Friends from Ukraine, hello ! I'm in your pages !

This humble blog had the honour to be noticed by an Ukrainian magazine, Світ під кутом (World's New Angle), interested in volunteering experiences in Tohoku. I was glad to provide a few pictures of Tohoku and my inspiring co-workers... And here I am, with my legendary pink T-shirt, introducing Ishinomaki to my Eastern "neighbours" !

I can not read the content of the article, but I am happy enough to see my face and my little blog in these pages ! Thanks "World's New Angle", thanks Ukraine !

October is full of 3-days week-ends in Japan. This time, I decided to fly south and have a look at Fukuoka, the main city of Kyushu Island, where men are bold and mountains are hot (or the opposite, as you wish). Earthquakes are rare here, but volcanos are still smoking and the air is spicy with sulphur and Korean peppers. From Tokyo, it takes only 2 hours by plane to reach the city, and the little airport is amazingly close to the centertown, so you're ready to enjoy your holidays in an eye's blink.

For your information, I booked tickets with Skymark, the cheapest company to fly inside Japan - both plane and service were very good, I recommend it.

I'aaaaaaam coming up, so you'd better get the party started !

From the plane : look at who came just to say goodbye to me ! So sweet...

ZEN OYADO NISHITEI RYOKAN

As I had never been to Fukuoka, I randomly picked up a ryokan on the internet, and I have to say it was the best choice I could dream of. Zen Oyado Nishitei is a super-cute ryokan situated at Yakuin station, 20 by foot from both Hakata station and Tenjin station. Th design is great, traditionnal and neat. I did not order breakfast but I received "midnight" onigiri for free every night ! Fresh water and hot tea are provided in the rooms. The basins and bathroom are common, but the ryokan was so quiet I did not have to wait for it. The bathtube was huge, made of stones, I just loved it.

Pajamas provided !

MOMOCHI BEACH

No beach, no holidays. Fukuoka has a great seafront with many beaches, but let me introduce you the closest from the center and most convenient : Momochi Hama !

There is a church there for wedding ceremonies and all you can dream about : jetskies, ice-creams, palm trees. And SUNSETS, oh my God, SUNSETS.

FUKUOKA TOWER

All the big Japanese cities so far have a representative tower; Fukuoka Tower is especially beautiful, all made of glass shining in the sunlight...

FUKUOKA BY NIGHT

Fukuoka Bay from the Tower

The Floating Church from the Tower

Tenjin, the core of the city : wide streets, plenty of lights

Fukuoka famous street shops selling ramen, gyoza, yakiniku...

Fukuoka colors

FUKUOKA SPECIALITIES

I know I am desperately French, but I can't help it : for me, whatever the region, ramen is ramen... and I love it, for sure, but I don't really feel the difference between this Hakata Ramen (with soup and pork), the pride of Fukuoka, and any other ramen bowl. Maybe I aù going to be expelled of the country because I wrote this sentence, but whatever.

Hakata Ramen (yummy !)

Gyoza (one of my favorite dish in the world)

Fish & Seafood (let's it a lot before getting back home !)

and pistachio ice-cream ! Ok, it's not a local spciality, but I couldn't resist...

FUKUOKA CITY HALL

This is an amazing building with step gardens on the walls and a big orchestra center inside...

Dance contests : Fukuoka moves ! Here is the JR (Japan Railways) team, a funny performance with train noises !

DAZAIFU SHRINE

20 minutes by train from Tenjin station. As the country was invaded by Mongolia a long time ago, it is mixed with several influences and the result is even more colourful than usual shinto shrines.

KYUSHU NATIONAL MUSEUM

Huuuge... There is so much space here ! Is it Japan, really ?? Learn everything about Kyushu, including China, Korea, Mongolia influences on the region and above all, enjoy this incredible landscape... Bamboos everywhere ! Kyushu National Museum is a piece of art itself !

NOKONOSHIMA

Just in front of Fukuoka Bay, there is a 12 kilometers-diameter island called Nokonoshima (apparently it is a funny name to the Japanese ears), which is amazingly quiet and peaceful. 10 minutes by boat from Marinoa Mall Ferry station !

OHORIKOEN

Great park in central Fukuoka, Ohorikoen is the place I have seen the largest number of Westerners in Fukuoka. And this is also the place where I thought that Fukuoka was a very nice city to live in.

Fukuoka makes you happy ! Fukuoka makes you genki ! 

Pou-dou-dou ! Trop la pêche, moi. Ouais, ouais.

Don't miss the chance to go to Fukuoka !

@ Ginza

(spéciale dédicace à soeurette)

September 11th 2011 : 6 months ago, the quake; 6 months ago, the wave; 6 months ago, death.

Half a year later, they celebrate life. Ishinomaki slowly gets better : cars are not floating in the trees and the roofs anymore ; more and more destroyed areas have been demolished to the ground to make space for the future new buildings and the houses, the gardens, the shops are cleaner than before summer. Life is coming back, and so are the inhabitants - many cars on the main street, full of people coming back to clean the mess and try to make their home a living place again.

More than ever, I got the feeling that people there are celebrating life even more than they mourn for the dead, and that they are looking forward. Japan is definitely a nation of survivors.

Saturday morning at 6am, this is my 4th bus trip with the AFJ to Ishinomaki, and I can see the Tohoku region under the sunshine for the first time (before it was always cloudy and rainy on the morning). Sunrise is always especially moving in Japan. Everyday is a new day!

