IKEA

A very beautiful Sunday has finally come! (okay, this picture doesn't say much of that.) I had been sick of cloudy and rainy days for the past week, so I decided to go out to some place… and the “some place” became to be IKEA.
As soon as I got off the train, I had this bad feeling… it was closed. Before I left home, I checked their website for their hours. Ok. Everything is in Dutch. And so-I-thought it was Sunday hours was actually Saturdays’. Well, when one schedule has different hours, I would assume it is Sunday’s!! oh well. No people. No cars. Nothing. It’s so quiet. But I had to walk up to the entrance to make sure it was really closed. Sure enough. It was closed, so I u-turned and walked back to the train station. There is nothing else around there. After spending some euros (about 10$!) on the train ride, I realized that it is quite expensive not to know Dutch!

The view from the train window on the way back to Amsterdam. It’s still a beautiful day, and cows and sheep were also enjoying the sun. This kind of view is actually pretty common in Holland. I just love the view and I really enjoy it. When I was looking out the window, I remembered the Japan’s TV program called “ From World’s Train Windows”. It is only 5 minute show introducing different countries by looking out of train windows. I used to love the show, and from now on, I probably will remember the show every time I take a train on sunny days.

This is the train map in Holland. This train continues to Germany, Belgium and France. I take this train every morning to work, and of course, to IKEA! As you can see, there are not that many last stops. Almost all stations are connected! My very first time, I was stunned in front of this map because I could not figure out which train leaves to which direction. Usually, the last station is on the train indicating which direction it is going to. But when there is no last station really on this map, so how would I know which direction a train is going to?
Well, once I understood the system, I realize that it is quite convenient. From the same platform, lots of trains leave to different directions and lots of options even if I miss my train.
In the beginning, when I did not know how to get from point A to point B, I just kept asking people. Dutch people can speak English, so I did not get lost. That was pretty much the only way I could go with. Eventually, I learned that I can figure it out beforehand by looking up on the websites. NS website gives you the train schedule options, and 9292ov.nl gives you the train and metro (subway) combination options. You can even specify address to address, and the result includes the walking time. Pretty nice, huh? If you have no access to the internet, then you can look at time tables at a station. There are so many different time tables, but by looking at the map and schedules, you can figure things out. Even if you get on a wrong train, you don't really have to U-turn but take a detour if you want. Remember, everything is connected.

Anne's Diary

May 25, Thursday was a holiday in Holland (in Europe?) called Ascension Day. When I was taking a walk in Amsterdam, I realized that I was standing by Anne Frank’s house. This is the house she was hiding with her family. Nowadays, it is one of the most famous museums. I wanted to visit inside, but because of the people queuing in a long line, I decided to come back some other day. By standing in front of Anne’s house, I recalled her diary that I read when I was in elementary school. It is amazing that she was living in the back of this house for more than two years.
The photo is a little sign on the wall of Anne’s house. It says “Anne Frank House”.

This crazily small car is called “smart car”. It was parked outside of Anne Frank’s house. I see this car everywhere in Amsterdam. It’s just freaking small! It is smaller than the regular smart cars, and it can go on the bike paths on the sides of roads.

Traffic jam. These tourist boats are waiting for going under the bridge.

Tulips

On May 20th, Saturday, I was planning to go visit Van Gogh museum. I bought a ticket online and I was good to go until I realized that I did not have a printer to print out the ticket. I called the museum and asked if I can save the image of the ticket in a memory stick and bring it with me to make sure that I purchased the ticket. Okay, no luck. They told me that it was obvious that I needed a printer to begin with. Stupid of me! (or them, not stating that a printer was one of the requirements in order to purchase a ticket online!!)

