So yes, I've put this off to for WAY to long. I was finally able to upload the pictures of my summer vacation escapades about a week ago, so I did and now hey, here's a nifty post to go with it!

Summer Vacation (Reader's Digest Version):

Week 1

The first of two weeks of summer vacation began with a rendezvous with EER. The two of us met up at Musashi-Sakai, the train station closest to ICU. Though he'd already been vacationing for two weeks beforehand, he was eager to get a personal tour from someone who'd been there for two months!

We covered a lot of ground in this one week, the most notable of the locales being the world-famous Mount Fuji, as well as the Rukigien Temple in Bunkyou, Tokyo.

Mount Fuji
Was COLD. The four of us who climbed (myself, EER, and two of my friends) decided that we wanted to see sunrise from the top of the mountain, so we began our ascent from the 5th station (located around the middle of the mountain) at 9pm.

Shivering and fatigued, we reached the top of the mountain at approximately 4:20am. The sunrise we saw that morning was almost too beautiful for words, and even these pictures don't do it complete justice:

(I'm convinced that the last photo above was the inspiration for the first Final Fantasy airship sequence.)

The descent down the mountain was very windy and dusty. Thousands of people shuffling their feet down a loose-gravel series of switchbacks left all of us covered in dirt.

The climb is definitely something you should do at least once in your life...

And then never, ever again.

Rikugien Temple
Towards the end of the first week, EER and I popped on over to this garden temple located in Bunkyou-ku, Tokyo. A rather drastic change of pace from our earlier antics on the tallest mountain in Japan, this temple was constructed in 1702 and maintained by shogunate during the Tokugawa period. In 1938, the garden was donated to the Japanese government, who continues to maintain it to this day.

EER headed back to his homeland at the end of the week, leaving me on my own to begin week two of my summer vacation.

Week 2

I started my second week of break on a 13-hour-long bus ride to Fukuoka, the next island of Japan to the south west of Tokyo. At Hakata, I met a friend and fellow ICU student, Akito, who lives in nearby Munakata (gallery link).

I stayed at my friend's house for a couple days. I had a chance to practice my newly-gained Japanese with his mom who knew basically no English. I also saw Ponyo on the Cliff by the Sea, the newest Studio Ghibli (Spirited Away, Howl's Moving Castle, Princess Mononoke, and several others) film that swept Japan by storm. Despite being a children's movie, the Japanese was a little too much for me, so I ended up sitting through the movie and enjoying the visuals!

On the last day of my time in Fukuoka, I happened to meet Moriyama Naotarou, a famous Japanese musician. He was walking around the park during part of a local television program's filming. Apparently it's a rare thing to see him in-person, so I felt a bit special afterwards; how many other foreigners can say they've seen a famous Japanese musician in person?

That's him on the right, facing the camera. The host of the TV program is the guy in the red wig and fishnet t-shirt. Anyway, Naotarou did an accoustic rendition of his famous song, "Sakura".

After my time in Fukuoka, Akito and I headed back to Tokyo, stopping at Hiroshima, Kyoto, and Osaka. There are a TON of pictures, so I think I'll just link you to the galleries and let you guys poke through them. Here's a brief write-up of each place:

Hiroshima - Saw the Atomic Bomb Dome, the one building in a couple kilometer radius to survive the atomic bomb dropped on it during World War II. The nearby museum was very interesting, detailing at great length the effects of the blast and showing off the effects of the bomb on both people and inanimate objects.

Kyoto - Temples. Lots and lots of temples. This is a good place to go if you're into the history of Japan, since there are so many historic sites that have been preserved for several hundred years.

Osaka - Described as "Bizzaro-Tokyo" by one of Akito's friends who we met up with during our trip. I tried some takoyaki, a dumpling with a bit of octopus in the middle; I'm not a big fan of the food, but Osaka is famous for this dish so I figured I'd try some. It was actually pretty good!

Akito and I made it back to Tokyo in one piece, and I moved into my dorm room a couple days later, signalling the end of my two week summer vacation.

I saw a hell of a lot of Japan in these two weeks, and learned some things along the way, too. As gruelling as the overnight bus rides (yes, that's plural) were, and the lack of sleep in general, I couldn't have thought of a better way of spend my summer vacation!

This time, I will try to stick with the facts some more. But please don't hold a grudge against me if there's a magical unicorn riding out of this story somewhere, this may have actually happened!

So, I left off at the part where I had secured a plan for the upcoming week. It was someone else's plan, but I really only cared about not having to arrange something myself. The nighttrain took us to Sapporo, which is somewhat northern in Japan:

In Sapporo, Elizabeth had 'something to take care of', so I wandered the streets for a bit before we met up again at the train station. This was the first time I was given some facetowel with commercials on it. The city itself was not very interesting (a few skyscrapers), but I found out that the word 'Chuo' means 'center'. So at least I learned SOMETHING there.