Our usual salutation to the Sea. Keep cool, babe, we are friends !

Cheering messages and supporting words to the refugees of the Volunteering Center at Minato Shogakko.

Kokoro Mina de Hitotsu : All together as one single heart

Songs and prayers after 6 months

Our Headquarters in the stadium (our sleeping room)

The view above our heads while sleeping

Maybe because the situation is improving (I hope), we have been given easier tasks this time. No watercourses, no dirty pipes but only house cleaning - no need to dig underground. 

Second day... holidays ! Without kidding, we had to work in a garden. A garden ! In the scent of mint and wild flowers ! No dust, no worms, just a bit of mud everywhere like usual and long grown herbs to uproot... Gardening in Tohoku, that was a perfect activity for a Sunday morning.

"Everyone around the world, come on !"

There are still areas we can see nothing has been done yet, probably because the buildings are too weak and are just going to be destroyed soon. So much work to do yet...

And in the middle of the mess, sunnflowers ! Hope !

We are all miracles...

To participate to the AFJ volunteering week-end missions at Ishinomaki (all nationalities accepted, they speak French, English and Japanese), just send them an e-mail ! All the information here

Second Matsuri of the summer : the Festival of Fireflies !

ホタルを初めて見て幸せでした！

I was totally excited about it because I had never seen firefies in my life. Actually, you need to be very lucky to see it in the nature : they are very fragile, have short life and produce only subtle, twinkling light, just like stars... So the easy way to watch fireflies is going to a place people "cultivate" them on purpose. Show-type fireflies. At Kamimachi, Setagaya-ku, every year, a dark "dome" (a tent, I would have said) full of fireflies is open to the public. You can enjoy matsuri and watch fireflies for free ! Sorry, no possibility to take pictures inside the dome, but trust me, it is so moving and so beautiful...

Matsuri Opening

Taiko, saiko !

Mandatory cute girls in yutaka

Matsuri by day...

... Matsuri by night

Dancing people

Me and Anne-Sophie, trying to follow the dance

The Best Smile Team is back !

Hotaru Matsuri, 16-17 July 2011, Hotaru Domu - Taikan Yashiku

Kamimachi Station, Setagaya-ku, Tokyo (20 minutes from Shibuya by Den-En-Toshi line and Setagaya-Line)

Free entrance to Hotaru Dome !

I had the Owl City song in my head all time long...

Every year between April and May, comes the Golden Week.Or the Golden Almost-a-Week. Actually, the Golden Week is just a series of agglomerated "bank holidays" that give to the whole country the feeling to get a long vacation. As a French, I say : let me laugh. But anyway, the Golden Week is something serious in Japan. Most of the time, people manage to take an extra holiday in order to allow themselves to leave their workplace for five or six days (halleluyah) ; so they can come back to their hometown and spend time with their family ; or they travel around Japan (going to onsen, to resort parks...) and even abroad (Hawaii, Singapore, Hong-Kong). The Golden Week is the right moment (now or never) to have fun and to refresh entirely. No need to tell me twice.

GOLDEN WEEK 2011

 - at Kamakura and Enoshima, only 30 minutes from Tokyo -

INGREDIENTS LIST :

1) SWEET SEA

2) SOFT NATURE

3) FRIENDLY ANIMALS

4) FRESH AIR

5) GOOD FOOD

6) A PIECE OF DREAM

To the terrible, powerful sea that swept the landscape away

To the cruel sea that took so many lives

To the exhausted sea we spoiled with oil, garbage, radioactive water

You are so, so beautiful. Please forgive us, teach us, bless us.

This is spring... Golden Week is coming... we all need to take a break and to relax...

Some of us will be lucky enough to enjoy onsen soon. For the ones who will not have this pleasure, let me help you to imagine. First, imagine that you are amazingly clean, cleaner that you have never been (no offense). This is because you took the greater shower of your life just before, and you washed yourself from the toes to the hair - this is mandatory. When you're finally shining like a baby, you can enter onsen. It is so warm you have to breath with your whole skin. Water is not only pure, it's mineral, powerful, because it comes from the depth of earth. The air around you is almost liquid. Blond skins like mine get red into five minutes but the Japanese keep pale and beautiful, only the cheeks get pink. Once you get use to environment, you can appreciate the peaceful atmosphere. Everybody is naked, everybody is relax, everybody is rejuvenating. This is onsen. Come and try.

Every breath : a thought for Japan

Dear friends and readers,

The author of this blog is fine and safe after the earthquake that we experience in Japan last Friday. I will tell you another day in details how scary it was when Tokyo was shaking under my feet and how scarier it is now we have to care about Fukushima's nuclear leaks.

Today, let's celebrate Japan for what it is between the quakes : a peaceful, quiet, clean and safe country.

My mother and my sister, who have a kind of good angel above their lovely heads, left Japan by plane Friday at noon, just a few hours before the big mess. Thanks God, I did not have to worry for them. But as a result, they double worry for me. Anyway. Just a few days ago, we were in paradise.

Japan was Love, Love, Love

Let me tell you what we did together. It was the first time for my mother to come to Japan; during daytime my Japanexpert-little sister guided her around Tokyoand we met at night all together. We had :

Onsen at Odaiba Onsen Monogatari

Ginkakuji-revitalization at Kyoto

Samurai training at Eigamura, Kyoto

Happy Shinkansen time

... and lot of fun.

Details coming soon !

For Japan hip hip hip, hurrah !!!