09/07/07 15:27
the last day of my journey. i'm on the plane right now. this morning i got up early, had breakfast and shaved for the first time in a while (my recharger didn't work in japan). then i threw away most of the superfluos stuff, filling one large plastic bag and taking about 3 or 4 kg of weight from my baggage. mochizuki-san came to the hotel to send me off. my trunk was checked in, coming to 24.4 kg (and probably another 10 in my backpack) and it was no problem. i spent my last yen on sunglasses, a coffee and a donut, now i've got about 40 left. then i got on the plane (3 empty seats again, awesome!). it took off as planned and there haven't been many things to report yet. but my movie screens works this time and there's like 4 or 5 films i want to see, so i'll be busy! the prestige - how great is that? best film i've been to recently.
19:13
what the hell!? james bond is shown in a cut version. no poisoning of his drink. i bet they'll leave out the torture scene too. sucks!
19:40
oh come on. "the job is done. the bitch is dead." was the coolest line of the movie. way to ruin a film, pg-censorship-mafia!
25:48/18:48
i'm back in europe! milan airport. i've got more time to waste than i had on the way to japan. my watch has been set back to middle european time. i managed to get in some sleep after casino royale (i wasn't really eager to watch movies that i hadn't seen before, unawarely missing half of the story because someone deemed it inappropriate for the airline guests). boarding for the plane to düsseldorf begins in one hour. my hand luggage is too heavy to run all around the airport so i think i'll read a little bit.
21:02
i am on the last flight of this journey now. the plane to düsseldorf took off about 20 minutes late. there are only 15 people or so on the flight. i'm feeling a little tired right now, it is, after all, 4 am in japan) but i am also glad to get back home. i'm listening the the flower kings' devil's playground. i thought it would be nice for the last song to be the same as the first, and this is one extraordinary piece of music. not all is the same as it was five weeks ago, though. while these were certainly very busy and eventful days, they were also days of insight. i think i am ready to move on now.
T H E E N D
Samstag, 14. Juli 2007
day 35 - back to the roots
08/07/07 later...
the last full day in japan. i left the yoshioka's house in the morning. mz baggage was still very heavy because of all the stuff that i hadn't thrown away yet. we drove to the yokohama station (which is probablier easier to reach from setagaya). i boarded the nozomi shinkansen (the fastest one) and the ride to osaka took barely more than 2 hours. i was picked up by kitamura-san and ueno-san (remember, they picked me up on day 1). i was looking forward to get to the hotel and relax a bit, but they wouldn't be japanese if they hadn't already made plans for the day. so i had to go shopping for a souvenir (i told them i already had enoug), i had to eat takoyaki although i wasn't hungry and so on. the usual deal, hehe. we went to the planetarium which was interesting, but i didn't understand the japanese explanations and fell asleep in the comfortable chair. in the evening they had a small farewell party for me. to my surprise not only osaka's mochizuki-san came, my host families from himeji and kyoto were also there. fun! after that they brought me to the hotel and i had my own private farewell party, walking around the airport at night and enjoying my last private moments.
the last full day in japan. i left the yoshioka's house in the morning. mz baggage was still very heavy because of all the stuff that i hadn't thrown away yet. we drove to the yokohama station (which is probablier easier to reach from setagaya). i boarded the nozomi shinkansen (the fastest one) and the ride to osaka took barely more than 2 hours. i was picked up by kitamura-san and ueno-san (remember, they picked me up on day 1). i was looking forward to get to the hotel and relax a bit, but they wouldn't be japanese if they hadn't already made plans for the day. so i had to go shopping for a souvenir (i told them i already had enoug), i had to eat takoyaki although i wasn't hungry and so on. the usual deal, hehe. we went to the planetarium which was interesting, but i didn't understand the japanese explanations and fell asleep in the comfortable chair. in the evening they had a small farewell party for me. to my surprise not only osaka's mochizuki-san came, my host families from himeji and kyoto were also there. fun! after that they brought me to the hotel and i had my own private farewell party, walking around the airport at night and enjoying my last private moments.
Samstag, 7. Juli 2007
day 34 - the hate!
07/07/07 24:05
i admit it, i`ve got "the hate". i`ve had it for a few days now and it`s been getting worse. i don`t have it anymore, i think, or i wouldn`t be adequately distanced to write this. i might use swearwords in an abundance though, to recreate my thoughts at the respective moments.
to have "the hate" s a term that my friends and me use to describe the state of mind when you are generally annoyed, angry at just about everything and get pissed off at every tiny thing that doesn`t agree with you. really pissed off. i blame the fifth week and the sickness and whatever for it, should have gone home after four. anyway, until the afternoon i was pretty upset today. if by 4 o` clock someone had offered me to take me home this instant on the condition that i could never ever return to japan i might have agreed. although it isn`t exactly japan that i was pissed at. it`s rather everything japanese, everything to do with these people argh leave me alone goddamn it!!
i`m not tired! i`m not fucking tired! even if i were tired i wouldn`t be telling you! it`s none of your goddamn business anyway, go away and leave me alone (but please let me sleep in your house, k?).
having said that, my host family told hosokawa-san (with whom i would be spending the day), that i was interested in manga. maybe she told him that i loved loved loved manga and anime and everything otaku because that`s what he seemed to think. having the hate i was naturally pissed off by the fact that she told him that i liked manga (even though it`s true), so i didn`t want to go. of course i didn`t enjoy it at the manga shop (which was quite nice, but then again, how fun is it to look through stacks of manga without having the money or the baggage weight to spare for it). so i told them that i wanted to go to a record store. record stores always calm me and this one (a hmv this time) did too. even if i don`t have the money i can spent hours there. i didn`t have hours this time since we were (as always) on a tight schedule. about 10 minutes in he told me that i should pick three cds and he`d buy them for me, yay! you don`t say no to such an offer (actually i did say no, but he insisted)! i picked some relatively cheap ones, don`t want to be an asshole, and that was ok. then we went to have lunch and on the way i talked to hosokawa`s daughter and another guy. re-enter the hate. really, i cannot stand this damn talking anymore. fucking stupid questions, always the same, always annoying me aRGHFHDSGDSGff. what kind of job does my father do. (now, being calmed down, i suppose that is quite the normal question...) i don`t know. i know the name of the job in german but can`t explain it. i don`t know the english name. and i don`t know how to say that i don`t know in japanese. what kind of buildings do we have in germany? what the hell!? what kind of buildings do you have in japan? what is this bullshit!? big buildings? small buildings? brick buildings? wood buildings? pick your goddamn favourite. what part of germany do i live in, near the rhine? half the country lives near the rhine. do i ask you if you live near the sea!?
and then, after lunch, the glorious climax. kabuki. japanese traditional theater. 2 hours (i suppose, it felt longer) of... traditional japanese theater. which involves a lot of people sitting around on the stage, singing antiquated japanese (that even the japanese don`t understand) in high falsetto voices (since the femle characters are played by men, too). a lot of screaming and crying and squeaking and other ear-numbing noises. not involving much movement. accompanied by weird instrumental avant-garde atonal whatever-music and a guy commenting on what`s happening in some kind of vocal performance. i was tormented. my head hurt. i didn`t know what the hell was going on since there was no discernible story from the acting alone and even if there hadn`t been all the noise i wuldn`t have understood a word of it. i tried not to fall asleep since that might have made the wrong impression on the people that most likely paid a shitload of money so that i could enjoy this cultural event. i had my eyes closed most of the time though. somewhere in the middle i started to count reeeeeeally slow and i got up to 520 or so before the show ended. when i got out i noticed all the people returning their earphones for the english translation and commentary. yeah, english! thank you for not mentioning this, host family! i mean, even if al swearengen himself had commented on this performance i cannot imagine that i would have enjoyed it in the least. my ears are permanently damaged anyway.
after that, the hate had grown so much, that i basically didn`t say a wod for the next 30 minutes. then we arrived at yet another ymca where we met some youth members that were preparing for a convention in thailand. things got better then and have stayed good so far. we had dinner, i talked with people my age (yay), we drank beer, awesome. i got back here, my last night in tokyo. we talked a little, i wasn`t even pissed off anymore when they asked me if i was tired (yes), and i went up to th computer to listen to my cds and type this. tomorrow i`ll go back to osaka where i`ll stay in the hotel at the airport. so most likely this is my last entry that i`ll publish in japan.
i admit it, i`ve got "the hate". i`ve had it for a few days now and it`s been getting worse. i don`t have it anymore, i think, or i wouldn`t be adequately distanced to write this. i might use swearwords in an abundance though, to recreate my thoughts at the respective moments.
to have "the hate" s a term that my friends and me use to describe the state of mind when you are generally annoyed, angry at just about everything and get pissed off at every tiny thing that doesn`t agree with you. really pissed off. i blame the fifth week and the sickness and whatever for it, should have gone home after four. anyway, until the afternoon i was pretty upset today. if by 4 o` clock someone had offered me to take me home this instant on the condition that i could never ever return to japan i might have agreed. although it isn`t exactly japan that i was pissed at. it`s rather everything japanese, everything to do with these people argh leave me alone goddamn it!!
i`m not tired! i`m not fucking tired! even if i were tired i wouldn`t be telling you! it`s none of your goddamn business anyway, go away and leave me alone (but please let me sleep in your house, k?).
having said that, my host family told hosokawa-san (with whom i would be spending the day), that i was interested in manga. maybe she told him that i loved loved loved manga and anime and everything otaku because that`s what he seemed to think. having the hate i was naturally pissed off by the fact that she told him that i liked manga (even though it`s true), so i didn`t want to go. of course i didn`t enjoy it at the manga shop (which was quite nice, but then again, how fun is it to look through stacks of manga without having the money or the baggage weight to spare for it). so i told them that i wanted to go to a record store. record stores always calm me and this one (a hmv this time) did too. even if i don`t have the money i can spent hours there. i didn`t have hours this time since we were (as always) on a tight schedule. about 10 minutes in he told me that i should pick three cds and he`d buy them for me, yay! you don`t say no to such an offer (actually i did say no, but he insisted)! i picked some relatively cheap ones, don`t want to be an asshole, and that was ok. then we went to have lunch and on the way i talked to hosokawa`s daughter and another guy. re-enter the hate. really, i cannot stand this damn talking anymore. fucking stupid questions, always the same, always annoying me aRGHFHDSGDSGff. what kind of job does my father do. (now, being calmed down, i suppose that is quite the normal question...) i don`t know. i know the name of the job in german but can`t explain it. i don`t know the english name. and i don`t know how to say that i don`t know in japanese. what kind of buildings do we have in germany? what the hell!? what kind of buildings do you have in japan? what is this bullshit!? big buildings? small buildings? brick buildings? wood buildings? pick your goddamn favourite. what part of germany do i live in, near the rhine? half the country lives near the rhine. do i ask you if you live near the sea!?
and then, after lunch, the glorious climax. kabuki. japanese traditional theater. 2 hours (i suppose, it felt longer) of... traditional japanese theater. which involves a lot of people sitting around on the stage, singing antiquated japanese (that even the japanese don`t understand) in high falsetto voices (since the femle characters are played by men, too). a lot of screaming and crying and squeaking and other ear-numbing noises. not involving much movement. accompanied by weird instrumental avant-garde atonal whatever-music and a guy commenting on what`s happening in some kind of vocal performance. i was tormented. my head hurt. i didn`t know what the hell was going on since there was no discernible story from the acting alone and even if there hadn`t been all the noise i wuldn`t have understood a word of it. i tried not to fall asleep since that might have made the wrong impression on the people that most likely paid a shitload of money so that i could enjoy this cultural event. i had my eyes closed most of the time though. somewhere in the middle i started to count reeeeeeally slow and i got up to 520 or so before the show ended. when i got out i noticed all the people returning their earphones for the english translation and commentary. yeah, english! thank you for not mentioning this, host family! i mean, even if al swearengen himself had commented on this performance i cannot imagine that i would have enjoyed it in the least. my ears are permanently damaged anyway.
after that, the hate had grown so much, that i basically didn`t say a wod for the next 30 minutes. then we arrived at yet another ymca where we met some youth members that were preparing for a convention in thailand. things got better then and have stayed good so far. we had dinner, i talked with people my age (yay), we drank beer, awesome. i got back here, my last night in tokyo. we talked a little, i wasn`t even pissed off anymore when they asked me if i was tired (yes), and i went up to th computer to listen to my cds and type this. tomorrow i`ll go back to osaka where i`ll stay in the hotel at the airport. so most likely this is my last entry that i`ll publish in japan.
Freitag, 6. Juli 2007
day 33 - is it just me or are these thread titles getting longer?
06/07/07 23:34
today i basically spent the rest of my money. we started the day with another tourist trip into tokyo. it took about one hour riding on various subway lines (the system is pretty good and not so hard to understand, but it still takes time to get from a to b in this moloch of a city). today`s place of choice was a part of the city called odaiba. some years ago, instead of odaiba there was the sea, tokyo bay to be exact. i suppose you`ve heard about these expansions. the district is full with big office buildings and such stuff. we visited two museums, the first being on japanese maritime history (with models of boats) and the museum itself being in the shape of a boat. the second museum was japan`s innovation and science museum or whatever (miraikan), and it was quite interesting. they had a lot of experiments etc. which one could watch and they had some cool robot who could catch balls that were shot in his direction at fast speed. we went for lunch to a chinese buffet restaurant. this was once more a confirmation of how tightly japanese are bound to their schedules. they need a schedule for everything. i`ve got several schedules for my entire stay, schedules for the visits to the single families, schedules for days during these visits, train schedules so that i will get out at the right station and so on. today they obviously made the schedule "go to museum one. go to museum two. eat at restaurant x." the facts that noone had ever been at that restaurant, that i had no expressed any wish to particularly go there, that it was quite a bit away from our location and that we passed like 20 other fine restaurants to get there didn`t seem to matter. the schedule must be kept.
another nice example for this was during my first week. i had my schedule for the week sent to me while i was still in germany and it was pretty tight. they had written that i could answer them with any wish to "change" the schedule. so i asked them if i could visit the family where i had been two years ago. when i came, the schedule had not really changed at all. it was the same, just with an additional point "visit family, stay over night", which added even more stress.
to get back to the buffet restaurant, and this is just a fun fact: the japanese name for these kind of restaurants is "baikingu", meaning: "viking". don`t ask me why (ask wikipedia)... well, in germany those places are also known as all-you-can-eat-restaurants and a horde of people really trying to eat all they can might give off an awesome viking impression...
in the evening i had asked to walk around the area near the house for like 2 hours and i think that this was the first time that i have been walking anywhere alone in over a month! i took the train to shinjuku (oh, what a rebel i am!) and paid my last yen (well, there are about 900 left) for yet another cd at the awesome tower records store they had there (sure enough i had planned my act of civil disobedience by obtaining the store location on the internet, bwahaha). because going to shinjuku takes like half an hour i didn`t have too much time there, but it looked really nice and crowded and busy.
here i repacked my baggage, leaving all the stuff outside that i`m gonna throw away on my last night (i don`t want to seem ungrateful, but i got so many presents from all kind of people that i just don`t need) and it was 24.9 kg. the restriction is 20, but airlines are known for allowing up to 5 kg over that, so i think i`m gonna take my chances with that. all my books and manga are in the hand luggage, which only amounts to 7kg in total. i`m disappointed at myself. (i think i had 26 and 13 kg respectively, two years ago). 29076.
today i basically spent the rest of my money. we started the day with another tourist trip into tokyo. it took about one hour riding on various subway lines (the system is pretty good and not so hard to understand, but it still takes time to get from a to b in this moloch of a city). today`s place of choice was a part of the city called odaiba. some years ago, instead of odaiba there was the sea, tokyo bay to be exact. i suppose you`ve heard about these expansions. the district is full with big office buildings and such stuff. we visited two museums, the first being on japanese maritime history (with models of boats) and the museum itself being in the shape of a boat. the second museum was japan`s innovation and science museum or whatever (miraikan), and it was quite interesting. they had a lot of experiments etc. which one could watch and they had some cool robot who could catch balls that were shot in his direction at fast speed. we went for lunch to a chinese buffet restaurant. this was once more a confirmation of how tightly japanese are bound to their schedules. they need a schedule for everything. i`ve got several schedules for my entire stay, schedules for the visits to the single families, schedules for days during these visits, train schedules so that i will get out at the right station and so on. today they obviously made the schedule "go to museum one. go to museum two. eat at restaurant x." the facts that noone had ever been at that restaurant, that i had no expressed any wish to particularly go there, that it was quite a bit away from our location and that we passed like 20 other fine restaurants to get there didn`t seem to matter. the schedule must be kept.
another nice example for this was during my first week. i had my schedule for the week sent to me while i was still in germany and it was pretty tight. they had written that i could answer them with any wish to "change" the schedule. so i asked them if i could visit the family where i had been two years ago. when i came, the schedule had not really changed at all. it was the same, just with an additional point "visit family, stay over night", which added even more stress.
to get back to the buffet restaurant, and this is just a fun fact: the japanese name for these kind of restaurants is "baikingu", meaning: "viking". don`t ask me why (ask wikipedia)... well, in germany those places are also known as all-you-can-eat-restaurants and a horde of people really trying to eat all they can might give off an awesome viking impression...
in the evening i had asked to walk around the area near the house for like 2 hours and i think that this was the first time that i have been walking anywhere alone in over a month! i took the train to shinjuku (oh, what a rebel i am!) and paid my last yen (well, there are about 900 left) for yet another cd at the awesome tower records store they had there (sure enough i had planned my act of civil disobedience by obtaining the store location on the internet, bwahaha). because going to shinjuku takes like half an hour i didn`t have too much time there, but it looked really nice and crowded and busy.
here i repacked my baggage, leaving all the stuff outside that i`m gonna throw away on my last night (i don`t want to seem ungrateful, but i got so many presents from all kind of people that i just don`t need) and it was 24.9 kg. the restriction is 20, but airlines are known for allowing up to 5 kg over that, so i think i`m gonna take my chances with that. all my books and manga are in the hand luggage, which only amounts to 7kg in total. i`m disappointed at myself. (i think i had 26 and 13 kg respectively, two years ago). 29076.
