Last weekend in "Mainland Japan"

So, or stay at Tokyo is coming to an end - our last weekend in the capital was upon us. It also meant the end of our Japanese courses at Coto Language academy, something we were feeling a bit wistful about. We'd spent a great few weeks here, met a lot of cool people, and even picked up a bit of Japanese (I should hope so!), although we are still far off from being able to have a proper conversation in Japanese.

One of our class mates, "Are san" (a Mexican lady called something like Alexandra, I suppose?) was kind enough to invite us to a party at her apartment in Akasaka, an invitation we were more than happy to accept. Akasaka is a part of Tokyo we don't really know, and we had a bit of time to kill before the party started, so we decided to walk around a bit before joining the party. Akasaka is not a very touristy part of town - it's more of a fancy residential area, and there are also a fair few governmental buildings there. It was one of the first areas of Tokyo to receive a face-lift after World War II. It used to be one of the raciest places in Tokyo to go out (Akasaka was dethroned by Roppingi in the 80's, and Shinjuku I suppose has since taken over from Roppongi). It's a pretty interesting area to explore, with a lot of fancy buildings, fancy restaurants and even a shrine we quickly had a look at.

The party itself was great fun! Are-san is going out with a Canadian guy, who must be rather well-paid, as their apartment is absolutely HUGE! (Akasaka isn't exactly the cheapest area in town, either). The guests were an interesting mix of expats, Coto Academy Language students, and Japanese people (most of whom spoke Spanish!). The end of the evening was pretty funny, as South Americans and Japanese people were discussing in Spanish. Anyway, we had a great time! Felt a bit like a Coto Academy leaving do in some ways!

The next day, we decided to head off to Yokohama, as we'd enjoyed our first visit, and felt we hadn't explore it all. We started by having a quick walk around the Chinatown area, and the nearby Yamashita park, beautiful, as it was basking in sunshine. There was some kind of Indian festival taking place in the park, which was pretty cool. We stayed around for a while, checking out some traditional dances. I have notice there are quite a few Indians in Japan, many working in the IT sector I suppose, but also a fair few working in restaurants and shops.

We then headed off to nearby Yamate. Yamate, also known as "The Bluff" (since the neighborhood is located on a hill), is where Western people moved in after Yokohama was opened up to foreigners during the 2nd half of the 19th century (the Chinese people migrated to nearby Chinatown). Unfortunately, most of the houses were destroyed (like most of Yokohama) during the Great Kanto earthquake in 1923, so few buildings on the Bluff predate this cataclysmic event. But, we were able to visit a few of those. All in all, it's a very pleasant area to have a stroll around... We were even treated to the magnificent sight of mount Fuji, during sunset. Beautiful.

On Sunday, the weather forecast was very positive. One of the things we had wanted to do during this trip, but were unable to in the end, was scale Mount Fuji. The Mount Fuji climbing season was already over, but thankfully there are loads of mountains in Japan, which can be climbed all year around. So on this particular day, we decided to tackle Mount Tsukuba, together with our good friend Matusoka, who was kind enough to drive us to Tsukuba.

Before the climb, we checked out the beautiful shrine located at the bottom of the mountain (mountains are important holy places in Japanese Shinto religion, mountains are typically inhabited by powerful spirits (Kama), due to the fact that the mountains are "closest to heaven". Anyway, the religious bit done, we started the ascent (636 meters of ascent in total, the summit is at an altitude of 870 meters).

It was actually pretty hard going, as the path is pretty steep. Thankfully, we were caught up in a big of a traffic jam on the way up, which gave us plenty of excuses to catch our breath ;) Seriously speaking though, hiking in Japan is not like hiking in Europe or the US. I mean, cities in Japan are crowded, but I didn't realize that even mountains are crowded. Well, this one, at least, was (as is each mountain within striking distance of Tokyo, including Mount Fuji). At least there's no risk of getting lost!

There are actually two mountains at the top, the female and male mountains, both having their own shrines. The view from the female mountain was better, hence it was EVEN more crowded than the male one. We literally had to queue for 10 minutes or so to get to the main viewpoint.

