lunatic bumblebee

After a wonderful week the last day (well, there was still a day left, but we didn’t do anything on that day except going to the airport) has come.

On our last full day in Japan we decided to go to Kyoto a second time as we didn’t have enough time to see all the things we wanted to on our first vist. This time we got up earlier. Although we started our trip at around 9 am it took us nearly two hours to Kyoto as we didn’t take the Shinkansen. We bought us an all-day bus pass, because the easiest way to get around in Kyoto is by bus. My cousin told us that the public transportation system there is not like in other cities — where subways and trains dominate — but busses to preserve the acient city. At first we visited the “Golden Temple” Kinkakuji. With us were many other tourists and school kids, so the risk of getting lost was very little. The temple was very beautiful. We discovered that Japanese people love to throw money at various things. You only need to place a bowl or hang up some bells with a sign that it brings happiness to the one who can hit the target and you can get rich. I also tried it once, but failed miserably. The temple was very nice, but too bad the weather wasn’t. At the exit there were some shops where you could buy Japanese sweets and the best thing is, that you could try everything ^^. So we took this chance and there were some really good tasting ones, but in the end we didn’t buy anything.

After that we tried to find the International Manga Museum. It took us quite a while to get there — on the map it looked so close to the Nijo Castle =.=
It was my wish to visit the Int. Manga Museum — which is quite obviously to those who know my hobby ^^ — and it was so different from my imagination. The museum was like a library with lots and lots of manga books. In all three floors you could find corners with tables and chairs, where the visitors — loaded with piles of books — were reading. Too bad, that most of them were Japanese, but there’s also an international manga corner with English, French and even German books. Besides the mangas, there were also exibitions showing the history of manga and the diffeent steps to draw a manga. I learned a lot and we ended up spending most of the time in the museum. But then we discovered that it was really good timing, because while we were in the museum, heavy rain started until we left.

The next station was the Gion road, which was called the Geisha road. But because of the rain we didn’t see any geishas, but many souvenir shops =). We went to the temple at the end of the road (I forgot the name) and discovered that temples look different at night — with lanterns and so on.

Around 7 pm we went back to Osaka — this time with the Shinkansen. My cousin prepared a farwell dinner for us and we celebrated our last night in Japan with my cousin and his fellow students from Vietnam. We had much fun in that week and we definitely want to come back some day — there’re still so many places we didn’t see in Japan. ><

On this picture you can see a Japanese hot dog. The sausage is inside, so at least it is easier to eat, but it really tastes weird as the jacket is some deep fried sweet tasting crispy bread. But if you see some, then try ^^.

Anh Thu

We started our Tokyo-day-trip early in the morning, took a cab to the Shinkansen station instead of walking the 15 minutes. In Japan the first two kilometres cost 660 Yen, with this amound you can get from UST to Shenzen by MTR. We both took the opportunity to get some more sleep on the train, but I still had to be attentive, because I wanted to take a picture from Mount Fuji. From the beginning we chose seats at the left side and after we passed Shizuoka (for those who know Oozora Tsubasa) I primed the camera, ready to take pictures. I was discussing something with Moritz when I saw the white crater of Mount Fuji. I was so happy that I really could see Japan’s most famous landmark. The Shinkansen track leads close by the mountain, but unfortunately, the top was covered by clouds, so that you only could see the very top of the vulcano crater. But still, I was very lucky to see the Fuji-san, because my cousin said that he went to Tokyo several times but never could saw it ^^.

The first thing we did in Tokyo was to go to the Tokyo Tower. The weather was nice and we could see Tokyo’s so-called skyline — no comparison to Hong Kong though — we also went to the special observatory deck on top of the tower, but there was too much smog and you couldn’t see the Fuji. In general, I’m wondering if it is possible to see Mount Fuji at all. There has to be bright sunshine, no clouds and strong wind to blow the smog away. Therefore, I can only advice to go to the special observatory deck in absense of smog and clouds. Everything else is not worth the extra money you have to pay to get on top: You have to wait to get up, wait again to get down and there isn’t enough place to look around, because it’s so crowded.