Donnerstag, 5. Juli 2007
day 32 - anniversary... mensiversary? (oh latin, where art thou)
05/07/07 24:23
one month ago i arrived in japan (has it really been that long?). today when i woke up the cold wasn`t any better. on the contrary, as i had feared, it had worsened and my throat really pained. so i gave in when they offered me some medicine (normally i try to avoid pills and such stuff whenever possible) and went back to sleep for some hours. i guess the medicine did help more or less, at least i didn`t really feel any pain throughout the day. as a replacement, i had a constant dizziness, nothing serious, but some kind of uneasy feeling. it reminded me of taking coffeine pills when you`re tired. you can`t sleep, but you`re not exactly awake...
anyway, we went for a bus tour through tokyo. the trip went to many of the places where i was two years ago on the one-day-trip to tokyo. first, the imperial palace and the park surrounding it, very nice. afterwards asakusa, a big temple with a huge shopping area around it. they sell all kind of merchandise including cool samurai swords, but i`m afraid i don`t have that much money left and getting the thing on the plane must be a bitch. apart from that we went to the television studios of nhk, one of japan`s biggest broadcasting companies. they had some nice exhibits and fake tv shows where you could be the actor etc. in the end we went on a boat ride on some river through tokyo (no idea what it`s called) and got back here. then we had dinner and right now i`m listening to the new bad religion album since i discovered that they have it on their myspace page in its entirety.
i`m actually looking forward to returning home, since the whole routine here is pretty tiresome. i think three and a half or four weeks would have been perfect, but maybe my spirits are just down because of the cold...
anyway, i`ll try to enjoy the final days here as all of this feels pretty much like a closing point to a big part of my life and once i get back i`ll have to start from the beginning, and i intend to change a few things. (dun-dun-dun)
one month ago i arrived in japan (has it really been that long?). today when i woke up the cold wasn`t any better. on the contrary, as i had feared, it had worsened and my throat really pained. so i gave in when they offered me some medicine (normally i try to avoid pills and such stuff whenever possible) and went back to sleep for some hours. i guess the medicine did help more or less, at least i didn`t really feel any pain throughout the day. as a replacement, i had a constant dizziness, nothing serious, but some kind of uneasy feeling. it reminded me of taking coffeine pills when you`re tired. you can`t sleep, but you`re not exactly awake...
anyway, we went for a bus tour through tokyo. the trip went to many of the places where i was two years ago on the one-day-trip to tokyo. first, the imperial palace and the park surrounding it, very nice. afterwards asakusa, a big temple with a huge shopping area around it. they sell all kind of merchandise including cool samurai swords, but i`m afraid i don`t have that much money left and getting the thing on the plane must be a bitch. apart from that we went to the television studios of nhk, one of japan`s biggest broadcasting companies. they had some nice exhibits and fake tv shows where you could be the actor etc. in the end we went on a boat ride on some river through tokyo (no idea what it`s called) and got back here. then we had dinner and right now i`m listening to the new bad religion album since i discovered that they have it on their myspace page in its entirety.
i`m actually looking forward to returning home, since the whole routine here is pretty tiresome. i think three and a half or four weeks would have been perfect, but maybe my spirits are just down because of the cold...
anyway, i`ll try to enjoy the final days here as all of this feels pretty much like a closing point to a big part of my life and once i get back i`ll have to start from the beginning, and i intend to change a few things. (dun-dun-dun)
Mittwoch, 4. Juli 2007
day 31 - Saiyuki_LiveAction_07_(CHN)_(JPN SUBS).zip
04/07/07 23:28
i caught a cold. it started yesterday and it got worse today so it`s official. this sucks. so i went into the day feeling pretty shitty. i`m not even really that sick yet, but it usually gets worse over 4 or 5 days so the prospect of how i`m probably gonna be tomorrow was enough to make me feel depressed. we started the day by going to a tokyo ymca. in the last month i`ve seen more ymca buildings from the inside than most people have ever seen at all, i guess. it was not really different from any of the others. we had lunch. then we went to akihabara. akihabara is tokyo`s nerd quarter. when you see images of tokyo with thousands of people and big shiny ads all over the place, blinking and being generally noisy, that`s most likely akihabara. being there lifted my spirits a little bit, since it`s a fun place. a lot of useless crap, of course, but many interesting electronics and game shops. in the evening we were supposed to go to some theater performance of saiyuki. saiyuki is one of the most popular chinese stories and it`s really famous in japan (the main character is named son goku, i guess most people know that name ;P). before that we met with some more people, among them the norwegian boy from yesterday and had dinner. he didn`t use the chopsticks but asked for a fork instead. i`m not sure if he`ll get by with that attitude for five weeks. i mean, even if you`ve never done it before, it`s not that hard to learn how to eat with chopsticks. and the japanese love you for it, seriously. the theater performance was fun. the whole show is from china and only in japan for two weeks, so it was sold out (with tickets a 8500 yen = 50 euro). the play itself was in chinese with japanese subtitles shwon right and left from the stage. yeah, subtitles in a theatre...
the japanese subtitles were not such a great help to me, since i know maybe 300 of the 2000 letters you need to read stuff like that. but we got an english summary beforehand which made following the story pretty easy. there wasn`t that much talking anyway. most of the time the actors were dancing and jumping and doing all kinds of choreographic stuff, like an artistic circus performance. the entire time, there was something which one could call background music, though music was not always a part of it. most of the time there was just this weird ass noisy percussion. whenever an actor moved it went BOOM-CHING-CHING RATATTATA CHING!! you could record the stuff and call yourself an avant-garde percussion project, i suppose. anyway, i`m feeling better than i did this morning and i hope the condition will not worsen at least...
i caught a cold. it started yesterday and it got worse today so it`s official. this sucks. so i went into the day feeling pretty shitty. i`m not even really that sick yet, but it usually gets worse over 4 or 5 days so the prospect of how i`m probably gonna be tomorrow was enough to make me feel depressed. we started the day by going to a tokyo ymca. in the last month i`ve seen more ymca buildings from the inside than most people have ever seen at all, i guess. it was not really different from any of the others. we had lunch. then we went to akihabara. akihabara is tokyo`s nerd quarter. when you see images of tokyo with thousands of people and big shiny ads all over the place, blinking and being generally noisy, that`s most likely akihabara. being there lifted my spirits a little bit, since it`s a fun place. a lot of useless crap, of course, but many interesting electronics and game shops. in the evening we were supposed to go to some theater performance of saiyuki. saiyuki is one of the most popular chinese stories and it`s really famous in japan (the main character is named son goku, i guess most people know that name ;P). before that we met with some more people, among them the norwegian boy from yesterday and had dinner. he didn`t use the chopsticks but asked for a fork instead. i`m not sure if he`ll get by with that attitude for five weeks. i mean, even if you`ve never done it before, it`s not that hard to learn how to eat with chopsticks. and the japanese love you for it, seriously. the theater performance was fun. the whole show is from china and only in japan for two weeks, so it was sold out (with tickets a 8500 yen = 50 euro). the play itself was in chinese with japanese subtitles shwon right and left from the stage. yeah, subtitles in a theatre...
the japanese subtitles were not such a great help to me, since i know maybe 300 of the 2000 letters you need to read stuff like that. but we got an english summary beforehand which made following the story pretty easy. there wasn`t that much talking anyway. most of the time the actors were dancing and jumping and doing all kinds of choreographic stuff, like an artistic circus performance. the entire time, there was something which one could call background music, though music was not always a part of it. most of the time there was just this weird ass noisy percussion. whenever an actor moved it went BOOM-CHING-CHING RATATTATA CHING!! you could record the stuff and call yourself an avant-garde percussion project, i suppose. anyway, i`m feeling better than i did this morning and i hope the condition will not worsen at least...
day 30 - why go to paris if you can travel round half the goddamn world (and who wants to hear donald speak french anyway)
03/07/07 25:42
today i went to disneyland tokyo. i`ve never been to any other disnyland. well, it turned out to be a pretty ormal kid-friendly amusement park, but so what, it was fun. i went with some ymca members of my age. to get there we drove around tokyo on the subway. because it was a tuesday outside the holiday season it was empty for disneyland standards and we never had to wait for more than 20 minutes, even on the most popular rides. the day went by quickly and we met the youth chief hosokawa-san at 6pm inside disneyland at a restaurant. there was another group of 4 with a boy from norway. he arrived last week and is doing pretty much the same thing as me, staying until august. the difference: he doesn`t speak a word of japanese. that`s got to be tough. on the other hand he might not experience so many "oh he can speak japanese so i`ll just talk and talk and talk and talk abouth whatever the hell i`m talking about at this breakneck speed not noticing the look of incomprehension on his face, surely he must understand me, so why don`t i use some complicated words like nuclear vortex on the vertebrae of the sacrosanct conscious equilibrium. income taxes. declaration of independence. huh, are you tired?" - "no i`m not tired, i don`t understand a SINGLE GODDAMN WORD SHUT UP SHUT UP SHUT UP!!!!!111oneone" moments. those are always very... precious to me. btw., when japanese pay for the day they stay for the day, so i got home by 11. and the disney parade music is frighteningly close to final fantasy vii`s golden saucer theme. 27301.
today i went to disneyland tokyo. i`ve never been to any other disnyland. well, it turned out to be a pretty ormal kid-friendly amusement park, but so what, it was fun. i went with some ymca members of my age. to get there we drove around tokyo on the subway. because it was a tuesday outside the holiday season it was empty for disneyland standards and we never had to wait for more than 20 minutes, even on the most popular rides. the day went by quickly and we met the youth chief hosokawa-san at 6pm inside disneyland at a restaurant. there was another group of 4 with a boy from norway. he arrived last week and is doing pretty much the same thing as me, staying until august. the difference: he doesn`t speak a word of japanese. that`s got to be tough. on the other hand he might not experience so many "oh he can speak japanese so i`ll just talk and talk and talk and talk abouth whatever the hell i`m talking about at this breakneck speed not noticing the look of incomprehension on his face, surely he must understand me, so why don`t i use some complicated words like nuclear vortex on the vertebrae of the sacrosanct conscious equilibrium. income taxes. declaration of independence. huh, are you tired?" - "no i`m not tired, i don`t understand a SINGLE GODDAMN WORD SHUT UP SHUT UP SHUT UP!!!!!111oneone" moments. those are always very... precious to me. btw., when japanese pay for the day they stay for the day, so i got home by 11. and the disney parade music is frighteningly close to final fantasy vii`s golden saucer theme. 27301.
Montag, 2. Juli 2007
day 29 - last station
i have arrived in tokyo. as of about 4 o clock this afternoon, i am at my last host family`s house. i didn`t do very much in the morning, most of the time i packed my stuff and lay around listening to music. we left the house at 3 pm and i didn`t have the chance toay goodbye to the mother or any of the kids since they weren`t around. meh. i slept during the ride, so i haven`t realy seen anything of tokyo so far. but i think that setagaya-ku, the district where i am now, is on the outskirts of tokyo or we couldn`t have made it in under an hour. some y`smen from the tokyo club came by, and we had dinner. i ate another japanese specialty, known by the obscure name of shabu shabu which is basically some twisted form of fondue, but not that good... the house of the yoshioka family is new and big and very pretty. 26301/34.
intermission - more photos
any other picture requests? i`ll see what i can do.
welcome in japan. please observe the rules!
walking japan in style.
diving equipment. heavy shit.
the slopes of mount fuji.
a nice day at the coast.
a view of atami.
kiyomizudera, the best place in the world.
me enjoys the university life.
the skyline of yokohama.
do you speak engrish?
welcome in japan. please observe the rules!
walking japan in style.
diving equipment. heavy shit.
the slopes of mount fuji.
a nice day at the coast.
a view of atami.
kiyomizudera, the best place in the world.
me enjoys the university life.
the skyline of yokohama.
do you speak engrish?
Sonntag, 1. Juli 2007
day 28 - taking a last breath
01/07/07 22:56
today i didn`t really do much. they told me yersterday that i could relax and sleep as long as i want. "as long as i want" being another term for "10 a.m.", cause that`s when they woke me up. yay. anyway, i told them i`d go for a little trip of yokohama because i hadn`t seen too much of the city so far. so we drove around the harbour area a little, saw impressive skycrapers and stuff, among them the landmarq tower (sp?), japan`s highest building. then we got back here. i`ve slept a little (but i hate falling asleep during the day), listened to my music and did stuff on the internet. that`s it, basically. but one thing that i forgot to mention yersterday. at that kaitenzushi place, we didn`t get to eat directly, because all the tables were taken. we didn`t get to eat when the next guests left, either, because there were like fifty people in line before us. and "like fifty" is not an overstatement in this case, but rather the sad truth. we arrived at 17:50 and got to the table at 19:10. and when we got out of there at half past 8, there were still at least 30 people waiting. the parking lot of the place was the same, every place was taken and the waiting cars were queued up way into the street. at the busiest time we counted 12 cars in line. and not one of the drivers got angry or outraged, noone shouting at the guy in care of the parking lot. i don`t think that`s something you would ever see in germany.
today i didn`t really do much. they told me yersterday that i could relax and sleep as long as i want. "as long as i want" being another term for "10 a.m.", cause that`s when they woke me up. yay. anyway, i told them i`d go for a little trip of yokohama because i hadn`t seen too much of the city so far. so we drove around the harbour area a little, saw impressive skycrapers and stuff, among them the landmarq tower (sp?), japan`s highest building. then we got back here. i`ve slept a little (but i hate falling asleep during the day), listened to my music and did stuff on the internet. that`s it, basically. but one thing that i forgot to mention yersterday. at that kaitenzushi place, we didn`t get to eat directly, because all the tables were taken. we didn`t get to eat when the next guests left, either, because there were like fifty people in line before us. and "like fifty" is not an overstatement in this case, but rather the sad truth. we arrived at 17:50 and got to the table at 19:10. and when we got out of there at half past 8, there were still at least 30 people waiting. the parking lot of the place was the same, every place was taken and the waiting cars were queued up way into the street. at the busiest time we counted 12 cars in line. and not one of the drivers got angry or outraged, noone shouting at the guy in care of the parking lot. i don`t think that`s something you would ever see in germany.
