My dream vacation
Just before christmas, I finally booked the vacation I have been dreaming of for years… a sightseeing tour of 10 days through Japan! =D
After one of my family had finally shown some interest to accompany me, we were at first planning to go in March or April. But then we found a very advantageous offer for January, and now our flight will be leaving in only 9 days. The journey will go from Tokyo to Kyoto, Nara, Hiroshima, Nikko, Kamakura and finally to Osaka with lots of visits at temples, shrines, castles, palaces, Fuji-san, an onsen bath etc. etc. etc.
I’ve already bought an adaptar plug and a huge new memory card for my camera for 1,500 pictures… However, the situation still seems somewhat unreal: in just 9 days I will be in Japan! =)
By the way. I have kept a tight reign on my feelings all throughout this text in order not to flood it with smileys and exclamation marks… So here’s just a short summary: I’M GOING TO JAPAN! IN JUST 9 DAYS!! WOOHOOOOO!!! =)))
New painting
My latest painting:
Lightning within the Storm
For full view in a much larger version, please click here.
Update since November
Woops! No sooner do you look over your shoulder and turn around three times counterclockwise and Christmas and New Year’s all of a sudden haven come and gone already!
The busy pre-christmas season, an aikido seminar halfway across Germany and a week spent at my sister’s made me completely forget I have a blog to feed.
So, what happened since the end of November?
First f all, I booked my dream vacation… but that one will get a post on its own later, in order to enjoy the anticipation more. =)
Of course I’ve kept going to aikido trainings regularly three times a week and have had lots of fun, however there is no noticeable process to record. On December 27th and 28th my teacher and I took part in a Christmas aikido seminar with Yoshigasaki-sensei near Heidelberg. It was a great experience although the techniques and contents still remain way over my head (of course).
After the seminar I continued in the same direction towards my sister’s family and my cuuute little nephew – by now he even says “Haio?” (instead of German “Hallo?”) when you give him a telephone! =) After five nice and fairly quiet days – apart from that little blond whirlwind making us chase him again and again – I returned to Fürth on January 2nd.
The following weekend I spent mostly at three performances of the musical RENT, where I met with two of my best friends, who by now study in Hamburg and Vienna (one of them was part of the group himself, the other was a member of the same group until last year).
Well, and now it’s already January 2009 and everything is back to usual. Work, musical training, aikido, lots of new books, a little painting in between…
… and I was given the task to improve my overall condition/stamina/endurance (sorry, vocabulary problems) until summer. That will be hard. Jogging won’t do, as it doesn’t agree with my knees. I tried it a few times in 2007, each time afterwards being almost unable to walk for a week because my knees hurt like hell – I won’t repeat that. The alternative of going for long walks of several hours is not feasible as I simply haven’t got the time. I’ll try something different for now: repeating our most demanding dancing songs for maybe 30 minutes each day. I hope that will help, as I can’t think of an alternative at the moment. =)
