Xmas Eve

Flight on time to go to the Christmas Eve party in Azabu at Victor's.
Xmas is not Xmas without the Victor's party!!
Crazy people haaa!!
Merry Christmas to everybody... (pouquinho atrasada... hehhehe)

Hawaii X: Great Friends!!

Hey Grant!!
Wonderful time you gave me in North Shore, while you work I just have fun... lots of fun :-P

Great trip around Oahu, shopping to buy the shorts and the nose!! I have to take a pic of the nose.



Ahh Dave, pity we couldn't fly ... Dave is paragrider instructor... maybe next time in Oahu I'll do it....

Thanks for the "romantic" place you showed me and to make me jump on the Spitting Cave ... not only once but 3x... sorry I got bored after the 3rd time ;-)

hahahah, who am I thinking saying that... well... hmmm.... grrrr



need to say anything ???









Last view... I'm missing Hawaii already...

Hawaii IX: North Shore

Last day in Hawaii... great new friend Dave asked his friend Grant to pick me up in the hotel to go to North Shore.
Trip to Oahu without going to North Shore is nothing!
I had to see the most beatiful waves and best surfists right!?

View of the Sunset Beach... I walked there in about 20min...



And this is the ... the other side...
Walked about 1 hour and a half until the rocks block the beach and I couldn't proceed... loong and gorgeous surfists on the way.






This is a cute boy, the youngest I saw surfing in Hawaii...








They are good, and the waves are perfect ^-^
I never tried surf, only body board, but I know when good waves come one after another...






Best wave break !!

The color and the shape of the waves will be always in my mem!

Thanks Grant and Allen for the great moment ;-)

Hawaii VIII: The city...

Waikiki... in a good shape, exercising every morning ^-^

Made good friends in the beach... from many different countries and doing body board/surfing!!
A woman, around her 50 years, with the surfing board, studying the waves was great!




First Lady...








Just passed very quickly...








And this was the only different thing I saw in Hawaii...

I haven't seen in Tokyo, at least in the streets yet...

Hawaii VII: Hanauma & Nuuanu

Considered 2nd most beautiful beach in the world, Hanauma Bay is the favorite for snorkeling!!
Better go very very early and don't need to queue ^-^

It's not allowed to feed the fishes (was good I did while diving on Monday). Unfortunately it is very crowded... other areas are better if you don't like many people around you looking at the same fishes :O




Driving a bit further, there's an institute where the sea life park allows you to touch dolphins by 3,000 yen ... of course I don't pay...




Great view was the rabbit island, in the perfect weather ... later I was on the top of the other mountain to see this island... is one of the most beautiful views in Oahu. in my opinion. Pity it was too windy and I couldn't do paragrider... next time !!







Nuuanu park has a great view of Kane Ohe, but the weather was not good, not very clear but pretty hot!

Hawaii VI: Sailing in Poka'i Bay

My first sailing :O
Serious... I didn't plan anything to this trip, but things just worked out for me !!
I found a very nice company to go around Poka'i Bay for sailing and snorkeling.
Very lucky to be Brazilian... actually when I speak in English, nobody believes I come from Japan and everybody uses to ask me where I'm from... interesting advantage is that usually people in whole world like Brazilians.
So I was the only one to "ride" during sailing, of course under Captain's supervision!


Don is in a white T-shirt, he can speak very good Japanese and it seems he's responsible for the Japanese tourists during sailing.
He took a good care of me, as I was alone for snorkeling and everything else, making me feel very comfortable and safe. Thanks Don!!


A huge whale was in front of us! coming from cold water to hawaii and give birth.
They come usually in couple or more ... they come out around every 3 min... and can be anywhere... they are very fast and it was necessary to be far enough from them... their size? double as our sailing boat...




Wow!! two of them!! I could hear their sound... and the water coming up from their... hmmm.... hole hahahhaha

After that, more snorkeling!!! Many many many fishes and coral... I didn't want to go back to the boat ^-^

Hawaii V: Cintiaaaaa

Olha so!! Amiga da Sol, la de San Diego, em Honolulu com o maridao!
E nos encontramos no restaurante/pub Duke’s Canoe Club no Outrigger Waikiki.
Muito legais os amigos da Sol, bebemos umas cervejas e falamos pra caramba... quero dizer, acho que eu falei pra caramba...

So teve um probleminha... esqueci minha camera na mochila e ... cade foto ??? mas que coisa! como pude esquecer... mas tbem, com tantas viagens diferentes e com fuso malucao, tirando soneca na praia e bebendo esses coqueteis maravilhosos no Hawaii, isso que da mesmo!