Samstag, 30. Juni 2007
day 27 - ich nicht sprechen deutsche sprache
30/06/2007 23:05
another hot day. but oh so different. today i had to get up pretty early (compared to my usual standards), at 8 am. scheduled was a visit to yokohama`s zoo. i didn`t spend the day with my host katou-san, instead i went with another guy, hayashi-san. he is the one who my father`s friend got in contact with and he planned and organized my entire stay here. in other words - he`s the man! and he`s got a cool goatee. we drove on the subway for about an hour and got off at a station where we were supposed to meet a young guy. i don`t know the exact relation, but his father seems to be with the ymca or something. anyway, and here comes the awesome part, this guy has lived 14 of his 20 years in berlin. he`s supposedly better in german than in japanese (well, i can`t place his japanese skills which were higher than mine by a lot, but judging from his german i hope that`s not true). his name is keisuke btw... so he came and i spoke my first real german sentences (guten tag, dankeschoen and oktoberfest do not count) since almost a month now. and what can i say, it was kinda hard. i really wasn`t used to german sentence structure etc. anymore. it`s hard to describe the felling, really, but it took about half an hour to get back into normal conversatory german. anyway, keisuke was nice and we had a lot to talk about. the zoo was tough because of the heat, even the animals couldn`t be bothered to leave the shade or move or whatever animals are supposed to do in a zoo. i saw an okapi thoug, apparently the zoo`s most famous animal, and some strange kind of llama-horse-zebra hybrid model. keisuke and me asked hayashi-san to go to a game center and we played there for a little while. awesome stuff like time crisis 3 and house of the dead. then we left for some small branch of the yokohama ymca, where a staff member showed us around and we watched some kids practice karate. in the evening we went to a kaitenzushi place (remember, the kind where the food comes on moving trays and you take it off as it passes you by). now i`m back at the house and are once more doomed to speak japanese only. it`s nto that bad, though. 23801. and 30 name cards.
another hot day. but oh so different. today i had to get up pretty early (compared to my usual standards), at 8 am. scheduled was a visit to yokohama`s zoo. i didn`t spend the day with my host katou-san, instead i went with another guy, hayashi-san. he is the one who my father`s friend got in contact with and he planned and organized my entire stay here. in other words - he`s the man! and he`s got a cool goatee. we drove on the subway for about an hour and got off at a station where we were supposed to meet a young guy. i don`t know the exact relation, but his father seems to be with the ymca or something. anyway, and here comes the awesome part, this guy has lived 14 of his 20 years in berlin. he`s supposedly better in german than in japanese (well, i can`t place his japanese skills which were higher than mine by a lot, but judging from his german i hope that`s not true). his name is keisuke btw... so he came and i spoke my first real german sentences (guten tag, dankeschoen and oktoberfest do not count) since almost a month now. and what can i say, it was kinda hard. i really wasn`t used to german sentence structure etc. anymore. it`s hard to describe the felling, really, but it took about half an hour to get back into normal conversatory german. anyway, keisuke was nice and we had a lot to talk about. the zoo was tough because of the heat, even the animals couldn`t be bothered to leave the shade or move or whatever animals are supposed to do in a zoo. i saw an okapi thoug, apparently the zoo`s most famous animal, and some strange kind of llama-horse-zebra hybrid model. keisuke and me asked hayashi-san to go to a game center and we played there for a little while. awesome stuff like time crisis 3 and house of the dead. then we left for some small branch of the yokohama ymca, where a staff member showed us around and we watched some kids practice karate. in the evening we went to a kaitenzushi place (remember, the kind where the food comes on moving trays and you take it off as it passes you by). now i`m back at the house and are once more doomed to speak japanese only. it`s nto that bad, though. 23801. and 30 name cards.
Freitag, 29. Juni 2007
day 26 - addiction strikes once more
29/06/07 23:22
back from a pretty long day. today i went to the ymca in the kannai district of yokohoma. katou-san brought me there, but i spent most of the day with a woman from the ymca who is called itou-san. i was supposed to see a bit of what they are doing there. in the beginning there i was to watch a kindergarten group. that was really amazing. this group was englishspeaking! and they weren`t just kids of foreigners, they were genuine japanese kids. kids of 5 years, speaking better english than 90% of their country`s population, seriously. that one kid really cracked me up. he was making himself an armor suit out of cardboard, complete with scabbard, sword, belt and crown. when i asked him what kind of outfit that was supposed to be (oh, speaking english, the joy!), he answered "THIS - IS - SPARTA!". I kid you not! he knew all about 300 and king leonidas and he really liked the movie. you know, i`m not a big defender of youth protection and all that shit, but letting a 5 year old watch 300 is a bit too much, in my opinion. still, i couldn`t stop laughing.
then i had lunch with itou-san and met some foreign students, who take japanese language courses at the ymca. 5 days a week, 5 hours a day, that`s the way to learn a language... we joined them for a lesson in grammar (woo, learned something new) and after that we went downtown. i had requested to go shopping a bit, and we ended up at a tower records store. tower records is a name you`ll want to remember if you ever make it to japan, because their stores are so awesome. the bands are listedin romaji and are as easy to find as in any european store and the selection is huge and awesome. godspeed, silver mt. zion, king crimson, ... you name it, they have it. i left the shop with considerably less money than i entered it with and i`ll have to spend the rest of the holidays on a tight budget i suppose. in the evening we went to a restaurant, where to my surprise a board meeting of the y`smen east japan region took place. i was kinda underdressed with my tourist t-shirt. and then the most surreal event yet took place. it was almost at the end of the dinner, everyone had eaten a lot (and some also drunk a lot i guess) and this one woman announced, that she had studied a german song and would like to sing it. she stood up and sang the german national anthem. well, a nice gesture, but she sang the first verse. of course a japanese wouldn`t know, that the first two verses are more or less banished here, but still, picture the setting. me, almost hawaii-style among 30 old japanese guys and women dressed in suits, one woman in the middle, singing "deutschland deutschland ueber alles!". i almost expected the others to stand up and do the hitlergruss. strange. didn`t tell anyone about it though, hehe. 23671.
back from a pretty long day. today i went to the ymca in the kannai district of yokohoma. katou-san brought me there, but i spent most of the day with a woman from the ymca who is called itou-san. i was supposed to see a bit of what they are doing there. in the beginning there i was to watch a kindergarten group. that was really amazing. this group was englishspeaking! and they weren`t just kids of foreigners, they were genuine japanese kids. kids of 5 years, speaking better english than 90% of their country`s population, seriously. that one kid really cracked me up. he was making himself an armor suit out of cardboard, complete with scabbard, sword, belt and crown. when i asked him what kind of outfit that was supposed to be (oh, speaking english, the joy!), he answered "THIS - IS - SPARTA!". I kid you not! he knew all about 300 and king leonidas and he really liked the movie. you know, i`m not a big defender of youth protection and all that shit, but letting a 5 year old watch 300 is a bit too much, in my opinion. still, i couldn`t stop laughing.
then i had lunch with itou-san and met some foreign students, who take japanese language courses at the ymca. 5 days a week, 5 hours a day, that`s the way to learn a language... we joined them for a lesson in grammar (woo, learned something new) and after that we went downtown. i had requested to go shopping a bit, and we ended up at a tower records store. tower records is a name you`ll want to remember if you ever make it to japan, because their stores are so awesome. the bands are listedin romaji and are as easy to find as in any european store and the selection is huge and awesome. godspeed, silver mt. zion, king crimson, ... you name it, they have it. i left the shop with considerably less money than i entered it with and i`ll have to spend the rest of the holidays on a tight budget i suppose. in the evening we went to a restaurant, where to my surprise a board meeting of the y`smen east japan region took place. i was kinda underdressed with my tourist t-shirt. and then the most surreal event yet took place. it was almost at the end of the dinner, everyone had eaten a lot (and some also drunk a lot i guess) and this one woman announced, that she had studied a german song and would like to sing it. she stood up and sang the german national anthem. well, a nice gesture, but she sang the first verse. of course a japanese wouldn`t know, that the first two verses are more or less banished here, but still, picture the setting. me, almost hawaii-style among 30 old japanese guys and women dressed in suits, one woman in the middle, singing "deutschland deutschland ueber alles!". i almost expected the others to stand up and do the hitlergruss. strange. didn`t tell anyone about it though, hehe. 23671.
Donnerstag, 28. Juni 2007
day 25 - more temples. always more.
28/06/07 17:02
to continue where i left off yesterday. i met most of the rest of the family in the evening. everyone but the university student, who apparently came home quite late. the father is a professional contrabass player in the tokyo symphony orchestra and has been pretty much all over the world. he also speaks a little bit of german and he has a nice dictionary kind of thing, with useful phrases for japanese people who visit germany: "how much is a single room for one night?" "japan has a strong economy" "this policy is a waste of our tax money" (no kidding). today i went to the nearby city of kamakura with katou-san. it is famous for its temples and shrines and there were many tourists there. the biggest number of europeans/americans i`ve seen so far. most of the time you don`t see any, which means that you will always wherever you go stand out in a crowd (even more so, if you`re bigger than the japanese). when i walk by another westerner, i feel the strong urge to greet him or at least nod in his direction, as if we were part of some underground group, it`s really weird. anyway, we met two friends of katou-san, both pretty old, too, at kamakura and walked around the city. it was another of these too-hot-to-be-pleasant days. they made me buy a fortune telling at one shrine and it was probably as bad as fortune tellings go, hehe. i should be careful what i wish for, i should get rid of my partner, i am spending time with a wrong person, if i get sick it will take a long time to get better, i`m too reckless and will lose money if i don`t pay attention and so on. anyway, now i`m back here at the pc and listening to my cds.
to continue where i left off yesterday. i met most of the rest of the family in the evening. everyone but the university student, who apparently came home quite late. the father is a professional contrabass player in the tokyo symphony orchestra and has been pretty much all over the world. he also speaks a little bit of german and he has a nice dictionary kind of thing, with useful phrases for japanese people who visit germany: "how much is a single room for one night?" "japan has a strong economy" "this policy is a waste of our tax money" (no kidding). today i went to the nearby city of kamakura with katou-san. it is famous for its temples and shrines and there were many tourists there. the biggest number of europeans/americans i`ve seen so far. most of the time you don`t see any, which means that you will always wherever you go stand out in a crowd (even more so, if you`re bigger than the japanese). when i walk by another westerner, i feel the strong urge to greet him or at least nod in his direction, as if we were part of some underground group, it`s really weird. anyway, we met two friends of katou-san, both pretty old, too, at kamakura and walked around the city. it was another of these too-hot-to-be-pleasant days. they made me buy a fortune telling at one shrine and it was probably as bad as fortune tellings go, hehe. i should be careful what i wish for, i should get rid of my partner, i am spending time with a wrong person, if i get sick it will take a long time to get better, i`m too reckless and will lose money if i don`t pay attention and so on. anyway, now i`m back here at the pc and listening to my cds.
day 24 - yo! kohama...
27/06/07 18:22
i`ve arrived in yokohama. so far i haven`t seen much of the city though. i left atami this morning and took the train (not a shinkansen this time) to tokyo. katou-san, my next host, picked me up at the station and we took the subway to his house. he is an elderly man, close to 80 i suppose, but still quite healthy for that age. apart from him, his wife, another woman (don`t know the family relation there), his daughter, her husband and their three kids (middle school, high school, university) live in the house. his daughter`s family is still at work/school. Japanese school goes always into the afternoon and is followed by school club activities which means that kids will usually get home late). the other woman seems to be mentally handicapped (due to my work during the last 9 months i`m quite good at picking this up now), though i don`t know how exactly. there is no further schedule for today, so i`ve got quite a bit of relaxing ahead of me. 14439.
i`ve arrived in yokohama. so far i haven`t seen much of the city though. i left atami this morning and took the train (not a shinkansen this time) to tokyo. katou-san, my next host, picked me up at the station and we took the subway to his house. he is an elderly man, close to 80 i suppose, but still quite healthy for that age. apart from him, his wife, another woman (don`t know the family relation there), his daughter, her husband and their three kids (middle school, high school, university) live in the house. his daughter`s family is still at work/school. Japanese school goes always into the afternoon and is followed by school club activities which means that kids will usually get home late). the other woman seems to be mentally handicapped (due to my work during the last 9 months i`m quite good at picking this up now), though i don`t know how exactly. there is no further schedule for today, so i`ve got quite a bit of relaxing ahead of me. 14439.
Dienstag, 26. Juni 2007
day 23 - one (comparatively) short entry
26/06/07 "late. later than expected."
after yesterday`s drunken madness, i will keep this entry short. it was a pretty short day, after all. in fact i even overslept. i was woken by mrs. aoki at 11:35 (lunch was due for 11:30), and i had to hurry to get dressed and everything because we needed to leave the house at 12. i was to meet atami`s mayor (even if it`s a small city that`s dreadfully official, don`t you think). he only had 10 minutes to spare though and we talked a little bit, while we were photographed by the local press and some ten other people sat there doing not so much. the mayor is the biggest japanese i`ve seen so far, at least 1.90m. he/the city gave me a fan as a present. then we went to the atami museum of art. it was a great building with a nice exhibition of french glass art etc. after that we went to yet another cd shop (hey, i`ve got to get rid of these yen somehow, i`m not exchanging them back!). the problem about japanese cd shops is, that it`s hard to find the artist you`re looking for. they`re sorted by japanese alphabet (a, i, o, e, u, ka, ki, ku, ke, ko, sa, shi, su, se, so, ...) and on the side of the cd`s the names are only given in katakana instead of the roman alphabet. if you can`t read katakana you`re definitely lost, if you can, it just takes damn long. and you have to be good at guessing. the mars volta are "za maasu uoruta". iron maiden are "aian meeden". i don`t even want to know what 65daysofstatic are. it`s a pain. in the evening we went for our last dinner here in atami. tomorrow i`ll leave for yokohama.
btw, w-kun (:P), how was the festival?
after yesterday`s drunken madness, i will keep this entry short. it was a pretty short day, after all. in fact i even overslept. i was woken by mrs. aoki at 11:35 (lunch was due for 11:30), and i had to hurry to get dressed and everything because we needed to leave the house at 12. i was to meet atami`s mayor (even if it`s a small city that`s dreadfully official, don`t you think). he only had 10 minutes to spare though and we talked a little bit, while we were photographed by the local press and some ten other people sat there doing not so much. the mayor is the biggest japanese i`ve seen so far, at least 1.90m. he/the city gave me a fan as a present. then we went to the atami museum of art. it was a great building with a nice exhibition of french glass art etc. after that we went to yet another cd shop (hey, i`ve got to get rid of these yen somehow, i`m not exchanging them back!). the problem about japanese cd shops is, that it`s hard to find the artist you`re looking for. they`re sorted by japanese alphabet (a, i, o, e, u, ka, ki, ku, ke, ko, sa, shi, su, se, so, ...) and on the side of the cd`s the names are only given in katakana instead of the roman alphabet. if you can`t read katakana you`re definitely lost, if you can, it just takes damn long. and you have to be good at guessing. the mars volta are "za maasu uoruta". iron maiden are "aian meeden". i don`t even want to know what 65daysofstatic are. it`s a pain. in the evening we went for our last dinner here in atami. tomorrow i`ll leave for yokohama.
btw, w-kun (:P), how was the festival?
day 22 - one long entry
25/06/07 24:21
today was the day in atami that i looked least forward to (or: that i feared the most, to be honest). the schedule was:
morning: diving
evening: y`smen meeting with speech.
