within

Gloomy day is a bit boring.
Whatever I do, I spontaneously feel a need of something.
Something... which I never be able to reach.

Then I start recollecting my memories.
It brings me back somewhere visually, acoustically or mentally.
But could it be just my imagination? 
I can make it all up without noticing it.

There is always a small thing I can't accept easily.
I'm not yet brave enough.

I just want to listen carefully.



pictures,
left : Belem
right : Lisbon

Crayon

 
At a crossroad, one can see the red signal and the other see the green signal.
Even if we walk for the same direction, our each steps aren't identical.

A few weeks ago, a girl asked me if I'm Japanese-Brazilian.
Well, I got suntan in Greece and now I'm having pretty brown skin.
So it's not completely a wrong thing to think of.
Although I thought it was one of the funniest questions I've ever been asked.

My mom was visiting me for a month.
So we went to some cities 6 cities in 2 countries, Germany and France.

During the trip with mom, we had experienced many mini dramas.
A Heart warming encounter, makes us laugh and smile but the other could be sad and irritating.

On the platform in Dijon, we met a Swiss gentle man.
"Are you two Japanese?", and surprisingly he asked that in Japanese.
He didn't speak perfect Japanese, however we communicated well using three languages.
As a farewell gift, he gave us some Japanese OKAKI. (OKAKI:rice crackers)
We were tired of European food at the time, we enjoyed it immediately on the train to Germany.
It was exceptionally tasty OKAKI in my Berlin life, what a lovely encounter!

Sometime Germans pointed us and made fun of us.
Very thanks to the improvement of my German, I could understand everything they said.
So, everyone. Please be careful.
If you want to look down someone badly, make sure they don't hear you otherwise we'll get upset and moreover... we feel very sorry for you.
That's the way it is.
And I know it's not only in Germany, everywhere in the world.
... Why don't we learn something from our history?

Traveling is fun but it can give us a lot to think about.
Learning the history, people, culture... and we can learn a lot from someone's behavior.

We have invisible walls everywhere in the world but many of us can travel through them.
Keep the door open and listen carefully, I don't want to miss even a noise.




pictures,
left : Avignon
right : Dresden (after this two of them waved to us!)

Floor

Because of the sun, I feel like lying in the park.

Rain reminds me that there is nothing wrong to be apart from a line.

Keep walking, keep forgetting and keep looking for something.

I've been baking bagels again lately.

Bagels turn out a little different every time even if I use the same ingredients.

I just need to find out how it goes.

Slowly I'm getting there.

Everyday someone is telling me the fundamental colors.

Today I sat a table with German, Polish and Italian.

Tomorrow I'll share time with Korean, Colombian, Israeli, Bangladeshi, Rumanian...

And life goes on.
I had aged one year again.


pictures,
right : Paris
left : metro in Paris

smells like long night

Come to think of it, I've already moved 3 times in Berlin since I came here 11 months ago.
This is something, isn't it?
Finding a room is pretty hard in Berlin.
It seems Berlin is very popular among young people and many artists want to live here.
I've already lived in 4 areas in Berlin.
And actually it was very nice experience to get the grasp of each area and explore them.
I had spent a month in Mitte, 3 months in Prenzlauer Berg, 6 months in Neukölln and now I live in Friedrichshain.

Probably you can find out about the districts we have in Berlin.

http://www.visitberlin.de/en

When I decided to come to Berlin, I was dreaming to live in a building which has a big European door and nicely decorated ceilings.
Berlin has very colorful buildings and nice classic buildings (even with graffiti!)

However Berlin is very different where I used to live.

Lots of broken beer bottled or trash are on the street and I could see many drunkards.

So my first room hunt was pretty tough.

Wherever I went, I felt like "Oh, this area seems very dangerous! I shouldn't live here!"

However after 11 months, I proudly say I've learned what Berlin is like.

Now I love the different charm each area has.

But also I miss the view from my windows I had lived in these 10 months.

Home is where you make it, indeed.

Yes, that's it.

How are you enjoying your town?

picture,

above:Berlin

below:Berlin

A letter, hide and seek

There are messages you want to tell.
There are messages you want to hide.

There are messages you've unknowingly got.

"I've sent the letter to you because I thought you would understand."

Most of the time we use language to communicate.
Certainly it's essential but at the same time we do know it's not only way.

