Together with Meg, Z and Keiko I(B) went to a treasure of a soba place. I swear, - this place serves the World's best soba salad.
Handmade cold soba noodles, thinly sliced radishes and daikon, grinded sesame seeds and topped with daikon sprouts, served with a yummy tsuyuu-like dressing and wasabi.
Apparently today's plan was to go hunting for fresh bamboo shots in the mountains with the chigiri-e group. Unfortunately I had forgotten the plan, so the rest of the gang had patiently waited for me, for over an hour before they finally decided to call me...Embarrassed? Me? I bowed and gomenasaied like I had never done before!
Anyways, - off we went. First stop was at a stream to stock up on fresh drinking water. The white paper decoration on the robe is because the stream is near a shinto shrine. Usually the decorated robe indicates that the place is sacred, or it indicates the presence of the 'kami' or spirit of the place. That kind of paper decoration is said to be the earliest type of paperfolding in Japan.
The surroundings of Koriyama are beautiful, with mountains and rice fields everywhere. This is 'Sakura yama', which means the cherry tree blossom mountain:
The yet unplanted, but already water-filled ricefields offered great reflexions of the mountains.
Unfortunately the fields were not the only place filled with water and before we reached the mountain top, the rain had started to pour down making it impossible to continue on with our original plan. Instead we took a closer look at the local wind mill park (the mills are German though and not Danish hrmpf), and we stopped at a private house for lunch (which did include bamboo and the largest onigiri I have ever had).
Them we returned back to Koriyama with a few stops on the way, first one being this flower field : 
Then we did a small hike,
had another sip of fresh water, with a neat drinking cup made of a leave, 
and ended the day at the public footbath, with natural steaming hot spring water. Nothing can beat the feeling of soothing hot water after a hike.
When we came back from South Korea, many of the rice fields in Koriyama had been planted. It is a very speciel sight to see the many fields covered with water, with strings of the tiny rice plants.
The fields are not very big, but endeed there are many of them,- squeezed in whereever there are a piece of empty land. One evening we went to take a closer look. Here is our shots: 
This morning we drove to Miharu Takizakura 6.30 a.m.
Miharu Takizakura is a more than 1000 years old weeping cherry tree and on the top three list over great cherry trees in Japan. In 1922 it was declared a national treasure. (Notice how small the man is, in the left of the picture).
We arrived at the site around 7 o'clock, assuming we would have the place pretty much to ourselves, so we were truely supprised when we found various food stalls and well organized parking facilities. 
The sky was clear blue and the tree was stunning with its 19 meters height and 22 meters wide, thus perfect for photos, which the line of Japanese photocentrics beautifully demonstrated.
Everything here is well.
We just spent a great weekend in Tokyo that included crazy architecture, French gourmet, Brazilian company and clubbing in the expat district, Roppongi.
In Roppongi we also visited two huge shopping complexes. One of them, the one month-old Midtown Tower has the tallest building in Tokyo Prefecture (248 m.), and the other, Roppongi Hills, is the one with the spider sculpture.
There was another Earthquake this weekend, but we did not notice it...it was probably too far away - or maybe we could not differ between what was hangovers and what was earth shaking.
Now we are back in Koriyama where the cherry trees are in full blossom and they are definitely as beautiful as expected. Unfortunately, the weather is terrible, so walking under the trees includes raincoat and gloves! Not our idea of spring.
Henrik shows the signs of a flu and is trying hard to avoid having to bear the infamous white mask.
Our program this week is rather tight, but we will try to update the blog again by the end of the week.
They finally arrived!
The manyfold little pink flowers are covering the more than 1300 cherry trees in Kaiseizan park in Koriyama. Many of the trees dates back to the Meji period(1868 - 1912). We went there this evening and admired the many lit up trees among many Japanese families whom like us, strolled on the quiet trails in the park.
Afterwards, we headed for the nearby shrine where a group of well-dressed men played atmospheric traditional music on instruments we had never seen before. 
