Back in Beppu

Back in Beppu, back on campus, 45 days after start.

Writing this blogpost took me longer than I expected. It was harder than I thought it would be too. The last week has featured exhaustion, emotional turbulence, strong impressions, stress, and then I caught a cold – which escalated when I finally had time to sit down to breathe. I guess I'm lucky I mostly get sick at times when it's most convenient (or least inconvenient)... I think I’ll be able to throw it off quite soon though, thanks to Shannon's cough syrup – it was a relief to realize I could breathe normally again this afternoon.

Since Kyoto, the Family and I had 2 half days and a night in Hiroshima & Miyajima. We stayed at a really nice Ryokan on Miyjima, which wonderful cedar tree bath. Shame I was the only one that actually used it. We had ordered the stay at this Ryokan to experience a traditional Japanese accommodation, but the only Japanese thing we did was eat... But the food was just as wonderful as the cedar bath. Oh, and we slept on futons in tatami rooms, but... I'm kind of used to futons by now, so that experience wasn’t that big a deal for me…

In our 2 half days (one half day on either side of our stay at the Ryokan) we split up and did our preferred activities. The first day I took Mom & M to what I think is the most important sight in Hiroshima; the A-bomb Dome and the Peace Memorial Museum. The 2^nd day we had planed to take a stroll around the nearby sights of Miyajima before we left, but that morning it was raining so hard that we decided against it. We headed directly for the station where we hung out at Starbucks until it was time to get our luggage and get onto the train.

Arriving in Beppu with my family was the most tiring part of my whole journey. I had mixed feelings about going home at all in the first place. I had a good time travelling, and would have liked Beppu to just another stop on the way to somewhere else, and at the same time it would be nice to be back with my friends again (and to study again, to actually look up and re-learn all the Japanese I’ve noted I lacked along the way). And then, upon arriving in Beppu I was "home", but not "home enough" to be allowed to relax. Add the general tiredness & impatience in the group and you get a good portion of emotional turbulence, but in the end we had a nice last day together in Beppu when I took them to the Jigoku Meguri (or in English "The Hells' Tour").

Accepting the fact that I was going home; it was really nice to come back to campus, to all the people that had begun to drift back into the dorms from where ever they have spent their break.

Since coming back to campus I've intensely socialized with a lot of people, got up at 5:45 to help Shan with her luggage down to the waiting car and to see her off, done my course reg., paid my bills and arranged my post re-delivered, eaten at a tabehoudai (all you can eat) with new and semi-new people, and spent a day and a half in bed after fixing everything important that had to be done. *phew*

Projects for the next week or so is to e-mail all the wonderful people I won't be seeing for a while (regardless of where I know them from), updating the blog (post pictures to previous posts etc.), start reading Peace & Conflict Studies and sort through misc. related administrative info (autumn sem. prep.), review kanji (spring sem. prep.), write my travel report to my sponsor foundation, etc. etc.

There are plenty of things to do, but foremost of them all is recuperation.

Kyoto in the Rain

I’m at our hotel room in Kyoto, airing feet and drying socks and trousers and jackets etc. I’m looking forward to posting a bigger update and post a direct blog-post for once, since there’s free internet connection on my own pc with the hotel room’s LAN cord. Yay! The only downside is that I’m exhausted after today’s excursions; we’ve been on a one-day bus tour of Kyoto, having about 40 minutes at each stop – most of them places where I could’ve spend hours on my own.

It’s nice to travel with my family, even though there are some challenges. Having spent a month practicing independency and travelling in my own pace it’s a big change to suddenly travel with 4 companions with different needs, wishes, desires, ways of thinking and different ways of communicating.

We arrived in Kyoto yesterday afternoon, but didn’t do much except relax at the hotel, and then go out to eat in the evening. Aunt and Uncle went out to dinner earlier, so Mom, M and I grabbed the opportunity to go to a sushi restaurant (A&U can’t/won’t eat raw food), and explored the local area around the hotel on our way home.

