Bali, Indonesia

Bali!! I arrived in the evening of the 25th of November and left early morning on the 27th; the total of 1.5 day weekend trip. And the special part of this trip is… it’s for leisure, not for work!

I have been to Jakarta, but this is the first time for me in Bali. Compared to Jakarta, Bali is much more developed. It is not so crowded and has very nice atmospheres including people. According to my tour guide, Bali’s economy totally relies on tourists. Without tourist, there is almost no job in Bali. 90% of people work for business some what related to tourists. Therefore, after year 2002 and 2005, Bali was really really quiet for a long time. Finally, the economy has been coming back he says. I thought that tourist related business is only hotels, but like actual sightseeing locations (temples etc), taxis, airlines and more are heavily related. I did not realize.

The picture looks like sunset, but actually it is 5:30 in the morning. The pink before the sun rises.

This is after the sunrise. It is mooi (beautiful)!

Sydney, Australia II

The last morning in Sydney, I decided to take a walk in the neighborhood of my hotel. It was a beautiful day again. The sun was shining and it was perfect temperature. Everybody is in a short sleeves and a pair of short pants. Because it was Saturday, there was a market right out of the hotel; there were not so much of interesting stuff, but mainly for tourists.

The picture is a view of Sydney downtown from the harbor. Lots of people use these ferries for their commutes. Some people takes this ferry for thirty minutes from Manley or some come from about ten minutes away. Anyhow, there are so many destinations, so the port is always busy. It is almost impossible to take a picture of Opera House without a ferry in it. That’s how often they go back and forth.

On the way to the Opera house, I saw Aborigine street performers. I am not sure if I should called those two guys performers because in front of them, there was a chair. And when tourists come by, they let him/her sit on the chair, and his/her friend takes a picture while those performers take a pose like any cheesy characters. I rather tip the guy playing music right next to them with a traditional music instrument; it looks like a long branch with a whole. It makes interesting sound. My colleague in NL has one in the office. It was funny to see bunch of those at the market as I always wonder what it was. Anyways, those Aborigines stand out on the street, not because they are among white people but because they are almost naked and put some white stuff on their faces, hair and bodies. I wanted to take a picture of them, too but they were just too scary.

What surprised me when I walk on the street in Sydney is a fly. They fly around you even if you don’t have any food. I thought it was only me, but it happens all the time. It reminded me of India, but flies didn’t come to me.

The bridge. Okay, I do not know why this bridge is famous. Perhaps, I should look it up on Wikipedia. I actually had this kind of bridge in my neighborhood in New York, but my bridge was not famous at all. I wonder…

The postcards with Kangaroos on them are exactly the same ones that I bought ten years ago when I was here. It was shocking to see the same cards again, so I had to get them. I even forgot about those until I saw them. I guess the design of postcards don’t change for at least ten years. The boomerang is a gift from my client. I usually don’t buy any local items when I travel, but because I’m all the way to Australia, I was thinking about getting something, so I was very excited to get one as a gift. Aborigines were catching kangaroos with this by hitting in their heads. If they miss, the boomerang comes back to where you stand. It’s a well designed item which should be awarded for some kind of prize.

On the way to the airport, this taxi driver talked a lot. As soon as I told him that I was Japanese, he started talking his Japanese experiences when he was there a couple years ago. Don’t get me wrong, I enjoy the conversations with a taxi driver as long as it is not 6 in the morning. When I think about it, the driver on the way from the airport a few days ago also was talking a lot! This guy was talking to me even in Japanese about when he was living there for six years as a student. Anyways, I don’t think it is only taxi drivers that I met but Australians in general are very friendly. Because it is so much fun to listen to their accent, I let them talk as much as they want.

Bye-bye, Sydney!

Sydney, Australia

Sydney! 24hour trip from Amsterdam. The first flight took 12 hours to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia and then another 8 hour flight to Sydney. Including the layover time, it was a 24hour trip. If I count the time difference, it took a day and a half. I arrived on the 21st of November, and I am going to leave on the 25th in the morning. It is only three day (actual) trip, but I’m happy to be here!