Anyways, I decided to take a walk in my neighborhood. After 20minute walk, I realized that I was in front of Amsterdam Central Station. It seems Amsterdam was smaller than what I imagined. Amsterdam CS is two stations away from my place, so I did not think that I could get there by just taking a stroll.
On the way back, I arrived in Nieuwmarkt. There were about 30 - 50 stands selling vegetables, flowers, bread etc. I was so excited to see those beautiful flowers in the market. They all look great, and tulips were the ones that got my attention the most. (Tulips and sun flowers are my favorites!) I could not leave without them in my hand. I got two bunches for 5 euros. 1 bunch was 3 euros, so it was not bad at all. After I came home, I realized that each stem had more than one flowers on it. I think it is the reason why tulips are sold with a good price in Holland. I may be wrong, but I had not seen tulips with a few flowers on a stem. I do not mind an extra flower or two, but I must say those tulips look really busy when they blossom. I don't know how to express this, but they look like shouting out loud "TULIPS"!! From this day, I finally admit that I have allergy from flowers. It had not acted this badly before. Until last year, my eyes were a bit itchy, but that was all. This year, I've been sneezing and having a runny nose. It is too sad, but yes, I am allergic to flowers. And Holland is the worst country to be in for that.

Because I was feeling good after the flower shopping, I started mopping my entire apartment floors. I usually take off my shoes inside an apartment, so I'd wanted to mop the floor since I moved in. Of course, I walk around with shoes before I go out, but most of the time, I relax without them.
After mopping the floors, I started changing the layout of my living room. Because I like coziness (remember. I'm Japanese.) I switched the position of dining table and a couch. Now, I can relax in a cozy living area and fairly spacious dining area. I’d being feeling like I was living in someone’s apartment because this apartment was furnished. But changing the layout made me feel like I actually live here now!

In the built-in shelves, I placed some of my family photos on the day I moved in. These are my treasures. Also, I have "going away" cards from my colleagues from the United States. When living in a country where there is no friend or family, something like this is very precious.

Note: Finally, I have internet access at home! I'd been isolated from the rest of the world, but now, I'm back in business! It was really lonely for two weeks without internet.

Reykjavik, Iceland

On May 11th, 2006, I departed to Reykjavik, Iceland for company's conference. This event has been everyone’s favorite every year. We now are more than 200 people from the US, Brazil, Sweden, England, Denmark, the Netherlands, Germany, Indonesia…

As soon as we arrived in Reykjavik, we headed to Blue Lagoon. This huge hot spring was so relaxing! It is not as hot as Japanese one, but it is just right temperature. As you can see in the photo, there is a place in the back where lots of steam is coming out. That’s where super hot water is blowing out. I could really feel it. Maybe it’s about 100F (40C).

Someone told me that it had been raining before we arrived. We were pretty lucky to have blue sky during our stay. The photo on the left is the day time. I could see some left over snow on top of the mountains in the back.
Because Iceland is very much in the North, even after 9 pm, it is still bright outside, just like during the day. Even midnight, it is still bright. By 2 in the morning, it was fairly dark, but still bright like 8pm in New York. It was unbelievable! The photo on the right was taken around 10pm from a restaurant on top of a hill. This restaurant was really cool. It has a dorm roof, and the floor rotates so we can enjoy the 360 degree Reykjavik’s view!


About 1000 years ago’s explosion made this… I think.









Water Fall in Iceland. (I’m sure it has a name.) Can you see the rainbow in the photo on the right? On this day, I saw many rainbows after the rain stopped. In the picture on the left, there is a "dot", my colleague, Johan, running on the side walk. This is how large the water fall is!















Geysir. Every 7 minutes or so, hot water shoots up from a deep hole in the underground. The photos are the explosion's before and after.

This is the smaller Geysir. Can you see the water boiling?









Even though this was only four day trip, I really had lots of fun. Drinking was going on every night. Actually, an official company party was on the third night in the panorama dorm restaurant. It was a great event. We had a band playing all night and lots of people dancing! For the rest of the nights, we were hanging out by either going to the bars in downtown or staying at the hotel’s bar. It was very relaxing. No hard parties! (at least not this year for me.) I finally had learned my limit, so no hang over. I think I’ve grown up!

Amsterdam (Moving-in version)

On May 6th, 2006, Saturday, I officially moved to Amsterdam from India. My plane landed at six in the morning, and a couple hours later, I got a key to my new apartment. On this day, my new life in the Netherlands has started. The picture is the morning of my new neighborhood.

