First visit to England for the new year

First visit for 2010 to my favourite rainy island coming up! It’s been quite a winter on the ol’ British isles so far this year (like everywhere in Europe, I suppose); with even worse chaos than usually (when I used to live there, we often had one or two days of snow, during which the country would effectively grind to a halt). I was actually kind of secretly hoping to experience a bit of proper winter weather during my visit – but alas it was not to be. By the time I travelled, the weather was back to its normal grey; windy, rainy self…

Not to be deterred by this though; I took the taxi straight from the airport down to Farnborough, where I joined my team for the weekly beer ‘n curry evening in Zaffron. In spite of arriving fashionably late; I had plenty of time to enjoy “a traditional English meal”. The turn-up was pretty good; Steve, Tasha, Dave, Pragati, Mohammed and even Cliff made it. Frank, at whose place I was staying during my trip; also joined us. All in all, we had a good curry, me catching up with the latest office gossip.

Our stomachs filled, we jumped into Frank’s Merc and sped down to Guildford. After we dumped my luggage at “Hotel Lundqvist”, we headed off to our next rendez-vous – pints at the Keystones pub. It’s not a place I go to very often, so it made a nice change from the usual establishments (the King’s head, the Drummond, the Guildford Tup etc.). Dependable Phil was already there with a couple of ex-colleagues. Later, we were joined by the equally trustworthy Nick. It was all a typically nerdy engineering night out; although the subject matter was satellites and space rockets instead of mobile phones, for once (Phil and his mates are working in the satellite business). After a few pints to settle our stomachs after the curry (?), we stumbled back to Frank’s flat for some well-deserved sleep….

After a hard Thursday at the office, it was time for the customary night out to London. Unfortunately, Frank couldn’t join me this time, due to having to finish off a report at work… As usually, I took a train down to Waterloo station, from where I made my way to the Arch One bar, just across the road from the train station (like last time, Adrian picked the place – being a student these days I suppose he’s got time to plan nights out ;-) ). The turn-up was pretty good again, with Ed, Adrian, Emilie and Sinhung showing up. After a couple of pints for “aperitif”, Chie and French David joined us in our search for a restaurant.

The original plan had been to go to a Cuban restaurant near Waterloo, which Chie had been trying to book (without success). Unfortunately, the place was fully booked - a pity since I’d been looking forward to a couple of Mojitos! In the, we found ourselves in a sort of French-Italian restaurant not far away; where we were also joined by Geoff. It was a pretty good choice; though. The food was decent, the wine list extensive, and we all had a great time. The French waitress was a good laugh as well (unfortunately we weren’t able to convince Sinhung to try his “rude French expressions taught by Christian” on her – I suppose he just wasn’t drunk enough). But anyway, we had a really great time!

After surviving another day at the office, it was time to leave the British islands for some real winter – yep that’s right, Helsinki calling!

Skiing at Isola 2000

We’ve not had the opportunity to go skiing so far this year, due to various reasons. This Sunday, there was no excuse for me. No need for chains, a promising weather forecast, and nothing planned. Unfortunately Mathilde couldn’t make it, as she’s preparing her aggregation (she’s having her first exams next week), but the Vuolle family were planning to join me.

We decided upon Isola 2000, the oldest and most well known ski resort in the Alpes Maritimes department. For me it was actually the first day of skiing at Isola 2000 – on previous years we just never made it. Isola 2000 was founded in the late 60’s by a British alpinist. As a result, it’s not the prettiest of ski resorts – quite a lot of the buildings are of the typical 60’s-70’s concrete style – not very easy on the eyes. All in all, though, it wasn’t as bad as I expected.

The skiing itself was fantastic. Isola 2000 is the highest of the local ski resorts, with the highest point being at over 2600 meters (Cime de Sisteron), and the resort itself being at an altitude of 2000 meters. I spent the morning getting into the rhythm of skiing, trying a few blue slopes on both sides of the valley, where the resort was located (and a couple of red ones as well). I especially liked the run down from Col de Lombarde. It was an easy and relaxing blue, but it was well bathed in sunlight, and wasn’t busy at all (where almost everybody seemed to be skiing). What’s also cool about the Col de Lombarde is that it’s located right on the border to Italy – so I could enjoy a very picturesque view over the Italian alps from there.

