It was a long drive from Yosemite to Death Valley since the mountain passes were closed for the winter and we could not take the direct route via Mono lake. We had to drive 5 hours South until we could pass the mountain range at Bakersfield and head again Northeast for the Eastern entrance of the National Park. Death Valley is an amazing landscape. You can find colorful badlands, snow-covered peaks, beautiful sand dunes, rugged canyons, and the hottest, driest and lowest spot in North America. On any given summer day, the valley floor shimmers silently in the heat with temperatures [View Full Entry]

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The bay area and the pacific coast give San Francisco a very special atmosphere. The city is surrounded by water with brilliant views on the Golden Gate and Bay Bridge and the terrain is hilly with a lot of green areas. Everybody knows about the cable cars that cross the hills or the winding lane of a short part of Lombard road. It was my third time in San Francisco and there is always something to see. We had a look at down town and watched the businessman in their lunch break in one of the coffee shops or dailies. We [View Full Entry]

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We left San Francisco in the morning to escape a huge pacific weather depression that was heading with a lot of rain for the coast and predicted snow fall for the mountains. We wanted to do the next day a hike at the famous Yosemite National Park and feared this would not be possible due to snow. Also tire chains maybe required at bad winter conditions; we had none and were also not allowed to use them on a rental car. So we decided to leave San Francisco early and headed full speed on the 3-4 hour trip to the National [View Full Entry]

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The highway 1 runs directly along the Pacific coastline while the main traffic takes the faster inland Highway 101 or the Interstate 5 in the central valley. So after Santa Barbara the highway is hardly used. We prepared our first camping breakfast at one of the benches with nice views on the beach and left late morning to drive to the Big Sur State Park 100 miles South of San Francisco. A camping neighbor had recommended us to stop by at famous Hearst castle. We never had heard of it, but since it was on the way we decided to have [View Full Entry]

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California greeted us with sun and occasional rain. We got our rental car and navigated along the road grid of Los Angeles. Actually driving in the US is pretty convenient. You just have to remember the roads you want to follow. Each junction has a clearly visible sign with the name of the crossing street and Highways and Freeways are labeled according to number and direction. This means for example you just follow Pacific Drive until you hit Santa Monica Boulevard, turn east and continue until Rodeo Drive - understood? We checked into a small hostel at Venice beach and went [View Full Entry]

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A lot of things are different in Japan and so is the celebration of Valentines. It is not the flowers that are given, but pralines and chocolates. And not the men are supposed to surprise the women, it is opposite. The women have to take care of their loved ones and not only this. Also male office colleagues are treated with some sweets. So there are a lot of different pralines on offer. Expensive ones for the darling and cheap ones for the co-worker. All department stores gear up with sweets and display an amazing variety of chocolates. All are nicely [View Full Entry]

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The middle of February brought the first warm days and fruit trees started to show still shy their first blossoms. It was nice to see in the gardens the first sign of the spring and to feel the warm air. Yuki's parents life in the suburbs of Tokyo called Ome. This town is famous for its plum blossom and we visited during our last weekend in Japan the Hoshino plum garden. The streets to the public garden - more a park - are lined with lanterns painted with plum motives. It is easy to find the park. Just follow the lanterns [View Full Entry]

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My Japanese friend who had lived in L.A told me only Japan did have wide varieties of snacks. Actually, there are many kinds of and different tastes of snacks in Japan. It is possible for you to eat different flavors of chocolate for two weeks. I want to introduce Japanese Kitkat Tokyo section because it is very special if you compare to other countries. Chocolate in Tokyo might disappoint Europeans because it doesn’t have much cacao and milk flavors. However, chocolate companies in Japan worked hard to sell more chocolate to people because they don’t get used to the flavor. Kit [View Full Entry]

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Tokyo is a great place to view art and architecture. There are hidden places in side alleys as well as major government buildings. One of my favorite places is the new National Art Center in Roppongi right in the city center. It has a beautiful glas front and inside two big concrete cones with a restaurant on top. It is overlooking Aoyama cemetery and it does not feel at all to be in the center of a 33 million people city. I also like very much the Tokyo International Forum - a glas and steel conference center near Tokyo station. It [View Full Entry]

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The nicest views on Mount Fuji are in winter when the air is cold and dry with clear skies. We did several hikes were we could see Fuji behind several ridges of mountains, but none that was close to it with undisturbed views. The main snow had not arrived in January and we decided to organize an overnight hike to the Tanzawa mountain area. We were 5 people leaving in the morning from Shinjuku Highway bus station to Yamanoko lake (2h). Afterwards we squeezed into a taxi and took a 15 minute ride to a pass. There we started hiking on [View Full Entry]

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