Month: February 2008

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Japan Blog Study Tour

Cultural clash

When we first got in Japan we noticed how freaking clean Japan is. Almost no cigarettes on the floor, no cans, no nothing. Also no graffiti or markings on bus chairs or anything. I heard that rebelling youth is simply locked up in their room for 6 months to make the point that its not accepted here.IMG_1357

Just like those vending machines that are everywhere. And I mean EVERYWHERE. On each street corner, on stations in dark alleys even in a Shinto temple. The upside is that whenever you are thirsty you can get a drink when you want. It also costs nothing: 80 to 160 yen for normal to fancy drinks. That’s 55 euro cents to 1 euro for a drink you buy at a dutch kiosk (if you can find one in a 3km radius) and you can choose from more options than a normal dutch supermarket has.

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Japan Blog Study Tour

High and mighty…

IMG_1359 Like I posted a few days back, the 2nd day had a better start than the ending of the previous day. Even though we didn’t sleep much, it still helped a lot. Also, the weather was nice, with a clear sky and temperatures in the sun that made a coat obsolete. IMG_1367After the morning briefing we headed for the diner next door from the hotel. The diner uses a vending machine which has a button for each meal: you insert money, choose the meal you want and give the ticket to one of the staff. After some careful scrutinizing of the menu card I finally found something that looked pretty safe: something with egg and chicken.

As the breakfast took longer than expected, we left the diner 15 minutes late. Because it was a holliday in Japan – National Foundation Day – we headed for the Umeda Sky Building, one of the tallest buildings in Osaka consisting of two towers that are connected at the top where the Floating Garden Observatory is.IMG_1398

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Japan Blog Study Tour

Arrival

A bit late but due to the lack of time I didn’t have had the time to upload any photos or write some other message.

10022008037 So after the flight to Tokyo, we boarded the flight to Osaka. Luckily this was a short flight because the plane was much smaller and much older (and hence, noisier). After we got to Osaka airport and collected our luggage, we walked to the bus that would take us to the hotel.10022008056  Besides the color, it was a decent bus and the driver knew how to floor it so after a short while we passed through the outskirts of Osaka and arrived in the Umeda area of Osaka where we found our hotel: Hotel Kinky.

The name is more exciting than the hotel itself as the rooms are rather small. Especially the 3-bed room I’m sharing with Luuk and Roald: the beds are so close together that we have to put the suitcase on the bed to be able to open them. Also the western style rooms have no closet (whatsoever) and nothing to hang clothes on except for 5 coat hanger hooks in the wall. As a comparison: one of us has a Japanese style bedroom which comes with towel hanger in the shower and a rack in the bedroom. On the upside we have a fridge which is kinda empty but at least it was turned on when we arrived.

Another source of humor is found in the fact that the TV has an English manual but its so dead simple that none of us need it to figure out how it works. However the thermostat and the water boiler are in Japanese with no indication what everything does. Right now, we managed to fire up the heating but boiling water is still a mystery.

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Japan Blog Study Tour

Good morning!

IMG_1355 Good morning Vietnaaaa… wait.. Japaaaaaaan! After some much needed sleep I feel much better. For starters the floor stopped rocking like the airplane did and I can stand up properly again 🙂

We found out that the room has a view: the building 1.5 meters across and the shower is suited for people below 1.20m in height. Which means we fold double in the damn shower to make it fit. Just like the slippers they put up for us: size 34 while we have 46++. And finally, the bathrobes, clearly not for us giants from the other size of the world.

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Japan Blog Study Tour

High up in the sky

While I’m typing this, I’m flying above Syberia somewhere at 36500 feet or 11125 meter altitude while flying at 927 km/hour (I need to get one of these engines for my car :-P). We still need to go 3181 miles which will cost us 6 hours and 41 minutes – gotta love in-flight information systems.

But lets start at the beginning, I woke up at 11 o clock in the morning with a steady 7 hours of sleep (needed to make sure I brought enough music and movies along for the flight and the stay in general, so I was up late). After getting dressed with a cup of coffee and a long shower I managed to recheck the packing list to make sure I hadn’t forgotten anything. By the time I was almost done, my parents and my youngest sister dropped in to bring me to the bus and to wave me off.

Once at the gathering point (its 14:30 by now), we found ourselves short one touring car. After a while the last people finally arrived and the bus finally showed up. Ofcourse the bus driver didn’t drive all the way up to the gathering point, instead he parked at the end of the street, making us walk to the damn bus. We finally headed off in the right direction: Schiphol Airport!

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Japan Blog Study Tour

Done packing

Well, I’m done. Not so much that I’m 100% sure that I forgot something but I already sacrificed some cookies, sugar (for in the cappuccino I’m bringing ;-)) and one of my books I bought for the trip to make the backpack close and the suitcase below the 20kg weight limit (no way I’m paying a fine for have too much luggage on the way to Japan, perhaps the way back it will be different…).

No more like I’m done with preparing for the trip – its been over a year now that we worked on papers, projects, working for companies to sponsor the trip, writing reports, taking Japanese lessons (which by the way pretty much slipped my mind before we even leave) etc etc. I’m just ready to go.

Its 2:30 AM while I’m typing this and I’m about to try to get at least 8 hours of sleep so I can stay awake during the flight and thus prevent jet-lag. But if someone called me and said: "we leave NOW" I’d be up and ready to go.

By the way, I don’t reckon I’m able to get jet-lag as I don’t have a biorhythm: I’m used to getting 9 hours sleep (give or take) and I swap day and night pretty easily. So the gut-writhing feeling everyone is describing as being jet-lag, is just one of my rough weeks 🙂 I’ll get back later on that subject to let you guys (my loyal readers *cough*) know if it worked out.

Right now, my borrowed laptop is humming downstairs, trying to squeeze as much music on my shiny new Meizu M6 (better than an iPod Nano and half the price, beat that Apple!). I kinda modified it a little by uploading the Chinese firmware which enabled the FM-radio and made the menus look cooler, but still, better than most other players.

Well, that’s it for now, time to get some sleep before the big flight.

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Japan Blog Study Tour

Rushing to the finish

Its been a few days since my last posting because I’ve been so darn busy.

For starters, I managed to get my insurance policy in English so I can take it with me at all times like the travel guides suggest. Next I tried getting Yen from the local GWK as they have "all kinds of currency in stock". Yes, all except for Yen they mean.

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