as some of you might know, i`m not a big fan of speaking in public. in fact, it goes as far that i`m trying to avoid such situations as much as possible. well, the y`smen pay for just about everything here so i guess i`m kinda obligated to speak whenever they want me to. this was my initial image of what today would be like.
well, what should i say. it turned out to be my best day here in atami so far. this morning we left the house at about 10 am to go to atami harbour. the diving was to take place on the island of hatsushima, 20 minute away by ferry. the ride over went smoothly. the island itself was quite small, and its 100 inhabitants seemed to live by the tourism. there even was a school over there. we had to wait about an hour for the diving instructor and i read a good portion of murakami`s "wind-up bird chronicle". then we (aka aoki-san and me) had to change into the diving suits. it would be an understatement to say that it was a tight fit, but i got in alright. i was positively frightened by that point. i`ve never been more than an everage swimmer and i could barely move in that suit. plus i`d have to wear an o2-tank. and i knew that as a diver you had the water pressure to reckon with. you`d have to "blow your nose"/clear the ears, whenever you got deeper. pressure balance or whatever. i had once done this in a swimming pool (you know, holding your nose shut but still trying to breath out of it with all your power till your ears go -POP!-) and it hurt like hell. anyway i didn`t want to admit that i was afraid, so i figured i just might go through with it. aoki-san turned out to be just as afraid as me and bailed out, said he couldn`t do it. great, he wanted me to go alone, thanks for boosting my confidence. i swallowed my fear, however, and went in. i had practised breathing through the mask for a minute, when we were outside, and it worked alright. the pressure thing went fine, too. the diving itself was nothing but amazing. under the sea there really is another world. we swam deeper and deeper, through algaes etc. and it was great. there were fish everywhere. the small kind. i guess you never realize this when you go swim in the ocean, but a few meters under the water there are thousands of fish. we swam around and around, the instructor always leading me (and making me feel safe) and i saw lots, swam a little bit with the fish swarms and so on.
aoki-san and me took the ferry back to atami, had lunch and went home for a bit. i prepared my speech for the evening, but since i didn`t know what to say it didn`t amount to much more than a minute. i put on my suit (with the tie) and we took a taxi to the hotel, where the meeting was to take place (oh am i gonna hate myself for this tomorrow when i`ll have to transcribe it) (edit: yeah, three damn pages, what the hell WAS i thinking!?). the atami club is one of the biggest clubs in japan with close to 50 members. i`d say that most of them were there. i got a special seat next to the speakers` podium. there were the usual introductions, the y`smen hymn, and then i was introduced. after that i held my wannabe-speech (i`m blah... been here for three weeks... very intersting... thank you very much). there was dinner and some more formalities that i did not understand. after that it got pretty interesting. the official party was over, but most of the guys _(including me) went to some kind of club/bar. now this is something which i personally like very much: getting out of the usual environment that i am living in and taking a peek into something completely different. the whole experience was totally unfamiliar to me. never had i been in such an etablissement (pardon my french). the interior design was cozy. sofas, soft and comfortable. the strange thing was, that the waitresses of the place were not just there to bring drinks. they were more like entertainers. they were all rather scantily clad and (i know this sounds like pervert talk -_-) one had to make an effort not to look under their short skirts. the whole thing seemed pretty shady to me, but maybe i`m just too conservative, i don`t know. i guess it was no unrespectable bar or anything, some of the guys even brought their wives etc. well, they kept refilling my beer (oh man, this entry keeps getting longer and longer) (edit: yeah, thank you.), and even made me drink whiskey at some point. the girls seemed to be enjoying themselves but i couldn`t help thinking of them as some kind of prostitues (lite?). anyway, we left the place at 10pm. i thought the evening was over, but no - we went to another restaurant (now only the aokis and me. we drank more beer and it was really fun since there was another customer who spoke a bit of german (aoki is fond of the language, too) and we talked about germany and in german and so on. the great thing about japan is that even when you decide not to hold back with your drinking and go at it the whole evening, you`re still pretty conscious in the end. yay for the genes! (11939)
today was the day in atami that i looked least forward to (or: that i feared the most, to be honest). the schedule was:
morning: diving
evening: y`smen meeting with speech.
as some of you might know, i`m not a big fan of speaking in public. in fact, it goes as far that i`m trying to avoid such situations as much as possible. well, the y`smen pay for just about everything here so i guess i`m kinda obligated to speak whenever they want me to. this was my initial image of what today would be like.
well, what should i say. it turned out to be my best day here in atami so far. this morning we left the house at about 10 am to go to atami harbour. the diving was to take place on the island of hatsushima, 20 minute away by ferry. the ride over went smoothly. the island itself was quite small, and its 100 inhabitants seemed to live by the tourism. there even was a school over there. we had to wait about an hour for the diving instructor and i read a good portion of murakami`s "wind-up bird chronicle". then we (aka aoki-san and me) had to change into the diving suits. it would be an understatement to say that it was a tight fit, but i got in alright. i was positively frightened by that point. i`ve never been more than an everage swimmer and i could barely move in that suit. plus i`d have to wear an o2-tank. and i knew that as a diver you had the water pressure to reckon with. you`d have to "blow your nose"/clear the ears, whenever you got deeper. pressure balance or whatever. i had once done this in a swimming pool (you know, holding your nose shut but still trying to breath out of it with all your power till your ears go -POP!-) and it hurt like hell. anyway i didn`t want to admit that i was afraid, so i figured i just might go through with it. aoki-san turned out to be just as afraid as me and bailed out, said he couldn`t do it. great, he wanted me to go alone, thanks for boosting my confidence. i swallowed my fear, however, and went in. i had practised breathing through the mask for a minute, when we were outside, and it worked alright. the pressure thing went fine, too. the diving itself was nothing but amazing. under the sea there really is another world. we swam deeper and deeper, through algaes etc. and it was great. there were fish everywhere. the small kind. i guess you never realize this when you go swim in the ocean, but a few meters under the water there are thousands of fish. we swam around and around, the instructor always leading me (and making me feel safe) and i saw lots, swam a little bit with the fish swarms and so on.
aoki-san and me took the ferry back to atami, had lunch and went home for a bit. i prepared my speech for the evening, but since i didn`t know what to say it didn`t amount to much more than a minute. i put on my suit (with the tie) and we took a taxi to the hotel, where the meeting was to take place (oh am i gonna hate myself for this tomorrow when i`ll have to transcribe it) (edit: yeah, three damn pages, what the hell WAS i thinking!?). the atami club is one of the biggest clubs in japan with close to 50 members. i`d say that most of them were there. i got a special seat next to the speakers` podium. there were the usual introductions, the y`smen hymn, and then i was introduced. after that i held my wannabe-speech (i`m blah... been here for three weeks... very intersting... thank you very much). there was dinner and some more formalities that i did not understand. after that it got pretty interesting. the official party was over, but most of the guys _(including me) went to some kind of club/bar. now this is something which i personally like very much: getting out of the usual environment that i am living in and taking a peek into something completely different. the whole experience was totally unfamiliar to me. never had i been in such an etablissement (pardon my french). the interior design was cozy. sofas, soft and comfortable. the strange thing was, that the waitresses of the place were not just there to bring drinks. they were more like entertainers. they were all rather scantily clad and (i know this sounds like pervert talk -_-) one had to make an effort not to look under their short skirts. the whole thing seemed pretty shady to me, but maybe i`m just too conservative, i don`t know. i guess it was no unrespectable bar or anything, some of the guys even brought their wives etc. well, they kept refilling my beer (oh man, this entry keeps getting longer and longer) (edit: yeah, thank you.), and even made me drink whiskey at some point. the girls seemed to be enjoying themselves but i couldn`t help thinking of them as some kind of prostitues (lite?). anyway, we left the place at 10pm. i thought the evening was over, but no - we went to another restaurant (now only the aokis and me. we drank more beer and it was really fun since there was another customer who spoke a bit of german (aoki is fond of the language, too) and we talked about germany and in german and so on. the great thing about japan is that even when you decide not to hold back with your drinking and go at it the whole evening, you`re still pretty conscious in the end. yay for the genes! (11939)
Sonntag, 24. Juni 2007
day 21 - uphill from here
24/06/07 21:22
today i got up real early. 6 am something. not because i was eager to sniff the fresh morning air, but because the ascension of mt. fuji was supposed to take quite a while. as i wrote yersterday, the top of the mountain is still closed (unless you pring ice picks and spike boots etc.). it took a bit more than two hours to get to our starting point at about 2300 meters. it is the most popular starting point for tourists in summer, so there were hotels and restaurants and japan`s highest post office. the rain had startd by then, but only a little bit. we started walking and in the begining you could still see the surrounding valley. as we got higher and highr on the rocky path, the rain got heavier and everything became cloudy and foggy. we reached our goal, the seventh station (of ten) after about 2 hours. there weren`t too many people on the path, mainly due to the weather and the mountaintop being closed until next month, i suppose. so it was no woner that of the people who were there, a great number were foreigners. we met some guys from switzerland and a lot of chinese tourists. the japanese can afford to wait i guess. we could have gone one more station up the mountain, but aoki-san was pretty tired (well, he`s like 60) and i didn`t particularly mind because i was soaked by the rain. i guess we made a good 800 or 900m in height. the way down went faster, but by the end we could barely see farther than 10m ahead thanks to the fog. wisely we had brought spare clothes and enjoyed a dry ride home with a little detour to hakone, a nice village in the mountains. new prefectures: yamanashi and kanagawa. and i forgot nara prefecture in the last count.
today i got up real early. 6 am something. not because i was eager to sniff the fresh morning air, but because the ascension of mt. fuji was supposed to take quite a while. as i wrote yersterday, the top of the mountain is still closed (unless you pring ice picks and spike boots etc.). it took a bit more than two hours to get to our starting point at about 2300 meters. it is the most popular starting point for tourists in summer, so there were hotels and restaurants and japan`s highest post office. the rain had startd by then, but only a little bit. we started walking and in the begining you could still see the surrounding valley. as we got higher and highr on the rocky path, the rain got heavier and everything became cloudy and foggy. we reached our goal, the seventh station (of ten) after about 2 hours. there weren`t too many people on the path, mainly due to the weather and the mountaintop being closed until next month, i suppose. so it was no woner that of the people who were there, a great number were foreigners. we met some guys from switzerland and a lot of chinese tourists. the japanese can afford to wait i guess. we could have gone one more station up the mountain, but aoki-san was pretty tired (well, he`s like 60) and i didn`t particularly mind because i was soaked by the rain. i guess we made a good 800 or 900m in height. the way down went faster, but by the end we could barely see farther than 10m ahead thanks to the fog. wisely we had brought spare clothes and enjoyed a dry ride home with a little detour to hakone, a nice village in the mountains. new prefectures: yamanashi and kanagawa. and i forgot nara prefecture in the last count.
Samstag, 23. Juni 2007
day 20 - chilling
23/06/07 17:59
back from a very relaxing day. there really didn`t happen too much. we left the house at 10 am to drive around the area and go to one of atami`s famous hot springs. the way there was really beautiful, going along the coast which really reminds me a lot of the mediterranean sea, italy or southern france (if it weren`t for all the kanji). the streets are very narrow and follow the cours of the mountains in serpentines and sometimes it amazed me that we weren`t involved in any crash. especially inside of the cities 2 cars cannot possibly pass each other and there`s no way to see who`s coming behind the next corner. those japanese manage somehow. first we drove to a spot with a nice sight of the sea. there were cliffs and you could climb up to the edge. the weather was very nice, too, which was a little unexpected after yersterday`s constant rain. we had soba for lunch and went to the hot spring. it was pretty much like the public bath i wrote about earlier, but with an outside terrace that was pretty much directly above the sea. the water was damn hot though. i went into a sauna for the first time in my life and wow, what the hell. i could barely breath in there and i cannot imagine why anybody would visit such a place. honestly, i thought i was going to get sick or collapse, it was exactly like i imagine breathing through a military gas mask to be like. we got back here and visited a few more spots with a nice view of the sea and the mountains on the way. tomorrow we`ll go climb the mt. fuji, japan`s highest mountain with about 3700m. the usual starting point is at 2000m, but we can`t go all the way to the top yet, because apparently the conditions are still pretty much arctic there and we lack the proper equipment. well, a reason to come back here once again.
back from a very relaxing day. there really didn`t happen too much. we left the house at 10 am to drive around the area and go to one of atami`s famous hot springs. the way there was really beautiful, going along the coast which really reminds me a lot of the mediterranean sea, italy or southern france (if it weren`t for all the kanji). the streets are very narrow and follow the cours of the mountains in serpentines and sometimes it amazed me that we weren`t involved in any crash. especially inside of the cities 2 cars cannot possibly pass each other and there`s no way to see who`s coming behind the next corner. those japanese manage somehow. first we drove to a spot with a nice sight of the sea. there were cliffs and you could climb up to the edge. the weather was very nice, too, which was a little unexpected after yersterday`s constant rain. we had soba for lunch and went to the hot spring. it was pretty much like the public bath i wrote about earlier, but with an outside terrace that was pretty much directly above the sea. the water was damn hot though. i went into a sauna for the first time in my life and wow, what the hell. i could barely breath in there and i cannot imagine why anybody would visit such a place. honestly, i thought i was going to get sick or collapse, it was exactly like i imagine breathing through a military gas mask to be like. we got back here and visited a few more spots with a nice view of the sea and the mountains on the way. tomorrow we`ll go climb the mt. fuji, japan`s highest mountain with about 3700m. the usual starting point is at 2000m, but we can`t go all the way to the top yet, because apparently the conditions are still pretty much arctic there and we lack the proper equipment. well, a reason to come back here once again.
day 19 - eastwards ho!
22/06/07 33:44 (alright, i forgot it)
yesterday.... i mean today *cough* i left kyoto and went to atami. it was a bit sad to go since i liked the family. they drove me to the kyoto main station where i boarded the shinkansen (fast train) bound for tokyo. it took 2 hours to get to atami. japanese trains btw. are always amazingly on time. at the station my next host aoki-san waited with his wife and a friend. we had lunch and drove a bit around the city. atami is a seaside resort with very famous `onsen` hot springs. it lies directly between the mountains and the sea and reminds me a little bit of monaco because of all the hotels. it`s not that dirty and ugly, hough. aoki-san`s house is above his company for air cooling systems and has a beautiful view of the ocean. in the evening some y`smen friends of his came over and we had a welcome dinner. they mentioned several times that they are the district with the most heavy drinkers and they surely intended to live up to their image.
yesterday.... i mean today *cough* i left kyoto and went to atami. it was a bit sad to go since i liked the family. they drove me to the kyoto main station where i boarded the shinkansen (fast train) bound for tokyo. it took 2 hours to get to atami. japanese trains btw. are always amazingly on time. at the station my next host aoki-san waited with his wife and a friend. we had lunch and drove a bit around the city. atami is a seaside resort with very famous `onsen` hot springs. it lies directly between the mountains and the sea and reminds me a little bit of monaco because of all the hotels. it`s not that dirty and ugly, hough. aoki-san`s house is above his company for air cooling systems and has a beautiful view of the ocean. in the evening some y`smen friends of his came over and we had a welcome dinner. they mentioned several times that they are the district with the most heavy drinkers and they surely intended to live up to their image.
