Dear Friends,
In 2010 we stayed in Nevis until March 23 when we flew over to St. Martin and spent 3 wonderful days at the Radisson Beach Resort at Anse Marcel in the North of the island before flying home to Switzerland. That was a very relaxed way of taking the AF flight to Paris and hence to Geneva, without the hassle of changing planes at the busy Princess Juliana Airport.
Most of May, Willi spent his usual time in Japan visiting his old chums and friends (staff) from Nestle at the annual Old Boys meeting in Tokyo. Of course, Sumo was high on the agenda, too. Of course, there was ample time to look into the Kobe beef case… Uschi meanwhile went to visit the grand kids near Winterthur on the way to her now nearly 96 year old mother in Kempten/Allgaeu.
During summer, we stayed close to Switzerland with short trips by car only to Germany, Austria, Italy and France. We did go to celebrate Hilde’s 96th birthday with her younger sister Baerbel. She is not doing too well but has all the help and support at home as she refuses to go to a nearby home.
Then we visited with our longtime friends at Lago Maggiore and later proceeded into the mountains behind Cannes to visit other friends, but staying at a really charming, well-appointed and run B&B in their neighborhood. There, we also met up with the architect friend who built our annex in Nevis. We returned via several virtually traffic-free Alpine passes back to Switzerland, meeting another lady friend in Aosta for dinner at a cozy retreat with an excellent kitchen and wine cellar.
September was a marvelous time at lake Geneva, good for swimming, taking walks or naps on the terrace after a fine lunch with visitors or in one of the excellent restaurants nearby.
In October, we left for Japan, where we started one of our already customary trips with another couple we got to know 45 years ago in Japan, Adi and Suzy Schulthess. We arrived 2 days earlier in Tokyo to arrange certain open matters and met them 2 days later down at the Osaka Hilton, from where we made a side trip to Naruto on the island of Shikoku but then stayed mainly in a great Kyoto ryokan from where we went to see some previously visited, but mostly never before admired, temples and shrines with a driver-guide whose knowledge was outstanding.
After Kyoto, we left for Tokyo for an one night stopover to leave the baggage we did not need for the 2 week trip of the North East of Japan where we wished to see the countryside but especially the changing colours of the maple leaves.
We left by Tohoku Shinkansen to Hachinohe where we had to change into a normal Limited Express train (the Bullet line to Aomori, our destination at the top of Honshu, will only open in mid December this year). There, a new driver, Mohri-san, who had already driven us in 1993, 2001 and 2007, was waiting for us in a Nissan El Grand and took us to the Aomori Hotel (the first of only two western places where we would spend overnight during the next 2 weeks). After the 4+ hour train ride, we decided to eat in and chose a sashimi followed by a sukiyaki – it was excellent with hot sake!
Then we started our 2250 km drive down to Tokyo, criss-crossing the north eastern part of Japan for the sights in terms of natural beauty, castles, mountains, seashores, the largest continuous beech forest on Earth, hot springs, samurai residences, lakes, etc. etc. Naturally, there are many fine Japanese guest houses called ryokan, some of very high standard, some less. We made it a rule to eat a generous western breakfast at 8, departure was at 9 and we tried to be at the next ryokan by 4 pm, certainly no later than 5 at in those latitudes, as it’s dark by then. For lunch we often had just an apple, or a bowl of noodle soup.
A very traditional multi-course Japanese dinner was served at 6:30 or 7 pm, and it took 2 hours to eat comfortably. Mostly, it was served in one of our rooms (see some of the photos), It always started with raw fish (sashimi) and we got most elaborate menu descriptions in Japanese, but the English translation was missing except for once or twice. But it was always very good and exquisitely presented. The quantity was always such that we could never eat the rice, which for the Japanese is like bread for us.
The Schulthess left for home from Tokyo after 3 days with us in the capital of Japan. We stayed another 3 days, then proceeded to Chiang Mai for a little rest at the Chedi.. After that, we flew to Hong Kong to renew our friendship with several former Swiss friends made in Japan over 40 years ago, and to meet our good friend and foremost Iwami collector Bob Huthart with Jo Ann who takes such wonderful care of him. We returned back via Munich to Geneva on November 15th.
We arrived in Nevis on Dec.5th; 3 days later than planned owing to the closure of Geneva Airport for nearly 2 days due to heavy snow. The grandchildren with their parents will unfortunately not be able to join us this time.
In closing, Uschi joins me in wishing you all a very Merry Christmas and a most wonderful, happy, successful and healthy New Year of the Rabbit 2011!
Willi and Uschi