Quinni in Japan

The last post

2010-03-31T06:16:00.001+09:00

It has been 6 weeks now that I have come back to Germany. And as I had already sensed in my last weeks in Japan – my stay in Japan has become a distant memory. It does not feel real any more. Sometimes I even wonder if I have really been there. Adjustment to one’s life at home really takes on fast.

Are there things that I am happy about, now that I am home? Yes, there are certain things I can do that I could not when I was in Japan:

-see masculine men: apparently, in Japan “masculine men” can be an oxymoron. They are skinny, they are shy, they are delicate, they are obsessed with fashion and hairstyles, they pluck their eyebrows, and I could swear, some of them wear make up! To prove my point: I wore a jersey top with a waterfall neckline that I got many compliments on. I never told anybody that I got it from a men’s fashion store… (Wait, or does this anecdote put ME in a bad light?)

-eat an apple in public: in Japan you never see people eat an apple on the streets. If you do, people will notice you – have you ever seen people in Germany bite into a tomato while walking down the street?

-work at my desk without freezing to death: Kaikan room was a refrigerator during the winter months

-not feeling isolated when being alone: although Japanese people are polite and helpful, I never felt like I belonged to the society. I could never really understand their thinking. Being alone in Kaikan felt like being alone in the world. Here in Germany I do not feel lonely when being alone because I feel like part of this society.

-Hear “no” once in a while: in Japan it is really hard to guess from their faces and their words what they really want. They do not say no directly, you have to really pay attention to grasp their subtle hints of their real thoughts.

-buy cheap fruit and vegetables: the prices for these commodities are a little bit higher in Japan, and it adds up, when you like to cook fresh meals

-not feeling lost when travelling: finally I can read all the signs at the stations, on the streets, in the shops, …

-something I have been obsessing about the longer I stayed in Japan – eat German bread! The first -thing I bought after I stepped off the airplane and felt German ground under my feet: ein belegtes Mehrkornbrötchen (whole wheat bread roll with topping) – I never tasted anything that good for a long time!

not feel like a bum, when wearing jeans and a T-shirt: if the guys are fashionable in Japan, then the girls are fashion gods. It seems like they are dressed to enter a fashion contest every day, short skirts, high heels, perfect make up, perfect hair, never jeans!

- Throwing away garbage without being intellectually challenged.

There are also other things that I noticed when I came back to Germany. I feel so small! The furniture is bigger and higher, the people are all hovering over me again, even the toilet seats are higher!

And the worst of all: the cold unfriendly German faces. After half a year in Japan, where the staff in supermarkets, stores, and konbinis has been sucking up to you and kissed the ground that you have been walking on, and you want to e.g. buy bread at a German bakery - you will feel like you just asked prison staff to open the door of your cell.

All in all, when I came back I noticed that I had not been missing much during my stay in Japan. Walking down the aisles in the German supermarkets, seeing my room at home, and walking down the city – nothing has changed. I have not thought about these places at all during my stay abroad and had not been imagining them, so nothing seemed changed for me.

But I also know that when thinking back I tend to forget the “bad stuff”. There have been moments when I wanted to go back home, when I have been missing my family and friends, when I had felt lonely, when I had cursed all the Japanese for their non existent English skills and their weird behaviour. Especially the first weeks have been tough. I did not like Oita at all. I guess it is called culture shock. After a while we adapted and the exhilarating feeling of discovering new things took over. All in all, it has been a wonderful adventure and I am so happy that I did it.

One day in Taipei

2010-03-02T23:47:00.000+09:00

On the way back from Japan to Germany we changed planes in Taipei again. Unfortunately, my plan to stay in Taipei once again did not work out due to lack of time and money. Looking back I am even glad that it had not worked out, because I had been such an emotional mess, that I could not have enjoyed it anyways.

But as we had 12 hours between the changing flights in Taipei, we wanted to go into the city and visit a German friend, who works in Taipei. It was February 16th when we landed in Taipei, exactly in the week of Chinese New Year. This is the most important holiday in Taiwan, and people get together with their families in order to celebrate - one whole week! If you consider that our Taiwanese friends (or work machines) usually work 14 hours per day, it seems even more extraordinary, that they take off one whole week!

It was really nice to see Taipei again. The humid air, the smell of the city instantly reminded me of our 4 days in Taipei last September and happy memories came back to my mind. Unfortunately, it rained all day!We intended to go to the most famous dumpling restaurant in Taipei, but unfortunately, when we got there, people were already standing in line in the rain in front of the restaurant to get in. It was not even lunch time! Our friend said, that next time we should reserve a table before going.

Last time, when Fabian and I were still scared newcomers in exotic Asia, we had not dared to use the subway. But this time, now having become Asian experts and strengthened through adventurous travelling in Japan, we did it. We used the subway!

For lunch, after searching half the city in pouring rain for a decent restaurant (many were closed because of the holidays), we found a nice restaurant for shabu shabu. It can be compared to nabe in Japan. It is a hot pot with boiling broth on the table, where everybody puts his ingredients in and cooks it. Delicious! When our friend said, "this is a restaurant with a higher standard", Fabian and I worriedly felt our wallets, thinking about how much money we had. When the bill came, each of us had to pay... Guess how much! 7 Euros! Taiwan is a heaven for gourmets! ^^

The Taipei 101 clouded

Inside the 101

At the end of the day - of course we had to conduct empirical research on cultural differences between Japanese and Taiwanese crane machines. Our result: the Taiwanese machines cheat the customers! The crane fingers are too loose!

He also showed us his fancy apartment. I was impressed! I could describe you in many words how expensive his apartment looked, how pretty the furniture was, how high the rent is, but I think this picture of the kitchen tells already everything:

This single hotplate says: "I do not need to cook. I only go out for eating."

;)

I enjoyed this day in Taipei very much.

Thank you for the wonderful day in Taipei! I had so much fun!

Yufuin

2010-03-02T23:46:00.002+09:00

At the beginning of February we made a trip to Yufuin. It is a small town, which is a 1 hour train ride from Oita. It was the last trip that we organized, motivated by the oncoming goodbye from Marion, our fellow Paderborn student, 2 days from then. I and Fabian were the last 2 Germans to leave Oita one week after Marion.

I am writing this post at my German desk. All I write down now are memories from three weeks ago. I remember it to be a good and fun trip. It is sad to think of Yufuin now, which seems so unreal now that I breathe German air.

We went to the mountain first, in order to hike a little bit. We only wanted to go up a small hill, take some pictures and then head back to the town. But what looked like a small hill, which we could walk up in our pretty city shoes, turned out to be rather a Mount Everest!

Our humble aim was to walk up the small cute hill to the left. On the right is Yufuin mountain, where some of our fellow students climbed up - it took them 4 hours to go up!

On the way up the "small" hill we slowly realized that it was much steeper and much more exhausting than expected to "walk" up. I sometimes even had to cling to the trees in order to pull me up the hill.

On half of the way to the top - panting, sweating, swearing - we declared it to be our mountain top. So, "finally there"! Haha. We were 8 people when we started to hike, and when we arrived we were only 7. Haha.

But we were of good humour. The fact that we mastered the mountain (according to our own definition) motivated us so much that we had the energy to joke around.

Hungry after the exercise we tried to find a restaurant where we could eat. We could not decide and ended up in a not so pretty shop where they sold Ramen noodles. But we were hungry and had no money.

Voilà. Tonkatsu Ramen. One weird thing about Ramen is that it makes you crave something sweet after having eaten it. It also makes you hungry pretty soon.

We walked around Yufuin and wondered why a friend of ours had declared this city to be his favorite in Japan. It was boring, nothing to see, and not spectacular at all. Then we remembered another friend telling us about a pretty lake. We asked some locals for directions and were guided to this street.

Beautiful and charming Yufuin. Suddenly we saw masses of people, many small and cute shops, charming houses... So that's why our friend loves Yufuin so much! There were so many shops that tempted us to go in. But as we wanted to see the lake by sunlight, we heaviheartedly had to drag each other along to find the lake. We only hoped that this "lake" would be worth it!

And there it was. Worth the renouncement.

Some hungry animals begged for food. The size of the children made us wonder, if the duck would mistake the kids for a snack.

A beautiful day and beautiful people.

On the way back from the lake, we finally could free our desire and explore the shops. This is one of the most famous in Yufuin. It is for merchandise products from the Japanese anime studio Ghibli. They produced movies like Chihiros Reise in Zauberland and Das wandelnde Schloss.

And they produced the anime "My neighbour Totoro" (1988). It is very famous in Japan, and also amongst Japan-lovers around the world. This big stuffed thing is Totoro.

Yufuin turned out be one of my favorite cities in Japan. It is a very charming and beautiful town. I wish we have had more time to explore the small individual shops and boutiques there.

Goodbye Oita! Thank you Oita! See you again!

2010-02-14T08:35:00.001+09:00

This is a post I wrote one week ago. And now it is even more relevant. Andora's speech becomes truer with every minute that goes by... Thank you for your honest words.

The time has come. It is time to say goodbye. These days have been filled with goodbyes to fellow students, farewell get-togethers, nostalgia, tears, emotions, promises to see each other again, ... everythings that makes a goodbye a goodbye.

Slowly and sadly, it has crept into our lives. Who knew it would come so soon? Who knew it would be so emotional?

It started with the offical farewell parties at the universities last Friday. The official farewell party started out as, well, an official farewell party. Some officials gave some speeches (in Japanese, so I did not understand anything), people were standing around, pictures were taken, it was a weird atmosphere, because everywhere tables were in the way and everybody was standing in the middle of nowhere. It felt like an unorganized, boring official event and I was already thinking about leaving. But then Andora, our friend from Indonesia, who started as an international student one year before us and had now finished his studies in Oita, held his speech. It was the first heart moving moment of this event, that gave the farewell party its first emotional touch. The first glimpse of an honest goodbye swept through the room and left nobody untouched.

Here is Andora's speech:

"As I am standing now to deliver a speech, I just remembered some moments in my past. Two years ago, I was one of you guys here, joining the group of both Japanese and international students and listening to Johan, my Swedish friend’s speech. At that time, I was thinking that it would be great if someday I can give a speech during my farewell. So as today, in my second farewell party in Oita university, I wanna give my credits to all my friends, teachers, the international office staffs, and to all people without whom I won’t have such a great and wonderful experiences in Oita.

To be honest, my first experience in Oita was not very favorable - I had a bunch of complaints - : why the Japanese hardly speak english, or why Oita was so small and quiet and doesn’t that much awesome and spectacular as, let say, Tokyo, - and so on and so forth. However, as the day passed, I got used to my new environment, started to learn the Japanese language, created new friends, and slowly began to enjoy this place.

I still keep in touch with some of my fellow friends who had already leaved Oita and returned back to their country. Among these people, some were really enjoyed their time here, and some who didn’t seem enjoying it during their stay. However, they all have the same messages. -They are dying missing this place so much -. So I wonder how much I will miss this place, as much as I believe you guys will, after we are back in our home country.

As for my final words, I would like to say have a safe return trip, and good luck for your study back there in your home country. I sincerely hope all the very best for your future. There is a time to meet, and unfortunately there is also a time to say good bye, but I believe that the friendship that everyone gets here will last. I sincerely wish that we can meet again somewhere, sometime, somehow.

Thank you very much everyone. "

Yet another surprise was to come when Koji, our Japanese friend, sang goodbye songs accompanied by a live band. The songs were the accompanyment to a surprise picture show with many pictures of all the international students that they took during this semester. We were surprised whenever we saw our faces on the huge screen. The photos showed funny moments, significant moments, relaxed moments, excited moments, moments with friends... It was there that I realized how many things we have seen, been through, experienced together. While watching this slide show as a summary of this semester it suddenly dawned on us, how many new friends and experiences we have made - and that now the end of it is coming. The room was darkened so that everybody could watch the big screen with the picture show, but I could see students being so moved that they cried with their friends.

This official farewell party was followed by a second farewell party (this time only students in the student dorm) and a privately organized farewell party of the Kaikan people in an izakaya. The night ended in the morning in a karaoke bar. A dawning goodbye mobilizes everybody's desire to spend more time with each other. Now comes a typical period of time when everybody realized how little time is left together and is eager to do something. It is a good opportunity to create more fun memories.

2010-02-14T08:34:00.006+09:00

I have not slept one second. The mere thought of having to leave this place makes me want to panick. I have never felt this way before. It is really strange.

I know I will be in Germany soon and then there will only be memories of this place, like a distant dream.

