Queen's Day, The Netherlands

April 30th is Queen's Day (Koninginnedag) in the Netherlands. This is the craziest day in the year. People are partying all day long. Look how many boats are on the canal; absolutely too many. Can you see the people on the bridge watching boats going by in the back? Lots of tourists visit Amsterdam on this day.

When I went out to check out the neighborhood, it was already going nuts. There was bungee jump going on the street (not above water!), and it is just full of people everywhere.

I decided walking towards Rembrandtplein (Rembrandt Square), and on the way there I saw these beautiful ladies serving beers!

Once I stepped into Rembrandtplein, I told myself "What a mistake!" I just couldn't move. Too many people!

I looked back and see if it was easier to go back. I didn't think so. I just followed the crowd and got out of the mess after 20mins or so which usually takes 3 minutes to go across the square. People are dancing, drinking and ... just everything including smoking, of course!

People are in orange on Queen's Day. What's coming out of the boat on the left is bubbles!

After walking around the neighborhood for about an hour, I came back to my apartment. The party is still going on outside. Boats are still going back and forth on the canal. Don't get me wrong. I love my apartment facing the canal and enjoy the view, but not this particular day. Boats don't just pass by, but they have very loud speakers!! When I felt I had enough of Queen's Day, I shut my windows, plucked earphones and watched a movie at home. That was my first Queen's Day.

(Lucky me. A boat with loud speakers was parked right in front of my apartment until 11pm... I'm not kidding.)

Miami, US

From the 6th of April to the 15th, I took a trip to Florida.

As soon as I stepped out of the airport, I couldn’t open my eyes fully because of the brightness from the sun! It had not been in Florida since moving to Amsterdam.

During my stay in Florida, Josh and I went to Miami for three days. It had been a long time since I had a real vacation. This is a picture of Miami Beach. The view was just breathtaking.

Coming back to this land after one year, something like a palm tree was an incredible thing to see. I was just so excited to be surrounded by them! When I used to come to Florida, I used to think of them like the yellow cabs in NYC; something you see in your everyday life. But now, those palm trees make me feel that I’m really in Florida! Tropical!

Nothing goes better with a vacation than these! Josh’s Mojito and my Apple Margarita.

This is the sight from my eyes while I was on the beach. (Yes – they’re my legs!) It was not that hot or humid, but just about right temperature with nice breeze. It was a working day, so it was quiet and calm. I really enjoyed the real vacation time.

	I’m not sure what they were mistaken with but here comes the topless lady laying on the beach. I saw some topless ladies but they are usually lying on their stomach. But this lady was lying on her back. I believe it is common in some countries in Europe or Latin America, but certainly not in Miami! Of course, the picture was taken by Josh, not me!
	The next day, we got Mojito and Strawberry Mojito. Yes, my margarita from the previous day wasn’t that good, but we certainly enjoyed the happy hour drinks!

The morning sea. The water was shiny reflecting the sun!

I think this was the first time to enjoy the real “vacation” for a long time. I had been dreaming of laying on the beach relaxing for months. Of course, the best vacation is to visit my family in Japan, but once in a while, this type of vacation really helps me. I need some time to just clear my thoughts but enjoy that moment of time. It was the goal of this vacation and was accomplished.

PS.
On the way from Amsterdam, a lady broke her arm on the flight. She stood up on her seat to reach her purse in the compartment. Somehow, she slipped and fell on the floor and broke her arm. There was a doctor and a couple nurses, but the pilot decided to make an emergency stop in Scotland to get the real medical attention. It made a two hour delay to land in Memphis, so 2-300 passengers missed their flights to their destinations. I was one of them. We stayed over night in Memphis and flew out the next day. It was really a long trip.
Note: Do not stand on a seat when the flight is in the air.

Monica's visit, The Netherlands II

Monica and I went to Zaanse Schans. According to Monica’s research, people in this village are wearing traditional Dutch clothes.

The view was great because of the wind mills, but we did not see any local people in traditional clothes, but the workers in souvenir shops. We gave this village a new name, Epcot from Disney World. It looked all fake.

