Italy (1)

Two days after our wedding, we took off for, yay!, our honeymoon! Our plan was to fly to Milan and then ... well, see! We did have a rental car reserved, and had bought a Lonely Planet, but as usual, that was the extent of our planning. We love it this way, although it is probably true that we spend some time in places that are not as nice as what we could see otherwise. But yay for spontaneous traveling!

After we arrived safely in Milan, we got our tiny, tiny car. A Fiat Panda for those of you who remember this excuse for a car. Truth be told, it was not a bad car aside from the trunk, which was seriously maxed out after we put in my one suitcase.

Having read the Lonely Planet over coffee at the airport, we decided to go to Cinque Terre first. Cinque Terre is a row of little villages that are glued to the cliffs of the Mediterranean coast. There is a trail that connects the villages which runs along those very cliffs. Because the Cinque Terre villages are not open to cars, but are easily accessible from the nearby city La Spezia, we decided to stay in La Spezia. On the way there, we stopped for lunch in another beautiful coastal town. This is where we had our first Italian meal. The food in Italy leaves me sighing, it's so good. I just love it. For the entire trip, I was basically constantly looking forward to our next meal.

La Spezia is a nice town near the Mediterranean. I like towns that are authentic in the sense that they have a character, a specific atmosphere. I especially liked La Spezia because there were very few tourists there. We found a simple hotel and spent the evening walking around the town center, which has quite a number of pedestrian streets, as well as a town square. I am a big fan of pedestrian areas and especially town squares; I just love strolling around, ideally with some ice cream in my hand, and watching all the people, families, kids and dogs running around, people playing music ... although this doesn't exist much in the U.S., I firmly believe that it is something people like and enjoy. There is a reason that coffee houses and bookstores are becoming (poor) substitutes for town squares. Luckily, there does seem to be a move back towards such spaces. At any rate. La Spezia was nice. We walked around the little streets and climbed some that were so steep that they were just stairs. No car, in particular not our Fiat Panda, could climb such streets.

The next morning, we took a train over to the closest village in Cinque Terre, called Riomaggiore. After we got off, we climbed a few stairs up to a little cafe/restaurant, where we spent a blissful hour having a light lunch. The cafe/restaurant was somewhat outside of the village, but it was set right on top of the cliff. We could not even see the village. All we could see was the cliffs to our right and our left, and the water. What a spectacular place. The weather was perfect, we were almost the only people in this gorgeous spot .... it could not have been more perfect.

After lunch, we took the short walk over to the village. The village, as well as the other four villages of Cinque Terre is very cute albeit quite overrun with tourists. Almost all the houses, all of which are quite old, are painted in different colors. This, against the spectacular backdrop of the cliffs, the sea, and the mountains behind the village, makes for a truly beautiful sight. This has to be one of the most gorgeous views I have ever seen in Italy, if not in the world. In this case, the villages simply enhanced this beauty. What I liked especially is that the people that built these villages worked with the terrain, not against it. The village is, and how could it not be, very hilly. A stroll down the main street is quite a workout! Usually I feel that man-made constructs take away from the beauty of landscape.

After our little stroll (and probably some ice cream -- I can't remember for sure, but it's a very good guess), we headed on the trail to walk to the nearest village. The trail meandered along the coast line, quite a bit up in the hills. It was a nice walk, and such a relaxing day. We even laid down on the ground somewhere along the trail and took a nap in the shade. I love, love, love travling with Guy! The second village was quite nice as well, with a nicer water access (i.e., beach) than the first one. You can't really call it a beach, since there isn't much space there before the hill takes off, but there is some water access there. We saw a third village that day which actually rests on top of a hill rather than the previous two being glued to the side of the cliff. And yet again, I have to express my deepest awe for the original villagers - they had the sense to build a central village square even in a village that would house only several hundred people. A village square simply gives the town a character.