On our way to the Tokyo Tower we passed a park with a shrine (yes, again). There we saw many little stone figures with red crocheted caps and little wind wheels. They were really cute — too bad I don’t know their meaning. After that we took the Yurikamome train from Shibashi to Toyosu and back to visit the bay area. Remarkable for this quarter are the futuristic looking buildings — like the Fuji TV building — and the big amount of construction sites. On the un-mannered Yurikamome you get a feeling like riding a rollercoaster. In the afternoon we went to the party district Shibuya, had our lunch there and went on to Shinjuku, but there we didn’t find anything special. I think it was because we took the wrong exit and ended up in some government building.

Tired and with aching feet we took the train back to Tokyo Station, looked around in the close shopping malls, didn’t find anything afordable, went back into the station and bought two bentou (Japanese style lunchboxes) and lived the pure Japanese culture (i.e. eating bentou while riding the Shinkansen) >< haha.
Those who know me from school know, that I always wanted to go to Tokyo. Tokyo was the city of my dreams, so I was really excited. After I visited it I know, that I like Hong Kong better. But still it was very interesting to see the Tokyo Tower and Shibuya. I really would like to spend more time there, a one-day trip is too short. So I’m sure, I’ll go to Japan again some day. I really look forward to that time ^^.

Anh Thu

On Sunday my cousin had a Japanese language exam so we had to spend the morning alone. We went on a shopping tour near the Senri International House (SIH). First, we went to Jusco to check out the Japanese snacks and sweets. Jusco is something like Galeria Kaufhof or Karstadt where you can buy food as well as clothes and everything else you need to survive. At the children’s floor there was a corner with gaming machines. We played some drum game which we saw before at Umeda. I had lot’s of fun with that game, the music was so cute and although we couldn’t read the menu we quickly figured out how the game works.

After that we went back to the station near the SIH, had lunch and looked around in some little shops. I got a stuffed pig from Moritz. Then we went to a little cafe and even managed to order two coffees. While I was taking notes for the blog, Moritz had time to flip through a tankobon and read some manga. So cool that the cafe provides manga for their customers to read like magazines.

We made an appointment to meet the Vietnamese group at 3 pm however we ended up meeting them at 3.40 — Vietnamese mentality. It was planned to go to Kobe that evening to watch the Kobe Illumination. And I was really curious what that actually was, because nobody did really tell me about it. Fot the start we had kimchi ramen (noodle soup) and gyoza (fried dumplings — similar to wonton), to gain strength for the next step ^^. Moritz wanted to try Kobe beef, but a Kobe beef steak would have cost us more than USD 100. ^o^ (toooo expensive)
Stuffed and content we went on serpentines through the inner city to see the Kobe Illumination — kind of Christmas lights — with another thousand Japaneses. It took us a while to get to the lights and on our way we had to stop several times to get together the lost members of our group. At the end of the light road there was a street market with many food shops and I really wanted to try everything, but I knew I had to leave some space for my birthday cake — which my cousin bought along the way — he’s really too considerate.

After we walked several kilometres through Kobe we arrived at a little Café in a mall called Mosaic at the harbour. Normally, people praise the Japanese service, but here we found a counter example. At first, they didn’t let us light the candles and then they didn’t let us eat the cake. Additionally, their drinks and ice-cream were bad, too. And I thought it was weird, that the Café closed at 10 pm on Sundays. So we decided to eat the cake on a bench at the seaside. We also managed to light the candles (despite the wind) and discovered that we only had 25 minutes left to get the last train for Osaka. So it turned out to be somewhat like “power-cake-eating”.

Happy but tired I fell around 12 pm in my bed. In the last years I didn’t really celebrate my birthday, so it was very funny to have so many people around and even a cake. I’m so thankful that my cousin organized everything. The girl to get him will be very lucky ^^..

Anh Thu

On our fourth day in Japan, we could sleep longer than the other days before. We started our tour at 10 am and headed for Kyoto. Because we went with my cousin, we didn’t take the Shinkansen, so that it took us nearly two hours to Kyoto — while we could’ve been there within 10 minutes with the Shinkansen (try to do that Deutsche Bahn! ^^~)

Kyoto is the city with the highest number of shrines and temples and it was difficult for us to decide where we wanted to go. Eventually, we decided on Fushimi Inari-Taisha, a Shinto-shrine famous for its long torii alleys. When I first saw some pictures of the torii, I was really impressed, because I thought that there’re thousands of those big red gates standing in a line. But actually, there’re only some big gates. The majority is quite small ^^. Important is, when you’re inside the alleys, you must turn back. Then you can see the black engraved names of those companies and families who contributed the torii. It was really cold that day and we decided not to go the whole way to the inner shrine. Instead we walked the way back and had lunch in a restaurant, which seem to be more like a canteen decorated in style of the GDR (German Democratic Republic). It was when Moritz disvovered his liking for bentou (Japanese style lunch box).

