Cecily's February Winter Wonderland

 
When you put on wellingtons in order to reach the mail box nice and dry and you still get snow in your boots, then you know it's a lot of snow... 

 

Snow vs. Wellingtons

It started snowing before I went to Bergen for a couple of days, and it started snowing in Bergen before I returned home as well. Along the railway to Bergen there was one beautiful snowscape after another, and although it is quite a challenge to take nice pictures from a moving train with a lot of trees close along the railway, I got quite a collection of nice pictures. 

  

Prepared for travel

 

View: Snowscape 1

View: Snowscape 2

 

In Bergen I was lucky enough to only get snow during my last day, the first days being nice and dry. I enjoy seeing the gradual tranformation of 'Bustling Bubbling City' into 'Busy Snow-Clean City', but I don't like the opposite transformation of 'clean snow city' into 'grey sludge city', and I'm glad I left before the reversed transformation kicked in. (I had a blast in Bergen, loved being back, and for social reasons not that happy to leave so soon...)

I like snow, I really do, but it can be... inconvenient... at times...

Here at home again I find myself partially snowed in; there's a lot of snow making it difficult (though not impossible) to get out of the house, the household's car is out of town with my mother this weekend, and since it is weekend public transport is only accessible enough to make people exercice extreme patience in extremely boring places or cause immense frustration, or both, due to the extreme lack of correspondance between the different bus lines etc (it's so bad it feels like it has to be planned by somebody). Just as well I don't have any reason to leave the house until tomorrow.

"Snowed in"

 

For the record, it's four steps in the stairs to our front door, and the footprints/tracks to the mail box was largely snowed away 10 minutes after I took the picture.

Week 7 & 8: Cancelled/rescheduled

Last week's blogpost is (largely) cancelled due to sickness and dehydration, and this week's post will disappear in the amassed workload; the groupwork assignment took a new twist while I was sick so now I have to start all over on something I wasn't really prepared to write (that much) about. 

Um, yeah, to briefly explain last week:

I just had the time to be "well" again for about 2 days, and then I ate something that didn't agree with me. After a heavy nausea on Wednesday I've been dehydrated and feverish throughout the weekend, slowly rehydrating and getting gradually better closer to Monday (food helped a lot), and I was back at school today Tuesday...

But on a nicer note, the Monsoon is here and temperatures are getting comfortable! I love the heavy rains and thunderstorms, it gives me a good autumn feeling. I've started reading stories with a friend at the rooftop in the evenings to hold onto this atmosphere.

People are getting restless here. It's the ten-week-crisis looming I think, assignment stress, and travel giddity. A lot of people have started talking (increasingly) about their after-Pondi-travels or about the return home. My plans are still not fixed, I'm still checking out the options as they appear, I've had about 6-7 ideas I've decided and then decided against. This time I've started asking for possible dates and price options etc. Looks like it'll turn out nice in the end...:)

Week 5: Change of plans (backdated)

Power cut. And I feel small streams of sweat form up as soon as the ceiling fan stop working. Yes, ceiling fan, not air condition. No air condition in this apartment, no-no. Aircon makes you sick. I’ve had a cold for a week now, just because of an encounter with mild air conditioning. 

The power returned quickly today, after just a couple of minutes. Lucky, lucky. But it can also mean that the systems are instable and the power may be cut again at some point today. But we’re lucky here; I think it’s more than a week since we last had a power cut. 

My plans keep being changed. (Usually by me, fortunately.) This weekend I had planned to go to Kerala, but as I still have a cold I decided it would be too intensive for me to travel that far and that much with that many people at once at such a limited time. And thus, the first change of plans. So Lina and I were thinking of going to Ooty – until we learned we would need at least 4 days for any Ooty-trip frm Pondi. Second change of plans. We decided to stay home in Pondi for the weekend, perhaps take a daytrip somewhere, but mostly study. 

We’ve had an intensive week at school this week, up until Wednesday which was the last day before our long weekend. 