After we had climbed up to the third village, we took the train back to La Spezia, and proceeded to take a nap. Siesta, excuse me. That is just a must. You do your thing during the day, then you take a nap, and then you go out for a nice dinner and enjoy the mild Italian evening. On that evening and the following, we had amazing tuna, very rare and very tasty. Not the kind of meal I would have necessarily envisioned having in Italy, but it was so good. So good indeed.

About the only thing that is cheap in Italy is the wine. With a normal dinner, for which you pay $12-15 per entree, you get about half a liter of goood house wine for about $8. It's brilliant. Needless to say, we took advantage of this opportunity. Hey, it's cheap and good, what's not to like? As an aside, everything else in Italy is extremely expensive. Car rental, hotels, meals, highway robbers (they call it toll), of course gas,... We did not care too much, we were on our honeymoon after all. But it did mean that we did not stay in hotels that could, by any (U.S.) measure, be considered fancy.

The following day we headed back to Cinque Terre to see the last two villages we had not yet seen. They were in fact similar to the other two, but we very much enjoyed the two-hour hike between them. It was quite hilly, and therefore quite the hike, but it was so beautiful and it was good to move! Once we made it to village #5 (you may have noticed that I recall only one of the village names...), we headed straight to the beach. There was in fact a beach there. As soon as I got in the water, I got stung by a jellyfish. When I looked, I saw an entire family of jellyfish right next to me! One or two bigger ones, and several smaller ones. This somewhat spoiled the swimming experience for me, but I did have a great, great time lying on the beach, and probably taking a nap, while Guy braved the wild waters of the Mediterranean (incidentally, withouot getting stung by jellyfish himself). One thing to note about this last village is that we got pizza from some whole-in-the-wall excuse for a restaurant, and it was spectacular! Definitely the best pizza we had in Italy on this trip, and this is a big compliment. Guy still talks about this pizza.

I will continue with a report from our trip hopefully some time in the near future. After Cinque Terre, we headed over to Tuscany, but this warrants a whole entry of its own.

Wedding!

It's been a long time since I posted to this blog, and I have to assume that I have lost of all of my audience by now. Sigh. This means that I will have to post some blogs and re-establish audience trust. We will see. Meanwhile, I will write for myself. Surely looking back at these posts in a few years will bring back very nice memories.

The wedding was fun!! fun!! fun!! I am quite sad that one tends to do this only once. We had a very nice wedding. Our families came, including our parents, Guy's aunt, my sisters with husbands and kids, and Guy's brother with wife and kids. Everybody came! And they all came from so far away! Many of our friends from all over the U.S. were able to come as well. I can honestly say that every single person that came is very special to me, and that I appreciated the presence of every single guest. It couldn't have happened without you, so thanks!!

Guy's mom and aunt arrived about two weeks before the wedding, and we had fun showing them Chicago and some of the surrounding areas. They are very "easy" guests, and so it was fun to show them around. I am getting more and more excited about Chicago, especially about "visiting" Chicago and doing all the things the city has to offer (without having to deal daily with traffic, annoyed people, etc.). When my family came, we also showed off Chicago to them. With the kids, it was quite a different experience. Rather than going to the Art Institute, we went to Millenium Park and up the Hancock building. I even managed to squeeze in some shopping time with my mom and sisters! It was a lot of fun, and luckily the weather was great, so that we could sit in the grass and enjoy the summer.

The day before the wedding, many people came to our new house for an "open house". I am so glad we did this (and I recommend it!). This way, we got to see some of our guests, especially the out-of-town guests on two occasions. It is absolutely true that you don't get enough time with each guest on your wedding day, so having people over the day before gave us a chance to see more of some of our friends. Plus, we got to show off our house! Not surprisingly to me, everybody (friends and family) liked the house quite a bit.