After non-stop skiing until 1 o’clock, Hannu and his family finally arrived, and we could go have lunch :-) Some rose wine and a tartiflette later, I was ready to continue. While Hannu went hotel hunting (his family where without a place to stay for the night), I made the long trek up to Cime de Sisteron with Rita and the kids. It took us a good while to get up there, but boy was it worth it. The views towards the coast were absolutely stunning – especially bathed as the landscape was in the fading afternoon light…

The perfect way to end a good day of skiing, then. I even managed to leave before the big crowds left back for the coastline, but in spite of that it took me a good two hours to get back to Cagnes… But it was definitely worth the drive!

Moi moi to the Vuolle family

During my three years and a bit years in France I have been sharing our small office mostly with Hannu, my trusty collegue. Now, the time has come for him to go back with his family to wintery Tampere. This sad event naturally calls for a leaving do (or as it turned out, two).

The plan was to get together all the “Riviera Finns” on Friday evening; but turned out Pete and his family were all down with the flu, and Mikko couldn’t make it either. Not to be deterred by this, we decided to meet up with the Vuolle family for dinner anyway. We opted upon the Domain de Loup clubhouse – a convenient choice for all of us (since the Vuolles leave at the Domain de Loup, and for us it’s a mere 10-minute walk away). The domain de Loup is one of the closed residences that are quite common on the Cote d’Azur – the residence houses a primary school, a pharmacy, a doctor, shops, an Olympic-size swimming pool, and of course the club house with its restaurant!

We had a very pleasant evening. The food was good, if a bit pricey (I was very content with my cote de boeuf - even if the quality of the meat didn’t quite reach the culinary heights of the Kobe beef I had a couple of weeks earlier in Japan). Sara and Daniel, Hannu’s and Rita’s energetic children provided ample entertainment for everybody at the restaurant (especially Sara's dance exhibition was a great success). The clubhouse was surprisingly lively, even if the middle age would’ve probably exceeded 60 without our presence. Actually the whole experience, with the views over the sea and the tacky live music, brought back memories from my youth, of booze cruises to Sweden?? (Except that the clientele was from a slightly different age group, and the proceedings were significantly more civilised). We finished the very pleasant evening with some coffee, grappa and limoncello.

Well, in the end, it turned out Hannu & Marianne could make it on Saturday, so we decided to have another farewell dinner. Any excuse will do, eh? This time we decided upon “Le Pelican Station” as a venue – a nice restaurant in the old town of Nice. Good choice for a venue, actually. The food was good, and quite reasonably priced for Vieux Nice (I especially loved the desert, or actually the three deserts). The staff was also most entertaining, and got along very well with Sara and Daniel (who were in a very energetic mood, again!).

Me and Mikko Hannu said our farewells to Hannu in a typical stoic Finnish male manner; which is to say no tears were shed, no hugging, and definitely no kissing on the cheeks. No touchy-feely type stuff, basically.

At the end of the day though, the Vuolle family will be missed, and I’m quite sure they will miss the Cote d’Azur as well (I don’t think they are all that keen to go back to Finland especially considering the time of the year). ‘nuff said!

Pretty villages in the Var

After a bit of a lazy weekend, we figured it was time to get of our bums and do something. We opted against going skiing, since chains were mandatory due to the snow, apparently (really ought to buy some…). So instead; we opted for a bit of tourism. There’s a trio of apparently picturesque villages (Fayence, Bargemon and Seillans), just behind the massif d’Esterel, in the Var department; which we’ve been wanting to visit for a while now. So we figured we might as well do it this weekend.

After a 40-minute drive, we arrived at the first of the three; Fayence. It’s the biggest one; and the most famous one. It’s actually quite a large village; with a lot of villas and houses surrounding the centre. Even the old part of the village is quite spread out. The village itself was actually nothing special; I guess we’ve seen one perched Provencal village too many over the last couple of years ;-). There was quite a nice view over the village and the surrounding countryside from a terrace at the top of the village. And Fayence does feel like a pretty animated place; a pity about the cloudy weather…

We quickly headed on to the next village; Seillans. This one we much preferred to Fayence. It’s built on a steep slope, with its narrow streets climbing up to the castle ruins, right at the top of the village. It’s a very charming little place indeed; with its steep, cobble-stoned, narrow streets. Obviously we’re not the only ones who have fallen for Seillans’ charms; Max Ernst (you know, the famous German artist; considered to be one of the pioneers of the Dada movement and Surrealism) spent the last few years of his life here.

We continued our little tour in Bargemon, the third, and least famous of the trio. By now, our stomachs were grumbling, so we started our visit by having lunch in a cosy-looking little restaurant in the old town. The food didn’t disappoint either; we both had some tasty fish for a main course, accompanied by a tasty local wine. After the meal; we had a quick walk around the old town (Bargemon is a pleasant enough village, but nothing to set it apart from all the other pretty Provencal villages…).