• Monday – lecture and then field trip to a Dalit village (village of people from the "caste-less" caste in India; the “untouchables”).

Dalit woman and her grandchild dressed up for having their picture taken:

 

• Tuesday – seminar for the whole class (usually we’re split in groups), then double lecture. Plus a lot of readings weighing on a student’s conscience. And errands in the evening, and a dance class I didn’t go to because of 1) errands making me late, and 2) still not well from the cold.

• Wednesday – Another day on double lectures, and lots of people leaving for Kerala. I wore khaki shorts and a casual t-shirt to school, and received the comment “Oh, how unusual to see you in Western clothes!” … has my wardrobe turned that much Indian? I hadn’t realized…

• Thursday – Went out for a morning walk with Lina at 5:45, we snuck out early to avoid the yoga instructor in case she came and admonished Lina for not going to the yoga class at 6:00. We walked to the beach promenade, had chai and watched all the people, including a weird French guy walking his marionette (“Ernesto” we were told) at the beach before he began his yoga exercise. We weren’t the only ones taking pictures of him, a crowd of locals had also gathered around. After returning home we meant to go to school and study, but lack of proper sleep brought about a slight change of plans, so we ended up staying home. 

Ernesto out for a morning walk at the beach:

• Friday – Actually went to school to study, and studied! In the evening there was a movie night at Kamachi, but I ended up changing my plans again, and chilled back home– surfed the net ‘til I slept.

• Saturday – slept long – café – blog/study evening – in my own company.

• Sunday - ..studying!!! Let’s hope this plan won’t change…

Missing Japan, listening to Jp. goodfeel music – genres changing with my mood. 

To Bangalore and back again

I haven't blogged (properly) for 2 weeks now. Why? First week I was too busy, so I assembled a picture-post in order to have something to post (see back-dated blog post here)

The next week I spontaneously joined a group going to Bangalore - forgetting to finish and post my blog post in the packing process as we left on my "blogging day".

Bangalore

Journey & Accommodation
I spontaneously joined a group going to Bangalore one evening before departure, ending up hurrying through necessary packing ad wrapping up stuff that needed to be done before departure. We travelled by night bus, a nice one, and arrived early at the guesthouse – 05:00… There had been a slight misunderstanding of when we were to arrive, so when we showed up at 5am our rooms were unprepared and quite dirty… We managed to arrange some mattresses and clean sheets and slept a couple of hours, and then we went into the centre of Bangalore for the day.

When we returned to the guesthouse in the afternoon the moods was much lighter and the experience was considerably better. We got the rooms cleaned, talked some more with the manager (whom turns out to be really nice), and the wonderful staff unexpectedly offered chai (tea) brought up to the room – free of charge!

Happy people!

Downtown Bangalore 
Shopping started in a mall, and then we walked up and down the main streets checking out the stores, ending up in a bookstore searching for useful literature to our group assignments in Pondi. I even managed to find an adapter/converter for my camera recharger (– which has Japanese prongs, and a suitable adapter; back home in Norway…), so now I’m finally able to take pictures again! (Happyhappyhappy!)

We had various experiences with the autos (remember the auto-rickshaws?); teaching us that over-eager drivers accepting low prices right away is not to be trusted. They take detours to stores they are affiliated with (tourist traps) to earn more money. At the shop they tried to sell me a nice pashmina shawl – incidentally an identical one to one I already had – and a quick question of the price revealed it to be 5 times the price of what I bought it for in Pondi.

