Harajuku & Yoyogi Park

Harajuku is a very bizzare city, strange people get together in front of Meiji Temple (one of most important temples in Japan).
They have different style, however, you can see it started with punks...

Now a days, even foreignes are like them... heheh

In the entrance of Yoyogi park, every Sunday, a group of "Elvis" make their own show...

Yoyogi Park is the Central Park in NY, Parque do Ibirapuera in Sao Paulo, Temple of Heaven Park in Beijing...
Many people doing everything... jogging, playing soccer, baseball.. music instruments like guitar, birinbau and others.

Some people train for their theather acting, there are some dance groups, singers...
And guess! Of course some people doing capoeira.

The park is huge, you can walk for all day... and the more you walk, more strange people appear...

Tennozu Isle

It was a perfect day!
I woke up early, cleaned my apartment, did some laundry and went to the library.
As the weather was so good, I decided to go to Tennozu Isle, where the Meguro River is born.
It was my first time there; I've passed through it to go to Haneda Airport or to go to Odaiba, but never stopped.

The complex is really nice, huge companies like JAL, JTB, Citigroup, TV Tokyo, Sony are there. From the stations, there are skywalks linking all the main buildings.






At the Sea Fort Square, you can have a rest in the shadow and look at the fishes...




It's possible to see Odaiba from the bridge.



The way back, guess... I walked from Tennozu Isle to home... about 7 km... as passing in a new path is my hobby, I found a beautiful temple in Shinagawa.



After an hour walk, I reached the Gate City (Osaki) for a rest.



The supermarket there is so beautiful.. and soooo expensive!!
As I had heard already, the prices are digital:



Passing in all the parks in the way back, around Meguro River, I arrived in Nakameguro 2.5h later ;-)

Need some rest !!

Newspaper in Portuguese

The most famost newspaper in Portuguese in Tokyo is "Jornal Tudo Bem".

http://www.tudobem.co.jp/

I've just gotten an email from them because they are issuing the weekly edition every Saturday from next week.

... and it made me remind that I was interviewed by them last year...


... edition 602... "A procura de brasileiros qualificados"...
I hope more Brazilian are having chances after that publication.

The Made in Japan magazine is also interesting:

http://www.madeinjapan.com.br/site_made_novo/index.shtml

Besides my office is the Imperial Palace

The great thing of working at that place is the Imperial Palace right crossing the street. From my desk, I can see the palace "lake" and the trees of the park.

This afternoon, while walking behind the office, I saw 2 swans sleeping.

The picture is from my keitai (mobile phone) therefore it's too small to identify their head turned 180 degrees, and just resting it on their own back...

Sometimes, at lunch time, we have a picnic in the park, inside the Imperial Palace.
Such good feeling being so close to the most important place in Tokyo ^-^

Skype

Interesting blog, while I was looking at the information about eBay lattest acquisition...

http://ebayhomebusiness.blogspot.com/

4.1 billion USD for Skype is a huge business.

Kamakura & Enoshima

Kamakura was the economic center in Japan in the past.
It has the most important shrine in the country: Tsurugaoka Hachimangu. It exists since 1063 a.C.
There is a special path to reach the shrine, where next week, they will present the horseback archery.

In the temple on the top, there were traditional students praying.

The design of the temple is similar to one I saw in Taipei. It's very colorful and there are many animals sculptured in the max details.



In 1252, the 2nd biggest Buddha in Japan was built in Kamakura. The Great Buddha, originally inside a temple, remained as it is after a tsunami in the XVI cent.









They made special slippers for the Great Buddha.







In the Zeniarai Benten Shrine, I washed a 10,000 yen as believed by locals that the washed money will come in double.

The place is very beautiful and interesting. The rock tunnel is completely natural in the middle of a mountain, with a small beautiful waterfall and inumerous "koi" fishes.

The Shrine represents the fusion of Shinto and Buddhism.


In the afternoon, we reached Enoshima. The beaches are good for surfers and sailors. Many jetskies also are seen...

Wonderful day... Kamakura and Enoshima are places everybody should visit at least once...

1080 Tsurus

Close to my place, in a buddhist temple, there is a small special shrine where people can hang the swans in origami as a wish to someone's health.
It's beautiful to see Japanese faith making those more than 1000 small origamis...