We ended the evening with 'dinner' we bought from some of the many food stalls, which has been set up because of the cherry trees in bloom. We had Japanese pancakes, sausages and something with squids. We wondered as we passed a stall with a big fish tank. Were they to be eaten alive? No, apparently it is normal to buy a pet fish while you are eating a hotdog.
The food stalls led our thoughts back to Brazil, though we were not in doubt this was Japan as the temperature said 7 degrees. Saudades o sol.
Another weekend just flew by. We stayed home for once and enjoyed the tranquillity of not doing much, but had a lot done anyway. Letters were written, delayed birthday cake made, new shopping centres discovered, video watched and Nintendo DS played.
In the city, we were, once again, amused by the numerous signs of Denmark around us. We can’t figure out, if they are there, because we seek them, or because little Denmark is quite popular here… It can’t be, can it?
So what can we add to the list...? 
We have found a Danish bakery “The little mermaid”, a display of the productions of H.J. Wegner in the furniture department, our national football t-shirt in the sports shop, Rosandal products and the year-plate from Royal Copenhagen in the chinaware assortment.
We also had time to visit the Planetarium, for the sake of the view. On the 22nd floor, you have a pretty cool view of the Shinkansen train as is speeds its way through the landscape emerging from under the building – a must see.
Sunday we slept in, splashed in the bathtub and then went for a walk. We visited a big Buddhist temple, not far from our apartment. All the pictures are from there. A local tried to explain some origami figures to us. In Japanese, of cause. Something with wings. We guess a bird? Later we could hear him tell his family about some Gaijins. That we understood ☺
We found a new favourite Italian restaurant/coffee shop and a French restaurant we are bound to try any day soon. And that's about it. It is still snowing on and off every day, so the cherry blossoms are still on hold.
One last shot of part of the temple:
How odd it did sound in our ears, knowing that February is the coldest month of the year (at least in Koriyama), the 3rd of February is known as the first day of spring according to the traditional Japanese calendar.
It is also thought off as a kind of a new beginning of the year, so the Japanese use the day to make a fresh start, by cleaning out any evilness of the former year, by throwing soy beans either out the door or at someone wearing an Oni mask, while they shout Oni wa soto! Fuku wa uchi! ('Devils out'! 'Fortune in!')
We met one of these Oni’s (devils) jumping around in front of the supermarket wearing a red cat suit, looking more cute than frightening, but inspired by him, we bought a devils mask and a bunch of roasted soy beans, so he might just have had the effect the supermarket wanted.
Instead of throwing the beans at the devil though, we decided to use them on the other ritual done the same day: By eating 1 soy bean pr. year of our age, we have secured our luck for the year to come. :-)
We also passed by the local shrine hoping something festive would take part there. A stand was put up, but we did not have the guts to visit it. A few women rang the bell in front of the shrine, to tell the Gods that there were visitors. We reckon they visited the shrine, not because of the date, but because of their mindset that day. 
This gate is the symbol of a Shrine (a Shinto shrine). It is called a Torii and it represents the division between the everyday world and the divine world. The tall red building in the backround is Lion's Mansion Shimizudai - you'll find our apartment on the 12th floor.
Next year we will try to get closer to the rituals of the spring Setsubun. We will check the schedules at the local temples and/or shrines and hopefully get hit by a soy bean or two thrown out the door by a woman as we pass by…
Today the Japanese demonstrated how super effective they are!
In half a day the leased furniture was set up in the apartment, a bank account opened and we signed up for our Alien registration card (that’s the official name for ID-cards to foreigners) at the prefecture.
Another observation that made our settling in seem promising is the fact that we can get everything here in Koriyama - even things we never imagined existed! And as soon as we can speak Japanese, we can be sure to get what we want as quickly as possible. If we ask at a shop for something (and they understand what we say), the staff will literally start to run until he or she has found what we asked for. Now, that is service!
Our first day in our new apartment turned out to be a success. We managed to arrange us in the apartment and shop for pretty much all we needed to start our lives here.
The picture shows the worlds highest located Planetarium, which is to find here in Koriyama.
