So writing this to you at Copenhagen airport, waiting for my flight to Lisbon. What you have missed though dear readers, is that I already visited Lisbon two months ago in March 2010. I was on business back then as well as today, on a mission to the European union project ASPECT to promote eLearning Standards.

So here’s a little recap from that first visit of mine to Lisbon…I’m going to do this update first as it will keep Finnworld’s chronology almost attached. Yes, I technically also visited Paris and London in the meanwhile, but they don’t really count do they…? I’ll try to be a better blogger, I promise.

When we finally managed to get to Lisbon after two days of beeing cooked alive in the conference rooms and auditoriums – it’s awesome and I am hoping that I would have had more than one night to experience it… I was in a small croud with my colleagues around Europe, but the most important one was Alenka, my slovenian friend who also speaks portugese and has planned the whole evening for us. We’ve also have Svetlana from Lithuania, Lars from Denmark, Ingo from Germany and my Finnish-French-Ivory Coastian colleague, Anicet in the crowd. Unfortunately I’ve forgotten the name of Alenka’s colleague, but let’s just call him the guy who always smiles:)

We had a small trip in a car by the coast from Estoril to Lisbon, (we are actually staying at Estoril, which is around 20 minutes away from Lisbon by train. On this car ride I got a chance to glance over the harbor area – obviously very impressive. I have decided to name this city the European San Francisco and I’ll tell you why:
1. The bridge. Who knows if this was there before the Golden Gate, but they look remarkably alike.
2. The very similar feeling of landscape and Ocean near
3. The trams. They are old and gorgeous just like in San Francisco.
4. Last but not least, the feeling of hills growing straight from Ocean. And the pastel colored houses, which will forever remind me of those in Ashbury Hights—

So needless to say I like this city, a *lot*. Alenka’s small but efficient tour on Lisbon first took us to Belem, which is an old area with gorgeous buildings, huge fountains and of course the belem little cupcake creme bruleés. We actually visited the old place that made became famous of them and bought some very fresh to eat while walking on the streets.

When in Lisbon, you cannnot help but noticing the strong effect of catholisism everywhere. It’s great, because all the churches are really impressive (none of that Lutherian ‘we sit on spikes’ mentality… If you don’t get that reference, you need to revisit Blackadder season 2 and the turnips episode). Also, where ever you go, there is the occasional statue of Vasco Da Cama. Yeah, he probably is the most well known and impressive Portugese that ever lived, but do we need his statue in *every corner* of the capital??? Sometimes he’s so obvious that there is not even a name stuck on it… And they potray him quite like the fish people in Pirates of the Caribean – or perhaps the makers of the film visited Lisbon to get some inspiration on men who would have been spending *a lot* of time in ships…

Anyways, from Belem, we continue to the centre of the time when the sun is already setting. We walk the picturesk centre and I take photos of everything that moves. We finally get to the point where the old trams go. We take one of those rides uphill and decide to walk back down. I can see that this would have been a better idea during sunlight, but never the less, the sightseeing view spots work also at night with all the lights on. Lisbon seems like quite a safe city, some homeless and druken outside, but nothing much.

After we’ve walked our feet off, we are back at the square in the centre and I insist to find some food in the next 15 minutes. It’s just that I’ve been there so many times with random crowds not making decisions and we could have eneded up walking around for another hour. Not a good idea and will make everyone slightly bitchy. So the crowd actually makes the best choise that we could have done and the old cafe-restaurant is even mentioned in the lonely planet as the best in town. I am happy as I get to order Cataplana, which my German colleague has insisted I eat somewhen in Lisbon.

Cataplana is great: It’s like a fish stew with big full prawns and great sauce with some vegetables. And there is much more than my *other* German colleague Ingo and I can eat, so there is some leftovers even for my Finnish-French-African colleague, who after 12 years of being in Finland, has started to order in a restaurant like a Finn. I get quite upset of this kind of behaviour, specially when I had some white wine as well… Oh well, let’s just say that Finns always order the cheapest or the *cheaper* option and then complain that it’s not the best on the menu… When you put that together with French nature with actually complaining out loud – well, let’s just say that Ingo needed to calm me down after the incident.

Overall, a great evening. Our hotel in Estoril is right next to the biggest Casino in Europe, but I don’t have the energy to visit it… I never was much of a money gambler anyways – bet me something else and I’m in.