We finished off the afternoon back in Cagnes-sur-Mer with a visit at Sandra’s at Stephane’s; for a bit of “Galette des Rois”. The Galette is a nice French tradition – it is supposed to be eaten around Epiphany. The idea is that the galette contains a bean (in modern days replaced by a plastic figurine); and the one who gets it becomes “king of the day” - and has to buy the next galette (this is the part of the tradition that I particularly like ;-). The galette itself is delicious, made up of flaky puff pastry layers with a dense center of frangipane.

This time; we had the brioche version; which I’ve never had before. It was good; although I have to admit I prefer the traditional frangipane version (I must be a traditionalist?). Antoine was there with his kids as well (I am full of admiration for this man; who has five kids; yet seems to be very young at heart); so we had a very lively afternoon as well. And great to see little Tristan (who was born just before Christmas) growing up, as well!

A Japanese Sunday

We’ve been back in France for about a week now, but our memories of our superb trip to Japan still persist… I’m well into my Haruki Murakami book (Kafka on the beach – I can unreservedly recommend it even though I’ve not yet finished it), and have been diligently studying my Hiragana (although I don’t feel like I’m making a lot of progress…).

So we decided to have ourselves a Japanese Sunday, since the weather was pretty lousy. So, I dressed up in my kimono (which I find most comfortable to wear!), we prepared some Japanese tea, and made a Japanese noodle soup for lunch. And of course we had some of the delicious plum liqueour we’d purchased as an aperitif. Brought back all those great memories from Japan… No sake this time, we’ll save that for a special occasion.



After our lunch we continued our Japane theme by playing a bit of Hanafuda – the flower card game. We’ve become big fans of this game, so I thought I’d dedicate a few lines in my blog to these cards. Hanafuda cards evolved over the centuries from a mixture of western and eastern card games, and were finally “commercialised” in 1889 by Fusajiro Yamauchi founded Nintendo Koppai (yes, that is indeed the very same company which produces games concoles these days). The card set (containing 48 cards) is divided into 12 suits, each representing one month (each month has a flower, depicted on the cards of the suit, associated with it). Each suit has 2 “common cards” or dregs (worth the least amount of points), one poetry strip or animal card (worth a bit more points than the dregs). Some suits also have a “light” card, which are the most valuable.

What’s interesting about Hanafuda is that there are loads of variants of the game which can be played with the cards. Not only are the cards used in Japan; they are also popular in South Korea and Hawaii. The basic rules are pretty standard; but what typically sets the variants apart are the combinations (these are usually what wins the game) – in Japan we played the “Shimizu family variant”. We’ve tried a few versions, until we eventually settled upon a particular one, which we like.

Hopefully, our Hanafuda cards, the sake and my kimono will get me going until our next visit ;-).

Exploring the Kansai

So finally, we have arrived in Kyoto. We were kindly greeted at the train station by Chie’s mother, who chauffeured us to their house. We quickly settled into our room, and went to sleep straight away; the hour was late… We got up a bit later than usual, after some well-deserved rest. We spent the morning acquainting ourselves with Chie’s family – including her sister, niece and nephew.

In the afternoon, it was time to venture to Osaka (which together with it’s metropolitan area has an impressive population of 20 million). Chie’s sister, who used to study and work there, was kind enough to come along as our guide. An efficient train ride later, we arrived. We started off by walking around the Osaka castle area for a bit. Osaka castle is very historic, and was in its day one of the most important and imposing castles in Japan. But unfortunately, it has been destroyed, and rebuilt, several times over the last few centuries – and the last incarnation is unfortunately constructed in concrete.

After our short walk, we took the Osaka boat tour, which took us along the main canal crossing Osaka. It was a nice way to get an overview of Osaka – but one has to admit that the boat tour is somewhat less impressive than the London one along the Thames, for example. Unfortunately, not much of historic Osaka remains, as the city was very heavily bombed during World War II.

Our next stop was the Umeda Sky building, an impressive skyscraper. Well, two actually; united by a kind of bridge; forming what one might call an “arc de triumph”, a bit like in Le Defence, in Paris. We took the ultra-rapid and –smooth elevator all the way to the top floor, from where we had some amazing views over Osaka. We could even spot the castle among the skyscrapers.

