Travelog for: Totoro.

I'm so excited!!!
I'll leave home and go to Finland!
It's my first time to go abroad!
And i 'm now saying goodbye to sister and my friends.

Hello!

I finally arrived in Finland! Yej! 

When I was still inside my envelope, I heard many different happy whoices out there. And when I saw light coming inside the envelope, I saw many curious faces looking at me. They were other ToyVoyagers, who all wanted to meet me.



Just look, how curious they all were!!!



"Hello! My name is Totoro Nice to meet you!"



They introduced themselves (from left): Kurnau-cat, Druri-dragon, Ronja-teddy, Mr. and Mrs. Honeymooners sheep couple in back line, BarryO-teddy in front line, Kit-Kat-cat, Wayne-cincerbreadman, TobiHH-seal and Lina-sheep.



I said all: "Greetings from China!" 



I think I will have great time here! I'm looking forward to see new places here. It must be fun!

The journey from China to Finland was so long, that I was truly hungry when I finally arrived.

Look, how thin I am. 



So, I ate lots of bananas... yummy! 



...and look, how big my tummy is now!     



Now I'm happy. I arrived safe in Finland, I met new friends, I got something to eat... So nice!
I think I'm going to sleep now... feel little tired...
ZZZzzzz zzzz  ZZZz z zz z  Z  Zz ZZzzzzZ ZZ Z ZZ zz  zz z

Love,
Totoro
xxx

Hello!

I was walking outside today. I saw a nice small park. And there I saw this statue of Uno Cygnaeus (1810-1888). He is considered the father of the Finnish public school system.



And because the boy in the statue is reading, I feel like I want to read something. Kurnau show me the local library building.



There's so many books!!! 
Even more books are outside the photo.



There's an art statue in the library building. This one is called "Tiedonpuu" ("A tree of knowledge"). It has made in 1980.



And there's also a nice exhibition about the history of Jyväskylä-city, the dolls are showing things about this town's developement.

In 1850's Jyväskylä was a small town with many craftsmen.



In 1860's Jyväskylä was important city in the civilization and education in Finnish language.



In 1900's came first railways, and it helped making connections to the World.



In 1910's industrialization grows and became more and more important.



In 1940's Jyväskylä was important supporting hometown during wars.



In 1970's trafic grows fast, and it was necessary to build bigger and better streets.



In 1980-1990's the activities of free-time got more popularity.
(And by the way, ice hockey is very popular activity in Finland, and Jyväskylä is the current Champion in Finnish ice hockey.)



In 2000's Jyväskylä became a bigger town, because some federations of municipalities has made (smaller cities joined together to became one bigger city).



Love,
Totoro
xxx

Hei! Hello!

Today I saw some public art works outside. They are all so unique.

This one is called as "Elämän koulu - vastuu, luottamus, luovuus"
In English it might be something like "A school of life - responsibility, trust, creativity"




This one is "Karhu" ("A Bear"). The artist's name is Oskari Raja-aho, and the statue has made in the year 1930.


Look, we all are riding on the bear! 


This one is "Keinumieli-Tyhjämieli-Häkkimieli" and the artist is Juhani Petäjäniemi, and it has made in 1989.
The name is difficult to translate into English, but it might be something like "a mind of swing - a mind of emptyness - a mind of cage".


I like this statue. It looks like there's two people flying.
The name of the statue is "Elinehto-ajatus-liiketoiminta" and the artist is Heikki Häiväoja, and it has made in 1979.
The translation of the statue's name is "Lifeline-idea-business".


And there's a statue "Kauppias ja apulainen" ("A Merchant and his assistant). The artist is Pauli Koskinen, and it has made in 1959.




And this one has made the same artist, Pauli Koskinen, in the year 1957. It is art in the outside wall of the building. And it's name is "Reliefi"


After walking a little there started to be dark clouds in the sky, so we turned walking back, and we hoped to arrive 'home' before it's raining...

 

...But we didn't managed. It started raining so quickly.
And the  rain, it was HARD, we got totally wet within one minute.



We run back 'home', and inside it was time to get dry again, aww...



What an adventure!!!

Love,
Totoro
xxx

Hei! Hello!

A new toy arrived here today: Hunny bunny originally from USA.
It's so nice to have more friends!

We had a welcome party for her. We ate all candies what she got with her in the envelope. They were soooo yummi! 

