Trip to Hiroshima

We had a great trip to Hiroshima where we wanted to take the kids before we leave Japan.

We spent most of day 1 at the Peace Memorial Park and Museum.



To rewind from the shocking museum exparience we enjoyed great weather and outdoors on day 2 at Miyajima island near Hiroshima.



On day 3 we spent several hours relaxing at Shukkeien garden, had a late lunch and some ice cream down town before heading back to Tokyo.



We all enjoyd our great holiday. We highly recommend the trip to Hiroshima and Miyajima to anybody visiting Japan or living here!

Click on each image to see a slideshow of our best pictures that capture the essence of each day.

About free education

This morning I read from the front page of Daily Yomiuri that:

The Democratic Party of Japan likely will include a policy of raising disposable household income by 20 percent in its manifesto for the next House of Representatives election...

The party plans to achieve the proposed increase by reducing the cost of living through means such as making high school education free. It also will increase direct financial support to households, such as providing a monthly child benefit payment of 26,000 yen for every child until graduation from middle school.
...

Sounds good and quite familiar - in Finland all education is free by constitution and child benefit of about 100 euro is paid until the child turns 17.

See also previous blog posts about Entrance exams to primary schools and about How do we educate our children.

Hello Kitty morning

Mom bought me Hello Kitty cocoa and I was so excited to taste it I gathered some of my Hello Kitty stuff on the table. The Milkitty drink was not cocoa but milk tea which I did not like at all. Luckily we had normal cocoa to save the day.

Oranssit vyöt - Orange belts

See them in action earlier this spring.

ミセス Magazine, July issue

For those of you who read Japanese: ミセス Magazine published a 34 pages special section about Finland in their July issue. It covers wide range of topics like landscape and living, famous composers, architects and designers, design and shopping in Helsinki. It dedicates 6 pages for the Finnish school and library system, including an interview with Riikka.

ミセス July 2009, ７月号

フィンランド

45 年前、ピアニストとしての将来を思い描いた舘野泉さんが目指したのは、ウィーンやパリではなく、北欧フィンランドでした。作曲家シベリウスが奏でた北欧の森の「静けさ」に導かれるように。イラストレーターの山本祐布子さんは、忘れ去られたものに命を吹き込むアーティスト、アヌ・トゥオミネンを訪ねて湖畔のサマーハウスへ。その他、北国の自然が作る美しいデザイン、建築、暮しと教育など、フィンランドの素顔をお届けします

Koirakuume nousee - Dog fever rising

Kävimme tänään Porvoossa Mihan kennelissä katsomassa huhtikuun lopussa syntynyttä snautseripentuetta. Meille on varattuna yksi narttupentu. Kuulimme että "meidän" pentumme nimi on Mihan Pirttihirmu - lasten mielestä juuri sopiva koira äidille!

Koirat ovat saaneet kasvaa kauniissa maalaismaisemassa Saimi ja Ahti Niemisen hyvässä hoidossa - aika eri olosuhteissa kuin koirat Tokiossa.


Today we visited Mihan kennel near Porvoo, Finland (50 km from Helsinki). We saw schnauzer puppies born late April. We have reserved a female puppy.

The puppies are living in wonderful conditions in the countryside - quite different from dogs life in Tokyo.