Bayern Fukuoka

 

 

In the evening we wanted to go out and try the German restaurant in Nishijin.

They have 3 different draft beers (Hefeweizen, dunkles Hefeweizen and Krombacher), a German menue and typical German foods.

Brezel...

Schweinehaxe with Semmelkloss and Sauerkraut...

Schnitzel and more...

 

 

Penne a la Moni

It's still very hot here and looking at the pines, the sea and the beach outside I always feel like on one of our mediterranian camping-vacations back in the 80s. One of my fave dishes on those trips were my Mom's "penne". She always cooked at the tent and the ingrediences and possibilities were limited.

Due to the climate over here, I wanted to cook them by myself.

The recipe is quite simple... you need some pancetta or bacon and eggs. You fry and mix both and add some salt, garlic, pepper and nutmeg. Then you add already cooked penne and fry everything, til the penne are getting a little bit brown and crispy.

The trick, my mom did, was frying some bread-crumbs in an additional pan and when they are brown and crispy you toss them over the penne, egg and bacon and mix everything.

Brought back a lot of great childhood memories, made me a little bit sad and melancholic, but it also made me very happy, that my kids loved the "Penne a la Moni" and told me I should cook it again soon.

And look, what a fantastic sunset we had today ^____^

Kuju inspiration

Had this idea while hiking at Kuju national park... done with acrylics, watercolor, pens, airbrush on paper... and a HUGE dose of Wayne Jackson's music... original available...

Kuju Mountains

 

The next day, we hiked to our next location... a small inn/Ryokan located in the middle of Kuju mountians. You really HAVE to hike there, about 5 km, to an elevation of 1303m over sealevel. So it was a big adventure.

 

From time to time it rained, but it was nice and cool and we did not mind at all...

There you see our goal. It was actually a former training-place for buddhistic monks who lived in the mountains about 500 years ago.

After we arrived, we enjoyed the hot spa there and slept very deeply, because it was cool and quiet at night.

 

The next day, we wanted to climb up on Daisen-san, the second hightest mountain in Kyushu.

 

The climb WAS tough... it took about 4 hours to reach the top...

 

and up there was fog, but we were happy that we made it.

 

On our way down, the weather got better and you can see how far we hiked... down in the valley, there is the inn, where we started.

And here is a photo from our way back, when we reached the valley again... Yes, we REALLY were up there... we could not believe it ourselves...

 

The next day we hiked back to our car at the other side of the mountains. This time we took another route down over a still active volcanic mountain with lots of steam and sulfur-smell in the air.

We had to hike all the way down there to reach civilisation again.

The sight was breathtaking !!!

On our way back, we found lactarius Volemus... (Reizger in German). When you touch it, white milk comes out and it has a smell/taste of haring. I LOVE this mushroom and I took some of them with me.

Back home again, we fried them and relaxed from our last hiking trips.

Aso and Kuju are only about 200km away from our home, so I hope we can go there again someday soon. Spring and Autumn must be wonderful there, too... and I'd love to see some matsuri (festivals) there, someday too.

Now I'm back catching up with e-mails, letters, painting, etc...

Mt. Aso

 

Our next goal was Mt.Aso. We stayed in a classical Ryokan and after all those exciting events, it felt good to relax.

 

No TV, no internet, but lots of different Onsen (hot-spa) there for relaxation ^___^

 

The food was delicious, too. We could grill all kind of meat and vegetables at the table.

But since kids are impatient, they got their own kid's menue ^_^

Here, you see the view from our Ryokan. We were about 800m over sealevel, so it was very cool and refreshing there and it looked a little bit like the alps.

This photo was taken up on Mt.Aso... unfortunatelly I could not make good photos, because there was a lot of fog and we also were not able to see the crater of the volcano there.

But we liked it so much, we definetelly want to go there agian.

Down there, you see cows... it really looked like the Alps. I know the nature of Hokkaido, but I NEVER expected to find a similar place down here in the south as well.