Donnerstag, 21. Juni 2007
intermission - half time report
so, the first half is over. time for some summarizing. i don`t really know what i want to write yet, but yeah, summarizing is due. i think i have adapted to this lifestyle quite well. because i`m never logner at a family`s house than 4 or 5 days, i`m not really that much trouble for anyone. on the contrary, everybody seems to like to spoil the german visitor for a few days. which means that i am visiting an incredible amount of restaurants, i do lots of sightseeing and i get many presents. this is nice, but i suppose if i kept it up for 5 months rather than 5 weeks living like that could seriously damage one`s character. anyway, so far it`s been pretty awesome. getting along with the japanese is pretty easy, even if you don`t speak the language at all. if you can do it a little bit, like me, everyone is quite amazed by that. i think that however, overall i`m not talking very much during this time. formulating easy sentences takes time, so there are often passages where i`m quiet. for a japan trip i`d recommend to go with somebody who you can talk to, because it does get a little depressing once in a while. i suppose it is quite possible to get by on english skills alone, as every japanese knows at least a few words, and every train station etc. uses japanese and english signs. to know a little bit of the language can`t hurt, though, so here are the 20 words you shouldn`t visit japan without:
watashi = i (essential). you don`t need it in a basic sentence, though.
hai = yes.
no = `s. (watashi no = mine. nakamura-san no = nakamura-san`s)
wa = ....no real meaning here, you put it after the subject of the sentence.
ni = ....no meaning either, marks places and other stuff.
nihon/nippon = japan
doitsu = germany (when you`re not german, you obviously don`t need to know this.)
desu = to be. and other stuff. attaching it to the end of any sentence almost always works to make it more polite.
(ja)nai = not, is not, ...
amari = barely (combine it with janai: ~~~ amari nai = there barely isn`t ~~~)
suki = like (~~suki = i like~~. combination power: suki janai = i don`t like. amari suki janai = i don`t really like. it`s polite, and you`ll need it a lot.)
daijobu = okay, alright, i`m fine. (all-purpose word. can you eat that? daijobu. are you tired? daijobu. do you want more beer? daijobu.)
hito = person, people.
ooi = a lot, many. (doitsu no hito wa ooi desu = there are many germans)
kuruma = car. (conversation topic no 1. benz - doitsu no kuruma. amerika no kuruma amari suki janai. doitsu ni, nihon no kuruma wa ooi)
konnichiwa = hello.
arigato = thank you. say it in any situation and it might be fine.
sumimasen = excuse me, sorry, ... always say it, can`t be wrong.
gomen = i`m sorry. you don`t need to say this all that often.
sayonara = good bye.
well, i don`t know if this is enough, but if you know that much they`ll tell other japanese that you speak japanese perapera (very well).
other statistics so far: 11469 of 30000 yen spent, so i`m still good. i`ve been trying to save my money so that i won`t run out in the end. any leftovers shall be spent in tokyo.
i`m currently in the 6th japanese prefecture of my trip, out of 47 or so. i`ve got 22 business cards. i bought 15 manga so far. and 5 cds. i have to stop, because my baggage is as of know about 35 kg, which i will have to divide into my 20 kg main baggage and my 5 kg hand luggage. damn. i`ve taken about 700 photos and i am at my 6th host family, counting the one night i spent at the yanai`s house. i`ve eaten just about any japanese specialty there is and i`ve drunken about 7 liter beer. plus a few sips of japanese sake during the drinking games with the himeji guys. and a few more sips of the whiskey we had for the kartenpusten session. who ever heard of using whiskey for kartenpusten!?
ah, another interesting thing. the japanese`s image of germany:
germans are bigger and stronger than japanese. they can drink a lot of alcohol. in germany we drink beer instead of water (well, they meant that as a joke, but they are convinced that everyone drinks a lot of beer). they`re still shocked to hear that one can drink beer with 16 years (no alcohol before 20, here). they`re not sure if germans drink beer during their lunch break at university or work, but they could imagine it. germans eat sausages. all day long. apparently there`s nothing but sausages in germany. germany is bavaria. the most famous german cities are munchen, heidelberg and solingen. yeah right, solingen. the whole world knows about solingen`s famous knifes. except for the germans themselves. berlin, yeah, they know that too, the wall. dusseldorf (aka the city with the number one japanese population in germany)? nah, don`t know that place. in germany there is a river named rhine. everywhere along that river there are beautiful castles. like neustein ("neu-schwan-stein!" - "yeah, neustein"). germany is beautiful and clean. the most famous german is oliver kahn ("kaa~n"...."KHAAAAN"?). and beckenbauer. takahara plays at frankfurt.
that`s about it.
watashi = i (essential). you don`t need it in a basic sentence, though.
hai = yes.
no = `s. (watashi no = mine. nakamura-san no = nakamura-san`s)
wa = ....no real meaning here, you put it after the subject of the sentence.
ni = ....no meaning either, marks places and other stuff.
nihon/nippon = japan
doitsu = germany (when you`re not german, you obviously don`t need to know this.)
desu = to be. and other stuff. attaching it to the end of any sentence almost always works to make it more polite.
(ja)nai = not, is not, ...
amari = barely (combine it with janai: ~~~ amari nai = there barely isn`t ~~~)
suki = like (~~suki = i like~~. combination power: suki janai = i don`t like. amari suki janai = i don`t really like. it`s polite, and you`ll need it a lot.)
daijobu = okay, alright, i`m fine. (all-purpose word. can you eat that? daijobu. are you tired? daijobu. do you want more beer? daijobu.)
hito = person, people.
ooi = a lot, many. (doitsu no hito wa ooi desu = there are many germans)
kuruma = car. (conversation topic no 1. benz - doitsu no kuruma. amerika no kuruma amari suki janai. doitsu ni, nihon no kuruma wa ooi)
konnichiwa = hello.
arigato = thank you. say it in any situation and it might be fine.
sumimasen = excuse me, sorry, ... always say it, can`t be wrong.
gomen = i`m sorry. you don`t need to say this all that often.
sayonara = good bye.
well, i don`t know if this is enough, but if you know that much they`ll tell other japanese that you speak japanese perapera (very well).
other statistics so far: 11469 of 30000 yen spent, so i`m still good. i`ve been trying to save my money so that i won`t run out in the end. any leftovers shall be spent in tokyo.
i`m currently in the 6th japanese prefecture of my trip, out of 47 or so. i`ve got 22 business cards. i bought 15 manga so far. and 5 cds. i have to stop, because my baggage is as of know about 35 kg, which i will have to divide into my 20 kg main baggage and my 5 kg hand luggage. damn. i`ve taken about 700 photos and i am at my 6th host family, counting the one night i spent at the yanai`s house. i`ve eaten just about any japanese specialty there is and i`ve drunken about 7 liter beer. plus a few sips of japanese sake during the drinking games with the himeji guys. and a few more sips of the whiskey we had for the kartenpusten session. who ever heard of using whiskey for kartenpusten!?
ah, another interesting thing. the japanese`s image of germany:
germans are bigger and stronger than japanese. they can drink a lot of alcohol. in germany we drink beer instead of water (well, they meant that as a joke, but they are convinced that everyone drinks a lot of beer). they`re still shocked to hear that one can drink beer with 16 years (no alcohol before 20, here). they`re not sure if germans drink beer during their lunch break at university or work, but they could imagine it. germans eat sausages. all day long. apparently there`s nothing but sausages in germany. germany is bavaria. the most famous german cities are munchen, heidelberg and solingen. yeah right, solingen. the whole world knows about solingen`s famous knifes. except for the germans themselves. berlin, yeah, they know that too, the wall. dusseldorf (aka the city with the number one japanese population in germany)? nah, don`t know that place. in germany there is a river named rhine. everywhere along that river there are beautiful castles. like neustein ("neu-schwan-stein!" - "yeah, neustein"). germany is beautiful and clean. the most famous german is oliver kahn ("kaa~n"...."KHAAAAN"?). and beckenbauer. takahara plays at frankfurt.
that`s about it.
day 18 - 2 and a half down, 2 and a half to go
21/06/07 22:29
my last day in kyoto is over. the city is great and a definitive must-see on everyone`s japan trip. this at the same time concludes the first half of my journey. it`s hard to believe that i`ve already been here for 2 and a half weeks and that i`m approaching the day of my return now. but more on this in a special post. today there was more sightseeing. this is all i ever seem to do, but it -is- fun! first we (that`s me and the parents) met the yanagi husband and wife who were over for dinner on the day that i arrived here. we ate at an indian restaurant. today was another hot day, but thanks to the clouds it was not as unbearable as yestersay. we visited two museums, one on kyoto`s history and a traditional arts and crafts museum with impressive exhibits. then we walked to a traditional market, with all kinds of fish and vegetables for sale (a lot of stuff you`ll never see at a european fish market, too, i guess). on our way back we passed through a shopping mall and a small sign advertising a record store caught my eye: "AMERICAN HARDCORE! NYHC! EMO PUNK OI! POSTROCK SLUDGE DOOM! SECOND FLOOR". the shop was tiny and really well hidden, but it was awesome. for those who don`t know, i don`t listen to hardcore or punk, but a shop with postrock or sludge cds is really rare! and the selection was great. lots of bands i didn`t know, but also more famous stuff. prices at 1500 Y/cd (10 euros), normally you`d pay double. ended up buying cds from isis (not listened to yet), pelican (awesome) and jesu (awesome!). then we drove to the heianjinbu temple, a great and old temple with a nice park around it. for dinner th eldest son came over with his pregnant wife and we had pizza and sushi (strange combination). i`ll be sad to leave the family. 11469.
my last day in kyoto is over. the city is great and a definitive must-see on everyone`s japan trip. this at the same time concludes the first half of my journey. it`s hard to believe that i`ve already been here for 2 and a half weeks and that i`m approaching the day of my return now. but more on this in a special post. today there was more sightseeing. this is all i ever seem to do, but it -is- fun! first we (that`s me and the parents) met the yanagi husband and wife who were over for dinner on the day that i arrived here. we ate at an indian restaurant. today was another hot day, but thanks to the clouds it was not as unbearable as yestersay. we visited two museums, one on kyoto`s history and a traditional arts and crafts museum with impressive exhibits. then we walked to a traditional market, with all kinds of fish and vegetables for sale (a lot of stuff you`ll never see at a european fish market, too, i guess). on our way back we passed through a shopping mall and a small sign advertising a record store caught my eye: "AMERICAN HARDCORE! NYHC! EMO PUNK OI! POSTROCK SLUDGE DOOM! SECOND FLOOR". the shop was tiny and really well hidden, but it was awesome. for those who don`t know, i don`t listen to hardcore or punk, but a shop with postrock or sludge cds is really rare! and the selection was great. lots of bands i didn`t know, but also more famous stuff. prices at 1500 Y/cd (10 euros), normally you`d pay double. ended up buying cds from isis (not listened to yet), pelican (awesome) and jesu (awesome!). then we drove to the heianjinbu temple, a great and old temple with a nice park around it. for dinner th eldest son came over with his pregnant wife and we had pizza and sushi (strange combination). i`ll be sad to leave the family. 11469.
Mittwoch, 20. Juni 2007
day 17 - kiyomizu! yahoo!
20/06/07 21:10
today i returned to my favourite place in all of japan and it was awesome! but back to the beginning. today was my day with masayuki, the son of the family. he is a university student (i don`t know of what exactly) so he had to leave the house early. i went to his university around lunchtime. he had his break and came out to meet me and we went to some restaurant, but i had just eaten breakfast so i didn`t order much. after that we went into the university, where he had one more lesson. to my dismay we went pretty much up to the front row. i had thought that i could read a book during the lesson because i was sure i wouldn`t understand a word. well, the topic of the lesson seemed to be german literature, schiller`s wilhelm tell. the teacher came in and it appeared that the lesson was not going to be about schiller so much, rather it was a lesson about war. strange. anyway, he saw me of course but he also seemed to know that i was present. as a german literature (and other topics) professor he spoke some german himself, so i had my first chance at a german conversation for a while. he had all students shout "willkommen, patrick" (welcome) and after that from time to time he summarized in german what he was talking about to the students. he even wrote some german summaries on the blackboard, cool huh. the lesson itself was pretty unorthodox, too. he`d jump from discussing a picture of japanese soldiers during ww2 to a scene from the anime gundam to playing a live performance of bruce springsteen and analyzing the lyrics of that. at the end everyone had to write down his thoughts of the lesson. then masayuki and me went to the kiyomizu temple. 2 years ago we went there on our oneday trip to kyoto and i really loved the place. my camera batteries were dead by that time and i ende3d up not having any photos of the place that i liked the most. plus the weather was kinda bad, but it didn`t bother me all that much. this time the weather was not bad at all. in fact today was the warmest day since i got here, i think, and it has been pretty hot all the time. at times it was almost unbearable, especially since we had to walk about 2km from the university, steadily uphill since the temple is about 150 meters above the city with a particularly nice view. the temple itself was awesome, even though there were many tourists. i made sure to take a lot of pictures. after that, we went to some shops as i had asked. i bought another book from murakami (surprise surprise, but the choice of english books is extremely limited in this country), a cd by king crimson (the debut) and another few used hikaru no go mangas. awesome! (money will be updated later, don`t have the price tag here)
today i returned to my favourite place in all of japan and it was awesome! but back to the beginning. today was my day with masayuki, the son of the family. he is a university student (i don`t know of what exactly) so he had to leave the house early. i went to his university around lunchtime. he had his break and came out to meet me and we went to some restaurant, but i had just eaten breakfast so i didn`t order much. after that we went into the university, where he had one more lesson. to my dismay we went pretty much up to the front row. i had thought that i could read a book during the lesson because i was sure i wouldn`t understand a word. well, the topic of the lesson seemed to be german literature, schiller`s wilhelm tell. the teacher came in and it appeared that the lesson was not going to be about schiller so much, rather it was a lesson about war. strange. anyway, he saw me of course but he also seemed to know that i was present. as a german literature (and other topics) professor he spoke some german himself, so i had my first chance at a german conversation for a while. he had all students shout "willkommen, patrick" (welcome) and after that from time to time he summarized in german what he was talking about to the students. he even wrote some german summaries on the blackboard, cool huh. the lesson itself was pretty unorthodox, too. he`d jump from discussing a picture of japanese soldiers during ww2 to a scene from the anime gundam to playing a live performance of bruce springsteen and analyzing the lyrics of that. at the end everyone had to write down his thoughts of the lesson. then masayuki and me went to the kiyomizu temple. 2 years ago we went there on our oneday trip to kyoto and i really loved the place. my camera batteries were dead by that time and i ende3d up not having any photos of the place that i liked the most. plus the weather was kinda bad, but it didn`t bother me all that much. this time the weather was not bad at all. in fact today was the warmest day since i got here, i think, and it has been pretty hot all the time. at times it was almost unbearable, especially since we had to walk about 2km from the university, steadily uphill since the temple is about 150 meters above the city with a particularly nice view. the temple itself was awesome, even though there were many tourists. i made sure to take a lot of pictures. after that, we went to some shops as i had asked. i bought another book from murakami (surprise surprise, but the choice of english books is extremely limited in this country), a cd by king crimson (the debut) and another few used hikaru no go mangas. awesome! (money will be updated later, don`t have the price tag here)
day 16 - kyoutokankou
19/06/07 23:44
i somehow don`t really feel like writing right now, couldn`t say why. the day was nice enough. i spent the morning with the daughter of the family who works at a mobile phone store. we went to some places in kyoto. first was the sanjuusangendou, a big temple with a long hall. inside this hall there were 1000 golden buddhist statues (about as big as a man each). quite impressive, this army. then we went to the kyoto tower. it`s about 100m high and directly opposite the kyoto main station where i was 2 years ago. can`t imagine how i could`ve not seen this tower then. anyway, from up there you had quite the view of the city. too bad that it was clouded throughout the day. we had lunch at an italian restaurant. in the afternoon i went to the byodoin temple with the mother. it was in restauration right now so we couldn`t enter, but some of the statues and ornaments were exhibited in a museum. the rest of the day i was here at the house.
i somehow don`t really feel like writing right now, couldn`t say why. the day was nice enough. i spent the morning with the daughter of the family who works at a mobile phone store. we went to some places in kyoto. first was the sanjuusangendou, a big temple with a long hall. inside this hall there were 1000 golden buddhist statues (about as big as a man each). quite impressive, this army. then we went to the kyoto tower. it`s about 100m high and directly opposite the kyoto main station where i was 2 years ago. can`t imagine how i could`ve not seen this tower then. anyway, from up there you had quite the view of the city. too bad that it was clouded throughout the day. we had lunch at an italian restaurant. in the afternoon i went to the byodoin temple with the mother. it was in restauration right now so we couldn`t enter, but some of the statues and ornaments were exhibited in a museum. the rest of the day i was here at the house.