On the wedding day, I went into the city with my sisters quite early in the morning. It was very nice of them to come along with me to get my hair and nails done, and then to change into my gown. I could definitely use the moral support, and it was some extra, and very special, time with my sisters. After getting my hair and nails done, we even had time for a quick lunch! I don't often get time with my sisters, so this was really special. After lunch, we headed to the synagogue to get changed. Guy was already there and ready to go. Everything worked out well: we met with the photographer, went outside to take some pictures (the rain had stopped and we even got a couple of minutes of sunshine!). The only realy crisis of the day happened right before we were supposed to take pictures with our families, before the ceremony. I had just noticed that when we were outside taking pictures, I had gotten a STAIN on the FRONT of my dress! AH!!! I tried to wash it off, and the water made it all the more obvious! Five or ten minutes of emotional crisis ensued, but luckily I had my sisters (who calmed me down and re-applied my make-up, all of which was gone after this crisis...), and Guy, who basically told me that we simply didn't have time for a crisis right then. He was right, of course, and I finally managed to talk myself into believing that some people may not notice the stain (AH!). While we took pictures, I tried to hide it between the folds. Luckily for me, during the ceremony we were asked to face the rabbi and the priest, rather than the congregation (phew!), so that I did not have to worry about it then. After the ceremony, the water had dried off, and at least it was not terribly obvious any more.

The ceremony was, in my opinion, a great success. I enjoyed every minute of the ceremony! I thought it was very special, very "us". It was personal, intimate, and the opposite of stifling and boring. My nephew Tobias played the keyboard wonderfully. I loved every part of the ceremony: The rabbi and the priest did a great job expressing their confidence in our marriage. I loved exchanging the rings and the vows, I loved the lighting of the candle, I absolutely loved having our relatives right next to us up there (my sisters and Guy's brother and mother were holding the Chuppah). I was so nice to have them close by and support us. I also loved having my family an friends right there with us, watching us get married and being happy for us. It is really a very special occasion.

After the ceremony, we had a toast at the synagogue. Four of my nephews and nieces, all of which are between 4 and 7, handed out little party favors. I loved seeing them all dressed up and going to all the guests. One of the things that made this day so special to me was that is was such a happy occasion, and I really think that it makes people happy to see cute little kids giving them presents, and seeing cute little kids run around and have fun. I could not imagine my wedding without the kids. I am so, so grateful that all of our nephews and nieces (all 9 of them!) came. The toast was great. We got to linger a little after the ceremony before we drove to the restaurant. Guy gave a great toast, I think. As I said above, every single person that came was very special, and we were thankful and happy about each guest - and that's what Guy said. I think it's great to share such a happy occasion with the people you care about; even though it will always be the case that not everybody can come, it makes you feel that you belong somewhere in the world, that there are people you care about and that care about you.

After a while, everybody took off to the restaurant. We were lucky to find such a great space for our reception. It is a beautiful space, and it was just the right size for the number of people we had. The reception was perfect for us: we had enough time to talk to all of our guests for at least a little while. My sisters and brothers-in-law gave a very funny presentation about their wishes for our marriage. We sang another song, and two more of my nephews performed on their flutes pieces that they had practiced especially for the wedding. Since I did not feel like asking all single or at least non-married people to try to catch the bouquet, I asked all the kids. Everybody thought it was very funny that Benjamin, 6, caught the bouquet. He was very, very excited about it too! He then gave it to his grandmother as a gift. I love breaking the rules, especially when something so cute comes out! We had a big, big wedding cake (one of my wedding-related splurges); when we cut it, Guy wanted us to cut it on the corner, so people could ge a good shot. Unfortunately, we cut it on the corner, but then the corner piece just fell over onto the table. Something tells me that it was not supposed to happen this way. Oh well. Now there is at least one funny picture with me cracking up about the cake having fallen onto the table.

After everybody left, Guy and I headed over to the hotel which we had booked for ourselves as a special treat. It was the "W" hotel in Chicago, which I had been wanting to stay in for a long time. When we arrived in our wedding outfits, and I felt that this put me in a fairly good negotiating position, so I asked whether it would be possible for us to get a late check-out (I really didn't feel like getting out of the hotel at 11 am!). The friendly employee not only gave us a 4pm (!) check-out, but also upgraded us to the suite! With a beautiful lake view! It was absolutely wonderful. The suite was fabulous, I wanted to take it all home. We had an absolutely amazing day the following day. We slept in, went to get coffee, walked around downtown Chicago, had lunch, went to the pool... The day after our wedding was definitely not anti-climactic. In fact, it was another very, very special day.