Today we had vouchers for a tour bus tour of Kyoto, like the one we had in Tokyo on Sunday. We’ve seen a lot, but we have no understanding of half of it or less because we had to rush through each stop and then from one stop to the next, rinse and repeat. I have no real sense of where the places where we went are, I’m not used to navigate from a bus seat, especially when I didn’t need to research ‘where from, where to, and where to stop’. Everything came sort of out of sequence since I just followed the flow of the tour bus program without knowing anything of it in advance. We saw Nijo Samurai Quarters (or something), the Golden Pavilion, the Imperial Palace (disappointing, so much stress & security for such a desolate place), had lunch at Kyoto Handy Crafts Centre, and then continued to Heian jingu, Sanjusangendou (with a 1001 kannon statues), and Kiyomizu-dera where Mom, M (my brother) and I dodged umbrellas while jogging through the temple area’s paths – three people, one umbrella and one very wet jacket.

It still ended up being a nice day, despite the rain. The rain (and following wet shoes, jackets, trousers etc.) wasn’t nice, but it definitely gave the tour a different character.

I won’t write that much more now, we’re soon heading out for dinner/supper, and then I’m updating some missing blogposts, and pictures will come later.

Tokyo Summary (backlogged)

I never got so far as to write about Nikko, and I guess I won’t be able to do so either, until I return to Beppu.

This is my 5^th day in Tokyo, and my first with time/energy to write. I had an entire evening to myself in Shiho’s apartment before my family came, but I was too tired to collect my thoughts long enough to even get out my pc.

Tokyo Day 1, March 12^th.

I arrived earlier than I bothered to tell the girls (Shiho, my hostess, and her friend Yuko – as not to worry them with my early arrival etc.), found my way to Shinjuku and then to Eifukuchou, stashed my luggage in a coin locker and returned to Shinjuku to meet Hans, a classmate from UiB. We walked around Shinjuku for a while, had lunch, took a train to Shimokitazawa where we walked around a little more, taking our time looking at all the fun little shops and all the people. After Shimokitazawa Hans took me to a big book store in Shinjuku to show me the international section before heading off, but we met another Norwegian there and ended up chatting. Hans finally had to go, but Mathias (the random Norwegian) and I took a coffee at Starbucks before I had to go.

I met up with Yuko at Eifukuchou station at 6 o’clock, and from there we walked to Shiho’s apartment, where I was to camp until my family came on the 15^th. I noticed Yuko was nervous of how to entertain me (and/or how to communicate with me) until Shiho came home from work (some 4 hours later), but communicating in (halting) Japanese helped a lot, and I managed to take the initiative on the entertainment bit by asking if she was interested in seeing some of my travel pictures. We ended up looking at pictures until 9:30 pm, and then realised that we should get out getting some food before everything closed. We were at the restaurant when Shiho joined us. It was a bit awkward at first, but it eased up easily enough. After eating Shiho convinced Yuko that she should camp for the night too since it was getting so late, so the three of us occupied the entire floor of Shiho’s 1 room, Japanese style apartment.

Tokyo Day 2, March 13^th.

After sleeping in, and socializing with Shiho before heading out at around noon, I walked around Shinjuku and Shibuya on my own, enjoying a window seat at Shibuya’s most famous Starbucks in the afternoon, eating a Banana Caramel Crepe on a street bench in the dusk-fall and then returned to Shiho’s apartment in the a little after dark.

Shiho gave me a spare key to her apartment since she had a night shift at work (she’s a nurse) and would be staying there for the night, so I was all alone. I had been given free access to everything in her fridge and cupboard, so I made my first home made meal in a month. I was a little hesitant at first, but it would be just as impolite to not take anything as to eat everything, so I went for the middle ground; make a meal of what I found, and replace the expensive stuff. (good food, sleepy, not managing to do anything of what I planned, etc.)