Back at the train station I saw somebody vacuum cleaning the stairs in the station, which I found so strange that I made a picture. She noticed and really really wanted to take a picture of me too, socially I couldn't refuse so I now have a picture of myself on the train station:

I seem a bit uncomfortable in this picture, but trust me, I'm ok ;)

As you might be able to tell from the picture, I am standing in front of the train to Wakkanai, which is where the next part of the way was heading. At this point it was about 13:30 and I had not eaten since I had left Tokyo Ueno last night at 19:00. Unaware that this new train trip would take another FIVE hours, I did not eat anything in Sapporo as well.

When the train left, I was quite hungry and could have done with a nice meal of spare-ribs, luckily, on the plane from Amsterdam to Rome, there was this friendly steward that gave me two packages of smoked almonds, a coke and a small bottle of wine. The coke and wine were already gone at that point, but I took out a package of nuts and enjoyed them very much.

Meanwhile, I was also evicted from the carriage where Elizabeth was sitting, as she bought a ticket and I did not. In Japan, apparently you can buy tickets for 'reserved seats'. I had a Japan Rail Pass, which allowed me to go anywhere anytime as long as I sat in the 'non-reserved seats'. I moved carriages and tried to get some sleep (which I didn't get in the night train).

The surrounding terrain reminded me a bit of Luxembourg, with the lakes, rivers and forests. Quite the contrast from Tokyo.

Five hours later we found ourselves in Wakkenai and made for the Youth hostel there, the guide said it was easy to find but the guide appeared to be wrong. Until we found it. I'll correct the guide on this point: It is easy to find, IF you know what to look for. The youth hostel was on top of a nearby hill, and has a green roof with the hostelling international logo.

The hotel rooms were quite ok, I might have gotten a private room by accident, however I was very glad that there was nobody else sleeping in my room. Snoring. Breathing. I'm always very easily annoyed by that ;)

The bed had been prepared as if it were mid-winter, in the guest book I read that someone was there while the country was completely snowed under, so maybe they only have one set of bedgear:

I tried some dried squid tentacles in Wakkanai, a delicacy that kids love, according to Elizabeth. Unfortunately I did not like it at all and gave the rest to Elizabeth.

The next day we continued our trip by taking a train to the central station of Wakkanai and from there we went to the Ferry station. The ticket machines only spoke Japanese, so buying tickets took us quite some time. The staff was quite helpful though and helped us get the tickets we wanted.

In the waiting area, there were some massage chairs, which I had never used before. They were quite interesting and it was a very nice experience to be massaged when also having an awesome view over the sea:

From there the views only get better and better. We boarded the ferry to Rebun, which is an island a bit to the east of Wakkanai, if you take a look at the map I posted above there is a pushpin at Rebun Taki (waterfall).

On the ferry there were no chairs, only 'seating areas' where people would sit on the ground together. I think the passenger capacity of such a ferry is higher than any European one, because people will not sit next to eachother on benches. On the ground however, nobody really seems to care (maybe it's the Japanese, and not the ground sitting though).

Arriving in Rebun, we were welcomed by a flag waving man screaming 'MOMOIWAAAAAAA' and some more Japanese that I didn't understand (obviously). As our Youth Hostel was called Momoiwa, we talked to him and he told us to go to a truck that was stand-by to bring us to Momoiwa. At the truck there was another person trying to tell us stuff, unfortunately he did not speak much English.

We gathered that he was offering to either take us to the youth hostel by truck in an hour or so, or that we could walk over Flower road. We chose to walk flower road (I dislike waiting anyway) and the man gave us a very ill-detailed map of the island and how we should walk. The directions pretty much said 'walk to the other side of the island by going left somewhere off the main road'.

Leaving our backpacks in the truck, we walked for ten minutes. Elizabeth then didn't trust that we were going the right way anymore, so we asked some old lady if she knew where Flower Road was. She didn't understand what we were saying, so she ran off (pretty literally). This further discouraged Elizabeth and she went back to the truck to take that to the hostel. I decided to ask some other guy that was standing around a few metres further down the road.

After some serious language issues, I think we came to an agreement and he drove me to flower road. When I asked him whether this was indeed flower road, he apparently understood that I wanted to go somewhere else and started driving something further and stopped at the next branch in the road. This branch however was taking a right, and since my only relatively reliable source of information said that I had to take a LEFT, I did not trust this new road.

Then I spoke the magic words 'Momo-iwa', glad that he finally understood SOMETHING I was saying, he took me all the way to Momoiwa youth hostel :D

He dropped me at some shack right next to the ocean, that did not really look like a youth hostel from the outside, but it was. OH IT WAS.

Once inside, I was shown around by the one person there that spoke a sort of English, although he insisted that every meal was a 'supper'. A small price to pay for staying in this awesome place. Inside I was making acquaintances with a little girl that was not afraid of the white man. Then, suddenly, everybody got up and took some instrument. The girl told me that when 'they' came in, I should scream 'OKEARI NASAI' (Welcome home, as I learned later) and make as much noise as possible.