So here I go Lisbon part 2! In case it rains throughout this visit, I shall not mind as I’ve already got the killer pictures:) Now it’s time to teach 44 teachers from Lithuania, Portugal, Romania and Belgium how eLearning packaging standards will affect their lives. What fun my job is!

Day

After a full day of Piss down rain, we weren’t expecting much from Tuesday. It so happens that the Vancouver weather doesn’t exactly follow the forecasts, so we ended up having a sunny bright day of wonders. There is nothing like a miserable day to make you appreciate the joys of a great sunny day, that’s for sure.

We headed to the waterfront with the skytrain to sneak some pictures of the harbor. Since Vancouver is going to be the olympic city fairly soon, also the harbor was showing its very best side. The old area next to the harbor is called ‘Gas Town’, because it was the first to get gas on the area, to be lightened up by series of lightpoles. There is also the famous gastown clock, which is breathing smoke… It’s a great old piece, but hardly keeping the time now a days. Gastown is where you can find Vancouver’s most efficient (and cheap) tat shops.

We did our fair share of shopping and staring at art pieces out of our price range. The aboriginal art of this area seems to us perhaps even more appealing than the Asian art, and that’s saying a lot. So if we weren’t in debt yet, we sure are now… Canadian stuff is really cool. That’s the truth.

After wandering around the shops we stopped for an indian for lunch and then doodled towards the Chinatown. It too, had loads of shops. And if I hadn’t yet been to China and around three other Chinatowns, I would have probably been tempted by their cheap gowns and jackets. (None of which were as classy as the one I got from San Francisco Chinatown though…) We also observed that Chinatown is just around that area which has the least appeal in Vancouver. Lots of homeless people with their shopping trolleys.

We found a full on Chinese Garden on its Autumn blossom, accompanied by a lesbian wedding. We sneaked some pictures and I visited the 10dollars-visitor section, while my J and KG waited outside. No point in wasting money on what we already saw on the other side of the fence. The museum was of course closed – it was Monday.

On our walk back to the city central, we run into a road of white trucks. This means something was being filmed right there. The TV/Film fan of me decided to find out if I can telephoto some pictures and find out what the series was. Luckily my husband has the best memory in the world so he recognised it as the TV-series ‘Fringe’… We didn’t really last long after the pilot on that, so I had no clue who the Blond lead was. Vancouver being the major film city though, this is very normal.

We treated ourselves to a Chinese meal at the end of a good day of picture hunting and shopping. Sun makes all the difference when you are judging whether you like a city or not… Vancouver is looking pretty good to me.

Day 41/63

We got up early and checked the complimentary breakfast at our hotel the Aqua Aloha Surf and Spa. This consisted mainly of pan cakes, fruit and muffins. If I have not told you yet, the Hawaiian fruits are gorgeous and brilliantly fresh. I can’t eat raw anything in Finland, but in here it’s no problem, since they don’t have to use toxins for keeping them up until the get to Finland…

After breakfast we consulted our lobby consierge who booked us into a shuttle to Pearl Harbor. We were there about 9:30am, which meant we didn’t really have to queue very much for the USS Arizona tickets. The USS Arizona is the main sight in Pearl Harbor, consisting a 15 minute film about the events of 7^th of December 1941, trying to get the audience into the mood of about 1100 men who were killed on board. They carefully tell the story in a way, that the ‘Japanese had to attack’, because they had no choice. Where as of course there has been theories that perhaps the US knew they were coming, but did nothing so that they could later on justify their own cruelties against Japan. None of this has been proven of course.

In 1941, Japan bombed all eight battleships in Pearl Harbor bay, sinking many of them. USS Arizona was hit to its ammunition storage which blew up and made it sink so very fast that most men didn’t stand a chance. The memorial is a white capsule built on top of the underwater grave of these men, the ship itself, which they left in place. All the other battleships have been recovered/taken out of the harbor. You can see some of the bits of it from the impressive memorial, in which, you should only speak in whisper. I think this was much harder for the Americans than for us.

After the theatre and the boat trip to USS Arizona, we scampered into the USS Bowfin, a submarine that served in the WWII and managed to get through two missions to Japan sea without harm. I am scared of submarines, as I find under water excursions to be scary in general – I wouldn’t want to drown as my death. USS Bowfin is an impressive sight on its own, and we had good audio guides telling us what was going on. We saw the torpedo rooms, the four big engines and of course the quarters of the submarine men. They were luckier than most sea service men, because their life expectancy was so low that they got better food in general. Fresh fruit and vegetables were available as long as they lasted and they even had an ice cream machine. The ship had less beds than men, so when one would get off duty, he would go and wake someone up, take their bed and keep it warm.