Tokyo Day 3, March 14^th

Planned to go to Kamakura, ended up staying in the apartment all day, until Shiho returned from work, we socialized until Yuko came over after work and then went out to dinner, out into the pouring rain.

Tokyo Day 4, March 15^th – Family arrival

Breakfast w/girls, train w/girls to Shinagawa, good timing at the hotel, Lunch w/fam, Shibuya w/fam, nighty-night.

Tokyo Day 4, March 16^th

Tokyo by tour bus tour, Asakusa in the evening, then returned to hotel.

Tokyo Day 5, March 17^th

Mom, M & me -day. Shinjuku; book store & shopping mall, lunch at One Half Café, then to Akihabara, hunt for a bookstore near Tokyo station, then return to hotel; joined Uncle & Aunt for a drink in the 39^th floor bar. Packing & stuff…

Closing in on Tokyo

Since I wrote last, from Sendai, I’ve travelled a day, from Sendai to Nikko, gone sightseeing in Nikko with C.G., and travelled yet another day. (I should write about Nikko too, sightseeing with C.G. for a day, and describing the YH I stayed at, but tonight Saitama was closer to the surface.)

I make a lot of plans, and I change some of them myself, others, like this one, was changed for me. I had planned to stay in Nikko two full days in order to get rested before entering the metropolis. Unfortunately for me, the youth hostel I stayed at in Nikko could only house me 2 nights, forcing me to change my plans. Since I had to find new accommodation I felt I could just as well move on, even though I’d love to stay another day or two in Nikko’s fresh air and peaceful scenery, though the town is a tad too touristy (wow, lots of T’s!).

Waking up this morning, I had no idea what so ever where I would be heading, so the only plan I had was to head down to the tourist information centre, buy some internet time and research what options I had. I wanted to go closer to Tokyo, but not all the way in to the city itself. Since I’m staying with Tommi’s sister its no good appearing a day too early, and if I went all the way into Tokyo I could just as well stay, find accommodation, and then it would have been much easier to book accommodation for all of the days until my family comes, but I can’t really cancel my arrangements with Tommi’s sister either, because both she and Tommi has gone through some trouble (fixed this whole arrangement) for me. And it would be *really* short notice if I cancelled now too.

So, having researched miscellaneous train schedules and other tourist information on the net, I decided to go to Saitama, even though my Lonely Planet says absolutely nothing about the ‘ken* at all. (*-ken = Prefecture)

(Another option I considered was to go out to the coast to Mito, in Ibaraki-ken, and see the famous garden and the plum trees (which are blooming at the moment) but I decided it would be too long to travel out there since I wouldn’t be able to spend any time there to go sightseeing since I have to be in Tokyo tomorrow; Mito was too far to travel to, just to return without seeing anything. Zannen desu ne…)

Not having a real map of Saitama, and only a slightly misleading ‘YH of Japan Map’ and no guiding from Lonely Planet I decided to go to Saitama City –which is on my YH-Japan map, but I realised after a while that Saitama City isn’t really a place, but rather an area consisting of several small/medium sized cities. Tokyo is the same (I’ve been told) but at least you can go to a station ticket office and buy a ticket just to “Tokyo station”.

When I tried to tell people I was going to Saitama they looked at me sideways, over the brims of their glasses, etc, and asked me; “where in Saitama are you going?” Me being clueless answered “Saitama-shi” –whereupon they kept their gaze level and asked “Saitama-Shintoshi?” …“Yes? ... (I assume so since it’s called Saitama-something)”. And when I got there and asked the tourist info for a cheap hotel; they sent me to Omiya-koen –which took me back exactly the way I came from, and then onto a sideline into the suburbs.