The hotel I am staying at is located the opposite side from Opera House. I love seeing this view on the way to work every morning. Of course, it is almost summer in Australia. It is very strange. It was 38 degree (100F) yesterday, and the air condition in the building was not properly working, so we were sweating at work. It seems January is the mid summer here.

The decorations are already Christmassy (no Thanksgiving here) everywhere, and it is hilarious to see people walking by in short sleeves and short pants. I love it! Since I was a child, I was very curious about this country having the opposite seasons compared to our standard ones. To actually be in the situation is pretty cool, especially, this Christmas season; “Santa clause on a surf board” kind.

Today, when I went to Starbucks, my latte came in a red Christmas cup. But once I step outside, it’s totally summer; a gorgeous sunny day. It is hard to describe, but you would feel something is not right.

I’ve been to Australia ten years ago. Sydney was one of the cities that I visited. I was still a student, and I had no English speaking ability. So, now that I speak English, I can enjoy the stay here like for the first time. It is certainly a totally different feeling to be here. Especially, to be able to hear Australian accent is a bonus for me now. It is an interesting accent. To me, it sounds more like British accent, but Australians don’t think so, or at least that’s what the people who I work with claim. When I told this person that I’d been here ten years ago, he goes “so you must have been eye-t.” I had no idea what he just said. I was going through my “translation” dictionary between Australian-American English and realized that he meant “eight (8)”. Oh man, it is hard! Anyways, I answered, “No, I was four back then.”

The first night, I was taken to this Australian BBQ place. They have a grill outside, so you pick meat or fish from showcase, and then place it on the grill by yourself. It is totally up to you how you want to cook it. There is a cheat guide by the grill that describes how long you should leave the meat on the grill depending on how you like it. It was something that is new to me, and I really enjoyed being around the grill with people chatting while my steak is cooking! Of course, guys started talking about their home BBQ grills even after we sat down to enjoy our lovely steaks.

Ljubljana, Slovenia II

I decided to go home earlier than originally planned. I was going to stay an extra day here, but because of off season, I realized that the tours are not running anymore. I could still go on my own taking a buss to different tourist places, but I’d rather go home and relax before the next long trip.

Last night, I went to this restaurant where they server Slovenian traditional food. I was not sure what to order, so I let the waiter pick one for me. He recommended the deer steak. Ok. I haven’t had a deer dish before, so why not. I ordered. Hm… the dish was great with cherry sauce with lots of cherries. But I felt bad or sorry for deer. I have no problem having beef steaks, but deer steaks. When I think about it, deer is much cuter than a cow. They are totally different animals, just the way they are input in my brain. Sorry cows, you are not that cute but tasty.

the atomosphere in Ljubljana is similar to Italy. I’ve been to Austria only once, but Ljubljana has similar architecture to Austria (Ok, I’ve been to only Salzburg). It makes sense though because Slovenia is right next to Italy and Austria. At night, the walk along the river is pretty nice with lights. It kind of reminded me of Amsterdam, but the difference is that Amsterdam has orange or yellowish lights where as in Ljubljana has white lights; Small difference, but it does make some difference as a whole.

A chandelier hanging down from sky in the middle of a square. It lights up at night, too. It’s pretty neat!

One of the things I liked about Slovenia is the people. They treat guests very formally. I cannot speak for the service in restaurants, but certainly at work, I got treated very well. For example, I was asked often if I wanted another cup of coffee. I think it’s pretty nice.

Bye-bye Slovenia. I don’t think I will be back other than for work.

Ljubljana, Slovenia

I came to a country called Slovenia. Okay, I admit. I didn’t even know the existence of this country. I am here from November 12th through the 19th. Slovenia became independent from Yugoslavia in 1991. It is located in the Northeast of Italy with a population of 2 million people. It is not many, but they have their own language, Slovenian. It is amazing that they can go to Venice by car in one hour or so. I was pretty excited when I heard that people go for shopping on the weekend to Italy! It sounds fantastic!

