The land of the rising sun - Part 1 of 2

Japan - what a country. With 127 million inhabitants and a GDP of ~US$ 3.7 trillion, this is a big place with lots to see and do. And indeed, over the past two weeks, Judith & I have experienced so much (people, food, drink, hangovers, architecture, fashion, music, language, traditions, religion, landscapes, late night world cup matches, mega-cities, transportation efficiency, night-life, technology, mail delivery services, martial arts, to name but a few) that it would be impossible to fit it all into this post. Fortunately, we have one week left (yeah!) and therefore can force another post onto you at a later stage.

The first part of our Japan leg already started in a promising manner. The nice lady at the check-in counter in San Francisco upgraded us to ANA Business Class – wohooo! After enjoying the pleasantries of a US$6.000 flight (yes, that's per person), we arrived in Tokyo both very relaxed and slightly tipsy.

Tokyo is a must-see. The city itself is home to some 13 million people, but the larger metropolitan area including e.g. adjacent Yokohama boasts a whopping 36 million inhabitants. That makes it the largest urban conglomeration in the world, and raises the question whether countries like Slovenia (2 million inhabitants) should be called a country at all. Tokyo is so big that it doesn't only have one but several commercial, cultural, and administrative centers. In our first few days in the city, we stayed with my former colleague Jan-Hendrik in Shinjuku (one of the aforementioned centers). Jan-Hendrik is taking a well-deserved break from his professional career and now spends his time practising his Judo and Japanese skills. Sounds reasonable to me.

Of course, life in the mega-city Tokyo is incredibly diverse. Judith & I enjoyed combing our sight-seeing tour with our voyeuresque tendencies – i.e. people-watching. We found some of the best specimen in the alternative, youth-oriented parts of town like Harajuku. Apparently, I was mistaken in thinking that the classic jeans and t-shirt combination still was cool. It's clearly not.

Fashion wasn't the only area where we learned new things. In many aspects of life, Judith & I felt like kids, really. We couldn't speak the language, let alone read it, and we didn't know the food or customs. We can't even handle chopsticks properly, for crying out loud (click on 1. below on how to use chopsticks & 2. on how not to use them. You won't regret it).

1. How to use chopsticks

2. How not to use chopsticks

When walking through Tokyo, we as gaijin (gringos) really stood out. Even today, Japan only has some 1.5% of foreign residents (the lowest percentage of any developed country by a long mile), and only ~5% of those 1.5% would be Westerners. You do the math. Being so obviously foreign, I hope people forgave us the cultural mishaps we continuously managed to produce. You know the analogy of behaving like a bull in a china shop, right? Well, we often felt like that bull's obnoxious drunk brother at the world porcelain fair.

Knowing that we would return to Tokyo at the end of our Japan stay, we left Honshu Island for Matsuyama, on Shikoku Island, using the famous Shinkansen high speed train. The legendary efficiency and timeliness of those trains are indeed true - and every German's secret dream.

Matsuyama is somewhat off the beaten tourist track, at least for foreigners. Our reason for going there is called Petra and is a friend from Judith's university days. Despite our limited time in Japan overall, we ended up spending six days there for two reasons. The first was that the city is actually quite nice, and with Petra being there we gained some brilliant insights into Japanese (student) life, food, language, music (well, actually karaoke rather than music), and drink. The second reason was that we had to wait for the delivery of our second set of passports containing our Chinese & other Asian visas bound for Petra's address. As part of our meticulously detailed plan for world domina... errr... world circumnavigation, we had arranged the delivery even before leaving home. However, Japanese customs authorities wanted lots of convincing emails, phone calls, and faxes before clearing it. On the positive side, the unexpected waiting time gave us time to enjoy a lot of the world cup games like the first Germany match at 3.30 am. No, we did not have a beer.

After Matsuyama, we headed to Hiroshima. Sadly, Hiroshima is world famous mostly for THE bomb. Judith & I agree that the Peace Memorial Museum is the most impressive museum we have ever seen, and you are certain to leave it with a strange feeling in your stomach. Yet, Hiroshima has a lot more to offer, like the famous Itsukushima Shrine at nearby Miyajima. The torii (gate) of this Shinto shrine is built in the sea, allegedly making it one of the top three photographed attractions in Japan (I always wonder who comes up with those kinds of statistics).