However, once we started walking into the town, we were a bit surprised. Those windmill houses are actually used by local people. I thought they were for display to attract tourists, just like Epcot. But this town is actually functioning like any living places. That means, some stranger tourists come by in this town and take pictures of themselves having “actual someone’s” houses in the background. It sounds like big bother for the house owners

The next destination was Marken. This place is about fifteen minute away from Amsterdam by car. The drive to this Merken Island is beautiful. There is this long road running to the island, so we had beautiful water view on our both sides. The water was shiny, and we were enjoying the nice breeze with windows open! Beautiful!

Merken is also known as the town that carries the traditional cultures, like people are wearing traditional clothes in their every day life. We didn’t see local people outside in this town much to begin with, but the man I saw was wearing suspenders. Does it count? Monica and I stopped by at this small souvenir shop, and there she was; an old lady in “the” clothes sitting on a chair behind the casher knitting. She was very quiet and looked very cute. She was wearing red-white stripes shirt with a vest and a long skirt and a white hat. She looked like she would appear in a children’s book. I was very pleased to meet (see) her finally. This town is not Epcot!

Monica and I didn’t have breakfast, so we were pretty hungry. We walked and walked looking for a restaurant. But this town seems very small that there are not so many restaurants or café’s. It almost looked like everyone in this town know each other that they don’t need a restaurant to go out to, but rather go to the best cook neighbor’s house to have dinner.

Because we didn’t find any place for food or didn’t see local people outside, we were about to turn back to the car to drive back to Amsterdam…

Then all the sudden, this street showed up by the small port. From no choice to too many choices! Oh, you don’t know how much we appreciated this view! It seems like we were walking towards opposite direction. We had lunch here sitting outside and then went back to Amsterdam.

Monica’s stay was only for one week, but I really enjoyed her stay as well as the sightseeing!

Monica's visit, The Netherlands

From 23rd of March through the 29th, my old roommate in New York, Monica, came to visit Amsterdam. My Amsterdam travel guide was fully utilized after one year rest since last summer.
A break at a bar after visiting Anne Frank’s house.

Monica and I drove to Noordwijk looking for flower fields. If you look closely, you can see yellow flowers in the back. I’m not sure if it was too early for the season, but we didn’t find that many flower fields with colors yet.

Zoom in!

Those flower fields sure look more like strictly for business. They line up for straight lines. Yes – we went into someone’s private fields without permission. The gate was open and was welcoming us to the inside! (or at least it looked like it.)

Simply so many!

Close up. It looks like a bed made out of flowers.

The Netherlands is really a beautiful place. Especially when the spring comes, I realize it more and more. I love and enjoy living here surrounded by flowers. I have finally realized the beauty and cuteness of flowers by being this age.

We stopped by Noordwijk Aan Zee. Beach is my best favorite place to visit! I love being close to the water!

Golf Lessons, The Netherlands

Since last weekend, I started golf lessons.

It is for thirty minutes every Sunday for ten weeks including a two hour course lesson. I am actually not that confident if I could be “that good” to be able to play on the course. In the end, I am supposed to take a test to get licensed. In Holland, if you do not have the license, then you are not allowed to play on the course.

Because I didn’t get a chance to go practice in the driving range last week, I went early today to hit some balls before my lesson. For the first fifteen minutes, I was really bad. But after that, I think I got “it”. I started hitting balls pretty well. It was pretty irritating when I couldn't hit the balls, but once I started hitting, I felt really good. The best part is to look at the ball going high up in the air. No matter how much my hands hurt, I still feel good when I see that.

Today’s lesson was “chip”; the swing when the ball is close to the green (15yards?), and this is pretty hard. In the driving range, I hit balls without thinking about a distance, but with chip, I’m supposed to change the swing depending on how far I am from the pole. Okay, this is my second lesson, and isn’t this a bit too early to learn something high technique like this?

It seems I will be practicing patter next week, and the week after is bunker. I was thinking, “Wait a second. People try not to sink the ball in the bunker, but there is a lesson for it?” I guess. I actually can’t wait for that lesson.