Mas tudo bem, na prox a registra ne Cintia!!

Entao eh isso! foi DEZ!!

Hawaii IV: Scuba in Maunalua

Luckly, the timezone difference made me wake up at 5am every morning. At 6am I was already going to the beach. On the 3rd day, I did a kinda scuba diving but a special one for non-licensed people. First time I could feed the fishes and I could see them so close to me ^-^. Many types... so colorful and "elegant" (very thin fishes lol). It's another world inside the water... some budhist statues and a huge turtle!! it was sleeping :O


It was pretty interesting, it is called scuba bob and you wear a helmet with the oxigen and you drive a little "bike" down about 5m in the water.
One instructor for each person, they instruct you from the boat to the bottom... but you can manage the direction as you wish... up and down are controlled by the instructor.



After the scuba bob, lots of time for snorkeling! such a beautiful place to do snorkeling ^-^
As it was too windy, everybody was feeling sick... except me hehehe, maybe because I didn't eat anything... jet lag and I was not feeling hungry for weeks, travelling all the time and I even thought I lost weight... which I was wrong... I look a bit fat in the pic :O... a bit?

Hawaii III: Sunset at Waikiki Beach

Walking from the closest beach from the Diamond Head to Waikiki was pretty good! I even dunno how long I took... just know the view of the sunset made me stay there for a while.

Waikiki is full of Japanese ("japas")... you can recognize them... they are all smoking... so few places I could rest and swim without any problem... other places, I just ran !!


Very happy were the guys doing that water para-skate things I forgot the name hehehe
This is my favorite picture !!
All day I follow those guys doing so many good movements there...
Great time!!



This one was taken while drinking a hawaiian haialu (I think this is the name of the cocktail??). In front of Hilton hotel...








... and when I was leaving, a show of ula ula dancing in the hotel's pool was a special time !!

Thanks Rubin for this pic!

Hawaii II: Hiking to the Diamond Head

In the morning, I went for hiking (very easy) to the Diamond Head (Le Ahi) Crater, an extinted volcain close to Waikiki. Today, Diamond head is the most recognized landmark in Hawaii ;-)

The trolleys get you to up to the bottom of Le'ahi, while other transportations go only til before the tunnel and you have to walk a bit.



Le'ahi was created about 300,000 years ago, during an eruption and the broad crater covers 350 acres.

Dominant plants are kiawe and koa haole and birds like cardinals, doves and sparrows are common.




In 1940, Diamond Head was purchased by the federal government and designated for military use because it was an ideal site for the coastal defense of O'ahu.






This is the view of Waikiki from the top of Diamond Head.
It's worth to walk up there for this wonderful view!!







And this is the view of Diamond Head (not really good pic because of so strong wind on that day) from the Waikiki beach.

Hawaii I: arriving in Honolulu

Arriving very early in Honolulu, I went straight to the Ala Moana Beach and I saw the 1st big turtle in the sea. The weather was wonderful and many people running, walking, swimming, training cannoing and diving...
The jet lag was terrible, so I had to take a nap in that "terrible" place ;-)

After my icecream lunch, I went to Waikiki, of course! For the night view, which was nice, taking the free trolley around the beach...

The view of the Ala Moana Beach and Honolulu Downtown:


Sometimes tour package is good, almost every transportation for free and could do lots of sightseeing...
Of course, I could choose all the activities myself and could do many things for the first time, in a wonderful island :D

December! always crazy!

Almost every night, dinner with special friends and bonenkai (company's dinner).
Last night was a special one, with Brazilians and almost Brazilians... natsukashii to speak in Portuguese e drink... yeah... beer, wine, nihonshu.... (ended up very drunk... So drunk I couldn't pack for today's trip...)

Every year, December has been full of emotion, traveling almost every weekend and having fun at work... lots of fun especially this week, in the office... crazy people... massing up everything...
This year, starting with the exam going straight to Kyoto, then after few days to NYC and today to US again! Come back for Xmas special party in Tokyo and before the year is gone, I travel to Nagoya, of course!

As the winter is quite strong this year, we plan already to go for snowboard (recommendation by doc for my knee not to get so bad, instead of skiing). Probably I'll go in January...

I miss the time we use to go to Naeba, Nagano, Niigata for ski... and the time we all got lost while snowboarding for the 1st time... no gondola to go back anymore, we had to wait in the other side of the mountain for rescue hahahahha

NYC 2005

Once again in NYC, always in the winter... hahaha maso!
In fact... last time I was not able to explore Central Park and it is really beautiful!! oh yeah, especially after all night of snow, the reservoir (Jacqueline Kennedy) was awful.
Well, the famous Great Lawn, only a huge space of white carpet... around, many ppl skiing and playing like kids in the snow... I felt "natsukashii" the time I was going for skiing almost every weekend with my good friends already back to Brazil...