I never thought that I had gotten so attached to this place and the people in it. The end always seemed so far away and now that it is there, it seems so extremely sudden and real. One week ago I was ready to leave, I would have left without shedding a tear. Now I wonder, maybe it was an illusion.

You often only know how much you feel for something or someone when you are about to lose it. It sounds silly, but some weeks ago something happened that might have prepared me for this unexpected emotional attachment. I lost my sweater. It sounds trivial, and so was the sweater (I bought it for 8,49 Euros at a textile discounter and it was cheapest polyester or fleece) - so I thought. What I had not expected was this sadness that it was gone. Although its material worth was negligible, it dawned on me that I had started to become used to it and had started to, ok this sounds creepy but, ahem, love it. During these cold winter months it had become indispensible, I wore it every day over my regular clothes - when sitting at my desk, before going outside as a double layer, in the classroom, in the cafeteria,... So after it was gone I looked for it everywhere, I thought about it before going to sleep, it was the first thing I thought about when waking up! About a sweater! You can imagine how happy I was when I found it in one of the classrooms, I clung to it the whole day. Writing down this episode something just came to my mind what Professor Higgins says in My Fair Lady after he discovers that Eliza has left and his unexpected regret of it: "I've grown accustomed to her face."

What shall this teach me? I should have foreseen all this? I should have done everything to avoid the feeling of having too little time left? By hanging out with everybody more often? By spending all free time on activities? Actually, I am happy with how I spent my time the last weeks and it would have added more pressure if I have had all this thoughts in my head. I think. Gnah, I don't know!

I only know that this time I won't be as lucky as with the sweater.

Argh

2010-02-14T01:40:00.000+09:00

No time! No time!

I have to leave in 2 days! I do not want to!

I am not prepared to say goodbye yet... :(

Two days ago I had a nightmare. I dreamt that I was in my room in Germany again. I was shocked, "how did I get here?!". And then I woke up and was so relieved that I was still in my Kaikan room in Oita...

Asosan

2010-02-12T18:09:00.000+09:00

One of the largest volcano craters in the world is found here on Kyushu, "our" island: Asosan. This is where we went with the German Club. Although at that time I was so swamped with work as all the finals were coming up I took this day off to go. It was the first (and probably only) time that all the German Club members could go. Rei, Micchan, Hoho, and Lisa had organized three cars so that we could even invite more to go with us. We were joined by Hoon (Korea), Mike (USA), and John (USA).I forced all the sorrows about university obligations to the back of my mind, I was determined to enjoy this day!
So it seemed sarcastic that on the day that I had long fought with myself to take off, the car broke down on the middle of the way. My mind screamed, no, this cannot be! Was this my fate? One day off and a sabotaged trip? We were lucky, the car had broken down exactly in front of a gas station. The car was diagnosed and filled with some oil, and we were good to go!

The car broke down...

... just in front of a gas station.

After drinking some oil it was good to go.

The weather was perfect. Not a single cloud in the sky and brilliant sunshine. We did not go to the crater itself, but went to another peak with a nice view.

We arrived! Alive!

Perfect weather, perfect view.

The fun of the day was not primary the view of Asosan, but rather our group pictures...

All the girls from the German Club

Money donated to a little Buddha statue.

We were so hungry and tried to find some place to eat. We stumbled into this restaurant. Of course, it was one of the many buffets.In a big group the perfect meal is a buffet, because everybody will be satisfied. Everybody will get to pick the food he likes. And this buffet was a good one. It had many Japanese dishes. Only the dessert section never seems to match the Japanese theme: often it is cookies, pudding, ice cream, melted chocolate, cake,... Maybe this is because Japanese do not have many traditional desserts...

It was a perfect day. Thank you German Club!

Military base

2010-02-12T17:27:00.002+09:00

Military bases in Japan. A delicate topic. The Japanese post-war constitution does not foresee Japan to have a military force. So we went on a field trip to a so-called "self-defense post" in Beppu. We could not take pictures there, except in some certain areas.
The soldiers and officers were really friendly. Somehow the whole field trip was a lot of fun. We could visit their training fields, have lunch with them, take group pictures and wear funny hats.
Everything was perfectly organized. All the proceedings were exactly timed, everything went smoothly. From preparing chairs for the group pictures to getting everybody lunch quickly (with previous stop at a sink to wash your hands!) to organizing racks and tables where to put your jackets and bags...

Training field. The mountains are beautiful.

Having lunch with the soldiers.

Q&A

A last group picture. When we came out of the building the chairs were already standing there in the middle of the place. The important people always sit in the front. The most important in the middle.

Omiyage

2010-02-12T17:16:00.002+09:00

I have already mentioned the deathly sin of not bringing a souvenir to your family or friends (and everyone else you are obligated to) after having travelled somewhere. It is a HUGE industry! Japanese feel an inherent urge to buy something to bring home. So each and every small town has come up with its own specialty. This leads to really artificial niches sometimes.

This is an omiyage (souvenir) special for Miyajima Island (Hiroshima) that is still understandable. Although I wondered, why its specialty is maple leaves, when everywhere else in Japan you can also find maple trees:

This is a funny omiyage. I went to a sumo match, and then I could buy sumo cookies:

This is an omiyage, which I do not really find original. It is from the Miyajima Island, where some deer run around and where the famous shrine is - so ok, there are cookies with deer and shrine motives:

And one day we went on a field trip to a nearby military base. Guess what kind of omiyage one can buy there:

BOMB cookies!

I cannot find words for this...

I did not take a picture of this, but when we went to a Shrine on Enoshima Island we discovered cookies with a Buddha motive on it...

Can you see how desperate Japanese must be for omiyage?

Fabians birthday

2010-02-12T17:02:00.000+09:00

We celebrated Fabian's birthday in Kami Fusen.

Kami Fusen interior

At one point a (drunk) Japanese from the room next to us suddenly sat down with us, chatted, laughed, and drank with the guys. It was so fascinating to see an adult Japanese coming to us. It is obviously only the effect from too much liquor, usually no Japanese wants to talk to us foreigners.

This is warm sake!

Fabian ordered a bottle like above, and wanted 5 of these small cups to go with it, so that he could share with the guys. But somehow there was a misunderstanding, and instead of bringing 5 cups we were served 5 bottles!

Would you take your children with you when you went drinking in a bar? In Japan people do. When we were celebrating we suddenly saw kids running around. They played, laughed, and even came into our room and played tricks on our American fellow. They were pretty cheeky, like hitting him on the head and playing with his hair. And then they even sang with us Happy Birthday. I asked our Japanese friends, if it is normal that kids play in the izakaya and they said that when they were kids they have also been with their parents in izakayas. The playing kids contributed to a relaxed atmosphere. It was very relaxing and comfortable in our izakaya room. It felt more like a living room.

Kids were drawn to us - strange people from foreign countries

Relaxed izakaya

Kami Fusen

2010-02-12T16:44:00.000+09:00

My favorite izakaya in Oita: Kami Fusen. The first time I went there was with the German Club. It is a very cozy izakaya. The big tables are very convenient, when there is a large group because everybody can sit together in one room, rather than be split up at several small tables.
We were given goodbye presents from the others. We would not have expected this. Then we got a bad conscience that we had not brought any goodbye presents.
It is a delicate thing, the gift giving in Japan. There are sitations when you are obligated to bring gifts, like when you have travelled somewhere. Not bringing a souvenir to family and friends is a no-go.

Kami Fusen

The typical izakaya evening. A whole lot is ordered and everybody shares the food and bill later.

Tamago

Yakitori

Charlotte's Birthday

2010-02-12T16:28:00.000+09:00

When our Korean friend Charlotte celebrated her birthday in Park Place, almost the whole Kaikan joined. When we rode the bus there it felt like being on a field trip. It was much fun scaring the other Japanese people on the bus by looking different and speaking in English to each other.
We went to a buffet, where Western and Japanese food was offered. And they played Disney songs in the restaurant. The interior was very charming, colorful, and cute. Japanese restaurants are very strong on the design part. And often they are affordable, too. Especially buffets, where you can eat and drink as much as you want, for about 11 Euros. I have seen many restaurants in Japan offering buffets and eat-drink-flatrates - like in the USA this form of flatrates are really common here. I do not always like it though. They usually encourage you to drink and eat too much and in the end you have trouble walking straight. And in Germany drinking flatrates are a delicate topic because of alcohol abuse. Change of subject: from alcohol abuse to us: we girls were especially attracted by a SOFT ICE MACHINE included in the buffet! So we could as much ice cream as we wanted! No need to mention that I felt kind of nauseous afterwards...

The bus is too low for Gerard (our representative from the Netherlands)

Everybody came to celebrate Charlotte's birthday!

A friend who is fond of Pachinko.

A nice and relaxing walk after the birthday buffet. We went to explore the huge shopping complex and ended up here. We will make good wives. It was very nice though ^^

Cooking with Marion

2010-02-12T16:11:00.001+09:00

In December Marion saw that she had bought a "wrong" type of rice. Eriko, our Japanese friend, said that it was not meant for making some kind of rice cake. So when I discovered a recipe in a Japanese cookbook for making sweet rice balls with red bean paste, which Marion and I love, we had to get togehter and try it!

We bought red azuki beans, cooked them for an hour, mashed them with a cup of sugar and then formed them into balls. We also formed the cooked rice into balls.

Flatten the red bean paste, place a rice ball in the middle, and cover it with the paste.

And then it should look like this. Not the prettiest dessert in the world, but it tasted good. Next time we would double the amount of sugar though.

The end is coming!

2010-02-12T15:32:00.001+09:00

Oh my, I have only 3 days left! I'm starting to panick!

I have been abandoning my blog for a while, because there were so many things going on. But now I want to update at least the most memorable things that I do not want to forget. I want to write them down now so that they are still from a relatively fresh memory before actually being back in Germany.

I do not want to go back... It makes me sad...

Soccer Match

2010-02-05T15:41:00.000+09:00

February 2nd in Oita Stadium: Japan vs. Venezuela!

A Japanese friend managed to buy tickets for the international students. In the end we were a bunch of excited 15 international students to go. It was a match between two countries! We expected it to be even more exciting than the first time we went when FC Oita played.

Already before entering the stadium everybody bought fan merchandise to support the Japanese team

It was so cold! But at the entrance we were distributed small blankets, which we took with gratitude

Not so excited anymore. Everybody was quiet and sitting. Maybe the coldness froze everybody's brains? I was a little bit disappointed by this match. No fun in the audience and 0:0.

The Japanese are so well organized! On the way to and back from the stadium shuttle buses transported the crowds to their destinations.

And look at this. Some fancy chandelier in the bus! I felt like a VIP... I was just missingn the champagne

The eight hells in Beppu - a tour for all senses

2010-02-05T15:22:00.002+09:00

We went to Beppu to the 8 hells. If Kyushu is famous for something, it would be the hot springs in Beppu. There are eight main hot springs, which all have a distinct feature. Beppu is only 20 minutes by train from Oita and cost 540 Yen back and forth.

Directly in front of the train station in Beppu you already encounter the first mini hot spring.

It is for your hands. It is nice and warm and the water is supposed to be good for your skin.

In order to get to the 8 hells you can take a bus to the hot spring area. 5 of the hot springs are in walking distance. You can purchase a ticket voucher for 2,000 Yen (16 Euro) for entry to all 7 hot springs. We had a discount of 10% and so we saved 200 Yen.

The tour was really an adventure for all our senses: seeing, hearing, feeling, smelling, and even tasting!

The first hell: Oniishibouzu Jigoku

It is basically hot mud, around 98 degrees

The best part about this hot spring: a hot spring for your feet! As it is so cold in winter, it was really nice to bathe your feet in warm water. And we forgot to bring towels. But you can buy them at the entrance! And guess what: for exactly 200 Yen. Haha, so in the end our entrance fee was not cheaper... Dang it.

FEELING

As this picture shows, putting ice cold feet in warm water is not nice in the beginning...

...but after getting used to the warmth, it is really relaxing to sit there, especially when the sun is shining and warming your face and your body, too.

These citrus fruits swim in the water probably to ease the sulphur odor from the water

A quiet and nice place to relax - I could have stayed here all day!

SEEING and HEARING:

Steam everywhere you look and listen

More steam

The second hell: Umi Jigoku

Green

It is so warm that blossoms bloom

Red

There is so much steam, sometimes we disappeared

There is steam coming from the road

Lotus in a winter garden

Steam, steam, steam

The blue hell

Eggs are cooked here and sold!

Lunch: Dangojiru

The third hell: Kamado Jigoku

This hell had different booths, where you could experience various aspects of the hot springs.

