Ja Mata Kondo Nippon!

Últim dia al Japó i res millor per concloure aquesta etapa i aquest blog que unes fotos de l'espectacle dels cirerers florits! Demà deixaré aquest país al mateix temps que les últimes flors dels cirerers cauran dels arbres i començarà una nova etapa en la meva vida. Per sort la meva estada al Japó no haurà estat tant efímera com els cirerers florits i després de més de tres anys i mig deixaré un país que m'ha marcat profundament i que sens dubte haurà estat la experiència de la meva vida! 

Demà marxo sí, però ho faré amb una maleta carregada de bons records, experiències i amistats que em seguiran acompanyant! Així doncs demà tancaré aquest gran capítol en la història de la meva vida per obrir-ne un altre a... Xina! Una nova etapa a Beijing carregada d'il.lusions i també algun que altra temor per tornar a començar, a veure com va i potser si m'animo us ho continuaré explicant en un altre blog...això si supero la censura xinesa clar :) Gambare Nippon et trobaré a faltar!! 

Last day in Japan and nothing better to close this period and this blog than a set of pictures from the amazing cherry blossom season! Tomorrow I will leave this country at the same time than the last cherry flowers will fall flying away, to open a new period in my life. Luckily for me, my stay in Japan won't have been as brief as the cherry blossom season and after more than three and a half years I will quit a country that have been very meaningful to me and certainly the top experience of my life!

Indeed tomorrow I'll leave, but I will do it with a suitcase full of good memories, experiences and friendships that will go with me! Tomorrow will be time to close a great chapter in my life to open a new one in...China! A new period to Beijing full of excitement and the concerns to start back again, we'll see how it goes and maybe if I'm motivated I will keep explaining it in a new blog...of course providing I can bypass the Chinese censorship :) Gambare Nippon, will miss you!!

 

En la terra dels monos - Into the monkey's land

Perdut als Alps Japonesos hi ha un dels indrets més insòlits del Japó, es tracta de Jigokudani Yaen-koen, altrament conegut com el parc dels monos de neu (yuki saru). La primera vegada que me'n vaig fer ressò va ser fa uns anys quan fullejant un llibre de fotografia de natura de cop em va aparèixer una foto a doble pàgina espectacular d'uns monos banyant-se en una bassa d'aigua calenta tot envoltat de neu, que em va quedar grabada a la retina i des de llavors tenia molt clar que vivint al Japó no em podia perdre aquesta visita. Al final m'ha anat ben just però per sort el cap de setmana passat vàrem fer cap aquest indret remot de Nagano-ken. Quina gran experiència! Ens va fer un dia trist, fred i una nevada que poc convidava a fer una excursió ...l'entrada al parc per un camí enmig del bosc, pujant mica en mica entre arbres immensos i amb un silenci profund feia augmentar el sentiment d'incertesa del no saber que ens trobariem al final, quan de cop l'espai se'ns va obrir i un petit poblet de quatre cases idílic va aparèixer davant nostre, i quan encara estàvem bocabadats preguntant-nos d'on havia sortit tot allò ens vem adonar que hi havia monos per tot arreu passejant-se com si res...havíem arribat a la terra dels monos! El punt central del parc es concentra al voltant del rotenburo (bassa d'aigües termals) on els monos passen gran part del seu temps durant l'hivern, allà vàrem anar i quin gran espectacle...imagineu-vos una comuna de més de 150 monos, corrent per tot arreu amunt i avall, barallant-se entre ells, gesticulant, mascles festejant femelles, mares protegint els seus petits, buscant menjar en la neu, treient-se puces, i evidentment remullant-se en l'aigua calenta... tot en un entorn de completa ignorància vers nosaltres, com si tots els humans que corríem per allà no existíssim.  O sigui que al final  tot i el fred i el mal temps ens vàrem quedar allà més de dues hores que van passar volant i camí de tornada vaig pensar que realment no hi ha tanta diferència entre ells i nosaltres. 