Worm Diet

Believe me if you can...
I've just heard about this diet famous in Japan...
It's the worm diet... yeah! worm. You get a worm egg and the worm will grow up in your intestine.

The models have this worm until the end of the diet. They eat as usual however the worm will get all the proteins and fat during digestion.

It seems last year this type of diet made a lot of success between the Japanese models.

Amazing what they create here and how people follow these things...

Arghhhh

Breeze of Tokyo

It's a great restaurant, with a wonderful view of Tokyo.
On the 36F of Marunouchi Bldg, the dishes are delicious and the environment is really nice.
Romantic place though!

It was a business dinner but I can say I enjoyed a lot!

http://r.gnavi.co.jp/g763349/

Farewell Party

Today was my boss' farewell party. He is moving to a much higher position in a foreign company.

I'm very proud of him. After 1 year working with him, I learned how to manage people, as he is one of the best managers I've ever had.
He has a simple, honest, efficient style of management, and I'm sure that's why he got the new position.

He built our current team, which is an amazing group. We are mainly foreigners, from Hongkong, Taiwan, India, Korea and of course Brazil. It's the most international team in a Japanese company, which made us to work very close to the international vendors.

Well, talking about the dinner, it was in a Hawaiian restaurant, Mahana, in Ebisu. The environment and the food are very nice, original and comfortable.

Have a good new job my boss! You deserve that!!

Hokkaido - day 6

Waking up at 5am, we were back to Kita Hiroshima in 1h.
We were still able to rest a bit and as the onsens open only at 10am,
we took the shower in the campervan (1st time we used it).
The water was warm and it was really good for a shower in a
campervan!

After packing and all clean, I looked around the van and
thought how it was good to be in the campervan for all those
days in Hokkaido.

It was a great great time!
I'm already missing all the good moments and places in Hokkaido!

If I can live those days again, I would do exactly all the same.
Even my hand... because of that, I saw nurses trying to kill the
mosquitos and sing funny songs in the hospital...

Because of Hokkaido, I know how much human and nature are in
harmony... and there are places you can find in Japan where people
are not materialists at all... where people really care about
taking care of the nature...

Thanks God, for the wonderful trip to an amazing Hokkaido!

Hokkaido - day 5

In Nemuro, we were presented to the history about the islands around the peninsula. They share some of the islands with Russia and Japan is asking to give back one of them officially Japanese.

The signs in the city are also written in Russian, what shows how many Russian are around there. Every morning, Russian fish men deliver the crabs and fishes to the Japanese seafood places. We went to Hanasaki Port, where the crabs are fresh and cheap. In one of the small fish places, a lady offered us to serve a huge crab for 1,500 yens. As a lunch with crab costs at least 5,000 yens in a normal restaurant, of course we had the lunch at that small restaurant at the port.

To have an idea, we spend half an hour to eat the crab, and the body of the crab was also used to serve the local sake with crab meat. Very unique experience with crabs ^-^
The sake is also softly sweet, with the special taste of the crab, bringing a sensation that we cannot live in a country without seafood…
In the restaurant, we met people from miyazaki with so strong accent that for a second I thought it was Russian ;-)
There, the fish men told us many stories about Ainu culture, Hokkaido and the nature.
When we were ready to pay the lunch, the lady said 2,000 yens with the beers. I thought it was the price per person…. But it was in the total :D

Ready to go, and knowing we don’t need dinner, we follow the wind to the Cape Ochiishi, where we met an old photographer in a Harley, with his wife. Amazing people are in Hokkaido.

After passing through Hamanaka, we reached Kushiro Marshlands National Park. Not much time to see everything, but the main landscape was the savanna.

Driving up the mountains was not easy, because of the fog… the landscape is beautiful during the winter, so we decided to start our return to Sapporo.

At night we made a stop in Hidaka.

Hokkaido - day 4

The night before, we reached Utoro, where people take the boat to go around Shiretoko peninsula. After the onsen, lucky we found a camping site in Shiretoko and took a rest.

In the morning, we went down to Utoro to take the boat. Tickets are 8,000 yen for 3h tour. Boats are the only way to see around the peninsula. The guides are very careful regarding to the nature preservation. As nominated the world heritage 2005 by the UN, Shiretoko has been visited quite a lot this year. Local people are very concerned to keep everything as the nature made.

The weather was not so good; many clouds actually made us see many animals there.