Thanks again to all those of you who managed to come, and special thanks to those who took pictures. And to those of you who could not make it, we hope that you know that we would have loved to have you there. You missed a good party. And we hope to see you very soon!

updates

Phew, so much time has gone by since my last update. We've been back in Chicago a few weeks now, and some of you may have been wondering how, why, or under what circumstances I have disappeared off the face of the earth.

Things are good. I am busy at work, and Guy is crazy busy at work. My work situation is a mixed bag at the moment, but I feel like the longer I stay, the more I will find my place. I know I've been saying that for a long time now, but hey, hope dies last. Somehow this has been a harder transition than I had imagined, and some days are quite hard. Others are better, however, and the good days generally outweigh the not so good ones. Guy likes his job very much, even though he is very busy.

We've also been busy organizing our wedding, mostly on weekends. It's not an easy task. It is taking a long time to find a compromise that will suit everybody, but hopefully we will find one in the end. Weddings always seem so smooth, joyful, and exciting, but my feeling is that they are more stressful than people let on. In the end, of course, it will be a beautiful event, and I am incredibly excited about it! I will get to marry Guy, after all!! I can't WAIT! I really hope that I will have all of you there supporting us.

In the meantime, I am greatly enjoying looking for a wedding gown. My friend Kendra has been an excellent wedding gown shopping helper. She has endless energy and good feedback. I think we're very close to making a decision. When she sends me the pictures that she took last weekend, I will send them to select members of the readership (i.e., the women) upon request and would be happy to get your feedback. We're on a tight schedule. Yesterday, we went to a very fancy place, and the salesperson tried very hard to force me into a decision on the spot (which I don't do, as per personal policy). It was very offputting, and reminded me of the story of the timeshare salesperson in Hawaii, for those of you who remember the story. I told the story to Kendra, and just retelling it make me feel bad!

At the end of February, I will be participating in a race called "Hustle up the Hancock". The Hancock is a building in downtown Chicago with 94 floors. And yes, as you may have guessed, the race consists of hustling up those 94 flights. I am joining a few of my co-workers in this endeavor, and we trained together in our building a couple of weeks ago. The training made me realize the irony of the event. Walking up many floors in a stuffy and dusty staircase is clearly, absolutely bad for you. We were all coughing and sneezing at the end, and one person almost lost his voice. How can anybody encourage people to train for such an activity? I am all for encouraging people to exercise, but not this. And here is the best part: this race benefits the American Lung Association. In my opinion, they need to organize a different kind of event.

Meanwhile, I have bravely signed up for the Accenture Triathlon in August (the sprint distance), which will likely take place a week or so after our weddings/honeymoon. I have to buy a bike now; I think I will wish for one for my birthday. This should be fun event! Again, several of my co-workers are planning to participate as well, so it will also be good for me from a social/work perspective.

My Hebrew class is coming along. I am still not fluent in Hebrew or anywhere near it. Our teacher is kacha-kacha (so-so), I would say, but I usually love going to class, because there are a few really nice people there.

So much for the update from us. We both hope that all of you are doing well, and to hear from you soon!

More on Japan

As promised, this entry contains some more curious details about Japan, as can be learned in a five day tourist trip. I don't claim to be accurate here, I'm just telling you about my impressions.