After that we went to another temple not far away from the Inari-taisha, it was called: Tokufuji temple People there were crazy to capture the best autumn scenery picture ^^. I saw many women wearing beautiful kimonos that day…I thought:”Really nice, but cold!” ><..
Then we planned to visit the Nijo Castle and International Manga Museum. But unfortunately, the castle closes at 4 pm and we arrived there around 4.45 pm. At least we walked around the moat, although it was not voluntarily — we just didn’t know where the entrance was…haha.

Because it was really too cold and it got dark, we returned to Osaka. It’s so nice to have heated seats in trains =). We battled our way through the crowded inner city of Osaka and finally arrived at a little bar where the speciality was cocktails and takoyaki (balls of the size of golf balls with octopus filling). They were so delicious and the dried octopus they scattered on the takoyaki was coiling because of the heat. So we tried the two Osaka typical dishes — okomomiyaki and takoyaki.

That day we arrived early at the International House. Too bad that days end so early in winter, I would’ve liked to see more of Kyoto…but maybe there’ll be another chance ^^..

Anh Thu

On the third day we woke up with a loud thunder and discovered we nearly overslept. From the beginning nothing went as planned. Due to heavy rain we had to take the bus which arrived too late, so that we had to take the train one hour later.

It was our first ride with a Shinkansen (Hikari), the most punctual and fastes bullet trains and finally, our Japan Rail Passes payed off. There’re many things which are better than the ICE:

• Departure and arriving on time
• Enough space to put your legs in a comfortable position
• Non-reserved seats are in the first three wagons, so that you don’t need to run through all wagons to look for a place, if you didn’t manage to reserve a seat.

The only thing which wasn’t is that there’re still smoker waggons. In general, the Japanese government (and public as well) don’t seem to think of smoking as a health risk. People smoke naturally in restaurants, although the food is running openly right in front of them…really disgusting.

Well, back to Hiroshima: That was the first time we went without guide, so we as well as my cousin were a little worried if we could find the way without getting lost. He prepared some maps and explained us which train to take and so on. He also gave me his mobile phone in case we can’t find home and so every three hours I got a check-call ^^.

My first impression of Hiroshima was, that it’s a nice little town with small houses in a nice scenery. Houses and coloured hills passed by while I looked out of the window. I liked it a lot.
Our first station was the island Miyajima. From the station we took the ferry to Miyajima to visit the Itsukushima Shrine (a floating shrine). From afar you could see the famous red floating torii (traditional Japanese style gate) standing in the water. Later I was told that you actually can walk from the island to the gate at low tide. But while we were there the tide was too high. At the shrine we saw priests and priestesses (miko) in their traditional costumes. At every shrine and temple you can buy talisman and lucky charms for different purposes, for example for passing an exam, health and longevity, I also saw one for traffic safety and of course for happiness and love.

While we were on the island the weather was changing frequently from sunshine to rain, it was so windy and cold but we had fun. The island was very beautiful and quiet with lots of souvenir shops. Remarkable is that there are dozen of deers, running around freely, searching for food at the tourists. We also tried a specialily of Hiroshima — some kind of pastries in shape of a maple leaf which seems to be the symbol of the city.

Back from the island we took the tram to the Peace Memorial Park and visited the Peace Memorial Museum. It took us a while with the tram and when we got there it was nearly dark outside. The Peace Park with the museum is a “must-do”, if you are in Hiroshima. The A-bomb Dome is the second UNESCO World Heritage in Hiroshima (the other one is Itsukushima Shinto Shrine). The museum is really amazing documenting Hiroshima’s history, World War 2nd and of course the event of August 5th, 1945, when the A-bomb detonated and the happenings after that day. Every memorial monument expresses the wish of peace.
At the end of the day we walked along the shopping street of Hiroshima and stopped by at a little restaurant to have udon soup. I felt so happy to eat the bowl of hot noodles after I was half frozen ^^. (The weather is like in Germany.) I also bought a Japanese style rice ball (orinigi) for the trip back to Osaka.