The view from the Belvedere Castle is quite nice... All the lakes right now are with a thin ice layer and makes the landscape very light...

I was not able to get maps when I arrived as too many ppl in the airport... so a guy from Seattle asked me to take his picture, offered to take mine and gave goods maps and tips...


Aeeeeee, friends in NYC, for couple of hours but really good time to see them ^-^
After working all together at HSBC, amazing is even everybody split up around the world we still keep in touch and have great time everywhere.
Thanks to Renatinha for arranging that at last minute (^-^)v



The best walk was through the Brooklyn bridge, wonderful view of Manhattan from the middle of the bridge... lucky ppl can run Sunday morning on the bridge in a very sunny day!
One thing is good to see in America is ppl jogging anytime... much much more than in Tokyo.
Even here, most of ppl running is foreigner... at least the places I use to go for running and walking...

Brooklyn is more beautiful than I was imaging... the architecture of the buildings is nice, big bldgs (like citigroup and chase) make the view of the downlown a bit different.


Now, if I tell destiny and lucky walk together on my way... maybe not a big deal for others but I was quite amazed with the real geishas in Kyoto... I thought it was not possible to see them so close, suddenly trip and such a big coincidence to be in the right place in the right moment...
Four days later I was in NYC, Lincoln Square, close to the Central Park when my dear friend Renatinha just said they started "Memoirs of a Geisha" the movie on that day...
Two hours of a story I have read 5 or 6 years ago... of course the Sayuri being a chinese is quite strange... and the Pres being The Last Samurai also very weird.
The funniest thing is that I probably was a geisha in some past life ^-^ hahahhah
a good one like Sayuri hoooooo
Maybe someday I find my Pres to be my "danna" ?
mas q tonta... como diz meu amigo Pepe in barcelona.

JLPT

Aiiii, in wrong order...
JLPT was on Sunday 4th... right before I ran to take the shinkansen to Kyoto!
The Tokyo Meguro university is 2 min from shibuya, in a cold day with rain, still the autumn effects showing the beauty.
3 sections in the exam, with about 30 min interval... in general it was easy, however the kanjis are too much confusing, so easy to mix them up and the answers are so similar... grrrrrr
I had fun actually, the way the fiscals behave during the tests... they give yellow card if someone doesn't stop answering the questions on time, or open the book before the right time...
The worst was a music started in the middle of the last section... the fiscals started looking for the origin and found a backpack with an alarm to play a music... they guy of course got a RED card! out of the room!
After a week I got an invitation to participate in a test (I think they are trying to change the JLPT exam and they want some opinion about it). It will be in march and the organization will pay 5,000 yen for each participant!

Kyoto - The Real Geisha

In the afternoon, we went to Arashiyama!
The colorful trees on the mountains seem sweet and good taste... I was hungry ... yeah... a lot...

I took so many beautiful pictures there, but in other SD which cannot be recognized by my laptop right now... argh!

But let me record the most important part of the trip: GION!

I went there only to see the beautiful places they have, many ladies wearing kimonos and strange... some photographers in a small street... maybe a famous actor or singer... and waiting for about 5 min :O:O jya jyannnn! A GEISHA! A real one! in the cab. Waiting for other geishas (Maikos) to go to a special party.

It's like the book "Memoirs of a Geisha" which I read in Portuguese 5 or 6 years ago. And here I saw the real one!

Kyoto II

Inari temple is about 12 min from Kyoto station and it's famous for the 1000 portals all over the mountain.

Many foxes or dogs or what? ... I dunno... I didn't study about it hehehehe

It was so cold, but the weather perfect! and my hair horribly flying with the wind...

On the way, many kids from the school having a fun hiking and a history class in the real place!

The red leaves on the ground was part of the entertainment for those kids... like a special carpet...

Lucky for people living in this amazing Kyoto.



I might have prob with my neck... why does it go always to the right??

This place is special! inside the tunnel of portals and I only knew it was so special after my trip to NY right after this to Kyoto.

Each portal has a date when it was made, the name of the city and the company sponsor.

Each fox face has wish, people went to the temple to write it and pray...

I dunno if we can just read them... but of course my curiousity made me check some (only few!)... there are wishes to get rich, to be healthy, to pass in the exam to the university, to marry a rich man (this might be mine!), etc etc...