Other experiences, always agree on the price first, and ask some locals to arrange the auto and the price for you if possible; they get much better prices than us obvious and oblivious tourists are able to arrange for ourselves. It might have a background in the poverty and high levels of competition in all areas in India, most Indians we come across in everyday activities (outside of the Study Center in Pondi) are opportunistic to various degrees. (Yes, this is a generalization and a very broad one at that…)

Safari
The second day in Bangalore we decided to go to a nearby Safari. Our guesthouse staff arranged two autos for us (and haggled the price for us), and off we went. It was almost an hour driving to the Safari (can’t remember the name of it, sorry), and then we arranged with the auto drivers that they would wait for us and take us home after a couple of hours –for the same price. Inside the safari we chose to take the Grand Safari bus ride (1hr) and climbed into the safari bus (not as exciting – nor as cute – as the safari buses in Beppu (Japan)). When we entered the bus the driver’s assistant placed us in the front seats, and while driving he took our cameras and took pictures (good ones) for us – for an expected tipping, of course. (We felt a little uncomfortable with the obvious difference in treatment, but as we –the girls in my group and I– believe everyone else in the bus (all Indian) assumed the assistant to do this for extra profit, the discomfort changed to a feeling of …apathy?) Anyway, the safari was really nice, and we were all relieved to see that the animals in the Zoo/Safari looked hale and healthy.

Bangalore (left) vs. Beppu (right)

 

Safari pictures, mine (left) and the driver assistant's (right)

 

New friends
Later the last night in Bangalore Lina and I went out to dinner with Lina’s friend Rohini and Rohini’s mother. They are the sweetest people on earth!! I fell so in love with the two of them. Even though it was the first time we met they asked if I would come along and visit their family in (some place I can’t pronounce) when Lina is going to, and when we said I would not be coming they asked us why! I hope I will get the opportunity to meet them again some time, they were absolutely lovely.

Return 
Even though we didn’t want to leave after meeting with Rohini and her mother, after only such a brief time, it felt good to be on the night bus back to Pondi when we finally settled in our bunks. We arrived home at 5am, good and tired, and slept away most of the day. 

3rd Week in Pondi

(back-dated due to late posting and multiple posts)

3rd week in Pondi. Noticeable in several ways; I'm starting to feel at home in Pondi, and at the same time I miss home, and I miss Japan (and terribly so!).  

I received a question of why I didn't write last week. Several reasons I guess. I missed having some photos on my blog (1), and was too tired to write anything coherent (2), and when thinking of what to write I had no idea where to start (3). 

Last week & weekend I was busy reading up on the readings for this week’s lectures, being social, research group work and finding group members for the group assignment. I spent mot of the Sunday reading, but in the evening Amali, Odilia and I went to the beach promenade to see the Ganesh Puja; a festival to the god Ganesh, where they throw the Ganesh figures in the sea on the festival’s last day. 

 3-week’s crisis, exhaustion, more pictures, travel desires, extracurricular courses, still haven’t fixed my saree, or bought Punjabi. Slow. Discoveries in town – everyone discover things close to each other’s houses. Daydreaming, missing Japan, feeling gradually more academic – feels wonderful, still no idea of what I want to do when I get home (for a job, that is), Mr. Gecko –our pet lizard that eat flies (flies that bites us!). We love him.

I'm still overwhelmed by all the impressions we get all day everyday here. 

Just riding the bus to school every morning is an adventure in itself, all the sounds, all the images that flies by as we fly by them, the different routes are getting a little familiar, but still challenges every sense of direction you (I) had to begin with. Children going to school, groups of teenage girls bicycling, auto-rickshaws full of 6 year old school boys, long lanes of children of all ages walking to their school bus, in the narrow zone between parked motorbikes and the rushing traffic. Safety in numbers applies even here. Wandering buffaloes seem to mind the traffic even less than the school kids and wander about ignoring the honking cars and autos. (Auto = auto-rickshaw, which is not the same as a rickshaw – the manual bicycle with extra seats)

One of the streets today was covered in posters and banners and ribbons in the colour of one of the local political parties today. We could hardly see the sky through all the decorations.
 
Bollywood dancing – sooo much fun! Not so much bollywood yet, but we have started learning some basic steps used for opening any dance performance. I think we did well the first class for being 100% beginners.