Even the bears, what local people say it is rarely seen, we were able to meet 4 of them. They were fishing their lunch and the binoculars helped to see them well.

An "obento" (lunch box) with a super fresh "ikura" (salmon’s eggs) were served in the boat. Delicious!!

On the way to Shiretoko once again, we met some deer and foxes. The are not afraid of human and stay eating in front of us for a while.

They are completely free, none of them can be touched or feed. While you’re driving, just be careful because other cars are stopped in the middle of the way taking pictures ;-)

In the afternoon, we went to the 5 lakes inside Shiretoko’s mountains with a non-comparable landscape. The lake 2 is the biggest and the most beautiful.

In our guidebook, there’s a description of a natural onsen waterfall few km after the 5 lakes. We asked for the place and it’s only possible to reach there with a special bus. No private cars can reach the waterfall to protect the nature.

When I arrived there, the sensation was like climbing the Fuji Mountain with water falling down calmly. The water however is warm. And the smell is like in the onsen tamago’s place.

You climb for about 20 min to reach the place you can take the natural bath. As we arrived end of the day, there were few people and I felt all the onsen waterfall only for you. First time in a real very natural onsen that provides the amazing sensation of what God prepared with His hands. I took some pictures with the instant camera, but I still have to process them... I will upload later on ;-) it's worth!!

After so relaxing time, I faced a problem… to get down on the waterfall is much but much more difficult than climbing… it is very slippery and sometimes you have to go down with the water, otherwise you stay there forever.

Many people were slipping and falling down… when I was almost on the bottom… it was my turn! Boooom…. Fell down in a very beautiful and original way, with my left hand getting all my body’s weight against the rocks…

This made my visit to the onsen waterfall unforgettable. Because after we return to the campervan, I went straight to the hospital to make sure my hand wasn’t broken.

And thank God, it was fine, still painful but nothing broken.

At night, we still drove down to Nemuro, a very interesting area… in a huge farm in the middle of the nature, we rest one more night.

Hokkaido - day 3

After spending the night in Kitami, we took the road 240 to Kushiro. The first stop was in the Akan National Park, Akan lake, with a wonderful view. Me-Akan mountain is still active volcano.

The lunch was a famous fish “don”; the fishes are very small, I don’t remember the name (-.-)#... also, a special sashimi that is prepared frozen, like a Korean sashimi.

Lake Kussharo is the biggest lake in the park. In Kussharo, there is a track around the lake, where there are high places you can have the best view of the lake. At the end of the track, there is a house, we thought it was abandoned, but in the reality, it is an onsen room, with 2 big baths and everybody can take free relaxing time there. This is Japan!

Between lake Kussharo and lake Mashu, the most beautiful view driving the car. You feel as you are in the middle of giant trees, between the mountains and you are part of the landscape.
The best actually was still to come up… considered one of the most beautiful views in all Japan, the lake Mashu! As the weather was wonderful, all the lake was in the best blue color. There is free stop point going forward from the paid parking. Don’t need to pay to see the lake.

If you go further, there is an onsen “central” mountain, where you see the steam changing the rocks color to yellow. Japanese boil eggs on those onsen focus which are called “onsen tamago”.

Hokkaido - day 2

Waking up very early to drive down to Minami Furano! We got a good price at HAT Rafting and they are so organized, preparing everything from the clothes, Japanese words to synchronize our movements, photographer, the bucket of water to wash our feet before getting into the bus to return… everything very detailed and well thought out.

The scenario for the rafting was amazing… not only fun, on those waves but the river is in the middle of green paradise; we saw a mink crossing the river in front of us, the blue butterfly over our heads, the pollen (which name I don’t remember) and looks like a snow in the river.

The water was less then 20C, very cold but nice to do rafting in such a beautiful day.

One hour rafting in that clean water is unforgettable. If I go to Hokkaido, I’d do it again for sure!!

Very hungry after rafting, we went up to Furano and we went to a famous restaurant there. We were not expecting, but their special dish is the “deer, duck and chicken nabe”… yes, I ate deer which was delicious… very lucky that I ate before meeting it’s relatives in person later on… I wouldn’t eat them after see those beautiful animals…

The meat is a bit tough, however the tasty is special, it’s similar to beef (more soft tasty actually then beef).

Of course, we went to Furano and Biei for the flowers field. It was already in the end of the season however still very colorful.

