Welcome to Oita!!

Here we go! In Fukuoka, I picked up 2 other friends from Paderborn at the airport. At the train station we met a guy from Oita university who helped us to get discout tickets for the train. He also showed us the right platform and where to queue for the right train - not so easy as there were many trains coming and going and the announcements were Japanese only. The trains would stop exactly in the position with the queue facing the doors for the right train. Lines on the ground show you where to stand. So if you don't have a door right in front of you, it's the wrong train! (Of course, first you have to know which queue is the right one...difficult!) With all our luggage (in the picture you see Han with the luggage of us - 3 persons) we hopped on the train and after 2 hours ride with a nice view on green mountains, rivers, sea, we arrived in Oita. It was so nice to be welcomed by several persons who were waiting for us: our tutors, plus Hiro (a friend that we know from Paderborn) plus an other tutor were waving and jumping up and down as we passed the hallway to the exit gates. After the big hello and introduction we went to buy some basic things in the supermarket and luckily the tutors had 2 cars, so we were taken to our dormitories by car! First impression of the room: old but spacious and actually way better than I thought it would be! I just dropped my things and then we would go out to have dinner together with all the tutors in an udon restaurant near the station. Very good! What a warm welcome to my new temporary home!

Travelling

Hey everybody! I can probably start off with making you jealous: above 30 degrees, blue sky and blazing sun! Every day! It's so great that I can actually enjoy these couple of days and finally have my much longed for vacation!

1. KYOTO

I came to Kyoto by nightbus from Fukuoka which was quite an experience. Very comfortable seats but not very much sleep unfortunately as the driver stopped every 2 hours for a break and turned the lights on -.- 
When I arrived in the morning, the weather was incredible! So hot!! First I had to find my way to the "Guest House Kinta" by bus, which was kind of a mission in a city where all street names sound the same and the bus shows the next stop only in Kanji (signs). But I made it and arrived at that really small, cute and very traditional hostel in the Geisha-district. I had to wait until my room was ready so I took the chance to rest and surf the internet. Soon, an english guy arrived. After a small chit-chat, we talked about our plans for the day and decided to go together. As Kyoto is the former capital of Japan, there are many cultural sights to explore...temples, shrines, palaces, gardens... So much that you can't possibly see everything in 2 days. But I think we made the most of it. Including a Sake night and a spectacular wall-climb (more joke than anything else...got a big bruise on my arm haha) Here some impressions:

All in all Kyoto feels like a really small town rather than the city it actually is. The houses are small, the streets narrow and I felt like knowing that "town" quite well when I left it, although I could've easily spent a week in that place without being bored! Next:

2. OSAKA

First "problem"-day. I couldn't  withdraw money! Tried all the banks, different amounts, not working. Found out that my credit card limit was too small and already used up. Damn it. But then: (I love travelling!) a guy, that I had only known for a couple of hours, lends me money!!! Incredible but lifesaving! I wouldn't have known what to do. Backup cards and all my papers left in Fukuoka to stay "safe" - nice plan, Patricia. Next time think before you act. Nevertheless, the train from Kyoto to Osaka takes only 28 minutes and is quite cheap. It ended up being a nice but very strange day. Why?

1. I was getting used to the left-hand traffic in Fukuoka and Kyoto (also on escalators) but then in Osaka, suddenly they walk on the right side again?! What? Why? I don't know. Only pedestrian things though, the cars are still "normal" on the left side...well well well
2. First food escalation! I love Onigiri (rice wrapped in seaweed usually stuffed with tuna, chicken or salmon) but I always buy without knowing what's inside (can't manage to read the Kanji - yet!). So I sit there, watch the beautiful sunset at Osaka castle, take a bite of my Onigiri and... aaahh what's that?? It was filled with some kind of worms!! Even I, although usually very happy to try out new things, couldn't eat that.
3. After a beautiful skyline scenery on the top of the Osaka Skytower, I got hungry and decided to go for plain rice. Can't do anything wrong with that, can you? You can! When I had the last bite of the rice cake, I noticed that it had worms in it as well!! Too late. I had already eaten all of it. Aaaaahhhh! What the hell is wrong with them putting those white little creatures in my food!
4. And this is a good point: people are soooo friendly here! Whereas in Kyoto nobody really cared, here, when I pulled out the map to look for the directions to my hostel, an old lady came immediately towards me, explained me the subway, helped me buy a ticket and luckily she had to get off at the very same stop, so she accompanied me all the way! And although my language skills have already massively improved, she spoke english so incredibly perfect that it was impossible to try out my newly refreshed Japanese (except for some randomly thrown in words that were immediately commented as "aaaahh nihongo wa jouzu desu!" = you are very talented with Japanese hahaha I guess they would say that to anybody who can say "arigato gozaimazu" = most important thing to remember! means thank you. Next to "sumimasen" = sorry.)
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   

