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)

Intrepid Model Adventure (IMA) is two years old! As we never miss an opportunity to invade the Pink Cow party space at Roppongi, to eat delicious veggie meals, to sing powerful songs and to raise money for Tohoku, well, we decided to do it all again.

In case you are a newcomer on my little blog (welcome, my friend), so you don't know yet about IMA's moto: be the change you want to see in the world. The concept is not new, but its implementation seems to be still confidential in our societies. So IMA people are trying to make it real. We want solidarity, we want passion, we want health and we want team-spirit: let's be all this, let's inspire the society. And so we go volunteering, and so we raise money to help people as far as we can, and so we share movies and songs, and so we light candles in the night to support the pro-clean energies movement. That's it. That's not going to change the world at once, but that's going to change it eventually.

(Picture credits: Yumi Nakayama, Yoshie Nakamura, Isao Kimura)

Chris, Natsu and Noemi on stage for "Man in the Mirror" (Mickael Jackson)

IMA team for our original hymn, "Beautiful Energy" by Mr. Chris Trigger

Just give me a microphone, man

"I'm starting with the man in the mirror / I'm asking him to change his ways

And no message could have been any clearer / If you wanna make the world a better place, take a look at yourself and make the change!"

By the way: we are still there every Friday, in front of the Japanese Parliament, to support the protesters against the nukes. We light candles, and we perform our favorite songs. Feel free to come and have a look, and light a candle at your place to join the Beautiful Energy movement!

The Beautiful Energy Band

 LOVE!

Stop kidding: that's winter after all. Oh yes, we spend a sunny December under the gingko leaves and we almost forgot that winter was coming for good... Today, there are 15 centimeters of  thick snow on the streets. Hopefully this monday was a holiday and I could cuddle at home with good food and get out only to have fun like kids with my roomate. Snow is so great when you can stay at home!

Give us a bit of snow and two grown-up adults get back to the spirit of a 5-years-old.

And to warm up : home-made pumpkin and bacon cream spaghetti ! Life is beautiful !

Ok, Chrismas in Japan can not compare to Chrismas in France.

Ok, for some reasons, the Japanese have decided that Chrismas is not Chrismas without nauseating creamy cakes with a few lonely strawberries on the top, instead of fine buches-de-noel.

Ok, I can't stand the sound of "Last Chrismas I gave you my heart" every time I enter a shop anymore.

Ok, the Japanese Chrismas is a kind of winter-style Valentine, and people dream to spend it at Disneyland with their lover. Which is a bit poor-taste, you'll admit.

Ok, whatever they do, the simple fact that my family is NOT in Japan makes the Japanese Chrismas look sad and artificial.

Still... come one, have you seen the lights ?? Chrismas lights in Tokyo are enchanting. They mix with trees just like dew, and it is so beautiful I could cry.

Ebisu

Akasaka

Roppongi

But these little treasures won't prevent me to spend Chrismas in France, with REAL chocolate, REAL Chrismas trees, and TRUE love.

Joyeux Noel à tous !

Energy. They say that universe is nothing but energy. The huge and the small, air, earth, water, you, me - energy. On the human scale, energy means food, heat, light and communication. It means music, humour, art. It means love.

And it means danger. Because the needs of the so-called modern society in energy are insane, we have let our cars, our planes, our factories and our poor cattle spit so much CO2 in the atmosphere that we have messed up the world climate in no time. The ice flow will never be back. And we have let our leaders sell us the nuclear miracle as the only possible alternative to fossil fuels. As a result : dangerous aging nuclear plants which are too expensive to be dismantled. Radioactive garbage that nobody wants to manage, and which is leaking in our undergrounds, contaminating our soils, our water, endangering our health and the ecosystem. And, of course, increased probabilities of terrible accidents, because of the nature of this industry itself and because the corporations which are supposed to manage it are more driven by cutting their costs than insuring the safety of the community. Hey, man, what did you expect, it's business after all.

They say: after fossil fuels, the nuclear industry is the only one able to provide us all the energy that we need. Solar, wind, water, geothermy power can only represent peripherical options. According to them, we are bounded to the nuclear power and there is no other way for us in the coming centuries.

I am not a scientist. I'm not a big businesswoman. I'm not a specialist. But I am a citizen, and a human being, and as far as I know, I have the right to question what "people" say to me. Especially when the information comes from the stakeholders of the industry I am watching.

Einstein himself said: "Nuclear power is one hell of a way to boil water". Yes, the source that actually "makes" the energy in most of the nuclear plants is water, not uranium, plutonium and so on. Hot water that makes helix turn very fast and very strongly : nothing else. The truth is : all we need to create electric power is movement. Don't tell me that nature itself is not full of superpowerful, gigantic movements. Bottom waters. Tidal currents. Rivers. Waterfall. Hot springs. Wind. Volcanos. Come on!

What I can easily believe is that at least at the beginning, all these clean energies, as a business, may make less money than the nuclear industry. I accept the comment. And so what ? Less profit for the people who have been used to pay themselves too much? I am not going to cry on this.