Hokkaido is very famous because of the lavender fields…. The best is to see in May or June, however we were still able to see many lavender and other flowers fields.

At night, we went up to the highest mountain in Tokachi. On the top, we went to the onsen (rotenburo, which means outside hot spring) and we saw the reflection of the sunset on the mountains.

Hokkaido - day 1

On the 23rd, 1.5 hour from Haneda, we reached Shin-Chitose and took a train to Kita-Hiroshima to pick up the campervan. Old model! right...ok! there is not much campervan's rental service in Japan, especially in Hokkaido. In Sapporo area, there's only one... but at the end, I was feeling so good traveling in that campervan... I will miss it!

It was my first travel in a campervan; very very interesting, it has a table, a coach that becomes a bed, sink, stoven, refrigerator, shower, toilet, TV... we got a camping kit, with camping pans, sleeping bags, ... all the controllers in a panel, which you set to be able to use the water, light, gas, 12V/battery set for the refrigerator...

After all set, we took the 36 road to Sapporo and did the sighseeing in the main tour points. The old Gov building is very beautiful... the tower and odori park are very nice. Take a walk there is very relaxing...
Sapporo station is quite big and the downtown looks like Ginza in Tokyo. Brand stores and nice buildings...

After a quick sighseeing, we drove up to Takikawa city, to reach Furano area next day. In Takikawa, something very nice happened; we were looking for an onsen and as the streets are very difficult in Japan, a taxi driver took us to the onsen which was not so near. He did it for free and I feel very glad as he showed us one of the best onsen we had in Hokkaido. The rotenburo (onsen outside) was amazing... and as it was very late at night, I was myself out there, in a very beautiful scenario.

We continue a bit more to find a very quiet place to sleep, in the middle of the trees and a river besides... Sleep with the stars and listening to the river was a gift from the nature!

My backpack is ready!

Leaving early in the morning with my backpack for my summer vacation.
Where to go, well, I even dunno which cities I'll be... you will know after I come back... probably it will be a place with no internet and in the middle the nature ^-^

See ya...

First snorkeling

Phi Phi Maya Bay, an hour from Phuket by boat.
The one day trip around Phi Phi Island was amazing.
Snorkeling and swimming in those islands are a special gift from the nature.
I heard abt this place from the movie "The Beach" (with Leo)... he had a wonderful time for sure.
I actually don't remember exactly the day I was there... some day in November 2003, a week before joing the new company ^-^.

Seoul...

I have to register this trip to Korea in the blog. It happened in 2003 Sep, for my first business trip.
The project was for the 2nd biggest bank in Korea and the clients were really hard workers and nice to me. They are more hard workers then Japanese (^-^).
After this trip, I realized it is possible to travel to anywhere in the world without knowing their local language. Well, Korean people can speak a very good Japanese; better than English.

Hanabi

The fireworks festival in Japan happens every summer.

People wear yukata (summer kimono) and the environment is completely different from the usual one.

They are long, about 1h with 1 or 2 breaks and usually there is no space to between people. All the festivals are very very crowded and if you don't arrive early you will never find your friends.

Some of my friends go in the morning to keep a good place and spend all day waiting for the fireworks.

Feijoada

The most famous Brazilian dish is the black bean Feijoada.
Once a month I still need to have a Feijoada and I really like
the "linguica" (Brazilian sausage) in there.
And today was the day! Hmmmm, delicious!!
It matches if eaten with orange! Believe me (^-^)v

Tsubame Kichen

They serve almost the same menu as lunch in the evening,
and as usual I ordered the salad set.

The food is good, delicious hamburgers and sausages!
My friend got a spinach soup and we both had a very
healthy dinner :D

They are a chain, the one we used to go is in Oazo Building.
The building is very close to our office we often go there
for book shop, nail care ^-^, coffees, shoppings, and to
see live images from the space at Jaxa.

Kangaroo's world

Everything was perfect. I met Juliana in Melbourne and we went to see the koalas and the penguin parade!! they are soooo cute...
The Gold Coast is unforgetable. The 12 apostoles, actually they were 9. The green/blue sea and the magic colors of the stones and land...
Melbourne is like Curitiba... City of Culture... the aboriginal culture and art was amazing... the museum in the Federation Square (some of them free entrance) showed different and beutiful art.
In the St Paul Cathedral I took a break and made my usual pray ;-)
Well, I couldn't forget the Max Brenner chocolate Juliana introduced to me ^-^ wonderful... strawberry with chocolate.. hmmm

Ah, before I forget... pls forgive for eating a kangaroo there... it was so delicious... oh my...