When the submarines would sail to shore, they would hang up a flag of their conquests, which are all presented in the museum of the submarine. They had small Japanese flags calculating the ships they had sunk. Some flags have even German flags on them. The whole experience of Pearl Harbor is somewhat contradictive to me, not because my grand uncles fought on the other side, but just the feeling of late events in the world: What is a good reason to go to war? You want something so badly that it justifies killing of others…

We couldn’t visit the USS Missouri, the great big Battleship that is normally one of the main big attractions. It had been taken on dry land, I am assuming for service. Instead there was a real air-craft carrier on the Pearl Harbor bay. It had arrived three days ago. Pearl Harbor is still a major military base, which you can see of all the army men in the hotels partying on their leaves.

Later on, we went shopping in the neighborhood. I bought some tiki-tat and immediately sent it home. Not only was this a relatively cheap sending service, but they say it’ll get there in 5 days. This kind of post looks really effective in comparison to the Australian “maybe it’ll be there in three months -policy”. There is a ton of Twilight crap around and I am hoping to run into some quality TV series tat shop in San Francisco/New York.

Finally note to self: When you are deciding which size your drink/soda/shake should be, bear in mind that this is America. So ‘medium’ size means the size of my freaking head…

Finnworld 23

Fourth day in Shanghai

We decided to have another easy-going day in China. This meant a taxi to the Buddhist temple of Long Hua Sí, on the other side of the town. This one had a big pagoda attached to it as well. Overall yellow temple had a very extensive collection of Buddhas and Buddhist saints. I lurked around with my camera and even spotted some monks in their orange robes. Somehow Buddha didn’t really want me to have many good pictures of them since when ever they showed up, I had either the wrong lens on or the memory card was full.

Our mission was to find Shanghai’s Tourist Tour Bus Center, which according to RURUBU, is inside the Shanghai stadium. When looking at the map provided to us by the hotel, you might see that Long Hua Si and the stadium are rather close to each other. This would of course make sense, in case you’d trust a map made by the Chinese. The walk itself took about an hour, in which time we did find *a bus stop* which had a DVD store on the back of it.

The Tourist Bus Center is located underneath the staircase number five of the stadium. Just in case this is knowledge that you need at any point in your life… In the remote occasion that you do need it though, it’s rather useful. It’s a BIG Stadium, just take my word for it. We bought some tickets to the Shanghai Film Studios for tomorrow, which is coming to be a habit of ours. Film studio visits are often an excellent way to spend a day in China/Japan.

Outside the Tourist Bus Center, there is also a great Tibetian restaurant. My husband and I have in our trips had food from most areas of China, but never from Tibet before. This turned out to be an excellent lunch despite of us once again ordering way much more than we can eat… However, you didn’t think that Palak Paneer comes with an entire load of bread, or that their dumplings are *nine* huge bundles of goodness… Probably the best meal in China so far.

We took the metro to a park, just because it was once again almost impossible to get a taxi and this park called Zhongshan like many Chinese parks, was where you can find amusements. As can be expected, there was a wedding going on. Why someone would like to get married in a park on a cloudy Sunday while tons of people are camping out, flying their kites and herding their children – escapes my attention. But in any case, there it was, a markee, some bow decorated chairs and a pyramid of champagne classes, with the DJ playing Rihanna songs. Wedding business in this city is huge.

Other park amusements included a fallen apart amusement park with some rides way past their hey days. Oh, and a completely un-fantastically to a business suit dressed Opera singer performing Beijing Opera to a bunch of smokers and tat sellers. You got the occasional kite flyer man with their wives bored to death performing their morning Tai Chi while aiding the kite flying on an almost still day. I can’t possibly understand, what kind of life these people have and where does the joy come to it… But I am sure that it’s just my elitist nature of living in a country where you don’t have to share the one tree on your hill with three million other three lovers.

Day 22/63

Third day in Shanghai.

We decided to take it easy today, which for our standards means that we do more like a 7hour day than 10 hour day out of the hotel room comforts. This decision was based upon the fact that I seem to have made some of my muscles on the chest ache when I walk – I imagine this was due to at least five hour walks that we’ve now done for four weeks and possibly the 7-10kg of camera gear that I carry on my right shoulder. This is only a right side issue, so I can see a connection there. However, I really don’t want to be one of those broken tourists that can’t walk anywhere, so I am trying to have less walking and more doodling in museums and so on.

