Vienna sightseeing

Sorry for the stall.

I'm having some problems trying to upload our gazillion photos here so I've put them on Facebook instead.  Please click here to get there!

Vienna - Day 3

Jan 20: We had lunch with daddy at the Naschmarkt. It's a traditional open market with stalls lined up in two to three neat rows for about several hundred meters. Between some of these stalls are built-up restaurants, which is a great idea for winter when people would rather be eating indoors.

Because we've been craving sushi recently and can't get anything decent in Rostock, we ate at a restaurant called Tokori, which serve up sushi, among other kinds of Asian food, although none of the people working there seems to be Japanese. Later we realized it's really not difficult to find sushi in Vienna... many of the run-down take-out outlets have it too. Tokori wasn't great, but was good enough to satisfy our craving for a bit of home.

Karlskirche

Since our apartment is in the city center, the girls and I decided to just check out the area which gave us enough to see for the day. The cathedral near our apartment, for example, Karlskirche, is a magnificent piece of architecture. Although throughout our stay we must have walked past it over a dozen times, each time we do it looks a little different.

A school near Karlskirche. Yes, even schools look this great here!
Faces and heads popping from walls and around arches seem to be a common theme in Viennese architecture.

Vienna - Day 2

Jan 19: When the girls and I woke up, the room smelled of coffee. There was already breakfast on the table. Daddy had jogged out to a nearby supermarket early in the morning to grab some coffee, milk, salami, cheese, lettuce and a baguette for our first breakfast in Vienna.

Carrie was right at the door just before 10am. She had come all the way from Zurich to spend the weekend in Vienna and meet us. Only a week before she was in the US (Hawaii just days before the Obamas' vacation, Seattle then Portland). Several days after Vienna, she was to leave for KL for the Chinese New Year. Oh and did I mention the day before today, she made a day trip to Slovakia? Where does she get the energy? The kids, she says. Kids that she can play with but do not own. I have not seen Carrie in years but she has not changed. She obviously still puts the Energizer bunny to shame and has retained her million watt smile.

Daddy headed off to work while the rest of us took a train to the Schönbrunn Zoo. We saw pandas, koalas, and more vicious species, and ate chestnuts and potato wedges. The girls barely napped -- with so much to see and zesty Aunty Carrie for company who can blame them?

The Schönbrunn Castle is in the background, right at the end of the row of pines.

Aunty Carrie took the overnight train back to Zurich. We're so thankful that she made this trip to see us. Our fingers are crossed that it won't be another couple of years before we meet again.

Vienna - Day 1

Jan 18: We left our apartment at the crack of dawn, for the train station for our 2.5hr train ride to Hamburg where we caught the plane heading to Vienna.  Arrived in Vienna, took more trains, walked in the blistering cold and slush with two sleepy kids, and found the hotel apartment that we were to call home for the next 7 days.  Realized that the apartment is located close to a beautiful church with a magnificent dome but was too tired to find out what it's called.  Got to the apartment, pulled out the sofa beds and collapsed into them for a well-deserved nap!

Wien

We will finally get our opportunity to see what else is there in this beautiful continent of Europe besides Germany.  This weekend, we will all be going with Daddy to Vienna on his working trip.

With all the recent news about the cold winter and limited supply of gas -- I hope Russia and Ukraine sort this out real quick -- I'm hoping for the temperatures to rise above freezing point next week.  The weather forecast looks promising and I'm keeping my fingers crossed that it will remain that way.

In the meantime, my prayers go out to my friends in the US, especially in the Midwest, who are battling the unexpectedly severe winter conditions.  Think warm thoughts!

Inawashiro

We love predictability as much as novelty. There are a few regular trips we make every year - the ski resorts in Hirayu and Inawashiro, and the beach resort in Katsuura.

A couple of weeks ago, we went on daddy's "zemi" (as in seminar) trip to Inawashiro and again stayed at the Listel. It's Minori's third time there.

On this trip it felt like we were in Hongkong. People were speaking cantonese and mandarin every where in the resort. I met a Hongkong family who told me that schools in Hongkong were having their vacation. No wonder.

Here are more pictures (pictures with compliments from Yumix).

Daddy and Minori at the buffet.


Marisa in her little Hotel Listel crib at the buffet.


Daddy and several of his students.


"Oh, snowboarder!" the guy from Hongkong said. "And you say you're from Malaysia??" (Malaysia boleh! :D )


This is my favorite batch of zemi students. They are such a fun bunch! This is probably the last time we'll see everyone together before we leave for Germany (one guy from China not photographed here as he had to leave early that morning to catch his flight back to China for the Chinese new year).

All the best in your future undertakings! We miss you all already!

Hirayu onsen

This entry should really be part of our new year report. We made our annual skiing/snowboarding trip to Hirayu with jiiji and baaba again at the turn of the year!

In between coming down the slopes, Minori and I built things that looked like snowmen, or snow robots? Whatever they were, we had fun.





Marisa was quite content to just sleep the day away...


...waking up only when she wanted to eat or take a dip in the onsen (hot spring)!

New year report

Our new year blog entry is SO late and I'm half tempted to skip it all together, but there was just so much excitement at the Kageyama house in Okazaki on Jan 1 this year that it will be selfish not to share it.

With two babies - Marisa and her slightly older cousin Yuno - under the age of 5 months under the same roof, crying was inevitably heard in the house every now and then. (Picture: Uncle Keiju with nieces -- a very pretty Yuno and Marisa who looks like she's about to burst into tears from sleep deprivation and too much attention).


Two preschoolers, Minori and her 3-year-old cousin Mizuki, and 6-year-old Kanata were often seen, or heard rather, laughing or screaming or chasing each other around the house. (Picture: Minori looking like one of the boys).


Here's a picture of Marisa spending some quality time with her Jiiji after the other cousins have returned to their respective homes.


Minori plucked flowers from Jiiji's garden...


...while Marisa awaits patiently.


The family picture... it was impossible to get everyone to look at the camera at the same time!