Yakult is something I used to drink when I was a child in Japan. I thought it was a Japanese product. Now, I am not sure. Anyways, I found Yakult Light, and I had to try it. It is about 1 USD in Japan, but this one was about 3 EUR. Other than that, I got pre-cooked paella. This became my very first meal in Amsterdam. I also bought strawberries, but I had no idea what the price for that was. Just like any super markets, prices are not on products. Plus, in here, everything is in Dutch. (The reason I decided to move to Amsterdam was because someone told me that I could live here with only English. Ok now I know – NOT TRUE.) For something like Yakult or Paella, you know how much that is because it has a product name. But something like strawberries or any vegetables, I had no idea which tag was the price for it. The way to handle this is to look around the prices near you, and if you are fine with the price range, then put it in your basket. Some times, you realize how expensive it really was, but oh well… too late.
It is actually true that you may be able to live here with only English because people speak English. As long as you ask people, you are not in trouble at all. But train ticket vending machines, super market, post office etc, you definitely need Dutch. I am planning to learn Dutch one I settle down. It is necessary I now realize.

When I was looking for dressing, I had no idea which one is what flavor; again, all in Dutch. So, I picked one that had the least inventory on the shelf. Bingo! This is very tasty. It is a very common flavor; vinegar and olive oil. But someone like me who is lazy enough to mix those two ingredients on my own, this is great.

Note: I did not have internet access until yesterday (May 20th), so the blog update has been delayed. Sorry! (Now I have no excuse…)

New Delhi, India

Good morning, India!!
I arrived in India around midnight from Florida through Amsterdam. That is a 24-hour trip!! Even though I was really tired, my eyes were wide open looking out the window in a taxi to a hotel. In the darkness, there was this amazing view of New Delhi. I was totally in culture shock. I had not seen anything like it before; running on non-asphalt road. All cars are honking all the time, no matter if it is in the middle of a night. With all those cars going back and forth in the dust, people are sleeping on the side of the road. It seems it is their house. Some people are pulling a large kiosk-like stand behind their bicycle and pushing it on highway. In that neighborhood, I could not find a “house” that you may imagine as a house. Some times, houses are made out of bricks and no glass windows… When I was stunned by the view, I realized that there was an elephant walking right next to my taxi on the highway. No way!! Yes, it was true. Later, I was told that I was lucky to see an elephant in New Delhi nowadays because they have it only in touristy places. Well, sure enough, I was lucky to see two of them there! Unfortunately, I missed the chance to take a photo. You can imagine that all the cars are going as fast as they can by beeping to each other. On the other hand, elephants walk very slow. Even if you find an elephant walking, there is no moment to get ready with a camera and take a picture. Impossible! This picture is from my hotel window; my first morning in India.

Indians are very energetic. Even when they drive, I can feel the energy… or aggresiveness?

This picture is from one of the standard roads. There are supposed to be only three lanes on this road, but as you can see, there are four cars lined up in the front and the lines continues in the back. If you are lost or slow down even a little bit, you hear others honking at you! It is pretty loud and annoying. After for a while, I realized that they are not honking as in “Dude, get out of the way!” but more like “I’m coming! Watch out!” After I was persuaded with this solution, here comes the lady honking in a parking space with no cars around… I have no idea why they honk. It’s even worse if you see it in real life because a driver is driving with one hand on the wheel and another on the stick shift, but still honking all the time and talking to you during all that. It’s unbelievable!

This seems to be used as a local taxi. It is a bike with engine and has a little space in the back, of course, no windows. It looks like it is really hot during the summer time. When I was there in the beginning of May, it was already 40C (100F)! Anyways, as a customer, I probably wouldn’t enjoy the ride because of the sand-dust on the road. It looks like a simple human carriage, no comfort in it. (Once, on the way back from work, I rode on an all-window-full-opened car. That evening, I had a difficult time swallowing anything. My throat was totally in pain. I wonder if that is so because of the less amount of rain there…?)

After a get-together party, It was already midnight when we ended the party. Then, we were told that we were going to another place for deserts. Ok. This is not a desert. It is a complete meal (right). As a matter of fact, three other meals were brought in. I guess someone didn’t have enough food at the party. Anyways, I was surprised by the fact that we weren't served deserts at first, but after tasting all those good food, I was really fulfilled. – Yes, I attested them all. About 10 people shared the food. In the end, finally, deserts appeared (left). They say it was ice cream, but not really. It tasted like it was made out of potato; cold potato paste to be exact. It was really good with some yellow spagetti jelly on top. It’s about a palm size. It seems this is everyone's favorite.