Kagoshima part 2

The next day we visited the Kagoshima Aquarium, where we enjoyed the Dolphin-show.

The Aquarium was very impressive and Yumi and Yuki enjoyed watching all the fishs there.

 

 

Later, we took the ferry to Sakurajima, an peninsula with a massive volcano on it.

 

The Vulcano is still active and you see it's black ashes everywere. They even have an additional weatherforecast, which tells where ash-rain and ash-clouds are expected the next day. But because of the ashes, the vegetables and fruits on that island are especially huge and delicious.

 

Here, you see a shrine-gate, which was covered with lava and ashes during an outbreak 60 years ago...

And here you see the landscape arround it... just pines there and it will take about 100 years to grow back to normal.

After the kids fell asleep, we went downtown again and discovered a wonderful bar, called "Beer Reise". "Reise" is German and it means "journey". So we decided to have a look and really had a great time there. The draft beer came from all over the world and tasted great !!!

To my surprise I tried a VERY GOOD beer from Oregon U.S.A, called "Rogue".

So please, if you have the chance to visit Kagoshima and you are looking for a nice and cozy bar/pub, you should definetelly visit the "Beer Reise".

 http://www.spocafe.jp/report/100239/

Kagoshima

after Makurazaki, we headed for Kagoshima,

 

on the way, we stopped at a small Zoo.

 

The kids enjoyed to feed some animals,

and we were also allowed to touch HUGE beetles. It was a unique experience to hold those massive, but gentle insects.

 

more further on the way, we stopped at a sand-onsen. The sea was over 30C and the kids played a little in the water.

 

 

Finally, we arrived at Kagoshima and there were still Tanabata-trees there. Those were the most colorful I have ever seen...

Makurazaki part 2

 

On the 1st of August, we were invited to the opening-ceremony in the Nanmeikan Museum.

The staff was so kind and friendly, they served us delicious specialities from the Makurazaki area and it was great to talk with everybody there.

 

.

 

Here in that room, the ceremony was held... many people came and everybody was excited.

Here you see the mayor of Makurazaki, giving the first prize to Mimura-san.

Later it was my turn to get the certificate for the European entry of Helene de Ridder.

Once again, CONGRATULATIONS Helene !!!

After all certificates and prizes were handed over to the artists, the exhibition was opened.

 

After saying goodbye to Toshiko-san and everybody in the museum we left, but I will be back in September 2011 in the Nanmeikan Museum, where the European entries will have a special exhibition.

Looking forward to meet the European artists, Toshiko-san and everybody there again...

Triennale in Makurazaki

From the 31rd of July til 1st of August, we went to the triennale in Makurazaki. A famous art-contest all over Japan. My wonderful friend Toshiko-san was there, too and it was great to see her again.

She will organize an exhibition with all European entries, from this year in the same museum in September 2011, so since my painting was not selected for the contest, I'm still gald I will have the chance to exhibit it in 2011.

The reason, why I was invited anyway was, to be there on behalf of the European entry submitted by the wonderful artist Helene de Ridder from Belgium. Please check out her art here:

http://www.helenebatik.be/index.htm

Unfortunatelly she could not be there, so I tried to represent her and the other European artist as good as possible.

Here, you see the winner of the grand price: Wataru Mimura (三村　亘). He is from Fukuoka, too and it was an honor to meet him and his mother. Omedetou gozaimasu.

Another great group of artists were "twelve's"... I spoke with Hasegawa-san, a member of this group and I hope we can keep in touch. They did a group exhibition in Tenmonkan Gallery in Kagoshima and I keep my fingers crossed that it was a big success !!!

The evening was great... we were abe to see an awesome Taiko performing... and we made a guide-tour through the brewery there.

People from the jury, participants and others had to hold a speech...

and then it was also my turn... I was so nervous, because I had to speak so suddenly,

but I think it went well and evrybody was happy ^^"