Flea market

Got a new computer ordered for me at work two days ago. Hopefully I'll get it on Monday. I estimate a 30%-50% creativity and productivity boost from not having to fight a 6-year-old overburdened zombie computer any more. :-)

Risbro Church flea market

Helped my parents at the Risbro Church flea market today. They hold one twice a year and since I happened to be in town I had offered to help where needed. I was put in charge of the "10-crowns table", mostly populated with cups, candle holders, weird wodden boxes and flower pots. Doesn't sound very exciting, but we actually sold for a couple of hundreds' worth at that table.

I found some things for myself at the market as well, but mainly I was inspired to donate most of the stuff in Linköping that's been under my bed ever since I moved in, or has even stayed in the boxes since I moved the time before that. Maybe bring it to Fagersta, or just donate it to Myrorna in Linköping. Ah, and the ever-planned project of getting rid of old clothes, of course.

Still busy

Uppsala Walpurgis

Came home two weeks ago, but still haven't gone through all my pictures and recounted the events of Sendai and HK/Macau/GZ, because I've been busy working and (still!) traveling.

Went to Stockholm and Uppsala this weekend to visit my friends excds and daddyfool, spend Walpurgis Night with thousands of other students and finally to visit my sister, whose birthday is on Thursday.

Muddling along at work. Now it seems I'm actually going to get a new computer, which will remove many daily frustrations. Tomorrow we are having a meeting regarding a major project I will be doing this summer. Feels good to be there for long enough to actually finish something, for a change.

Will come to Linköping on Tuesday. No later, because I'm participating in an exchange studies promotion thing at the uni Wednesday night. No earlier, because my brother and sister-in-law are moving into their house on Tuesday.

Getting back on track

Had a real Swedish breakfast again, with cereals and fruit and jam and sourmilk. I've missed it. Got started with my Seco work. Checked my mailbox -- my tickets for Fagersta on Sunday have arrived. Will meet Boozon at the train station tomorrow and get my own keys to the apartment back. Life is step by step going back to normal. Still haven't unpacked my bags. Probably should do that before I go to sleep. Goodnight!

New haircut

Home sweet home

Asia, the epilogue

Finally home again!

As we stepped out of the train at Linköping Travel Centre we were met by the most wonderful Swedish spring afternoon. A cool but not cold breeze and a bright but not burning sun. On Arlanda I had exchanged 10 euros and 300 Czech crowns that happened to be in my purse for enough money to refill my supplies in Ryd for the next few days. Tomorrow I start working, on Wednesday comes my salary for this month's vacation and I can start living a normal life again. :-)

Let's see how long it takes to get the body clock set to an acceptable schedule. I'll start by trying to sleep now, at 22. The plan is to wake up 9h later. See you on the other side.

Wow, time flies...

Haven't had much time to update the blog since 070404, but at least I've uploaded the albums now, with some sketchy captions. I'll get round to sorting them and recounting the events of the last week once I get home. :-)

We are going for a stroll around the Peak in a short while, and tonight we are going to fly back home. I'm going to miss all the places we've been to, and of course my girlfriend, and I'm planning on going back to HK again in October.

Electric Town

Akihabara

Or plan today was to find a nice park, buy some beer and just take it easy and enjoy the surroundings. But the weather was horrible, so the plans changed.

We did our laundry, and while waiting watched Heroes. Excellent series, will have to see more of it. On WY's suggestion we then went to Electric Town in Akihabara.

We were expecting something enormous and really cool, but it wasn't really big and much of it was actually vacuum cleaners, iPod accessories, simple pocket calculators and fax machines. The Japanese electronics market is really fascinating. It's a mix of state-of-the-art gadgets and leftovers from the 80's that people still buy for some reason. Some cool stuff, though: The PS3 costs much less here than in Sweden, and it's available off the shelf. And the sound equipment was impressive, but neither of us needs an upgrade right now, and you can't really bring it on the plane.

I wound up buying some small things I've been putting off for a while – a USB hub and an SDHC (etc.) card reader. We also found a Bollywood corner, where I finally bought my first ever Bollywood movie! I went with Kal Ho Naa Ho, because I really like the most famous song from it, Mahi Ve. Couldn't find it in Sweden before (I've been looking), but here it was available for 1000 yen (€6).

We went home after a few hours and just hung around in the hostel, watching some more of Heroes and surfing.

Tomorrow after checking in at our next hostel we'll split up: Erik will go to Iwama to see a famous aikidō dōjō and I will go to the airport to meet WY.

