5/9/2009 　Tournai, Belgium

On the Saturday, We three headed to Belgium by Stefan's car. Our labmate, Oli and Lati live in a new house in countryside near Mons. We first visited their house and went to Tornai for dinner. On the driving there, we confused a bit after crossing the border because of language and a change of road numbers. But fortunately we didn't get lost so much.

Oli jumped out to greet us from his new house when he saw us arriving a bit late. The brand new house stands surrounded by peaceful farmyard. Oli's life seems so bright with his permanent job and coming new baby!
Oli and Lati have prepared local cuisine for lunch. There was a electronic grill with 2 levels of heated plates. Big baked potatoes were warmed in the upper plate and sliced ham and cheese were warmed in the lower plate. When cheese melted, it is put on the cut potato and ready to be eaten. It might be most delicious among all food I ate during this trip in Germany and Belgium.

We drove to Tournai, traditional town after the nice lunch. We had a brake at a cafe in the town central after cheking in the hotel where Oli has reserved for us. There were cheerful young troop of bridal couple and their friends. The bridegroom dressing up like an woman and shouting "How about 17 Euros!". He had a sex toy in his right hand! Lati told me it was kind of custom here to have a wild party one day before their wedding.
Belgium has much production of beer and has various brands. They are also exported to Germany. In a supermarket, Stefan bought many bottles of Belgian beer because he was asked to get them by his colleagues at the dinner yesterday. Off course I also got some to bring them back to Japan.
Then, we went back to the town central again and had dinner outside table in front of a cafe. Everyone other than me has many international colleagues in their laboratories. They talked about rude Asian colleagues who spoke loudly even with colleagues from different countries. Definitely speaking in English is a manner in a group from different countries. But I thought English might be more difficult to handle for many Asian people than European people because of the difference of the origin of each language. People from same Asian country may easily influence each other. Most of Japanese are usually the exception of the bad example because we don't like to get too excited with loud conversation in my experience. I think humility can be a good characteristic of Japanese.

　※お気に入りのビール　★★★Cuvee des Trolls、★★★Leffe　

5/8/2009 　Essen, Germany

I headed to Essen, Germany after relaxation time in Granada. My friend, whom I got to know in the days as a visiting researcher in the U.S., lives there with his girlfriend. Both are doing research in chemistry for Ph. D. in different institute near their apartment. He gave me unchanged nice smile when we met again after 3 years long. I gave him "Real Sake" which was local Japanese good sake to please him more. There were many things to talk about our recent days, our common friends and his unique Japanese colleague. He seemed a little fatty than before, maybe because he is happy with his girlfriend.

Stefan took a day off for the Friday after I arrived at his apartment last night. We visited landmarks in Essen as we discussed the plan before my visiting Europe.
We first visited Villa Huegel, which is an old huge house of the steel tycoons, Krupp family. There were many artistic paintings as well as introduction of a history of Krupp family and their business. It was interesting to know that they had prepared health insurance system, schools and other public facilities for their employees at the time when governments had not have such ideas for their nations. Their fate before and after World War 2 was quite similar to Japanese conglomerates.

Zollverein, the biggest old coal mine designated as the UNESCO World Heritage, was the next place we visited afternoon. The entry time is designated because the tour is guided with explanation of a curator. The brochure told they has an English guided tour but I could have the tour with German language with other German visitors. Probably English tour is provided only by reservation of groups in advance. Then Stefan translated the curator's explanation for me. He looked inspired by her lilting explanation with humor. Its bricky constructions seemed to be renovated by modern artists after the closure as a coal mine. A beautiful plain field could be seen with rich green woods from the top of the building. Inside the buildings, it was interesting to see many big interesting steel instruments such as reactors and belt conveyers and tools. Only the problem was that they remind me of my work as an engineer even in my holiday distant from Japan.

When Stefan and I came back, Hanna has already finished her work earlier than usual and was at the apartment to go for dinner together. We didn't take an original plan to go to an outside beer restaurant because it was a bit rainy. Instead, Stefan proposed to go to his familiar restaurant in Muelheim near his laboratory. He told that he and his labmate usually hang out there on Fridays' nights. Then we 3 got together with the small party enjoying dinner after each work on chemistry.
Stefan's labmate joined one after another and the small restaurant was almost occupied by our group. It was hard for me to join in their conversation talked in fast English. But everyone was so sincere to catch my unclear English words and I really appreciated that. I want to improve the language so that no one feels stress to hear my words.
The main topic during the dinner was about one Japanese, Hiro who used to be there several months ago for postdoctoral research. He was so aggressive about drinking that he kept ordering beer even after he could not stand awake. I thought I was also like Hiro when I was in California because I absorbed tons of alcohol with Stefan and other friends on Saturday and couldn't leave my bed until sun went down on next Sunday. But Stefan explained that Hiro was more aggressive than me because he couldn't go back home by himself after drinking. It was funny to hear several people's saying "Hiro is the legend..."