We saw so many school girls and boys in their school uniforms — so kawaii. I also wanna have one ><…

Anh Thu

The first thing we did the second day was going to the bank. We really hoped that they could help us to solve our “without-money-problem”. After one hour of checking cards and calling various financial institutions they told us, that there’s no cooperation between Japanese banks and .comdirect, so that you can’t withdraw money from their ATMs — although it was a Visa card and there’s the Visa logo printed all over the ATMs.

Still without money we went to the Toyonaka campus of Osaka University with a friend of my cousin. I liked the yellow ginko trees and leafs and the autumn scenery ressembles Europe a lot. After that we went to another campus of the Osaka University — Suita — where my cousin was. Actually, we wanted to lern something about Japanese students, but then we ended up in meeting the big Vietnamese community at Osaka University ^^..
Although they made fun of us, it was very nice to meet them and now I know that my cousin isn’t lonely in far Japan with so many friends.

After lunch we said good bye to all the Vietnamese students and went to visit some sights of Osaka. On our way to the train station we walked along a beautiful autumn alley. Everybody (including us) took pictures from the red glowing trees — even the business man with his mobile camera stopped every five metres to take a picture ><.. I think it’s best to visit Japan either in spring (when the cherry blossoms bloom) or in autumn (when the leafs change their colour). At the train station we met another friend of my cousin and with us five people (we both, Trung, Hang and Hung) we headed for the Castle of Osaka. My cousin planned to watch the sunset from the Floating garden observatory on top of the Umeda Sky Building (7th tallest building in Osaka), but when we arrived there it was already dark xD
But instead, we could see Osaka at night and inside the building we could enjoy some funny games. Before we went down, everybody got a star, where he or she could write down his or her wish and then throw it into the Wish Star Pocket ^^..

At the foot of the building we found a German “Weihnachtsmarkt” with original German “Schlager” and specialities. But we quickly discovered that it was a total ripoff — even more than in Germany: EUR 5 for a mini bag of “Schmalzgebäck” and even EUR 11 for 100g “gebrannte Mandeln”?!!
And then I met that kind of Germans I don’t like: unfriendly and prejudiced. One of the first things the “Schmalzgebäck-woman” said to Moritz was: “Die Japaner sind oberflächlich.” (“Japanese people are shallow.”) I mean, how many Japanese persons does she know to come to such a conclusion?

For dinner I wanted to try okonomiyaki (Osaka’s speciality). People say it’s the Japanese pizza, but I think it’s more like a pancake, much thicker and you can add all ingredients you want. We had some with octopus, prawn and beef. Normally, okonomiyaki is fried directly at your table — however the people there seem to not trust our skills so that they fried it for us, so that we could eat it instantly. On the way to the restaurant we found a citybank and we were finally able to withdraw money. Thank god citybank didn’t go bankrupt ;)

The only thing bad at that day was that I forgot to take pictures of the okonomiyaki. :( Maybe, there’ll be another chance for me. See you next time.

PS: The photos are available at: http://picasaweb.google.com/anhthudinhthi/

Anh Thu

Finally, I’m done with my final exam (there’s only one left next Saturday) and now I’ve some time to post the Japan entries and sort all the pictures.
So here is the first one ^^..

Our trip to Japan began early in the morning on December 3rd, I woke up at 4.20 am (Moritz was up even earlier). Because our flight was sheduled for 7.30 am we had to go to the airport by taxi. So the day before Moritz called Dennis’ Taxi Service and asked for a cab to come at 5.15 am to UST to pick us up. But due to communication problems (the assigned driver thought that we wanted to be picked up at 6 am, but we wanted to be at the airport around this time) the cab arrived 20 minutes late. Even though we arrived in time.

We flew with Air India (for the first time). Before we booked our flights we searched for some information about this airline. We found various opinions. The funniest comment was from our Indian fellow student: “You flew with Cathay, compared to that flying with Air India would be like taking a bus.”
I must admit, that Air India isn’t the airline I would choose for a long distant flight. The stewardesses are around 40, the safety video was shot with a hand camera. Weird was, that the machine was nearly empty and that we were checked twice before we could get on board although we passed the immigration and checkups. Funny was, that the stewardesses gave us a Health Questionaire to enter the Republic of Korea. But after some confused passengers asked them, what the destination of the flight was, they took them back :D
All in all Air India was okay. Although the machine was very old and the service not really good we arrived safely in Osaka.