1st booth

Warm feet: the stone plates are heated with steam from beneath and provide warmth

2nd booth

TASTING

Hot spring water for drinking

It tasted salty and smelled like eggs that have gone bad. Yuck!

Double yuck!

3rd booth

Steam is kept under the wooden plates

You can put your hands in the warm steam

SMELLING

Steam for your face. It smells really bad! It is supposed to be good for your skin.

It gives the phrase "Where the hell is Matt" a new perspective.

More hot mud. (Heißer Dreck)

The Onsen has a natural clear blue color

Here they sold steamed buns and eggs, that were cooked in the hot springs

We got one

And it is brown inside!

It tastes almost like a normal egg, but with a weird aftertaste.

We discovered this sign only after having eaten the egg. Well, never mind. I won't eat it again. And I doubt that it would have tasted much better like this.

4th hell: Shiraike Jigoku

This hot spring was not spectacular. Only the steam shooting from a stone cave was worth a look.

5th hell: Chinoike Jigoku

The name has something to do with blood. Dramatic name!

A Zen fish

We did not make it to all 8 Onsen due to lack of time. There are two hot springs with animals, one with alligators and one with other animals like elephants. But I do not want to go there. It is not supposed to be an animal friendly place.

It was a really fun day in Beppu!

Karo was here

2010-02-05T14:08:00.000+09:00

My old friend from Germany came to visit me. Actually, we just realized that we have known each other for 20 years now!

When she arrived at the train station in Oita I was there to pick her up. I had been excited for days already. She had made it all by herself from Tokyo to Oita. I was impressed! We took her straight to an izakaya for dinner and getting to know some of our Japanese friends. So her first impression of Oita was a cozy personality-filled bar with Japanese sitting on the floor around big tables in seperate rooms, Japanese dishes like raw fish, tempura, mochi, huge sake bottles, children running around in the bar... She said to me: "All this really exists? I thought this is only in movies." I have spent 4 months in Oita so I already forgot how it is to encounter everything with fresh eyes and fresh mind. It is interesting to see the things she finds fascinating, which has become normal for us.

The first day I had to show her Oita City. I started the tour by the most basic thing: 7-11! I had to show her how to survive in Japan without being able to read Japanese signs, nobody speaking English... Especially in areas where there is no McDonalds to rely on... The Japanese konbinis have everything you need as a traveller to survive. Mini bottles with shampoo, convenience food in see-through packing (so that you see what you are buying), water, juice, bakery goods, warm meals, which are heated up for you... This seemed especially important, as she had been hungry the first day when she was alone in Japan because she had not dared to go into any restaurant. The foreign signs and letters and the speaking barriers had prevented her to get something to eat!

After the konbini I showed her all the important shopping places - our three department stores. I basically did the same tour as on our first shopping day in Oita back in October. Forus, Parco, Tokiwa. We could not do anything else than shopping because it rained so much. We were so unlucky! All the time the sun is shining in Oita and on the day she comes to visit me, boom, rain, rain, rain... But the shopping day was excitement enough. I think she was overwhelmed by the variety of accessories, clothes, shoes, and simply crazy stuff.

The morning started off very relaxed in the Traindor bakery at the station. I had shown her some Japanese alternatives for breakfast, but the "normal" bakery seemed like a more secure choice for the moment...^^

Japan has many "fantasievolle" watches

And they are not too expensive: around 20 Euros
(Parco, third floor)

Karo encounters Japanese love for colorful objects

I heart Japan

Telling name

In the evening we went to an Indian restaurant. Two types of curry, bread, rice, and meat for the meat eaters.

It was a fun evening - thank you guys!

Japanese and foreign languages

2010-02-04T17:51:00.002+09:00

Have I mentioned that Japanese do not speak English?

Does this make sense?

This observation can be extended to other foreign languages, too.

I am not sure, but isn't this double-double?

How would you translate this into German?

(^_^)

International Festival

2010-02-04T17:18:00.004+09:00

There is one main event in December, which I have not posted yet. The university organized an International Festival, where the international students and the Japanese community displayed parts of each country's culture. For example, the Japanese made rice cakes called "mochi", held a tea ceremony, provided a workshop for calligraphy, performed a Japanese drum session, ... We Germans and the other countries in Europe made a picture show in order to tell how each country celebrates Christmas.

This is "mochi", a Japanese rice cake, which is chewy:

Do you know how mochi is made? Here it goes:

The mochi dough is beaten for a long time until it gets soft and chewy at the same time. It takes alot of force and it is not so easy to hit the dough. I tried it and after a few moments, my arms got tired!

It takes two men to beat the dough

I tried it but was not of great help I fear

After the dough is beaten it is given to the women, who form it into small balls and roll it in some kind of soy powder. And then it is ready to eat! Yummy!

The Koreans made a spicy soup with rice noodles. It tastes very good!

At the festival the community also organized a tea ceremony. It was held in a tent, but we also had to take off our shoes before entering.

As usual the guests eat a sweet okashi first before drinking the green tea.

Okashi made of red soy bean paste and rice flour dough around it.

For those who do not like red soy bean paste it is also possible to eat something else sweet. It comes in this decorative vase. When I saw it the first time I wondered what could be in it.

This is what comes out of the vase. Small candy made of sugar.

And then the big moment came when we had to hold our presentation about Christmas in Europe. In Japanese! I have to admit that I could not remember my words, so I had to read them from a slip of paper.

Getting ready for our presentation

Don't you also havvve to hold Powerpoint presentations in your university or in your company? Have you ever held them in socks? I am serious, we could only enter the building after taking off our shoes. It was the first presentation that I held in house slippers! Haha. But actually everything was informal and it felt like holding a presentation in front of extended family. Kids were lying on the floor and making comments, laughing at everything you say, and I could have held my powerpoint presentation in socks if I had wanted to! It was much fun, especially because our participant from Denmark Soren could speak Japanese very well and could interact with the kids, asking them questions, making jokes and make them laugh. It was hilarious!

Here we are: wearing pretty red house slippers

Our audience: a mixture of our professors (on the chairs)and kids sitting on the floor

Look how much fun the kids had!

And then somebody shouted, "Who wants to make Dangojiru"! (Dangojiru, you remember? One of Oita's specialties) And of course I sprinted to the kitchen, because I wanted to see how the Japanese women cook it. I have already made it once at Eriko's house, when we all were invited a couple of months ago.

A tray with the dough for the dangojiru noodles is brought in

The dough needs to be formed into noodles. It does not matter who has the longest.

Crowded kitchen with busy noodle makers

After forming the noodles they have to be cooked in the broth until they float at the surface

Ready to serve!

Some good soup ^^ It is made of fish and meat stock

Voilà - self made Dangojiru with noodles and vegetables.

And then we could finally enjoy it, standing in the hallway!

Friends enjoying their dangojiru

After Dangojiru making we went to a room where we could try out calligraphy. Our Japanese tutors showed us how to do it. As to be expected, they were good at it, and we sucked at it.

Our Japanese tutor shows our friend from the Netherlands how to do it

These are the utensils

Look at the left side of the picture. My tutor painted the same character (neko = cat) as me. And look how mine looks in comparison to hers...

Having fun painting

I asked my tutor what her favorite Kanji was and here it is. It means true.

But also Japanese are sometimes unsure about how to write Kanji as this video shows! ^^

Japanese kids doing a drum performance

Colorful costume

An untypical Japanese dessert. Japanese like these kind of cakes with cream and decoration. Maybe it is to imitate something like "Kaffee und Kuchen", which Germans like to have in the afternoons. Except that there was no coffee. Everybody jumped at the women who distributed the cakes. I had to fight to get mine!

Japanese like colorful decoration. This one is self made.

Origami at the kid's table. A little kid had to teach us how to do it.

Look at what she made! From childhood on, her fingers are trained to be more skillful than ours. We feel so clumpsy.

We had a lot of fun at the kid's table. I felt very comfortable there!

I made this box. Yokatta!

My tutor showed me how to make ninja stars. It is really fun!

Here it is!

And then the highlight of the day came: the fashion show! The international students put together a show where everybody wore a traditional costume. Not necessarily from their own homecountry, but who cares ^^ Everybody gathered in front of the stage.

The hosts introduce the models, their home countries and what they wear.

The stage

A Thai dress. She actually performed a Thai dance, too.

Wow, look at her! Imagine all the prude Japanese who do not even show bare arms in public. And then this! Look at the reactions of the audience!

And then THIS! One of the international students performing a belly dance in a sexy outfit. You could literally see all the Japanese (older) men in the room stiffen up, making dead serious faces, or even looking away! I guess this was too much for them.Haha!

All the while, with the entertaining show going on, I was at the kid's table, making my ninja stars all the time. It was fun! Watching the lively show and at the same time handcrafting! ^^

This is my wall in my student dorm. This is how many ninja stars I made. ^^

It was such a relaxed and fun atmosphere. The audience laughed alot, the kids played around, the music and the fashion show were very lively, and then the "nakedness scandals" as shown above... HILRIOUS! If you are Vietnamese, you know what I mean when I say it was like being a kid at a Vietnamese wedding... It felt like being around extended family. It was one of the most heart warming experiences in Japan!

Food from Korea!

2010-01-21T20:35:00.002+09:00

I got a present today ^^ Our Korean friend in our Kaikan got a package from his mother who had sent hundreds of packages of Korean Roasted Laver, the equivalent to Japanese Nori. (Well, maybe not hundreds...) Hmm, I wonder how it tastes like, it looks yummy. I also wonder if there is a difference in taste to the Japanese Nori...
Look at the package: Korean letters! The Koreans are so smart, they abolished Chinese characters and have an alphabet like we do. Unlike the Japanse, who have kept the complicated Chinese characters for who knows what crazy reason...

This is the Japanese version of Nori. Looks the same.

How to make Onigiri in 10 seconds

2010-01-17T23:41:00.000+09:00

Hungry? Craving for a healthy yet delicious snack? How about some easy-to-make nutritionally balanced rice balls?

This Japanese version of rice dish is called onigiri. It basically consists of cooked rice shaped into a triangle. They can be made of plain rice, or stuffed with tuna, mayonaise, shrimp, kelp, pickled cabbage, etc.

Today, in this version, we used some onigiri seasoning, which one can buy in hundreds of variations in any Japanese supermarket.

This seasoning has kelp and sesame seeds in it

But this post is not only about the onigiri itself. But, as my teaser title of my post already gives away - how to make onigiri in 2 seconds? So this is all about the incredible machine: the onigiri maker!

And here it is:

Tadaa

Looks innocent, doesn't it? But these boys rock!

So here is how to do it, it is super easy. If you had friends when you were a child and you played in the sandpit together, you already have it down.

First, have your ingredients ready: cooked rice mixed with seaonings you like. We had one batch with sesame and one with onigiri seasoning. Additionally: tuna and mayonaise, and for the vegetarians: konbu (kelp cooked in soy sauce, mirin, sake).

Choose the small or big onigiri maker according to your hunger or degree of starvation

Fill it halfway with rice and press it down

Put your filling in the middle - here I am using konbu (did not make it myself this time but have to shamefully admit I bought it ready made in the supermarket)

Put rice on top of the ingredients to cover

Close the lid and press tightly

Open and flip it over on a plate. If it does not come out easily you can press the plate in the middle

Perfection!

You can finish by wrapping some nori around it. I personally like it better with nori, because otherwise it tastes a little bit too boring.

It is so easy and it always turns out beautiful. Idiot-proof as TÜV (Germans) would label it. ^^

If I had written a post about the Daiso (100 Yen Shop - a Japanese shop where you can buy EVERYTHING for 105 Yen) as I had planned, then I would say at this point: "And guess what, you can buy it in the Daiso", but I didn't, so I can't. To all of you who do not know the Daiso yet: it is one of the reasons to come to Japan! And I promise to make a post about it. Later.

Cold! Still!

2010-01-17T22:58:00.001+09:00

Me again. I am sitting at my desk. Of course, my heater blower is running full throttle. My head is hot, my eyes are dry, but my fingers are icey cold. I cannot really concentrate and study in my room. The coldness creeps up my ankles and up into the leg! Even if I wear 2 pairs of socks I can still feel the coldness coming from my ice block feet when I touch the socks.

My hands also get so cold that I bought an inexpensive pair of gloves and cut off the fingertips, so that I can wear it and still write or type on the computer.

Voilà.

