Friday, 21. December 2007
kawaii, desu ne?
carschti, 10:41h
20.12.2007 Himeji/ Hiroshima
Take off from Wakayama to Shin-Osaka and from there to Himeji.
Luckily we could leave our luggage in the shinkansen area in Himeji. So the day was very relaxed.
On the way back to the station Yasmin slept on my shoulders. She was tired by taking pictures, running through the castle and watching the princess playing memory with shells.
In the castle area she suddenly started to say "kawaii, kawaii, kawaii, ..."
19.12.2007 Wakayama
From the Ryokan we took the bus to the station and we arrived there way too early. We had more than 1 hour time. So Yasmin had a donut filled with custard cream.
Before we had an interesting meeting. Dani went to the tourist information, while I stayed outside with Yasmin. We were looking at some people, eating 1 floor underneath us. Then I heard the most familiar "kawaii" behind me. It was a japanese girl, let´s say she was 27. She was asking a lot of questions about Yasmin and me. She wanted to know, how old she is, which languages she and I can speak and where we live in Kyoto. She didn´t realize that Dani was standing behind her since a few moments. Dani looked like a a Samurai shortly before the deadly stroke. When the japanese girl realized that I was not available anymore on the market she went away with a deep bow and a lot of sumimasen into Dani´s directions.
It is the first time for me, that a japanese girl asked things like that. Is it such a huge difference if I´m in company of a small blonde girl?
[If you can´t say anything positive about something, smile!]
Where we are today? Ahso, Wakayama?!?!...... *smile*
Our hotel in Wakayama:
18.12.2007 Kyoto
Some more sightseeing. We visited the Kodai-ji and the buddha statue. Two Meiko-sans. The kawaii factor was not very high today. But we have introduced a new factor: the "Kyoto senior english schoolclass asking question". These days the senior english class from Kyoto was on a schooltrip in the area of the temples. Their task was to ask tourist about their homecountry and what they like or dislike about Kyoto. The basic idea of this fieldtrip was to improve their english in real situation. For us it was fun to answers questions about the most popular sport in Germany or the differences between japanese and german cultur and tradition. Within 2 hours we ran into 4 groups each consisting of about 3-6 people.
For desert I ordered some japanese rice cake to see if my girls like it. They don´t.
17.12.2007 Kyoto
The Ryokan we stay in is located in the hills very close to Kodai-ji. So from here it nearly all the temple and sights are in walking distance. What we did. During our 7 hours walk we had breakfast, lunch, stopped at the playground, feed some fish and ducks and called my parents. So for Yasmin it was a nice day, she told me, and she was tired when we were back.
For me and Dani this was a great day, since we have seen a monks ceremony and a nearly empty garden in the shoren-in. Kyoto is really amazing. You don´t even have to walk 500m without seeing having passed the next temple or shrine.
During the day and the night it´s cold and cloudy. Only in the evening, shortly before sunset we had some sun coming through.
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16.12.2007 Kyoto
My day started with a stuck lift. I entered the lift, with my backpack and an additional bag. In the lift I decided to tighten my backpack a little bit more, which resulted in a stucked lift. Only for a few seconds, but long enough for me to get a huge adrenanlin kick.
...
After a long day we all were tired. We went to bed around 21°° but we slept not very tight. Until 23:20 I slept not at all and after midnight my lovely girls were awake.
The rooms we had were bigger than expected. Everything very all style but clean. The breakfast was a good japanese style breakfast with some additional continental breakfast items. So I had my first roasted toast after 2 months. The shinkansen ride from Tokyo to Kyoto was great. We had a lot of space and we saw Fuji-san only with the very top covered in clouds.
For me it was a completely different style of travelling, since my daughter was the main attraction for everyone. Following statistic about the "kawaii" factor (how often I heard that she is cute):
to the train station of Ueno 2
to Tokyo 2 plus 1 time touching her face
from Tokyo to Kyoto 1
from Kyoto station to the Ryokan 12
The last one was the cutest. On the very busy street a Maiko-san was surrounded by tourists (japanese and non asiens). I tought: Kawaii... Then she saw us passing by. "Kawaii!!!"
It really seems to be more easy to get in contact with the japanese, when you have a young small blonde girl at your side.