3. HIROSHIMA

I went to Hiroshima by train - more specific: Shinkansen. This is the fastest train in Japan and can be compared to the German ICE. Or not. It's way more spacious! You feel like in an airplane, only bigger. The seats are comfortable (if you can get one in the non-reserved section...I had to stand) and you can feel the speed as the wagon moves to the sides in every bend. The distance of more than 300km could be conquered in 2 hours. Compared to Germany where it takes me appr. 4-5 hours for the same distance this is quite an experience!
As my lent money was nearly gone aswell, the hostels were fully booked and the train ticket was also way more expensive than I expected, I decided to do couchsurfing. So my host met me at the train station and showed me around the city center. Incredible to walk along the river, seeing the atomic bomb memorial and knowing that only a few decades ago the whole area had been destroyed beyond imagination and all the life had been perished. Now everything was quiet, green trees, only the sound of the river...peaceful. I nearly cried so emotional was this situation. Knowing that up north there was another nuclear catastrophe going on...The only question I could think of was "why?" - "why are people so stupid?"
Well, to forget about the emotional part we started drinking. First a really small bar with balcony and view on the roofs of Hiroshima city center, then a very small music place where the customers are the band (everybody just grabs an instrument and off we go!). I had to sing. I didn't really want to, but in the end it was great fun to make music with some random Japanese guys who were actually really good musicians! After that we went to a hookah (shisha) bar and then took a taxi "home". I had my own room and slept really well! Next day, we went to the city center where I visited the atomic bomb museum (very interesting and also very touching again), had the best Ramen for lunch and in the afternoon I went to Miyajima island to see the famous "floating shrine". Spend the evening in the hostel to catch up with my English friends that followed me to Hiroshima and gave the money back that I owed (finally could withdraw in the morning). Next morning I already had to leave to go back to Fukuoka because I already had a ticket for a brasilian festival starting at 2pm. Plans plans plans ;)

Japan - first days in Fukuoka

After a very short night and an exciting taxi ride through Beijing traffic, I got to the airport and 4 hours later (with layover in Dalian) arrived in Fukuoka. There, my friend Junko picked me up. The heat outside was quite a shock for me and the way to Junko's apartment really weary because my luggage was so huge and heavy and we had to change from bus to train and then change train again until we got there. The first striking thing about Japanese girls that I saw: they wore nearly all high heels and long sleeves. What's wrong with that? Well they couldn't walk in their shoes and the outside temperature was about 33degrees...so I felt still a little weird being the only person wearing a sleeveless top!
My days in Fukuoka made me recognize that my Japanese skills are really as poor as I thought! I can probably understand 30-40% of what people say, but reply? - no way! Furthermore all the signs are in Japanese. Only. I was so glad to have Junko accompanying me everywhere because otherwise I would have gotten lost many times...
We went to see some great events like Sake tasting with jazz music, a jazz festival in the city center, Brasilian dinner and another festival connected to a shrine with loads of food offers!

Yeah, and the FOOD! Oh my god, so gooooood!!!! Sometimes also a little bit weird (like bones on a stick?!) but all in all it tastes so different from everything I have ever tried before! Already during the first days here, I had so many different and new things: Onigiri (rice in nori stuffed with tuna, chicken, etc.), Ramen (noodlesoup with meat), Sushi (so different than in Germany and can be ordered via touchscreen), Yakitori (all kinds of meat and seafood served on a stick), Takoyaki (specialty from Osaka: dumplings filled with pieces of octopus)....and many more! Such a great experience! And I'm so lucky that Junko spent all the days with me to give me an easy first access to Japanese culture. Can't wait to see more of the country and experience the culture in detail.

5 days in Beijing - impressions

As blogspot didn't work in China and I don't have much time to write, I will give you now some short notes about my days in Beijing (September 8-12) and some pictures. It was absolutely crazy, strange, weird and simply stunning! I knew that China would be totally different than everything I had experienced before, but that it would be so different...no way!

Day 1
Let the adventure begin...!