(Did I mention that I cannot concentrate on my studies due to the simultaneous heat and the coldness. Thus tonight's blog posting... haha)

Ein Stückchen Heimat

2010-01-17T22:39:00.004+09:00

I felt a little bit homesick today, so I decided to make a Vietnamese dessert, which my mother often cooks. It is kind of a sweet bean soup, which you can eat warm or cold. It is a very common dish in Vietnam. It is called che.
It is basically only beans cooked in water and (lots of) sugar. My mother makes it with red or black beans (dau den/dau do) or with green yellowish lentils (dau xanh=Mungobohnen). Sorry, I do not know the exact names for these ingredients. So I do not know at all, if the beans that I find here in the Japanese supermarket are the same. Today, I picked this out:

Red beans, but I cannot read the Kanji. There are several kinds of red beans in the supermarket here, some bigger, some smaller. This is a smaller kind. I think they are Azuki beans, but not sure at all.

Actually you are supposed to soak these beans over night, but I tried it without and just cooked them like that for 45 minutes. The texture turned out a little bit too soft in the end, and they are definitely not the beans my mother uses. I will buy the bigger beans next time. And I did not have Vanillezucker (vanillin flavor).

But it tasted good anyways. There exist so many varieties of this kind of Vietnamese dessert, with different and many more ingredients. There are some with ice, coconut milk or banana for example. But I love this variation best. So simple and delicious ^^

Feel free to google it... ;)

Cold!

2010-01-17T22:13:00.000+09:00

This is what I see every morning when I wake up

I think I already mentioned that it is very cold in our Kaikan. I am freezing all the time! The windows are only single glazed (einfach verglast), so the coldness from outside easily creeps into our rooms. And the winter months in Oita can get really cold.
Actually I noticed something funny the other day. I opened my window (completely) in order to let fresh air move quickly into my room for some minutes (Stoßlüften) and went back to studying at my desk. One hour later I suddenly realized that I had not closed the window. So for the room temperature, it had made no difference if the window had been opened or closed. It does not make any difference if I have windows or not! Haha. :(
There is a double phenomenon going on: single glazed buildings and excessive use of heater blowers (Heizlüfter).
On the one hand, the bad insulation makes it impossible to keep warmth in buildings. On the other hand, it makes much heating necessary. But the heating is mainly done by using heater blowers. And on top of that, when heater blowers are used, then they are used excessively!
Exampe: Our whole university is single glazed. The classrooms are extremely cold in the morning. The teacher immediately turns on the big heater blower, which is installed at the ceiling above our heads. The heater blower runs on full speed all the time. After class the heat does not stay in the room, so for the next class it is turned on again. Not only is this method a waste of enery, but also the air is very dry. The eyes dry out, it is hard to concentrate, and in the worst case you get a headache.
Nobody seems to know anything beside heater blowers. The same applies to public transportation and department stores: they are excessively heated with heater blowers. But not only until a moderately warm temperature is reached, but until you feel like taking all your clothes off the minute that you step into the room, bus or train. It is so hot! It is such a waste of energy. And it is unhealthy.
I do not want to close my post on such a negative note. But I do not know what to add to make it sound like fun.

Coming of Age Day

2010-01-11T16:29:00.006+09:00

Everywhere you look: kimonos, kimonos, kimonos

Yesterday was Seijin Shiki. It was a special day for everybody who turns 20 this year - young people officially become adults. The city organizes a ceremony for them, where the girls dress up in kimonos and the guys in suits. Their seriousness of dressing up reminds me of high school prom. All the girls had spent lots of time and thought on choosing and renting the perfect kimono as wel as getting their hair and make-up done at the hair salon.
On that day the young people come back to their hometowns. After highschool many have moved out to go to university or pursue a job or apprenticeship. Many visit their grandparents' house before the day of the ceremony. So this event is important for them, also because they get a chance to see their old friends again, catch up, party, talk. 20 is the age when they can officially drink. I am sure, for most of them it will not be their first alcoholic beverage. Nevertheless, they all go out to have their drinking parties on this day.
We went to the Oita Castle because there had been a ceremony, which we missed, unfortunately. But as I heard, it is pretty boring, some people hold a speech and everybody listens, no big deal. But the fascinating part for us was to see so many young girls dressed up in kimonos! (They guys were pretty boring, all wearing black suits, but if you watch the video, look at their crazy hairstyles!) And it has seemingly become fashion to wear a white furry thing around the neck. Nobody could tell me for sure if this is traditional or only latest fashion. Everywhere you could hear excited chit chat, high pitched voices, girls screaming "おひさしぶり!" at the sight of their old high school friends... And there were no parents, no adults, no family! So this ceremony belonged only to them, they could catch up with their friends and plan their drinking parties or whatever.

Oita Castle

Friends seeing each other again

Taking pictures, creating memories

Working my way through the kimono-suits-forest looked like this:

How to prevent your umbrella from being stolen

2010-01-10T12:19:00.002+09:00

When you go to the library or the doctor and you leave your umbrella in the umbrella holder at the entrance, have you ever worried that it might get stolen? Have you ever wondered if it would still be there when you leave and want to pick it up again? Apparently, Japanese have.

You can find these in front of libraries, museums, ...

You can lock up your umbrella and be worry-free ^^

Scrunchies

2010-01-10T12:07:00.001+09:00

Something I noticed about Japanese fashion. Girls like to wear scrunchies. Scrunchies? Yes! Something a German girl would have worn in premodern times :D They come in a huge variety - made of satin, cotton, wool, fur... You can choose from any colour you can imagine. They are sold everywhere! I wonder how this cultural difference could evolve.

How to make Okonomiyaki Hiroshima style

2010-01-10T11:51:00.002+09:00

Hiroshima is famous for its okonomiyaki. So we went into an okonomiyaki restaurant. Unfortunately I could not make a video or take better pictures because we were sitting further away and not directly at the counter.
Okonomiyaki is a Japanese dish. You could call it a Japanese pizza, but it is far away from pizza, which we know from Germany or America. There are different ways of making okonomiyaki. It is hard to describe what is in it and how it is made, because there are so many different styles. Usually it is made of a batter consisting of flour, water, and egg (Tokyo style is without egg). You could compare it to a pancake batter. Further ingredients are vegetables (especially shredded cabbage) and meat (for example bacon, pork). You can add sweet okonomiyaki sauce, bonito fish flakes, mayonaise.
I saw an okonomiyaki restaurant in Hiroshima, which showed these pictures of how Hiroshima style okonomiyaki is made:

The foundation: a thin crêpe-like pancake topped with spices

A whole bunch of shredded cabbage and soy sprouts is added

+ Bacon

Then is it flipped over and put on top of fried soba noodles

An omelett is made and the whole soba-vegetables-pancake mixture is put on top of the egg and then again flipped over

+ okonomiyaki sauce

Done!

The end of the journey

2010-01-05T11:37:00.001+09:00

The exciting journey has come to an end. It was a great vacation. One of the best I have ever had.

In Hiroshima I really wanted to go back home to Oita, because I had become sick of travelling so much. So after visiting the shrine on Miyajima Island we immediately headed back to Oita and came back late in the evening.

I had been longing to back to my room and enjoy the peace and quiet. I had been looking forward to finally having time to contemplate all the experiences that I had made on that journey. But the minute I stepped into my room, I wanted to leave again. I have been back in Kaikan for 6 days now and all the time I feel uncomfortable and somehow sad to be here. Weird. Now it feels like the first weeks in Oita, when everything seemed so confined, small, sad, dark, and depressing. Had I only been happy in Oita before because I had gotten used to all its negative sides? Do I really like Oita? Is Oita a good place to live?

We have been celebrating New Year's Eve in the Kaikan with all the people who have stayed here. It was comfortable and consoling to have so many people around. It was not the most exciting New Year's Eve I have ever had, but it was nice that all the Kaikan people spent it together.

So how do Japanese celebrate New Year's Eve? In Germany, the New Year is celebrated with friends at parties. In Japan, it is like Christmas in Germany - New Year's Eve is a family day. In Germany, at midnight it becomes extremely loud. There is a countdown, and at 00:00 everybody loudly wishes (screams) a happy new year and the fireworks are set of. The new year starts with a bang. In Japan it is not quite so. When we went outside shortly before midnight, the streets were deserted. It was totally quiet. You could hear a pin drop. We went to a shrine near the Kaikan. There already a line of people had formed. At midnight all the families leave home and go to a shrine in order to pray. There was also a huge fire going on. At the shrine people buy arrows to which a small wooden signboard is attached. They throw it into the fire, so that the burned wishes can ascend to the gods.

The transition from old to new year had been so oddly quiet that I had even missed the moment. Some people in white gowns had rang a bell. I only realized that it was past midnight, when Andora said to me "Happy new year". ^^ In Germany that would never happen. Haha. But see for yourselves:

Here you see the people lining up to pray and the fire:

Happy New Year!

明けましておめでとうございます!

Day 12: Hiroshima

2009-12-31T16:08:00.000+09:00

Now I am in Hiroshima and actually all I want is go home to my Kaikan room in Oita. Why? Isn't it crazy to be on travel in such a big and exciting city like Hiroshima, staying in a good hostel room, having already paid and having a Railpass to get around for free? Any other time I would never want to leave early, because I would want to get everything out of my last hours and minutes to explore the new city. But it is just too much. Tokyo alone gave me so many new impressions, that now I am sick of discovering new things! I have had enough. I do not want to go on travelling any more. I do not want to explore new places. I just want to go home, rest, and let the beautiful images and impressions from Tokyo sink in.

Hiroshima was really boring. And the weather was bad. Even the luckiest persons are unlucky sometimes! Who would have thought that on the last day of our journey we would be walking in the rain, when the weeks before the weather was constantly clear and sunny? Too bad :(

The highlight of the afternoon in Hiroshima: eating Hiroshima style okonomiyaki

It is a thin pancake topped with fried soba noodles, much vegetables (shredded cabbage and soy sprouts), egg in form of an omelett, okonomiyaki sauce and some green stuff (kelp). It looks so yummy!

But is was a disappointment. It was not that good. The noodles were dry, the sauce was too salty, I do not like Hiroshima style. I like Osaka style much more!

Hiroshima was a big disappointment for me. It was boring. It reminded me of Nagasaki. If you are interested in places with historical significance and if you like to revel in the feeling of tragedy, then Hiroshima (and Nagasaki) is right for you. But the city itself does not offer anything exciting and it is not paticularly beautiful or charming.

Hiroshima is significant for Japanese history because the atomic bomb exploded over it during the war. The town erected many things to remember the tragedy: monument for the victims, museum, statues, a whole Peace Park,... If you are in Hiroshima you would probably feel like a victim. I think it helps to deal with one's own country's history if you have a part where you can feel like a victim. Maybe the Germans would deal differently with their Nazi past if they would have a part where they feel like victims. Ok, difficult topic, I should stop talking. Have to be careful about what I say here. It is just some thoughts I had when I walked around Hiroshima and was bored.

In the afternoon we did something much more fun. We went to Miyajima island where one of the most photographed sights in Japan is: the Miyajima Itsukushima Shrine. It is a red shrine which seems to float in the water when the tide is high. Unfortunately we had missed to check the times of the tide and so we had missed the high tide in the morning hours and now we went to see the lowest point of the tide, because then you can walk to the shrine.

Too bad the weather was so bad! When we walked around the island I thought that when the weather is beautiful this island must be really fascinating and really beautiful! It must be more exciting than Enoshima Island (Kamakura) where we saw Mount Fuji.

Hiroshima souvenir: momiji manju (a cake in shape of a maple leaf with red bean filling) - it is one of the most famous local confections of Hiroshima.

There are also other fillings: custard, chocolate, chesse, but sweet bean paste is the traditional filling.

Another famous Hiroshima food: oysters. Oysters from Hiroshima Bay are famous for their rich taste, especially in winter. On Miyajima Island there lots lots of booths and restaurants selling
them. Here they are on a grill. But you can also eat them deep-fried, in quiche, etc.

At the end of the day we were lucky: the sun came out and we could watch a beautiful sunset.

It is a good sign. It was a wonderful vacation!

Day 11: Nara

2009-12-31T15:19:00.001+09:00

I like Nara. It is a small and friendly heart-warming town. Nara has a lot of charm. Immediately when we stepped of the train at the train station I felt at home. It is like it was 10 years behind all the other Japanese cities that I have seen so far. After being in Tokyo and Osaka, the difference is really striking. The shops are small and old-fashioned, the people are older and more relaxed, there is much nature around. And, of course, we had a clear blue sky, not a single cloud to be seen! We are so lucky! Nara reminds me of a health resort (Kurort). Nara is like the Cuxhaven of Japan. I felt so relaxed and happy in Nara.

