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 ~

Taiwan

It was very hot in Taipei... shourompo was delicious and the city (downtown) has mini bikes as many as Beijing has bicycles.
The temples in Taipei are very colorful and full of details as you can see in the pic.

Moving to Peitou (famous for hot springs), I had a painful professional massage on the feet and a huge and wonderful dinner, with fishes, vegetables, Chinese noodles, hmmmm... it was great!

Yokohama

Lovely Yokohama! Very modern architecture and a new platform like a ship made all with a Brazilian wood.

The chinatown is also very interesting, it's really like China and they have delicious "shorompo".

The tallest building behind me has the fastest elevator in the world to the top of a building with great night view.

It was cold, but I had a great time with my friends ;-)

Ronaldinho! ooooo^-^ooooo

Who would say I would see Ronaldo's poster in Malacca...

I tried the famous chicken rice with a lemonade... very simple but tasty...
The city is very traditional, in culture and religion... very different than KL.

Thanks my private driver to take me there ～☆

Singapore

The city that is a country is hooooot and very humid every day in the year.
Storms in the end of the day is also common.
That's why they have the city and nature in a good combination.
There are trees everywhere and the city is very very beautiful.
Modern buildings and center of many business in Asia, S'pore is a culture mixed country.
Night safari is real, the animals are so close to you and you hear scary sounds at night.
To go to Sentosa island, we take the gondola from the top of a building.
It's unique sensation...

Sentosa island is artificial where they have the butterfly garden.
The birth zoo was also wonderful. You walk with the birds beside you and you see wonderful and colorful huge birds from all the world.

Shimoda

In Izu Peninsula, the most beautiful beaches in Japan. Shimoda is the south part of the peninsula and is famous for diving and sea activities.
The hotel has a private onsen in the room and the view from the room is the clean sea and huge ships.
Seafood dishes served by the hotel was big enough to make me gain weight :O
The weather was nice... the companion's on a journey was great... the food was wonderful... the onsen unforgetable... the sea was a heaven...

Hiking for the 8th time

It's true I like hiking... the nicer mountain
to hike is Takaozan! Very convenient as you
just start hiking from the train station.
And there is always a special event on the top :O
Yes, at this time, a Japanese ceremony of tea was
the special event; the green tea and the sweet
"okashi" were wonderful... everything for free ;-)

Phuket and Phi Phi Island

All day in Phuket... in the beach!! wonderful coconut water... relax, sun.. got really burnt!!

I didn't like the city... noisy all night... many pubs and drunk people trying to disturb you... but the beaches are pretty good! the food is great!!

The water is clean and very easy to "try" to swim... I cannot swim much but I'm still having fun !!




One of the best massages are in Thai... very cheap comparing to Japan... and stronger... and painful... very painful... but relaxing after a while. Even my digest works better after a massage; true!!

We went to many islands after snorkeling and stopped in the island to see the wild monkeys... very wild... stealing food !





Even having a cold I couldn't resist... I went to Phi Phi Island ... but Leo was not there... only the really beautiful beach hahah








I did snorkeling when I was kid but nothing comparing with snorkeling in Phi Phi... big colorful fishes, so many, in a wonderful clean sea... with amazing people (nice people I met in the boat!).





A small island in the middle of the sea is a must ... more snorkeling and relaxing in heaven... I saw dolphins there!

Next time I would stay in Phi Phi, instead of Phuket! to do snorkeling every day and eat more fish (^O^)

Bangkok

Bangkok is a amazing city with great temples and budas. You can see a huge buda, a small buda, buda sitting, buda standing, buda sleeping...

Bangkok was special.. I went to all the historical temples and met some locals and Japanese friends who moved there.

I loved the food, coriander is great and also the curries.

Most beautiful lake

Hakone is only 1h from Tokyo, maybe a bit more, but you can enjoy the romance car (special train) and you won't feel it' s far at all...
Ashino is one of the most beautiful lakes I've ever seen. You can see the Mount Fuji, eat onsen egg, have a wonderful view from the hotels, those are on the bottom of the mountains... many many onsens... real onsen!
They also have the Picasso museum in Hakone. It is very interesting, with sculptures and different painting you never see in the museums.

The transportation is good, with ships, roapways, trains, cable cars and buses those can take you everywhere in Hakone!

Ginza

The most beautiful city in Tokyo, in terms of elegance, brands, rich area.
Every Sunday, they close the main street for cars and we can just seat there in the middle of the big street.

It's place you can see how much money Japanese people spend in brand goods. One bag can cost 5,000 USD, a pair of shoes 900 USD very easily.

Is the Japanese the most materialist people in the world?

On the top of Mount Fuji

If you live in Japan, climbing Mount Fuji is a must!
It is a unique sensation to start climbing at 20:00 and arriving
on the top at 5:00. It was the most beautiful sunrise and
even so tired, we still could smile :D
It's probably because we didn't know how hard would be to go
down from the top in 3h... it made me have knees sore
for many days.
I heard most of time, it's so clowdy on the top
and it's difficult to see the sunrise so clear as we did.

Saikou!!!

In Yokohama, Brazil became the champion of the world cup 2002!! And I was there, with my friend Rubens and many german supporters around us... It was a very easy game hehehe... the show before the game was also very beautiful! It was one of the best days in my life...

The other game I went againt England was more difficult... we went by bus from Tokyo to Shizuoka and everybody got drunk before we arrive in the studium...

Now I know why I was supposed to be in Japan ;-)

First ski season

My first ski season.v (^^)v

The landscape is so beautiful!

We stayed in the company's house

in Nojiri Lake. The lake is just in front of

the house. It's really cold but it worth.

Next was in Naeba, where we did the

night ski. The lounge we were is so nice,

they take us everywhere anytime.

Nagano, Kurohime, oh, so many beautiful

and wonderful places to ski. In the total, 7 times I went to ski, sometimes

only for one day. Snowboard is a must! Everybody should try!

First day in my new job

Today was my first day in the new company, in a new country, in my new life :O

I was very excited to get there, and met my boss first in the train station. He took me to the office in Kamiyacho, introduced me to the new team and I started working in the new enviroment.

The team... all Japanese :O
I'm very surprised as when I was in Brazil, they told me the team has lots of foreigners... well, I'm only the one... in the department of course, many foreigners, maybe about 20% of people there from other countries.

My team is the technical team, solaris and sybase are the main work.
I have to do a self-study for a while and understand Reuters' products.

In the lunch time, all the team together to a Chinese restaurant in the Pastoral Hotel.

Ah, I felt it's not normal in Japanese people wearing braces on the teeth... they asked me why I use them... and it's true, I haven't seen anybody wearing braces in Tokyo yet...
Well, it's fine, I'm different anyway (^-^)v
This is what everybody said in the new office: "Helena, you are so different, not only the way to speak or be, but the energy around you is so happy"

I'm very proud of being a Brazilian in this country. My new colleages are very curious about Brazil and guess what... my new manager has been in Brazil, participating in the Rio's Carnival! YES, believe me. He was there, with 3 more friends, in a white costume, in the Marques de Sapucai!

I will love this team !!

Moving to the other side of the world

Leaving my country Brazil and starting a new life in Japan.
New job, new place, new friends, new culture, new everything!

Everything happened so fast; living in Curitiba for more than 10 years, good university, good job, good apartment, wonderful friends...
However, it was written in the stars that my life could be just... better...

The feeling was of a great excitement, no afraid of anything, just be myself in my own way.

Thanks God, for my beautiful life.