La Vie en Rose

Right now everyone is complaining about the weather and I really cannot understand why.
It's foggy, it's cold, the sun is only coming out randomly ... it is beautiful. Every morning I look out of the window and I am stunned by the view of the fog crawling up the hill and lingering in our garden. When I see the little dewdrops (in french they even call them "goutte de rosée") on the roses, spider nets and well, just anywhere, I cannot hold myself from grabbing my camera and enjoy all the details through my lense.
Sometimes I really envy kids - I come to that conclusion especially in these little moments of bliss. They enjoy another way of looking and discovering, when every little detail leads to a feeling of happiness and satisfaction - isn't that the real beauty of life? In these moments I sometimes start regretting that everything in life has to happen so fast. We run to the subway, hurry into the office, drink our coffee without really tasting it, just so it will keep us awake and trample down the only flower blooming on the mid of the pavement on our way through the gray city.
As much as I love cities and happening places, it's these little moments I miss most at the end of the day and which make me smile when I daydream about them.

foggy days have a beauty on their own :)

spiders build their nets anywhere they can...

... even on roses

morning dewdrops

did you ever observe that the outside reflects upside-down in a waterdrop?

beautiful like a pearl necklace

Boba song

Every time I hear this song it makes me smile and saves my day :) 

And with all the cups of Boba I drank up till now I bet I will get "some glory and fame" too! haha (i should!)

I first heard about Anthony Neely while watching a movie on my flight to Taiwan - called "The Soul of Bread" (very cute movie I have to say ... makes me wanna annect the kitchen and start baking heaps of bread).

Then going to Karaoke, a friend sang a song of him and I was like: "Hey! I know that guy!" (leading to total silence in the room and someone asking "Personally? Really?" haha -__-).

Well, finally I stumbled over an article of TucTo talking about how interesting it is to see stars before they got famous (I agree! - check here) and providing the video above. Ever since that song is playing nonstop in my head.
And maybe it will in yours soon as well ... ;)

Christmas coming?

Why does this picture remind me so much of Christmas?

Akihabara, Tokyo

Hello Kitty Air =^-^=

I knew it from the very first moment I saw the aircraft standing outside the window - this must be it! My plane to Japan! Which other destination could have Hello Kitty as their airplane theme? ^^

here comes my luggage

Not only was the outside Hello Kitty - the whole interior was too! Sadly I forgot to take pictures of all the cute seat covers, cutleries, eating boxes etc.
So, if you wanna fly with Hello Kitty - book your seat on the next Eva Air flight to Tokyo ;)



Speaking of Hello Kitty - if you ever get stuck on Taoyuan Airport or just have some long hours of waiting to fill - you can relax at the Hello Kitty lounge ...

... or do some last minute souvenir-shopping at the cute Hello Kitty store.

Right after seeing some interesting art exhibitions or relaxing in the (free!!) massaging chairs ... life is good.

Journey to Japan

When I wrote my last blog entry I would have never imagined that some months down the track I would go and visit Japan myself. Life flies by so fast and sometimes we cannot tell in advance where it will take us.
Sadly, there were no cherry blossoms left when I came to Japan, not even Fuji-san showed his so often pictured famous white crown. Instead, I was struck by heat, humidity and occasional rain ... and the kindness of Japanese people helping me to find my way around.

I spontaneously followed an invitation of a friend to visit her in Tokyo and prolonged my stay in Asia by ten days. I know, ten days is far too short to say anything about a country or even a city as big and varied as Tokyo. It is just enough to take a glimpse at the culture and people, look at some places and think to oneself: "I definitely want to come back." That phrase was going through my head nearly every hour or so when i discovered another new face of Tokyo. The feeling not to have enough time to get the best of it kept following me around and after returning to my home-country it hardened to the deep belief that this first trip to Japan was just a test journey that will be followed by many more.

Thinking of Japan, so many things popped up in my head: The old traditional culture with Kimonos, Geishas and Samurais; Cherry blossoms floating through the air in front of Fuji-san; Fukushima and the fear that still creeps around in Europe because of it; People weeping over the perfect bowl of Ramen; Office workers going to nomikai with their collegues and celebrating social life; Manga characters and cosplayers dressed like they came right out of a Manga; The beauty of the perfect cup of tea that can make one forget all the sorrows and hardship in life... There are so many images related  with Japan, I have to admit I didn't know what to expect after all.
Japan is immensly divers and going to Tokyo alone showed me that even in an array of small areas one can find so many different faces and cultures of Japan that it is impressive and way beyond anything I ever was able to imagine about this city. Although I was a little bit scared by the Japanese language, I managed to get along well by myself, even ordering food and minor necessities turned out to be possible with my few Japanese phrases and the help of some nice Japanese people.

As a follow up to this entry I will upload some pictures from my trip and try to reminiscate on my travels there, my favorite spots, etc. This might take some time as I took too many pictures and even just looking through them adds up to some hours. But I am sure I can pick out some nice ones to share and maybe inspire you to book your next flight to this amazing country. I am sure, no matter what your interests in life are, you can find them there.