Currently, their local currency is Toler (SIT), but as of January 2007, they will start using Euros. And it seems there are going to be only two months to keep both currencies after January 1st. It is kind of amazing that people lose the “money” they’ve lived with in only a couple of months! I cannot imagine losing Japanese Yen like that! I lived with it! Anyhow, it seems there are coins with Toler, but people don’t use them. So most of the machines like ATM or vending machines are not made for coins, only for paper bills. However, Euros are full of coins, so there are major changes in those machines right now. Also, all the savings in bank accounts will be automatically converted to Euros over night. That’s serious programming. I would not want to be responsible for that! Anyways, I always thought that converting local currency to Euros are quite convenient, but I didn’t even think about all the troubles that come with it!

Tonight, I went out for dinner by myself for the first time in months. There had been many trips, but it seems I did not go out for dinner on my own. I didn’t even realize it until tonight. It has been a little different from when I was in the united states making trips. When I travel now, I usually have someone with me or the people who I work with take me out for dinner. Probably that is because I go abroad, usually pretty far away. So, it was a bit lonely to have dinner by myself tonight. I’m used to be alone, but certainly it is much better if I have someone to have conversation with over meal; especially when I go out to eat.

Family Day

Family Day; an event from work held on the 11th of Nov. All of my colleagues were invited with their family. All together, we were more than thirty people, including 15+ kids. It was like a zoo to be honest.
We got together at noon, and we had Middle Eastern lunch. And then, we went to this place where we had a two hour workshop for African music (picture).

Kids were also learning how to use this African music instrument.

After the music workshop, there was this African dance lesson. It was supposed to be for kids only, but somehow, we all ended up dancing together. This picture was taken by my colleague who did NOT join for the dancing part, but contributing to the music part (yeah, right). This picture makes us look like we are doing Tai Chi, doesn’t it? It actually looks pretty funny. But this African dance was very fast beat, and we all were sweating in the end, or at least I was.

At the end of the day, we went out for Ethiopian dinner. The food was pretty interesting. It came out in a very large plate for about four people’s food. The way to eat it is that you take a piece of the pancake, and take some of the "stuff" and eat it by hand. (We didn't know what they were.) This pancakes were too sour that most people didn’t like that much. We ended up stealing kids’ meals which were French fries, nuggets and some other fried stuff. So the food was not people's favorite. I don’t think I will go there again either.

Amsterdam, The Netherlands

Red Light District.

When my colleague from Sweden came to visit, I took him to the Red Light District. I took this picture then. For the people who are not familiar with this, I would call it “a prostitute vending machine.” You walk around to pick the best suitable for your needs, and you negotiate with the girl by the door and then disappear into the room. That’s when the curtain on the door is shut so you know the girl is busy “working.” Amazing.

As you can see, there is a group of guys staring at the lady in the shopping window. It looks so sad, doesn’t it? But just like any women to be exact. We do browse shopping, touch but no buy (that easily).

Philadelphia, US

Philly cheese steak.

The trip to the US was from the 21st of October until the 29th for 9days. I was in Philadelphia for 5 days, but I got to “see” Philadelphia only for a day. Josh had a conference in DC, so we got together in Philly on the weekend. We went to touristy places, and at the end of the day, we had to hit this Philly cheese steak place on South street! Okay, it was supposed to be the best in Philly, but I did not think it was that special. In other words, it was not as good as I expected. It was good, but not as good to meet my high expectations.

Other than cheese steak, I did jogging with my colleagues to Art Museum 6:30 in the morning one day. We jogged up on the stairs and looked down the view of Philadelphia! Some guys were screaming like Rocky! That was pretty cool.

New York, US

A trip to New York City. Actually, I had a conference in Philadelphia, but I became a tour guide for my colleagues and client in NYC on the weekend. It was one day trip from Philadelphia, and I put in lots of sites in the plan, so everyone was very tired at the end of the day. But hey, how often do we get to come to NYC?

This was the first time back to the states after I left for Amsterdam in April. What surprised me was that I actually like Amsterdam better than New York! I certainly miss NY, no doubt about that, but I did not feel like I was back home. I guess Amsterdam is my home now, especially when I smell Marijuana in my neighborhood after a long trip, that's when I feel I'm home nowadays. It's scary.