I was so excited when I finally said goodbye to my family at the airport, went to the gate, boarded the plane. Everything happened so fast! Even the 9 hours flight went by very fast with all the catering, watching a movie, trying to sleep...I had two seats for myself so that I could sleep a little although not very much because it's still not very comfortable to sleep in an upright position.
A friend of a friend picked me up -lucky me!!- and took me first to the ATM and then explained the Taxi driver where he should go. Good for me because - as expected - nobody speaks English!
Welcome to China! The air was very dusty and you could hardly see anything. After we got to the hostel, where I dropped off my bags, I had my first Chinese meal! So yummy! And so cheap!! I invited Ziying (the girl who picked me up) and paid around 7€ for two dishes with drinks! Incredible! And a ride with the subway costs only 25 Cents.
The hostel itself is located right in the city center and also clean but there is no window in my room. I think I will only be there to sleep anyways, so I don't really care. And with 34€ for 5 nights it was also a reasonable price! After my very helpful friend had left me alone, I decided to explore the city. First I went to Tiananmen square and then to a shopping district.
I was asked around 50 times if some Asians could take a picture with me and everybody kept staring as if I was an alien...crazy! Or maybe not that crazy when I think of the number of other Europeans that I saw...around 10! During the whole day! Now I have to go to bed and get over my jetlag. Hopefully tomorrow the weather will be better. There is so much to see and do!

Day 2
Initially I wanted to visit the forbidden city. I went there, bought a ticket and then read the sign saying that it's only open until 12pm. It was 11am already. So I decided not to go there but rather walk and explore the city. I saw many new things, went strolling through various parks (Jinshan and Beihai), through the hutongs, saw the "real" life in Beijing and was happy to know that I would only stay there for a couple of days! I just can't get used to the smell, the spitting on the street, the crazy traffic, the bad sanitary conditions, the smog. The only thing I really enjoyed was the food! It was so much fun to try different things not knowing what exactly I was eating...everything was great.
That day I went to see the bell tower and drum tower. There I met a guy that I had seen the day before as well and also in the parks only a couple of hours ago when I swore to myself that - if I see him again - I will talk to him. So this is what I did: He is from Switzerland and also travelling by himself so I asked him if he wanted to join me. He did. So we spent the rest of the day together exploring more hutongs, having dinner, enjoying live music and beer in the evening, as well as a shisha (hookah) with a nice view on the waterfront near Beihai Park.

Day 3
Great Wall! I booked the tour from my hostel to Mutianyu - a rather less visited spot. We started early in the morning (7am) and had to pick up several persons from different hotels around the city. The first stop was a Jade manufacture, of course to sell something. The next stop were the Mingh tombs, really boring as the original coffins are in a museum and we only saw grey stone walls. After that we had lunch in a touristic restaurant with view on the great wall. The food was good but very simple. Now finally we could take the cablecar up to the wall and had two hours to explore the part of the wall that is open for visitors. Was not so much time actually but the weather was perfect, blue sky, sunshine, really hot. And the climbing was exhausting because the steps were really steep sometimes. We took a slide (tobogan) down and I bought some souvenirs (fan, poster, carved stamp). First time I learned how to bargain properly. Just walk away and they would go down to the cheapest prices! End of the trip was a visit to a silk factory - of course also to sell expensive blankets and sheets. But nevertheless it was interesting to see how silk is made.
In the evening I was meeting the Swiss guy again for dinner in the hutongs. Very good food and without any English skills we still got something to eat haha.

Day 4
Temple of Heaven, Summer palace with sunset and Olympia center in the evening.

Day 5

Today, finally, on my last day I went to the forbidden city! I went there with my hostel roommate and her Chinese friend! I knew that the forbidden city would be big but I would never have guessed that it's so big! You could spend the whole day walking around the temples and still hadn't seen everything. It took us 6 hours to follow the tour that was recommended by my guide book. We were so tired in the end but still went to the Wangfujing shopping street because I had to buy a new battery for my camera. Afterwards we got back to the Tiananmen square to watch the ceremony of the pull down of the flag by the military. Unfortunately I couldn't see it because I was already late for an appointment with my friends from Paderborn to have dinner together: The famous beijing roasted duck was waiting for us! Yummy! So I went to meet the others at their university and could not only enjoy a great traditional dinner but also see where they will spend the next months. Very exciting! On my way back I experienced for the first time in Beijing a thunderstorm and heavy rain. I was soaking wet! Soon it was time to go to bed as the next morning was already departure day and the alarm should ring at 5am.