What‘s next after Japan?

In the last few weeks, I have dealt with the question of what comes next. Should I go back to China and cycle from there to Vietnam? Should I go to South America? Should I go to Europe and spendRead more
In the last few weeks, I have dealt with the question of what comes next. Should I go back to China and cycle from there to Vietnam? Should I go to South America? Should I go to Europe and spend winter in warm countries? Not sure…
This cycling trip has been an incredible chapter in my life. I’ve made countless life experiences that nobody ever can take away from me. I am aware that I could experience so much more if I continue. And yet, I think that I have slowly reached the point where I can proudly say: I have enough for now. Certainly, I do not want this journey to become a mindless consumption of visiting countries, like a checklist. It’s time to end this trip here in Japan while I still tour with great relish. For the remaining weeks, I’ll do my best to share further updates with you.
The timing could then also be not much better. Christmas is slowly coming closer. The thought of being together with my family and friends at the festivities feels so indescribable good. It reminds me of one of those classic Christmas songs “I’m driving home for Christmas, yeah…“. Horrible and cheesy as sh**, I know.
So, the flight to Frankfurt is booked. From there, my route will lead me to the final destination. The place I look forward to the most. My home, Steißlingen.Read more
- Met Acchan's english teacher and her husband
- Went to an Okinawan themed restaurant
- Had "Tacosu" which is an okinawan dish similar to tacos but in sort of deconstructed.
- Walked to the restaurant with Atsuya, there were very few people out and about. I said "there aren't many people out" and Atsuya responded with "there aren't many people in Fukui"Read more
Am Freitag nutzen wir die Sonne und fahren mit Öffis zur Insel Oshima. Die riesige Brücke zur Insel ist der erste Blickfang und Karl nutzt die Menschenleere, um ganz ungestellt seine Handstandskills zu üben 😉 .
Auf der anderen Seite der Brücke gelangt man über eine Treppe direkt in einen hoch gelegenen Wald, in dem das Licht und somit die Stimmung sehr mysteriös und friedlich sind. Wir spazieren die Insel ab und genießen die schöne Küste. Danach geht's zur nahegelegenen Bucht Tojimbo.Read more
Om 6 uur pakte we de trein vanaf Kanazawa naar Fukui, waar we een andere trein naar onze eerste stop van vandaag nemen, Echizen Daibutsu. Fukui staat blijkbaar bekend als de dinosaurus hoofdstad van Japan vanwege de vele opgravingen in de regio. Ook is er een dino museum!! Maar daar hebben we helaas geen tijd voor. Gelukkig konden we nog genieten van alle dinosaurussen die op het station te vinden warenRead more
Wir wagen eine Radtour in der Hoffnung am Strand etwas baden zu gehen - unsere Gastgeberin ist offenbar nicht so aktuell informiert, denn sie empfiehlt uns diesen "Strand" 😂 3 Baustellen säumen den Strand und es gibt keine Schattenspender bei der brütenden Hitze. Wir trauen uns wegen des direkt angrenzenden Industriegebiets nicht baden zu gehen..
aber wir finden noch einen kleinen Schrein auf einem Felsen direkt am Wasser und die insgesamt 4h strampeln auf den klapprigen Rädern durch die Sonne machen auch Spaß und Freude :)Read more
Oh man, alot happened on this day! I'm writing this from about 3 months in the future so my memory might not be as good as it would have writing the day after, but it was extremely difficult getting time to write any time after getting to Fukui. I was too busy doing things!!
We started off the day by taking a walk to a yakisoba restaurant that was decently close to Atsuya's house. This was my first time having yakisoba in Japan and I think I prefer yakisoba to ramen. I've never been a huge fan of soups and I like how soba is a dry noodle that I was able to dip into a soup-like broth. Once all the noodles were gone, you could add a liquid that was similar to a tea and mix it with the broth. This made the broth change flavors and become more drinkable on its own without the noodles. Apparently the difference between ramen and soba is that soba is made with buckwheat and ramen is made from wheat flour. To me, I find the most important part of the dish to be the flavor of the broth and any noodle will do.