Malmo, Sweden

From Oct 9th through the 13th, I went to Lund, Sweden. Usually, I spend all nights in Lund, but this time, I asked my colleague to take me to Malmo for dinner. Malmo is a much bigger city than Lund. It is a beautiful city with beautiful buildings. But, I actually like Lund better. It is a very quiet small city (town?) and there are many of very cute houses and buildings. I really like the unique atmosphere that Lund has.

Hong Kong, China III

Breakfast at the airport. Although I really enjoyed the dinner from Chinese restaurant the night before, I guess I didn’t have enough yet. When I arrived at the airport around 8 in the morning, the first thing it caught my eyes was this Chinese breakfast. There were many different kinds of “traditional Chinese breakfast” in the menu, and here is what I picked. The one of the left is I would call it, rice soup. I think they had it named as “conegee”. Basically, it is soup that has rice in it. The soup could be made out of chicken flavor with ginger. It was really good. The one on the right is so they called “beef wrapped in rice sheet”. It is like dumpling skin wrapping grounded beef inside and steamed. It comes with sweet soysauce. It is good. I usually have this at Dim Sum. It’s good to recognize something that I know of. Their menu was totally bzar. I had a hard time ordering breakfast because I don’t recognize most of the namings even though it has English description. Oh, I asked for Xiaolongbao, but they didn’t have it yet. I guess it was still too early for that. At least I tried.

One of the things I learned on this trip is that there is no tax in Hong Kong. That’s why lots of tourists come for shopping! … but what about social security? I asked about it, and the answer was “No.” Well, if they don’t pay tax, I guess it is normal that there is no social security. But something doesn’t sound good to me. When I really thought about it, I realized that those waiters and waitresses in restaurants look like they are in twenty’s. After ordering meals, usually old ladies bring out the dishes from kitchen. They don’t really speak to customers. If there is no pension, there is no income at all, so if you do not have children, then you have to work for the income on your own, no matter how old you are. That kind of made me think. The people who really enjoy about no tax are only tourists in the end?

Another thing that I learned is that there are two kinds of Indonesians in Indonesia; Chinese-Indonesian and Indonesian-Indonesian. Heidi belongs to the first. This conversation started out of nothing. In Indonesia, I remember people eat with a folk and a spoon almost all the time. But when we were in Chinese restaurant, I realized that she uses chopsticks very well, so I asked her who taught her how to use them. She said, “my mom. She’s Chinese.” I was like… “what???” Heidi’s parents are Chinese born in Indonesia. They are 5th or 6th Chinese generation in Indonesia. Since Heidi was a child, her mother told her not to marry Indonesian-Indonesian, and she says it is pretty normal in her country. With Indonesian-Indonesian, the same thing happens. They are not told not to marry a Chinese-Indonesian.

Chinese-Indonesians are usually Christian or Buddhist. Indonesian-Indonesians are usually Moslem. The interesting thing is that the government is not allowing a couple to get married from different religions. Heidi says this rule came out when the government found out that the ratio of Christianity had been increasing. Because the government supports Islam, they are trying to keep the ratio as is or more. Therefore, they are not allowing different religious people to get married. Therefore, most likely, Chinese-Indonesians will carry Chinese-Indonesian children in the future and the same with Indonesian-Indonesians. They won’t come across each other. I personally think that because of this culture (separate themselves from each other), the gap between rich and poor won’t be smaller, or it’ll take a long time to get it small. Usually Chinese-Indonesians own business and therefore rich where as Indonesian-Indonesians are the other way around.

I was born in Japan, and I was raised in such a culture that I believed it was “standard”. And I had this idea that it is standard in any other countries, but after thirty years of my life, I realize it is not the case.

I learn something on every trip.

Hong Kong, China II

Heidi and I were looking for MTR (Hong Kong Subway) station, so as soon as we saw this sign, we went down the stairs, no question. Guess what? We did not find the entrance to the subway. We were so confused, and went back and forth make sure that there is no subway station. Finally we realized that this “subway” means “underground path”. So, this was just a path to go across the avenue underneath the ground. Great. How confusing! The actual subway station was about a few blocks away from here. No street sign to it.