Most Japanese know English to a certain extent. This is the good news. The bad news is that you may not necessarily understand their version of English. Maybe this has to do with me not being a native English speaker, but I did need a good bit of imagination to understand what they were saying. I have no doubt that the required effort was just about equal on both sides, though. I have to commend the Japanese for making a great deal of effort to answer our questions in English, given that we speak a combined 5 words of Japanese (4 or which only Guy knows and I don't). If you have ever talked to somebody traveling to Japan, you may have heard that the Japanese add an "u" to the end of each word; without realizing it and without even hearing it, as far as I can tell. This is similar to Germans insisting that every word ending in a "b", a "g", or a "d" must be pronounced as if it ended in a "p", "k", or "t" respectively (so that "bug" and "buck" are the same to German ears). Just as funny as I imagine it would be to Americans to think that for Germans software bugs and money as the same, it was funny to hear the telltale Japanese "u" (as in "oo"). If you ask for internet, you get an excited "yes, internet-u!!" back. If you ask for directions (and this really happend!), you will get something like "through ze gate-u, right-u, straight-u, and then-u left-u". Very cute. Interestingly enough, I have the hypothesis that what sounds like an "u" to me isn't actually one. After my first few experiences with "The u" I thought I'd be polite and adapt. So I asked for "internet-u", only to receive a strange look. Guy claims the woman didn't know what internet was, but I think there is a chance that she didn't parse my "internet-u" attempt as the word "internet" (which, for the record, she pronounced "internet-u").

Japanese fashion is - well, different. Women's fashion is not very different, except that make-up is almost unaffordable, and that every Japanese woman wears it in unbelievable quantities (I'm not sure about the economics of this). I wanted to have a Japanese buying experience and a little gift to myself, so I went into a department store to buy lipstick. It was not an easy task to make the sales clerks understand that I was interested in the lipstick, so you can imagine that it was impossible to ask about the price before sealing the deal. Close to impossible, I should say. No doubt Guy would have gotten the information (he is much better at this than I am). I managed to convey that I wanted to buy the lipstick. So I was led to a sales clerk who sat me down and made me fill out a form, mostly asking for my name and address (?!). Then she put the price on the form (Guy: "Err... did you just buy lipstick for thirty dollars??" Kathrin: "Hm. I think so." Guy: "O--k."), after which I was allowed to drop my credit card onto the provided tray, which she took with both hands. Using both hands when receiving something is, for the record, a very important element of showing respect. She proceeded to wrapping my lipstick and handing it to me, and I dutifully received it with both hands. I walked out feeling as if I had just bought a house or signed a peace treaty.

But back to fashion. Women are stylish, made up nicely, and of course without exception slender; very beautiful. Men are a different story. I can't say that I really got into Japanese men. Not that I was trying (don't worry, Guy!), but they are seriously not my type. Somehow, and I realize that I am culturally biased here, I find the bowing at every occasion quite a bit effeminate. But if you add their fashion to the picture, their attractiveness is taking a nose dive on my admittedly very personal scale. Don't get me wrong - they wear perfectly nice clothes and are very careful in choosing their outfits. It's just that for my taste, they do this a little too much. Especially ... especially!! when it comes to purses. Men in Japan wear women's purses! I am not kidding! The first time I saw one I was convinced that the poor guy had been coerced by his girlfriend/wife to carry her purse (things like that are said to occur; naturally, I would never personally be involved in such wretched behavior). But if that were the case, many other men must have been coerced by their women as well. There is no denying it: Japanese men wear women's purses. In all colors - white, blue, green, and red. Beautiful purses, I would love to have one. And I saw too many men with purses for them to be gay; also, I saw a number of them with girlfriends. This is simply a cultural difference, and an interesting one at that. Will this ever catch on in the US? Highly doubtful. Which means that you're going to have to travel to Japan to see it for yourselves!

Like in many other countries that I have been to, fashion conscience is concentrated in the biggest cities. This is also the case in Japan, where the distribution of men's women's purses and women wearing lots of $30 lipstick is highly concentrated around Tokyo. The rest of the country, or at least what we saw of it, seemed to be quite a bit more laid-back about fashion.

So - we've covered food, language, and fashion. I still have some things I'd like to get on paper before they vanish from my mind, but this will have to wait, as Anderson Cooper is telling me that many Americans are sleep-deprived as I'm sitting on the couch yawning. And now they're saying that lack of sleep can "mimic dementia" and "stimulate your appetite". Seriously, I need to get to bed!

