Taiwan / Taipei

Airport

101, the biggest building of the world!


Our friends: Lu & Harald

La bela, Isabella!!! Little Frederico and Mami.... and the principal attraction: Azil and the big Dragon!!!

Swimming pool party!!!! And relax after eating toooooooo much!!!!

Hiroshima / Myajima

The A-bomb Dome and the Memorial Cenotaph in the Peace.

Hiroshima is a fascinating city. After the explosion of the nuclear bomb in 1945, a tragedy that killed thousand of people, the city was reconstructed with much sacrifice and now it is very pretty and it has a lot of charm. I have to say that the museum is very, very sad, it is hard to belive, how can persons do a thing of that? To destroy thousands of lives because of such an idiotic war! Anyway, no words to describe the feelings when you see how the tragedy happened, we hardly have to be sorry which persons as those still exist.

We went to Myajima Iland, which is in front of the Hiroshima city. Myajima is a very nice small Iland, it has many differents japanese hotels and restaurants. The famous Temple called "Itsukushima Shrine" and it is under the water, the construction is amazing. The attraction which a lot of tourist visit Myajima is the Torii (gate), the large wooden Portal stands in the ocean during high tide.

Karaokê...

Three weeks ago we went to have a dinner with our friends Nadja and Stefan. After dinner, we decided to go to the Karaokê. Very funny!!!!!


He was the best!! No comments!!

Bali!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Ulá lá!!

What can I say about Bali?? It is wonderful!!!

We spent most of our time in Nusa Dua beach, where are the main Hotels. Our Hotel was very nice, in front of the sea with a big and delicious breakfast. Our room was very nice, comfortable and it has a big Flat-TV, which we did'nt watch so much!! The water in the sea is amazing, clear, transparent, with many small fishes . The beach has fine and white sand, a paradise!

Almost every night we went out to visit nice restaurants, to appreciate the local craftwork, which is rich in wooden products...

Among the restaurants, I can suggest the Italian " La Luciolla ", facing the sea, simply marvelously! After the dinner what about small stop in the Hard Rock Cafe Hotel? the bar of the hotel is behind the recepcao, soon in the entry. They have live music from 20:00hs till 23:00hs and you only have to pay for the consumption, it is good and cheap option!!

In the third day, we had a big surprise! We went to shopping and wenn we come back, we decided to enter in the hotel before our hotel and walk on the beach till our hotel. Before we get the hotel, was there a lot of policemen, from the parking up to the effective entry in the hotel, it looks like a festival... we were making us at home, wearing shorts and T-shirts, the others persons which were enter in this door were wearing "black tie". Holding some bags in our hands we went to the reception. The securit was reinforced and we had to show our bags and to open the purse. All of them were looking us at suspicious person, very stranger. They searched the bags and the woman asked us: "Where are you from?" We answered. "What are you doing here?" "We are on holidays in this hotel." Then she said: "Ah, you are not here because of the Conference!" ahahahahahaha, "so your enter is not here, here is only for the Conference, you have to enter to the next door" she said and smiled. Then, we descovered what was the "Conference" and everything: just the president of Indonésia was there!! and the securit thought that we were terrorist!!!! ahahahahaha, but thank Goodness, nothing happened with us! We entered in the hotel and went to the beach, but unfortunately we could not see him! Anyway, it was very funny!!

BONSAI

Do you like bonsai? I love them!! Before I moved to Japan I was already fan of these small trees! My husband introduced me in the "bonsai-world" 4 years ago. He gave me as a Christimas-gift my first bonsai, which had 19 years old. After that, I started to buy small plants and tried to transform them in a bonsai, but it takes time and I had no idea how to do it! I read a lot of information from the internet, found interesting "bonsai-webpages", but when you have to do in practice it is quite different! So, at this period I didn't have enough time to do a bonsai course and for my fault my first bonsai died, I was very sad... but didn't give up!

When I knew that we were moving to Japan I though: "this is my chance to do a bonsai course and learn the real technique!" but is was not so easy so. A little bit far from my house there are 3 or 4 courses, but they speak only in japanese. It took around 6 months to find the right course, one which someone speaks English!

Around 2000 bonsai trees / Masumi-san teacher and I / Hiroichi Masumi-san.

Finally I found in the internet a bonsai course in Kyoto, which I go every month (two or three times) by train to do the course, it takes aroud 50min to get there. The place called Shohin Bonsai & Pots - Kyoto KOJU-EN (http://www.remus.dti.ne.jp/~masumi-t/0index.html), Tomohiro Masumi is my teacher and his father, Mr. Hiroichi Masumi is the President of the Shohin Bonsai Associattion. They are extremely professional and have a lot of patient to transmit the techniques. They are also reponsible for the exhibitions in Japan.

I thought the bonsai was very commun in Japan, but it isn't. Normally you not see a bonsai tree in the flowers-shop and the young people always says: "bonsai is for old people!", anyway, I don't think like that and I'm very happy to learn how to take care of a bonsai.

Short holiday in Japan...

We begin our holiday visiting the Fuji-san (Mount Fuji). The Shinkansen (bullet train) took around two hours and half until we arrive at Mishima Station, but from Shizuoka Station is already possible see the Fuji-san, the highest mountain in Japan.

Mt. Fuji stands at 12,388ft/3,776m high and is surrounded by five lakes: Lake Kawaguchi, Lake Yamanaka, Lake Sai, Lake Motosu and Lake Shoji. They, and nearby Lake Ashi, provide excellent views of the mountain. It is part of the Fuji-Hakone-Izu Nacional Park. It is also an active stratovolcano. Unfortunately we could not climb the mount 'cause now it is closed, there is a lot of snow and it is very dangerous to climb it. It is only allowed to climb the Mount Fuji in summer (from July 1 to August 27).

Well, from Mishima Station, we took the Fujikyu bus and almost 2 hours later we arrived at the Kawaguchiko Station. We called the hotel and they picked us up at the station. The landscape through the way to the hotel was fantastic and the hotel localization is perfect. The hotel is in front of the Lake Kawaguchi (just 5 minutes from the station) and from our room, we could appreciate not only the lake but also the Mount Fuji all the time.

Mont Fuji - Big Budha - Asakusa - Imperial Palace (Tokyo)

After we spent 2 days around Mount Fuji, we took the train to Yokohama direction, but our intention was to visit the big Budha in Kamakura city, close to Yokohama. The target was reached almost 3 hours later! We took the train from Kawaguchiko Station, but we had to change the train several times... thus that we arrive in Yokohama, we had a lunch and relaxed a little bit. We leave the luggages in the locker and we took the train to Kamakura Station.

Kamakura is a cute small city, famous because of the deverse Temples, gardens, flowers, of the great Budha and beach. If the day is clean, you can see the Mount Fuji from the beach. We had a nice time in Kamakura. After visit not so many places in Kamakura, we went back to Yokohama Station to take the luggages and took the train to Tokyo Station.

On the next day, we woke up early and went to visit the Imperial Palace. We could not go inside the Palace because it is open to visit only twice a year (on January 2 - New Year's Greeting and December 23 - Emperor's Birthday), you are able to enter the inner palace grounds and see the members of the Imperial Family.

After that we went to Asakusa, which is one of the districts and it has preserved a certain atmosphere of the old Tokyo. We saw the Sensoji Temple, the Asakusa Shrine, etc. We did a nice Sumida River sightseeing Cruise until Hama Rikyu Garden. Then we went to Akihabara, the shopping district for discount electronics - Amazing!!

On Sunday, we went to Odaiba district. Among the attractions of Odaiba are several shopping and entertainment centers, theme parks, museums and the futuristic architecture and city planning, really nice!