Can you see this? (Click on the image for the larger view.) This is the scaffolding made out of bamboo! I thought this was so Asian and very old style. At least, I haven’t seen this in Japan. I wonder if Japan used to use bamboos for scaffolding as well. Heidi from Indonesia says that this is normal in Indonesia. She says bamboo is very strong. I can understand that, but they use bamboo for even higher than 10 stories buildings! I would not want to get up there!

There are so many people in Hong Kong. I realized this when I was here last time, but oh man! People are everywhere! And what’s irritating is that they walk slow! To me, so slow. I’m used to Osaka and New York pace, so I cannot walk behind slow walkers… When there are so many slow walkers on the street, you know how it is like. Oh man!

The last night in Hong Kong, I enjoyed Chinese food. Heidi suggested for Korean food, but I had to say NO! The one in the front is steamed sticky rice with pork. This is really sticky, and this was so good! The one in the back is fried boney chicken with lots of chili. Okay, we are the one ordered this, but what are we supposed to eat? There are more chilies than chicken on the plate! It was good though. Oh boy. Heidi was eating the whole chili here and there. I just couldn’t watch. It’s just painful when I think about putting that in my mouth. But I guess Indonesians are used to hot food. She says that if she doesn’t have spicy food at least once a day, she doesn’t feel like she had a meal. Well, that’s why we ordered this dish. Of course, I again ordered Xiaolongbao. I am in love with this thing!

This time, I arrived on the 30th of September until today, 5th of October; the total of 5 day stay in Hong Kong. I really enjoyed the trip again. I am going home this morning departing at 10:30am to Amsterdam. I am not looking forward to the 12hour flight, but I am to go home. Next time, I would like to go to Shanghai or Beijing for some change!
The picture is day-time Hong Kong.

Hong Kong, China

I am back in Hong Kong!

The view from my friends’ apartment on the 37th floor in Pok Fu Lam. The view is fantastic! I would love to live in a place like this. They also have nice facilities in the building, and one of them is the gym. Today, we went to work out together. This was the first time for them to try the gym since moving into this place a couple of months ago. So we all were particularly excited.
It's been about a month since I started jogging, and I love doing it in Amsterdam. The view is fantastic while jogging. Today, I had this ocean view in front of me. It was pretty nice. I also realized that it is much easier to jog on a treadmill. First of all, there are no bridges like in Amsterdam. And also, you don't have to kick the ground to go forward, so it is much easie And there is no wind to make you breath harder. So… I jogged the farthest today; 4.5miles (7km) for 45minutes straight! I was surprised myself.

... after this work out, we went for dim sum, and we all ate like pigs.

De Haag, The Netherlands

I came to visit The Haag. My colleagues invited to his place on the weekend. Unfortunately, I do not have any friends in Amsterdam or in the Netherlands, so it was a great pleasure that he invited me over to his place on the weekend!
The Haag is about one hour drive from Amsterdam, and his apartment is only five minutes away from the beach! It is incredible that somebody lives that close to the beach! I grew up near by the beach in Japan, so living by the beach is the most attractive fact for me. I would love to do that in the future. What’s even better is that I can jog along the beach. Fantastic!
I really liked the atmosphere, so I would consider moving to this place. I love Amsterdam, but living by beach may beat it. There are tons of restaurants and bars along the beach. So I can come here when I feel like it to read or just to relax! I can see myself being here every night!

Bungy Jump! I have done something very similar about 10 years ago. It was fun but also awful. What’s bad is the going up and down in the air after cutting yourself loose once. Maybe when I come back here, I would try this. We'll see.

London, England

I visited London for a couple of days.

The night we arrived, my colleague brought me to Covent Garden for dinner. I had no idea about the place until I got there. And suddenly, all my memories came back as soon as I saw the place.

Yes! – I was here 10 years ago with my best friends!

All the shops were already closed, and it was raining and dark, but I remembered the cold morning I was standing there 10 years ago at the exact place. I remembered very small detailed things like me sipping a cup of coffee sitting by the side walk watching people shop. I remembered myself looking at the market thinking what a beautiful morning it was.