The beginning of the path heading down the mountain was even more crowded than the one heading up, since it was narrower. So it was pretty slow going. I rather enjoyed the end portion of the walk, which was very pleasant, and not crowded at all. All in all, a great hike, even if I was expecting a bit fewer people up there ;) We had some delicious Tonkatsu to award our efforts... (Tsukuba is famous for their pork, and hence their Tonkatsu).

We met up for a great dinner with Matsuoka and his family in Adachi, not far from Kitasenju. Great food, as we've come to expect whenever we go for dinner with Matsuoka-san! Afterwards, we decided to walk back to our flat, taking in some rather nice night-time views of Kitasenju as we crossed Arakawa river.

What a great weekend, all in all!  

Arriving at the Izu Peninsula

The next leg of our Asian adventure took us South-East of Tokyo, to the Izu Peninsula. It's a rather popular holiday/weekend break destination for Japanese people, in particular for people from Tokyo. The plan was for us to stay at a hotel in Izu Kogen for three weeks. The place is owned by a friend of Matsuoka-san's.

We started our journey by taking the Shinkansen from the Tokyo main station to Atami - a seaside town and a kind of "gateway" to the Izu peninsula. The original plan had been to leave our suitcases in a locker at the train station and walk around for a couple of hours before catching the local train to Izu Kogen. Unfortunately, we didn't find a locker big enough for our big suitcase. So we ended up just heading down to the beach, dragging the big suitcase along, and then hike back up to the train station. From what we saw, Atami seemed like a nice enough place, if a bit like a tourist trap.

We arrived in Izu Kogen, to find our good friend Matsuoka waiting for us. He took us to our "new home", called Cafe Be (as in the Beatles song "Let it Be", as we found out later). We met our new boss called simply "Captain" and the rest of the crew. Captain explained the setup - we were to get free lodging and food in exchange for helping out at the hotel. Sounds more than fair to me - should be a great way to improve our Japanese as well!

The first night, there was a BBQ planned, which was a great way for us to get into the rhythm of things. I mostly manned the grill with Matsuoka, as we prepared the food. It was all great fun. The food was great, the beer flowed, and everybody (staff and other guests) was great fun. What a fantastic welcome! We crawled into bed with a slightly sore head, but very happy with how things were turning out.

The next day, we were ordered by Captain to take his car and go and check out the nearby Jogasaki coast. It's one of the top tourist spots at the Izu peninsula, and for very good reason. The rocky coastline is absolutely stunning, reminiscent of Bretagne, Cornwall or the Californian coastline... We climbed up to the top of a lighthouse, from where the view was pretty amazing.

Just next to the lighthouse, one can also check out the famous Kadowakizaki suspension bridge. It's famous, I suppose, because it's an impressive piece of engineering. But sadly it's also a common place where people commit suicide. A lot of movies and TV series are shot here, apparently.

Around lunch time, we had a surprise visitor from the UK, Chie, paying us a visit! She just happened to be in Japan the same time as us, visiting her family in Kyoto. So she was kind enough to catch the train to come and see us, which was really cool. We had a very nice dinner indeed with her and Matusoka-san and his family, during which we got to try some of the famous Cafe Be pizzas (and plenty of other very tasty stuff as well). We finished the night rather late (or rather, early in the morning), after downing quite a few sakes and beers.

The next day, it was time to see off our dear friend Chie. But before that, we took her on a bit of a touristy trip - where else than Jogasaki Coast !? It's not like we know any other places (yet) where to take her or anything... ;-) The scenery was just as stunning as the day before! We then took Chie to the train station, from where she got on the train back home. Great to see Chie again - and in Japan of all places ;)

After lunch it was time to say good by to Matsuoka-san as well, as he was heading back to Tokyo. So now, the real work starts ;-)

Reunion weekend in Guildford

As I suppose you are aware, dear reader, if you're one of the few frequent visitors of this blog (and/or if you happen to know me personally!), you are most likely aware of the fact that me and Mathilde used to live in England before moving to the Sunny South of France. To be more precise, we used to live in the pleasant town of Guildford, located in the prosperous county Surrey.

