My husband and I like to trip many places. I think I present the words I wrote when I went on a trip. And here you also find the photographs I took. This page might be largest as we traveled much. I will fill this page little by little.
Trip to Vienna and Germany in 1995
Korea in May 1999
Nagasaki in August 2000
Towada Lake - Oirase River
Hakkoda-San
Hirosaki
Nasu Highland
Guam in 1988 Mexico - Tijuana in October, 2000
Shinshu Trip to Izu in May, 2001 
Tohoku in 1992
New York in 1997
Trip to Tohoku in 1992
Usually we went on domestic trips without plans. But this time we arranged hotels for first two nights and made plans for third and forth days in Aomori. We planned to visit Nihon Sea area on forth day but visited Koiwai Farm and Nasu highland that locate on the way to our home. So this did not make this trip schedule tight.
There are many falls on Oirase River that originates from Towada Lake. We took pictures these falls on the way from Nenokuchi to Yakiyama. Goryo-no-taki Fall, Kanzawa-no-nagare Fall, Banryo-no-nagare Fall, Choshi Otaki Fall and so on. I was impressed by the whiteness of water spray of the falls. Walking through the esplanade along Oirase River and listening to the sounds of water and leaves made us relaxed. We were truly refreshed by, so called, forest bathing.
We had a rest at Suiren-numa (Lotus Marsh). We had a grand view, the marsh with lotus and shrub of wild wood, and Hakkoda-San on the background.
We left Hakkoda-San for Hirosaki. I was surprised at the apple trees in Kuromori. They laid silver sheets under the apple trees in order to make apple redder. Hirosaki is famous for rice. We looked at golden rice fields everywhere.
Next place was Koiwai Farm. They say the cheese cake here is very delicious. As it is one of my most favorite foods, I looked forward to have it here.
First we looked around the farm. I saw sheep flock and every sheep had cowbell on the neck. And was surprised at the voice of sheep. (It was never cute at all.) There were also horses, cow and rabbits. The rabbits looked like Peter Rabbit. We had a lot of fun here. We bought cookies and shoe cake for souvenir. Around sunset we went to the Cheese Cake House beating fast. But, alas, it was already closed. I trudged to the parking space.
We visited Rindo Lake Family Park. It is called "Little Swiss" in Nasu Highland. At entrance gate we got on small strange bus and it took us to the flower stairways. It could be possibly "Small swiss". First we had biking style lunch. It contained big squid that was one of my favorite foods. We perfectly got full.
Shuichi took picture of me and a pony that ignored but approaching amiably when I brought a carrot. In the stable I saw big faces of horses. We walked around there to digest too much foods. Then we left the Flower Park listening to Tirol music.
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The night view of Guam was also beautiful.
When we drove the island we found a buffalo. We took a picture with a child who were taking care of it. I was rather scared of being close to a buffalo. In the night I went to a "Karaoke" bar. I sang there. But it was my first and last singing at "Karaoke" bar.
In the plane I took picture of sunrise on the way to Japan.
Checked in Pension Nossek that my husband reserved with international call costed $30. The elevator was in the spiral stairs and the door was to be opened manually. (In Europe every door is basically to be operated manually.) Mozart once lived in this building. The temperature was 50F to 60F in Vienna. This area was suddenly covered by cold wave on this day and the weather became as middle of October.
On the next day we bought sweaters and went for a sightseeing, Staatsoper, Musikverein and so on.
In the afternoon, we went to Heiligenstadt. It took about twenty minutes from the center of Vienna on street car. Beethoven lived there in the summer time. It is famous for "Heiligenstadter Testament" as he despaired of hard hearing. We went for a walk on a place called Beethovengang. There was a stream along the path which seemed to inspire him a movement in Pastoral Symphony but it was not clean probably due to drain.
On the fourth day we went to Hofburg in the Morning. It was raining and cold. We visited the collection of tableware and living room of emperor. I was quite impressed about a lot of tableware that was made of gold, silver and Bohemian glass. I was surprised that a lot set of the porcelain from China and Arita porcelain from Japan were preserved.