I got to my tiny hotel, where the staff asked me to forgive the “oldness” of the building and it’s facilities, but coming from a rather interesting YH in Nikko, tatami rooms and spacious (shared) baths and toilets seemed a luxury (still does 8hrs later). I was able to check in early, stash my luggage in my room and walk to the park where I spent the rest of the afternoon, walking around the various paths, teasing the ducks (by hanging about their regular feeding area without feeding them), smelling the plum flowers, playing with photographic challenges (light, noisy backgrounds etc.), watching the other park visitors (and their dogs or families or both).

Now I should re-pack my backpack again, leaving possibly useful changes of clothes on top… 22:47… I’d better get going if I want to get any decent amount of sleep…


(Anyway, even if Saitama-ken is not even mentioned in Lonely Planet, there is touristy stuff here too. I concluded that Saitama and surrounding areas fall in the shadow of Tokyo in areas like tourism, and but they try to keep up with the competition, at least on a local scale. Saitama-ken is known in Japan for making the most traditional Hina-dolls, and there’s a Cartoon museum and a Bonsai garden among other sights. Saitama-Shintoshi (lit. Saitama New-City) is marketed as “the new modern face of Saitama”, with bold modern cityscapes and architecture. There are pretty places and museums of new or old things like most places have. In Saitama-Shintoshi they even have a “John Lennon Museum”, isn’t at least that worth a mention in Lonely Planet? )

Yo!

4 new blogposts, including this one!

I'm in Sendai at the moment, cheap internet at the YH; 200 yen per hour. I'm leaving for Nikko tomorrow morning, staying three nights, meeting a friend while I'm there, and then Tokyo next...! Just about a week until the family gets here! Tanoshimi!

Looks like I'm staying with Tommi's sisteer in Tokyo, but I'm so nervous about writing her!
I should have done so a long time ago, even with Tommi e-mailing her for me too, so now I just have to. And it's so difficult! How to phrase oneself correctly, and to do so in Japanese! ohmgh! The pressure...I'm sure it's not that important, but I still can't help caring about it....

Anyway (2), I'm looking forrward to arrive in Nikko, if not so much to the journey there...

Sendai & Matsushima

(Wohooo! I’ve reached the opposite side! Well, I’m not all the way north, but at least I’m on the east coast now! Yay! )

A traveller’s work is never done. You have to get early up for the breakfast you’ve paid for, and be early out in order to get time enough to cover all the sightseeing, and then there are restaurants to be found and food to be eaten, and they you go out and see whatever you haven’t seen already or research the next stop; how and when to get there, what to see, contact friends in the area, find maps, find accommodation, actually get there, unpack necessities, update maps and sightseeing/travel plans, get to sleep, get early up for breakfast – rinse and repeat. Phew. And then there is the problem of finding time to describe everything; all the impressions, all the interesting and otherwise remarkable people, the funny food, what sights were seen and which weird areas was visited. And so on and so forth.

I have developed a lot of small projects while travelling; I’m marking my travel routes on the maps in my Lonely Planet and on my small (youth hostels in -) Japan map, and I’m drawing in my walking routes on the tourist maps I get (if they are suitable at least) after each day, I’m keeping track of my daily expenses (I’m cutting a little slack on my temple offerings since I don’t bother keeping track of every 1-yen I’m using) in a little book and making regular summaries and average use pr/ (day, week, month, total). And of course I’m trying to write about my travel experiences regularly too, but it is a bit more difficult to manage because it takes a little more preparations to get started, and when I first start I usually keep on writing for a while. It would be ideal to type while I’m on the train – if my pc wasn’t buried in my backpack. It’s easy enough to get it out, but to put it back in without re-packing the whole backpack is quite impossible. Imagine trying to do that while you’re on a train announcing that next stop is your stop, and you have to get off here and catch the train leaving on an unknown platform 5 minutes after your arrival. Sounds like a nightmare to me.

Another ideal “spending train time” –activity would be to study. Except that the studying I need to do is writing kanji, but writing is not easy on trains in motion, and practicing (i.e. writing) kanji is more or less impossible. Zannen desu ne.