For this weekend, our dear friend Isabelle (who also used to live in said town, and thanks to whom I met many of my friends in the UK!) had decided to organize a reunion weekend in said town. An event I've been looking forward to for some time! Preparations for the trip didn't start well, as I'd booked an extra day of parking at Nice airport, and a hotel 4 km outside the town centre by accident (not a handy distance to stumble on the way back from the pub!).

Anyway, we stayed the first night at our good friend Phil's place, as planned, once we'd negotiated the usual hassle getting from Gatwick to Guildford (our flight was delayed, as usual...). No time for a quick drink in the pub, even!

Next day, we started off by wandering over to our hotel (I made a new last-minute booking for a hotel in town centre - the Manderlay). We'd been able to get a room for a relatively reasonable price - which was a surprise given typical hotel prices in this part of the world (and the fact that the booking was made, let's say, last minute). The plan was to meet up at the pub at 1 o'clock, which gave us a bit of time to explore Guildford - happily enough we ran into Isabelle who was also staying at the same hotel. That meant shopping - yoppii!

Anyway, time goes quickly when you're having fun, so we rather quickly had to make our way over to the Weyside, where we were meeting up. Weyside is one of our favourite pubs in Guildford, idyllically located on the river Wey (as the name suggests). A bit too much of a gastro-pub for my liking, but the beer is still good, and so was the fish & chips I had for lunch!

 
What was most important was catching up with everybody, of course. Thankfully, a really good bunch of people managed to make it, including fellow Finns (Katja and Kari, Kartsa and Reija, and Jaro whom I've not seen for ages), French folks (Flore, Christian, Emmanuelle, Isabelle and of course my darling Mathilde), Czech (Martina), Belgian (Nelle), Japanese (Chie), Malaysian (Sinhung), and OK a few Brits too (Phil, Nick, Geoff, Ben, Spencer). I'm sure I forgot a bunch of people, but anyway, you get the idea - the more the merrier!

After the Weyside, we strolled along the river (enjoying some gorgeous sunshine - which was a nice surprise as the weather forecast hadn't been that promising) over to the next seaside pub on the pub crawl itinerary - The White House. The same old routine (by which I mainly mean beer drinking) continued there, and then in the Star (this one is a bit more of your typical scruffy local English pub, compared to the modern revamped affairs a lot of pubs are sadly turning into).

Things progressively got blurrier as the beer flowed, but if memory serves me correctly, we had dinner at Giraffe (one of those chain restaurants that sadly flourish in the UK), what I do know for sure is that the evening ended in Rogues (where else - that's where a lot of nights out ended when we used to live in Guildford !?). Kartsa, our local host, had booked a private room for the occasion. Our madman  friend had the brilliant idea to order a round of 20 gin and tonics (twice!) to ensure everybody was in a good condition to stumble home afterwards. So, a night to remember,  then (as far as I can remember?) !

The next day, I got up, surprised about the fact that I didn't even have much of a headache. After a nice English breakfast (the perfect antidote against a hangover if there ever was one?) in a cozy little cafe, we spent the sunny morning having a nice walk around town, wandering over to check out the Guildford Castle, with the beautiful gardens being well-kept as ever. We popped over to say hi to Isabelle, Bav and Dave who were brunching just next to the castle, after which it was time to make our way over to the Drummond, where we were meeting up with Nick for lunch.

And then, sadly, it was time to head over to the train stations to catch our train to Gatwick. The stroll along the Wey river, past Dapdune Warf, was very nice indeed. We felt rather nostalgic about leaving - this wonderful weekend brought back so many nice memories about those great years we spent in England! It felt almost sad to head back to France....

Boyz Night out

As Mathilde was away this week, it seemed natural to suggest another Boyz Night out to Aki and Mikko. Thankfully, they both accepted.

Things kicked off, as usual, with burgers n' beer. We decided to go to Woody's Diner at Nice, a place we already sampled earlier this year. It's a pretty good attempt at an American style diner (the French aren't necessarily very good at imitating things American, as a general rule). And what's most important, the burgers were good - and so was the beer (as you can see, we went for the "giraffe" option).

The food bit out of the way, we decided to finish off the night out the same way as last time, a bit of pool in a bar just off Rue Massena. It was good fun, as last time. Me and Mikko had to grudgingly admit to Aki's superiority, again. What's more important, again: the beer was good.