A peaceful and charming town

Mochi with soybean powder - I wish I had tried it

Here they are made

At the Five Story Pagoda

Bambi wants some food

Deer everywhere!

Nara's symbol

Quiet streets, narrow pavements

What is also immediately striking when you get off the train is that there are so many tourists! The ratio tourist-locals is much higher than in Tokyo and Osaka, because Nara is so small.

The thing that I enjoyed most in Nara was to walk around in Nara Park. Nara is so small that everything is in walking distance. It was a perfect day: Sunny weather, surrounding nature, deer,... Yes deer! Nara's probably most attracting feature for me are the deer, which run around freely in the city. You can feed and touch them! It is funny, everywhere you look, begging Bambi-eyes look at you, craving some deer-cookies. These begging looks reminded me so much of our dog Lucky at home when she smells the dinner on our table! They give the whole city a very friendly flair. This is also because children love feeding and touching the animals, so Nara is also a family-friendly town.

Deer in Nara Park

More deer in Nara Park

It is so cute!

Tourists can buy deer food. The deer already wait there.

Fabian has some food and a follower

A very relaxing walk in Nara Park

You can touch the deer

One of the funniest moments of the day:

Here is city where I can say without being accused a liar: "the deer ate my homework" ^^

Why are there so many deer in Nara? According to a historical document a deity appeared behind the Kasuga Grand Shrine (in Nara Park now) on a sacred white deer. Since then people started to sorwhip the deer as a sacred symbol. They have been carefully looking after them since then. Today, deer in Nara are a National Monument of Japan!

Moss on lantern in Nara Park

Surrounded by deer. They want food!

Feeding a small one

Sight in Nara Park

Tamukeyama Hachimangu Shrine - looks like Kyomizudera in Kyoto.

Actually a lot in Nara reminds of Kyoto.

Nice view from the Shrine.

Still at the shrine

Todaiji Temple. There is a big Buddha statue (Daibutsu) inside. But I did not go inside.

Outside Todaiji Temple

Many families with children in Nara Park

My friend the deer

The deer are sacred animals in Nara.

Going downtown

Ara-ike pond

Deer everywhere. Even on the ground.

It is too bad, that we only had one day here. I would have loved to have two days to explore the city, drink in the atmosphere, look around in the small shops, take one more relaxed stroll in the park, look at some more temples and gardens...

I love Nara. Nara makes happy! (^_^)

Day 10: Osaka

2009-12-31T14:11:00.001+09:00

We were very pessimistic about Osaka. After going to Tokyo, what can possibly be as exciting and interesting?

We took a Rapid Train from Kyoto to Osaka (less than half an hour). It is so funny how all the big and busy train stations like Kyoto and Osaka, which had wowed us before, now seem so small after experiencing Shinjuku station in Tokyo.

What I like about travelling is that every city has a tourist information center, where you can get city maps for free and where English\speaking people can help you. Especially if one has no clue which sights to go to, the tourist information center can always tell you the most important places.

First we went to the Osaka Sky Building near the station. And we were pretty disappointed. The city seems ugly and boring.

After that we went to Osaka's main sight, the Osaka Castle. At first, I did not want to go there, because the Nagoya Castle had been such a bore. But as we had so much on our hands, we went. And we were not disappointed! It is not the most exciting castle I have been to, but the Main Tower looks very impressive. It has been erected so high, that it is visible over the castle walls. When it was built it must have been a clear intention of gaining the respect of (unwanted) visitors.

Gloomy

Impressive height

And then it fot even better. One of the highlights of the day was the American District (Amerika Mura), where mostly young people hang out and where one crazy and colourful shop is crammed next to the other. It is flashy, loud, colourful, lively. It was similar to being in Shibuya!

The next highlight was Shinsaibashi and Dotombori, huge shopping arcades with masses of stores and restaurants. It was full of people, very lively. The mere number and diversity of design, style, food, price ranges of the places to eat is aamazing! In Japan I often find that the selection of restaurants, bars, izakazas, small booths, etc. is really impressive. Many have beautiful and interesting designs, walking past them and looking from outside already catches my attention and I wonder how it might look inside.

I think that Kyoyo lacks places to go in the evenings, but Dotombori and Shinsaibashi in Osaka nearby burst of a busy nightlife!

On the way to Osaka's shopping district

In Amerika Mura

Who wears that? People in Japan do.

So many people in Shinsaibashi!

Osaka style Osonomiyaki!

Selling Okonommiyaki:

Having Okonomiyaki for dinner at the river. Beautiful view!

Shinsaibashi

So many interesting looking restaurants! I would like to eat my way through this city!

Haha.

Dotonbori

Ramen Shop

Especially after Tokyo it is a huge compliment to Osaka from my side when I say that I would go there again!

Kyoto

2009-12-31T13:51:00.002+09:00

When we arrived at Kyoto station, having left Tokyo 3 hours ago and still weeping within, the first thing I noticed was how familiar everything looked to me and that it felt a little bit like coming home! I recognized all the station building, the bus terminal, the big crossing in front of the station. It was so nice to feel like being in a familiar place again.

The second thing I noticed was how quiet it was! There were fewer people, they were not rushing like crazy, the whole atmosphere in Kyoto is so mor relaxed than in Tokyo. Compared to Tokyo Kyoto is a quiet beauty. Well, except for the weekends at the Golden Pavillon or Kyomizudera etc.

I miss Shibuya Crossing and the Starbucks!

Here is the Shibuya Crossing version in Kyoto:

Our guest house "Chita" is a little bit of a disappointment. Fabian and I allowed us the luxury of booking a room for two people. It is so stressful to come back to the hostel after walking around the whole day and being exhausted, and not having a possibility to relax in a quiet place. If you stay in a dorm room with 6 other people, the travel can get really exhausting. But here in Chita the walls are so thin, that it feels like you were living with the other people in one room! You hear EVERYTHING.

Something else that bothers me about this hostel is that it only has one shower for the whole hostel! There are 15 pairs of shoes in the entrance so we can guess how many people probably will want to shower! I am sitting here, surfing on the internet for already an hour, waiting for the shower to be vacant again. I feel like a lion behind some bush waiting to jump out and catch its prey.

The most interesting thing about this hostel is its Japanese style of the guest rooms. The rooms are laid out with tatami mats. The beds are futon which you spread out on the floor. And we got a Yukata! It is something like a Japanese pyjama for home.

Our room in the guest house

Our beds - still need to be made

What is this?

It comes with this piece of cloth

It is my yukata! It is the Japanese style of homewear.

Day 9: Last day in Tokyo

2009-12-27T15:50:00.003+09:00

Oh no, everything comes to an end. Our vacation in Tokyo is over and I am really sad to leave. If you had one last day in Toyko left, what would you do?

Fabian and I decided to do our favorite things, having a last relaxed day. Can you guess what we did? ^^

Of course! ^^

After cleaning our friend's apartment for a few hours and shopping in H&M again, we went to our favorite relaxing place. It is the fourth time that we go to Shibuya Starbucks, but we just love this so much! ^^

And then we went shopping in Shibuya near Harajuku station. We had to check out the store, which sells Uniqlo shoes and has everything on sale. It is packed in there (especially because Sunday is Shopping Day in Japan - not like boring Germany, where you cannot do anything on Sundays), but I fought my way through and bought some nice boots ^^ Yosh!

Sometimes I wonder what day today is. When you do not have a university schedule or any other obligations, one is indifferent to the weekdays. But when I saw this I immediately knew what day today is. It is Freakday: Sunday. This is the day of the week you should go to Shibuya and Yoyogi Park. Teenagers can put on their second identities and meet up with their groups to live their fantasies.

So Fabian and I had a very relaxed day, doing our favorite things, slowly saying goodbye to Tokyo. I fell in love with Tokyo, although there are many things that get on my nerves. I am especially tired of the masses of people! Tokyo has too many people! You cannot walk straight, you have to constantly concentrate to avoid people. People are rushing all the time or standing in the way. Here in Tokyo is the first time in Japan, that I encounter unmotivated or even unfriendly service people. In Oita or the other Japanese cities that I travelled to I never experienced any shop assistants who were not very polite and smiled. But here there are some people that are on the friendliness-level of Germany even! I guess this is what such a huge city with many tourists brings with it. But I did not see as many foreigners here in Tokyo as I had expected. Staff people here speak English very well, so this is where you can see that Tokyo is used to tourists. But still, when walking around this city, you encounter less Western people than expected.

Fabian and I have been alone in Tokyo since Friday evening, because Miriam had left for skiing with some friends. But we will meet her again to go to Nara and Hiroshima together. Also Miriam has booked her hostel in Kyoto, from where we will use our Railpass and travel to Osaka and Nara. So we save the nerve racking moving of our baggage from one hostel to another.

As Nagoya was a grab into the toilet (German English for Griff ins Klo) we are really afraid that Osaka, Nara, or Hiroshima could also be so boring. It would be a disaster and not a nice finale of our holidays. Actually we had originally planned to go to Kobe today. But as our Nagoya experience has made us wary, we did thorough research about activities/sights in Kobe in order to estimate its fun factor. But when we read that even the Lonely Planet (our bible) says that it is not a must-see, we refrained from undetaking the risk of travelling there and reliving a trauma. So in about an hour Fabian and I will go on journey to Kyoto to our hostel. Haha, this is my third time in Kyoto. Seems to be a gravity point of my stay in Japan. And tomorrow we will go to Osaka. Drückt uns die Daumen! Wish us luck!

Day 8: A day far away from the city

2009-12-26T22:52:00.003+09:00

Thank God, today was much better than yesterday! Fabian and I went to the Tama Region, which still belongs to Tokyo. We wanted to explore Tokyo nature, so we decided to go to Takao Mountain, which is only 50 minutes away by train. We had the choice between Takao Mountain and Mikage Mountain. We chose Takaosan because the train ride is 20 minutes shorter and because there was supposed to be an easy trail, which we could hike in 3 hours. Sounded like a perfect exercise for one relaxed day ^^

When we woke up, we were surprised by a cloudy sky. Since our arrival in Tokyo the weather had always been sunny. But we decided to go because the weather forecast said that the sky would clear up. We hoped so. In the meantime we travelled to Subway in Shibuya. Can you imagine our hunger for a good sandwich, when we undertook a 30 minutes journey just to get a Subway? (Japanese versions of sandwiches usually taste like air. I never managed to find a good sandwich in Oita.)

I know, I am such a tourist, running to Subway all the time. But it was a perfect start into the day: eating a yummy sandwich outside in the sunshine.

And we were lucky: the sun really came through when we arrived at the train station Takaosanguchi! We were really happy when we started the hike. It was paved, and seemed easy to walk. We were reminded of our excursion on Yang Ming Mountain in Taipei, where we had a wonderful day surrounded by nature. It was a very good change from busy Tokyo city life to a quiet relaxing walk in nature. It was what I had needed! We could breathe fresh air, get some easy exercise, let the sun shine on our faces and enjoy the greenery around. Now and then we also got a pretty nice view on the mountains from high above.

There were many souvenir shops and small restaurants along the hike, but well, it was still pure nature in comparison to Tokyo life. And I think Japanese just do not feel well without souvenirs shops, vending machines, food when they travel, even when it is hiking.

The nice hike today really made me happy, because yesterday had been so depressing.

Takao is cute little village.

Trail 1 is the easiest one. It is paved and only 3,8 km long. The average hiking duration is 3 hours and 15 minutes.

Stairs! I had a déjà-vu ^^ Hello Yang Ming Mountain!

Uphill

Arriving at first base

This is what Fabian saw

The statues have red hats on

Mount Takao is famous for its wildlife - birds, insects, plants. Here a man feeds a bird.

Even in the jungle Japanese would set up vending machines.

They are everywhere! I wonder why, in every street in Japan you find vending machines, which sell beverages.

View from Takaosan

Alongside the 3,8-km-trail there were about 3800 of these shops selling food, souvenirs, beverages, hiking poles (in case yours broke on the way ^^), etc. Here is a shop selling mochi on a stick.

These were our rewards on the way - nice views

A glowing plant

I wonder why there is an octopus sculpture

On the way to shrines and temples. Takaosan is a mountain of worhip.

The first gate

Scent sticks

Statue of a God at a Shinto shrine with long nose

Trees holding hands

Nice view on the way back. The setting sun was not so extremely bright anymore.

The way back was much faster because we went downhill. But our knees needed a break in between!

