the roses red!

Some say love, it is a river - That drowns the tender reed - Some say love, it is a razor - That leaves your soul to bleed
Some say love, it is a hunger - An endless, aching need - I say love, it is a flower - And you, its only seed

I had a flash in front of this tree. When I was a kid, I had a child book called "Noemie et le Sapin Volant" (Noemie and the flying pine tree), and this tree looks exactly like the one of the front page. I just had a google research to see if I could find the book's image or not ; nothing popped up, but I discovered that - no kidding - the author was Japanese (Kitamura). Yes. yes yes yes.

Well, everybody hurts sometimes
Everybody cries
And everybody hurts sometimes.

(REM)

Something really amazing is happening this week: it's cold outside. Which means: the sakura are still on the branches, yeah. What is supposed to go back to the dust so quickly doesn't seem to want to leave the place. I am happy that the cherry clossoms decided to take their time this year. Have a look at these familiar visions not far from my place.

By night: Nakameguro

At the top of my "little mountain" (koyama), there is Meguro river. If you follow the stream, it will lead you to Nakameguro and its beautiful lights.

By day : Senzokuike Park

Tow stops away from my station, there is a lake and swan-boats and bamboos and shrines and tuxeducks and everything you need to enjoy the sakura trees even more.

Sakura season is not dead yet!! Enjoy!

Yeaaaah, I know, every year at the end of March this blog is invaded by white and pink cherry blossoms. And I tell you again and again how beautiful it looks, how poetic it is, how painful too - because of this Japanese syndrome of contemplation that breaks your heart when you think of it. And I describe again the sea of blue sheets under the trees, where more or less drunk people are getting drunker, while the falling blossoms mixes in their dark hair. And I complain because the best sakura spots are so packed, you can't even approach them during the week-end. And the weather, strangely, is always warm and kind in the week-days, and turns cold then - and THAT's pretty unfair. Always the same comments, I know. Not very original, I know.

But guess what, I just do what I want, he he he. And if I want to show you AGAIN the shape of cherry blossoms in Tokyo, well, nothing is going to stop me, right. So let's go sakura again!

Wise Sakura in Gaien-mae

Lazy Sakura in Meguro

Show-off Sakura at Roppongi

Drunk Sakura at Yoyogi

Romantic Sakura at Yokohama

Peaceful Sakura at Aoyama

Yummy Sakura in my plate

How can I resist?... Spring has come.

Happy ohanami!

Spring day in Japan! No work! Sunshine! The first sakura are on the trees, strawberries are sparkling under their green leaves, and the author of this blog is insanely happy. Just to let you know.

Last Wednesday, my roomates and I decided to have a one-day road trip to the prefecture of Chiba, just on the other side of Tokyo bay, to pick up strawberries and relax at the farm. Here are a few pictures of this glorious spring day!

Strawberry Farm

Barbecue in the valley

Mother Farm - Vacances a la ferme

Happy time!

 Spring is coming!

In old Japan, the shy and perfumed plum tree flowers (梅, ume) were venerated even more than the gorgeous sakura. With their round blossoms and their sweet smell, they meant the end of the winter, the very first step towards spring. Nowadays, the tradition of ohanami mostly belongs to the cherry trees, but the anonymous blossoming of the creates of the discreet ume provides wonderful opportunitiese to get a bite of spring far from the usual crowd.

Hanegi Park, Higashi-Matsubara station (Inokashira line), Tokyo

The dog days are over, the dog days are gone

Can you hear the horses, cause here they come

(Florence + The Machine)

Before I open the last chapter of my wonderful stay in Thailand with stunning pictures of Koh Samui island, let me share with you a bit of my impressions about the relations between the Thai population and the foreigners.

Thailand is the second place I visit in Asia after Hong-Kong. Japan doesn't count, because I live there: I flatter myself that I have (I hope) a more accurate knowledge of this country than any other foreign country in the world, but in a certain extend, my vision is also biaised by everything I know and acknowledge about Japapn. I am used to Japan, which is not the case for the other Asian countries. In September, I was telling you how strange it was to be in Hong-Kong City and not to see many exchanges between the local people and the Westerners - except financial and commercial ones, of course. Obviously there must be higher levels of communication - exchange students, I guess; artists, free minds, and a few original individuals who had a crush on the other side's culture and mindset - but the majority of the people I have seen and met during my stay were just not interested in meeting new people and getting familiar with their world. The Chinese were there to sell. Sell, sell, sell. The white guys were there to make as much money as possible. Finance, finance, finance. Some of them were learning the basics of communication (including linguistics), but this was not for fun : it was for business. In Thailand, of course, because the level of developement is radically lower than in HK, the atmosphere is quite different. Still, I have been stricken by the common point between the two places: in Thailand also, people don't really mix with the others. I haven't seen groups of Thai and Westerners chatting together, hanging out together, talking together. I haven't seen mixed couples, except when it comes to prostitutes. I am terribly sorry that it sounds so cliche but trust me, the picture was kind of cliche too. Imagine a successions of noisy bars with big pink neons, largely opened on the street. Imagine young and less young girls wearing mini-mini dress (black, most of the time) and super high heels, crossing legs on plastic chairs in front of the shop. Imagine big-old-fat white guys, holding a long-haired lolita on their knees. According to the guidebooks, the prostitution for foreigners represents "only" 20% of the whole prostitution in Thailand, but obviously the Thai guys are more discreet, because I have seen only white-guy/Asian-girl "couples". Fortunately, no kids around, for this vision would have been fare more difficult to bear than the one of adult prostitutes - even if some of them seemed to be pretty young. Anyway, except that, almost no mixed groups, so it was very weird again. It is certainly due to the level of developement, but still. For me who is living in Japan, it's embarrassing to contemplate this wall between the shop-attendants/hotel-staff/cleaning-lady/tuk-tuk-drivers/massage-professionals on one hand; and tourists/clubbers/players on the other hand. I admire Asian people too much to spend my time bargaining on the price of their stuff and giving them tips all day long. I've heard almost no Westerners speaking Thai, even the easy sawatdiikha (hello) and kopkhunkha (thank you). Once again, there must be more sophisticated contexts where people have a genuine interest in each other, but not on the street. As a result, you can not really feel equal with the local population. In Japan, as a foreigner, you are (forever) different from the Japanese, but thanks god we are all equals. In Tokyo, you never feel like a kind of late colonist, while you sometimes really do in Thailand. As a result, despite the sun, the beach, the delicious food and the tigers, I'm not sure that I would feel great in spending a long time in Thailand. That's another reason to fully enjoy the holidays there...

And for holidays, it rocks.

Life is hard

 Varinda Garden (our hotel on the hill)

And here I realize that I didn't tell you about the food. The Food. THE FOOD.

I am not a fan of spicy food, but the thai meals are so tasteful, so rich, so delicate that even if they make me cry and sweat I just can't get enough of it. Let me give you a sample of the endless thai menu:

Coconut milk chicken soup

Fried vegetables with cashew nuts

Thai curry

Pad thai noodles

Noodle soup

Fresh fruits & muesli breakfast, with guava shake

Mango with sticky rice

Spring rolls and fried fish

Dragon fruit shake

That's all, folks! I will be back soon to share with you some new experiences, so keep in touch, and thank you for reading!

xoxo