This time, we didn't finish off the night playing loud musical instruments at Aki's place (possibly since Henna and the their two sons were sound asleep this time around? ;-). I again cycled back home on the Velo Bleu. Looking forward to the next edition of Boyz Night out ;-)

Party time at Saint-Andre de la Roche

We were very happy to accept Marianne's and Mikko's invitation for a dinner/BBQ at their lovely place in Saint-Andre De La Roche, at the outskirts of Nice. The occasion/excuse was to celebrate Mikko's birthday.

As usual, the food on offer was fantastic. The aperitif was something one would expect at a professionally organized cocktail party. And of course, the main course, BBQ a la Mikko - so predictably delicious. And some fantastic deserts (yes, that's in plural form) to finish it all off. I just loved those macarons! Needless to say, I had way too much to eat (and possible a bit too much to drink, too!).

Great to catch up with Mikko and Marianne, and Aki & Henna as well, who came along with their two sons. Joel, and Emil in particular, were definitely the stars of the evening. They seem infatigable! All in all, we had a great time, as we always do at Marianne and Mikko's parties...

Myriam's birthday

September is probably the best time of the year to enjoy the Cote d'Azur. The weather is still fantastic, but not too hot, and most of the tourists have left (not that I have anything against tourists - I'm quite frequently an active tourist myself!). And today was pretty much a perfect September day - the sun was shining, the skies were blue and so forth.

So, obviously, we decided to grab a pair of Velo Bleus and go to Cap 3000 for some shopping (??). The shopping bit done, we made our way back towards Cagnes-sur-Mer, walking by the seaside. Our walked happened just so happened to take us past one of our favourite restaurants - Le Dame Nature, so we decided to have lunch there. And we were not disappointed - the food was just as delicious as we could remember from our previous visit. Good, local (often organic) ingredients, excellent fish, good service, everything was just spot on. Should you ever find yourselves in Saint-Laurent-du-Var, this is the place to go!

After that, we decided to just lie down on the beach - something we've not been doing too much this year. Just the perfect way to spend a Saturday afternoon this time of the year, yes indeed...

For the evening, 'twas off to Sophia Antipolis to celebrate Myriam's (Mathilde's ex-colleague) birthday. The venue indeed measured up to the occasion - Fabian organized the party at Air France's (where he works) party facilities. Pretty much everything needed for a good part was at our disposal - loads of food & booze, great people, music and even a table football!

I was quite a sight - our attire was supposed to include a "chic" or "chock" detail - since chic isn't really my style, I decided to wear my "charming" Jimmy hat (put it like this - last time I wore it was during Halloween!). I'm sure it made an impression on people (I shan't specify what kind of impression). Anyways, we really had a blast - merci Fabien et Myriam pour une super fete!

The Big 4-0

Big 40 coming up... :-( Anyway, I always say, any excuse for a party. So I decided to organize something for dear friends here in France, and overseas. Naturally, due to my disorganized nature, the organization was a bit last-minute. But to cut a long story short, I ended up renting a villa for a weekend, conveniently located in Haut-de-Cagnes (the medieval part of our hometown). And in the end, the turnout was quite good as well - about 20 participants in all.

Things started a bit badly, as somebody rather rudely decided to pirate my credit card just the day before the big party. So I had to make quite a large withdrawal to cover the deposit for the villa, cleaning charges, and not to mention all the grocery shopping. I took Friday afternoon off to get things organized - quite thankful to have some invaluable assistance from Isabelle, who arrived Friday afternoon (Isabelle, if you read this - BIG THANK YOU!). The rather busy afternoon involved picking up the keys from the villa, a visit to the bank to sort out my credit card mess, shopping, a quick visit to my aunt Tutta's place to have coffee and pick up my cousin Maikki and Jarkko, and a ride to the airport to pick up Flore. To make things easy on ourselves, we decided to have pizza for dinner...

On Saturday, things didn't start out brilliantly either. After a couple of weeks of typical sunny Cote d'Azur weather, mother nature decided to curse us with some torrential rainfall... In fact, enough rain to cut off the electricity for the garage (yep, it did indeed mean we were unable to get the car out of the garage - until we managed to get a hold of the owner who helped us with the manual override system)...