My overall impression of Mount Takao is that it is a very touristically exploited site. Trail 1 is a very walkable trail. I enjoyed hiking in nature and it was a welcomed change from the busy Tokyo city buzz, but if you consider other spots to hike, this is too spoiled by souvenir shops and paved ways, which make everything sometimes look like park rather than a mountain. But still, I had a very nice day there ^^

For dinner, we decided to try one of the million Korean restaurants near our apartment. We had Kimchi Nabe - yummy. But the Koreans seem to eat differently than Japanese. Japanese usually only eat a pot of Nabe, which they share. Everybody has a little bowl in front of him and helps himself from the big pot in the middle. But the Koreans also have more dishes on the table, for example a Korean pizza (Chijimi, do not know the right spelling) or cold noodle salad, which they also share.

A cozy Korean place. The streets around our apartment in Tokyo is full of these restaurants!

Cross Shibuya Crossing with me!

Sitting in Starbucks and watching Shibuya Crossing is relaxing. Like I said, it is like watching a tank with fish. And how fitting: my tea is called ZEN. ^^

Watching Shibuya Crossing at night from Starbucks:

Day 7: Nagoya

2009-12-25T21:40:00.004+09:00

Today we went to Nagoya. It was so boring. It was so boring that I would have rather stayed in my student dorm back in Oita.

Nagoya is the fourth largest city in Japan, how come it is so boring? When you look around in the subway you notice that the people are older, uglier, and smellier than in Tokyo. The highlight of Nagoya is the Castle.
I was so bored today that the mental pain even started to translate into physical pain. I started to feel exhausted, got a headache and felt uneasy.

We bought a Japan Rail Pass. We paid about 250 Euros and we can use as many trains as we want within one week. Today the first day of our ticket started and we could use the subway (from the JR company) for free and we could use a shinkansen from Tokyo to Nagoya. It only takes 2h.

Japan's fastest train - shinkansen

When we waited for our shinkansen it was funny to see that suddenly cleaning women in pink uniforms lined up at the track, waiting to get on the train and to clean it.

The customers get off the train and the cleaning women stand at the side of the exit and bow.

For a German this a very strange sight.

I have been looking forward to use the shinkansen, the Japanese high speed train. Wikipedia says that the highest speed at a test ride was over 443 km/h.

It was unspectacular. It was like riding any other train.

I do not know what I had expected. A time travel maybe?

Nagoya Castle - the highlight from today

At the foot of the tower deers were running around. Definitely highlighting the highlight!

But apart from the castle there is not really anything exciting to see or do in Nagoya. We were really depressed, when we were running around, going to the supposed sights, which the information center had given us, because the sights were nothing exciting.

It seems as if Nagasaki tried to enforce sights from any minor detail. We were even lured into a warehouse (at Nagoya castle), a supposed sight, where we saw nothing but a long corridor, on the left side a construction site. Great. See for yourself:

Nagoya is a very poor city if this is a sight.

Something that cheered me up and relieved me from my pain a little bit. Some crazy people in costumes running around at Nagoya castle. I think they are performers and perform a play at this castle.

There we are. Three Germans and two crazy Japanese.

If you see this sign, go the other direction.

One pretty moment of the day. At a crossing in Nagoya near Sakae station.

I wonder what the shopowner thought when he named his shop. Seriously, I wonder which Japanese words sounds like "Puff".

Hm, is this due to sexual harassment in Nagoya? As there are only old people there I canot imagine the problem to be that serious.

Fabian and I ate Shio Ramen for lunch. We had been running around Nagoya to find a nice eating place, then we had been running around the huge station in order to find a konbini or an eating place. So we were pretty hungry and lacking energy when we finally sat down and could eat.

After our Shio-Ramen, which we ate in a nice shop in the station, we decided to go back earlier than planned. Already at 3 p.m. instead of 6 p.m. But before leaving we wanted to go some more sightseeing, which was recommended by the information map. There were 4 interesting buildings, which were supposed to be near the station. We wanted to extend some time in Nagoya, because we wanted the long shinkansen ride to be worth it. Haha, we had just stepped outside the station,immediately saw the first building, then directly next to it, the other, then the other two. We tool pictures, click-cklick-cklick - and after 5 seconds also this sightseeing was done. Great. Here are the pictures: (I was not motivated enough to raise my hand and take a picture of the fourth building, sorry)

In the evening we walked around Shinjuku station and checked out some stores. Here in Tokyo we often see a department store called OIOI. When I go back to Germany, nothing will look appealing to me anymore, because in Japanese department stores the products are much more interesting and cute than in let's say Kaufhof.

Here is a video of Shinjuku station. Here you can see how many people run around there, always in a hurry:

And I also want to show you something, which I call in German "Augenkrebs-Laden" (eye cancer shop), because it hurts my eyes to go there. It is loud, the colours are bright, it is chaotic,... I don't know why Japanese like this. I always get a headache when I am in there for more than 3 minutes.

Day 6: Christmas at the beach

2009-12-24T22:30:00.002+09:00

Another day just passed by. And again it showed that Tokyo has so many facets. Today we saw the futuristic Tokyo and the beach.

In the morning we went to the town district Roppongi. But there was not much to see, I do not even bother to upload any picture. Bof.

But then we went to Odaiba island. It is an artificially created island. It is a different Tokyo that we saw there. It was not crazy, loud, busy, old-fashioned, or beautiful. It was new, structured, just futuristic. The building complexes are new and many huge shopping malls offer a variety of products. The Rainbow Bridge connects central Tokyo with the island. The ride on the train alone, which is completely automatically driven (!), was an event. Looking out of the window you can see high buildings, bridges, roads flying by, taking you to another world. As if you witnessed a time travel from the window.

And this is where we landed

Fabian was again succesful at doing Japanese national sport - he managed to get Puh-San out of a crane machine in "Palette Town" (a wide spread shopping complex)

The futuristic building of a TV station

Nice skyline by the water

Miriam and Fabian relaxing in the sun

Walking along the shore suddenly the ground changed from concrete to this

Tokyo by the water:

Miriam and I with the Rainbow Bridge in the background

Rainbow Bridge - also very beautiful at night

And then suddenly there was sand under my feet. Tokyo Beach on Christmas Eve! The sun was shining the whole day, there was no cloud in the sky. It was actually warm enough to take off our coats and enjoy the sun.

Here is a 360 degree view of the beach (Fabian is little bit shy and successfully hid from the camera):

A nice day ends. And we were a little bit tired when we took the subway back home.

Do not underestimate the time it takes you to get from one town district to another! It can take hours, because you have to calculate the transfers between different subways and the ways it takes to walk from one platform to another!

When we went back home to our apartment we turned on some Christmas music, and had our German tradition of "Bescherung", exchanging gifts ^^ We thought that we would be a little bit sad, spending Christmas in a foreign country, so far away from our home and families. But as you can see Tokyo was a good means to distract our thoughts, so I was able to handle my Christmas-homesickness. And in Japan, you do not really get into Christmas mood that much, because Christmas does not have the same meaning to Japanese as for Germans. Here it is more of a commercial act and a day to spend with your girlfriend/boyfriend rather than a family day. And tomorrow everything is over anyways. And something else that I noticed: Japanese do not wait to open their Christmas presents on Christmas Eve or Christmas morning. Anything given as a present in November or December is considered a Christmas gift, but is opened immediately!

I love my gifts! ^^

ありがとう!

Merry Christmas to everyone!

Day 6: Birthday Party

2009-12-23T21:18:00.003+09:00

If you planned a vacation in Japan. What would be on your Must-Do-List?
For me, my checklist was:

1. See Kyoto and visit the Inari Shrine (the red gates from the movie "The Geisha").
2. Eat Sushi.
3. Go to Tokyo.
4. See Mount Fuji.
5. Buy drinks from vending machines.
6. See the Emperor of Japan.

See the Emperor of Japan? Ok, I have to admit, this was not on my list.

But today, I did!

Today was the Emperor's birthday. In contrast to Christmas, his birthday is a national holiday. The Emperor's birthday and New Year are the only two days in the year, when the gates of the Imperial Palace are open to the public. On his birthday the Emperor comes out in front of his Imperial Palace, holds a speech, and waves to the public. So, of course, we had to go there!

It was like going to a football match. Excited crowds wandered to the Palace, holding flags in their hands. There was security everywhere, our bags were opened and checked, and our bodies were examined for dangerous weapons. Yesterday, Tobi said that he asked some of his Japanese colleagues if the Emperor's birthday was an important holiday. But they shrugged and said: "Only for old people." And really, the crowds mainly consisted of over-40s and tourists.

Each bag was opened and thoroughly examined. But before opening each zipper I was asked: "Is it ok to open it?". It seems very polite and I wonder what would have happened if I had said no.

Bodycheck

The gates to the Imperial Palace were open today

The famous Nijubashi bridge of the Imperial Palace

Crowds on the way to the Palace

The crowds want to see the Tenno

We wait patiently for the Tenno's appearance. He was fashionably late. I wondered if he would wear something traditional like a kimono or a business suit.

And then he came! The crowds cheered, waved their flags and some screamed. Unfortunately you cannot really see the Tenno in this video. He is behind the flags. But you can see his daughters who were dressed in light clothes. The Tenno looked old and wore a suit. And we were so close! I had expected to see some window from the distance, but not the actua face of the Tenno!

Cheering crowds

The Emperor and his family

In the Garden of the Imperial Palace

Yeah, we saw the Emperor!

I have to say that this event was very well-organized and civilized. There was no chaos, no pushing. It was not like at a rock concert, although there were so many people! The Emperor came out three times with a 30 minutes break in between. So when one crowd saw the Tenno, they went away and the next crowd could come in. Smartly planned. Japanese know how to structurize mass events.

After the Tenno's appearance the crowds moved to the Imperial Garden.

Maybe this is also a way for Germany to keep hooligans from rebelling after soccer matches.

After waving to the Tenno we went through the Imperial East Garden, and then into the Kitanomaru Park at the Imperial Palace. The sun was shining and it was the perfect weather to just lie down and relax. It was so warm, that I could lie there in a T-Shirt. Families and tourists I closed my eyesm heard some ravens crowing, some airplane in the sky, felt a cool breeze around my nose and felt the warm sunshine on my face. It was so relaxing, I even dozed off for a second ^^

After the Emperor's birthday party we went into his park and lay on the grass to relax

Fabian and Miriam relaxing and picknicking in the sun

Relaxing in Kitanomaru Park

When I lay down on the grass the sky looked like this. No clouds. It was warm. The sun was shining on my face. Perfect.

We also visited a friend who we had met in our Japanese course in Bochum (before coming to Japan). Her husband is an expatriate from Stuttgart and has been working in Tokyo since the beginning of November. They have recently found an apartment in Central Tokyo, only one station from the Imperial Palace, on the 24th floor of a newly erected building. Half of their apartment consists of windows! The view is breathtaking!

The building where an expatriate can live

One of the many huge windows with a great view over central Tokyo

We talked alot about the differences of life in Germany and Japan. And the many difficulties one has when moving to Japan, especially Tokyo. I think that it can be very lonely when you move to Tokyo and do not have any work yet. The city is huge and bursts of people, but you have to find some connection in order to make friends.

We wanted to see the sunset from the 45th floor of the Government building . An elevator brings everybody for free to the observatory floor. You can even see Mount Fuji from there when the weather is clear. But Mount Fuji is always shy and usually hides behind clouds. Like today.

The government building in the west of Tokyo

Tourists watch the sunset from the 45th floor of the Government building in Shinjuku

This high building is a university!

The wides of Tokyo

Tokyo by night

More Tokyo by night

What else can I say

Shinjuku - the district where our apartment is. The Shinjuku station is probably the busiest station in the world. Guess how many people are transported from and to Shinjuku station. An average of 500 persons per second get on and off the subway in this station! It is huge, we had have trouble finding the right exit and subways.

JR

2009-12-22T19:24:00.000+09:00

Riding on the train in Japan usually looks like this. (This video is from today on the JR train Yamanote line in Tokyo.)

People are either sleeping or playing with their cell phones.

Day 5: No adrenaline today

2009-12-22T19:07:00.007+09:00

What can I say, today was a little bit unexciting. Especially conmpared to the last two days it was kind of boring today. First, we started the day with a Starbucks coffee at our favorite crossing in Chibuya ^^ Then we went into a huge department store called 109, which had a section for men's clothing.

This is in the men's section...

Men are supposed to look like this.

Then we went to Ginza . Ginza is supposed to be a nobler district with a business section. It is modern and westernized. You find huge deparment stores (like Mitsukoshi) there, and also galleries and small artscraft shops. If you have money, this is probably a nice place to go.

The Kabuki theater in Ginza - it is the biggest Kabuki theater in Tokyo. It has a traditional Japanese architecture mixed with western materials.