Flowers from yesterday. They blossomed already in one day; maybe my apartment is too warm?

Flowers of the week, The Netherlands

These are the flowers of this week!

I don’t know the name of those flowers, but they are so pretty. I am not good at flower arrangement, so I simply cut the stems to “good” length and put them in a vase. Even though I have no clue about what I am doing, I knew that they didn’t look good. So I had to redo it many times. It took me about thirty minutes to this “okay” version.

The weather was not so nice this weekend, but I got on my bike to go to the Albert Cypt Market. It’s been months since I rode on a bike. I had layers of clothes, but it was a big mistake. Once I got to the market, I was drenched with sweat. Anyways, since before, no matter how many times I put air into the tires, they weren’t really filled. So I went to a bike shop. Two hours later, when I picked up my bike, this looks-like-16-year-old guy told me that there were many holes on both tires (front and back). How did that happen and when?

I had a very easy ride back home. No sweating. It seems it was all about the tires. I had been wondering why other people can ride a bike pretty fast but don’t seem to be tired. Every time I was on my bike, I was out of breath. Well now I know that I was riding on a bike with no air. That makes sense. My bike-life future became bright now.

I also bought this potted-flowers. It’s supposed to blossom yellow narcissus.

Spring, The Netherlands

Amsterdam is back! Spring is finally here!!

Since Fall, it has been drizzling every day. It is not like it is raining all day long, but we have some sunshine now and then in a day, but most of the day is cloudy and dark. But last weekend, we had a great weather!

Spring equals flowers. I got these pretty flowers. It has many small flowers, and the amount of the pollen is unbelievable. I have been sneezing and having a runny nose this year again. In the morning, when I get up, my throat hurts. Since about five years ago, I’ve been noticing these behaviors, but at the same time, I’ve been trying not to “admit” it… do I have pollen allergy?

Because the weather was very nice, I drove to a beach for a walk. This area is called Noordwijk aan Zee.

Lille, France

I came to a city called Lille in France on the 5th of March until the 8th.

After considering some transportation options, I was left with only one; driving for 3.5hours on my own. I still have the sense of living in Japan or in the US, so the fact that I can cross the countries by car without showing a passport doesn’t click in me yet.

However, I do enjoy when I travel to the country where I can use Euros. The most troublesome thing when traveling abroad is to determine how much I need to exchange which is the amount that I can spend it all by the time I am back to the airport I just arrived. It cannot be too little because I would have to exchange with a higher rate at hotel, or cannot be too much because I would have to pay the ridiculous amount as a fee for the exchange. I remember when I came back from some country, I was supposed to get back ten Euros. It turned out that I received only 3 and the rest was for the fee. It can’t happen again.

Usually, I put the remaining local money in the charity box at the airport, but sometimes I realize later that I had some left in my pocket. A couple Chinese bills are still sitting on my dining table now. I think it’s worth about two dollars.

I ordered shrimp, and duck came out. I at first thought that it was for some other table but brought to me by mistake. But no one came to take it off my table. So I guess I ordered it…?

I thought that probably the waiter made a mistake, and I didn’t want to embarrass him, so I ate the duck. Oh well, after ordering a shrimp dish, I was thinking that I should have ordered meat, so it turned out to be better for me, actually. This dish was fantastic! Duck sliced steaks with pears.

In France, there are not that many people who can speak or understand English compared to any other European countries (expect Italy). Of course, I have no knowledge of French, so everything had to be translated at work.
I came back to this restaurant because I was there the night before, and they have English menus, waiters can speak good English and most importantly, their food is excellent! But when I ordered shrimp from English menu, I remember the waiter went to see the French menu and came back to me. I think that is when my order got messed up. He probably saw something else in the French menu; perhaps one line above or below. And that turned to be this duck dish. When I think about it, I remember we weren’t communicating very well. I ask some questions about the shrimp dish, and he was giving me the answers about the duck. I remember him saying that the dish comes with pears, and I thought it was not mentioned in the menu. I’m pretty sure my order was already switched at the point.

