Weekend in Hamburg!!!

After an interesting Aikido weekend in Trondheim, I’ll be on the move again: friday to sunday I will be in Hamburg for a seminar with one of my favourite sensei, Endo Seishiro, 遠藤征四郎,, 8.dan Aikikai.

A couple of considerations:

• I am already dead tired, from last weekend, from weeks and weeks of hard work, with my mind taken both by work and other things.. and a stupid shoulder/wrist that did not recover from a small injury experienced a few weeks ago.. mmmhhh.. it will be interesting..
• I asked a bit help about directions, how to reach the dojo where the seminar is taking place, sending an email to the address present on the invitation.. and specifying i was coming from Norway and I did not know Hamburg.. so, today, I got the answer, better late than never (copy&paste here):
  “hello Andrea, when you arrive, i will look for bus/train connection“
  oh yeah.. THIS IS REALLY A GREAT HELP!!!! I wonder how I could have done without this help!! I feel already better… and it reminds me of other seminars attentive organized in any detail!!!

I hope to survive!!!!
From 40th All-Japan Demo:

Seminar with Erik Vanem, 3.dan, in Trondheim!

Long weekend (Saturday to Monday) of the Pentecost, official holidays in Norway, and my good friend Sverre organized in his Aikido club, Trondheim Aikido, a very good seminar with my previous instructor, Erik Vanem, 3.dan from Oslo Aikido dojo.

3 days of intensive practice, a good amount of friends on the tatami and.. in 4 and half sessions I have been sweating more than probably a month of trainings in Stavanger, sauna evenings included!!! Thanks to the merciful instructor, we ended the second session of Sunday with some relaxing breathing exercises.. sort of last breath..

A kind of personal shock has been realizing that for almost all the classes I was the oldest one practiticng!! Instructor included!! And at the end of the classes I was feeling even older!! That’s probably good!

Japanese miss Universe 2007: Riyo Mori, 森理世

Riyo Mori, 森理世, has won the title for Miss Universe 2007. The Miss Universe pagaent has become more popular in Japan since the very beautiful Kurara Chibana took second place in the 2006 contest.

It is somewhat a surprise for me that this title goes to an Asian girl: for me, they are always the most beautiful but usually the fact is not universally recognized in these kind of contests…

It is an ulterior, even if not necessary, proof that my tastes for girls are not so weird… young, smart, good looking, athletic and Asian.. Japanese, Chinese, Taiwanese, Thai, from Singapore.. East Asia is big enough!!!

Riyo Mori, 森理世

[thanks to my friend Vittorio for the news about this lovely girl!!]

This last picture is not Riyo Mori as colorfull pointed out in the comments below, but a Korean model, Nam Gyu Ri, that did not win the miss Universe title!! But she is also quite sweet

Miwa & Take in Singapore..

One win, one loss.. that’s how Asao Miwa, 浅尾美和, and Nishibori Take, 西堀健実 ended the Swatch FIVB beach volley tournament in Singapore.. with a final rank of position 41st.

This was their fist step into 2007 season but the calendar is still huge and as the Japanese newspaper in Singapore says (…両選手は今月27日までシンガポールに滞在し練習を続ける。その後日本には戻らず、韓国へ直行し、同30日開幕の「コリア・オープン」に備えるという。), they will stay in Sentosa and keep on practicing, exactly like they did last year in Stavanger, when I became very interested in them..

For the other Japanese teams, Tanaka Shinako, 田中姿子 -Koizumi Eiko, 小泉栄子, went out in round 3 against a French team and ended ranked at the 33rd position, while Urata Satoko, 浦田聖子 – Suzuki Hiromi, 鈴木洋美, ended like Miwa and Take in round 2, ending also in 41st position.

A good hope for Japan is the team Mika Teru Saiki, 佐伯美香 – Kusuhara Chiaki, 楠原千秋 that passed through the qualification and tomorrow will start the main draw against the team Fernandez Grasset-Larrea Peraza from Cuba.

17th May 2007 – Norwegian national day….

Diversity,
by Andy – アンドレア.

…day of diversity, more in Norway than in other places..

Beautiful sunny day in Stavanger as few other times before..

Great celebration for Norwegian, great sight for us “visitors”

Beautiful Miwa!

Miwa Asao, or in Japanese form, Asao Miwa, 浅尾美和… Japanese beach volley player in couple with Nishibori Take, 西堀健実..

I saw her in a very human way: a cute girl, normal beauty for most eyes, not especially gorgeous according to most of my friends, those not so much in love with Asia (or Asian girls!) as I am..

But then, when you see the following video, and Miwa in all her beauty, there is not so much more to say about this argument except enjoy:

..and in the second part of the video, wearing the black sweater, Miwa is just amazing gorgeous!

OK, OK.. she’s too young for me!

Japanese taste for ice cream…

Ice cream is a popular dessert also in one of my dream countries, Japan. But Japan is quite famous around the world for extravagant taste in food, strange but delicious, as said.
So when it comes to dessert, I got a quite revealing link about ice cream, and which tastes Japanese people especially like!?! :-S

Different tastes deserve attention from the ice cream producers, right? So more alternatives are available, also for the more difficult people!

Besides these weird flavors, there is one traditional Japanese ice cream that I really would like to taste: green tea ice cream, 抹茶のアイスクリーム !

But thanks god, sometimes ice cream can also be enjoyable like in the following video

Or irresistible like this one: