The time has come, when there is not much more to say and therefore I decided to finish this blog.
Thank you to all those who found the time to read it, or at least to check the pictures. Hopefully it brought you a positive vibe.
My life is at the moment still a life of a student. Now I am trying to change my student visa to spouse visa, searching for good part time job, which is a bit difficult at the moment and so on.
Just got the results from our mid-term exam, and apparently I am a good student (90%). Pleased with my self.
Mitsuyo bought a car, so we can get around much easier, and sometimes cheaper. I changed my UK licence to Japanese one, so I can drive too. Feels great after one year not driving, but this time it is a car with automatic transmission, so need to get used to it. Plus it is completely new car, and therefore the breaks are quite sensitive.... Well... I gave few shocks to my lovely wife... Sorry...
Well, and that is about all in our life now....
Of course - tomatoes and basil on the balcony....
And one thing I would like to tell to all of you is that we are coming to Europe in summer time.
The dates are Slovakia - 9,10,11th of August, 12th travelling and Scotland - 13,14,15th of August.
It is very short visit, so I guess we won't be able to meet with all people we know, but we will do our best. Well, lets go with the flow of Life and if we can meet that would be great. So see you all very soon.
Thank you all again and keep in touch through e-mail, please.
Tuesday 5 June 2012
Tuesday 8 May 2012
Tuesday 17 April 2012
Slide show No.2 - Family visit
Here is a slide show from few trips with my family.
If you feel like watching, check it out.
There are some nice pictures of Japan and its life...
Trip With Family Slideshow: Stano’s trip from 日本 to 4 cities 箱根町, 新宿区, 厚木市 and 鎌倉市 was created by TripAdvisor. See another 日本 slideshow. Take your travel photos and make a slideshow for free.
Wedding day
Welcome to Japan where 24 hours is not
enough.
Sign from a parking place in Atsugi
Here are some photos from our wedding
ceremony and party. Unfortunately I don’t have many good photos yet, but these
should be enough.
Click on the picture if you want to see it bigger.
Enjoy…
Entering the chapel
Reading the Vows
I am sure that in near future we will have much more photos coming from friends and family and also wedding photographer. I am sure there will be few nice ones, so I will post them later on.
And everyone, thanks for all your presents. Caroline brought a full luggage of them. It was much more than we expected.... Thank you again and again and again....
Tuesday 13 March 2012
Pre-wedding Photoshoot
Hallo everyone
The time of the wedding ceremony is coming closer and closer.
And as a part of it, we went to Photo studio in Tokyo, cause we wanted to have some pictures in traditional Japanese wedding clothes (kimono - for woman and hakama - for man).
Mitsuyo's kimono and the wig were really heavy. Imagine about two kilos of potatoes on your head. Well, good job with balancing ...... On top of that, tightly squeezed in about 4 layers of sheets covered in heavy carpet....
Beautiful but tough. Well done Mitsuyo....
We also had photo shoot in Western style wedding clothes. We will wear something similar at our wedding.
So after the wedding I will post some pictures for you.
Till then....
Here are some pre-wedding photos...
Monday 30 January 2012
Amazing winter time
Winter time in Japan is quite interesting. I would love it, if I wouldn’t
have to go everywhere on bicycle, especially to work at 4 in the morning. But I
must say, that after finishing the work, I get to see all the sunrises, amazing
sunrises. They always make me so happy and their beauty makes me sometimes cry. It is something you need to see one day.
The city where I live, Atsugi, is in east side of the Japanese island.
We have mostly nice dry cold weather. Almost no rain or snow, but we had about
2 cm snow few weeks ago… The hills around our city looked so amazing, covered in white colour of the winter. The highest hill is about 1200 m
tall, just beautiful.
On the other hand, the west side of the island is almost all the
time covered in snow. Some parts have 2 to 3 meters of snow throughout whole
winter season. And actually this part of Japan is not that far away from us.
It is tough life especially for elders.
One of the most famous places to visit in the West side is called “Yuki-no-Otani” (The
Great Wall of Snow). In this place there is about 5m of snow every year.
Amazing.
Another amazing winter magic made by human beings is in the North of
Japan. There is a Winter snow festival organized in Sapporo every year. It is a
place I definitely want to visit one day. It looks cold, but amazing too. The
coldest place of Japan is of course in that area. This winter they had about
-30 degree there. But look at the pictures….