It might be rare but sometime we even understand each other without any words.
Probably you've already experienced that among families or good friends, right?

A smile or a hug can give you "something" more than just words.

I thought I knew it though when I started traveling frequently I realized it wasn't enough.
Getting a glimpse of the actual different culture was quite something for me.


I've been doubting the possibility of language for long and I'm not such a good talker.
Picking up the right words is way too complicated for me.
I believe everyone has certain amount of own notion for each word.
Sometime I'm fed up with the task.
But I also enjoy the silence between people very much.
In silence people express themselves more in a way.

For the first time I went to Marrakech, I met a little girl.

I was eating lunch in the park alone and she came to me.

She was very cute and fragile, she smiled at me so I did the same.

Her father came to search her, and he invited me to their place.
They were living behind the wall in the park.
As soon as we get in the shade he offered me some coke.

It was in a small uncleaned glass though I was so delighted.

We exchanged only few words because I couldn't speak French and Arabic, he didn't speak English.
But I found out her mother passed away.

The little girl was sometimes murmuring "Mom" in the air.
Her skin was very warm and soft, even if she misses her mother she looked very happy with her father.

The second time I went to Marrakech, I visited them but they weren't there.

We didn't hug, we didn't use many words but his firm brown hand and her smile told me a lot.

Looking into something could be painful sometimes.

The pain of egoism.


Our eyes can see things very well.

Although at the same time, they can get blind quite easily.

And I get ashamed of myself.

Every night I look up the sky and make sure that I'm surrounded by lots of stars.

I'm still a tiny dot so I can keep seeking it.

pictures,

left:Berlin

right:Ourica Valley (Morocco)

foggy ≒ love

It's very difficult not to fall in love.
It could be with someone, a book, a movie or a pair of shoes.


As everyone knows certain amount of love, I would say... being in love is similar to being in fog.
Sometimes it's dense and think but sometimes it can just be sweet haze.
Either way I'm sure we can enjoy it and perhaps it's the reason we can't stop loving something.


Watching movies and reading books, I believe it's also a journey for us.
Even if we watch a movie we've already seen before, we sense something differently and it depends on the situation or who we watch it with.


Books are just the same.
We read a book once and after a while we read the book again... we'll realize something new or feel a bit more detailed than before.
Or it could be the opposite.


I watched a movie called "Once" last night and I believe it was my second time to watch it.
The first time was a few years ago, I watched it with my boyfriend.
But this time I watched it alone.
Back them I enjoyed the movie a lot but at the same time I also disliked it.
It's a beautiful story but on the other hand I felt pretty gloomy and depressing for me at the time.
Yet last night was very enjoyable, it felt natural and soothing.
And I kind of thought that's how reality goes.


This is the movie if you haven't seen it before,
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0907657/


Had I changed? Had it changed? Or might be everything?
Well, probably nothing has changed.


To be honest I prefer watching a movie alone especially when the movie has a delicate story line or issue.
And it's so interesting to watch a movie or read a book again.
We can forget a thing quite easily but we can remember something.


Perhaps I watched it for the first time when I was small.
Let's say I've watched "Stand by me" for 10 times.
But still, it's a very enjoyable movie and gives me different impression every time.
I would say this is the movie for adults.


Recently one of my friend said she hasn't watched it yet and I was surprised.
Well, I also have many books I want to read but I couldn't until now so I started reading those books again.


If you haven't seen it please check it out the famous movie "Stand by me",
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0092005/



These are some of my favorite movies and books about love.
If you feel like it please check them out,


It's probably very interesting to read if you know a bit about Kanji,
A Concise Chinese-English Dictionary for Lovers by Xiaolu Guo


I couldn't find any English related page though I love this book,
Les Plus belles lettres d'amour by Madeleine Chapsal


The original novel is the best,
Le Fantôme de l'Opéra by Gaston Leroux


And his great books, Raymond Radiguet


"le temps qui reste",
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0417189/


Buffalo '66,
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0118789/

Le concert,
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1320082/


Once I felt in love with Sahara desert.
I felt I was forgiven.

The older I get I become more weak and mean.

So I keep seeking the forgiveness.

I lose one and I find the other.

pictures, 

above(right): Lisbon

above(left): Cordova

below(left): Sahara Desert (Morocco)

below(right): Black Desert (Morocco)

Washoku vs Yoshoku

It's about lunch time and I've been thinking about food for... almost 2 hours now.