---

I left my blog post here and forgot it in the middle of packing my bag for a spontaneous weekend-trip to Bangalore. That story continues in the next blog post. :)

Picture post!

the study center & scenes from the study centre:

 

  

queueing up for breakfast nice lunch at school

 

 

Ganesh on "Ganesh Day" (Ganesh Puja?)

People preparing for the Ganesh festival 

 

group sightseeing & guide 

 

beautiful settings

 

back in the quiet street outside my building

  

was overjoyed to find this at out local store:)

 

another happy moment for a Japan-starved mind:

 

Peace

 

Blogging på overtid… / Wohoo India!!

(Note 1: Warning! Long post.

Note 2: writings from my short stay in Norway will be announced when posted. )

I dag er det fjerde dagen min i India – et land jeg endelig har kommet meg til! Dette høres vel ut som jeg har slitt med å få til å komme hit, men slik er det altså ikke. 

I’d better write in English I realize… After a year in Japan speaking English almost everyday I thought I would automatically start again in English here in India, but that is not the case. I don’t have the exact numbers, but we’re about 80% Norwegians, a handful of Swedes, a Dane, a German, an Indian and a Sri Lanka. (And I think about 90% of the students are female…) Among the staff there are many Indians, a Swede, and a Briton. …So, I guess my point is that since we’re sooooooooo incredibly many Norwegians together, it’s almost impossible not to speak or think Norwegian. (We’re getting better at speaking English together whenever any non-Scandinavian is present, but I’m embarrassed that we actually had to *think* about it the first two days…)

I can’t tell you much about India, and probably never will; “We Indians are still trying to figure out India” my first guest lecturer tells us in our first class. Our guest lecturer for these introduction lectures is Dr. Sudha (Ph.D), a very nice and highly intelligent woman from Bangalore. We’re having introductory lectures about India this first week here in Pondicherry, preparing us for our next 2 months here. 

There has been some culture shocks already, but none too big as of yet, seeing as we all expected them from the beginning since everything seems slightly alien or dreamlike to us. I’m guessing that the culture shocks are smaller (read: less severe) here than in Japan, because in Japan everything was more similar to home and culture shocks thus became less anticipated. 

Our first major culture shock came as soon as we left the airport in Chennai. There were people everywhere, even at 4am, and the traffic…. The traffic. The traffic is a chapter in itself, and due some deeper analysis in its own right at some later point. But I conclude from the traffic – the amount of it, the traffic behaviour, etc. – that Indians are brave people, just by daring to cross the road. 

Due to its extreme complexity of cultural/social/ethnic systems within democracy Dr. Sudha described India as a “functioning anarchy”, and today we concluded this applies to India’s traffic as well.

Incidentally, today I took my first ride in a rickshaw. Originally the rickshaw was a bicycle with a comfortable (?) passenger seat, now most of Pondi’s rickshaws are small, yellow-painted, built-in mopeds with space for 3 people (or an Indian family of 5*).There are small margins in the Indian traffic, the rickshaws constantly, narrowly avoids pedestrians, cars, bikes of all kinds, other rickshaws, cows, etc. I read in a book before going to India that you need to be confident, and I believe that is 100% true –especially in the traffic. You have to be confident, or project (prosjektere?) confidence to be able to cross streets. 

(* I would have loved to say “Indian family of 8” but I decided the exaggeration of the rickshaw’s size, and/or an Indian family’s ability to invent space, would be too big…)
(*EDIT: apparently the limit is 7 Norwegian girls + the driver....)

You also need confidence in bargaining with the locals when shopping. In some stores there are set prices and that is no problem, but in the street shops and market places the traders and peddlers and salespeople raise their prices tenfold whenever they see a foreign (usually Western and/or white) face. The most extreme case of bargaining I’ve heard of from my group so far (i.e. after just 4 days) was a girl that was shopping for necklaces and bargained down the price 70% (from 1000Rps to 300Rps) and still the saleswoman was happy when she left. 

