Touchdown in the land where the skies are blue

So 2007 is coming to a close, huh? Well... let's see what it got me. If I remember it right, I started the year pretty much alone in my place, because I couldn't be bothered to find a party. If I recall correctly, I was working on something or other in Photoshop, and when the first fireworks went off, I took a minute to figure out what was happening.

Around May, I failed my first written intermediate exam by not getting it done in time, because I'm a damn lazy slacker. So the stress that was supposed to be over two weeks after the semester began stayed with me until its end, yay! I managed to finish by the second attempt, and pass my subsequent oral exam as well. Not well, but I passed.

Then came the stress of moving, and then came Singapore. What can I say? It's been pretty damn great. The posts in this blog probably give you at least a bit of an idea of what I've been up to, but of course there is so much that didn't make the news. All the people I met, all the places I've been, all the fun and not so fun times... I say thank you. Pulau Rawa was a great start, Indonesia was awesome, and Cambodia was just incredible.

And now, I'm in Japan. I've been here for almost 3 weeks now, and it feels so much longer! I've stayed in a 10-man dorm, worked in a carpenter's workshop, and now I'm living the farmer's life. I'm quite curious about what's yet to come!

Yeah, about that farmer's life... it's incredible here. My sleeping pattern has completely shifted about, um... 6-8h backwards. Yeah, I sleep normal hours now! Every day begins at 7, and ends at dinner. Every morning, chickens and sheep need to be fed, and then there's various kinds of work to do. Don't think I ever did the same thing twice yet. We already killed and cooked some chicken, collected eggs, heaved straw for the (single) goat, built a shed, and so on. Most of all, had loads, boatloads of fun with the people here though. They are so kind-hearted, funny and communicative, it's just great. I probably already mentioned that I'm learning a lot of Japanese, since only one of the staff members speaks English, which is great. In a way, I feel like a child - just marveling at all the cool things to do and see around here, having fun with language without regard for... anything, really. All in all, I'm quite enjoying myself, and you can take that just the way I said it.

Now, have a happy new year! It's just started here, 30mins ago. And no fireworks on New Year's Eve in Japan. Personally, I'm going to go to sleep now, in order to get up in time to see the first sunrise of 2008 together with everyone tomorrow morning. In 4.5 hours... fun! :D

As a little New Year's treat, have some photos! All of them are worth checking out in full size, so click them and then click on "All Sizes"! And of course, more photos, as always, can be found in my flickr galleries, linked on your right.

Warm greetings from the land where the skies are blue!

Moving on again

A cheery hello to all the folks at home! I haven't written up a proper blog about my first host yet, but all in all, the time I spent with Hiro-san and Kazuko-san was very enjoyable! And I got to cook both my chicken curry and my tortellini for them, yummy!

Today I moved on to a different host. Keiko and her crew have an organic farm about 1.5 hours from Tokyo. They've got chickens and sheep, and also grow some stuff, but I haven't yet figured out what it is. The place is very different from urban Tokyo, to say the least! Hey, it's a farm. This is the first time I shall ever work on a farm. I'm a little excited, after all I still have a sort of vision about my future as a self-sufficient farmer's man somewhere outside of Europe one day.

Not much else happened today. I'm going to learn a great deal of Japanese however, since only one person here speaks English, and she's quite busy. There is another WWOOF'er here as well, and it so happens that he's from Germany. Luckily (or unfortunately?) for me, he speaks rather good Japanese, so he can act as an interpreter in those difficult situations, but then again that of course takes away a little the reason to improve my Japanese. I was however able to call Keiko from the station and tell her in Japanese who I am and that I have arrived and am waiting at the station, I'm so proud! :)

There's probably a lot to do here, a lot of tasty and healthy food, and not much else. We'll see if I get a yearning to go online and waste my time there, or manage to relax and blend in - as much as that's even possible as a fair-skinned *cough* Gaijin with dreadlocks... So, I probably won't be online much in the next 1-2 weeks, all things willing.

I wish you all a merry belated christmas as well, or whatever your religion's appropriate reason for seasonal merriness! And for myself, I wish I had brought warmer clothes.

Roppongi, and moving on.

Yes, I'm 2 days late for the Roppongi report... No, it's not because the hangover lasted that long! :P But let's cut to the chase.

We got going around 11pm on Saturday, six of us, and quite the mixed troupe: One guy from Israel, two, a couple, from Mexico, one guy from Japan (Atsushi I wrote about already), one girl from the US and humble me from Germany. Hey, that rhymed! We were to meet another local girl, our guide, at Roppongi, and after about 30mins of Train and 20mins of walking, we did.