Tokyo via Nara

Nara and arriving in Tokyo

A calm night yesterday, but we still overslept and missed breakfast. Finally arrived in Nara shortly after twelve. Locked our bags up (not an easy task in those small lockers!) and tried to find someplace to eat. Being a vegetarian in Japan is not easy, but I'm getting used to the routine. I've actually cheated some and accepted meat sauce in some cases, but this time I could get a nice noddle/vegetable soup without any compromises.

We found the Tōdaiji (Eastern Great Temple) without mishaps. It's really impressive, and also surrounded by wonderful sakura blossoms.

The Nara Park, which contains most of the sights of the city, including the Tōdaiji, is populated by lots and lots of deer. They are really tame and their main food seems to be the 'deer biscuits' that tourists buy from street merchants. The deer can easily smell if you are carrying biscuits or not, so they left us alone, but chased some of the other tourists.

The park and other parts of the city are full of sights, but we also had to catch our train to Tōkyō. We arrived without problems and returned to our previously located ATM to get the money for the hostel. We even got to the correct subway station without any significant glitches. But then we needed to find the hostel.

We tried to take a cab, because we couldn't really establish our location. But apparently our destination was out of his district, so he told us to go to the other side of the station. Then we tried to walk. And we walked and walked. Finally we ended up almost where we started and found the correct sub-town, block and building. We asked some people about the hostel, but they had no idea what we were talking about. Turns out we were in the wrong ward (town/sub-city), on the wrong side of the river. We turned the map around 180 degrees and tried again. Suddenly the roads fit the map excellently and we found the place in 15 mins.

Time to sleep.

Kyōto

Kyoto

Left for Kyōto a little later than planned, but still had time for some fun experiences.

On our way to Namba we saw groups of young people breakdancing. Tried to take a few pictures, but it was hard to capture the moment. I'll see later if the movie is any better.

Our plan was to start at Namba and then switch trains two times until we would finally get to Shin-Ōsaka, where the Shinkansen leave. We stayed too long on the first train, though, and had to go back two stations. There, by pure luck, we encountered the Kansai Airport Express, which happens to go directly to Kyōto, thereby simplifying our plans and buying us some time.

On arriving to Kyōto we decided to go strolling for a while and see what would turn up. We found the Nishi Hongan Temple, but it wasn't really Westerner-friendly signs-wise, so at first we didn't know what it was. Erik then had the idea that we should rent bikes, because the city is quite big. We asked some Westerners we met where they had rented their bikes, and after some looking we found the place and rented a bike each.

Now we wanted to go to the old Imperial Palace, which was far further away than we had realized. Good thing we had the bikes! We saw some great sakura trees there, and the outside of the enormous palace. To see the inside you need to apply for entrance at the Imperial House Authorities etc, so we didn't bother.

Our curiosity brought us to the Budo Centre shown on the map. Just before arriving there, however, Erik saw the front of a Tozando store and wanted to go in. Turns out that store actually opened today, and they had special deals on iaitō, which Erik finally couldn't resist. The owner actually was a 4-dan iaidō instructor, so he helped Erik choose a suitable sword. Since the store was just opening, they didn't have a working card reader yet, so we got a tip for a post office where we could withdraw money.

When we came out from the store, our rented bikes were gone! We borrowed the store's phone and called the rental company to sort things out. Then we decided to take care of the money thing. 50 m along the road we found the bikes again. Apparently we had been parking in a private spot. As the shop owner said: "I told you, this is Japan, nobody steals bikes!". We called the rental firm again to explain that there was no trouble and then went to get the money. The post office was closed and the ATMs inaccessible. So no sword for Erik this time. :-(

It was getting late, so we rode all the way back to the rental shop. It took us over 30 minutes! We checked when the next Kansai Airport Express would leave and spent the remaining time checking out the enormous railway station. We took the escalators to what we thought would be the top floor, only to reveal a new flight of escalators. Amazing.

On finally arriving at Namba again, we decided to see how far the underground arcade would lead. 20 minutes later we found ourselves at the subway station right outside our hostel. Once again: Amazing. When standing in the tunnel, you really can't see the end of it.

Fukuoka and Ōsaka

Fukuoka

Osaka

Fukuoka was nice. We just had a few hours between trains, so we found somewhere to eat and then went to see Canal City, a big mall with interesting architecture. There's actally a river inside the complex. We walked the area for a while, had some strawberry/banana crêpes and then went to the SEGA gaming corner and played a little more of the same drumming game we played in Hong Kong. Then it was time to move on and get on our connecting train.

We've been in Ōsaka for two days now. On the first night we went out with our roommates and some other people staying at the hostel. The destination turned out to be an all-you-can-drink bar, and our calculations showed that you would have to have at least six drinks to get your money's worth for the entrance fee. So we woke up quite late the day after.