Montag, 18. Juni 2007
day 15 - castles without end
18/06/07 19:17
another online exclusive since i`m sitting in front of the pc right now anyway. today ootsuki-san took me to hikone, a city with about 100000 people in the shiga-prefecture (i`m collecting prefectures, which are like the german bundeslaender. well maybe more like the german regierungsbezirke. so far i`ve been in osaka, kyoto, shiga, hyogo and nother one). which btw. reminds me to tell you how stupid the japanese number system is. they`ve got it pretty normal till 9999, same way we do it here. but after that they have another step which destroys all that follows up. where we say "ten thousand" they say "ichi man" (aka one tenthousand). 100000 is "juu man" (ten tenthousand). a million is hundred tenthousand, ten million are thousand tenthousand and at 100 million they finally have their next step, "ichi oku". now try telling them that there are 80 million people in germany. sucks. anyway, back to hikone. it`s apparently an old city and it has a wellknown castle, which we visited. if you`ve been keeping count, my fourth castle so far. not bad at all. the castle was nice and what stood out were the stairs. cause they went up at an angle of about 80 degrees i`d say. good for keeping off invading enemies, bad for everyday life. and tourists. before we went there we had lunch in a restaurant. and what i forgot: ootsuki-sans car. a mercedes slk, two seats. very impressive, probably very expensive, but the first thing he says "sorry for the small car, but since the kids moved out we don`t need much space anymore". yeaaahh. typically japanese, though. the rainy season started kicking in today, but we were spared the worst. on the way back we passed the biwako lake, the biggest one in japan, and we drove a bit around kyoto, looking at some temples. then we got back, first to his company and then here. the company makes the electronic paying systems that are used at every golf course in japan. there are many golf courses in japan. one thing that i might mention is the dog of the family. it`s a small chihuahua or however that is spelled, full of energy and always running around. and it looks like its tongue is too long for its mouth, because it`s always hanging out at one corner of the mouth, making him look really weird and stupid and funny in some way. i`ll be sure to take a picture because it`s just hilarious. (woo, caught up!!)
another online exclusive since i`m sitting in front of the pc right now anyway. today ootsuki-san took me to hikone, a city with about 100000 people in the shiga-prefecture (i`m collecting prefectures, which are like the german bundeslaender. well maybe more like the german regierungsbezirke. so far i`ve been in osaka, kyoto, shiga, hyogo and nother one). which btw. reminds me to tell you how stupid the japanese number system is. they`ve got it pretty normal till 9999, same way we do it here. but after that they have another step which destroys all that follows up. where we say "ten thousand" they say "ichi man" (aka one tenthousand). 100000 is "juu man" (ten tenthousand). a million is hundred tenthousand, ten million are thousand tenthousand and at 100 million they finally have their next step, "ichi oku". now try telling them that there are 80 million people in germany. sucks. anyway, back to hikone. it`s apparently an old city and it has a wellknown castle, which we visited. if you`ve been keeping count, my fourth castle so far. not bad at all. the castle was nice and what stood out were the stairs. cause they went up at an angle of about 80 degrees i`d say. good for keeping off invading enemies, bad for everyday life. and tourists. before we went there we had lunch in a restaurant. and what i forgot: ootsuki-sans car. a mercedes slk, two seats. very impressive, probably very expensive, but the first thing he says "sorry for the small car, but since the kids moved out we don`t need much space anymore". yeaaahh. typically japanese, though. the rainy season started kicking in today, but we were spared the worst. on the way back we passed the biwako lake, the biggest one in japan, and we drove a bit around kyoto, looking at some temples. then we got back, first to his company and then here. the company makes the electronic paying systems that are used at every golf course in japan. there are many golf courses in japan. one thing that i might mention is the dog of the family. it`s a small chihuahua or however that is spelled, full of energy and always running around. and it looks like its tongue is too long for its mouth, because it`s always hanging out at one corner of the mouth, making him look really weird and stupid and funny in some way. i`ll be sure to take a picture because it`s just hilarious. (woo, caught up!!)
day 14 - moving around
17/06/07 23:50
parabola blasting on the ipod, air conditioning making the room pleasently cold, a real bed - i already love kyoto. but back to the beginning. i spent most of the morning packing since i went to the trouble of repacking my entire suitcase which turned into one big mess by now. that was worrth the effort and for now everythings very properly arranged. i went with tetsuro to a kaitenzushi place for lunch (you know, where the dishes revolve around you and you pick them off the... thing. fliessband.) after that his wife and me went hiking for a bit. the mountains (or something that passes for such) were actually quite close to the house, with a nice forest that seemed familiar but somehow strange (i guess because they have other plants here?). our goal was a huge suspension bridge across a valley (think indiana jones and the temple of doom with a little more safety and without KALIMAAAAA-). i don`t know, 200, 300 meters long? really great, i hope the pictures will turn out fine. then we drove here to kyoto. we had dinner (as usual a real feast) and i got to know the family: ootsuki-san, his wife, his mother, the son masayuki, two friends of the family. their dinner table has a neat trick: it looks like one of those t5ables where you have to sit crosslegged (or more properly: on your knees), but the floor below it has been lowered so that you can actually sit quite normally. i finished murakami`s "kafka on the shore". 600 pages in 2 days, i really have too much time on my hands. well, we were driving around quite alot.
parabola blasting on the ipod, air conditioning making the room pleasently cold, a real bed - i already love kyoto. but back to the beginning. i spent most of the morning packing since i went to the trouble of repacking my entire suitcase which turned into one big mess by now. that was worrth the effort and for now everythings very properly arranged. i went with tetsuro to a kaitenzushi place for lunch (you know, where the dishes revolve around you and you pick them off the... thing. fliessband.) after that his wife and me went hiking for a bit. the mountains (or something that passes for such) were actually quite close to the house, with a nice forest that seemed familiar but somehow strange (i guess because they have other plants here?). our goal was a huge suspension bridge across a valley (think indiana jones and the temple of doom with a little more safety and without KALIMAAAAA-). i don`t know, 200, 300 meters long? really great, i hope the pictures will turn out fine. then we drove here to kyoto. we had dinner (as usual a real feast) and i got to know the family: ootsuki-san, his wife, his mother, the son masayuki, two friends of the family. their dinner table has a neat trick: it looks like one of those t5ables where you have to sit crosslegged (or more properly: on your knees), but the floor below it has been lowered so that you can actually sit quite normally. i finished murakami`s "kafka on the shore". 600 pages in 2 days, i really have too much time on my hands. well, we were driving around quite alot.
day 13 - ninjutsu!!
16/06/07 23:14
today was fun. takuya went to work so he wasn`t here, but both of the parents were. because the weather was good (really, too good for the rainy season since i got here), we drove to igaueno, the site of an old and famous ninja village. the ride was two hours and i read a lot (gonna need another book before long). the village was a bit in the mountains, but that`s normal. all of japan is basically full of mountains. where there aren`t any, the people built huge cities and urban areas. so the landscape was nice and it really made me want to go hiking (soon, soon). the village itself was fun, too. there was another castle (though a small one) and an old ninja house where the staff demonstrated all the hidden doors and staircases. that was cool (and now i want to buy lots of naruto manga). back here we went to the mother of mrs. sakamoto where we had a great dinner, and we watched tv. i couldn`t really follow the program, some kind of comedy show, but as usual it was all very flashy and colourful (anyone remember the tv-show on "lost in translation"? it really is that way). tomorrow i`ll move to kyoto--
today was fun. takuya went to work so he wasn`t here, but both of the parents were. because the weather was good (really, too good for the rainy season since i got here), we drove to igaueno, the site of an old and famous ninja village. the ride was two hours and i read a lot (gonna need another book before long). the village was a bit in the mountains, but that`s normal. all of japan is basically full of mountains. where there aren`t any, the people built huge cities and urban areas. so the landscape was nice and it really made me want to go hiking (soon, soon). the village itself was fun, too. there was another castle (though a small one) and an old ninja house where the staff demonstrated all the hidden doors and staircases. that was cool (and now i want to buy lots of naruto manga). back here we went to the mother of mrs. sakamoto where we had a great dinner, and we watched tv. i couldn`t really follow the program, some kind of comedy show, but as usual it was all very flashy and colourful (anyone remember the tv-show on "lost in translation"? it really is that way). tomorrow i`ll move to kyoto--
day 12 - shopping
15/06/07 24:10
i didn`t write another entry yersterday because there wasn`t much to say. we bought some stuff for dinner and ate, i met the son and the father who are both nice and we talked a little about all kinds of things. went to bed early. today was more interesting. i slept till 10 or so and had breakfast. afterwards, me and takuya (the son) left and drove to some guy`s house. he3 doesn`t live 5 minutes from the city, but it really looked like some hermit`s house. there were all kjinds of cages with turtles and ducks and his basement was full of pottery goods and tools (which is his job i guess). anyway, we didn`t exactly do anything there and we left to go visit some shrine (reminder: temple = buddhist, shrine = shinto). the shrine was on a small mountain so we climbed a lot of stairs/ was fun to see a bit of nature, though. after that we got back here and played a little badminton game in front of the house. for lunch we went to a ramen place. the meal was fantastic but too much, hehe. from there we went to some bookstores, where i bought another (english) murakami novel and some used hikaru no go manga. those i can actuallｙ more or less read! in the evening we went downtown to meet the parents. they took us to some small restaurants in a maze of tiny alleys, but to get there we had to go through the longest shopping mall in the world or japan or whatever (seriously, that`s what they told me, i`m not making this shit up) and it really was, i don`t know, a good kilometer long. maybe more, we didn`t walk it in its entirety. the first restaurant (we only had small dishes) served japanese food, the second one was korean and had specialties such as raw beef liver. it tasted strange. anyway, after they`ve finished their work, japanese businessmen don`t go home, they go to such places with their colleagues to drink (it`s true, some kids almost never see their fathers i suppose) and the father knew the owners of the places pretty well. now i`m here, reading (9726)
i didn`t write another entry yersterday because there wasn`t much to say. we bought some stuff for dinner and ate, i met the son and the father who are both nice and we talked a little about all kinds of things. went to bed early. today was more interesting. i slept till 10 or so and had breakfast. afterwards, me and takuya (the son) left and drove to some guy`s house. he3 doesn`t live 5 minutes from the city, but it really looked like some hermit`s house. there were all kjinds of cages with turtles and ducks and his basement was full of pottery goods and tools (which is his job i guess). anyway, we didn`t exactly do anything there and we left to go visit some shrine (reminder: temple = buddhist, shrine = shinto). the shrine was on a small mountain so we climbed a lot of stairs/ was fun to see a bit of nature, though. after that we got back here and played a little badminton game in front of the house. for lunch we went to a ramen place. the meal was fantastic but too much, hehe. from there we went to some bookstores, where i bought another (english) murakami novel and some used hikaru no go manga. those i can actuallｙ more or less read! in the evening we went downtown to meet the parents. they took us to some small restaurants in a maze of tiny alleys, but to get there we had to go through the longest shopping mall in the world or japan or whatever (seriously, that`s what they told me, i`m not making this shit up) and it really was, i don`t know, a good kilometer long. maybe more, we didn`t walk it in its entirety. the first restaurant (we only had small dishes) served japanese food, the second one was korean and had specialties such as raw beef liver. it tasted strange. anyway, after they`ve finished their work, japanese businessmen don`t go home, they go to such places with their colleagues to drink (it`s true, some kids almost never see their fathers i suppose) and the father knew the owners of the places pretty well. now i`m here, reading (9726)
day 11 - a whole load of nothing
14/06/07 15:05
i have reached the next station on my trip. this time it took me back to osaka, to a family named sakamoto. mami accompanied me here this morning, after had packed my stuff. so far i have only met the mother and the grandparents. father and son are still at large. she seems nice enough, though. the house is alright, i`m in the son`s learning room or something. because there really hasnt happened much, i`ll share some oddities with you. the cars for example. i`ve seen and been in a lot of them now. i`d cut my initial estimate of 90% white cars down to 50% with anothert 20% of light gray and beige cars. still, while they have all the same japanese companies we have, subaru, toyota, mitsubishi, mazda (matsuda really), ... the models are not the same at all. the first tendency of japanese cars is that they look bulky or whatever the word is. they`re not round and smooth and stylish like modern cars in europe (japanese fabricates included!). they`re like boxes. 90 degree angles everywhere. and they have more bigger suv-like cars than we have. those are bit rounder sometimes but still strange. and basically egvery car is an automatic. seriously, i`d say i was in 15 different cars now and all were automatics.
i have reached the next station on my trip. this time it took me back to osaka, to a family named sakamoto. mami accompanied me here this morning, after had packed my stuff. so far i have only met the mother and the grandparents. father and son are still at large. she seems nice enough, though. the house is alright, i`m in the son`s learning room or something. because there really hasnt happened much, i`ll share some oddities with you. the cars for example. i`ve seen and been in a lot of them now. i`d cut my initial estimate of 90% white cars down to 50% with anothert 20% of light gray and beige cars. still, while they have all the same japanese companies we have, subaru, toyota, mitsubishi, mazda (matsuda really), ... the models are not the same at all. the first tendency of japanese cars is that they look bulky or whatever the word is. they`re not round and smooth and stylish like modern cars in europe (japanese fabricates included!). they`re like boxes. 90 degree angles everywhere. and they have more bigger suv-like cars than we have. those are bit rounder sometimes but still strange. and basically egvery car is an automatic. seriously, i`d say i was in 15 different cars now and all were automatics.
day 10 - walking in tom`s footsteps
13/06/07 late...
i`m really tired so i won`t go into details too much. today, me and mami and risa and a friend of hers went to shoshazan. that`s a mountain here in himeji with a tempole complex (engyouji) on top of it. first we visited and art and craft museum at the foot of the mountain. afterwards we went to the top using the ropeway, which is basically a cabin lift like they have in the alps. the mountaintop was really beautiful and you had to walk a bit to get to the truly impressive temple buildings. a few scenes from the last samurai were apparently shot up there and it really made a great location. we3 went back to own, had a coffee and later dinner at home. i wrote some emails to my family and spent the next hours finishing haruki murakami`s "dance dance dance", which was truly terrific, although as usual quite confusingand mysterious, and left me wanting more. i do recommend the book, but as it is more or less a sequel to "a wild sheep chase", one should read that book first. good night. (8345)
i`m really tired so i won`t go into details too much. today, me and mami and risa and a friend of hers went to shoshazan. that`s a mountain here in himeji with a tempole complex (engyouji) on top of it. first we visited and art and craft museum at the foot of the mountain. afterwards we went to the top using the ropeway, which is basically a cabin lift like they have in the alps. the mountaintop was really beautiful and you had to walk a bit to get to the truly impressive temple buildings. a few scenes from the last samurai were apparently shot up there and it really made a great location. we3 went back to own, had a coffee and later dinner at home. i wrote some emails to my family and spent the next hours finishing haruki murakami`s "dance dance dance", which was truly terrific, although as usual quite confusingand mysterious, and left me wanting more. i do recommend the book, but as it is more or less a sequel to "a wild sheep chase", one should read that book first. good night. (8345)
day 9 - bathing in public
12/06/07 24:25
today was a pretty short day i noticed just now. i stood up at noon (they are just too polite to wake me up at 9 or 10 am), had breakfast and got changed. i left with mami, starting the same way we did yesterday, setting off for the hyogo prefectural history museum. we rented bikes for the way (which immediately reminded me of all the awesome bike riding two years ago). the museum itself was okay, some nice exhibits, old japanese toys and model castles. the coolest thing was that i could wear a full 30-something kg samurai armor. how anyone could fight in such a thing i do not know, but i imagine a european middle age plate armor was still quite a bit heavier.afterwards we went to a freind of hers and had lunch. me and a bunch of pretty japanese girls, really not the kind of people i`d hang around with back in germany. i couldnt quite follow their conversation, though. we originally wanted to go to some karaoke place first, but it was already too late (yokatta!), so we went directly to the public bath where we wanted to go. it was closed though, so we had to drive 30 minutes to go to another one. japanese public baths are something different. everyuone`s naked, first. so they are gender divided, which left me pretty much on my own.apart from the 50 japanese guys who were still there at 10 pm. once you enter (you only take a towel to hide your privates) you wash. then you may enter the actual bathing area. it`s not a pool, just many different kinds of whirlpools and small baths where you can relax. it was definitely a memorable experience and i do feel quite relaxed. 7885 Y.
today was a pretty short day i noticed just now. i stood up at noon (they are just too polite to wake me up at 9 or 10 am), had breakfast and got changed. i left with mami, starting the same way we did yesterday, setting off for the hyogo prefectural history museum. we rented bikes for the way (which immediately reminded me of all the awesome bike riding two years ago). the museum itself was okay, some nice exhibits, old japanese toys and model castles. the coolest thing was that i could wear a full 30-something kg samurai armor. how anyone could fight in such a thing i do not know, but i imagine a european middle age plate armor was still quite a bit heavier.afterwards we went to a freind of hers and had lunch. me and a bunch of pretty japanese girls, really not the kind of people i`d hang around with back in germany. i couldnt quite follow their conversation, though. we originally wanted to go to some karaoke place first, but it was already too late (yokatta!), so we went directly to the public bath where we wanted to go. it was closed though, so we had to drive 30 minutes to go to another one. japanese public baths are something different. everyuone`s naked, first. so they are gender divided, which left me pretty much on my own.apart from the 50 japanese guys who were still there at 10 pm. once you enter (you only take a towel to hide your privates) you wash. then you may enter the actual bathing area. it`s not a pool, just many different kinds of whirlpools and small baths where you can relax. it was definitely a memorable experience and i do feel quite relaxed. 7885 Y.