I don’t know how many times I’ve written “today (or yesterday) I was planning to get early back and write…”, but it proves that there’s never time enough for everything. And although I want to write about as much as possible, I’ll gladly admit there’s times when I’ve prioritized not writing. At those times I’ve usually spent the time being with other people, like playing Chinese checkers with the girls in my dormitory room in Nagoya, or I’ve stayed out longer to socialize or just go People Watching. Usually the time has been spent on more experiences, rather than ignoring life in just to describe places that I just as well can show you my pictures of.

Today has been such a day. The plan was to go sightseeing in Matsushima, and then return to the YH to relax, write and go early to bed.

I LOVED Matsushima (well, Matsushima-Kaigan anyway, I wasn’t in Matsushima proper). I’ve explored two small, but extremely beautiful, islands in Matsushima Bay; Oshima and Fukuurashima. I had a great time walking in the sunlight and perfect temperatures; around 5-8 degrees, warm in the sunlight and a bit chilly in the shadows, but for walking around it was perfect. (I would love to describe these places, but I think I would spend too much time and would do a much better job of it showing pictures simultaneously, so I’ll move on.)

I walked around these two wonderful nature spots for about three hours (choosing al the small paths, taking me through brambles or pools of dry leaves to interesting views that only the most interested will be able see) before deciding to move on to the other sights, and then walked around Matsushima-Kaigan. I walked to all the other sights but decided they were too expensive this time around. My map obviously wanted me to enter into the Zuiganji temple; flying out of my hand and whirling playfully in the air just outside human reach, for a long time and to many people’s amusement (my own included, it was pretty AND hilarious even though I was in the centre of it…), before it finally landed just inside of the entrance/exit area – and still out of reach. Divine intervention as good as I’ve ever seen, but I decided that paying 700yen to see a temple is something I’ll have to save for next time I’m in the area. Some youths retrieved the map for me on their way out.

I decided I was finished for today and headed for the station even though I had half an hour before the next train. I ordered Oyster soup at a small street-side …kitchen/shop and was sat down on a bench on the sidewalk (yes the girl told me to sit there) where I ate my soup. How many places can you find Oyster soup for 200 yen? (200 yen = 2 USD / 10 NOK) It wasn’t big, but it was oysters in it. Oishiiiii!

While eating the other people on the bench moved on and was replaced by a guy chatting with the shop girl for a sec before cautiously starting a conversation with me. Turned out that the guy had sat next to me while waiting for the Matsushima train at Sendai Station, him noticing the obvious Westerner, and me being not noticing him at all – him being Japanese looking, but Korean. We didn’t talk at the station in Sendai, but he, upon recognising me in Matsushima, decided to make contact. Being able to answer in Japanese led to conversation on the train, and then we went to dinner; which he treated me to since Korean guys are supposed pay for girls. That would never happen to me in Norway.

Youngho (youn-gho) laughed a lot, and laughed hard, at a lot of things I said, but I have no idea what was so funny about it… I can’t remember exactly what I said, but I’ve said similar things to other people before, and none of them laughed…Nor was it meant to be funny. Now I wonder if that’s because they were too polite to laugh, or if it just wasn’t funny.

He laughed really hard when he asked me to read kanji, and I demonstrated exactly how much I could read of the kanji combinations he chose. Mostly I went like this; “sound/reading, meaning, no idea, no idea, meaning, no idea, no idea, still no idea, sound”, resulting in a guessed meaning, that may or may not be close to the correct answer.

Youngho chose kanji from warning signs and other official looking things too, which are always difficult to read. Usually I don’t even try to read them; I know the kanji are too difficult for me. Perhaps I should be able to recognise one or two, but… I suck at kanji (I know this and I admit it readily), and I haven’t been studying the last 4 weeks.