Stories from Japan

In December, Guy and I went to Japan for a grand total of about 5 days. Despite the long trip there, I, or rather, my wallet, am/is quite happy that we didn't stay longer than five days. I mean, who can afford more than five days in Japan? Despite the high prices, this was a very fascinating trip, and I am very happy that we went. I highly recommend a trip to Japan.

We spent a little bit of time in Tokyo, then went on to Kyoto, from which we explored Hameji and Nara. Aside from seeing quite a few Japanese historically and/or religiously important places, we set out to explore Japanese culture. As much as this is possible for tourists who are not staying with Japanese people. We learned many interesting things, and I will write mostly about these things, and not about the things you are likely to find in any old guide book.

My first impression is that overall, Japan is not as different from the US or Europe as I had expected. This may come as a surprise to some. But I felt that on the surface, things were quite similar to the way they are here: people go to work either by car or by train, they eat in restaurants, stay in hotels, dress up and go out on Friday nights, go to coffee houses, libraries, shopping centers, talk on cell phones for ridiculous amounts of time, live in houses that look mostly like houses in Europe, watch TV, and their kids go on school trips to tourist attractions. I am not at all certain what exactly I was expecting, or how I was expecting it to be different, but, really, on the surface life in Japan seems quite similar to life here.

So much for the similarities. Of course, there are many differences once you look a little below the surface. I certainly don't claim to have looked much below the surface, being a tourist for a whole five days. But I did try to be aware a bit of whatever I could learn about how people live there.

We noticed many things. First, the food. This is an interesting topic. It appears that the traditional Japanese food (lots of fish, rice, vegetables) is slowly being supplemented if not partially replaced by Western food. The type of Western(-inspired) food that seems to be quite popular in Japan are pastries with a Japanese twist, e.g., pastries with bean curd in them or green tea flavored sweets. This is not to say that chocolate croissants and muffins don't have their place. It is to say that when you buy what you think is a pastry, you shouldn't be totally surprised if you find a tiny bit of octopus inside.

Western food has also entered breakfast. Japanese people, as far as I understand, never understood the concept of breakfast-specific food. Which means that now they eat Western dishes such as spaghetti with meatballs (plus the obligatory miso soup) for breakfast. To me, that's an interesting turn of events.

As for the more traditional Japanese food: yes, it is still there, and yes, it is excellent. I ate incredible amounts of sushi. Incidentally, you get sushi there for about the same price as you pay for sushi here, which means that sushi in Japan is comparatively cheap. One would think that getting food in Japan is quite easy, because all (respectable) restaurants have plastic versions of their entire menu in a showcase out front. But the truth of the matter is that the plastic food is not usually identifiable. To me, eating in Japan was an interesting experience, because I like trying different foods, and certainly don't mind ordering something blindly without knowing what I'll get. But I acknowledge that that's not everybody's favorite means of food acquisition.

Coffee shops such as Starbucks, Seattle's Best, Tully's, as well as their Japanese incarnations and their independent competitors, are omnipresent. The only thing that is different about a Starbucks in Tokyo is that you pay as much for a cup of coffee as you pay for a nice double-shot cappucino. Which, granted, is a lot of money. But then why not go for the cappucino? Considering especially that milk is not a frequently used ingredient in Japanese food, and one wouldn't want to let one's calcium levels drop too dramatically.

Japan's seeming love affair with coffee doesn't stop when you leave the coffee house. On the street, there are hundreds of vending machines that sell soft drinks and water, but mostly coffee or coffee-based beverages. The cold kind, like a frappucino you would buy at the grocery store here. I did not try these products, so I can't judge their quality, but I have to assume that they're very popular simply by how many vending machines for them we saw.

Grocery stores are an interesting affair. I don't speak any Japanese and can't even recognize any of the characters. Even so, I did not expect to see so many items in the grocery store that I could not identify. They had the most intriguing looking things! I will probably never find out what they were (and if I had to guess, it would probably have been something made out of bean curd), but I enjoyed the guesswork anyway. Fruits and vegetables, many of which are not 'native' to Japanese cuisine, can be found in the grocery store. Along with nice plates of presumably fresh, and certainly tasty, sushi. One thing I found interesting is that they sell cooked cold rice, the kind that is used in sushi, on its own. Meaning, a box full of rice and nothing else. Rice is definitely still a very big component of the diet.