What is interesting is to realize how much I have changed or my living situation has been changed sine then. 10 years later, I am standing at the same location and the place hasn’t changed much, but I felt like there were two complete different “back-then-me” and “now-me” figures. I completely forgot about this place even though I visited London a couple years ago again. And now, my views to look at things are completely different. Well, now I can understand all the signs in English! (I didn’t speak English 10 years ago.) Since then, a lot of things have happened to me. I felt that I finally grew up! Well, I am thirty, so I guess I have grown up by now, of course.

A gift from Israel

A souvenir wine from Israel. Fiends of mine came to visit Amsterdam. Unfortunately, I was out of town, but it was very nice of them to bring a gift for me. They left the wine at the hotel they were staying, and I went to pick it up.
They are very much into food, and because of them I really could enjoy the food in Israel, so this wine must be very good. I thought to open it the night I picked it up, but I realized that it is too sad to sip nice wine alone. I will keep it for a special occasion. I’m very looking forward to it!

Hong Kong, China

On August 20th, 2006, I arrived in Hong Kong and stayed there for six days. My first feeling about Hong Kong was it is very similar to Japan. Probably because Hong Kong was a British colony until 1997, people did not look like the typical Chinese figures; like the way they dress, their hair styles are very similar to Japanese ones. Also, shopping malls, subway systems and underground shopping areas were very similar to Japan’s.

There are a lot of people in Hong Kong. The precise number of their population is about 7 millions. That’s a lot of people in that small piece of land. So, in and out of the city, there are massive amount of residence buildings, and each one of them is very very tall. The each apartment is not that big. As a matter of fact, my hotel room was the smallest one I’ve ever seen. There is a bed, and that is it. Probably the whole room was 2 meters by 3 meters including a bathroom.

The first day to work in Hong Kong, someone came to pick me up at my hotel, and he brought me to this local restaurant. According to him, people in Hong Kong come to local restaurant and have breakfast including rice soup, sandwiches, noodles etc. And what’s worth, it is very cheap! I think the sandwich he recommended (in the picture) cost about 1 dollar. This was a looks-like-SPAM and scrambled egg sandwich. It was pretty good.

My friends in Hong Kong took me to a floating restaurant, called JUMBO. This was the first time for them as well, so it was kind of an experiment for all of us. The reason the restaurant is on the water seems something to do with the taxation. Perhaps, if this was built on land, the tax (property tax?) would have been much higher. Anyways, because it is a floating restaurant, we had to take a boat to get there. It was fun! The course we had start with shark’s fin soup, abalone with nappa and five more dishes, and deserts. It was A LOT of food, and I couldn’t even touch the deserts!

I think this was very Chinese, or more like I felt that I was in Asia. This is a street that I take to go to work. This is not a back road or anything. This is an official street that people take. This street or side-walk is made right below the high-rise apartment building. The space from the ground to the ceiling is about 2 meter high. So, typical Asian people can go through here, no problem. But any Western peoole would feel uncomfortable. I walked with a Swedish person, and even though his head did not reach the ceiling, he was putting his head down, just to make sure that he did not hit his head.

The food that I enjoyed the most in Hong Kong was dim-sum. I love dim-sum! And they taste sooo good! The typical dim-sum that I know of is from China town in New York. And there is a big difference between that and this. There are no old ladies with pushing the dim-sum carts! I was told that it is an old style, and you don’t see it anywhere in Hong Kong, or maybe in China any more. I suppose some place like China town all over the world has a stopped-culture from China when mainland China is changing their culture every day.

	(top-left) Sweet buns, (top-left) Shrimp steamed dumplings and (front) pork buns.
	Xiaolongbao (Sho Lon Po in Japanese) is the best! Not in this particular restaurant, but I was lucky to be treated for the best Xiaolongbao in town! Basically, it has ground pork with vegetables inside with tasty soup. As you can see, there is a leaf of Chinese cabbage at the bottom of the basket. It is necessary so that the skin doesn’t stick to it; therefore, the juice inside is still kept within until it is in your mouth! oh, delicious!
	At dim-sum restaurants, there are a small bowl and a plate. When I was brought there for the first time, I was using the plate during the meal and kept the bowl for when soup is served. The second time I was there, I realized that Chinese people keep their bowl on the plate. It’s strange, huh? so I asked. Okay, the answer is… when you have Chinese food, you have fish bones or some garbage, right? Chinese people like to separate them from food. Understandable. What that means is that people use the bowl during the meal, and use the plate as a disposal space. Wait a minute! So I was using the garbage plate as a eating plate the last time… ouch! Okay, why didn’t this person tell me from the beginning!!

