Okinawa in March : no typhun, no tourists, no heat wave ; but still flowers, fruits, sun, cocktails and ice-creams...
Here are a few samples of Okinawa's treasures; more details coming soon...

Sun !


Sea !


Flowers !


Fruits !


Cocktails !


HOLIDAYS !!!

A bit more difficult to enjoy:

Frog-purses


Snake alcohol

To be continued !

The first time I met Akiko, it was in front of a piano - she was listening, at this time. It was in Paris, under a grey sky, something like three years ago. Since this moment, we met occasionnally in real or virtually - we had drinks and talks at Cour Saint Emilion, birthday messages by e-mail and mutual blog-sponsoring : she is the author of "Coco wa Pari" (link available on the right column...).

Akiko-san can speak French, makes beautiful pictures of Paris; and, as I discovered tonight at Kawai Salon Omotesando : she is an amazing pianist.

For me who is definitely not a musical person, concerts and recitals are sometimes difficult for me to understand, especially when the music is not very narrative.  But Akiko-san does not only play, she plays, with all her body and face  acting, playing with the music. I had a great moment with Mozart, Chopin, Debussy, Faure and Ravel - all great men suddenly embodied by the beautiful lady pianist.

明子さん、心からありがとうございました。

The year of the Tiger started last week, and Yokohama's Chinatown was the best place to celebrate it.
Dragons on the street, pork on the plates, pandas everywhere; the city can't let you forget that a long time ago, Yokohama was the only Japanese city connected to the world - which mostly meant, to China.
Tigerly Happy New Year everybody !

Remember : at Christmas, strawberries were everywhere thanks to the magic of the Japanese greenhouses. I had been told that this unexpected strawberry-craziness in the middle of winter was "obviously" due to the fact these red, sweet and cute fruits were perfectly matching Christmas' spirit. Well, guess what, it also works for Valentine. So I am going to be tempted by strawberries until at least mid-February - after that I guess that the right season for buying it will start quickly...

A sample of what I see everywhere around me everyday - it's a torture :

As you see, there is a "double image benefit" between strawberries and Valentine...

It's really not appealling to me, but you can also buy "white strawberries". If you had seen the price you would understand why I did not try it. But anyway the normal red ones seem really more tasty.

For a lower budge, let me introduce the top of the top of the combini store : the strawberry sandwich ! Yes, they can !

Our familiar koala has been strawberrized too. For a complete explaination about the meaning of the koala, see Mogusa's blog.

And I can't present all the ice-creams, chocolates, cookies which have fallen for the strawberry-queen...

A third episode of Ichigo Ichie in April, maybe ? With strawberries cultivated under the sun ?...

T-shirts at Harajuku

Lanterns at Waseda

Hand-made food at Hoshien Dorms

Windows at Ebisu

Pink stuff at Isetan Girl

Black suits at my team's Shinnenkai

Advertisements at Ikebukuro

During my jogging on the riverside of Kandagawa, I am used to meet many old Japanese men and women walking with their dog - and, as the Japanese are not always exception, most of the time the pet looks like the owner.
This time, when I saw them from far, I thought : wow, this dog walks strangely.
For sure. I was a HUGE turtle.
The kind of turtle that you can see usually in the zoo, not walking on a the street in Tokyo. And, for the comic touch, he/she was wearing kid shoes on the back feet. Except for this detail, the owner was absolutely turtlish too. He told me that his strange animal was fourteen years old and needed to go to have a walk every week. So, yu know what you have to do to see a turtle for free : see you next Sunday, 11 am, on the side of the Kanda river...

ジョギングの時道で大きい亀が見られました！びっくりしましたけど、ペットでした。実は亀とオーナは少し似ていました。

My sister will turn 20 years old the next week. It means that, for the moment, she's legally a French adult but not a Japanese one. In Japan, you have to wait 20 years-old to be allowed to vote, drink alcohol, enter night-clubs and so on. It's long to wait, but to make it funnier, at the beginning of the year, you are invited to the Seijin-shiki, the Coming-on-age ceremony. For girls, it's the perfect opportunity to wear an amazing kimono - transmitted by the grandmother or... rent for the day - and to make pictures for the album your future husband will show to his parents before they meet you. Just to check if you look good in a traditionnal dress. Well, it's important for the wedding day, isn't it.

As I am already 25 years old - the Chrismas cake : until the 24th it's fresh and everyone wants to eat it, but from the 25th, it's not appealling to anyone anymore... that's a Japanese metaphore - I was not allowed to follow sis inside the Ceremony room, so I just took a few pictures of the beautiful fresh cakes around me.

