Easter time

Today is Easter Sunday!

We went with Anne to the bakery where we bought Easter chocolate. So cute!

At the end of the Easter meal, look what was dished out? Small strawberry pies! So so delicious!

Lap cat time

While our hosts are working, we take some rest with the cat Mimine.

On the road again

We’ve just arrived at our host’s house Anne and Serge who live in the south of France, in Provence near Avignon. We brought them some gifts. They were really happy to receive us !

 

 A little walk in the garden under the sun.

We missed the Postcrossing meeting in Aix-en-Provence , but here is the official postcard.

Let’s go on Geocaching ! Here is a big (for us !) cache found along a little channel.

Picture 6 : Anne and Serge live in the wine region of Côtes-du-Rhône. We sat a while in a vineyard. The leafs are just growing.

Home, sweet home!

This journey was a bit exciting! The german post had some problems with the delivery of our parcel! But finaly we found our way back home!

This is the big box Heather was sending us home to Stendal. For Johannes it was interesting to find japanese newspaper inside.

 

The first part of the parcel was filled with this yummy stuff!

 

And here we are with some other nice things from Heather!

Wow! That is realy amazing! Thank you Heather for all the nice things!

Leaving Day

We have had a lot of fun in Japan, but now it is time to leave. I don't know if we are going to have enough room in our box for all the “o-miyage” (souveirs) we bought!

Whew! It all fit. Did we leave forget anything?

A “sneak peek” of what we are bringing back. But, to find out what we are giving Johannes and his family, you'll have to wait until we arrive :)

Sayonara! Good-bye, Japan!

Our last day of sighteseeing

Konichiwa! 

Today we saw sakura (cherry blossoms). Everyone in Japan loves cherry blossom season, and we agree - they are such beautiful flowers.They only bloom for a very short time. We were worried that they would not be open before we had to leave. We were so lucky that they bloomed just in time for us to see them!  

In Japan, the school year begins in April, so often the first day of school takes place under the blooming cherry blossoms. Imagine walking to school under these wonderful flowers!   

 We went to the park to enjoy hanami, or flower viewing. It is a custom to have a party under the beautiful cherry blossoms. People have been enjoying hanami parties for more than a thousand years.   

 

 It is very lovely to see the cherry blossoms next to a river. This park only has a few trees, but some big parks have hundreds of cherry trees. However, we think that even one tree by itself is beautiful.   

 Also in the park are these cute statues – they are tanuki. Tanuki are forest animals. It is very rare to see one in the wild because they are so shy. But these guys were really friendly and let us play with them.   After we watched the flowers for awhile, we went shopping. It is traditional in Japan to buy O-miyage for your friends and family when you go on a trip. O-miyage is Japanese for souvenir.   

What shall we bring back for Johannes? I wish we could bring him some Japanese sake. These bottles are much bigger than us, though. They would be too heavy to carry.   

 We could bring him an Awa Dancer… Tokushima has a big festival every summer. It is very famous in Japan. Here is a picture of one of the dancers. It looks very complicated!   

These two lovely ladies made out of bamboo taught us the Awa dance. What do you think? Are we ready to perform this August?   

We met two backpackers wandering Tokushima like we are! But, they are only backpacking on the island of Shikoku. There is a Buddhist pilgrimage route on the island, and it starts in Tokushima. People can hike to 88 temples, following in the footsteps of a monk named Kobo Daishi. It is very common to see backpackers here! If we stay here another two months, we could hike the route, too! But, it is time for us to leave Tokuhsima. Tomorrow we pack up our backpacks and head back to Germany.  

Looking at cherry blossoms was a great way to spend our last day in Tokushima!  

See you soon! 

Hans and Paul

We take a Walk through Tokushima

Hello! 

We are having a good time in Japan. Tokshushima is a nice place to take a walk.

The other day, we walked around and found these wonderful old buildings – a castle and a pagoda.

They look like they were built just for us! I wonder if we could live here? 

 We saw a small shrine on our walk. The white paper and rope at the top means it is a Shinto shrine. The paper and rope are used to show people that it is a holy place. Shinto is the traditional religion of Japan. There are many small shrines like this one along the roads or in the mountains. People often stop to pray for protection from harm or to give thanks. We stopped here because we are thankful for our visit to Japan.

Then we walked along the river. The boats move pretty fast. It is a big river and very pretty. The trees are not blooming yet, but the weather forecaster said the cherry blossoms should bloom next week.

 Who's climbing up that building? Is it King Kong? I thought he was in New York! What is he doing in Tokushima? Let's go before he gets angry!

We were pretty tired after our walk, so we came home to help Heather write some postcards. Which ones should we choose? Japan? Anime? Television Shows?

 

We want to write a letter using the paper we made last weekend.

We are glad she didn't have too many postcards to write ... it was a busy day, so we should go to bed soon. Good night, everyone. Or, in Japanese, "O-yasuminasai!"

Hans and Paul