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.