Due to the downpour, we rather quickly gave up on the original plan, which was to do some touristy stuff somewhere with our "overseas visitors" - and contented ourselves with lunch at one of the several nice restaurants located in Haut-de-Cagnes - Le Goutte d'Eau. Pretty nice & reasonably priced food, just what the doctor ordered.

No sign of the rain easing off, so the prospects of enjoying the superb garden the villa possessed were looking slimmer and slimmer. Thankfully, the villa was more than big enough to accommodate everybody. We had a great turnup; apart from the overseas visitors (including Nathalie & Patrick, who had arrived Saturday morning), quite a few local friends made it, we ended up with quite a nice mix of locals, Finns, and a couple of odd ones out (an Italian, a German...).

Everybody seemed to have a nice time, including (of course me!). I was treated to some pressies that can only be described as super: a Suunto sports watch (hint hint: somebody needs to do more sports?), quite a few bottles of alcohol (don't know where people got that idea from?), a wine "subscription" where I get 2 bottles of wine per month (everybody knows, of course, how sensitive my taste buds are to a fine bottle of wine) as well as three laps around a race track in a Ferrari (midlife crisis approaching, anyone !?). I was truly moved by the generosity of everybody (both people present and those who couldn't make it) - THANK YOU to those who happen to be reading... And thanks to Sarah, Aurelien and Antoine as well for the delicious cakes they prepared!

So as you've probably guessed, I at least had a brilliant time! The party carried on well into the morning hours (comforting to know that I'm still able to last past midnight! ;-) ), and a rather insistent headache (and quite a few empty bottles) reminded me that it must've been a good party!

The next day was rather chilled out, with most people heading off pretty early. We hanged out at the villa for a few hours more with Flore, Isabelle and Vincent (who had a rather long sleep, waking up around noon...), finally getting to enjoy a bit of sunshine.

All in all, a super weekend, makes it easier entering middle age...! A huge thanks to everybody who helped with organizing the party, for the present, and for your presence!

Birthday bash in Oslo

Jonas is a good friend of mine from my years in high scool, so I was very happy to receive a message from her sister Lotta, some time ago, inviting us to meet up in Oslo to surprise Jonas for his 40th birthday. Why Oslo ? Since Jonas lives near Ålesund, in western Norway... After a smooth flight with Norwegian, and an equally smooth train ride into town centre, I met up with Mathilde at our hotel (a surprisingly economical affair - considering this was Oslo - in a reception-less hotel just a couple of blocks away from the train station), who was joining me after a few days spent in Angers with her dad and Francoise.

After a good nights' sleep, we got up, eager to explore Oslo (a city I've not been to before). Since the weather was rather rainy (unsurprisingly - this is Norway after all!), we decided to start with a museum - the National Gallery.  A rather enjoyable museum. Apart from the mandatory paintings from Munch (including his master piece, the scream) there was plenty of other interesting art.  On the whole, it reminded me quite a lot of Finnish art from the same period. 

After this dose of culture, we made our way to a nice little self-service restaurant for lunch. We were a bit scared about the legendary high prices of Oslo, hence the choice of a self-service restaurant (the meal put as back by about 20 Euros in all, not completely unreasonable...). Our stomachs filled, we continued our tour of Oslo by heading to Bygdøy, a little peninsula located just outside Oslo centre. Our first stop was a Musem dedicated to the legendary ethnographer and adventurer Thor Heyerdahl -  named after the raft this mad Norwegian constructed from balsa wood, and used to travel from Peru to Polynesia. Quite an adventure indeed, lasting 101 days, especially considering him and his equally mad crewmembers basically had no experience of sailing... One of the other ships he'd constructed, the Ra 2 (a boat built from papyrus he used to cross the Atlantic...). Quite a guy, this Thor!

Our next stop was the Fram museum, which was dedicated to another bunch of crazy Norwegian explorers, namely Roald Amundsen, the man who named the north pole. The museum is basically constructed around Fram, the ship Amundsen used when he discovered the South Pole. A very interesting museum too - paying homage to a pretty impressive bunch of guys, who put their lives on the line to increase our knowledge about the world around us. I was particularly impressed with Fridtjof Nansen - a true renaissance man (polar explorer, humanitarian, politician, champion skier & skater, scientist, Nobel laureate).