We finished up at the noodle shop and stopped at a shop that was dedicated to building minature models of various cars, boats, buildings, etc. I had never seen a shop that only had models like this so it felt very surreal. Some of the models seemed overly complex and others seemed overly simple! For example, some of the pokemon models were just a couple plastic pieces that you put together yourself. We shuffled through the narrow hallways of the shop and then made our way back to Atsuya's apartment.
Later, we went to the fish shop again to take a look and see if there was any more fresh crab than the time before. Ware, Sekki, and Shu had not been here before so they seemed captivated by the variety of seafood that was offered and I think Sekki even ordered some crabs to be delivered to his place in Kasugai.
While everyone was looking around, I made a stop to the vending machine outside. The vending machines here are dangerous. I feel like every single time I saw one I wanted to grab a drink from it. Maybe it's because everything still felt so new, but I think I would probably still behave this way if I lived here for years 😇 I think the vending machines contributed to my gaining ten pounds while in Japan.
After getting back to Atsuya's house we began preparing for the takoyaki party. For those not familiar, a takoyaki is a fried dough ball with octopus in the middle and a takoyaki party is a gathering of friends to cook takoyaki dough balls at the center of the table. The pan sits at the center of the table and is oiled up to allow for the dough balls to avoid sticking to the metal. Once they've set in the circular divet long enough, we took small toothpicks and turned the balls to allow for the other side to cook. Eventually, we end up
with will fully formed dough balls with octopus inside! It's a fun communal experience because everyone is making the food together and it feels more involved than just having a normal meal together. I'm not usually a fan of octopus because of its tough texture but the octupus in Fuki was so good and soft. This was much better than any takoyaki I had before.
During the party we had a wide assortment of sake and alchohol options provided by Atsuya. I wish I could remember all the names but everything was very delicious. I also discovered sweet potatoe luquor and mixed with milk and in my drunken stupor hugged the bottle and proclaimed my love for the sweet potato. I'm sure I looked like a dork but that's ok, my dorkiness transcends the language barrier. At some point I ended up resting my eyes while laying on the ground because of the amount of alcohol I consumed was making me sleepy. A custom in Japan is to fill someone's drink when they are empty or inquire if they would like more drink. In America, people usually tend to let you get your own drink rather than fill your glass. I think it makes it a bit easier to over drink in Japan because for some reason it's much harder to deny your glass being filled than to deny someone grabbing you a drink from the fridge.
While I was laying on the ground, I remember sekki taking a picture of me and half-conciously I put up a peace sign. I'm glad I didn't fully go to sleep because after my small nap I was able to come back to the real world and hang out with my friends some more on this last night.
My friends also explained to me the concept of 匂わせ選手権。This phrase literally translates to "the smell of victory/championship title". Apparently, this is the idea of showing a photo that alludes to the fact that you are happily in a relationship but does not explicitly say so. An example of this is the deer in Aggretsuko who takes photos that allude to the fact that she is with a guy in the photos. We then proceeded to have a competetion on who could take the most 匂わせ選手権なpost. I've attached the entries to this journal post 😸Read more
Today, I began some the Fukui sightseeing with Atsu and Sekki! We first set out for The Tojinbo(東尋坊) Cliffs which are some very unique naturally occurring cliffs off the coast of Fukui. I believe that within the whole world, there are only three total geological structures such as this one so I was really interested in checking it out! The cliffs have a sort of hexagonal shape and look as if they were part of some man-made construction.
We drove out to the Tojinbo cliffs and parked outside a small shopping street that led up to the cliffs themselves. Fukui is known for its crabs so there were many crab decorations about the size of an suv placed on top of buildings and various shops. There is no way I could possible forget the word for crab after visiting Fukui 🦀
After walking down the crab themed street, we reached the cliffs themselves. It was extremely cold and it was beginning to hail. However, the water had a really stunning blue turqoise color to it and the water's foam created a cool contrast between the bright blue water and the white foam. I have a very strong fear of heights but I didn't feel very scared during this because of how sturdy all of the columns and cliffs were. I could probably have walked out to the very edge of the cliff if it were not hailing and if my friends didn't call me back to the mainland 😅 We went back to the shopping street after getting to take various selfies and video on the cliffs.
