Hello again!
First of all I'm sorry I didn't post anything for such a long time, but I was quite a bit busy and since I don't have a computer myself I have to hope for a computer in the hostels which was not the case for a pretty long time.
Anyway I'm currently already in Seoul, Korea, but I'll let you know about my last weeks in Japan in this post, about Osaka, Kobe, Hiroshima and Fukuoka, with a special feature of my thoughts about Japan and a list of crazy "only in Japan" things ;)
My favorite place in Osaka was by far the castle park, from the castle you saw at the end of the previous post. I was spending time there almost everyday I was in Osaka.
Near the castle there was this building called Shudokan, which is a martial arts training hall for different traditional japanese martial arts like Kendo, Judo and Naginata. I would have loved to train there but I discovered it too late and didn't have time anymore.
The next stop after Osaka was Kobe, a port city near Osaka.
Kobe Port Tower
At the port there were these shops with pretty fun things, especially this one shop just sold from silly pens to skatebords, notebooks and minispeakers everything, very coloured and ridiculously cheap!
My lovely couchsurfing host chisato and herve, another traveller, I had lots of fun eating Kimchi Hot Pot ;D
After Kobe I moved right away to Hiroshima where I met a friend from Tokyo again, having fun in a lovely small bar.
The A-Bomb Dome, where the atomic bomb exploded almost right above it, in 500m height, one of the only buildings, that where still standing in hundreds of meters around.
In front of this memorial there were school classes singing, which was very beautiful.
This is the peace memorial monument, which has a stone plates in it, where the name of all victims are written on, it's very impressively situated in the middle of the peace park, definitely a place worth visiting.
Shukkeien is the name of this wonderful traditional japanese garden I've visited.
My last stop in Japan was Fukuoka, a port city where I wanted to take the ferry to Korea after staying there for couple of days first. Above you can see the eye-catching architecture of canal city, a shopping mall.
I was looking at the museum of asian art with some interesting pieces of art like my examples here.
When I was looking for place to sit, an old man was taking me gently but firmly to this foot onsen where you just have a table to read or do whatever you want and relax your feet in an onsen. Amazing right?
I had the chance to have a look at a real sumo tournament in Fukuoka, which was really very interesting, a lot of ceremonies and rituals but also impressive techniques.
My last day I spent with Risa, a girl who lived in Fukuoka, we went to Dazaifu, a small city near Fukuoka and looked at a shrine and the garden, a very pretty place, also called small Kyoto.
Lovely Risa!
After Dazaifu we went to lunch karaoke which is just an amazing thing, I want that in Switzerland, too!
I had the chance to train Taekwondo with Master Tanaka, It was very interesting to see a different style!
We went to eat at those small outside restaurant /grill things and while the night continued to many other places, too! :D
The next day I took the Ferry to Busan, Korea, being quite tired after a long night, but ready for a new experience. Thank you Japan for everything, for every kind person and beautiful place, overall an unforgettable experience.
The "only in Japan" list
They have Onsens, which is amazing.
Karaoke everywhere.
You can declare "drinking" as a hobby and everyone loves you.
Every product is wrapped up at least 5 times.
Toiletseats are heated and toilets are eighter multifunctional or just a hole in the ground.
Public transportation is always perfectly on time.
People are just reaaally friendly, always, everywhere.
If you tip, the waiter will run after you, to return the money.
People are generally well dressed and women have their hair, nails and everything done flawlessly.
They LOVE to dress up and they spent a lot of effort to do it perfectly.
Tattoos are still pretty much a No-Go, especially in traditional places, because of the mafia.
Please make a lot of noise while eating a soup!
Do not clean your nose in public.
Do not show bare feet.
Wearing a face mask all day long is the most normal thing you can do.
Japanese people reeally like chocolate.
Girls try to be cute, all the time. So they giggle, instead of laughing.
80% of men wear suits.
Plastic food in front of restaurants everywhere.
......
....to be continued.
What I think about Japan
It was difficult for me to build an opinion about Japan at first, I kind of needed an other country to compare with first, which I do have now, and I can say, I really love Japan. It is a very special place and people are really exceptionally nice and polite, they take their work very seriously and respect is a big thing in all fields. They're pretty quiet, too, you can be in a huge city like Tokyo and don't feel overwhelmed by everything. As a foreigner this is a great thing, because you get treated nicely in all places and you basically get to know all the good sides of the country. That's because you're never on the working side and don't get to see that people are really working very very hard, night and day and vacations are almost non-existent or very rare. On one hand this is just their culture and they're used to it, but on the other hand, together with lots of rules and regulations of japanese culture it can make you feel unfree and not happy. But still japanese people have this happy nature I think, or at least it looks like this to me. Anyway there are a lot of things I'll miss from Japan and I had a great time there.
Keine Kommentare:
Kommentar veröffentlichen