Hiroshima's night-life is also truly excellent- my friend John should be able to confirm this from our visit two years back (she just got her Irish visa approved!). Judith's & my sampling of Hiroshima night-life turned out to be almost as fabulous. When watching the second Germany match (let's not discuss minor details like results or cards) in an Irish Pub, we got acquainted with a a martial arts master and his friend, a Peruvian now living in Japan. The master called Makoto has actually founded his own martial arts form - check it out:

http://www.shintaiikudo.jp

Makoto invited us to watch a special practice with his best black belts the following day, which they only do a few times a year. The practice was truly impressive. Combining karate, yoga, and meditation, the guys with the black belts turned out to be very strong, quick, and extremely flexible. I surely wouldn't want to upset any of them. I'll try to post some pics at a later stage. After the practice, the entire group invited us to a Sashimi restaurant, where they managed to get us quite drunk with various Japanese spirits with strange names.

Enriched with a fabulous experience but with a horrible hangover, we headed for Kyoto the next (well, actually the same) morning. There is so much to write about Kyoto, however, that I shall combine it with our Mount Fuji, Tokyo Part 2, and FOOOOOOOD updates. This second Japan post is still in the making, though. Arigatou gozaimasu for waiting.

The US of A

 

Right now, we are sitting on a Shinkansen high speed train from Tokyo to Okayama (yes, Japan) and have some time to kill - the ideal opportunity to provide you with an update about our recent stay in the USA.

Essentially, we only had two short but great stops while in the US. The first one was with my former host family in Las Vegas, and the second one was with the family of Judith's cousin in San Francisco.  

When we left San José in Costa Rica some two weeks ago, we flew to Las Vegas via Houston. In Houston, we had a problem (this definitely is my worst joke yet - apologies to you, dear reader, and to NASA). Thanks to the highly efficient US immigration procedures, we missed our connecting flight, but were able to hop on the last one that night a few hours later. Having finally arrived in LV after midnight, we rented a car. Without a car, you cannot go anywhere in LV because public transport doesn't exist there. I faintly remember seeing a single public bus once, but that might as well have been a product of my imagination. The "cars" in Las Vegas are huuuuge: an average SUV there roughly has the size of a standard 2 bedroom apartment in Tokyo. Come to think of it, a lot of things are big in size in Las Vegas: hotels, highways, strawberries, onions, steaks, water melons, buffets, service mentality, shampoo bottles... big is beautiful.

We stayed with my former host family, whom I had lived with when I was an exchange student in high school. That, however, was a shockingly long time ago (in 1997/1998).* And yes, there are regular families living in Las Vegas, it's not just gambling and hotels. Gina & David and their family were very, very welcoming and fun hosts, and it felt great to reconnect again. They also truly spoiled us: Judith & I both gained a few kilos in just 5 days. Maybe beef steaks for breakfast shouldn't become part of our regular diet.

LV has changed quite a bit since I have last seen it. The city has almost doubled in size since, as has the number of mega-hotels and casinos. We spent several days just exploring the Venetian, the Paris, the New York New York, and many others. Her first time gambling, Judith won ~60$ playing blackjack. I managed to lose it all again over the following days, though. So much for my finance background. 

We also did a two day trip to the Grand Canyon, passing via Hover Dam and Route 66 on the way. The Canyon itself of course is a must-see, but the road-tripping there was fun, too.

Unfortunately, it soon was time to say farewell to some great people to move on to San Francisco.

As mentioned, we stayed there with Judith's cousin, who had emigrated to the USA several years back. Now, he lives in the IT-Bermuda triangle (next to Google, Apple, and Oracle) with his wife and their son. Their house is built on a hill overlooking the Bay and the SF skyline. Wow! While we were there, Judith's aunt & uncle were visiting at the same time. This made us miss out on the fancy separate guest floor but resulted  in a fun medium-sized family reunion. 

San Francisco and the Bay Area have the reputation of being one of the most sought-after spots in the US for a reason. We enjoyed the truly international mix in the region, the stunning settings & landscapes, and the good vibe in SF itself. People in SF seem to love arts - they even put up colourful rainbow flags everywhere to enhance the beauty of their street lamps. While in the city, we met up with Travis (whom I had studied with in London) and his wife, who showed us around a cool organic food market which you probably wouldn't find in a lot of other US places.

Again, all good things come to / have an end (only a sausage has two, as a German saying goes**).  After only a few days, we had to say goodbye to Judith's family, San Francisco & the USA to continue with our travel plans. Nächster Halt: Japan, the land of the rising sun. Thank you, come again.

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* Time flies like an arrow, fruit flies like a banana. Think about it.
** That's Judith's joke. I tried to talk her out of it, but she insisted.