I played along with this game of his although it was annoying. It grated on me later though. It wasn’t really embarrassing, because I know approximately what kanji I should be able to know, and I know I can’t read all those I should be able to read etc., but the way he chose difficult kanji without regard for what Japanese level I might have learned, and how he laughed… It became humiliating, and it grated on me as I made my way back to the YH. Being able to have short basic conversations doesn’t automatically enable me to read difficult kanji. (Reading this again I realise it seems like my pride got a punch, but that's not the case. My pride would have been hurt if I thought I was better than I really am. I felt more ridiculed, really.)

After dinner we exchanged e-mails (although a bit annoying with the whole kanji thing, he was otherwise nice and seemingly harmless), and then I made my excuses being tired, returning to the YH glad to have wriggled my way out of his invitation to go sightseeing together tomorrow.

….And then there was time to get to the showers before they close them for the night….
Oyasumi!

At arrival in Kanazawa

At arrival in Kanazawa – Seishun 18 (juuhachi) kippu day 1

I’m bone tired. I’ve spent about 9 hours on stations, trains, changing trains, waiting for trains, and at the end; waiting for bus and taking the bus the final stretch (read: “hill”; roads Norwegian-style – small and winding!) up to Kanazawa YH.

I got up at 7 am, checked out from Nagoya YH a little before 8, and walked 10 min to the nearest subway station. I took the subway 1 stop to Nagoya Eki, where I took an earlier train than I’d planned – which only bought me an extra change-over before my original plan caught up to me with the 11:03 train from Maibara to Omishiotsu. I’ve been on 8 different trains today (including the subway), had 7 transfers, taken 6 trains to their “end station”, and waited about 4 hours (239 min or 3.98 hrs) in total – spread over different places.

I wish I could say I had seen a lot of the Japanese countryside, or many interesting locals travelling on their own schedules, but for some reason I wasn’t really interested today. I spent most of the time letting my mind wander and/or dozing off. Having mostly 30 minute intervals I didn’t bother to get out my mp3 player; I’d rather be sure I got the right message from the station speakers, and they are difficult enough to understand at times.

Ofuro. More later. (…)

I’m in a Western-style dormitory room, with my laptop at the small floor table in its Japanese-style “corner”. I haven’t seen any rooms like this before, combined Western and Japanese in this fashion. This must have been a Japanese style room originally, refurnished with western bunk beds to add to the YH’s accommodation capacity. Most of the YH seems to be Japanese style, and I must say I absolutely LOVED the ofuro.

There are ofuros and ofuros, not all the same. They all have the same basics, many (ok, some) variants and varying degrees of quality and cleanness. This one was big, easily adjustable shower (engelsk for kran flertall?), and the bath itself was big, nicely temperatured (meaning HOT but not scalding), and last but not least; it had a massage current (or what else you may call it) placed to hit the middle of your back if you sit directly in front of it - which I found absolutely wonderful after 9 hours on (mostly) hard seats.

Feeling refreshed and listening to western music (daft punk & smashing pumpkins at the moment) I feel a lot better. Bathing in the evening is one of the Japanese things I’ve gotten used to while travelling. Many places (Ryokans & YHs etc.) only have bathing & shower hours in the afternoon and/or evening. This turned out to suit me perfectly, while travelling at least; you can take your time washing off after travelling, and feel a lot better and a lot more relaxed when going to bed, and in the morning you can sleep half an hour longer ‘cos you don’t have to jump through the shower before trotting off sightseeing.

I’ve tried to turn my day rhythm around, and to some degree succeeding, but I’m still an obvious evening person. It’s only 21:02 now, but it feels like I’m staying up late because my elderly Japanese roommate has gone to sleep already.