It is definitely a day for the girls. Young men, all wearing black, were almost unvisible among the clouds of colorful butterflies surrounding them - very loud butterflies anyway, over-excited and screaming at each other about the beauty of the dress or the sophistication of the hairstyle... Even the boys who bravely put on a traditional suit too were too dark to be noticed in the crowd. Then, with their high shoes and even higher hairdressing, it was impossible to avoid watching at all these girls in kimono. With their white fur around their shoulders and their flowers on the head, they definitely looked like unreal creatures coming from another world to bring us colors and nailart.

For leaving the lobby and enter the fresh cakes' ceremony, go to Mogusa !

Some days, work looks like that :

... and at this moment, you need some fresh air.
Minato-ku is a wide area in Tokyo, but the area around my company, settled at Akabanebashi, is mostly covered with middle-height buildings hosting corporate offices. There are only a few shop, the streets are large and empty, except at the lunch time when the crowd of salary-men in white shirts and black ties invades the space.
But there are also some secret tiny places behind the buildings, and I love to discover is during the lunch break - and also, to collect the diffeent views on the neighbour, Tokyo Tower...

One year ago, the 1st of January 2009, I was at the top of Roppongi Hills to watch the first sunrise of the year.
Today is December 31st, and I watched the last sunset of 2009. The circle is finished, so does my contract with the former year. I wished I could find a way to fullfil my dream and live in Japan : it's done. I wanted to stop worrying about things, my own destiny and the others' concerns ; I feel that I took some distance with my black clouds. 2009 kept its promises.

I officially challenge 2010 to be as least as amazing as its predecessor !

Happy New Year to everyone.

Christmas means gift rapping, Chrismas means chorus songs, and Christmas means EATING.
This year, I had not only once but three different Christmas dinners in Tokyo. Which means, three diets at least to write on the the To-Do-List for 2010, but let's not talk about boring things.

Family first :

MY CHRISTMAS SURPRISE DINNER WITH SISTER

It began with this : the huge Xmas package, full of good French specialities, sent by our darling parents... Chocolates, tapenade, foie-gras, marrons glaces, caramels, calissons...
Look at these chocolates. Isn't it a piece of art ? French cooks, we love you !

And then, for the little "local" touch : we went to the izakaya at Ebisu, and had delicious fried spring rolls and roasted tuna with cheese ! Merry Christmas !

Then, friends :

MY CHRISTMAS PIC-NIC WITH THE ETP FRIENDS

Most of the ETPs went back to their countries to celebrate Christmas with their families, but a few of us were still there and ready to have a toast ! Thank you again to Attila and Melinda for hosting the party, and to Nataly for her fine organization of the Christmas lottery !
Our hosts cooked meat pancakes and we had the most delicious "buche" covered with nuts and almonds.

Let's jump to the boyfriend time :

MY CHRISMAS ROMANTIC RENDEZ-VOUS

At restaurant Temari (Shinjuku), you can sit into nice balls which are supposed to represent the toys the little Japanese girls play with, but from my French point of view it looks like Christmas tree balls... No ?

We had absolutely delicious sushi-balls, meat balls, deep-fried chicken, and other delicious and funny meals.

Boyfriend has a family too. On the 26th, I had the honor to join :

MY CHRISMAS FAMILY MEETING

Hitoshi's cousin is a volunteer for the association Support 21, which helps the refugees' kids to get a good education and the best chances to succeed in the Japanese society. I had the chance to join this meeting where some of these former kids, now high-level students, were presenting their researches and sharing their experiences (in Japanese of course). There were Chinese, Viet-namese, Peruvian, Brazilian students and also a very interesting young woman, born from an English man and a Korean woman, raised in Japan and totally Japanese - she had to struggle a lot to learn another language than Japanese - who made a speech about identity and the difficulty to exist as a human when you don't belong to the classic categories. An during all this time, we had sweets and drinks, whithout speaking of this amazing Christmas chorus where another cousin of Hitoshi was singing (the first on the left).

Chorale de Noel - Tokyo December 2009

 And after that... the first cousin invited us to have a Chrismas nabe (a kind of light fondue, soy-sauce-based, with boiled meat, vegetables and udon in this case). I had the chance to visit her huge appartment with a great view on Tokyo Tower, and to meet her Canadian husband. And she cooked chocolate truffes too !

Thank you gentlemen for cooking the nabe !

And they have a real Chrismas tree, with the authentic smell ! That is the smell of Christmas !

Thank you everyone for this wonderful Christmas. It was delicious, colourful, tasty and funny ! Your smiles made it even more beautiful !