Lost in the Japanese Alps there is one of the most incredible places in Japan, the Jigokudani Yaen-koen, or better known as the park of the wild snow monkeys (yuki saru). The first time I heard about it was some years ago when browsing into a nature photography book I saw an amazing double page photo of some monkeys taking a hot bath in a mountain surrounded by snow. Since then I kept this image in my memory and when I moved to Japan I knew I could not miss this visit. At the end it took longer than expected but I finally last weekend I went to this remote place in Nagano-ken. What a great experience!! It wasn't the best weather though, grey, cold and snowing...a combination that was not very appealing to go out but we started hiking up following a path inside a deep forest with huge trees and above all complete silence that brought us even more uncertainty of what we would find later on, and what it appeared suddenly in front of us was a lovely little village with few houses in the middle of the mountain, and when we were still wondering how this could be there we realized the place was full of monkeys popping-up from everywhere...we had arrived at the land of the monkeys! The central point of park is around the rotenburo (outdoors thermal hot bath), were the monkeys tend to spend most of their time during winter, and there we went straight ...such a unique place, imagine a group of 150 monkeys living together, running up and down, fighting, gesticulating, flirting, looking for food, washing themselves, and of course getting soaked in hot bath...and all in an environment of complete ignorance, like if no humans were around. So finally even though the freezing cold and bad weather we stayed there for more than two hours and on the way back I couldn't think other than at the end there is no such a big difference between monkeys and humans!

 

Tokyo de blanc i neu - White Tokyo and snow

Hola! feia temps que tenia el blog abandonat i res millor que un cap de setmana tranquil a casa per tornar-m'hi a posar i explicar-vos que portem dos cap de setmana consecutius nevant a Tokyo...sí sí nevant!!! i no una nevada qualsevol no, no havia caigut tanta neu a la capital des de fa 50 anys! Evidentment no es tracta d'una cosa normal a la ciutat i l'ha posat de potes enlaire. La setmana passada encara per sort va caure el dissabte i no va causar tants problemes com hauria passat entre setmana. És més els polítics encara la van utilitzar com excusa per la baixa participació en les eleccions pel govern de Tokyo que es van fer diumenge passat (tindran barra!) . I aquesta setmana quan la ciutat ja tornava a posar-se a to, ahir divendres va estar nevant hores i hores molt més dels que s'esperava i va acabar sent bastant problemàtic doncs molta gent que tornava de treballar es va trobar amb problemes de transport bastant evidents. Jo com que només agafo una línia de metro me'n vaig escapar, i després d'un sopar regenerador amb uns amics vaig sortir a tirar unes fotos. La veritat és que veure la ciutat envoltada d'una capa blanca, gairebé desèrtica i sense soroll va ser molt xulo i divertit...hauria d'haver vist les petinades dels homes, i sobretot dones, amb els seus "looks" d'oficina movent-se per la ciutat!

Hi!!! It's been ages I didn't write in the blog and nothing better than a quite weekend at home to get back to it and explain we had two consecutive weekends of heavy snow storm in Tokyo...yes, snowing in Tokyo!! and what is better, the biggest snow in the last 50 years in the capital! Obsviously this is not normal and create a huge mess in the city. Last week was still fine, besides regular issues you would expect, being on a Saturday people took it easy and stayed at home. Even more, the local politicians used it as an excuse to justify the very low participation in the Tokyo's elections (!!). This week however, when the city started to recover the normality it began again on Friday. I won't say was unexpected but it last much longer than expected and at the end it was much heavier than last week's. It created a huge mess with the transportation and lots of people had problems to get back home from work. In my case I was lucky since I only have to take one line of the subway, so I could get back home without problem and went out in the neighborhood for a warm dinner with some friends. After that I took the camera and went out to take some pics, was great to see the city under this very special white landscape, with hardly anyone around...and funny to watch those that still try to walk around with their office's shoes slipping everywhere!