　※お気に入りのビール　★★★Hefeweizen、★★Altbier(Salon)　

5/5-6/2009 Granada, Spain

I planned a second trip to Europe for sightseeing. The first time to Europe was for bussiness in last December. (See bellow. = 12/18/2008 ) I stayed 2 nights in Granada in order to visit the Alhambra palace. The ambience of Granada was so refleshing in dry weather in contrast with humid Barcelona I sayed 1 night for transit. In spite of a touch of cold when leaving Japan, I got better thanks to the lovely climate and enjoyed local brand beers such as Alhambra and Mezquita.They all tasted good.

I was amazed to see a thermometer in Granada downtown indicating 35℃ even at 17:30! It was still comfortable enough in dry atmosphere. I wonder how high the tempareture is in midsummer.
On the next day I entered inside the Alhambra palace. Alhambra is well know by a famous guitar piece, "Recuerdos De La Alhambra (Memories of the Alhambra)" and it is why I thought up visiting there. But a scenery of a tower in Alcazaba which is a part of Alhambra palace reminded me of another guitar pirce, "Torre Bermeja (The Red Tower)" by Isaac Albeniz. Later I learned the fact that "Torre Bermeja" was the scenec melody of the tower in Alcazaba. I see... The piece must tell much more about Alhambra than my clumsy writings here. Try listening to it if you have any plan to visit Alhambra.

A local person says Granada is a really touristic place. But I liked its earthy townscape and simple but cheerful people very much. I want to visit other towns in Andalucia as well some day.

4/29/2009 　WANTA-KE（御嶽山）　王滝コース

　４月を過ぎると多くのゲレンデが営業終了するが、天気は安定し、登り＆滑りやすいザラメ雪になるので、バックカントリーにとってはクライマックスのシーズンになる。春スキーに格好の山、御嶽山に今年も出かけた。今回は初の王滝コース。入山口の田の原までの道路が開通した日がちょうど入山日という幸運。天気は朝から晩までず〜っと穏やかに晴れ、絶好のツアー日和になった。色々な事情でモタついてしまい、滑り始める頃には雪が硬くなってしまっていたが、丸一日雪山を満喫できて満足。北の入山口、御岳ロープウェイからの往復の方がルートバリエーションは多そうだが、今回の王滝コースも負けず劣らずダイナミックな滑りができる。

4/4/2009 　鍋倉山

　毎年企画している精鋭を揃えてのツアー。今年は現役学生も参加して７人で鍋倉山へ出かけた。関西は大雨だったらしいが上信越は何とか天気がもってくれ、丸一日春山を満喫できた。心配した急な尾根の取り付きも雪が締まっていたおかげで思ったよりスムーズに登れたと思う。あいにくの湿り雪で林間の滑りは中々難しかったが、無事に終わりさえすればそれも良い経験。メタボ解消（？）の充実感に満たされた後の戸狩鍋がおいしかった。時間ができたら記録をアップします。

3/15/2009 　Visiting Togakushi twice

　ちょっとした事情で戸隠に２週連続で来ることになった。戸隠はゲレンデはこじんまりしていて僕は少し物足りないが、周辺のバックカントリーはスキー向きの穏やかなブナ林の斜面が広がっている。２週目は地元のテレマークスキースクールのツアーに参加させてもらい、霊仙寺山に登った。残念ながら前の日に降った雨が凍ってコンディションは最悪。全長３ｋｍ以上の下りは表面がガチガチにレインクラストしていて、横滑り or ボーゲンの修行ツアーになってしまったが、こんなことは滅多にない。まだまだ色んなルートがあるので、次回は修行の経験を払拭したい。

12/18/2008 　 Meeting with an old friend

Fortunately, I could meet a German friend again whom I got to know during our stay in California. I had a plan to go to Zurich for business at the time and asked him living near Zurich to have dinner together with my company colleague at the end of the trip.

It was a lot of fun to chat with him in spite of more than 2 years of separate lives after we left California. I was reliefed and glad to know we didn't change too much to lose many jokes. Our chat gave us same fun as the past time in CA. At least for me, even I hardly felt language barrier! I think he is like a talented entertainer whom I never have had among my other friends.