Before.

When the question came up of where to go, "Salsa!" seemed to be the general consensus, and who was I to disagree? So Ayumi got us into an apparently members only latino club, where we spent the next 4-5 hours dancing and drinking a lot of tequila. It was the Mexicans' idea, honest! Israeli guy hooked up with Japanese girl, and I think I kissed someone too, but I'll pretend here that I can't really remember. We decided around 5 that it was time for Kebab- ...Döner! They actually have Döner kebab here! I didn't believe my own eyes! It looks just like in Germany! Oh man... That was so awesome! Selling it from parked vans. Coolness!

Gas panic? Only in Japan will you find places named like this.

Anyways. Karaoke! God, my voice was so ruined! I am as of now totally convinced that Karaoke machines are designed to make you sound horrible.
And then we went back home, and it was 7 am.


After.

The next 2 days were spent reading Stephen King's "The Dark Tower", 7th of the series, which I bought for cheap money in Taiwan. Not much to tell otherwise... Oh, except maybe that Atsushi invited me to come to his place in Kyushu should I ever make it to that part of Japan. Cool guy, taught me a lot of Japanese too :) And yesterday we were out drinking with a friend of his, who was quite cute, but taken.

Now, today I got to my first WWOOF host. For those of you who are completely oblivious, WWOOF is a pretty much worldwide organisation that facilitates contact between mainly organic farms, but also other kinds of hosts, and people who are willing to work on/at/for them in exchange for free food and accommodation. People like me.

My hosts now are Kazuko and Hirofumi. She has a restaurant and shop, and he has a carpentry workshop, where I will be working with him, and hopefully learning a lot of interesting things! Today I only got here at 4pm, so didn't do too much, except to help finish a table. Then we went out to a sushi place, and that was the first time ever I tried sushi in my entire life! Lack of hunger and appetite kept me away from all the funny looking fish tables, but I tried some seaweed-wrapped rice, something else with rice, something with ham and a lot of dessert :D It was not bad, but I really didn't feel brave enough to try fish, yet.

Afterwards, Kazuko and me went shopping, and guess what - I get to cook pasta for dinner tomorrow :D

I also finally got a positive answer from a host over new years, so no worries there, I have a place to stay until early January, yay! I didn't even realize how close christmas already was! 5 days to go... I could have easily missed it if I wasn't in contact with people over the internet... So, merry christmas to everyone I don't see or hear from until then!

Now it's about time for bed, 1:25am here, and work tomorrow starts at 10pm.

Saturday: Shinjuku, Harajuku and Shibuya

Will you call me a whiney bitch if I say that my legs hurt? Today I actually managed to get up rather early (10am), and take in a few sights. First task of the day: Locate an international ATM. Here in Japan, even though the ATMs bear the Visa, MasterCard, Cirrus, PlusCard etc signs, they're mostly not connected to the international ATM network, and only work for Japan-issued cards. Fortunately, the Japanese Postal Service has international ATMs in all of their branches. But the issue remained: How to find a post branch? Maps were dug out, compared, and it was concluded that there was actually one quite close. I strolled off into the wrong direction at first, but managed to find it after I realized my mistake. Now I'm stocked on cash, and not much can go wrong! Except, of course, an armed robbery.

Speaking of money, I really have to start getting a feel for the money here. To give you an idea, 1€ converts to 164¥, I just looked that up. Wait, 164¥? Wow, I've been calculating with 135 all this time. Suits me well for using courses printed in books and not on the internet! Anyways... it's complicated. I was calculating with rough rates of 4/3rds and 3/4ths, looks like I'll have to switch to 5/3rds and 3/5ths now, which won't make it any easier... 1000¥, which is the smallest bill, is worth about 6€, for simplicity's sake.

Anyways. After I fiscally equipped myself, I took the JR (which is short for Japanese Rail service, by the way) to Shinjuku - the part of Tokyo with the highest density of skyscrapers. Had some trouble figuring out how the hell to get out of the station. According to my trusted Lonely Planet guidebook, approximately two million people pass through the station every day, making it one of the busiest in the world. And it shows. There's so many exits, corners, shops, staircases, escalators, signs, etc., it just gets a little confusing.





To add stupidity to confusion, I also realized that I originally wanted to get out at Shibuya, not Shinjuku. Well, what the hell, since I'm already here... I strolled around between some skyscrapers, which were quite imposing. Then I got out my travel guide, which told me that there's an observatory floor on one of these - and it's even free! Great, so I went to the top of the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building's 45th floor, and what did I see? A cityscape like no other, spreading out from horizon to horizon. Impressive, but also a little scary. At least Tokyo has some decent parks, unlike Singapore...