Saturday was spent visiting the castle and seeing the Apple Store, in addition to the usual chore of finding an ATM that accepts foreign cards. We tried to find the Ramen Arcade, a whole arcade lined with nothing but rāmen restaurants, but finally settled for the first place to eat we could find. I still didn't feel very well since the day before, so I went to sleep early. Erik went out with the others "just for a short while", but finally came home in the morning. :-)

I'll go check on him now, to see if he's ready to go to Kyōto for today.

Kumamoto

Kumamoto

Yesterday was great. We decided to have a relaxed day without so much travel, so we just went to Kumamoto to see the castle. The trip took around half an hour, and shortly after, we arrived by tram at the castle.

Kumamoto Castle was originally built during 1601—1607, but most of the buildings today are a reconstruction from the 1960's, since the castle was burned down during the siege in 1878, in the Satsuma Rebellion following the Meiji Restoration.

These are the events on which the movie The last Samurai was based, although loosely: In the actual historical events, the rebels had no problems with modern military equipment and only resorted to swords and arrows when they finally ran out of ammunition. In fact, the rebel leader, Saigō Takamori, was instrumental in shaping the Imperial forces, which he would later fight. The samurai did however have a problem with what they saw as an erosion of traditional values and the Samurai honor code, as well as a loss of their privileges in the modern, non-feudal society.

After visiting the castle we took a stroll through the Botanical Garden and finally, somewhat unplanned, ended up at a baseball game. It was really fun, although "our" team finally lost by 8–6.

We tried to find the Shimada Art Museum, which keeps Miyamoto Musashi-related art, but failed and instead asked for directions to Honmyoji, a big shrine, close to which the museum is supposed to be located. We took a look at the shrine and then tried anew to find the museum. We ended up asking for directions at a 7-11, where they told us that the museum actually is closed until October.

Consulting our map, we tried to find our way to a cool pub we read about in our guide book, but by confusing our position and directions we finally ended up close to the railway station. We took the chance to go home early and get our laundry done, so we could sleep early before our continued journey the next day.

As it would turn out, the extra time was well needed. We put in our laundry and went for a walk and a dinner. When we came back, the machines were full with water and hadn't used any of the detergent. Consulting the wwwjdic, we concluded that our guesses about the workings of the machine's settings had indeed been correct and
Erik tried the exact same settings again, which worked perfectly. I altered some of the settings, and ended up having to choose "empty machine of water" mode manually. To be on the safe side, I put the dry tumbler on for three hours.

We went to sleep really worried about what kind of a sight would meet us at the dry tumbler in the morning, but actually everything was ok, and after breakfast we could get packing and check out. On our way to the train station I only had to go back to the room once, to get the papers with all our bookings and maps. :-)

Now we're on the train to Fukuoka. We couldn't book any seats for the trip, and the non-booked car is full, but that's ok, it's just a one-hour trip. We made sure to book seats for the longer trip to Ōsaka tonight, though.

Mount Aso

Mount Aso

Today's trip took us to Mount Aso, the largest active volcano in Japan. We also finally got the chance to ride a train completely free of English translations. And to decipher the railroad tables. They are surprisingly understandable once you learn to recognize the relevant kanji.

The view from the train window was excellent the entire way, once we switched trains in Kumamoto and started going east. A bit difficult to take pictures of, I'm afraid. Too many railroad electricity lines and passing trees. I shot some movies, maybe I'll get around to distilling some useful panoramas out of them one day. :-)

We arrived in Aso just in time to miss the bus. While waiting for the next one we walked around the village, which didn't take long, and tried to take some pictures of the peaks. Then we decided to go to a café and have a delicious chocolate parfait. After ordering, we realized that the bus was leaving soon and we would miss it unless we cancelled the order. We excused ourselves thoroughly and explained that we were in a hurry, but the waitress and the kitchen personnel excused themselves even more, which made us feel quite bad about ourselves.

On the way up, the bus took a ten minute photo break, where we could get some great pictures of the Kijima peak and the Kusasenri ("thousand kilometers of grass") field. The Volcano Museum was then just around the corner.

Japanese trivia: Neko Dake (根子岳) means "Neko Peak", the eastern and most cool-looking of the five peaks in the Aso crater, while neko dake (猫だけ) means "just a cat". No difference in pronunciation. Japanese is a wonderful language for wordplay. :-)

In retrospect we are still wondering if we should have gone directly to the still active Naka Peak instead of stopping at the museum, but there's a 1 km safety distance, so our official version will be that we chose to see the live footage at the museum instead to get a better view. We wanted to do both, but when we were finished at the museum everything was closing and we had to catch the last bus.