... Food! 

Cooking could be as fun as eating at our favorite restaurant.
Exploring good restaurants is one of everyone's favorite thing to do I guess.

Japanese food is pretty different from western food, and the other way around as well.
In Japan we have Japanese food (Washoku) of course but I think we have lots of Western/Asian fusion food (Yoshoku).

Not to mention the three grand cuisines, I'm interested in all kinds of cuisines.

When I was in Turkey I really enjoyed eating their yogurt or meat dishes.

As I'd already mentioned before I like cheese and bread in each country.

Food is simply great even if we eat alone.

Past few years, it seems Sushi has become very popular food all over the world.

I believe the amount of Sushi lover is increasing very rapidly.

They consume too often and I've met quite a lot of people assume Japanese eat Sushi almost everyday... but unfortunately it's completely wrong.

I'm sorry to say this but this is the fact, I dislike Sushi in overseas. 

Because it doesn't taste right and doesn't look fresh to me.

Anyways Sushi isn't only Japanese food.

As long as I live in Oversea, I'll try my best to show "the real Japanese food" to my friends and try to decrease fake Japanese restaurant, haha

Some food could be truly unknown to them and it's very interesting to know what they think of the flavor.

Unlike in Japan, there are quite a few vegetarians or vegans in the world.

To put the reason aside, it could be a bit hard to prepare Japanese food for them since our food often contains fish stock.

Although I can change the method or I just need to be a little more creative.

When I was in Australia, I had Osaka Pancake (Okonomiyaki), Soba/Udon and Hand-roll Sushi (Temaki-Sushi) party.

My first attempt in Berlin was having "Gyoza" party and it successfully ended in peace.

It's always fun to make such a party and impress the foreigners.

Thanks to all my friends, I had really great time and it's nice to see them smiling happily.

The menu at the Gyoza party,

Gyoza (veg/pork)

Kimpira Kohlrabi

Daikon Salad

Pickled turnip (Kabu no otsukemono)

Marinated cucumber (Namasu)

Pan fried "unique-stuffed veg on top" eggplants (negi-miso/spicy potato/daikon-oroshi)

Mini-Rice ball (Onigiri)

Stir fried bokchoy

Green tea jelly with sweet bean paste (maccha kanten and azuki)

One thing makes me disappointed is deep-fried seafood is pretty common everywhere in the world.

Personally I prefer grilled or pan-fried (or eat them in raw...) more than deep-fried.

However I do like eating fish and just recently I had a nice grilled fish plate at a restaurant in Berlin.

http://www.cafe-offenbach.com/

If you want to try the noodle soup (the picture above), a good restaurant is in Berlin,

http://www.oliverprestele.de/

For beginners,

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_cuisine

For enthusiastic Japanese lover I'll show you some of my favorites here,

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nattō

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lotus_root

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arctium_lappa

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shimeji

pictures,
left/above: Sashimi in Chiba (Japan)

left/below: Ramen in Ichikawa (Japan)

right/above: My favorite chicken in Berlin (Henne) 

right/below: Berlin (Burgeramt)

Triangle

---じゅもん (Hiragana/spell)---

---朧 (Kanji/dim)---

---ルクス (Katakana/luxus)---

Okay, I think I need to say this at first.

I love Japanese language.
To be honest I'm not good at talking so I'd rather say I love write/read Japanese.

Few days ago I had a Japanese food party and I had the opportunity to talk about the Japanese language.
There were my friends who studies or studied Japanese.
So they helped me a bit when I was asked this question.


"What kind of impression do you have for each character?"


Some people might have already known this but we have three kinds of characters in Japanese.
Once in a while people ask me why do we need three kinds of alphabet.       
Well, if you ask that I would say... no idea.
We do have a reason but it's a long story so I'll avoid this for now.


However you can find some idea about Japanese language here,
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_language


It probably sounds a bit tricky to fully understand if your mother tongue has only one character, such as English, German, French and Spanish... the most languages.


On the contrary we have Kanji, Hiragana, Katakana in Japanese.
I assume Kanji is well-known letter because of the origin or the long history.
Also it seems quite a lot of people are fascinated by Kanji in a way.
When I happen to see someone has Tatoo in Kanji, I feel sorry for them.
I'm very sorry to say this but they often have awful Kanji or wrong Kanji...


Well, let's go back to the topic.
I'll just explain my impression towards each character.