To avoid the hail/rain, we found shelter within one of the seafood shops. I thought this was a good opportunity to try some of the seafood I've never tried before since Fukui is known for having some of the best seafood around. We ordered a type of sea snail (I think?), sea urchin, crab with egg inside, and a type of fish egg dish that looks sort of like sausage.
Crab With Egg: I thought this was probably the most familiar tasting thing of all four of the dishes. However, in America I've only experienced eating the legs of the crab so eating the other parts are significantly different in taste. Had an ocean taste but the egg helped to balance it out.
Sea Snail: The texture of the snail was very tough and changed depending on what part you were eating. This was probably the strangest and most difficult to eat of all the dishes. I didn't think it tasted bad, but the texture made it feel like something I should not be eating. Plus, it looks like those anatomy diagrams of the inside of the ear drum so that made it look even more like something I shouldn't be eating! After finishing the snail, there was some broth left in the shell that I drank. It tasted pretty good! I took the shell home as a souvenier to remember the experience and also as a random decoration. My favorite types of souveniers are the one's where I can associate a specific experience to it like this one. I just need to work on getting the ocean smell out of the shell.
Sea Urchin: This one was very different than I expected. Sea Urchin is almost more like a paste and kind of has a mild ocean taste and a hint of bitterness. I didn't love it but I didn't hate it. I probably wouldn't order it again but if someone asked if I wanted to try a bit of theirs maybe I would try it.
Fish Sausage Thing: This tasted a bit like eel and I like eel so I enjoyed it! I would probably just order something more solid though in the future because something feels strange about eating thousands of eggs even if they taste good 😅
On the drive back, we saw another shop with a huge crab decoration on its front face. I wish I were able to have taken a picture but there was not time while driving past it in the car. I learned a new verb along with a fun application of a grammar point from Atsu and Sekki while driving past. One of them said 「店はかにに襲われた🦀🏠」which translates to "The shop has been attacked by crabs". The passive voice in Japanese is used to communicate dislike or displeasure so I found it funny that the passive voice was used to describe being attacked. I will probably use this sentence in my studies since it's now attached to the giant crab memory 😆 Another instance where the passive voice was used that I thought was funny was when I was hanging out at Atsu's place the first day I heard his mom call his name. He was on a trip somewhere so I let him know via text and he responded with 「呼ばれた」 which literally translates to "I've been called" but the passive voice adds the nuance of "I've unfortunately been called" so it made me laugh. I think it's pretty cool that Japanese grammar has some emotion baked into it! In English, it would be more word choice than grammar used to convey this same emotion.
Later that night, we picked up Ware and Shu from the Fukui train station. We have finally completed our post new years party group and were ready to have some quality friend time 😊 I'm really glad that my visiting could be an excuse for everyone to come together and that everyone cared enough to put in the effort to make time for something like this. I'm really lucky to have gotten to know such caring people! Especially in a country where taking vacation and time off is a bit more difficult.
After arriving back at Atsu's, we all waited in the guest room while Atsu prepared the room we would be drinking in for the night. We waited for quite awhile and were wondering what exactly was happening out there 😆 Atsu had brought down what seemed like ~30-40 bottles of different spirits and put them all on display in the room just in case we wanted to try any of them. Looking through them, it was clear Atsu primarily buys cat or animal themed alcohols 😸🍸 Along with that, Atsu's mother helped put together some food for us. I was overwhelmed with how good the food and drinks were. I must blame the good food and drink for my gaining a couple pounds while in Japan 😇
We also took a look around Atsu's room after getting sufficiently drunk 😆 It was fun being nosy and poking around Atsu's room with everyone. There is something cool about observing a friends room to get an idea of how their mind and everyday life works. This point gets a bit hazy for me because I had a LOT to drink but eventually I made my way back to the futon in the guest room (we were lined up like sardines), sent Atsu a message that his wallet was on the table in Japanese but I don't remember writing it, and then passed out.Read more
Today, we set out to grab Sekki from the airport and have some free time in the morning. However, we both slept in today so the free time ended up being mostly sleep. In Japan, it's common to exchange business cards when meeting a new professional contact. At Japanese furry conventions specifically, this practice is adapted to be a way to show off your character and exchange contact information during the con! I commissioned an art piece to use and Atsu informed me that I could use his printer to bring my cards to life. Our free time essentially was "try to make Ritz's cards" time 😅