So our plan was to head underneath the construction site of Death, which is the Pund at the moment. There is a whole space-like tunnel that goes underneath the river Pu and takes you to the tourist attractions on the other side. Better yet, it’s about five minutes walk from our hotel. This is of course if you can get past the traffic of Death, which goes on the side of the construction site.

We first got to our bridge of choice only to find not one, but THREE wedding couples getting their pictures taken on the bridge with Shanghai behind them. It’s Saturday in China… Everyone wants to get married in hotels here, so this is why also there was a wedding going on in the breakfast room of our hotel when we came back in the evening.

After skipping our near deaths by following what we call ‘Mr. Carrier Bag’ (any local person who is crossing the road, probably knows what they are doing. If they are carrying a carrier bag, then they are probably locals as well, hence the name) over the Zebra crossings of Death, we got into the sightseeing tunnel. It’s quite a Science Fiction ride with flashy lights going around – my camera really loved that tunnel as you can see.

On the other side you find all kinds of attractions like the aquarium and the TV tower. We were not interested in any of those, but the museum which was at the bottom of the weird looking tower. This was the museum for the history of Shanghai. It was done in a form of miniatures and puppets, but like everything that the Chinese do – they had put some serious man power into it. Perhaps the best miniature/puppet museum that I’ve ever been to…Beatles museum had nothing going on in comparison to this one, sorry Liverpool! This certainly told the story of the city very well, made it even look much more interesting than it actually is.

I suppose the most significant turn in the history of Shanghai are the Opium wars in1839-1842 and 1856-1860. See, Her Majesty the Queen Victoria of Great Britain ruled the world back then and Britain had a problem. The British wanted Tea, which the Chinese had. British were exporting tat to India back then from Britain, and there was a flaw in their chain of exports – China didn’t want anything that the Indians would have had. However, Indians were producing a lot of Opium, which in the minds of a super power looked like: Let’s make the Chinese drug addicts, so that we can get our Tea… Sad but true.

After the Opium wars however, Shanghai opened up to the foreign influence and all of the powers back then got their own little shares of the city to live on. This is why this city is so much more foreign like built, specially the Pund area. Sadly I have to say, that I prefer areas of China and Japan, with lesser influence from the foreigners and more from the locals. I can get someone speaking English to me back home…

After the museum, we wondered around in a shopping mall filled with stores that you’d get back home in Europe. We had lunch with a view over the river and the Pund on the sixth floor and then listened to a rock band, which had not really gotten their sound-checks right before starting to play because their back-up went in the middle of a song, several times. The ground floor also had some men dressed as big pieces of President cheese, which was excitement to me, even though they seemed to just scare the children.

Back through the shuttle of lights lead us to the Nanjing road of tat once again and we were lured into one of the underground shopping stall-installments. Any label product of sun glasses, jeans, watches, bags and belts – you name it. And they’ll sell it to you really cheap. Are these fakes or are we just paying stupid prices in Europe – I have no idea. But I also have no problem of my husband paying a third of what a pair of Hugo Boss jeans cost in Europe, when they look exactly the same. I broke my 10euro sun glasses that I bought from Japan, so I bought a pair of 2euro Calvin Kleins… They perform the same function after all.

After some work back in the hotel room, we gathered ourselves and wandered on the North side of the hotel… The Chinese close their shops and restaurants by eight a clock, so if you want to eat out, you better be quick. We did surprise a local food establishment by turning up at 7:45pm, but they did give us enough food for four people for just 2,8euros (including 0,75litres of beer for each of us)… It was a purely functional and useful day in Shanghai. All we could ask for and more.

Day 14/63

We left Sendai in the morning to head for Koriyama, where our main purpose was to leave our luggage while we’ll go to Aizu-Wakamatsu tomorrow. Our hotel room check-in was at 3pm, so we had some time to look into the city around before that. There is not a whole lot going on, how ever, we stumbled onto a weird drumming noise that was coming from the station. Perhaps around a 100 policemen were squatting on the public entrance, listening into these crazy kids playing their impressive instruments. This was nothing but a press release about traffic accidents and how they just don’t want to have any more of them.

In fact, they have come up with a whole day, the 30th of September, where NO ONE is allowed to die in traffic in the whole of Japan. Why this needs drumming… Well, we’ll never know. Perhaps it was to increase the unified spirit of the police or something. After squatting and drumming, they all were giving out a bag of wonders to the public around the area. It included some pictures with helpful advice like ‘be aware of ninjas’ and ‘fasten your seat belt’.