300 Rps is not much by Norwegian standards nowadays; it is 8 Rps to 1nok I’ve been told, and by comparison a pair of trousers (loose, baggy trousers fitting for the local climate) cost me 220 Rps (tourist price, of course), while they would have been cheap in Norway for 200 NOK. Here, a 1 litre bottle of water costs 15 Rps, and ½ litre bottle of water in Norway costs 16 NOK (Imsdal, last time I checked at least). Dinner at a nice restaurant, 100-200 Rps here in Pondi, a cheap meal at a restaurant in Norway would be 180-250 NOK. It’s not a problem for us to pay without bargaining, but it is proportionally ridiculous compared to other local prices and the products’ actual price etc. We have to bargain down, and since they’re much better at bargaining they’ll still get a good profit compared to the local price levels. I’m just fine with not being good at bargaining just yet, but I’m going to practice with clear conscience knowing that I won’t have out-bargained anyone until the day a salesman does not smile as he shows me the door. 


I’ve been writing about an hour now, I think it’s about time to sleep. I’m one hour late according to my new day-rhythm the last couple of days, but that’s another description for another time. 

Good night!

In Transit

Or so to speak. I'm in Osaka now, waiting for the final day of departure. I've had 2 already; 1 from the dormitories in Beppu, and 1 more from Beppu itself. The extra days in Beppu were spent in the company of various friends, and the days in Osaka has been spent spending the last of my money (don't worry parents; it's not as bad as it sounds! :p), re-pacing the suitcase, go sightseeing, wrap up various things in Japan, and then do some more re-packing.

The days home will probably be as busy as the last few weeks, but I promise to *try* to post an update before I leave for India. I will write more coherently about the experiences of the last few weeks - as soon as I have the time to sit down with it for at least half an hour.

Yes, India.. I don't think I've mentioned it before on this blog, but I'm coming home briefly enough to empty my suitcase, wash my clothes and then fill my suitcase again. Then I'm headed for India from the end opf August until November. New adventure stories to come!

See you around!

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? )

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.

Finally, UPDATES!

And a lot of them too! Feed back and comments are appreciated on everyone of them, not just the last one. Be sure to browse backwards a little to see if you missed anything, because I put the past dates on the updates to keep them in the right order. Pictures are coming too, also for the blogposts from Kumamoto and Fukuoka! Also new: I've added tags to my posts, so if you're looking for posts in English they are now all tagged with "English". Yay!

At the moment I'm in Okayama, my 15th stop along the road towards Tokyo. I'll see if I can find a map and plot in my journey and then post it. From Okayama I'm thinking of taking a daytrip to Kurashiki, spend a day in Okayama City proper, and then head for Himeiji, Osaka and Nara -and further than that I have no idea as of yet. I want to go to Mt.Koya, but I think it might be a little too cold... We'll see.

Now I'm going to check in on Facebook, and then post pictures to the blog! Enjoy!

---
Edit：Pictures from Matsue, Izumo Taisha and Tottori will come later; I've spent too much time (and therefore too much money) at the Internet Cafe and now it is time for foooood. Mata ne!

Omataseshimashita!

I’ve reached Tottori. It’s been 14 days on the road already, and I’ve hardly noticed. The hardest part of travelling was back in Kumamoto and Fukuoka, when I knew it would be oh so easy to return to Beppu and known safety. After Fukuoka I had a goal to motivate me for a while; to visit Kate in Hagi. After Hagi all I had to do was keep moving on, and so have I done, a small step at a time.

Getting to Tottori was great. Not that it’s all that fantastic in itself, but there is life here, open stores, people in the restaurants, other people hurrying about their business. Life bustling all around. I liked Matsue, my last stop before Tottori, but coming here I realize that Matsue too had the “Ghost Town feeling” I met wherever I stopped along my way since Shimonoseki. In most of the cases I could sense the dormant charm of the place, but being there in winter it was obvious to me that I was there outside of the seasons as well. Many of these places were quiet and desolate, no people in the streets, few (if any) open shops and restaurants, and those only around the obvious spots of activity; main streets and tourist attractions –or tourist attractions’ bus parking lots in the case of Tsuwano (the only lively spot was a noodle place, situated opposite the bus parking lot and catering mainly to bus-tourists). Most of the town may be closed, but the gift shop by the tourist bus’ parking lot is always open (in my experience anyway).