By now it was getting dark, so we made our way to the Dotombori district, which is where it all happens night-time in Osaka. I was again struck by how Japanese cities transform themselves in the evening – when the neon lights are lit, and the people go out to play at the arcades, have dinner and otherwise have a good time. Western cities are almost boring by comparison. We ended our Osaka visit by a walk around Amerika-Mura – a Japanese vision of an “American village”. Hmm, they might be surprised if they actually go the US one day ;-). Then it was time to hop on the train, to be back home by dinner. Visiting Osaka, although not the prettiest of cities, made a very nice change from all the temple-hopping we’d done the last few days. That’s what’s so fascinating about Japan – the contrast between the traditional and the modern.

The dinner was a real feast, Chie’s parents had prepared quite a dinner for us - barbequed wild boar (caught by Chie’s dad, who hunts – but with snares!). A real delight!

The next day, it was time to tackle Kyoto. Kyoto is, of course, what for many people is the highlight of a trip to Japan, the cradle of Japanese civilisation. In spite of its turbulent history, it’s one of the most well-preserved cities in Japan (having been spared allied bombings during World War II), with no less than 2000 temples and shrines to visit. So a fair bit to see then, maybe even too much for 2 days ;-).

We started our visit with one of the most famous temples in Kyoto, called Kinkaku-ji (the Golden Pavillion). Famous unfortunately also means touristy – very touristy. This was probably the first time we really felt overwhelmed by the tourists – and actually it was also the first time we saw significant numbers of foreign tourists. There’s a very good reason for all those tourists though – Kinkaku-ji is a pretty stunning temple (the Golden Pavillion is a pretty appropriate name for it, that’s for sure). The surrounding gardens are pretty stunning as well, a real pity about the overwhelming crowds.

The next stop was Ryogen-in, another famous temple near Kinkaku-ji. Ryogen-in, is quite different. The gardens are more spread out, and as a consequence of this (and the fact that it’s less famous), the place felt less crowded than Kinkaku-ji. The main reason for the fame of this temple is its dry landscape rock garden (aka Zen garden). Basically the gravel of the garden represents the ocean, and the rocks represent the islands of Japan. Composition is of utmost importance – but the interpretation of a Zen garden is individual. In spite of my utmost efforts, I was unable to get much of a reading about the garden, unfortunately. Perhaps it was due to the surrounding people posing & taking pictures (damn tourists!), or perhaps my skull is just too thick.

The plan was to do a bit more sightseeing in downtown Kyoto, but it was not to be. Kyoto is very spread out, so travelling around the city takes a long time. So by the time we got to where we were supposed to continue our tour, it was getting dark, already. So we decided to head back home instead and save the rest of it for the next day.

After another delicious dinner at Chie’s place, it was time for a bit of bowling! So off we went to meet up with some friends of Chie. We started off in a sports bar (a real sports bar this time, unlike the place in Roppongi!), where we had a couple of drinks and played some darts. Geoff beat us all, naturally, being British and having been a student in Britain. (means you automatically get a lot of practice at darts and pool). I probably didn’t have enough beer to calibrate my aim. The bowling later on didn’t go much better for me (even though I got a strike during the “special round” so got “a flower arrangement” around my neck, and we all got to pose for the camera), in spite of even more beer to calibrate my aim. Geoff was once again the hero of the night. But regardless of this lack of success, we had an absolute blast! We finished off the night in style with a perikura. This term requires some explanation. A perikura is a kind of photo booth/kiosk, where you select silly frames to go with the photos, and then you pose with your friend, making silly faces and stuff. And afterwards, you can spend AGES editing the photos. It’s all completely silly, very Japanese, but strangely enough, great fun (in spite of the fact that it’s obviously geared to teenage girls)! At this point we headed back home with Chie’s sister, whereas the other stayed in town for a bit of karaoke action.

We got up pretty early the next morning, wanting to get some more Kyoto sightseeing done before the traditional New Year ’s Eve celebrations. We started off by visiting what is probably the most famous temple in Kyoto - Kiyomizu-dera. It’s one of the most iconic temples of Kyoto, which is very much reflected in its popularity. Possibly the fact that today was new-year’s eve had something to do with it as well? Apparently the famous Japanese expression “to jump off the stage at Kiyomizu” (??) refers to the ancient practice of executing a 13-meter jump off the temple veranda. Apparently the survival rate during the Edo period was 85.4% (sounds quite high?). It was certainly a very impressive temple; a pity about the crowds again, though.

From there we walked down towards the older parts of Kyoto, along some traditional, very picturesque streets. On the way we popped into Kōdai-ji, yet another temple. It’s less famous than the other temples we’d visited in Kyoto; which is also perhaps why it wasn’t very busy. Maybe for that reason; I reckon it’s, on balance, my favorite temple in Kyoto. Not the most impressive one, but the one I enjoyed visiting the most. For sure the setting is great; though, with its lovely garden and pool complementing the beautiful buildings.