Well, when I had taken in the sights, I went and took a look at the other side of the station: Less skyscrapers, more alleys and small shops to explore. I was starting to feel kind of meh and hungry though, so I went to the nearest McDonald's *cough*, and tried their currently advertised "Mega Tomato!" burger. Three layers of meat, some pepper sauce and a tomato, and it was actually kinda nice. The woman at the counter was nice enough to point out what she was talking about on the menu with her finger for me, so I was even able to order a meal with it, yay!



Next up: Harajuku. Reputedly full of Cosplayers, according to my guidebook. Well, it lied: There were exactly two. Anyways, there was a templed too, Meiji-Jingu, and I decided to take a look since I was already there. I'll let the pictures (and their comments on Flickr - yes, I actually started giving names and descriptions to the photos now!) speak for themselves, so go ahead and indulge yourselves at my flickr gallery!





When I got out of the park again, I realized that a guy I had noticed on my way in was still standing there, doing his thing - dancing to some music from his ghetto blaster, right on the middle of the street. As my ex has wondered before: Do cities attract crazy people, or do they create them? Judge for yourself:



I took a walk from there to Shibuya, reputedly THE shopping place for Tokyo's youth. And behold, the average age of the people I passed on the sidewalks did indeed seem to drop consistently, the closer I got to the place. When I did get there though, I was already so tired that I decided to go home. And that's where I am now, happily sitting in front of my laptop and typing this blog.





In about half an hour, some of the guys staying here in the hostel are going to Roppongi, Tokyo's prime party area, and I'm going with them. Guess we'll see how that goes! I'll keep you posted.
Oh, as always, more photos in my flickr gallery - the link is on the top right hand side of this page! And I also uploaded some videos again, check them out on my YouTube page, also on the right side of this page. Mostly old stuff, but some new ones as well, like for example the one linked above.

Overslept...

Instead of waking up at 9am like I planned, I managed to sleep through till 2pm. Wow, good job, the sun's gonna be down in 2-3 hours. So I didn't manage to get much sightseeing done today after all.

I did, however, manage to get to Akihabara, Tokyo's prime electronics shopping area, to and buy a transformator for my laptop. I was really looking forward to having to use my japanese, but turns out the clerk found it easier to speak to me in English. Long story short: Yay, I can now use my own computer again!


Akihabara

I also managed to buy some apples. And a sandwich at Subway's. They're quite different here than what I'm used to! But then again, everything is.

Also, the skies are full of cables:



The people here at the hostel are really nice, and from all over. Just one photo to prove that I am really here:



Oh, and I'll have to start figuring out how to use the asian squat style toilets here, I think. Well, better late than never... I managed to avoid them all across south east asia so far, but it seems that now, I don't have a choice anymore. The only toilet in the hostel is a squat one.
Any advice on how these things work would be greatly appreciated!

Ramen & Damen

Just got back from eating foods - real japanese food! For the first time in my life. Atashi, the manager here, went to a ramen shop with me. It's kind of weird, all customers basically sit on a bar with a waiter standing in the middle to refresh everyone's drinks when they're almost empty. The food itself was pretty nice! Noodle soup with egg, and some kind of things where I can't really tell what they are.


Atashi enjoying his ramen

Then we went to an electronics store to see if we couldn't find a converter/transformator, or whatever the things are called that make my european 220V/50Hz devices compatible with Japan's 110V/50-60Hz power outlets. Well... turns out that if I hadn't bought a really cheap power supply in Singapore, I would be able to just use a mechanical plug adaptor... but no such luck, omae. If I want to use my laptop at all, I'll either have to buy a rather expensive converter (think 30-40EUR roundabouts), or a new universal power supply. The latter might have the advantage of me not having to carry around another heavy piece of electronic gear, but would also most likely be more expensive. I think I paid around 50EUR for the one I bought in Signapore's dearly missed Sim Lim Square.

Not to forget that I've already been led into an etablissement "where men can buy women sometimes" - What the hell? The guy just wanted to show it to me, I think, heh... But we were greeted with a "Japanese only!" before I even knew what kind of a place it was. Lucky me!

Another good-to-know fact: There's a ferry from Osaka to Shanghai for only 30000\ (round trip ticket), which is maybe a third or half of what you would pay for a flight. I might just go there if I need a cheap break from Japan :)

I'll go and have a good look at this city tomorrow. And make more photos, I promise! Tons of them, in fact. It was just a bit tiring trying to do it with two backpacks on my back...

