QUICK GAME: FIND THE BIG BOYS

Famous sumo wrestlers MUSASHIMARU and KONISHIKI were attending the USA-GERMANY game. Click on the picture below and try to find them among the crowd.
That's an easy one...

ABOUT JAPAN WELL PRESERVED CULTURAL IDENTITY
(j'ai droit a 1 article prise de tete avec titre pompeux par mois !)

There is a tendancy to believe that modern Japan consists only in a heavily urbanized civilization.
On the other hand, most of the Japanese national territory is a chain of volcanic mountains unappropriate to set up habitations and large cities.
Therefore it is obvious that there are numerous areas in Japan that remain relatively unurbanized, natural and have preserved their original historical and cultural values.
You can find these areas quite easily if you go out of the main roads including the smaller touristical ones indicated in your LONELY PLANET guide book.
The easy and convenient fact about Japan is that you don't have to be a baroudeur to travel to the unexplored areas because comfort and modernity will never be too far away.

FRANCE - GRECE J-1

C'est l'effervescence totale a Tokyo: les boutiques ont change leurs devantures specialement pour l'evenement et Koichiro fait la hola en pleine rue.

ELVIS IS STILL ALIVE ?

Is Elvis Presley still alive ? 44% of Americans think he still is. One of the latest theory was that, to avoid the scandal among American media, he flew secretly to Japan because, like French president Jacques Chirac, he was in love with a Japanese woman. They had 4 sons (Dick, Rivers, Koizumi and Elvis Jr) who dance almost every sunday in Harajuku to secretely honour their father.
Last week-end they were in Nagoya though.

WEEK-END IN NAGOYA AND AROUND

I spent the week-end at the NOGAMIs in Nagoya. We went to the mountains and to an old traditional village (Tsumago), watched a street dance festival, ate eels (Hitsumaboshi) ... and eel bones, drank Hungarian and ... American wines.
All in one It was great time.
I am heading back to Tokyo now, for a more hectic time !

IS HAMASAKA THE PLACE ?

People have the tendancy to think that Japan is unappropriate for vacation because too many cities, too much pollution and too expensive.
After my ! day trip to Hamasaka, I can not confirm this opinion. As I told you before it is a very decorated fishermen village, with friendly people (this can not be translated by pictures). A village with little streets and a graveyard with atmosphere (no kidding) .
A village with a beach for my own. A beach I could see from the window of my room because the minshuku (inn) is located so close from the sea shore.
There was just me on the beach and a couple of sea-hawks fishing. So pollution... Nope. I don't think so.
I went back to my room after a good meal at the Watanabe sushi house. The only sushi restaurant in the village .. with really great fresh fish.
I forgot the financiaql aspect : 1670 YEN (between 11 and 12 Euros) for a 20m² tatami room. Of course there's a curfew at 10:00PM, you need to share shower and bath tube with other people, there are japanese/turkish style toilets, but if you want to spend little money in touring Japan ... it's possible.
By the way I slept very well that night, without AirCon, refreshed by a nice see-breeze entering the windows.

So, yes, Hamasaka is the place.

MIYAJIMA PICTURES

CHRISTMAS TIME IN HAMASAKA ?

I was walking around Hamasaka, a small fishermen town, and suddenly I was about to hit my head into squids that were drying in the middle of the pavement.
Nice guirlande !

AMANOHASHIDATE CATARINETA TA BELLATCHITCHI

Amanohashidate is where I have spent the day on thursday. It's another very touristic place. One of the top 3 Japanese finest photographic views (along with Miyajima) but hardly any internet connection. I am standing in the lobby of an hotel (... not my hotel of course) to write this post.
Amanohashidate is a splendid spot to watch: two sides of a bay tied by as narrow sand band. You must watch it from the top of a mount, bend backward and frame the sand band between your legs. In Japanese you call the photos above prove it.

I have many more things to write such as the Hiroshima baseball game, Hamasaka, where I was on wednesday in the middle of nowhere with a nice beach only for myself, the minshuku (Japanese inns where I've stayed) etc...

I hope you're teased now?

A domani

HIROSHIMA MON AMOUR

The text I'm about to write may have no connections with the title of this post.

Yesterday I was talking about the A-Bomb Memorial as a reminder of what happened here 61 years ago. I have not been extremely shocked or impressed by it.
But as I have been walking around the city yesterday and today I have noticed the bodies of old people here. Some people older than 61 obviously.
Some of them have bands to help heal some mysterious wounds. Some of them have broken flat faces. Some of them have crooked legs or arms. Some of them are normal. A miracle ? Or where they leaving in a different city (except Nagasaki) when the bomb exploded ?

Of course no photos to expect with this article.

OK, end of it for today I must go for an all-American night :watch a Baseball Game : Hiroshima Carps vs Hanshin Tigers (Osaka) and then have dinner with an American girl I've met on the boat coming back from Miyajima.

Ciao a tutti.

LES VACANCES DE MONSIEUR LUDO

C'est parti : voila 4 jours aue j'ai pose le pied sur l'archipel Nippon et je me suis decide a mettre a jour le blog et a m'asteindre a passer auelaues minutes dans un internet cafe. Ca ne peut pas faire de mal vu que dehors il fait 35 degres et 80% d'humidite et qu'a l'interieur c'est climatise.

Comme on peut le remarquer pas d'accent, de cedille et de ponctuation francaise dans mon texte ce aui est un peu enervant. De plus comme je risque d'avoir des lecteurs etrangers sur cette partie de mon texte, je vais abandonner pour ecrire ce blog en japonais.

狸々 から日本語になります。美奈さん宜しくお願いします。
フランス人とかイギリス人とか麻かの外人の種類はこのブログを日本語で分からないとここから英吾になります。

OK, don't worry from now on it's in English and it will remain in this language for a while.
Also a major fact to notice is that I 'm not able to upload photos from Japanese internet cafes.
So you'll have to wait until this week-end, when I reach my friends Ray+Noriko's home in Nagoya, to see the pictures and videos. Among those a very unique specimen of lively "caniche" dog painted in pink.

So I've arrived 4 days ago in Tokyo. Mainly 3 days of social life in Tokyo meeting friends and filming dogs and the concert of the Japanese Beatles : ELEKI BASS.

Today I've arrived in Hiroshima. An hospitable city of dark memory. The sky is gray and the ceiling low as I'm just coming out of my visit of the atomic bomb memorial, with the A-Bomb dome and thousands of paper cranes made by children.
A really oppressing feeling around here.

I'm going to try to experience some other sensations tonight by tasting the local specialty food: OKONOMIYAKI. It's a local version of the spanish tortilla where you replace potatoes with seaweeds, squid, ginger and many other things. hmmmm...

As for tomorrow my planning includes a visit of Miyajima, one of the 3 most famous sceneries of Japan. Basically the thing to see is a red temple arch in the middle arch in the sea.
Let's see how the picture turns like...

またね！