Every time I travel to different countries, I really am thankful for the opportunities that I have. That is because I am there not as a tourist, but a local visitor, so I get to visit places that typical tourists wouldn’t even know about. Okay, I also get to eat something not really eatable some times. But I feel that I am in the culture that is close to the local people live in.

… Of course, as always, I really enjoyed the food here! Hong Kong was delicious!

Paris, France III

The town view in Paris. The historical buildings are very attractive. The architectures and the city made out of them are very beautiful. Every few blocks, there is an intersection like the one in the pictures where more than 2 streets meet. This is a very common view in Paris, so all the intersections look very similar from one to another. It was very easy to think that we just passed this intersection a few minutes ago.

The windows are decorated by some flowers on apartment buildings.

I love Crêpe! The first morning in Paris, I had it for breakfast; Banana chocolate Crêpe. Actually, this was more like pancakes and chocolate and banana were inside. It looks almost like an omelet.

The last morning also, I had Crêpe. This one is more like it; it’s thin and folded more than once. But there is no whipped cream or powder sugar like how I know it from Japan. The Crêpes in Paris were thicker than what I am used to. Is this the local style?

The last night, we came back to the Eifel tower. Good bye, Paris!

Paris, France II

The last four days of July, I went to Paris with Josh who was visiting Amsterdam for two weeks. The trip was very easy; four hour ride with a train. I am still having difficulty getting used to going to one country to another without an airplane in Europe. Paris was something I was saving for my honeymoon. Oh well, who knows whether I will have such a thing in my life, so I decided to go when I had the chance. (I’m trying to be positive here.)

It was hot in Paris. It seems this year, we have a hot summer in Europe compared to other years. So, we were not very looking forward to coming back to the hotel every night because our hotel did not have an air conditioner. When we got back to the room, we were opening the door to get as much breeze as possible. It was actually not that bad if we opened the door. Of course, there are people passing by in the hall way, and they peek in the opened-door room. But we cannot be sensitive about that. The heat was incredible! I think it was close to 90 degrees. But of course, we have to close the door when we go to sleep, but the window is wide open without a screen. Because of that, every night, mosquitoes were after me. Every night! What’s frustrating is that Josh never got a mosquito bite! They just love my blood regardless of which country I am in!

Even with this horrible hot summer experiences, I actually enjoyed the trip very much. The picture is the Louvre museum. Because I read “The Da Vinci Code,” I was very curious about this museum. When I saw the pyramid, I was so excited! Also, I saw Mona Lisa and some other paintings that I’ve seen in magazines or in text books. It was great!

After the museum visit, we went into a café. The iced coffee that I ordered was serviced first with two containers. I could tell which one the sugar was because I could see it through the container, but the problem is the other one on the left. I thought it was milk because of its shape. After I poured some of that, I realized that some oil was floating in my coffee. It was actually dressing for the side salad for the sandwich we ordered. I wish they did not put dressing in such a container that totally could mislead when you order some drinks! Oh well, I ended up finishing my ice coffee though.

	When walking down the street, these little round sweets caught my eyes. This is something my sister asked me about a few weeks ago, and that’s when I learned about it. These are French sweets, called Macaron. I think I’ve seen them in the states, too.
	After passing by some bakeries, the next thing I saw was this one. It’s huge, and it looks like a hamburger! I tried it and it was very sweet. I am not a big fan of it (yet).

	We passed by this temporary amusement park, and there was this swing-thing. I love this since I was a child. Everything in this park was very old, especially the rides, and they all look like they’ve got some history behind them. Even the horses of the Mary-Go-Round have some characters in them. Actually, their faces crack me up. They look pretty funny.