An elderly officer came to me with his bag of wonders and caught into a conversation with my husband about why are we in Koriyama, why he speaks such a good Japanese and where are we from. Of course i have head variations of this conversation about every day with all kinds of members of the public, the waiters in restaurants, taxi drivers and even with other police men… SO I kind of know what is said in there. But at the same time, I feel my Japanese is gradually improving.

Last time when we were in here, I didn’t know the difference between Udon, Ramen and Soba. I had no idea what kind of noodles I wanted, that is. This time I can read at least half of hirakanas/katakanas, I think, and I can carry on very small conversations. I recall words that I have forgotten, but suddenly now remember what they mean, like “kippu” (ticket)… I can even get my favorite onegiri, which is ’sea chicken btw’ (the tuna mayo one). I impress myself because I have done nothing to improve my language skills since my classes ended back in 2005, when I completed as much Japanese as you can do in my university back in Jyväskylä.

For the rest of the day, we did some work and went to have some Ramen in one of those restaurants which you won’t know are restaurants, if you don’t actually read Japanese… Outside they have a ‘noren’ (which means a cloth that you hang to cover your door halfly, where you can walk through), which usually says ‘udon’ (big fat soup noodles) or something like that. And inside, it looks like someone’s living room. Tourists just have no chance of finding these places. The food is usually great and much cheaper than on the street by the station. This is why my husband and I have began to wonder – perhaps other people don’t travel as cheap as we do in Japan either. I mean in China, it is obvious that they try to trick you for making you pay the tag price instead of the bargained price, but even in here, it also really pays to know the language.

Day 10/63

After such an efficient day in Hakodate yesterday, we bounced out of bed before seven and were on our way to Sapporo by 8:30 train. Morning excersises included walking to the station and scouting the station area for yet another memorial (read: like a statue, but crap). We did manage to find a small althar for Hechi Kata Toshiso, a samurai that killed himself at the battle of Hakodate at that particular spot (they had lost the war).

I love Japanese trains. Three hours and we were in Sapporo. Lucky enough, I sleep anywhere, so I just blinked and I was there… Our mission in the beer city was to find a proper Ainu (the Northern People) museum, but first we stopped for a gorgeous lunch at ‘Taj Mahal’, where my vegetable curry with cheese naan was so far the best lunch I’ve had. And remember that yesterday we had Viking buffet that was pretty awesome. I am however, very addicted to curry and this was a heavenly place. Cost us about 800yen (6euros each)…

Then we were off to find the Ainus… This proved out to be one quest where mr. cock-up paid us a visit of “we are not open on Mondays”. Reminding that getting there from Hakodate took a train of 3hours, a walk of 30minutes, a metro of 20 minutes, a bus of 38 minutes… So almost like we popped into somewhere like Saarijärvi from Helsinki for the day, only to discover that what we wanted to see was closed. I didn’t let it bring me down, we did get to see the amazing Hokkaido countryside and the neverending mountains with their green covered hills. I stumbled on a great field of something yellow as well – for me, the trip was paid with that one picture there… And the Ainu museum had huts outside, so we could break laws and scout the Ainu toilets.

The Ainus took baby bears when they were little, raised them in cages and then killed them for food. However, my husband tells me that you can’t really eat bear meat because of some of the insects or whatever that live in their skins… This was however not the only way of their food gathering. They had efficient fishing methods like nets and spears and on their spare times they embroided all these incredibly beautiful patterns on their skin coats and furs. Maybe I was an escimo in a previous life, I find this all very fashinating. We were looking at the Japanese fish movements in the northern seas the other day and stumbled on to the fact that if the Ainus and other Northern people really went fishing as far as it looks, they must have found America… Also I find fashinating that there is no other conversation about any other continent in the world to be found except America.

Our legs were numb by sitting in a very smallish place for two in a bus to Sapporo station from the middle of no where where the Ainus were not at home. So we decided to use our last two hours to make an effort to check out the Sapporo beer factory and the gifto shoppus that were attached to it. By the time we walked back to the station (which btw is about the same as Kyoto station – fucking huge and complicated to find anything in it), we had a fast Ramen dinner before our train back to Hakodate.

