Yoshiko’s Travels

The exhibition season has come!

I prefer autumn because I was born in November.

But this season, beautiful flowers are blooming and brilliant greens can be seen here and there.

In March, I went to see ” Japan’s Encounter with European Ceramics”, “Jusaburo Tujimura’s Dolls Collection”, “Germany Poster Exhibition” and “Edvard Munch; The Decorative Projects” with my friends and my sister.

Every place was relaxing.

When we went to see Munch’s art in Kobe, we visited an old sake brewery (Sake kura) near Hyougo Prefectural Museum of Art.

It was destoroyed by a severe earthquake in 1995, but it was rebuilt three years ago. I was impressed with the old wooden structure.

Let’s enjoy cherry blossoms in April.

I went to Beijing with my sister and her son from July 8th to 11th.
My nephew works for The Ritz Carlton in Osaka.
As he got three free tickets to Beijing ,he took us there.
It took about only three houres from Kansai air port to Beijing capital airport. So we were able to see one of the world heritages in Beijing in the afternoon.
We stayed four days and three night at the Ritz Carlton which was the five stars mark hotel ,beautiful and comfortable.
After a rest, we visited to Summer Palace which located beside Lake Konmei.
We were enjoyed the beautiful and magnificent scenery.
There was a large crowd there. I was surprised anyway.
It was said on the newspaper that we had to be careful about Chinese food. So we ate lunch or dinner at the well-known restaurants or the hotel’s ones.

July 9th.
Today we went the world heritage ,The Imperial Palace.
There was a large crowd in the Tenanmon square ,too. I’ve never seen such people in Japan.
First, it took about thirty monutes to get the admission tickets.
About three houre under the high temperature ,we walked and saw the ancient buildings. I drank a cup of ice-coffee at Star backs which got into a newspaper.
We were caught in a shower . It was a good break time for us.
After rain , we visited the next place Keizan Park. From the top of there , we could see a fine view of the whole palace roofs ,very beautiful yellow ones.
July 10th,
Today we went to the famous The Great Wall. We took a ropeway and went down the walls.
First, we went up the north highest wall and went down the unsafe steps for two hours.
It was very shiny sky. The wind was cool and comfortable.
After lunch , we visited one of the thirteen tombs,Chouryou.
We hired a taxi allday , we went to look for our house once we lived. But there were many new tall buildings .
It is the construction boom for 2008 Olympic games.
These four days, I walked many places ,I ate delicious Chinese food and I stayed a high-class hotel.
I was satisfied anyway.

From May 4 to May 11, my first traveling in this year was the visiting to Baltic three countries,Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. My sister and I joined the 19 people-tour and we were away from Kansai airport to Helsinki in Finland. It took 9hours 40 minutes and we had to transfer to the first country Estonia.
Estonia is a smaller country than Latvia.
Latvia and Lithuania are much the same size of land.
I visited many tourist routes everyday. My best places were Tallinn’s old city and Runfale Palace in Estonia and Trakai Castle in Lithuania.
These three countries were quiet,clean,full of green and mild personality.
Unfortunately, I didn’t have to speak English a lot.

She is a four-year -old girl and she had a pleasant experience at that exhibition in Kyoto with me.

Unfortunately , most of pictures were landscape paintings . She wasn’t interested in them. So, she could see only few portraits.

After seeing the exhibition , we went to the Kyoto Zoo . We came together my daughter’s family. I thought my granddaughter prefered the zoo. Her choice is always strange. Today’s one was a Python, because  of the same snake in Jungle Book Story.

In Japan , most homes with girls display Hina dolls ,then they celebrate the Girl’s Day. 

My Hina dolls are very old ones which were bought for my elder sister’s first Girl’s Day . At that time , my family lived in China and my grandmother sent them from Japan. Most of the dolls came back to Japan with us.

When I had the first daughter ,my mother gave the dolls to my daughter.  Now they are very memorable ones which are 70 years old.

I read a good news on The Daily Yomiuri.   A research team from York  University in Tronto and other institutions said that bilingual people typically develop dementia about four years later than those who only speak one language.

In my case,my English speaking  is beyond the reach of bilingual one.  I’ll try to speak English more and more not to develop dementia.

My husband and I suffered from diarrhea and vomiting of epidemic virus from Dec.24 to 30 ,2006.  So we couldn’t see my daughter’s family and couldn’t eat the Christmas,New Year food.  I lost my weight 3Kgs,but I had many wrinkles. This is a bad things.

We quickly went to the hospital ,so our disease  were not so bad.  Anyway , we didn’t eat  and we took some liquid only.

My 2007 started from Jan.5 praying at the Iwashimiju Hachiman shrine.

I traveled to the Kingdom of Nepal from Nov.26 to Dec. 2 with my sister and 17 tour people.

We  flew 6 hours from the Kansai Airport to the Suvarhabhumi Airport in Bangkok which was built in this year.  It is the biggest one in Asia, so we had to walk for 30 minutes to the customs.

It was my birthday on Nov.26 in Bangkok ,so my sister gave me a pretty scarf. Last year on my birthday, I spent in New Zealand.

Next day, we flew to Katmandu”The Capital of Nepal”,for 3 hours.

It is 1400 meters above sea level.  The Nepalese town are located in the basins,therefore, it is as cold as Kyoto.

We moved by bus to Nagarkot ,2100 meters above sea level. There was very cold like the midwinter in Japan. I saw the most beautiful sunrise of the Himalayas. It made me so happy.

We visited the three world heritages which were the old palaces. The oldest one was made of bricks and carving wood built before 400years.

I felt that there is the gap between the rich people and the poor ones.   I’ve never seen such poor ones in Asia.

It was very hot like summer on Sept.8.

I visited three museums allday.

First I went to The great Ancor wat exhibition in Osaka.

I’ve been to Cambodia and visited there , so it reminded me the magnificent temples.

Next I went to Prado museum exhibition. I’ve been to Spain twice, of course I visited that place . I saw some pictures again.

The last visit was Maria Theresia and the castle exhibition. in Kyoto. I watched it very interestingly because of I like European history.

I was satisfied that day.

1　　Ｔｒａｖｅｌｅｄ　ｔｏ　Ｐｅｒｕ　ｗｉｔｈ　ｍｙ　ｄａｕｇｈｔｅｒ　ｆｏｒ　ｔｅｎ　days.

2 Went to the Takarazuka revue with my sister.

3 My daughter's family moved from Yawata city to Hirakata city on

August.

4 Visited my ancestor's graves at Obon.

Ｔｈｅ　ｍｏｓｔ　ｉｍｐｒｅｓｓｅｄ　ｅｖｅｎｔ　ｗａｓ　ｔｈｅ　ｔｒａｖｅｌｉｎｇ　ｔｏ　Ｐｅｒｕ．

Ｉ　ｗｅｎｔ　ｔｏ　Ｐｅｒｕ　ｆｒｏｍ　Ｊｕｎｅ　２９　ｔｏ　July 8 with Takako.

I stayed at her house on June 28 and flew from Narita to Heuston and transfered to Lima.

I wanted to speak English , but most people spoke Spanish only.

My daughter was my Spanish guide , so I didn't feel inconvenience.

We visited many famouse world heritages.

I loved Machu Picchu best which was surrounded with higher mountains.

Cuzco and Puno located over 2000m high, so I had to take medicine for mountain sickness.

I liked Peruvian food ,especially "sopa de ajo"(garlic soup)

We ate many kinds of ethnic food.

Anyway I enjoyed and felt happy this trip.

We talked about next trip going to Argentina.