Kabuki Theater

Traditionally, all roles, female and male, are performed by male actors. So this is how a Kabuki woman looks like.

Business district

We discovered a German restaurant - beer, Brezel, Wurst, and FC Bayern

Tokyo International Forum - interesting architecture. It was completed in 1996 and is supposed to be one of the most beautiful and impressive buildings in Tokyo. The building made of glass is 60 metres high.

Tokyo International Forum - there are many restaurants and shops downstairs.

Tokyo International Forum - much steel and glass

After Ginza we went to Ueno Park. But there was nothing exciting to see either. Just some dried plants. Actually many temples and museums are located in Ueno Park. But we did not go there.

Ueno Park - nature and city. Nature not at its best today.

Next to the Ueno Park is Ameyoko Arcade. It is one of the biggest markets in Asia. It started as a black-market after WWII, but now everything is legal and has become a lively shopping area. It was packed there! It was hard to fight your way through the crowds and sometimes the sheer amount of people around me really annoyed me. You can find many bargains there. Food, bags, clothes, everything you want.

Ameyoko Arcade

Ameyoko Arcade is very loud, lively, full of people, nerve-racking. Shop screamers attract the cusomers' attention.

Bargaining at Ameyoko Arcade

We took some side street and it was filled with establishments like this

In the evening we meet Tobi again. As we live in a Korean neighbourhood, we went into a Korean restaurant. I had the feeling that they were not exactly happy, that foreigners came into their restaurant. We do not speak Japanese, behave awkwardly, and are simply exhausting. Sometimes in Tokyo I have the feeling that people are fed up with foreigners. It was in Tokyo, that for the first time, someone was impolite to me. I approached a passing Japanese business man, because I wanted to ask for the way, saying "Excuse me please". But he shot an unfriendly look at me, turned his face away just went on.

After dinner we went through Shinjuku. It looks very impressive at night, when the crazy lights are on:

As I do not have to say much about my day today, I will recite some dialogues from the last days. Dialogue Participants are A,B, and C. (Actually, after writing the dialogues down and reading them, they do not seem so funny like they were in that moment. It is the same with my photos. They never seem to be able to capture the real beauty that I see. Grr.)

A and B get off the subway. They are on the way to the fishmarket.
A: It smells like fish!
B: We are on the way to the fishmarket, what did you think?

A, B, and C walk through the park. They watch some cute children running around.
A (wearily): When I have a child, it will probably look ugly.
B: No, no. Your child will be really cute.
C to A: When your child grows up, I will tell him: 'Your mother once said that you would look like crap.'

A, B, and C look at a nice big tree with a huge treetop.
A: The tree reminds me of Germany.
B: Me too. The trees in Japan are usually so slim and small.
A: Like the men in Japan.
C: Even the trees in Japan are fags.

Day 4: Where did my ice cream go?

2009-12-21T20:54:00.006+09:00

Wow, what a day! I saw a whole new world today, only 55 minutes from Tokyo away.

Already our morning started well. we woke up and again the sky was blue, no cloud in the sky, the sun was shining into our light apartment... We are so lucky! :) I wonder if the weather is always like this in Tokyo.

We went to Kamakura. It is an hour away by train. There are two major sights, which were recommended in our guide:
1. Daibutsu: the most popular sight in Kamakura. A huge Buddha statue.
2. Hase-Dera: One of the most famous temples in this region.

The first sight was a disappointment. I had imagined the statue to be at least twice as big. But like this - it was not impressive at all. Just a slightly bigger statue, which was not even amazingly pretty.
The second sight we did not even bother to go into. Temples... we already saw so many, we are full of temples and shrines...

Daibutsu

Hase-dera

We had seen our two sights. But at the tourist information center in Kamakura station had recommended us to go to the Enoshima island. We were not so sure about this, because our travel guides and brochures never mentioned this island. But as the two sight sucked we went there.

Already on the train ride to the island, Miriam suddenly shouted through the train: "AAh! There's Fuji!" Haha, the Japanese on the train, who usually rarely talk or make noise on public transportation, jumped in their seats ^^

And WOW! It was amazing!

Sight from the train - the ocean. Not so far from Tokyo!

Christmas decoration at the train station - kawaii

Mount Fuji! A big cloud is hovering over its peak

Fugu

View from Enoshima Island

View on Mount Fuji from the Observation Tower on Enoshima Island

View from the Overvation Tower on Enoshima Island

Outside on the Observation Tower on Enoshima Island: a fresh breeze and a breathtaking sight

The wide ocean

Clear blue weather

The clouds seem to be drawn to Mount Fuji

On the way back to the train station - Looking back on Enoshima Island. Reminds me of Monkey Island somehow. Or Pirates of the Carribean.

Mount Fuji on the right at sunset

Mount Fuji on the right at sunset again

In the afternoon we went back. We came by a nice-looking café. As Miriam waited for a customized souvenir in a shop, Fabian and I decided to go into the café. We were cold and our feet were tired. A hot chocolate was what we needed. The café looks European, very nicely decorated, noble and cozy. When we sat down and got the menu, we were shocked when we saw the prices. 735 Yen for one hot chocolate? And nothing else was cheaper. We decided to go outside, but too late - the waitress had already set two glasses of water in front of us. Dang it. We were getting depressed at the thought that we could get two tall Starbucks instead of one small cup in this café. But when we tasted it - it was the best hot chocolate I drank in my life! It was made of real melted chocolate and milk. Wow. I guess it was worth it. I had the most expensive and the yummiest hot chocolate in Japan. ^^

A really pretty café

Beautiful porcelain - from England, Italy, ...

When I grow up I want to have beautiful dishes!

If we had read the Kanji, we would have known the prices before sitting down

Extremely good hot chocolate

We can be happy after all

A dessert after dessert: Mount Fuji at sunset

Last but not least: my tragic little story. First let me say: Tokyo bursts of konbinis! You cannot go 200 metres without passing by a konbini. But in Kamakura - konbini desert! I needed to buy food to go, but nowhere any 7-Eleven, Lawson, Family Mart, Everyone to be seen! I even got angry! But then: shortly before arriving on the Enoshima Island I saw a Lawson. Finally. I was so happy, I also bought an ice cream. Yummy! :) I enjoyed my ice cream light-heartedly, enjoying the sunshine. Suddenly something black rapidly flew by my arm, and I felt a scratch on my hand. Ouch! And one second later I realized, my ice cream was gone! A hawk had attacked me from behind and had stolen my ice cream!

Haha, 100 metres later, still recovering from the shock, we came by this:

Too late.

Only a tiny scratch. The psychological wound was much deeper.

Oh, something else I forgot. I sat on the train from Tokyo to Kamakura. And then I saw Tuani:

And still one last thought: Miriam and I get depressed at the thought that we run around like tourists, shabby travel clothes, totally underdressed in Tokyo. Tokyo! Where fashion is at its boiling point! After our successful shopping trip in Shibuya we tried to imitate Japanese fashion. Boots, skinny jeans/tights and big sweater. But actually we still look so German. Haha, but we were still happy, that we did not look like travel crap today ^^ I hope we are on the right track, haha!

Day 3: I love Tokyo!

2009-12-20T22:16:00.004+09:00

Today was great! I had so much fun! I fell in love with this city!

We went to Shibuya today. You might think that this district only consists of people around 20, who are good looking and stylish to death. One of the most impressive moments today was the famous Shibuya crossing. It is like the whole population of Tokyo came to Shibuya to this crossing. It is packed!

The famous Shibuya Crossing (the sight from Starbucks)

The famous Shibuya Crossing (the sight from the Shibuya train station)

The famous Shibuya Crossing (the sight from in front of the Shibuya train station)

One of my most exciting lunches in my life:

sitting up in Starbucks, secretly eating a Avocado subway (there is no such thing in Germany!!), drinking Starbucks Café Latte, and watching the crowds crossing Shibuya Crossing ^^

I could sit here all day...

At Shibuya train station there is the statue of Hachi-Ko.

The famous story is now even made Hollywood material:

In the 1920s a professor had a dog who waited for him every day at the station when he came from work. Even after the professor died the dog kept coming to the station waiting for his master. It came every day for 11 years until it died. The Lonely Planet says that locals recognized this and erected this statue to honor the dog's loyalty. I wonder if the story is true. It sounds very sad.

We went to the Shibuya 109, a huge department store with clothes, accessories,... It is favored by teenage girls. It is crazy, there is so much stuff!

We went to H&M. Many clothes were sold for only 1000 Yen (ca. 7-8 Euro)!

I did not know that Japanese like H&M. I always thought it was too basic for them. But at these prices in Germany H&M would be hell, women fighting each other for clothes. But here it was pretty calm!

I went to Uniqlo later, where they also had sales, and there it was packed! Japanese stop to be polite in trains, subways, and in Uniqlo!

We went to Yoyogi Park because we heard that it is full of freaks. There was music playing everywhere, people running around in weird costumes. It is really a freak show.

In front of Yoyogi Park - people giving away free hugs.

More freaks. I read that many are bullied at school and the weekend at Yoyogi Park is a possibility for them to meet expres themselves.

Takeshita-Dori in Shibuya - it is packed!

The masses reminded me of Kyoto. Only that most of the people were teenage girls.

This street is full of boutiques, stores selling colorful stuff, shoes, accessories, socks,...

We went to a really cool okonomiyaki (Japanese pizza) place. It was hidden in an art gallery. The place was really cozy and each room has been painted by a different artists. This is the building of the gallery.

A really interesting place - and in here there is an okonomiyaki restaurant?

Miriam and Fabian making okonomiyaki and soba meshi (fried noodles)

My first self-made okonomiyaki - yummy!

After dinner we checked out the rest of the gallery - a really cool place!

Today was also really relaxed. We have so much time here in Tokyo and do not have to rush from one sight to another. Also, when we come back from out daytrips, we come home to a cozy apartment, where we can drink tea, use our computers, relax. It feels so much more home and nice in Tokyo staying at our friend's apartment ^^

Shibuya is a really lively and young spot. It is a shopping paradise, a cool place to watch people and their crazy or stylish fashion, a good place to find many affordable restaurants,... I love Shibuya!

And the weather is also perfect. The sky is blue, and it is not extremely cold (like in Germany).

Also, we start to understand the subway system a little bit better. We also bought a Passnet card, which you can use to enter any station without having to buy a new ticket each time, thus saving much time.

When we walked around today we thought that the city looks very nice. Maybe the weather played an important role. But the atmosphere, the look of the whole city and its streets in Shibuya are very enjoyable. The liveliness was sometimes overpowering, but next to bustling streets you can suddenly find yourself in a quiet and almost deserted street. We could find a nice balance in this part of the city.

Last, but not least.
Would you like to see Shibuya Crossing in action?
It is like watching a fish aquarium.

2009-12-19T20:57:00.000+09:00

Oh man. I just realized something. I am sitting in Tokyo, it is Saturday night, and I am sitting here writing my blog.

Haha, to our defence, we did not get much sleep last night! ^^

Day 2: Tokyo

2009-12-19T20:53:00.003+09:00

Today we went to the Asakusabashi district, a place for artscraft shopping, and then to the Akiba district, the centre for electric appliances and a manga mecca.

A shrine in the middle of Tokyo

On the way between Asakusabashi and Akiba. We had very nice weather today.

Asakusabashi was pretty unexciting, but we found some nice shops where you could buy material for making jewelries, decorating, etc.

Boats in front of high buildings

How dolls are made

Askiba is a funny combination of electronics and manga. Many shops were offering their electric appliances by hanging manga posters in front of their shops. Many girls on the streets who were distributing brochures, were dressed like manga figures. Cosplay is the Japanese way of wearing costumes - not only on motto parties, but on the streets. It is like meeting manga figures come alive.

Please sit down.

Fish will eat you

Weird stuff in Akiba

Cosplay

Costumes for cosplay

They really exist!

We had a really relaxed day, which is a good compensation to this busy and packed city. Some places are so packed with people that you just cannot make your way through the crowds without. We spent our day walking around, taking time to go into some shops, drink some coffee, look around.

Akiba by night

Day 1: My first day in Tokyo

2009-12-19T20:40:00.015+09:00

Directly after class we went to Fukuoka Airport by bus. It was snowing!