The area I stayed seem to be an old part of Lille. I love those stone pavement streets. (This is one of the reasons I loved SoHo in NY.) They have such a unique appeal. Buildings here were also beautiful. I think Lille is much prettier than Paris. Actually, I am not such a fan of Paris. When I was in Paris, I didn’t think I would want to live there, but in Lille, I can think that. (Just in case, I checked out real estate advertisements.) Even walking around by myself at night in this neighborhood, it is very romantic. Somehow, there were so many shoe stores. Is it French? Also, I really enjoyed the window shopping there at night. All the stores are of course closed, but their displays are very well done (very pretty).

I would love to come back to Lille again. It is only 3.5 hours (without traffic jam, supposedly 2.5 hours), so I could come and visit for a weekend, but other than work, I am not sure if I would want to do that on my own driving that far.

Athens, Greece III

The Parthenon on Acropolis of Athens was built in the 5th century BC. It was amazing to stand there looking up this precious building!

It was in the middle of reconstruction, and it seems this will last for decades. I don't remember the exact year, but I remember my tour guide mentioned that we can probably visit once after the completion. So I would assume it would be another 30 or 40 years! If you are thinking of visiting there to see the complete shape, you don't need to plan anything yet! You've got some time until then.

Parthenon stands on top of a hill. This is the view looking down from Propylaea which stands right by the Parthenon. It is really high up there, and you can see the whole city of Athens!

On Acropolis, there is a theater, called Herodes Atticus Odeon, built in 161. It is difficult to see in this picture, but there is a stage at the bottom of the seating area. In 1950's, the seating are was restored with new marble, and it is still used as a theater for musicals or shows. Can you imagine sitting here at night with moon light? That must be beautiful and romantic!

A very old neighborhood, called Plaka, just under the Aropolis. The buildings are very pretty with narrow streets. I loved walking in the neighborhood. I could imagine myself living there for sure.

Some of the buildings looked really old. I think they are really old.

I made a lunch stop in Plaka. I ordered lamb Souvlaki and Dolma. The interesting part about Greek food in Greece was that it's so simple! My Souvlaki came with french fries, nothing more.

When I was in New York, I used to live in the Greek neighborhood called Astoria. And there were fantastic Greek food restaurants. I used to enjoy their foods so much that I was dreaming of the real Greek food in Greece.

It turned out to be that I live Greek food in New York more than the ones in Greece! How could that be possible? The difference is what else comes with the main meal. For example, if I order grilled salmon in NY, then it comes with lots of other stuff like lemon potatoes, green vegetables and fantastic sauce with feta cheese. I guess I like the extra, not exactly only what I order on the plate.

Good-bye, Greece. If there is a next time, I'd like to come back in the sun-shine summer time!

Athens, Greece II

I stayed an extra day in Athens for sightseeing. I was looking forward to this Saturday for the entire week, and somehow, it turns out to be a rainy day… all day long. According to my tour guide, people were waiting for this rain for the past months, and they were really happy with this rain. But, why does it have to be on this day! We had shiny sunny days during the week! Oh well, I joined the city tour anyways though as planned.

This picture is the original Olympic stadium built in the 6th century B.C.! I didn’t think about the human’s existence that long ago. Even if there were human beings, I imagine them to chase after animals for hunting. But it seems people were playing sports already back then. I guess I just never thought about it.

This stadium was used for the first Olympic game in 1896. It was also used for the goal of marathon for the last Olympic in 2004.

This stadium is in U-shape. You can see in this picture on the left. Before, athletes didn’t jog around in the stadium but rather going back and forth on a straight line. So the U-shape was fine for that.

Temple of Zeus. It was not as large as I thought. It is unbelievable to see this precious thing in a park that looks like any other parks in a city. There is a fence around the temple, but there is no guardsman around. Street dogs are everywhere, too. The reason why some of the poles are not standing here anymore is because this temple was not admired that much, and when the marble is needed for building a new house, people took it from here for recycling. Also, anthropologists were talking some pieces home for souvenirs. It is hard to believe nowadays.