While making the cards, I was showing Atsu this cool pen I purchased from the store that allows you to erase pen similar to a pencil. Atsu then warned me not to leave it in the car or a hot place because what causes the ink to erase is actually heat! To test it, I held my note pad up to the heater and sure enough the ink started to fade away from the paper. I'm grateful Atsu imparted this information onto me because I now I know I probably shouldn't use the pen for anything I plan on storing a hotter room! I also would have definitely left the pen in my car sometime and wondered why all the ink is gone 🖋️☀️
We then drove about an hour to the airport to get Sekki. I really like the time where it's just myself and Atsu in the car because it's really good Japanese practice! It's harder to act things out or look things up when one of the people is actively driving. It also forces the one on one conversation. I was able to write these journal entries while I was traveling on the shinkansen but it has gotten harder to do that with how active all the events have been and also that travel is now filled with conversation. I wanted to make sure that I was utilizing my time to the fullest so I didn't want to sacrifice any time with friends for the sake of journaling. So, most of the journal entries from New Years to the end of the trip are written by future me! It's a hard choice between living in the moment and capturing the moment. The act of capturing the moment should not alter the moment's experience itself in an ideal world.
While driving back, we had a funny conversation about a statue in the Pittsburgh airport. Pittsburgh is known for its vast number of bridges, so there is a statue constructed out of many replicas of Pittsburgh bridges. However, in Japanese the word bridge(橋;はし;hashi) and the word for chopsticks (箸;はし;hashi) is pronounced the same. The only difference between them is the tone you use at the beginning and end of the word. Bridge starts from a low note and ends on a high note while chopsticks starts on a high note and ends on a low not. This made Sekki and Atsu question if I really meant to say " A statue made of bridges" or if I meant to say "A statue made of chopsticks". A statue made of chopsticks sounds more believable so they were asking many clarifying questions to confirm I meant what I was saying 😆 It felt rewarding tho that I did use the correct pronounciation/tone to get the meaning I intended accross tho! Japanese is filled with homonyms like this and sometimes the tone changes depending on the region! As a learner in a foreign country, I try to stick to the Tokyo accent. I'd like to learn a different accent but the lack of study materials related to other accents demotivates me to do so.
Once we got Sekki, he gave me a very Japanese attempt at a hug, or what we would call the side hug, and we set off back to Atsu's place. Tonight was the first of many nights spent at Atsu's place drinking with friends! We talked about many things, especially differences in language and about animal idioms. Atsu had a book about different english sayings and I attempted to explain what "curiousity killed the cat" and "like herding cats" idioms meant in English. Idioms is one of my favorite parts of learning languages! It's always so fun to talk about.
After drinking a sufficient amount of alcohol, Sekki and I set out our futons in the guest room and prepared for the day of sightseeing and friends on the day to follow!Read more
Upon arriving to Fukui, the plan was to go to an onsen with Atsu. First, we walked around the station a bit and looked at the various traditional Japanese goods that were in some of the nearby stores. In America, there are not quite as many choices of traditional goods as one might expect. At this shop there were many cool and out of the ordinary chop sticks and goods that you would not normally see back home. Atsu got me a really cool looking pair of chopsticks so now I can remember Japan and Atsu every time I eat with them at home 😎
Fukui is known for かに(crab), 恐竜(dinosaurs), 米(rice), and 日本酒(sake/nihonshu) so we also took a little time to take a picture with the animatronic dinosaurs. I guess that there were many dinosaur fossils found Fukui so it has became famous for it! There even is a big dinosaur museum. However, because of the new year the museum was not open. I guess I'll just have to visit Fukui again next time ☺️
It was raining so we took a couple of quick pictures then headed off the the onsen. What Atsu did not tell me was that we were actually going to a Ryokan! My friends from the first part of the trip went to a ryokan while I was in Asakusa so I had not experienced one just yet. I'm super grateful to Atsu for helping me have this experience that I thought I was going to skip out on this trip! There is an onsen within the Ryokan so Atsu was never techincally telling a lie 😂
We entered the Ryokan and were greeted by a hostess who explained how everything worked and guided us to the room. I was giving here blank stares while comprhending about 20-40% of what she was saying. Luckily Atsu was there to understand for me 😅 She guided us up to the room and explained all the Ryokan had to offer. Generally, there are meals such as breakfast, lunch, and dinner where they serve you a full course of Japanese food. The food was unapologetically Japanese and very declicious! I think there was only maybe one of the foods that I had trouble eating but in general I liked everything I ate. There was also chawanmushi which is a type of egg custard dish I've been wanting to try. I've not seen it as an option in the restaurants I've been visiting.
