DROVE GRAND FATHER FOR HIS LAST JOURNEY

Grand father was born in 1916 and died at the age of 94 on May 13 this year. He was a great father and grand father, also a great medical doctor for over 60 years.

To me, he was not only a grand father to me, but also a teacher. He inspired me to learn photography and to appreciate the beauty of classical music. He also gave me my very first Nikon SLR camera when I was a high school student.

Today was the day for memorial ceremony, and we escorted him to cemetery. It was my honor to drive him for his last journey and may him rest in peace.

OMOTESANDO 表參道

"Omotesando" originally means the front access to shrine. In Tokyo, Omotesando is the road leading to Meiji Shrine. But now you can not feel any traditional Japan at Omotesando, instead of a mixture of European fashion and modern Japan.

Today, Omotesando is known as a high-end shopping area. You can find Louis Vuitton, Gucci, Tod's and other international name brand here. It is a pleasure to walk in this area, even just doing window shopping. Besides these fancy stores, do not miss those small stores in the alleys; they always surprise you.

I visited Omotesando 3 years ago, and it was during the night and only spent time for the best tonkatsu in Tokyo (even in Japan) at Maisen (とんかつまい泉) . This time Maisen still satisfied my desire for wonderful tonkatsu.

Another purpose to visit Omotesando is to see the Omotesando Hills which was designed by Tadao Ando(安藤忠雄), a famous Japanese architect. The design of this shopping mall is quite unique and provided me a pleasant window shopping experience, even it was rainy outside on the day of my first visit.

THE RISING SUN ON F1 RACING TRACKS

Toyota F1 team now is the only Japanese F1 team on the track, since Honda withdrew this season. Toyota F1 team performance was so so in the past few years, but now they are in the top 3 after 4 races in this season. Also both drivers (Jarno Trulli and Timo Glock) are in the top 5 of driver standings. It seems Toyota is a rising sun on the track for this season.

Odaiba(台場) is a popular tourist attraction in Tokyo because of beautiful night scenes and romantic feelings. But I am more interested in a place called Mega Web: Toyota City Showcase. There are so many Toyota cars displayed there, also including F1 racing car. The F1 shown there is a TF-109 which is the current model for 2009 season. After looking in the detail of this show car, we did not think it was a real TF-109 except the slick tires. But we still enjoyed all the displays and the atmosphere.

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TUNG BLOSSOM FESTIVAL (桐花祭)

April and May are the Tung Blossom (Aleurites Montana) seasons in Taiwan, so there are many cities join 2009 Hakka Tung Blossom Festival. Since we are living in Taipei county, we went to Tucheng City (土城) to see Tung Blossom.

Nice weather and the nice view of Tung Blossoms made us a good hiking trip. Even we just caught the end of cherry blossom season in Japan during last week, we still enjoyed the Tung Blossom in Taiwan. If cherry blossom is a pretty Japanese girl with make up, then Tung Blossom is a beautiful and pure Taiwanese girl.

Thanks for Tucheng City government's arrangement of shuttle bus between the Tung Blossom Park and MRT station, so the visitors could access the Tung Blossom areas easily without suffering from traffic.

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