Athens, Greece

A view of Athens from my hotel room window. I was there from the 14th of Feb to the 18th. Athens, the city itself, is not that beautiful. To me, it reminds me of Tel Aviv, Israel. Mountains are very rocky, not much of mud. There are some beautiful residential buildings, looks very Mediterranean; light color walls with large balcony. I would love to own one like this by the beach!

When I got on the plane on the 14th (Wed), I was saying in my head, "I can't believe I'm on the plane again. I just got off one on Sunday..." I think it is about the time to stop traveling this often.

It seems there is no “non-smoking” rule in Greece, so people smoke in the office. I’m used to the smokers in Europe, but I sometimes miss American non-smoking culture. In New York City, people cannot smoke even at a bar. Although I appreciate the nice non-smoky environment, I think it is a bit too much on smokers. I personally think they should be able to smoke at least at a bar where people drink and have a good time.

In the Netherlands, I think smokers and non-smokers are half and half, or at least the people around me. Smokers can go to the café in the building or to the outside when they want to smoke. So at work, it is not normal to stay in a room where people smoke. This time, I was in a training room, and attendees were smoking at any time! Besides, I was having a cold and was coughing a lot, so it was an extra damage to my throat. However, because I always try to respect the local culture, I said a word about it. My Dutch colleague said that I should have spoken up, but I never did. Instead, I asked them if I could open the (gigantic) window and I had the window open all day long. Though I don’t think they got my silent message… at least I was in a little better environment.

La Plagne, France

I went to a place called La Plagne in France from the 3rd of February to the 10th or skiing. It was the annual get-together trip from my company (240 people!), so my colleagues/friends and I flew in a few days earlier and made the trip a bit vacation-like.

I was planning to snowboard for the second time in my life, but I got chickened out in the last minute. Yes, I skied. I hadn’t skied for a while, but I really enjoyed skiing for the full three days. The weather was great for the first two days. It was beautiful! The different thing in La Plagne compared to Japanese ski places is that there is no really the “you can ski along this path” but more like people can ski wherever they’d like. Some of my friends, especially the Swedish ones, are really good with skiing. One of the guys has these skies that only the toe part is attached to the skies, so he can lift his heals during skiing. I don’t know how that works, but he wears a helmet so I assume he can go really fast with them. (He broke his arms during skiing a few years ago, so a helmet doesn’t really help that much for all the accidents.)

This is a guy with a parachute. Those guys fly by themselves and as soon as they get on the ground, they start skiing from the top of the mountains. Of course, there is no really a path for skiing, so they go into the deep snows I assume.

The view from my room. Everywhere you see, you can ski.

After skiing, I got this fabulous hot chocolate. I think it’s French but didn’t get the name of it.

Every night, we hanged out partying; drinking and dancing (me no dance) with all the people from UK, US, Germany, Sweden, Netherlands and other places. It is a lot of fun. Sometimes, it is too many drinks. This year, it was too many people.

Chicago, US

I went to Chicago from 26th of January to the 1st of February. Josh flew up from Florida, and we spent the weekend together. It’s a small vacation for me even though it was too cold for “vacation”.

It has been about a year since I was in Chicago the last time. When I arrived at the O’Hare airport, I had strange/different feelings even though I used to use the airport very often before. I felt like I met an old friend of mine or something like that. I wonder how I would feel when I fly into La Guardia airport in NY. That’s the airport I used to use almost every week.

Also, what was interesting is the language. I get to understand all the people’s conversations around me. It’s all in English! Especially, I can watch all the channels on TV in the hotel room. No matter which channel I choose, I get to understand them! That’s big, or at least to me. I’m used to be in a country where I don’t understand their languages, so I have to look for TV shows in English. How convenient to be in English speaking country! Also, it is interesting to see the country objectively where I used to live in. There are things that I see once I step out of it. This happened when I left Japan. I didn’t like, or more like, I hated Japan when I left. But once I left the country, there were so many things that are great. US is something similar. I used to live there until ten months ago. If I put in one word, “convenient” is the one to describe the US for me.

Shanghai, China IV

I had to post this. I did not expect to see this ad in a cab in Shanghai.

Take a look closely. These ladies are bit different shaped than the ones in the states.