They pretend to be more social-oriented than us and they say : think about the jobs!... But we still need the smart guys to boil the water, you know. We will still need the ingeeners, the scientists, the builders, the maintainance technicians, we need everyone. We will need them to keep doing what they, and only they, can do: create, capture, transform, distribute power to the society. We need all the brains and all the hands to safely close the nuclear plants, and to build the green energies' ones. We need to keep all the jobs, and to create new ones. Look at IBM: if they had kept doing what they were doing at the start, they would be dead. But they knew that they were not only doing tabulation equipments, but technology-based business solutions, and they moved on. From machines, to software, to services. Let's do the same. Our energy providers will stay our energy poviders. But they will provide clean, safe, and beautiful energy.

They say: green businesses will never be enough. We now have massive needs. To this, we reply : there are some ways to save energy. There are ways to make every single home independant, each house being its own energy-providers. Fridges working without power, devices under the wooden floor  capturing the vibrations of our steps, materials stocking the warmth in summer delivering it in winter, solar power boats and planes... So many prototypes that are just waiting to be developped on a wide scale. Come on, if we can think about a space elevator for 2050, so we can save energy here and now. So be afraid, nuclear gurus, because very soon nobody will believe you anymore.

Every Friday night this season, the loyal followers of Intrepid Model Adventure (IMA) run by Dean Newcombe added their voices to the ones of the Japanese protesters shouting : "原発やめろう！原発いらない" (let's stop the nuclear plants, we don't need it) around the National Diet of Japan. They have lit candles, exhibited "No nukes" signs and simply talked to the people walking on the street. It's peaceful, quiet, it doesn't make harm to anyone and it is certainly too small to worry the nuclear industry, but it counts. Let's spread beautiful energy. Be the change you want to see in the world.

Light up the world with Beautiful Energy

Chris (from the group WORD), me and the drum-team

From Shibakoen to Hibiya, Tokyo is subtly shining with green, golden and red shades. Check it out !

The red momiji (Japanese maples) are used to be the stars of the fall season in the archipelago, with their violently flaming tones attracting the visitors in the mountains, the forests and the parks; but for me, in autumn, there's nothing like the Tokyo golden gingko trees shining on the perfect blue sky. Pure beauty. Pure energy. And God knows that I need it these days.

Yellow vegetal torches

Gingko biloba (銀杏, "ichou" in Japanese : silver apricot) is also called the "maidenhair tree": this is probably the reason why I feel so close to them! Hey, soul sisters! Furthermore, according to the specialists, ginkgos are remarkably easy to care for and will grow in most conditions from sun through to shade. And this type of tree is sexualized: there are male and female gingkos. In Japan, kids learn to identify them according to the shape of the leaves : a skirt shape for a female tree, a trouser shape for a male tree.

Ichou trees are very familiar vegetals in Tokyo, and they are part of the daily landscape of millions of Japanese, but actually, they are very special, because we don't know any "relatives" to this specy. It makes it amazingly unique. The scientist call it a "living fossile", because it belongs to this range of species that were born 270 millions years ago. Gingkos are wise, very wise trees.

Let's get inspired

Whisper words of wisdom: let it be.

This is an eternal dilemna for the expat: where, when, with who to party? That is the question.

During my first year in Japan, I had a very few French friends - my ETP fellows, actually; and I was not at all willing to mix with the French society in Tokyo. But the volunteering in Tohoku changed everything: I met the kind of French people I can be proud of - bilingual, curious and good-natured - who introduced other French friends to me, and so on. The truth is: after the excitement of the first couple of years, one needs to stick with her people again. Having a good shot of French irony, as well as a glass of French wine. I imagined that our Italian friends sometimes need to share "real" pasta, for a change; that the German, the Spanish, the Peruvian do the same. I wonder what their parties look like - seriously, can you imagine a British banquet party? Come on.

So, here I am again: celebrating Beaujolais Nouveau with a ton of food at Banquet Pachon, Daikanyama!

Cheers! Sante, prosperité!

GREAT SCOTT, IT'S MY BIRTHDAY !

Ok everyone : despite appearances, you must know that it is NOT my 28th brithday.

It's just my fourth 25th birthday.

Yes, I have decided to stick at the blessed age when I started my life in Japan, three years ago. At that time, I had a great birthday party with my European mates - only a few survivors are still in Tokyo, but since, I have made fantastic new friends, and I want you all to be there to celebrate my back-to-the-future special day in a nice place, with nice drinks, nice food, nice music, and the nicest people EVER. There will be laughs, there will be tears... and there will be music because I have very talented friends. So come on, let the time freeze!!

PARTY DINNER + 2h ALL-YOU-CAN-DRINK + PIANO, GUITAR AND KARAOKE !

Saturday, November 17th, from 8pm, there

See you Saturday!!

Back to the real values. Thanks to Mister O. and his fabulous idea : a rillettes party.

Rillettes is a French speciality made of long-baked meat (pork, duck or goose) in grease. We eat it on bread, with pickles. And it's delicious, especially when it's home-made.

Happiness !

Food

Friends

Fun !