On the bus to Fukuoka

Maybe this is why the bus was an hour late, but we still made it on the airplane without problems. On the plane you could easily tell us apart from the other guests. Not only because my co-travellers have a Eurpean face, but also because we were surrounded by black-wearing business men. Maybe amongst them there were many so-called business bachelors, men who live apart from their families (for the sake of their companies' success) and only see them on the weekends or only once per month.
The travel was pretty exhausting. Why is travelling always so exhausting, although one only sits all the time? Sitting on the bus, at the airport, on the plane, on the trains and subways, ... We were welcomed by a German friend, who we had met in the Japanese course back in Bochum. Laura was so nice to offer us to stay at her apartment while we were in Tokyo, because she would leave for Germany over the Christmas holidays. We had thankfully accepted her offer and were really looking forward to seeing her apartment. Her studies are related to architecturing rooms, so we wanted to know what she had made out of her Tokyo apartment.

We had to change subways at Shibuya. So many people!

Our first challenge was to get from the Haneda airport to the izakaya at Shimo-Kitazawa. There are many different companies in Tokyo operating subways. So every time you want to get from one station to another you have to change companies if the line does not go there directly. When you change a subway you have to buy a new ticket. It was so confusing because we had to change subways 4 times, changing between 4 different companies in order to get from one station to another!
Laura took us to a really cozy izakaya. Wood everywhere, everyone sitting on the floor, dim lighting, great atmosphere.

Izakaya

We also met Tobi on that evening, another German guy that we had met in Bochum. It was really exciting to see people from back home in Germany again - in Tokyo! Tobi told us about his life as an employee in a Japanese company. His working hours are really long. His Japanese colleagues never take days off for holidays. The only reason for taking one of the holidays, which every employee gets, is when being sick! So you don't take a sick leave, but you have to deduct it from your holidays! An nimaginable thing in German companies! So he basically gets not much sleep during the week and has to compensate his lack of sleep on the weekends. Out teacher called Japanese employees "working bees", but I would rather call them "working beasts". (In class my friend Miriam correctly misunderstood "bees" for "beasts" ^^ Thank you for the pun!)
All in all, it seems that we students from Paderborn have the most free time out of the people that we know who have come from Germany to Japan. I am glad, because we get many chances to experience the culture, see the country, spend time with Japanese and students from other countries, think about what we see,... It is much more worth than being confined in your room, studying all the time or writing papers, even if the topics are related to Japan.
We got to see Tokyo at night a little bit, and so far I can say: there are many people! And also many people who are dressed weird. Lolitas, gothics, extreme hair colors and extensions (men!),...

I am sitting in Laura's apartment right now. I am writing my blog from Tokyo! How cool is that? ^^

Big winter vacation

2009-12-18T00:26:00.001+09:00

The next two weeks you probably will not hear much from me, because I am going on a big journey from tomorrow! Fabian, Miriam, and I will go to Tokyo for one week, then we will travel down to Oita within another one week. After Tokyo we will go to Nagoya, Nara, Osaka, Kobe, Kyoto (probably only for sleeping), and Hiroshima. On New Year's Eve we plan to be back in the Kaikan in order to celebrate with the other Kaikan people.

One quick word to Christmas: I asked some Japanese how they celebrate Christmas. As this country is not mainly Catholic I suppose Christmas does not have any religious meaning. Christmas has found its way pretty early into Japanese culture. My academic advisor, who is in his late fourties or early fifties told me that he celebrated Christmas when he was a kid. He told me that it was also due to the Americans after the war who established the custom of celebrating Christmas in Japan. Christmas is more of a commercial event here I'd say. It is not a national holiday, everyone goes to work. And Christmas is only on December 24th. The 25th and 26th are not considered Christmas anymore. So although in the city there is Christmas decoration everywhere and Christmas music playing in every department store, there is nothing behind it really. People are encouraged to buy presents, consume and do some good for the economy, but it does not have any special meaning for Japanese families.

Many of the Japanese students who I asked do not do anything special with their family except eating cake. Often they do not even exchange gifts with their family members. Giving presents on Christmas is more common for Japanese parents with little kids. Students rather give some gifts to their friends. Actually, Christmas seems to be a huge day for romantic dates! If you have a boyfriend or girlfriend you should spend the evening with them.

I also asked some Japanese how a Christmas dinner in Japan looks like. But there does not seem to have evolved a certain custom except for eating cake on that day. So no big roast or any other special dish on that day.

But New Year's Eve seems to be the more important day in Japan. I will tell about it later when I have found out more.

Tofu Scrambles

2009-12-17T09:02:00.000+09:00

I found another good recipe in my Japanese cooking books. It is easy to make, filling, and yummy. I find that the Japanese cuisine does not use many harsh spices. It rather enhances the flavors of the ingredients themselves. Korean cuisine for example is very spicy. For example Kimchi is very spicy and also the Korean food at the University festival was very spicy. Koreans have many sauces and spices, which I do not even know the name of. Vietnamese cuisine uses many fresh herbs, all of which have a strong and distinctive delicious flavor: coriander, thai basil, ngo gai, tia to, peppermint,... Italian cuisine also makes use of many herbs: basil, oregano, thyme, rosmarin, etc. But Japanese food often is not spicy.
In this recipe for tofu scrambles for example, the only spices that change the flavor of the ingredients are ginger, schichimi pepper, chives (which are very mild) and Kaiware radish sprouts. Yet, this dish is quite delicious.

Main ingredients are: tofu (wrapped in a dish cloth, put weight on it and let stand for 10 minutes), shitake, bell pepper, chives, ginger (fresh is best). The ginger and vegetables are fried in a pan, then the tofu is added. Soy sauce, schichmi pepper, chives, Kaiware radish sprouts give the dish its special flavor.

Kaiware radish sprouts: look like "Kresse", but they taste a little bit bitter and spicy.

Shichmi pepper: red pepper with 6 other ingredients. Schichi means 7.

Here it is, mjam.

Voilà

Waterfall

2009-12-14T14:41:00.002+09:00

I went with Marius (also Paderborn student), his wife Ludmila, and Gerard (Netherlands) to Beppu to walk to an impressive waterfall, which Marius had found some weeks ago. It is called Otobarunotaki. It was supposed to be not so easy to find, hidden in some forest in the mountains. We went up the mountain and the view was very nice. I had a lot of fun this day - walking with this group of people was very nice, we talked all way long, the weather was warm and sunny, and the way was not steep or exhausting. I liked it so much, that actually one week later I went again ^^

View on Beppu

On the way we passed an amusement park. It looks very primite, old, and shabby. There are also almost no people inside. It looks kind of scary. Not only does the rollercoaster look too old to pass a TUV inspection, but also the emptiness of this park is scary.

I wanted to peek over the fence, which is as high as I am, in order to have a look at the amusement park. I almost hit this spider with my nose. Seriously. Scary thing.

The way to the waterfall

The weather was warm and sunny

It's huge!

I wish I had a better camera, mine often takes blurry pictures and the colours are faded.

It is an exciting feeling to stand at the foot of the waterfall

Not many people go here, so it is a quiet place, where you can enjoy the beauty of nature.

WOW

2009-12-13T21:38:00.001+09:00

It is so easy to upload videos! Whoa!

After the test video about the movie theater worked, I got so excited that I now added videos to the post about the tea ceremony and Jazz evening (November). ^^

Test Video "Movie Theater"

2009-12-13T21:22:00.002+09:00

Where is the mistake?

2009-12-13T21:04:00.000+09:00

A poster at the International Festival

Tea ceremony

2009-12-12T08:55:00.003+09:00

Did I already mention my second favorite class? "Japanese History, Society, and Culture" with Professor Kazumi Nagaike. She is not the typical Japanese. She is very lively, makes many jokes, has A LOT of energy. If the average Japanese was a sparrow, she would be an eagle! She told us we could call her Princess Nagaike, Kazumi, or anything else that we like to use as a nickname. Again, she is NOT the average Japanese woman. She has lived in Canada for 8 years, maybe this is where her "being different" comes from.

On our syllabus for last week following subject for our lecture was scheduled: Experiencing Japanese Culture (tea ceremony)! We were actually to have a real tea master coming to our class and practicing with us a traditional Japanese tea ceremony!

The Japanese tea ceremony - if you google it, you get more than 1,6 million hits! And this is only in English, I do not know how many you get, when you also look for Japanese sites. Type it in amazon.com and you get more than 2,000 books...

The tea ceremony is a deeply rooted in the Japanese culture, its tradition goes back hundreds of years ago. You can say that it started when tea was introduced to Japan. Japan is probably the only nation, which, after the introduction of tea in its country, designed a special room for drinking tea. Special etiquette, rules, utensils, etc. were created over time for the purpose of drinking tea. There is a whole philosophy which underlies the tea ceremony.

Did you know that it takes at least 10 years to become a tea master? Naigaikesensei said, that there are special schools designed for the tea ceremonies. There is even a university for tea ceremonies!

The tea ceremony is embedded in the concept of wabi and sabi from the Kamakura period, about the year 1200 - simple and quiet beauty. It is really quiet. Nothing really happens there. I can imagine a piano player practicing for 10 years until he becomes gradually better. But I cannot picture what an aspiring tea master does during his 10 learning years!

Our teachers for the day: a tea master (right) and her assistants.

The founder of the tea ceremony was Sennorikyuu in the Edo period. His sons founded different schools. There are 5 different schools of tea ceremony. The school, which we experienced here, is named urasenke.

Tatami, carpet, and utensils were set up to resemble a tea room.

Tea ceremonies are something special, which are only conducted at special occasions. Tea ceremonies are not only the physical act of preparing and drinking tea. There is a whole philosophy of the aestheticism of tea behind it. The Japanese tea ceremony is special, because it is a spiritual side and can be described as an art form.

There is always a scroll like this at tea ceremonies. This one says "Flower blossom on a mountain". The messages are chosen by the host, considering the occasion, the season, and his guests. The guest should take some time admiring the scroll, because the host has put much thought on it.

Matcha tea powder and a bamboo whisk for beating the tea.

The women prepare themselves and the equipment.

The tea master makes her way to the tea preparing place.

The equipement has been set up: cattle with hot water, tea caddy with the matcha powder, bowl for the tea.

First, all the utensils have to be cleaned. This is conducted in a strict manner, every single move is predetermined: in which way to fold the cleaning cloth, how many times to wipe each device, the exact place where to put the utensils, ...

The tea master gets water from the kettle with this ladle to clean the bowl.

The devices needed

Nagaikesensei demonstrates how to behave as a guest. Also as a guest you have to follow specific rules. What to say, how to drink, in which way to hold the bowl, which hand to hold the bowl, in which direction to turn the bowl with how many movements,...

The students listen with interest. This was worth a picture, because we usually do not look like this.

The guest is supposed to eat the sweets (kashi) before drinking the tea, which is bitter.The sweets are placed on some soft paper (kaishi) in front of each guest. Before eating you have to ask permission of the other guests: "osakini", which means "excuse me for going before you".

Usually moist cakes made from sweet bean paste are served. They are called omogashi. This omogashi was very delicious! And it looks so pretty, too.

These are higashi, they are drier than omogashi.

Higashi

Yummy

After the guest has eaten the sweets, the assistant will bring you tea. You thank her with a bow and ありがとうございます。

Nagaikesensei explains how to drink the tea. Before drinking it you should say to other guests who are already drinking "otemae chodai itashimasu", which means "please allow me to share tea with you". And to guests who have not had tea yet you say "osakini". Then you should turn to the host and thank her for the tea.

The guest has to pick up the tea with his right hand and put it in the palm of his left hand. The guest turns the bowl, so that its decorative side faces 180 degrees away from him.

After finishing the tea you should admire the bowl.

Then it was our turn to make tea! Miriam goes first.

I also tried my luck. It is more difficult than it looks! Every move is predetermined, even where to place the hand which you do not use.

Even water from a modern water cooker is taken out with the ladle.

Riikka under the watchful eyes of the tea master.

The tea bowls are a science for themselves. There are really valuable ones, on which you can easily spend thousands of Euros.

All women wear kimonos. There are different ranks in kimonos and for each occasion the appropriate one has to be picked These kimonos are called komon because they have the same pattern from top to bottom. At the back of the kimono a family symbol is embroidered.

There are different techniques of tying these kind of kimono belts.

The kimono belt

She places her fan in front of her before bowing. It is supposed to symbolize the border between herself and the other person. It declares each other's areas. Notice also that her hands form a triangle.

Today was a really interesting experience. The tea ceremony is related to the Zen philosophy, which makes tea drinking not only the drinking of tea. Japan not only embraces new technology, science, and modernization of the society. It is nice to see that Japan still preserves this tradition and is still proud of it, although today's world evolves so fast.

If you are interested in the tea ceremony, I think the book "The Tea Ceremony" by Sendo Tanaka gives a pretty detailed and nicely illustrated introduction.