After a quick ramen lunch, we carried on towards Yasaka-jinja, a shrine which kind of acts as the gate to the Gion district (the geisha district). This shrine was extremely busy as well – this time most likely due to the approaching new year (apparently it’s a very important shrine for welcoming the new year). We even spotted a couple of wanna-be geishas there…

Our walk then finally took us into the Gion district; the famous geisha district of Kyoto (Memoirs of a Geisha took place there, for example). There’s not much left of the historic Gion, apart from a couple of very picturesque streets. Those two pedestrian streets do evoke some of the old Kyoto atmosphere, perhaps. We spotted some more geishas; who were very happy to pose for me at a bridge (in fact, they almost insisted I take a picture – OK so maybe these were also wanna-bes then…). It all made for a very nice picture, fake geishas or not ;-). We also found the street where geishas do their shopping (there was a shoe shop, a kimono shop and a hairdresser’s – all specialized in Geishas). Apparently there are still few real geishas around – a few hundred in Kyoto, even. I think we may have seen a couple of actual Maikos (apprentice geishas) earlier in the day, who seemed to have quite a tough time walking in those geisha shoes. After a bit of souvenir shopping; it was time to head back to Chie’s family’s place for the traditional New Year ’s Eve celebrations; something we were really looking forward to. We absolutely loved Kyoto – clearly we need to come back to Japan again; since Kyoto definitely merits more time than two days.

It was all a very nice family-oriented affair, with Chie’s brother’s family present as well. As always; the meal was delicious, as was the sake and the plum liquor. After the delicious meal; we watched the traditional Japanese New Year’s show on telly (lots of celebrities on air, apparently. The only ones I recognized were Michael Jackson and Susan Boyle – both absolutely huge in Japan!) and played Japanese card games. We especially enjoyed Hanafuda – the flower cards. In fact, we enjoyed it to such a degree that we bought a few decks and now play regularly in France. Unfortunately we couldn’t do the traditional “visit a shrine” routine after midnight, since the weather was too cold for the children (apparently, even the trains were delayed in Hiroshima due to heavy snowfall – I can’t believe it!).

The next day was sadly our last day in Japan. The plan was to visit ancient Nara – yet another former capital of Japan (during the 8th century). Nara is again all about temples and shrines. We started our visit by checking out a couple of shrines (the names of which escape me), located in a very pleasant forest (populated by numerous deer, like in Miyajima). The shrines were even busier than the ones we'd visited earlier in Kyoto. Not many tourists this time – today people came because of New Year (perhaps they had all been put off by the cold last night, like us). So the shrines were absolutely crammed. So no tranquility to be had, then, and no time for quiet contemplation. Still; it was all quite special. And I got to drink some special blessed new year’s sake ;-)

We naturally couldn’t leave Nara without visiting Todai-ji; a massive temple which houses the second biggest Daibutsu (Big Buddha) in Japan. It is only very slightly smaller than the one we saw a few days ago in Kamakura. But boy is it impressive – 437 tons of bronze, 16 meters high (and 130 kg of gold). It was originally cast as long ago as 746 – although it’s had to be repaired several times since, due to earthquakes, fires, and losing his head a couple of times (!).

The other cool thing we did in Nara was visit a traditional knife-making shop; where the knife-master and his son (who works as a doctor in the USA) demonstrate the noble art of knife-making. Since the guys were very nice, I half-jokingly asked whether they sold any Katanas (samurai swords – now that would be some souvenir, eh?). Unfortunately they didn’t – but they did let me handle a 500-year old wakizashi. The wakizashi is the short sword samurais also used to carry, used among other things to commit seppuko (ritual suicide). Unfortunately, the price of 500,000 yen was a wee bit much for a souvenir… But, we bought plenty of other souvenirs (another big plus for Japan – it’s one of the only countries I’ve actually enjoyed doing souvenir shopping!).

We finished off the day with another great dinner at the Shimizu household. This also brought and end to a fantastic and memorable journey and holiday. The trip of a lifetime? Perhaps… And what was the highlight then? It’s hard to pick out a particular one, everything in this country is so fascinating. There just isn’t a boring moment to be had; everything fascinated me. The temples, the shrines, the trains, going to a shop, having food, the cities by night, the Ryokans, onsen, bowling, karaoke – I loved it all.

I wanted to take this opportunity to thank you all who made this such an unforgettable journey. We will be back!