The Japanese language is starting to work smoother. Some words and phrases are slowly coming back, others are being learned, and like I said above I'm starting to recognize the kanji of the important place names, among other things. Before you start accusing me of hubris I want to make clear that I have no illusions of being fluent in the language after being here for two weeks. :-)

Time to sleep. Tomorrow we will go to Kumamoto and see the castle, which is supposed to have a wonderful cherry tree garden.

Kyūshū

We finally arrived at Nagasu Station, Kumamoto, Kyūshū yesterday evening. The hotel is wonderful: It's cheap (€18/person/night, breakfast costs €2/person), it's nice and clean, and it offers free Internet access! We didn't sleep until 2 last night, which means we're still dead tired. I wouldn't call it jet lag, rather we're-too-stupid-to-sleep-when-we-should-syndrome. (Oh, btw, I didn't sleep much on the train yesterday, of course, I was too busy organizing the photos and writing the blog ...)

Now it's time for breakfast and then we'll head out for Aso-san, the biggest active volcano in Japan.

First night in Japan

Ueno, Tokyo

Clouds

Writing this on the Hikari train from Ōsaka to Fukuoka.

Yesterday we left Hong Kong for Tōkyō. Things went surprisingly smoothly. By talking to one JR representative after another we came closer and closer to the JR office that could give us our rail passes. They also booked seats on the NEX for us. One hour later we were at Tōkyō Station. After trying for 15 minutes to understand where to find the local express train we gave up and settled for the normal local train, which took us to Ueno in less than 15 minutes. :-)

At Ueno station we chose an exit on random and found that it had taken us to the west side of the station, just like we wanted. We went into a park and consulted the map for a while, with the help of a friendly old man, and finally followed our initial guess anyway. After a small detour we arrived at the position that our map told us was Yamanaka Ryōkan.

We walked around the area a bit to find the address. We would finally end up right where we started, which was indeed the position of the ryōkan if you would just care to look around you instead of focusing too much on the map...

Projects for the evening:

1. Money
2. Food
3. Internet café

After unsuccessfully working on problem 1 we went on to problem 2 at the Hard Rock café. There we met a Swedish couple, who explained that international banks have international ATMs. We asked the police at Ueno Station, who gave us directions to a bank which we then failed to find, but we found a post office, the ATM of which actually accepted our foreign cards.

We browsed the whole of Asakusa for an Internet café, but finally gave up and decided to try playing some pachinko, which is a flipper-like game, where the lack of flippers is compensated by the use of hundreds of balls simultaneously. Skilled players actually win more hundreds of balls, which they can then exchange for cash. Erik won five balls, I won none. Then we worked our way back to the ryōkan.

We woke up an hour late, because my telephone, which served as our alarm clock, was still set for Hong Kong time. We both agreed that the extra hour of sleep had been much needed and ended up leaving three hours later than planned and arriving four hours later than planned. A friendly Japanese English teacher helped us explain this to the hotel.

First stay in Hong Kong!

Hong Kong arrival

Wow, two days behind us and already so much to report! Friday went great, the plane didn't leave until 20:40, so we had a nice slow day fixing the last few things missing, like buying the travel adapters for all our electronics equipment. :-)

No mishaps on our trip, everything worked well, and finally on Saturday WY met us at HK airport and took us to our hotel, the Gold Coast Hotel. Our room is amazing, with sea view and a balcony that is bigger than my living room in Linköping. Feels sad to have to leave it tomorrow morning – none of the other hotels and hostels will be this luxurious.

On the first night we went for food in the area where WY spent the later part of her childhood, and we visited a wonderful park there. Slept really late on Sunday and went for fika/brunch at the R66 revolving restaurant (one revolution per 66 minutes), which offers a wonderful view of HK and surroundings. Later we went to the Peak. We arrived a little too late for watching the sunset, but we still got some great pictures of the night-time city lights. Well, at least the others did. Lessons learned: Always bring the spare battery.

On our way home we spent an hour in a game arcade... Then another hour, then another. We played first a drumming game (think Guitar Hero, only bongo drums instead – crazy fun!), then a tambourine game (adds the dimension of choreography to the drumming game concept) and finally got addicted to a dancing game (strictly choreography). We finally left, hungry and exhausted, and went to a noddle restaurant to further develop our chopstick skills. :-)

When we came home, I got an SMS from my sister, warning me about the earthquake in Japan. Luckily for us, the earthquake was in Ishikawa, not Tokyo, and the airline homepage says our flight is still available and on schedule.

Oops, 04:45 already, and we need to get up at 05:00 to catch the plane. Oh well, I can sleep on the 8h train to Kumamoto on Tuesday...

Off we go!

First post!

Ok, done the packing, time to take a shower and have some breakfast and then move out and do some last-minute shopping. See you on the other side!