Before leaving Bygdøy, we had a quick walk around the Norwegian Folk museum, a very nice little place, quite similar to Seurasaari in Helsinki. The concept is to basically show various countryside houses from different parts of Norway - including one of the famous Norwegian wooden churches. 

After a walk around the town centre, some shopping and a nice cappuccino, it was time to head back to the hotel and get ready for dinner. We'd picked a fish restaurant in Aker Brygge, in the port of Oslo. It's a trendy-looking area, with many of the old brick warehouses now housing fancy restaurants, including the place we'd picked. We had a very nice dinner indeed - and weren't even that shocked by the bill. 

Our stomachs filled, it was time to surprise the birthday hero at a bar near his hotel. We were joined by his sister Lotta, his husband as well as his parents, and later by Nicke. We had a very nice night out indeed, finishing the proceedings in a nice little whiskey bar not far from our Hotel. Certainly not the cheapest night out I've had - but the occasion was more than worth it!

The next day, we decided to do a bit more touristy stuff before joining the rest of the folks. Especially since, believe it or not, the sun was out! We decided to make our way to Vigelandsparken, a rather curious park located just outside Oslo town centre. The park houses a collection of statues made by Gustav Vigeland, a Norwegian sculpture. The statues depict rather strong emotions (of all kinds..), as well as portraying the relationships between parents and their children, and between couples. Very powerful stuff, highly recommended. 

Our next stop was the Oslo opera house, a rather fantastic building constructed back in 2007. It truly is a magnificent building, to me it's just as beautiful as the Sydney Opera house. It had a similar impact on us as the Guggenheim museum at Bilbao had, which we visited a couple of years ago. It's pure white shape sits very well in harmony next to the sea. I have to admit I'm no big fan of opera - but this building is well worth the visit for its visionary architecture.

The touristy stuff done for the time being, it was time to join the others, who were having a hike around Aker Brygge. We joined the gang there - I was quite happy to see quite a few old familiar faces (including my good friends Jani & Jocke, and Luther whom I've not seen for years and years). We ended up in a put near their hotel, drinking rather expensive beer and catching up on old times....

We still had a bit of time to kill before the dinner later in the evening, so we decided to have a walk around Akerhus Festning (the fortress of Akerhus). Quite a nice little place to walk around, a bit similar to Suomenlinna in Helsinki (with a somewhat less picturesque setting though).

Then it was time for the big dinner in honour of our good friend Jonas. Lotta had picked a nice fusion food restaurant in Grünerløkka for the occasion (Grünerløkka is an old working-class neighbourhood that's apparently rather trendy these days...). The food was pretty good - and rather reasonably priced actually, again. We spent quite a lot of time chatting to Jonas' mum and dad (Pata, Jonas' dad, actually speaks fluent French, having lived in Paris. We actually learnt that Jonas was born in Paris - a true Parisian then ;) ). 

After the excellent meal, we headed out on town, guided by one of the guests who has lived in Oslo and knows the place pretty well. After a couple of drinks there, we made our way to a Scottish pub in the town centre, where we downed a few more rather pricy pints. But all in all, a fantastic night out, great fun chatting to everybody. 

After getting up, somewhat surprised not to have a headache, we headed off for a bit of final Oslo exploration before catching our flight back to Nice. We decided to walk along the river that crosses Oslo - pretty nice walk actually. We particularly enjoyed an area by the river with some pretty cool graffiti that could hold its own against the best that the Mission District in San Francisco can offer. We ended our walk at the indoor food market, where we had a rather tasty fish lunch. And then, alas, 'twas time to catch the train to the airport.

So a rather intensive long weekend of partying and touristing then. A huge thanks to Lotta and everybody else for a memorably weekend - and in particular a big happy birthday to Jonas! As for Oslo - it was a real revelation to us. Yes - it is undeniably expensive, but on the other hand, I reckon you can easily spend as much money during a weekend in London or Paris... I think I prefer Oslo both to Stockholm and Copenhagen (naturally, it doesn't stand a chance against Helsinki ;-) ). One feels tempted to visit again!