Around the Ryokan there was a game room, onsen, video game room, massage area, reading nook, etc. Pretty much everything that someone may want to be able to relax. In the massage area, they had stone tables that were heated that you could lay on. I didn't try them out, but I thought it was neat because I had not seen them before. There was also a trough filled with little pellets and a heated bottom was under them. I believe the idea was to warm your feat while drying them if they were wet. I don't go to many spas in America, but lots of these things seem like they would be rare in America. I'm lucky to have got a glimpse at how the idea of relaxation mixed with Japanese culture is different.
Inside the room, was a traditional tatami mat floor with traditional furniture and futons. Pretty much everything about the room screamed "Japanese". Outside the window, you could view the outdoor area and onsen. It reminded me of the Fatal Frame video game series because one of the games was within a very similar looking shrine 😅 Fatal Frame is a horror game where you use a camera to defeat demons and spirits. The vibe here was obviously much different than that but when my experiences in Japan have been limited to anime/games/movies/etc I tend to relate the things I see to what I've imagined before coming to Japan. Needless to say, I was having a very good time and there were no demons I needed to defeat with a camera 📸👻
After eating dinner, we decided to go for a walk in the rain to the nearby convenience store to retrieve some alcohol. We returned to the room and Atsu showed me how to put on and wear the yukata. The hotel provided yukatas to all the guests which are traditional more casual than kimono attire. It took me about five tries to tie the band around the waist correctly with Atsu's direction, but I doubt I'd be able to do it again in a couple days. The waist band was tied with a type of knot I had not done before but I thought it looked pretty cool once it was tied.
On our quest for alcohol, we grabed some wooden shoes and walked over to the convenience store. These wooden shoes made a clacking sound as you walk and Atsu explained to me how there is an onomatopoeia that describes their sound as カランカロン or "karan-karon". One of my favorite parts of Japanese is the onomatopoeia and I love learning new ones! In Japanese, there are lots of things described via onomatopoeia, much much more than in English. The shoes very relatively loud and I thought it was a funny image having two guys in yukatas with wooden shoes walking to a convenience store. I never expected to be in a Japanese convenience store wearing a yukata and wooden shoes! It's just something I would never have even thought about being a possibility 😆 I understand why geisha's walk upstraight now because balancing on the shoes required keeping your weight further back than how one might normally walk. I kind of want a pair of wooden shoes now but I doubt I'd ever use them for anything practical!
We retrieved the alcohol and proceeded to have a great time talking and drinking together. It was nice to finally get a chance to hang out again because we had only just met in July and it was frustrating to make such good friends who had to leave so soon! I'm really happy that I was able to visit and that I'm able to spend more time with everyone 😄 I think that's sort of the theme of this trip. I much more appreciate getting to do things with friends and people I have emotional connections with rather than just seeing monuments or tourist attractions. It's the people I've been with who make everything special 🙂Read more
After an eventful night, I woke up to eat another amazing meal courtesy of Atsu's family. I've really appreciated their hospitality and bringing me into their home. It felt super special to be able to be a part of not only a special occassion in Japan but a special gathering within Atsu's family. I believe showing appreciation is something I want to work on a bit more in Japanese because I don't think I was able to properly show how much I really was moved by everything they included me in. I get a little shy even in English around new people but not being perficient in Japanese makes it a lot more difficult to get how I feel accross! For example, I'm never really sure when I should bow or when I should bow to show appreciation. Everyone was extremely kind and did their best to communicate with me even though I can only understand a very small portion of what they were saying.