Yatta~, nihonni tsukimashita!

Wheee, I'm here!
Slept through the entire flight and woke up only when we hit the runway... But to start at the beginning, let's go back to Taipei.

When I arrived at Taipei airport yesterday evening, I called Stanley right away to meet up with him. We took the bus together with a friend of his, Steven, and first checked in at the YCMA where I would stay that night. It was right opposite of the Taipei Main Station, and the room was quite a lot more luxurious than what I was used to from Singapore and surroundings! Seperate shower, air conditioning and all kinds of goodies. Pricetag accordingly, who would have guessed.


Stanley and Steven at the main railway station

We then took a ride on the subway to oen of the night markets, where we met another friend of theirs, and had some steamed food. Unfortunately, I was already quite constipated from the lunch I had with Karla at Changi Airport before my flight, and then the meal on the plane... But the guys showed me one of Taiwan's original inventions: Original Milk Pearly Bubble Tea. It was quite something: Tea with Milk, iced, and inside it some pearls made of flour. The straw that came with it was big enough to slurp them right through - quite something!

Video tba...

It was only around 20 degrees that night... warm for the season, I was assured. So we walked to see the National Taiwan University, and it's pretty big! :) But then I already had to go home, so that I would at least catch some sleep before my flight.


Me, the morning before the flight.

Thanks again to Stanley, Steven and Victor for being such nice hosts!

The flight to Tokyo was rather uneventful, due to my above described sleepiness. But once at the airport, I got talking with a Japanese guy who had just spent a month in India traveling. Customs were quite curious as to all the things I had in my bag, and I had to unpack it and show them the goodies... they took away all my cocaine and weed and arrested me. I'm writing this from the Tokyo prison... NOT! Haha, gotcha.

After I had cleared customs and immigration, I tried to withdraw some money. Here's to the first of many linguistical difficulties! Besides, the ATM didn't want to accept my debit card, though my credit card was apparently fine.
Then I tried to find the right train. There are about 7 different services going from Tokyo Narita airport to Tokyo itself, and only a few of them take less than an hour... I opted to talk to the Tourist Information and have them write down the cheapest route for me, complete with the station's names in Kanji - which was helpful, but as it later turned out, not neccessary: most stations and trains are bilingual.

I can't really begin to describe the feeling of strangeness around here. Everything's in Japanese, duh! My first impression is rather positive though. I like it here! The hostel is cute as well, I'm sleeping in a 10 man dorm in the basement on a side street... nice and quiet!


The street where the backpacker hostel is located. The powerlines everywhere immediately reminded me of various anime...

Now I'm going to eat something with Atashi, the manager, and tomorrow I'll go and explore the city a little. Hopefully will be able to find a power adaptor, so as to upload some photos!

Stay tuned, beloved audience.

Ping from Taiwan

Yo!
Sitting in Taipei airport right now. I spent the night at the YMCA after being shown around a little by Stanley and his friends. Gotta say, Taiwan is pretty nice.

Now I'm waiting for boarding on my flight to Tokyo... I guess there's no turning back now, is there?

More when I don't have to fear for my battery!

Almost over, almost gone

Not even two days left to go, and I will be leaving Singapore. Things are hectic, and there is just way too much left to be done... Wednesday, I'll be in Taipei for a night, where Stanley (who I've met here in Singapore at NUS) has been so nice as to offer me a place on his sofa for the night, and to show me around the city a bit, before my plane for Tokyo leaves the next morning at 9am.

I still don't really know where I'll stay in Tokyo, but a friend has talked to a friend in Japan, and they might be able to let me stay at their place for a few days until I can go to meet and move on to my first WWOOF'er host.

Tomorrow I'll have to do way too much crap. Cancel my local bank account, pack a giant packet to Germany with all my excess stuff and bring it to the post office (after finding a post office), going to campus to pay my rent, and that's just a little part of it. Who needs sleep anyway? Evidently, I do, but my sleep cycle is still very messed up... as demonstrated by the fact that I'm typing this at 6am, before sleep.

Well, wish me the best of luck! I must say, I've been a little anxious about this trip, but as it's dawning closer and closer, I can't help but get excited. It's gonna be one hell of an adventure, but I'd be a fool not to dive right into the deep end of the pool, right?

I'll try to keep you all updated. Not like these last weeks... Yeah, I know. I still owe you all a blog about Cambodia. I'm going to get around to it, eventually... and to uploading all those videos I took to youtube.

New trip, new blog muscles!

Sweet dreams.