Love,
Totoro
xxx

Hello!

One more toy arrived here today. This is so great, to have more friends!

We looked the envelope, and the stamps on it. Who is coming from South Africa? Wow, so far.



"Hello! My name is Phog. I'm from Germany, but I was visiting in South Africa." said this cute dog to us.
We introduced ourselves, too.



Then Phog showed us the great postcard what he had took with him from South Africa.



Love,
Totoro
xxx

Hei! Hello!

Today I went outside to walk and look around this surroundings. And almost immediately I saw the beautiful nature of Finland, so many green coloured trees, the fresh air, and so on. Oh, it's so nice to be here!



And this is an orthodox church of Jyväskylä.



And this is an evankelic lutherian church of Jyväskylä. The church has buildt in 1929, and the architect was Elsi Borg. This church has called also "the church of angels".





Then I continued my walking, and I found a river named Tourujoki. This river goes through the city of Jyväskylä. It's about 2 kilometres long river, and it goes from the lake Palokkajärvi to the lake Jyväsjärvi.





Here are we all toys: Lina, Kurnau, Wayne, me, Honeymooners, Hunny, Phog, Kit-Kat, Ronja, BarryO, TobiHH and Druri.



And there's a bridge of Tourujoki.



Love,
Totoro
xxx

Hello!

I visited in the natural park of Jyväskylä.
It's so cool forest area just next to the river Tourujoki. It's a nature conservation area in the middle of Jyväskylä.

At first, we need to go down to the long wooden old stairs. It was exiting!



Look, how beautiful nature there is!



Can you see those weird things in the tree? They are "kääpä" in Finnish, they are some kind of mushrooms growing in old trees. How cool!



It's time to have a little brake, and just relax.





Then it's time to walk forward.



We walked on the "pitkospuut", the wooden path on the ground. There must be this wooden path, because the ground is so wet.





It was a nice place, this small natural park!

Love,
Totoro
xxx

Hi!

Ooooh, something really nice thing happened to me today!
It made me really happy! Soooooo happy!

I got one of my life mission completed!!!
I visited in museum!


The museum where I visited is the Craft Museum of Finland.

Due to water damage, there were only small exhibitions of different things.
They all were very colourful and nice exhibitions!
Just look by yourself, mommy... I hope you can feel the atmosphere through these photos.

There's some Karelian national costumes.



And there's very old ski supplies.



This is very colourful art, isn't it?



This one is so colourful, too.
Do you think there's all the colours of the rainbow?
Well, they are different coloured coat hangers. It looks nice!



And what do you say about this, mom? Even more colourful!!! 
On the floor there's many tiny marbles there.
And in the wall there's a lot chrocheting hotpads.
All together it looks nice, right?



Love,
Totoro
xxx


                   
CONGRATULATIONS
FOR COMPLETING LIFE MISSION!!!
(Visit a museum)
                   

Hei! Hello!

We got more company today.

A new ToyVoyager Ranja Dragon arrived from Germany.

I'm sure we will have lots of fun together!

Love,
Totoro
xxx

Hello!

I read today a newspaper. It was fun, because everything has written in this weird language, Finnish. All writings in the newspaper looked so strange, very different than I'm used to at home.

Love,
Totoro
xxx

Hello!

I got a new friend today! He is hostmom's cat named Jeppe.
At first, I was nervous about this big cat (he tickeled me with his furr), but when I noticed that Jeppe is very kind, I'm not so nervous anymore.

Love,
Totoro
xxx

Hei! Hello!

I was walking outside today.



I visited in a place called "kirkkopuisto" (a church park).
There I saw this beautiful church just in the middle of the park
surrounded by green grass, trees and beautiful flowers.
The church has buildt in 1880, and the architecht was L. I. Linqvist.









In the church park, there's a statue of Minna Canth (1844-1897).
She was a famous Finnish writer and social activist.
Her works addresses issues of women's rights.



There's another nice statue.
And all those flowers are so beautiful!



Love,
Totoro
xxx

Hello again!

I visited today also in "satama" (a harbour of Jyväskylä).
There I saw many great boats! 
Just take a look at photos to see how fun I had. 

Love,
Totoro
xxx

Hi!

A new toy arrived today here. He is Rico the Tiger from Germany. 

We had a welcome party, we ate all chocolate candies what Rico brought from Germany. They were so yummy! 

Love,
Totoro.