The young small blonde girl at my side was so tired by half past four that she was yawning and sleeping immediately after.
Take off from Wakayama to Shin-Osaka and from there to Himeji.
Luckily we could leave our luggage in the shinkansen area in Himeji. So the day was very relaxed.
On the way back to the station Yasmin slept on my shoulders. She was tired by taking pictures, running through the castle and watching the princess playing memory with shells.
In the castle area she suddenly started to say "kawaii, kawaii, kawaii, ..."
19.12.2007 Wakayama
From the Ryokan we took the bus to the station and we arrived there way too early. We had more than 1 hour time. So Yasmin had a donut filled with custard cream.
Before we had an interesting meeting. Dani went to the tourist information, while I stayed outside with Yasmin. We were looking at some people, eating 1 floor underneath us. Then I heard the most familiar "kawaii" behind me. It was a japanese girl, let´s say she was 27. She was asking a lot of questions about Yasmin and me. She wanted to know, how old she is, which languages she and I can speak and where we live in Kyoto. She didn´t realize that Dani was standing behind her since a few moments. Dani looked like a a Samurai shortly before the deadly stroke. When the japanese girl realized that I was not available anymore on the market she went away with a deep bow and a lot of sumimasen into Dani´s directions.
It is the first time for me, that a japanese girl asked things like that. Is it such a huge difference if I´m in company of a small blonde girl?
[If you can´t say anything positive about something, smile!]
Where we are today? Ahso, Wakayama?!?!...... *smile*
Our hotel in Wakayama:
18.12.2007 Kyoto
Some more sightseeing. We visited the Kodai-ji and the buddha statue. Two Meiko-sans. The kawaii factor was not very high today. But we have introduced a new factor: the "Kyoto senior english schoolclass asking question". These days the senior english class from Kyoto was on a schooltrip in the area of the temples. Their task was to ask tourist about their homecountry and what they like or dislike about Kyoto. The basic idea of this fieldtrip was to improve their english in real situation. For us it was fun to answers questions about the most popular sport in Germany or the differences between japanese and german cultur and tradition. Within 2 hours we ran into 4 groups each consisting of about 3-6 people.
For desert I ordered some japanese rice cake to see if my girls like it. They don´t.
17.12.2007 Kyoto
The Ryokan we stay in is located in the hills very close to Kodai-ji. So from here it nearly all the temple and sights are in walking distance. What we did. During our 7 hours walk we had breakfast, lunch, stopped at the playground, feed some fish and ducks and called my parents. So for Yasmin it was a nice day, she told me, and she was tired when we were back.
For me and Dani this was a great day, since we have seen a monks ceremony and a nearly empty garden in the shoren-in. Kyoto is really amazing. You don´t even have to walk 500m without seeing having passed the next temple or shrine.
During the day and the night it´s cold and cloudy. Only in the evening, shortly before sunset we had some sun coming through.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
16.12.2007 Kyoto
My day started with a stuck lift. I entered the lift, with my backpack and an additional bag. In the lift I decided to tighten my backpack a little bit more, which resulted in a stucked lift. Only for a few seconds, but long enough for me to get a huge adrenanlin kick.
...
After a long day we all were tired. We went to bed around 21°° but we slept not very tight. Until 23:20 I slept not at all and after midnight my lovely girls were awake.
The rooms we had were bigger than expected. Everything very all style but clean. The breakfast was a good japanese style breakfast with some additional continental breakfast items. So I had my first roasted toast after 2 months. The shinkansen ride from Tokyo to Kyoto was great. We had a lot of space and we saw Fuji-san only with the very top covered in clouds.
For me it was a completely different style of travelling, since my daughter was the main attraction for everyone. Following statistic about the "kawaii" factor (how often I heard that she is cute):
to the train station of Ueno 2
to Tokyo 2 plus 1 time touching her face
from Tokyo to Kyoto 1
from Kyoto station to the Ryokan 12
The last one was the cutest. On the very busy street a Maiko-san was surrounded by tourists (japanese and non asiens). I tought: Kawaii... Then she saw us passing by. "Kawaii!!!"
It really seems to be more easy to get in contact with the japanese, when you have a young small blonde girl at your side.
The young small blonde girl at my side was so tired by half past four that she was yawning and sleeping immediately after.
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