Mittwoch, 13. Juni 2007
intermission - the video
please spread this link to those who know the game:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kG7xZpiNC3w
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kG7xZpiNC3w
Montag, 11. Juni 2007
intermission - photos
me and the osaka kawachi y`smen club
visiting nara`s temples
japanese children at osaka castle
nori ga hoshii desu ka?
bring on tha gurlzz
kartenpusten!
day 8 - back in sobriety
11/06/07 12.17
the other guys are gone and now i`m alone here with the host family (or what`s left of it, almost everyone seems to have gone to work). mami and me are going to go somewhere now, but apparently there`s not much sightseeing to be done here. i`ve got some time left, so i`ll just fill you in on some strange observations; first of all, married people always call eah other tou-san (father) and kaa-san (mother). and every japanese is a pro at scissors paper stone (janken). really, they are amazing! if there are 8 people doing it they don`t need half a second to see who`s lost and who`s still in the game. and everybody thinks that heineken is german beer. japanese white bread comes in pretty big slices (but only 5 slices to a package). and most sweets are strange. smoked cheese. chili octopus chips (quite good actually). that kind of stuff. anyway, i`m amazed at how easy it is to live without having any idea what you`ll be doing or where you`ll be the next day (or in some cases even in the next 30 minutes).
21:18
i`m back and in front of the pc. i think i have enough time to write the blog right now, but i want the written and the online version to be identical. there seem to be about 6 million cicadas outside right now, it`s really LOUD. and forget what i just wrote, all that comes now is online exclusive, woo. today, as i wrote above, i went out with mami (aka sandra). when we set off, we wanted to go to the historical museum of himeji, but that`s closed on mondays. so we went to the himeji castle, which is upposedly the prettiest castle in japan. and now that i`ve been there i can believe that, because it really was great. the weather was nice (but as always a little bit too hot) and there were many tourists about, among them a high school student group from alaska (a japanese class). anyway, the castle has nice surroundings, a beautiful park and everything, and looks like it made a great defense position in these old times. to enter, you had to first cross a bridge over water. form then on, you went uphill, in rings around the castle. there were several heavy gates on the way and lots of firing holes in the walls. there were also many hidden doors for soldiers. the inside of the castle was original, not like osaka castle, and there were several exhibits of weapons and armors from that period. you had to climb a lot of steep stairs to get up to the top of the castle (seventh floor). inside, as it is customary in japan, you could not wear shoes. they did offer slippers, anyway, but they barely fit my shoe size (which isn`t very big for a european). there was definitely no way for a person in a wheelchair to get anywhere near the top of the castle. afterwards we went to the park and then to the city, where i went into a record store. the prices are higher than in germany, but they had a pretty good selection. i bought the new 65daysofstatic album to which i am listening right now. we had takoyaki on the way and went back here to have dinner. that was it pretty much for today. anyway, i`ve had a lot of different japanese specialties so far, let`s count `em: tempura, temakizushi, okonomiyaki, takoyaki, standard sushi. okay, maybe it was only 5 so far, heh. anyway, 16 cards and 7615 Yen.
the other guys are gone and now i`m alone here with the host family (or what`s left of it, almost everyone seems to have gone to work). mami and me are going to go somewhere now, but apparently there`s not much sightseeing to be done here. i`ve got some time left, so i`ll just fill you in on some strange observations; first of all, married people always call eah other tou-san (father) and kaa-san (mother). and every japanese is a pro at scissors paper stone (janken). really, they are amazing! if there are 8 people doing it they don`t need half a second to see who`s lost and who`s still in the game. and everybody thinks that heineken is german beer. japanese white bread comes in pretty big slices (but only 5 slices to a package). and most sweets are strange. smoked cheese. chili octopus chips (quite good actually). that kind of stuff. anyway, i`m amazed at how easy it is to live without having any idea what you`ll be doing or where you`ll be the next day (or in some cases even in the next 30 minutes).
21:18
i`m back and in front of the pc. i think i have enough time to write the blog right now, but i want the written and the online version to be identical. there seem to be about 6 million cicadas outside right now, it`s really LOUD. and forget what i just wrote, all that comes now is online exclusive, woo. today, as i wrote above, i went out with mami (aka sandra). when we set off, we wanted to go to the historical museum of himeji, but that`s closed on mondays. so we went to the himeji castle, which is upposedly the prettiest castle in japan. and now that i`ve been there i can believe that, because it really was great. the weather was nice (but as always a little bit too hot) and there were many tourists about, among them a high school student group from alaska (a japanese class). anyway, the castle has nice surroundings, a beautiful park and everything, and looks like it made a great defense position in these old times. to enter, you had to first cross a bridge over water. form then on, you went uphill, in rings around the castle. there were several heavy gates on the way and lots of firing holes in the walls. there were also many hidden doors for soldiers. the inside of the castle was original, not like osaka castle, and there were several exhibits of weapons and armors from that period. you had to climb a lot of steep stairs to get up to the top of the castle (seventh floor). inside, as it is customary in japan, you could not wear shoes. they did offer slippers, anyway, but they barely fit my shoe size (which isn`t very big for a european). there was definitely no way for a person in a wheelchair to get anywhere near the top of the castle. afterwards we went to the park and then to the city, where i went into a record store. the prices are higher than in germany, but they had a pretty good selection. i bought the new 65daysofstatic album to which i am listening right now. we had takoyaki on the way and went back here to have dinner. that was it pretty much for today. anyway, i`ve had a lot of different japanese specialties so far, let`s count `em: tempura, temakizushi, okonomiyaki, takoyaki, standard sushi. okay, maybe it was only 5 so far, heh. anyway, 16 cards and 7615 Yen.
day 7 - more un-information
10/06/07 ~24:00
well, once more no time. i`ll just summarize what happened in the last two days. yesterday, still in the nice hotel, when i got up i noticed that i had only one breakfast voucher. at breakfast i asked kitamura-san about this and she told me that i`d spend the night in a youth hostel with the youth members from himeji, so i packed. after that the y`smen west japan regional convention. 800 people. i helped with the reception first, after that the conference. i didn`t understand a word, so it was mostly boring. then i had to get up to the stage because... well i don`t know why. i smiled and i bowed and that was that. afterwards we went to the hostel. carrying the bag sucked. we were 6 guys to a room and played black jack and poker. the loser had to dink. today, same deal: first boring japanese stuff that i didn`t get, afterwards travel to my host family, now only 4 guys left, in himeji. then cards and drinking. i think i made history today by teaching them the infamous "Kartenpusten" (card blowing). they seemed to like the word and the game and now it`s prolly gonna spread all over the world - a bad day for humanity? _Business cards* 15, money spent* 4990 yen.
well, once more no time. i`ll just summarize what happened in the last two days. yesterday, still in the nice hotel, when i got up i noticed that i had only one breakfast voucher. at breakfast i asked kitamura-san about this and she told me that i`d spend the night in a youth hostel with the youth members from himeji, so i packed. after that the y`smen west japan regional convention. 800 people. i helped with the reception first, after that the conference. i didn`t understand a word, so it was mostly boring. then i had to get up to the stage because... well i don`t know why. i smiled and i bowed and that was that. afterwards we went to the hostel. carrying the bag sucked. we were 6 guys to a room and played black jack and poker. the loser had to dink. today, same deal: first boring japanese stuff that i didn`t get, afterwards travel to my host family, now only 4 guys left, in himeji. then cards and drinking. i think i made history today by teaching them the infamous "Kartenpusten" (card blowing). they seemed to like the word and the game and now it`s prolly gonna spread all over the world - a bad day for humanity? _Business cards* 15, money spent* 4990 yen.
day 6 - keeping the journal out of the journal
09/06/07 ca. 23:50 (i`ve got no clock here and who cares)
if i had had the possibility to write other entries before this one today i would`ve started it with: I FUCKIN` KNEW! I FUCKIN` CALLED IT! i started with it anyway, but who fucking cares (welcome to the r-rated section of this journal, btw.) while this is a bit unchronological (or as it turned out completely achronological) my statement referred to the younger hashizaki-girl, about 24 years old. she is obviously a japanese, but when she accompanied me this morning to check out of the hotel (that`s right, i had to check out) she spoke one english sentence to me and i just knew that she was no ordinary japanese girl. her pronunciation was too good. her vocabulary (even if it was just one sentence) was too good. plus she looks 100% like american actress sandra oh (gotta ask her if people ever tell her that) and the way she talks and laughs and everything just screams AMERICAN! and this evening i got the confirmation - she`s studying at an university in alabama and is just here for her holidays. anyway, more details about what happened today, tomorrow. (or not, i guess) it`s late, and blah blah blah. i`ve got new business cards, gonna count `em tomorrow.
if i had had the possibility to write other entries before this one today i would`ve started it with: I FUCKIN` KNEW! I FUCKIN` CALLED IT! i started with it anyway, but who fucking cares (welcome to the r-rated section of this journal, btw.) while this is a bit unchronological (or as it turned out completely achronological) my statement referred to the younger hashizaki-girl, about 24 years old. she is obviously a japanese, but when she accompanied me this morning to check out of the hotel (that`s right, i had to check out) she spoke one english sentence to me and i just knew that she was no ordinary japanese girl. her pronunciation was too good. her vocabulary (even if it was just one sentence) was too good. plus she looks 100% like american actress sandra oh (gotta ask her if people ever tell her that) and the way she talks and laughs and everything just screams AMERICAN! and this evening i got the confirmation - she`s studying at an university in alabama and is just here for her holidays. anyway, more details about what happened today, tomorrow. (or not, i guess) it`s late, and blah blah blah. i`ve got new business cards, gonna count `em tomorrow.
day 5 - to the castle!
08/06/07 17:02
as i wrote yesterday i have now moved into the new otani hotel. it is in fact a real nice hotel and i suppose not a very cheap one. tis morning i packed my stuff an mochizuki showed me around his company (i still have now idea what kind of company it actually is) and then we drove here. the streets were crowded, so it took us a while. this hotel is immediately next to the beautiful osaka castle and its huge park. btw., the castle was destroyed in a fire (if i understood correctly) and was later rebuilt. the inside of the castle is now a museum and does not look like a castle at all. afterwards there was a (and still is) y`smen leader meeting. they started with listening to the hymn and it was all very formal and serious. i didn`t understand a word, but luckily i didn`t have to stay and i checked in at the hotel. tonight there`s some kind of party, i understand. i`ll write some postcards now and hang my clothes into the cupboards.
22:40
so, the party turned out to be some kind of a dinner event. good thing that i wore my suit (mais sans cravatte). there was a lot of food, most of it quite tasty, a lot of beer too, but it`s my impression that i can drink a good deal more than your average japanese. at least some of them seemed pretty drunk when the evening was over. i talked to many people (there were about 100 id say) and i had to introduce myself in front of the crowd. during the meal there was a show by two magicians which was quite nice. noticeable is the japanese habit of walking up to foreigners to use their english (even though everyone will tell you that they cannot speak english at all). when i went to the castle, several children came up to me, saying something in english (taking me for an american, most likely) and seemed pretty shocked to hear me responding in japanese, haha. business cards: 13. money: 3890
and, what`s weird: i was supposed to be in kyoto from june 14-21 but now it looks like i`ll stay at another house first. i hope i`ll get more details soon.
as i wrote yesterday i have now moved into the new otani hotel. it is in fact a real nice hotel and i suppose not a very cheap one. tis morning i packed my stuff an mochizuki showed me around his company (i still have now idea what kind of company it actually is) and then we drove here. the streets were crowded, so it took us a while. this hotel is immediately next to the beautiful osaka castle and its huge park. btw., the castle was destroyed in a fire (if i understood correctly) and was later rebuilt. the inside of the castle is now a museum and does not look like a castle at all. afterwards there was a (and still is) y`smen leader meeting. they started with listening to the hymn and it was all very formal and serious. i didn`t understand a word, but luckily i didn`t have to stay and i checked in at the hotel. tonight there`s some kind of party, i understand. i`ll write some postcards now and hang my clothes into the cupboards.
22:40
so, the party turned out to be some kind of a dinner event. good thing that i wore my suit (mais sans cravatte). there was a lot of food, most of it quite tasty, a lot of beer too, but it`s my impression that i can drink a good deal more than your average japanese. at least some of them seemed pretty drunk when the evening was over. i talked to many people (there were about 100 id say) and i had to introduce myself in front of the crowd. during the meal there was a show by two magicians which was quite nice. noticeable is the japanese habit of walking up to foreigners to use their english (even though everyone will tell you that they cannot speak english at all). when i went to the castle, several children came up to me, saying something in english (taking me for an american, most likely) and seemed pretty shocked to hear me responding in japanese, haha. business cards: 13. money: 3890
and, what`s weird: i was supposed to be in kyoto from june 14-21 but now it looks like i`ll stay at another house first. i hope i`ll get more details soon.
day 4 (continued) - to the zoo!
07/06/07 9.32
i`ll have to keep these entries shorter, transcribing that was a bitch
23:53
i`m back at mochizuki`s after a long but fine day. we went to namba train station wwhere we met a woman, keiko-san, who accompanied me for the day. the two of us went to a big aquarium with all kinds of weird fish and other sea animals. after that we went to a bookstore and i bought my first manga, yeah! finally we bought food and went to her house, where i had lunch with her and her husband and where she taught me how to do calligraphy. her husband drove me back here and mochizuki-san gave me a battery charger as a present (since mine doesnt work here) which is exactly what i needed, hehe. while my japanese might not actually be improving at least i`m learning to work around my deficits. no new business cards, but a lot of spent money: 2950 yen.
this is my last night at mochizuki`s house, btw.. tomorrow we`ll visit osaka castle and then i`ll move into a hotel (rumours say a very good one) for the y`smen`s west japan regional convention. 800 japanese and me~
i`ll have to keep these entries shorter, transcribing that was a bitch
23:53
i`m back at mochizuki`s after a long but fine day. we went to namba train station wwhere we met a woman, keiko-san, who accompanied me for the day. the two of us went to a big aquarium with all kinds of weird fish and other sea animals. after that we went to a bookstore and i bought my first manga, yeah! finally we bought food and went to her house, where i had lunch with her and her husband and where she taught me how to do calligraphy. her husband drove me back here and mochizuki-san gave me a battery charger as a present (since mine doesnt work here) which is exactly what i needed, hehe. while my japanese might not actually be improving at least i`m learning to work around my deficits. no new business cards, but a lot of spent money: 2950 yen.
this is my last night at mochizuki`s house, btw.. tomorrow we`ll visit osaka castle and then i`ll move into a hotel (rumours say a very good one) for the y`smen`s west japan regional convention. 800 japanese and me~
Mittwoch, 6. Juni 2007
day 4 (morning) - intaanetto!