The weather may have helped to chase away the Ghost Town feeling, but the sun was shining in Matsue too, and here in Tottori it seemed to have been bustling before the weather changed as well. The sun was shining and there was a non-freezing breeze in the air; I could walk around without gloves and earmuffs and still be comfortable. Of course, having had a warm day (first day of spring?) don’t stop my hotel room from being freezing cold –despite the gas heater.

I took advantage of the weather and took the bus out to the Sakyu – the great sand dunes of Tottori – and had fun walking in the dunes and along the beach, taking pictures of the dunes, footprints in the sand, the waves and odd objects that had drifted in to the beach; garbage that, to me, had a certain beauty in the sand and sunlight.

After returning to the hotel I’ve been relaxing in my room, catching up on my writing and accounting. I even forgot to go to the Internet Café, but at least I’ll be prepared when I finally get to one.

Art Museum Day

Today’s plan was to do the Adachi Art Museum in Yasugi, and then return to Matsue and do the Shimane Prefectural Art Museum, see the sun set over the lake and then return to the Ryokan before 19:00 so the Terazuyas could enjoy an evening in the onsen. I’m not sure if they invited me or not, but I’m too tired to go, even though it’s not even 4 o’clock yet.

I managed to do both the museums at super speed, although it was not intended. Getting to the Adachi museum from Matsue I had to take the train 40 minutes, and then 20 minutes with the museum’s shuttle bus from Yasugi station to the museum. It doesn’t sound so bad, until I add that train and bus doesn’t always correspond. Getting to the museum I had to wait at Yasugi station for 45 minutes, so I decided that I didn’t want to do that on my way back. I was almost through the whole Adachi museum when I saw there would be a perfect correspondence with a return train to Matsue –in 20 minutes. This was abut 2 hours earlier than I had planned to leave, but my options were; hanging about the museum which I had already seen, buying a 1000yen coffee at the museum café, finishing the museum at a slower pace and taking a later bus to Yasugi just to wait at the station once more. Neither appealed to me, so I walked through the rest of the exhibition, skimmed the souvenir shop and jumped on the bus –just in time.

The museum itself was wonderful, and I would have liked to spend a day there, perhaps in the company of another western “Art and Orient” lover, and if my budget would allow me to stop in the museum café. The Adachi Museum is a combined museum and Japanese garden, top ranked among the best gardens in Japan (“…and perhaps the World!” they boast).

The Shimane Prefectural Art Museum was a bit of a disappointment, mostly because there was only one exhibition open, and it was quite small. I spent perhaps half an hour at the museum before heading back to the Ryokan around 3 – 3:30, and I’ve spent the rest of the day in my room relaxing, sorting through my growing collection of tourist information, throwing out what I no longer need, and then preparing packing my backpack once more. It was too cold and cloudy today so I skipped watching the sun set; I think it is an activity better left for more summery days. So, next time around – I hope.

Catching up on writing!

Way to long too long without writing; it’s getting hard to catch up. I decided to leave the last parts, of the stories from Hagi and Yamaguchi with Obaasan, just as the keywords I wrote down. Writing all that would take too much time when I have newer memories to write down while they are, at least seemingly, fresh.

Since I wrote last I’ve had a daytrip from Yamaguchi to Akiyashi-dai, left Yamaguchi, visited Tsuwano, spent a night in Masuda, travelled to Ooda and seen the sights of Iwami-Ginza and Nima before picking up my luggage back in Ooda and then continued on to Matsue; from where I had a daytrip to Izumo-taishi today. There are plenty of reasons for not having time or energy to write, but they can be summed up to “I’ve been busy”.