After arriving in Osaka — Kansai International airport — I met my cousin, then we got our Japan Rail Pass, with which we could use all Japan Rail lines. And I met my first Japanese ^^ (kyah!!!) — Japanese service persons are soo friendly and the Japanese language is so funny, yet cute. I instantly wanted to start learning Japanese, but I know — I’ve to concentrate on learning Mandarin first (but after that it’ll definitely be Japanese). xD

A big problem we encountered in Japan — and we’ve never, NEVER thought it would happen — was that we couldn’t withdraw money with our Visa cards at the ATMs. We weren’t prepared at all, because it has never happened before (not in Hong Kong and also not in China). So we came to Japan without a Yen, without a phone and even without knowing the address of my cousin…Luckily, everything worked out fine for us: My cousin volunteered to be our ATM until we could get some cash ^^~~

After a short nap in our room at Senri Inernational House, we got over our first shock and could enjoy delicious, original Japanese sushi and Osaka at night. The outcome of our meal (in plates):

Moritz: 12, Thu: 8, Trung (cousin): 12

Anh Thu

I just came back from my oral exam — Mandarin Chinese — a few minutes ago and after my teacher told me that I have to keep on learning Chinese, I feel like writing something ^^..

Last week we made a one day trip to Shenzhen (China) to vistit Moritz’s “relatives”. Actually, we only met Lyn (although we also saw her twin sister — for nearly a minute) and to let the others know, who Lyn is: She is the niece of the wife of the cousin of the mum of Moritz….Everybody still with me?
We had a nice day in Shenzhen (only one and a half hour from UST with the MTR). We had hot pot with Lyn and her friend for lunch. Hot pot is traditional Chinese, there you have a big pot with boiling water where you can cook meat and vegetables while you’re eating. (There’re also Vietnamese, Japanese and other versions.) After that we went to “The Window of the World” — kind of theme park where you can see miniature models of the most famous sights of the world, for example the Eiffel Tour, the Statue of Liberty and so on. There’s a really nice photo album, which you can see here.

There’re also other albums, I want to transfer all my pictures to picasa, because I like it more than flickr (it also has the feature to put down landmarks so that the viewers can see where the picture was taken). But I still don’t have enough time and the “AuslandsBAföG” wants something, they’re so annoying.

Back to Shenzhen: In the evening Lyn’s friend cooked us a Beijing typical meal — Beijing forever!! And we had a nice talk with her. It was so cute to see that she lost her fear to speak English during the day and then she got pretty good, although she didn’t believe us when we told her.
Although it was not the typical Shenzhen trip (with spa and lot’s of fake VL handbags) we had a really nice day and we hope to see Lyn again soon — maybe in Germany ;)

For my time in Japan, I’ll try to update the blog everyday or at least every two days.
The countdown is running, 2 days until departure :D

Anh Thu

Last Wednesday I had a really amazing experience. For the first time in my life it was really easy (well, compared to my other experiences) to get a visa. I only needed to hand in the application form, my student ID, my passport and the bankstatements of the last three months (which was slightly topped up only for this purpose;=). After three days I could go to the Exchange Square in Central to pick up my passport plus visa.

For those who have never been to Hong Kong: Central is the banking district of Hong Kong, with the highest skyscrapers (e.g. Bank of China Tower, IFC Tower,…) and the most expensive shopping malls. So it was also an opportunity for me to get into one of those expensive looking buildings ^^..
Everything looked really noble, the ground was polished so that you could see your reflection and most of the people there wore suits. I was very surprised, when I saw the red Christmas flowers which was the main decoration. And for the first time I realized, that Christmas and with it my departure was approaching in full speed. And so does the elevators of the skyscrapers: In 30 seconds it took us from the 3rd floor to the 42th floor. After another 3 minutes I could happily go back with my Japan visa in my handbag.

So now, after Moritz booked the flights, I’LL BE IN JAPAN during my 23rd birthday!!!! I still can’t believe it, but it surely will be one of my best experiences this year. I’ll tell you then.

Anh Thu