07/06/07 8.04
i`m back at mochizuki`s house. some more details from yesterday: in nara, where i took like 120 pictures, there was this huge buddha statue. it was about 30m high and it was in one of japan`s oldest temples (called Todaishi), more than a 1000 years old i think. it was also very nice to see the yanai family again. everyone was two years older but they hadnt changed al lthat much. only the younger daughter looked older and in another two or three years she will be quite pretty i think, we played cards and i gave them a book about mulheim and i explained all the pictures. i also found out that there is really no topic better suited for japanese conversation than cars. which german cars do you have in japan, which japanese cars do we have in germany? is hyundai japanese? (answer: nope)
in a few minutes i`ll get to use mochizuki`s computer and i`ll try to publish at least my first journal entries o nthe blog. i`ll also have to send an email to my family. which btw. reminds me, that i bought three postcars yesterday. i promised to sed them to my school class.
tbc......
i`m back at mochizuki`s house. some more details from yesterday: in nara, where i took like 120 pictures, there was this huge buddha statue. it was about 30m high and it was in one of japan`s oldest temples (called Todaishi), more than a 1000 years old i think. it was also very nice to see the yanai family again. everyone was two years older but they hadnt changed al lthat much. only the younger daughter looked older and in another two or three years she will be quite pretty i think, we played cards and i gave them a book about mulheim and i explained all the pictures. i also found out that there is really no topic better suited for japanese conversation than cars. which german cars do you have in japan, which japanese cars do we have in germany? is hyundai japanese? (answer: nope)
in a few minutes i`ll get to use mochizuki`s computer and i`ll try to publish at least my first journal entries o nthe blog. i`ll also have to send an email to my family. which btw. reminds me, that i bought three postcars yesterday. i promised to sed them to my school class.
tbc......
day 3 - nara
06/06/07 9.48
i slept considerably well my first night and i hope that i`ve gotten over my small jetlag. we had a nice breakfast (but i dont like natto) and we atched a dvd about nara which i got yesterday and where i`ll be going in a few minutes. new interesting fact: although mochizuki-san is in the ymca and everything he`s not a christian. anyway, let`s pack.
23.30
nara was awesome. the guy that picked me up was called uchida-san, he was from the city. he drove me there and showed me all the different temples, and there are quite a lot. first we visited an excavation site and after that we walked around the town. there were a few tourists there but mostly school children from middle school. the girls looked funny in their antiquated uniforms. there were lots of deer waiing to be fed by the tourists. uchida-san insisted on taking pictures of me in every possible spot but so what. at least i can prove that i was there. after that we had lunh, went to a nice garden he took me back to mochizuki, where the yanai family, where i stayed 2 years ago, waited for me. they took me to the grandparents` house and we had an awesome dinner and i played with the children and everything. tbc...
business cards: 10. money spent: 120 yen.
i slept considerably well my first night and i hope that i`ve gotten over my small jetlag. we had a nice breakfast (but i dont like natto) and we atched a dvd about nara which i got yesterday and where i`ll be going in a few minutes. new interesting fact: although mochizuki-san is in the ymca and everything he`s not a christian. anyway, let`s pack.
23.30
nara was awesome. the guy that picked me up was called uchida-san, he was from the city. he drove me there and showed me all the different temples, and there are quite a lot. first we visited an excavation site and after that we walked around the town. there were a few tourists there but mostly school children from middle school. the girls looked funny in their antiquated uniforms. there were lots of deer waiing to be fed by the tourists. uchida-san insisted on taking pictures of me in every possible spot but so what. at least i can prove that i was there. after that we had lunh, went to a nice garden he took me back to mochizuki, where the yanai family, where i stayed 2 years ago, waited for me. they took me to the grandparents` house and we had an awesome dinner and i played with the children and everything. tbc...
business cards: 10. money spent: 120 yen.
day 2 - arrivallll!!!!
05/06/07 2.48/9.48
WE LANDED! YAY! NIHON BAKA KAWAII HENTAI WOOHOO! i looked out for the japan foundation institute where i was 2 years ago but i didn`t see it during the landing. plane is coming to a halt now, gotta pack stuff (i even slept like an hour, yay)
13.29
yeehaw, i`m really here! after i landed i got smoothly through customs and everything and i was picked up by y`smen`s west regional secretary (or whatever) kitamura-san. she came with another ysmen`s guy, ueno-san, who as i learned makes a living as a house owner and as bass player. yeah...
we drove through osaka to the regional office and had lunch at a restaurant in the area (yummy, tempura). afterwards we returned here where i am now waiting for mochizuki-san to pick me up. i`ll be staying at his house for the next few days. first strange japan experiences: the toilet here seems to be for both men and women. there are no seats but rather holes in the ground (think french camping ground). and to get to their toilet, women apparently have to walk by the urinals... (the travel guide said that this could happen in more provincial japan, but hell, i`m in the middle of osaka), anyway, back to the urinals. i kno the japanese are supposed to be short, but they can`t be that short. these things are too low for 5-year-olds. and number three, when we got back here from lunch she asked me what i wanted to drink. i thought the alternatives were coffee or something cold, but apparently what she asked me was whether i wanted hot or cold coffee. and cold one is what i got. with ice in it. tasted better then you`d think, tough. (note: a few days later i found out that they even sell this so-called ice coffee here)
oh i forgot: i saw the insitute while we were driving here! and hte beach! and the ofix tower! NOSTALGIA~~~~~~~
as it is customary with the japanese, i got name/business cars from both of them.
21.05
my first day in japan has come to an end. it`s great to be back here, even if it might still be very difficult to survive on my japanese skills for a month. i`ve talked a lot today and i htink that they even understood most of what i was trying to say. only embarassing time was when i tried to talk about greece but they didnt seem to know the country and i didnt know its japanese name. anyway, to summarize things, mochizuki-san and a colleague picked me up at the office and we drove to his home. first, the car: a big hybrid toyota something in a nice silver shade and with high tech equipment (he can watch tv in there!). then the house. he seems to be the owner of some corporation and he has his house above the company office. they do have standard japanese rooms, but also tables and chairs and a real bed (i still took the futon for the whole experience). after i slept here for like half an hour (i suddenly grew very tired) we went to a ymca house in the neighbourhood for my first welcome party of many to come. the people were really nice and everybody tried their best to talk to me in japanese about all kinds of topics (for example how japanese cars would react better after an accident than a benz), but there were lots of thing which i didnt understand and where i`d just nod. we had pizza and sushi and we took lots of pictures. after that we went back here, i took a shower (the japanese bath will take some time to get used to) and we drank a beer before i retired to my bedroom where i transformed my adapter for us power plugs into a japanese one (let`s hope that i wont blow up anything. stange moment of the day; what`s the deal with white cars? 90% of japanese cars are white, that`s crazy. only rebels drive gray! business cars* 8.
WE LANDED! YAY! NIHON BAKA KAWAII HENTAI WOOHOO! i looked out for the japan foundation institute where i was 2 years ago but i didn`t see it during the landing. plane is coming to a halt now, gotta pack stuff (i even slept like an hour, yay)
13.29
yeehaw, i`m really here! after i landed i got smoothly through customs and everything and i was picked up by y`smen`s west regional secretary (or whatever) kitamura-san. she came with another ysmen`s guy, ueno-san, who as i learned makes a living as a house owner and as bass player. yeah...
we drove through osaka to the regional office and had lunch at a restaurant in the area (yummy, tempura). afterwards we returned here where i am now waiting for mochizuki-san to pick me up. i`ll be staying at his house for the next few days. first strange japan experiences: the toilet here seems to be for both men and women. there are no seats but rather holes in the ground (think french camping ground). and to get to their toilet, women apparently have to walk by the urinals... (the travel guide said that this could happen in more provincial japan, but hell, i`m in the middle of osaka), anyway, back to the urinals. i kno the japanese are supposed to be short, but they can`t be that short. these things are too low for 5-year-olds. and number three, when we got back here from lunch she asked me what i wanted to drink. i thought the alternatives were coffee or something cold, but apparently what she asked me was whether i wanted hot or cold coffee. and cold one is what i got. with ice in it. tasted better then you`d think, tough. (note: a few days later i found out that they even sell this so-called ice coffee here)
oh i forgot: i saw the insitute while we were driving here! and hte beach! and the ofix tower! NOSTALGIA~~~~~~~
as it is customary with the japanese, i got name/business cars from both of them.
21.05
my first day in japan has come to an end. it`s great to be back here, even if it might still be very difficult to survive on my japanese skills for a month. i`ve talked a lot today and i htink that they even understood most of what i was trying to say. only embarassing time was when i tried to talk about greece but they didnt seem to know the country and i didnt know its japanese name. anyway, to summarize things, mochizuki-san and a colleague picked me up at the office and we drove to his home. first, the car: a big hybrid toyota something in a nice silver shade and with high tech equipment (he can watch tv in there!). then the house. he seems to be the owner of some corporation and he has his house above the company office. they do have standard japanese rooms, but also tables and chairs and a real bed (i still took the futon for the whole experience). after i slept here for like half an hour (i suddenly grew very tired) we went to a ymca house in the neighbourhood for my first welcome party of many to come. the people were really nice and everybody tried their best to talk to me in japanese about all kinds of topics (for example how japanese cars would react better after an accident than a benz), but there were lots of thing which i didnt understand and where i`d just nod. we had pizza and sushi and we took lots of pictures. after that we went back here, i took a shower (the japanese bath will take some time to get used to) and we drank a beer before i retired to my bedroom where i transformed my adapter for us power plugs into a japanese one (let`s hope that i wont blow up anything. stange moment of the day; what`s the deal with white cars? 90% of japanese cars are white, that`s crazy. only rebels drive gray! business cars* 8.
day 1 - on the way to japan
(any typing errors are due to the wacky japanese keyboard)
04/06/07 11.25
as i am writing this first entry in my travel journal the actual travel hasn`t even begun yet. i am sitting in the boarding area of dusseldorf airport waiting for the beginning of the boarding for my flight to milan (no direct connections to osaka). one ear is listening to the constant announcements, calling peaple to their respective gates and flights. the other ear is listening to the flower kings` devil`s playground (i almost forgot to pack my ipod!). the last time i went to japan i had to change planes in vienna and everything went smoothly. this time i`ll definitely have to try to get some sleep on my second flight. when i arrive in japan it`ll be 10am and they`ve got plans for the entire day, woohoo. most likely i`ll even be asked to hold a speech in front of some 50 japanese.
14.25
i`ve arrived in milan. everythingwent smoothly so far. i`m sitting in the transfer bus to my plane for osaka now. as expected, i am surrounded by japanese people. not too many who look like they were here for business though.
20.14 + x
i`m on the plane to japan. i think we left on time, it`s been a few hours. i`ve read, i`ve had lunch... or dinner, who knows, ad i`ve tried to sleep. i didnt manage to get a movie running on my tv screen but i`m almost convinced that it`s some sort of technical problem. anyway, the plane is obviously full of japanese people, some who may be italian and surprisingly - a lot of empty seats. i`ve got the whole row for myself and i intend to use my space,haha. we`re in the night zone right now and it`s beautiful outside. i`ve never seen such a sky (well, excluding my last trip to japan, of ocurse). the dark landscape runs over into the red glow of the horizon. the glow itself gets more orange and even yellow before it turns into the most unusual shade of green below the dark blue of the night. the flight computer tells me that there are exactly 6 hours left before i`ll arrive. we`re currently above omsk in the world famous western suberian lowlands, just a tiny distance from nowosibirsk. nie place for a plane crash. i gut myself a cup of coke, kinda contraproductive, considering that i was trying to sleep merely 20 minutes ago. although, time is becoming a strange concept when you`re traveling the world. while my flight is taking 11 hours and 45 minutes, i`ll arrive 18 hours and 45 minutes later at my goal. 7 hours get added along the way. a quick division tells me that for every 1.67857142 seconds of my flight another second gets added. in other words, every second is actually 1.5957 seconds long... does that make sense? is it even correct? who cares, gotta try to sleep.
04/06/07 11.25
as i am writing this first entry in my travel journal the actual travel hasn`t even begun yet. i am sitting in the boarding area of dusseldorf airport waiting for the beginning of the boarding for my flight to milan (no direct connections to osaka). one ear is listening to the constant announcements, calling peaple to their respective gates and flights. the other ear is listening to the flower kings` devil`s playground (i almost forgot to pack my ipod!). the last time i went to japan i had to change planes in vienna and everything went smoothly. this time i`ll definitely have to try to get some sleep on my second flight. when i arrive in japan it`ll be 10am and they`ve got plans for the entire day, woohoo. most likely i`ll even be asked to hold a speech in front of some 50 japanese.
14.25
i`ve arrived in milan. everythingwent smoothly so far. i`m sitting in the transfer bus to my plane for osaka now. as expected, i am surrounded by japanese people. not too many who look like they were here for business though.
20.14 + x
i`m on the plane to japan. i think we left on time, it`s been a few hours. i`ve read, i`ve had lunch... or dinner, who knows, ad i`ve tried to sleep. i didnt manage to get a movie running on my tv screen but i`m almost convinced that it`s some sort of technical problem. anyway, the plane is obviously full of japanese people, some who may be italian and surprisingly - a lot of empty seats. i`ve got the whole row for myself and i intend to use my space,haha. we`re in the night zone right now and it`s beautiful outside. i`ve never seen such a sky (well, excluding my last trip to japan, of ocurse). the dark landscape runs over into the red glow of the horizon. the glow itself gets more orange and even yellow before it turns into the most unusual shade of green below the dark blue of the night. the flight computer tells me that there are exactly 6 hours left before i`ll arrive. we`re currently above omsk in the world famous western suberian lowlands, just a tiny distance from nowosibirsk. nie place for a plane crash. i gut myself a cup of coke, kinda contraproductive, considering that i was trying to sleep merely 20 minutes ago. although, time is becoming a strange concept when you`re traveling the world. while my flight is taking 11 hours and 45 minutes, i`ll arrive 18 hours and 45 minutes later at my goal. 7 hours get added along the way. a quick division tells me that for every 1.67857142 seconds of my flight another second gets added. in other words, every second is actually 1.5957 seconds long... does that make sense? is it even correct? who cares, gotta try to sleep.
Sonntag, 3. Juni 2007
day zero - all (not quite yet) set to go
tomorrow i'll leave for japan. the suitcase is packed (mostly). almost everything is prepared. my last day of work was yesterday and it was a nice day to say goodbye to all of that. i'll miss my colleagues and some of the kids too. not all of them, but yeah. anyway, i don't really know what to expect from the next five weeks. i've got kinda mixed feelings on just about everything. anyway i hope that my usual optimism will prevail and that i will have one hell of a time. i've planned to take a notebook along (you know, one of the paper ones, not the electrical kind) so that i can write down what i've been doing. i've even thought about publishing those entries in this blog. retroactively, if i don't get a chance to do it while i'm over there. if i do get a chance, expect to see at least summaries of what i've been up to in japan every few days. i'll even spread this blog's url to some friends of mine, nice idea, huh.
03/06/07 mülheim an der ruhr, germany
03/06/07 mülheim an der ruhr, germany
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