It's a tradition to eat mochi during the morning of new years. Eating this mochi was extremely difficult! The texture of the mochi is almost similar to the thickness of peanut butter and the elasticity of chewing gum. Biting off a piece was difficult without having a long string of mochi hang out of your mouth. Even chewing the mochi is difficult, everything about it was a struggle! While I was eating the mochi, Atsu let me know that every year people actually die from eating this unsweetened mochi. After eating some of the mochi, I completely understand how someone could die from eating it. Every swallow took effort and if it got stuck in my throat I would have probably became one of the mochi-eating statitistics. A couple days later, we actually saw that there were people who died this year eating mochi. When eating leftovers of the soup, Atsu's mom kindly left out the mochi and saved me from certain death. I'm glad I got the experience of a traditional Japanese New Years morning but I think the mochi will be one custom I'll try to avoid from here on 😆
After eating breakfast, we all headed out to the shinto temple to participate in what one could call a cleansing ceremony. I need to do a bit more research on the meaning of everything I experienced, but the general idea is to remove the impruties from your spirit in preparation for the new year.
It has been raining quite a bit, so Atsu handed me an umbrella with the writing "fushigi kasa" on it which translates to "mysterious umbrella". I think 不思議(fushigi) has become my favorite word in Japanese. It's used much more often and casually than in english so it's really fun to be able to describe things I don't quite understand as fushigi. We found out later that this umbrella has some cool designs that show up only when it's wet. Super fushigi if you ask me.
We went up several flights of stairs to reach the temple enterance. I noticed the skyline of Fukui as we walked up and the view of the mountains in Fukui is truely breathtaking. Growing up in Ohio, I haven't had many mountains on the skyline. It's always been super flat so being able to walk around and see a bunch of mountains feels a bit surreal! I'm sure it's super normal for residents here but I think they're really lucky to have something so cool in the backdrop of their everyday lives.
Before entering the temple, we waited outside next to some cauldrons with a super calming fire inside of them. Atsu's family gave the priests his name and we waited for the next ceremony to begin inside the temple. After entering the temple, there were signs informing us that taking pictures was not allowed. Atsu was telling me that it was because the kami or god could be present in the room and taking a picture of them would not be okay. It's always interesting to learn about ceremonies such as this because it means without being there in person I would not have been able to understand or even see pictures.
The priest started speaking with a sing-songy voice and walking all accross the room. At one point he picked up a pole with various papers on the end and waved it around. At another portion, he waved a pole with metals that sort of worked similar to a wind chime. All this time, he has been saying things I can't understand in the sing-songy voice.
We were eventually called up by family name to do the traditional giving respects to the shrine. This is bowng twice, clapping twice, then bowing once more and making a wish or leaving a message for the kami. I didn't realize we would be getting up and standing in front of the whole room to do this before entering the ceremony. Atsu leaned over to me during the beginning of the ceremony and told me to follow whatever actions he did. Since I didn't know what was coming, I was a little nervous 😅 We were the first family to go up so I wasn't sure what was about to happen.
Afterwards, we went outside where amulets and various charms for new years good luck were for sale. We also did a おみくじ which is sort of like a fortune telling of your year to come. I thought it was a bit funny that even in temples, there is a sort of gatcha game ritual. This fortune is a bit more meaningful that the nomral fortunes you can get throughout the year, since it's the first one and even has a different name for being the first of the year.
This experience has made me want to learn more about the religions within Japan as well so that my next visit I will have a better understanding of the traditions and what is going on during these ceremonies. Next time maybe it will be less fushigi 😄
Later that night, we exchanged some American sweets (Buckeyes, Cookies and Creme Hershey Kisses, and Cookie flavored M&Ms) that I brought and some various japanese snacks that Atsu's family put out on the table. It was fun talking about how America and Japan were different in respect to sweets and other various subjects. While eating the sweets, a popular show was on TV where contestants guess whether choice A or choice B is correct. I was wrong every time but the kids were correct so maybe I've lost my edge 😅 Japanese TV is so much different than American television for a variety of reasons, but this day has so much information in it I will leave Japanese TV for another section!
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/mochi-choking-deat…Read more