Needless to say, when the doors to the youth hostel opened to the back opening of the truck everybody in the truck (including Elizabeth) was taken completely by surprise by the screaming and battering of instruments.

After the noise died down and the procedure of registering new guests had been completed (which included a completely mad introduction from the 'supper' guy) there was a time in which there wasn't much to do, so I just lied down in the main hall.

After 'supper', some Japanese guy overheard me saying that I was from the Netherlands and informed me that he also was from the Netherlands. He did not speak Dutch anymore, but that's to be expected if you're out of the country for 10 years :)

He asked me whether I would be joining the 8 hour hiking trip of love and peace. How could I refuse something like that, there was a meeting that night to explain what you should bring and how much everything would cost.

We were to be woken up at 4:30 AM, have breakfast at 5 and start walking at 6. From the top of the island back to the youth hostel, this would be about 35 km (~23 mi) of walking. Going uphill, downhill and everything in between.

After the meeting it was time for sundown, which is apparently accompanied by a ritual in momoiwa. Elizabeth was sitting outside, I was inside waiting for a good opportunity to take a picture (profile shot!). But suddenly, everyone stormed outside and sung the song goodbye. It appears that it is a well-known song, because everybody was able to sing with it.

I was very confused, but happy to be there. As a parting gift I'll show you the following picture that I took that night:

I'll be posting more later ... probably ... Hope you enjoyed reading, leave comments! :)

Once upon a time in a village unbeknownst to anyone outside of the Netherlands there was a guy called EER. On MSN he had a digital friend named 'Master_Kale', this friend decided he wanted to study abroad for some time in this fictional country named 'Japan'.

Being a kidder, EER decided to say - kiddingly - that he would visit this fictional country Japan, and when he was there visit his digital friend. Much to EER's surprise, there were actually companies selling flight tickets to this fictional country. To see what would happen, EER bought a return ticket to Japan and set out to the national airport Schiphol.

Via a one pretty looking lady dressed in blue he found out where to board and two days later (one day was spent in this other place from ancient history: ROME) he arrived dirty as hell and with a lack of sleep in Tokyo. The magical land of the tales of yore actually DID exist. Would this 'Master_Kale', the powerful wizard exist as well?

The answer can be found by reading on.

EER travelled from Tokyo Narita to Tokyo Central station, he was told that he could only use standing places with his travel for free (tm) Japan Rail Pass. He did not care, because he was tired. A mostly orange-coloured journey later, he found himself at Musashi Sakai, the railwaystation Kale told him to go. From there, he would take a bus to ICU where he would meet Kale of legend. IF he would have been smart enough to actually take a bus, he was not however. And he walked on through the abysmal rain. The rain decided it was not wet enough, and more rain followed. After an half hour long struggle, he finally arrived at ICU. Soaked. Tired. FILTHY.

This is unacceptable in the land of the Rising Sun, and after initial greeting of the Master_Kale, EER was required to take a refreshing shower. He left some powerful Roman artifacts with Master_Kale and then set out for another journey, to his first hotel. A capsule inn it was.

If you don't know what a capsule inn is, it is a 3ftx3ftx8ft room in which you can sleep. They also have excellent bathing facilities, but EER did not know about those and only wanted to sleep anyway.

The very next day, Kale was back in his lair and EER journeyed onward to the northernmost reaches of the realm. He heard people speaking about a night train where you could sleep that would take people to the north.

His intuition told him to take the night train, because then he would not have to arrange accomodation when he arrives in the North. And no sooner than he had spoken this, he had decided that it was so. And so it was that EER walked around in Tokyo Ueno for a full day, visiting the national museum, a temple and the park before boarding the night train.

On the night train, he was convicted to share a single train cabin with another European. Intrigued by this exceptional whiteness, the conversation started. Another European joined and a Japanese man that apparently spoke English was in the same cabin. Everyone shared stories and laughed, the European girl spoke of her planned adventures; hearing of these, EER decided that joining in on those adventures would make more sense than planning his own. As he had not planned for the possibility that Japan would actually exist.

And so, it happened that EER joined forces with Elisabeth for a few days to start out on a journey he would probably never forget.

They're done! All of the photos from my summer escapades and Tokyo Game Show are shrunk down and branded, but wouldn't you know it? Maintenance on the dorm internet a couple weeks ago locked down the internet, and as a result I can't upload anything to the webserver (nor use Steam or Pidgin). I'm going to talk to the people in charge of the dorm internet tomorrow and see what they can do to fix this problem.

Meanwhile, I'm on the horn with EER right now, and he's agreed to do a post about his exciting three-week vacation here. Stay tuned for that!

EDIT: Alright, Dell made good on their word, and I'm typing this from the comfort of my own laptop. As I mentioned earlier, the pictures from my summer trip are almost done, and I've got some pictures from a certain game show that's held once a year in Japan that I'll throw up as well.

In the meantime, maybe I'll get EER in here to post about his time in Japan. I'm certain it'd be more exciting than waiting for me to get around to posting again!