2008-02-15: Akiyoshi-do
Getting to Akiyoshi-dai from Yamaguchi was no problem, there’s a direct bus from Yamaguchi station to Akiyoshi-do – the great limestone cave at the plateau Akiyoshi-dai. (To avoid confusion: I visited the cave Akiyoshi-do, which is at the Akiyashi-dai plateau.) Going up the hills and into the mountains seemed like a bad idea considering the cold and my not-so-warm clothes, but I’d made up my mind, and had nothing better to do.

The bus-ride up to Akiyoshi-dai showed me a hilly Japanese countryside with scattered hamlets here and there in the valleys. As the bus-ride took us higher up there were snow-clad villages and rice-terraces, but up on the plateau by Akiyoshi-do the snow was gone, and it was slightly warmer than down in Yamaguchi.

Akiyoshi-do is obviously a season attraction. The cave is open year-round, but the town around it had gone into hibernation, and was little more than a ghost-town. There were some souvenir shops and restaurants open; but only some of the small places along the road leading to the cave.

There’s not really any point in describing the cave itself, it’s a cave with interesting colours and stone formations, but describing it won’t count for much unless you can see it, so I’ll post some pictures from the cave at some later point. I had a blast walking through the cave and play with camera angles and light challenges. Being in a cave it was (of course) dimly lit, so I had quite a challenge figuring out how to take the best possible pictures. I also made a game out of trying to see figures in the stone formations, and then photograph them. The question I whether I will be able to recognise the same shapes and figures when I see just the picture of them…

2008-02-16 Tsuwano
Scribbles in Traveller's Notebook, and pictures online.

2008-02-17 Oda, Iwami-Ginzan (Omori), Nima, Arriving in Matsue
(Scribbles in the Traveller's Notebook too -I might post some excerpts later, I might forget it

completely.)

I was on my way from Masuda to Matsue, but stopped underway in Oda, Iwami-Ginzan and Nima to see the sights while I was in the area. Oda was nothing to me but a helpful tourist information clerk, a useful coin locker, and a bus stop.

Bus ride to Iwami-Ginzan; me worrying about having taken the wrong bus and what to do if I did etc, and calming myself down; nothing special.

I couldn’t go to the Iwami-Ginzan silver mine itself, so I wandered around Oomori and saw the sights there. There was no snow there when I came, but 15 min after I came snow fell heavily.

(Scribbles in the Traveller’s Notebook from the café).

After enjoying the café I had to hurry through the rest of my itinerary to be sure to reach my bus in time, but in the cold I was glad to keep moving. I had a wonderful time even though I was “surprised” by the snow; it was a beautiful sight, and it reminded me of winters back home (well, the good ones at least). I put ten-ten on the “surprised” because I didn’t see it coming, but it was cold and snowy further south as well, so I was dressed to stand the cold.

From Iwami-Ginzan (Omori) I took the bus to Nima where I wanted to see the sand museum. That’s right people; it is a museum for sand. I reached the museum just in time for the last admission, and walked around the exhibitions twice before closing time 30 min later. Not the biggest museum I’ve seen. Perhaps not so surprising that they had a lot of hour-glasses, and sand-art “paintings”, but there were some other paintings as well, some photographs from famous places in the prefecture, a video room and 2 educational rooms for the geology of Japan for those that are good enough in Japanese to understand it all. I wasn’t interested in the last parts. One of the interesting things they do have is the world’s largest hour-glass, which is turned at midnight every New Year’s Eve, and has enough grains of sand to last until the exact same time the next year.

Outside the museum, waiting for trains, and finally, finally arriving in Matsue – picked up by the ryokan-family, and treated to an obento while chattering with the family for a while before retreating to my room. (Freezing night, I tried sleeping without the heater (bad idea!); had to turn it on at 4:30 because my legs were cramped.)

2008-02-18 Izumo-taisha
I’ve walked at least 4km today, just in Izuma-taisha. More later. Oyasumi.