Hiking at Yatsugatake

After admiring the mountains for four years from Finland Village, I finally did the hike I had been dreaming of - go to the highest peak and stay overnight at one of the cabins at the top (at 2750 meters) . It was better than I could have ever expected! Total elevation 1200 meters from start to Akadake + quite a lot of climbming and descending along the way. 5 hours on Saturday, 10 hours on Sunday. GPS tracked 45 km, on amap would be less but the paths do go zig zag up the mountains.



Thanks to Michael for joining and making the hike even more memorable!

Kamakura

I escaped the endless concrete jungle and crowds of Tokyo, and spent 7 hours walking 33 kilometers on the outskirts of Kamakura visiting several remote Buddhist temples.

Mt Fuji 21.9.2009

Samuli had a fantastic hike to Mt Fuji - sunrise was nice, clear blue skies all the way down where great, but the night sky was absolutely breathtaking - Saturday was new moon, so there was no moon light, just perfectly clear black sky with thousands and thousands of stars,... which I was admiring for hours and hours.



Samuli koki aivan mielettömän vaelluksen Mt Fujilla - auringonnousu oli hieno, kirkkaan sininen taivas alas tullessa mahtava, mutta yötaivas oli kerrassaan henkeäsalpaava - lauantaina oli ollit uusi kuu, joten taivaalla ei ollut kuuta eikä kuunvaloa, vain täysin kirkas musta yötaivas, jossa tuikki tuhansia ja tuhansia tähtiä ... joista sain nauttia usean tunnin ajan.

Two sides of Tokyo

Samuli is just getting ready for another day in Tokyo - Riikka and the kids are sound asleep in Helsinki getting ready for another schoolday in 6 hours.

This video captures the duality of Tokyo, it was this duality that made me love Tokyo since my very first visit in 2004.

Beautiful and ugly, old and new, back streets and high streets, calm and busy, shiny and rusty, commercial and zen ... and the sound of semi at the very end - urban nature.

Nagoya castle

I have been in Nagota today and visited the Nagoya castle. I met a 6 year old Japanese boy Tamon, who started interviewing me in fluent English. He was interested on where I came from and wanted to make friends. He is going to an international kindergarden, and already now speaks better English than most Japanese I have met.

The Nagoya castle was built in 1610, around the time when Togukawa shogunate took control of the whole of Japan, isolated the country from the world and demanded absolute harmony.

The first Tokugawa shogun, Tokugawa Ieyasu, built the castle. His family controlled Japan for almost 300 years on top of the strict class hierarchy followed by the warrior-caste of samurai.

"Ironically, many of the traditional values attributed to the Japanese today originate from this heritage." says Professor Akihiro Chiba in this article on pages 8-9 (pages numbered 16-17).

History is interesting: ...a country with closed borders, one family controlling all the riches, ruling with the help of the military, and building mausoleums to show their wealth...

The shogunate was abolished during the Meiji Restoration which was a chain of events that led to enormous changes in Japan's political and social structure in the 1860s. Luckily.

Tomorrow I will visit Toyota Techno Museum to understand Toyota's history, and it's effect on their philosophy today.

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.

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.

Run and Walk around the Imperial Palace

We participated the 10th TELL Charity Walk and Runathon! Samuli ran two laps around the Imperial Palace (10 km), Riikka walked one lap with the kids. It was +24C and we really enjoyed it!!



Samuli going along his own path.



Downhill in the beginning.



Imperial palace gate.



"I am thirsty!"



"I am flying!"



Aura finishing the race (Oskari finished 15 minutes earlier).



We did it!



We all did it!

Zojo-ji & Tokyo Tower

The golden rays of the setting sun.

"Why are there so many statues for dead children?"

Aura, Oskari, cherry blossom and Tokyo Tower

Tokyo Tower behind Zojo-ji

Crossing the street to enter Tokyo Tower

Hanami at Meguro river

The weather today was not as warm as forecasted and we decided to walk along Meguro river in Nakameguro instead of a picnic.

Early Hanami

We went to Aoyama Cemetery to enjoy early hanami. Riikka and Aura enjoyed beautiful cherry blossom, Oskari found many interesting things and Samuli took quite a few pictures.


It is still a bit chilly (and only about 10% of full blossom) so there were only a handful of people on hanami picnic. Having barbecue, drinking beer and sake, talking and singing loud, playing tag, etc. on a graveyard...


A big and old cemetery has hundreds of interesting objects.


And the scenery is magnificent!

Kevättä odotellessa

Ulkona on ollut ihmeen kylmää. Koko kaupunki odottaa milloin kirsikankukat alkavat kukkia. Alkuperäisen ennusteen mukaan niiden piti kukkia tällä viikolla, mutta viileä sää on hidastanut kukintaa eikä 5'C lämpötila houkuttele sunnuntaipiknikille. Lähdemme kuitenkin kävelylle Aoyaman hautausmaalle (kuten viime vuonna samaan aikaan).

Osa kirsikoista kukkii jo, kuten eilen Roppongilla



Ja kotona Riikan orkidea alkoi myös kukkia

Auran ikebana = Ikebana by Aura

Eilen Aura halusi ostaa kukkia.

Hän sai itse valita kukat ja teki niistä hienon ikebana-asetelman.


Yesterday Aura wanted to by some flowers.

She selected the flowers and made a beatiful ikebana arrangement of them.

Odawara Castle

We went day tripping to Odawara, 80 km outside Tokyo to see the "old" Odawara Castle. It was well worth it. We actually planned to go yesterday, but as it rained we went today and were caught in the traffic.
Children were playing at the main gate.
Each castle in Japan apparently has a fish decoration on the roof, and each of them is slightly different from the other castles.
Wide angle - my family on a bench and the castle on a hill top.
The view from the castle is amazing, and has been even more amazing when there has been far less houses around it. The Hojo clan controlled for hundrets of kilometers, all the way trough Edo (Tokyo).
Signs of spring, plum bloossom and a small bird (unknown to us).
The colour of the setting sun paints the catsle nicely yellow.

Happy Monday

Today was Japanese Coming-of-Age-Day, another Happy Monday holiday. &;-)

I have to say, the system is quite nice. Additionally, if a national holiday falls on weekend, the following Monday becomes a holiday.

Because the weather was nice, I put on warm clothes and went out riding my bicycle.

Past a temple, and a girl celebrating her coming of age.


I found my self in a tight space between 4+2 lanes of highway and 4+4 lanes of a major road!


The gates to the Imperial Palace look nice


And the temples along the way are beautiful


Or to be precise, the beauty of Tokyo is hidden in the details...


Samuli

Rising sun

Sunrise from behind Mita

Roppongi on sunrise

Mt Fuji on sunrise (behind Ebisu)