A picture on my way to work. This was my commute. So many flies. They are everywhere. I couldn’t believe there were so many flies that big in this world. Very loud as well. A great amount of flies. Unbelievable. On both side of the street, there are many different shops like barbar shop, news stand and others. Of course, it is not an asphalt road. It was a bit hard for me to walk with heels on, plus the heat!

On the side of the roads, there were so many things; shops, tents, huts, people living in it, sleeping on the road etc. even during the day time, people are sleeping out side on looks like a wooden table with four people right next to each other or sometimes a head resting someone else’s thigh. I respect the fact that they can sleep in the environment where cars passing by are being very loud. According to my resource, these people come from mountains in the north of India to look for a job. There are people who brought their whole family, so children cannot go to school but begging the drivers on the road during the day.

a kiosk where you can buy lunch. It seems lots of different things are in the big pots, and there were quite many people around it. It looked like a tacos stand in Mexico.







It’s “Holy Cow!” India. Cows are treated as gods or some kind of respected animals. There are so many cars and people in India, of course, cows are a part of the world. They walk around like street-dogs, so I suppose they are street-cows? They don’t care if cars are coming because they know cars will wait. The good thing about it is that they don’t just stand and sit there for a long time. When they cross streets, they complete crossing. Just like any other human beings, they walk around the shopping area as well. Of course, I could not find beef in restaurant menus.

If I describe my India trip with one word, it would be “amazing.” There are so many reasons to support that. It was a great experience for me. Even though I could not go to any touristy places, I think I could have much more experiences than any typical tourists could take, only in four days. In the beginning, I have to admit that I was totally in culture shock. Nothing else. I looked out the taxi widow, and literally no word came out of my mouth. I was totally stunned. But, as I interact with more people, I realized that no matter where you are, which country you are in, the basic things are the same everywhere. Some people may oppose to my opinion, but I think that all human beings have the same fundamental thing. It could be something like anyone is trying their best to live their lives. Because India was conquered by England, people can speak English, so this country will grow more and more. I have visited only one city, so I cannot really comment on the whole country, India, but people are very friendly, and for example, the people who I worked with are very sharp. Some tourists from the developed counties may look down on people in India because they are not as rich as they are, but I don’t think there is a reason to be looked down on. The difference I could see obviously was the gap between rich and poor people. This is totally different level from the rich and poor in the states. There is no comparison between homeless people in Japan and India. I would consider the ones in Japan as rich compared to the people sleeping on the side of the road in India. I hope that India will become a country where everyone will be equally educated and everyone will be given a chance to do whatever they want to do in their life.

Japan

I went home to Japan. It was a very quick decision that I made to go home. It was a short trip, but this is the best way to spend my free time; to be with my family.
On the second day in Japan, I was told to baby-sit my 5-year-old niece and 2-year-old nephew. It is almost the standard pattern. I baby-sit. But actually, it is not that bad. After my sister leaves the house, the three of us can do anything we want! No worries for someone to yell at us!

My nephew, Yusuke, was talking to himself with a calculator in one hand and a pencil in the other. He looks like an accountant.
My niece, Kaho, baked a cake with me. This one was a very easy one. What we needed was only a microwave! Not bad!


During my stay in Japan, I had a business trip to Kobe for two days, and I was lucky to be treated for Kobe-beef! It was soooo good!!
(left) No no, it's not a portion for one person. Even I cannot eat that much!
(right) This is the portion for one. It was delicious with crunchy garlic!

Mr.Donuts. It is very popular in Japan. This is Josh's favorite! Mr.Donuts is supposed to be American, or so all Japanese believe. As a matter of fact, it is actually from Boston even though the American version disappeared a long time ago. Josh and his friends have chased the address from the Yellow Page in Boston, but there was no such donut shop any more.

When I went home the last time, I brought my DS with me. I meant to introduce it to my sister, but actually Kaho was better at it. Since then, she is crazy about it. Of course, she does not have one for herself, but every time she sees mine or the one in a store, she runs to it. Even though she is only 5 years old, without any instructions, she can play with no problem. It makes me think if she is really my sister's child... But she probably knows that she should not play that much, so every time a game finishes, she asks me whether she can play another round. That makes her even cuter to her aunt! (No, she's not allowed to call me an aunt though.)