Then we visited the Nationalbibliothek that is called the most beautiful library in the world. The collection of library arranged up to the ceiling in bookshelves, the papyrus, terrestrial globes, celestial globes, frescoes on the wall, Egyptian cloth.... I was touched by the smell of books and the air in the library. I was very pleased to feel like they were waiting for me for a long time.
Then Kunsthistorisches Museum. It is as famous as that some come to Vienna only to visit the museum. There were many religious paintings in the medieval. Not only paintings but also the architecture of the museum was wonderful.
Last night in Vienna we enjoyed Mozart concert at Musikverein. The Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra is based there and I am familiar with it by the New Year Concert every year broadcasted on TV. I was pleased to be there in the concert in the hall that I have seen only on TV. The concert was performed in historical costume and program. That is, they played single movements of symphonies or parts of different concertos alternating them with operatic arias or duets. We could enjoy Mozart's main works. I was impressed at the sweet sound. I felt it would be a characteristics of Vienna musicians. But the tempo was rapid. They played a couple of encores and the conductor conducted the claps of audience. Fantastic ! I was satisfied with two hour concert, which were from 8:15 PM to 10:15 PM. ( And it costed $35 per person ! ...In Japan the concert is very expensive.)
By the way I borrowed a picture at right above from the Homepage of Vienna Mozart Concert .
The town was beautiful. But we could not drag the suitcase due to stone flooring pavements and we got tired by carrying it. We stayed Hotel Kranenturm that was built about 500 years ago. We went for a walk before dinner. We saw wooden frame houses and old castle. (The population is 2600.) Had dinner at Hotel. I had mushroom soup and chicken with buttered mushroom source. Shuichi had cow tail soup and boiled beef with red wine. He said beer was very good.
Today (the sixth day) we went to the Rhine tour that was one of the main event of this trip. The weather was not good, a little bit chilly and drizzly. One hour ship tour from Bachrach to St. Goarshausen. There were old castles on the middle or the top of the mountain or the sands in the river. And streets were also beautiful as well as Bachrach. There was Loreley before St. Goarshausen. Then they played the song of Loreley from the speaker, this does not seem that Germans do though. As the weather was not fine, we could not take clear pictures.
On the next day, we checked out the hotel and went to Koblenz by local train. At Bachrach station we followed other persons, as we might not be able to open the door. But that guy also could not open the door, so we run to another door that was already open. At Koblenz we transferred to the express called IC. Then headed to Bonn.
We went for a walk in the streets of Bonn. We were disappointed that the Beethoven House was on the re-construction. But we enjoyed the old Rathaus, stone flooring pavement, the market of vegetables, and so on. Various music was played on the street. The second movement of Piano Sonata No. 8 of Beethoven was played by Saxophone, the English suite of Bach by recorder. We were quite surprised at the huge Aborigine's recorder. In the square, Chopin, Tchaikovsky and Gershwin were played by the grand piano !
We visited the Kolner Dom and the Roman-Germanic Museum in Koln. In the Roman-Germanic Museum, ruins, earthen vessel, bronze vessel, iron vessel, glass products, accessories, etc. were displayed and all were at the Roman age about 2000 years before. The pierce at that age was totally same as current ones. Some groups of students had class there. They had discussion in front of the statue or children drew pots lying on the floor. I felt that it was very wonderful to learn the history with actual stuff.
Last town in this trip was Frankfurt. We stayed at Hotel Hamburger Hof next to the station. We watched TV for the first time in this trip. Some event was repeatedly on the news. It was the nuclear experiment by France on September 5. There were protests all over the world. Japanese demonstrators seemed to have most troubles with police. I was impressed at some people standing silently with placards in some Asian country. In London cars passing by the French embassy sounded horns all night. It is likely English people.
In Frankfurt we visited Sachsenhausen, Goethe House, Roman Square, Struwwelpeter Museum, Stadelsches Museum, and so on. We enjoyed so so but it was a usual city.
Long 11 days trip was over. We got tired, as we walked around many places. We stayed four days in Vienna. But I feel we just touched the entrance. The city itself was an art.
We are thinking of next trip. Next time (next year ?) we would visit Vienna for a week, or visit east part of Germany tracing Bach's living. My husband wants to go to New York though...