Last night I stayed up to 1 am, partly because I was packing my space challenged backpack, and partly because I’d spent parts of the evening playing Chinese checkers (with Chinese rules, which turns out to be a little different, but more challenging) with my 3 roommates. We were the same 4 girls for two consecutive nights, and being curious and about the same age we slowly tried to get to know each other, communicating with our very varying levels of English and Japanese skills. Skills ranging from Maggie (native Briton) who just started learning “hajimemashite – yoroshiku onegeishimasu” (VERY basic Japanese), to me (Norwegian) who tried as best I could to translate between English and Japanese (I was in an Intermediate class last semester), to Boa (Korean) who understood only a few words in English but is almost fluent in Japanese, to Tommi who is native Japanese and understands a few words but not longer sentences. We had a lot of fun learning Chinese checkers anew, this time with language barriers and hand gestures. (Maggie! I'll send you the pictures when I get to a stable internet connection!)

I don’t have much more to add at the moment.

Dewa, mata.
-Seshirie

--
Back to Kanazawa recountations:
My roomate, an elderly japanese lady, keeps calling me Neesan (big sister), which, I have come to understand, is usually used by younger people to address older (but still young) people. It sounds different when it is coming from her, more like the grandmother recognising that I am someone else’s big sister (I did tell her that my brother – who is younger than me – is coming to visit).

I find her a bit weird. She is a sweet elderly woman, chatting with me etc, but she’s a little odd too… She mumbles and talks to herself, and has a horrible cough that I don’t want to catch. She talks about random stuff too, at least to me –what she says when talking to herself I have no clue – I don’t know exactly what to make of it, it can be just random, or it can be…weird… So far I’ve decided she’s harmless, if a bit bothersome. (Edit: the weirdness of that woman started to get to me, in the end she was just majorly creepy!)

Writings from Nagoya

Planen har lenge vært å oppdatere på skrivefronten, men det har bare ikke skjedd..

I’ve been too busy! Last I updated I took a huge bulk update, and it looks like I’m about to do the same once again, but this time I have to write everything at once too.

The plan yesterday was to walk around in random areas of Nagoya (which I still keep calling Nara without meaning to), spending time and not money, and return early to the hostel in order to relax and update my writings.

I don’t really know how to best get up to date on the writing, so I’ll write it from the beginning I think. It feels like I’m supposed to start with Nara, but looking at my previous texts I see I haven’t written much since Tottori – meaning I have to start with Okayama.

Writings:
*Okayama – Feb. 24th & 25th
During my first day in Okayama I went for a daytrip to Kurashiki and tried to go to as many museums as possible. I didn’t find the cool ones though…. Like the toy museum and the piggy bank museum that Lonely Planet mentions.

My second day in Okayama I walked around the Korakuen (big famous garden in Okayama) and the Castle area. I wanted to go to the museums, but they were all closed since it was either Monday or outside the tourist season.

Himeji-jo – Nara – Feb. 26th
I decided to stop in Himeji, on my way to Nara, and see the famous Himeji-jo (Himeji Castle). It was cold and raining, and I was tired, hungry and had a 3hr time limit for sightseeing, so I kind of rushed it all. I spent only 1 hr on the entire castle and its gardens, which was way too short, but I didn’t feel like lingering. Beautiful place, but I’d rather return on a warm, sunny day. Preferably with company.

Not really anything to add to this. I spent more time at Starbucks than at the main goal of sightseeing – at a place I had stopped at specifically to go sightseeing. Sad, isn’t it?


*Arriving in Nara– Feb. 26th
Shared a room with a jap girl called Tomomi, Tommi for short. We walked to the supermarket and then had dinner (obento-) together at the YH, and ended up chatting through the evening.