Another amazing winter magic, but made by nature is also in the
north area. There are amazing trees covered in snow and ice, called “snow
monsters”. Another place I will definitely visit one day. Just check the pictures…
Magical…
So that is something I wanted to share with you about the amazing Japan in winter. And here is little bit
about me…
My school is finishing in one week, so now we have final tests (essay
writing, grammar and kanji test). I have now 3 days holiday, which is great. I
have time to study.
That also means that my original plan to study in Japan is at its end. Unfortunately,
I did not realize that my student visa will expire in that case by 1st
of April. That makes things very complicated and difficult, especially with
upcoming wedding party. I would have to leave the country, at least for one
day, and return. But without any visa and that means also no working
permission, etc.
But
I have a very intelligent lady next to me, and she said that it will be easier
if I study for one more semester. And it will cost about the same amount of money as travelling abroad and coming back. How can I say no.
So there you go, I will continue my study till August. Which is only
great, cause my Japanese is still very poor.
That also means that my visit to Europe is postponed. I won’t be able to
visit Allanton ceremony, but maybe I will be able to come sometime in August.
Not sure now.
And the last thing to say is… that from 29th January 2012, I
am officially married with Mitsuyo. Just yesterday I picked up the documents
from local government office.
As Donald sang to me at Allanton many times before I left: “I think I am
turning Japanese, I think I am turning Japanese, I really thing soooooo… “
Wish you all the best….
Wednesday 4 January 2012
The New Year - お正月
For the New Year (正月) we went to visit Mitsuyo family. It is very different celebration compared to
Europe, but actually it is similar to Christmas time.
The families get together, prepare special food, watch TV and eat a
lot.
Before we left we decorated the house with few nice looking
decorations. One for the doors outside and one inside the room. I am not sure about their meanings, but it has something to do with greeting the God, I think.
got caught (this one is made of rice)
on our doors (looks so nice)
On the 31st lot of people visits temples and shrines.
They wait till the midnight and right after the first seconds of the New Year
come, they enter the shrines and pray to God. They really want to meet God as
soon as possible in the beginning of the year. Sometimes they have to wait for
3 or 4 hours in queues to get to the altar to pray.
Here is a photo I found on Internet, cause I am not really
interested in queueing for hours.
In Asakusa, Tokyo
Others on this occasion perform a purification ritual, that you
might heard of, and that is standing under the waterfall (or in sea, or some
pool of water in temple). I have seen on TV a little boy, maybe 5 years old, to
perform such a ritual in sea. Brave young soul.
found on Internet
If people don’t visit the shrines or temples at midnight, they will definitely
go on the 1st of January. We went as well.
But before that we had breakfast made especially for the New Year. It
is a mixture of many things and mostly it has sweet taste. The breakfast
started with ritual of drinking sake and I must say that I really enjoyed that
one.
sake ritual
special New Year foods
After eating a lot we went to local shrine, which is famous for its
cherry trees. Of course there was a lot of people (as it always is in Japan,
when there is holiday time), and many little shops to sell delicious foods and
drinks outside the shrine.
After entering the shrine, we had to wait in queue to wash our
hands, (which I didn’t – I was a bad boy). After that another queue to get to
the altar (which I did – I was a good boy), and then other queues for other
things, like special protections for the house or people, special food, special
fortune telling papers, etc. (which I didn’t – I was bad boy again).
Interesting was that after our prayer at the altar, maybe one minute
after, we had an earthquake. Not strong one, just an average one, but of course
for many people it has a meaning, a message from Gods of Nature or the Earth.
Well with this message and good fortune telling for the Year 2012,
and drinking nice hot seaweed soup we did some shopping and returned to the
house.
In the evening we played games at Wii Nintendo. It was great fun. If
you have kids (or adults), and they bother you with buying them some game console, get them
this one. They have to move as they play.
In sword play I have badly lost with Mitsuyo’s
mum, in Ping-Pong I have lost too with her father, and in other sports I have
lost even more, but it was really great fun and we actually continued playing
till about 2 in the morning.
Really recommend it.
Mitsuyo's parents enjoyed it too
archery (at least one game I was good at)
Well and that’s about all.
Wish you all great fun in the New Year 2012.
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