I'm very curious what the other Japanese think of that.
And I'm sure each person must have slightly different idea or it might be totally different.
So please consider this is just my subtle idea.


Each character gives me the impression of...
Hiragana（ひらがな）--- warmth, flexible, graceful, thoughtful, gentle, animate, flowery
Katakana（カタカナ）--- vivid, metallic, modern, artistic, inorganic, awkward, stimulus
Kanji（漢字）---------- delicate, fragile, creative, formal, trustworthy, fundamental, rich 


I'm not sure I did that intentionally but I used to write my name in Katakana when I made a short movie.
Or when I take photo and name them, I sometime name them in Hiragana, Katakana and Kanji.
It will spontaneously change depends on what kind of image I've got by each of them.


The pictures above, they're the example which I gave titles in different characters.
It just comes up in my mind without thinking so please don't ask me the reason.
Always I have the options to choose from "Hiragana", "Katakana" and "Kanji".
Just like you'll choose a flavor you feel like it at an ice creamery.

I hope you could get the grasp of what I feel about each letter in Japanese.

And if you see a Japanese next time, perhaps you can ask about the feeling they have.

It could be very difficult to describe but it's very interesting.

I always think we have very vague notion and concept for a word.

People share the same word but I believe there is some invisible thing in it.

It's wikipedia but it's quite interesting to read.

However their English page is not so fun... so how about translating it into English first?

http://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/日本語

Since I've started speaking English I got one more option as well, that is "Alphabet".
I often put English titles ever since I got familiar with alphabet.
And I found it's pretty fun.
In my opinion, alphabet could be more melodious and melancholic.
... What do you think?


Let's play the words more and enjoy them!

       

---ruined--- 

                                                   

pictures,
spell:at Mauer park in Berlin
dim:Japan
luxus:Salamanca
ruined:Berlin

Green&Energy

**Before starting this topic**

Please consider this is just my subjective opinion and very tiny information I give you here.

So please don't absorb everything I'll mention.

Denmark is often said to be the one of leading country in the field of supplying "clean energy".

Yes, there is no doubt they are producing energy by wind power.

And I saw some wind farms in Denmark and Sweden during the trip last week.

The biggest city in Denmark, the population of Copenhagen is about 520000.

Just counting the similar population cities in Japan, we have 20 cities.

However considering the population and the size of country, or the other features, we really can't compare one to the other.

Of course there are many ideas and technics we should learn the way they manage and follow the examples.

Always the energy issue had been a matter for long, though since last year, Japan has come to reach the point that we promptly needs to reconsider the energy source.

I'm desperately hoping we can find a way soon.

The Danish Ministry of Climate and Energy, 

http://www.kemin.dk/en-US/Sider/frontpage.aspx

I found this is quite good to read by WNA,

http://www.world-nuclear.org/info/inf99.html

IAEA,

http://www.iaea.org/

In Japan somehow we often focus only the good side of other countries.

Probably it's not bad at all though I guess there always can be the side which is preferably unspoken.

I live in Berlin right now, the capital of Germany.

I assume Germany has high reputation about the issue of environment and energy as well.

There are 6 bins at my apartment and each bin is specified for packaging, organic, color glass, non-color glass, paper, unrecyclable waste.

And there are only 4 bins at my work so each building would be a bit different.

It's because they need to pay for the each container.

Unlike Japanese systems we can throw the garbage almost anytime.

Although it seems people don't know much about the fact, how they recycle all the rubbish or how they should deal with separating the waste.

One German girl said she usually throw small metals into the organic bin, according to her it's okay to do it because such a small metal can be resolved soon.

But she had no clue where the organic waste end up.

I've asked quite a lot of people about this kind of topic but I haven't got even one clear answer.

That's how it is indeed.

So... perhaps it's about time to learn!

Do you know of the rules where you live? 

How do you separate your garbage everyday?

Are you sometime ashamed to throw the bottle or a cigarette on the street?

We can't make a big change so sudden but there is always something small we can start.

Now you just need to search it online and you can go one step further.

Very easy, right?

You can see the details about the system in Berlin,

http://www.bsr.de/index.html

And the separation rules in English,

http://www.bsr.de/assets/downloads/Abfalltrenntabelle_englisch.pdf

picture (above):Copenhagen

picture (left):Copenhagen

picture (right):Packaging bin (Berlin)