Nara Day one – Feb. 27th
Nara-koen (Nara Park), adopted by elderly volunteer guide (man in his 60’s, mumbled a lot – my most used reply became “ah, soudesu ka?”), trudged around Nara-koen through mysterious shortcuts – I think I saw most of the sights, but I have no idea where we actually went, but he left me outside the Daibutsuden (big Buddha hall) where there was a 500yen entrance fee. Right inside, however, I ran into Tommi, roommate from the night before, and ended up walking together a while in the Daibutsuden. Walking out from the Daibutsuden I was telling her about how I’d come to recognise more and more of the other tourists, when someone yells “CECILIE!” Turns out that 4 of my friends from APU (Bart, Nikka, Even and Julia) had decided to go sightseeing Nara-koen the same day I had. We chatted for a short while, I introduced them to Tommi and we took some pictures, and then their guide (that had adopted them) urged them to continue their on their tour, so we split up again. Tommi and I split company a short while after that again, heading separate ways. I was at the Nara Prefectural Art Museum when Bart called me, and met them at the Nara National Museum 30 min later. We toured the museum and then went out for dinner and Starbucks before going back “home” – Me to my YH, and they back to Osaka.

*Nara Day two – Feb. 28th
Former site of castle, lots of walking, free museums, lunch in the green, more walking, ticket research and Starbucks, back to YH, hanging out with Adam from England.

*Ise Jingu – Feb. 29th
Shrine-hopping on the way “from” Nara to Nagoya. Info-lady in Nara said sth about not having time for both shrines, but I made it in good time… Or maybe I misunderstood her and she was saying I could do both and then still would have time… Not sure, but thinking of what she said, I think the first option is more plausible.

Nagoya – Feb. 29th
I arrived at Nagoya YH just in time before check-in closed. I walked longer than I needed to, due to not having a decent map.

I only had a print put map of the way from Nagoya station to the YH, but the map only showed the BIG streets, so what looked like 3 blocks “and then turn right”, turned out to be 3x 3-4 blocks, and THEN turn right, for another 6-7 blocks or so. Arriving in Nagoya around 19:00 I thought I had plenty of time before check-in closed at 20:00, but realising the map’s dimensions did not represent the reality; straight lines being slightly curved roads, and not showing smaller (but still “both-direction-”) roads I had to hurry on. In general, it turned out to be “1 block = 1 major light crossing”. But never trust internet maps; they are inconsistent. When I figured that “1 block = 1 light crossing” I ended up going too far, and passed the YH on the opposite side of the block it is on, and continuing 3 blocks down before getting directions sending me another 4 blocks back – but to the right place (believe it or not, I’ve drawn the route on my Nagoya city map). It took me about 45 min to walk from the station to the YH, so was good and tired by the time I got to my room.

*Nagoya – March 1st
Walked around the Osu and Sakae areas most of the day, spent some time at the Design Centre (cool Trident Design Academy graduate exhibition), then spent some more time at Starbucks, and then 1hr at an internet café before spending 1hr walking back home enjoying the nightlife cityscape and atmosphere even though it was only 6-7 o’clock.

I managed to get back to the YH by 7pm, and had planed to spend the evening writing, but the dormitory room was getting crowded and social so I ended up turning on my pc, but not using it. When Boa (Korean, Boa utt.: Båa,) entered and didn’t speak English of course it sparked the usual conversations in Japanese. Perhaps speaking Japanese is more of a conversation starter than English…Conversations in English are usually done and over with in just a few minutes, while conversations in Japanese lasts for entire evenings –perhaps due to language barriers & communication trouble, but they still last if you show yourself wiling to try finding a way to communicate your message –whatever that may be.

I was chatting with Maggie (came night before me and is staying here for 2 weeks), and Boa (from Korea, speaks Jap not English, left this morning) was in the showers, when the door opened and Tommi (my friend from Nara YH!) came in.

More to be written, I think, but what I have now is mostly fragments to be digested a little more first. Conversations, eating and sharing candy together, travel planning, internet on Tommi’s pc, info-exchange with Boa, possibly staying with Tommi’s sister in Tokyo (if it’s not trouble for her…?) and then Sleep.

*Nagoya today (march 2nd)
Planning on walking to the castle and surrounding area, and if time & energy exploring the Nagoya Eki (which is HUGE!), and perhaps finding another Starbucks, return in decent time, re-pack my bags, write a little (?) and get sleep. Early up tomorrow; leaving for Kanazawa.