On The Move

Almost three months have passed, I arrived in Kyoto when it was wonderful weather and could even wear a t-shirt, now the colours of the leaves have changed and they have fallen down. By now they are covered with the first layer of snow.
On Friday I went to the national museum and saw a wide variety of Japanese art. One of the interesting aspects of Japanese art is that you can see by what it is influenced. The major cultural influence is off course China but you can also see traces of Indian influences and even Greek which where transmitted through China. It’s remarkable how far some of those influences were able to travel. Equally remarkable is to me how small the world sometimes seems and how easy everything and everybody moves around.
I met loads of new people from all over the globe, ranging from Mongolia to Brazil and from Finland to Israel. I had encounters with Dutch people who I had not seen in years.
And if you want you can drink Russian tea, have Italian pasta, Indian curry, German cookies and so on. During the winter vacation I am also on the move I will leave Kyoto for the big metropolis Tokyo, to experience what life is in that ever pulsating city. And then I will go to Fukuoka to celebrate New Year with my host family. So you won’t be bothered by me until we are living in 2006 so I wish you all a merry Christmas and a happy New Year.
And especially Janske who is going to join the stream of people on the move, enjoy the ride and have a wonderful time in Italy!