California... they hate Bush!

Los Angeles, the beaches are wonderful, Hollywood is amazing, the parks are huge. We also took the route 99 to see the famous people's houses.

San Diego is a paradise, everywhere you go is beautiful... Coronado is so organized, beautiful and clean...

But the nicer place is San Francisco! The architecture can make everybody like the city and desire to live there.

Hakone ^-^

Ok, you know I've been in Hakone ... however at this time I went to a places I've never been... the Prince Hotel was wonderful. From the window of the room, such a beautiful view of the mountain.

In the Hakone Museum, wow, many European arts and this one in the pic is a French one. There's also the Picasso special museum in a park. It's a place to see famous arts and rest in the onsen.

New York is cooooold (^-^;

NY was special because I met my friends, from the actual and previous companies.
Well, Tokyo is cold but the coats I broght there are not enough... I had to buy a huge coat on the day I arrived.

I stayed at Renata's place in NJ, where is beautiful, very clean, modern and it seems everything is new. I liked the train there ^-^

However the subway is terrible... so durty and crazy people everywhere...

Moma, Metropolitan and Guggenheim ... I couldn't stop a minute... they are interesting every cm there and after all day walking around; as the timezone is the opposite, I went down in some of the couches there...

The Central Park was "bold" because of the winter. It is huuuge, with few people doing some exercises... most of them old people walking at that time.

Rockfeller Center is a must, I had no time and no knee for the ice skate, but it worth. It is beautiful.

Time Square is apart of everything. Theaters and shopping malls... it was so crowded.
Madame Tussads was empty ^^, luckly, I was able to see all the "famous artists" there.
Airton Senna was there.

In Stamford (Connecticut), Komal took me to do my first sculputure in the nails... it was looong and scary (^O^).

Grand Central Station is a special place, they reserved the old style and it looks you are in a museum. Difference with Tokyo, NYrs doesn't help you to find out the right way. People working in the station are there only to look not to speak or show you the directions.

The public library is huuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuge and it was not possible to see even 10% what they have! And the Empire State? well, 2h waiting list, I gave up. I only checked outside what was enough, especially because after that, I had a NBA game to go!! Yes, Renata got a ticket to watch NY Knicks in the Club Suite at Madson Square Garden.

Sad feeling was in the Ground Zero... I still could see people's face in a very deep painful feeling...

At night, Time Square is a show of lights and panels... Manhattan ... hoooo... I could live there ^-^ happy groups around Manhattan, doing shoppings for the Xmas or having a family dinner.

On the last day... Statue of Liberty! couldn't miss that, right? Anyway, Liberty is one of my laws, I had to take a look inside the miss liberty.

Great time in NY. I would go again, however not in the winter time (^^;

GREAT WALL

My wish became true... someday I was wishing walk on the Great Wall and see the amazing landscape from there.

Beijing was full of surprises... when I was in the Forbidden City, I met a Brazilian tour group and we spend all the walk through the temples together. Acrobats Theater presented crazy people doing crazy things... Beautiful is the Temple of Heaven, dragons are designed by flowers and monuments architecture is unique.
In one of the entrances, some old Chineses were doing Tai chi chuan and others dancing very happy... one Chinese was holding a tree and I'm sure he got a wonder energy from it.
I couldn't forget the famous Beijing Roast Duck restaurant in Wangfujing, where you get a full duck and a show of tea preparation.

I have to alert people with sensitive stomach... in Beijing, most of time I was food poisoned... and if you ask the taxi driver to stop as you feel sick, he will only open the window for you!
English? no, nobody speaks English... even in the international hotel, few Chinese speak English and you have hard time before you get someone to undertand you.

Hongkong

Hongkong has a modern city with beautiful all glass buildings and very traditional places, like the Buda you can see in the snap.

Beautiful beaches and great shopping malls around the islands in HK. Each island with a particular view, culture and people.

The most beautiful night view in the world is on the Peek in HK island. The lights are colorful in all the around the Peek. I also had a wonderful dinner on the top, with super fresh raw oysters. yummy ~