This time, I feel like I spent most of the time with Kaho. She stayed over with me the last three nights also. Imagine... my bed is a Japanese one. It's not a queen or king, but a single. It's a bit too small to sleep with one more person even if she is a kid. Oh my goodness! This kid moves a lot during her sleep; rolls over, kicks, punches me in my stomach and even rotates for 360 degrees!

But it seems 5-year-old kids have almost the same feelings as adults; Kaho is pretty sensitive. My sister told me this afterwords.
After sending me off at the airport, when Kaho steps into my parents' house, she saw the slippers that I was wearing. The next thing you know, she started crying out loud for a while... How cute! But I feel really bad leaving her every time at the airport.

Las Vegas, US

Las Vegas! Finally, the time has come…Gambling! Actually, I won $40 in 15 mins on the way back from Grand Canyon. Not bad. But I usually win only the first day of a whole trip. That’s my usual pattern. Of course, I was still hoping to win all the way for 4 days though… yes, that was my mistake! The very next day, my $40 profit was gone very quickly. Also, between Josh and I have a jinx about gambling… every time we play black jack or poker together at the same table, almost all the time, he loses. We have come to Las Vegas for three times, but all three times that has happened. That being said, when we want to play, we first need to discuss who would play at that table. We cannot play together…
As a result, he successfully avoided sitting with me at the same table, he won for $200! Lucky him, but this really proved once again that I bring bad luck… great.


On this trip, we stayed at（Bellagio）for two nights. This hotel was the one used in the movie, Ocean's Eleven. This has been my favorite hotel in Las Vegas!

This is the view from our hotel window. You can see Paris Hotel and Eiffel Tower across the street. Their breakfast buffet is excellent!






















This is the area right next to lobby at Bellagio. This time, their theme looked like “Spring”. As soon as you enter the lobby, you can smell all flowers! I kind of worried about allergy people though. That is how much of flowers’ scent you could experience there.


Because it was the weekend before Easter, everything was rabbit! I found this cute rabbit cake.












For the last night in Vegas, because my colleague was also in town by coincident from Sweden for training, I took him to Hooters Hotel!! I hope he learned something American there!










During my colleague visiting restrooms, I took my one dollar and wasted in a slot machine… so I thought. But guess what? I won big time! One dollar became 11 dollars in one minute! Not bad!





To tell you the truth, this time, most of the trip expenses were paid by someone else… and because of that reason, Josh and I have decided to go pretty wild. Ok. First, we stayed at Bellagio. We took a couple massage. We went to see my favorite play by Cirque du Soleil called "O”, and we had very nice dinner at a restaurant called Picasso where they have Picasso’s arts! It was great having dinner surrounded by Picasso’s arts, especially; there was one right behind me!

Grand Canyon, US

Grand Canyon! Right after the trip from Copenhagen, I took an extra flight to Las Vegas. I left at 8am for my first flight, and when I arrived at the hotel in Las Vegas, it was already 10pm WST. That makes it total of 23hr-trip… Yes, I was literary exhausted! I managed to get up early (enough) in the morning to go to Grand Canyon the next morning though. Grand Canyon is something I wanted to visit for a long long time. I’d been dreaming about it.
Once I stood up on cliff, I could not believe what I was looking at. Grand Canyon is huge! I mean… HUGE!! It is so big that it seemed like I was standing in front of a big screen TV! I am afraid of heights, so I could not go to the edge of the cliff to stand. But I still enjoyed it very much.

We started hiking. There was a 1 meter-wide path along the side of cliff, but in order to go all the way down, it takes 4 – 6 hours, only one way! Then, we found this sign. It says, “Don’t even think about hiking in one day because some people die from the exhaustion.”



For the hiking course, you can ride of mules; a mixture of a donkey and a horse. It seems you need to make a reservation one year advance. Mules walk on the same path as regular hiking humans, so mules’ poops were everywhere; dry ones and very fresh ones… and here is Josh taking picture of “it”.


Cleon who acts like he just “did” a big job by pulling his pants right by the fresh poop!












Josh drove on the way back to Las Vegas. It takes for 5 hours. Everyone else was sleeping… I tried to stay awake and I was giving him shoulder massage from his back, but because I had jetlag from the Europe trip, I couldn’t keep my eyes open for that long. I think I was sleeping with my eyes half way closed…