So much for today. In a future entry, I will have some more fun with other things we learned in and about Japan, such as the Ryukan we stayed at, Japanese English, and men's purses.

waiting ...

i am very happy to be back and hear from a few of you that you are reading my blog. how nice! still, you will have to wait a little longer, as i have to first spend some time with guy, who i haven't seen much over the last month. one has to has one's priorities straight! :)

meanwhile, we're hoping that the news from israel about sharon's health are not going to throw the country into greater than usual turmoil, and that everything will work out well.

Happy New Year 2006 -and- Japan report preview

I wish all of you a very happy, healthy, successful new year! I hope that the new year has started well for you. As every year, I have a few good intentions for the new year, but only of the kind that I re-affirm every few days. Like that I'll try to put 110% into my job, not to be upset by little things, and to be thankful for all the great things in my life. As a personal wish, I hope to see every single one of you this year -- either at one or our wedding events, or at another occasion.

I just got back from my Japan and Germany trip. (Guy is coming back tomorrow, so I'm all by myself here for today). You should expect a few blog entries over the next few days, but right now I'm a) wiped out, and b) don't want to type because I just spent two weeks getting used to the German keyboard again, just to return to the good old American one. It's a bit like jetlag. *Just* when you get over it you come back.

But suffice it to say that the Japan trip was phenomenal. For me, it was the first trip to Asia, and a great experience. I learned a lot about Japan. For example, that drip coffee and cappucino cost the same (~$3.50). Or that everything in Japan seems to be just a little bit smaller, but quite a bit more expensive. The cars, the toothbrushes, the coffees, the seats on the train, etc. And that the Japanese are not afraid to advertise in English without having a native English speaker proofread. And that the experience of a riyukan (traditional Japanese hotel) includes freezing your butt off before getting in the hot bath, an experience that is not necessarily pleasant, but actually makes one feel very relaxed after one survives the ordeal. And finally, that it is best, when traveling to Japan, to wear shoes that can very easily be taken off and put on. You wouldn't believe the places you're not allowed in with shoes. But more to come ... I don't want to give it all away!

Christmas

This entry may come as a surprise to some of you. You know that I have not been a practising Catholic for quite some time now. So why would I write about Christmas?

I want to write about Christmas because I realize every year that I just love Christmas time. Not necessarily the day itself, when everybody is stressed, argues, and I have to deal with my prejudiced cousin. But I love the time before Christmas, when you huddle around the fireplace (in the coffeeshop), and when you hear Christmas music played everywhere.

You will say -- that's what I hate most about Christmas. Yes, I can see that. But I like the Christmas where people are nicer to each other than they are for the rest of the year. For me, Christmas is a time where I am reminded constantly that God cares about the world, and I think this makes a lot of people want to be better people.

The religious details about Christmas, as usual with religion, do not matter so much to me personally. I think what's important is to feel this presence of God in the world. Christmas does not come and go like most holidays (Easter) or Holy Days (Rosh HaShana). It comes and then stays for a while. And it is a very happy occasion.

No theologian in the world would agree with me, I assume. But to me, the details of specific religions are just that -- details. They are details filled in by imperfect people, which to me explains why nobody agrees on any of them. I believe that God exists, and I believe that he (she...) cares about us, and I am very thankful for my life, my family, my friends, and many other things. And in principle I do not object to any way of worshipping. What I do strongly object to is worship that fosters prejudice, which happens in a lot of cases where a particular church/synagogue/mosque claims that they know the truth.

If I lived some years ago, I would be tried as a Heretic. I am very lucky that I live in a time in which it is allowed to think this way. So I will go on enjoying Christmas. Maybe it's just me who is motivated to be a better person. But if that's true, so be it. I love Christmas time.

we're back!!

We're back from Toronto, with many stories. Suffice it to say that we're both very happy to have received our visas in a very timely fashion, and to have returned to the US.