Today’s learned lessons included: Sapporo is the capital of Hokkaido, 2 million people living in it. I enjoyed my short visit there, but very much the same as on my first visit to Japan – I like Hakodate better than Sapporo, like back then I liked Nagasaki better than Kyoto. I still stick to those principles. In three days my husband and I have decided that Hakodate is an excellent city where we’d both very happily live in. Plus, we live much more cheaply here than back home. Lunch today was 6euros each. Dinner was 5. Taxi home from station was 5 pounds… Makes you really think – what kind of places are London and Jyväskylä, if even Japan is cheaper.

Kyoto, day 2/63.

On our second adventure day in the old capital of Japan, my family and I headed for the imperial palace. None of us besides my husband who used to live in Kyoto, have ever been there, so it seemed like a great way to spend a morning. I woke up 7:15am, (1:15finnish am) and immediately felt a lot better than yesterday. Lucky for me, I am easy when it comes to rythms, no need for sleeping pills or so.

Pretty much like in Crete, the main functions of keeping your body live is drinking, salt, toilets and sun cream. I came well prepared and had no trouble at all. we have mostly non-breakfast-included hotels in Japan, but this is a conscious choise: We know the seven elevens are everywhere. What is better than some ice coffee, onegiri (rice cake with sea weed and fillings) or perhaps a hamu-sando (ham sandwich) for breakfast: yam!

We are staying at the Kyoto tower hotel, which also makes us like five metres from the subway’s main line. Kyoto’s railservices sometimes seem stupidly complicated: What’s the point in having different metro lines that need different kinds of tickets? I suppose corporations are the answer to that. However, buying a ticket is not as complicated as one might think – the signs have got roman letters on and even the machine speaks english. You figure out how much the price is and buy one. 250/210 yen mainly for 2-5 stops (one way), which we made today.

I find myself instantly improving in my japanese. I am still hopeless of course, but I can read most hirakanas and simple kanjis. Also I can pick up words that I recognise in conversations, such as the ones that my husband has with people. Pretty simple japanese – straightforward and easy. I studied it 2 years in the university night classes, but unfortunately that amount does not make you fluent. Japanese is number one on my list of languages to learn fluently, even if it’s not the most useful one concerning my work. It would be just very handy to have a translator in the SK camps whenever needed. My husband spent eight months living in Kyoto… I wonder if we’ll sometime move into Japan for a couple of years. I would not say no to a challenge like that.

After pissing about through the gardens where Jonathan tells my family members so interesting stories that I have time to take about a zillion pictures, we head back to Teramatchi, the shopping arcade. I’ve had serious second thoughts about the lens of my dreams and I feel that I will have to have it. 560euros for something that is more like 1300euros when new in Finland… I find that as a bargain that I don’t want to be crying over at home when missing.

My relatives are getting worried – even now that they’ve eaten and gone to exactly their will, it’s been mainly thanks to the 24 hour translating. Next week the tour guide/translator will vanish to Hokkaido with me, which means that they’ll be left alone with their problems. We have been looking for a book that would show Japanese food to morons, which would then allow them to skip their burger-king-worlds and visit actual japanese restaurant without having to worry that they’ll get something nasty from the miscommunication. There’s a great book idea there in order to put both pictures and humour together – something I’d like to do as a project with my spouse.

In the evening we have a dinner invitation from an old Japanese Shorinji Kempo family, whose son visited Finland when I was nine years old. He’s now the father of three and his father, the big sensei of Rakuto-doin, their practising hall, is an old dear friend to us. Their house is incredible. There’s a whole training area which is technically the living room and the Kempo room at the same time. There’s a full size Japanese garden and shrine for Zen Buddhism, where SK takes its roots. Actually now a days, SK is not allowed to teach Kongo Zen philosophy anywhere outside Japan, in order to keep SK out of religious wars I imagine.

We have home made sushi, okonomiyaki, salad, sausages, beer… A huge buffet indeed, and everyone seems to be enjoying themselves. I always think the way to experience travelling the best way, is to meet friends and locals (natives, if you like) and spend time with them. They’ll show you the customs, the styles, the food, the living conditions. And as I’ve been to Japanese homes before, so I can agree with our fellow kenshi from Helsinki: “it was nice to visit a japanese home that was huge”, normally Japanese live in very small places, as living is very expensive. Having said that, so far all the meals we’ve had have been about 7,5 euros/person including beer and whatnot – this means certainly that it’s less than an average lunch in Jyväskylä, my hometown in Finland… 8,6euros is it now? And this is also dinners here…

Tomorrow it’s bye-bye Kyoto and hello to Tadotsu. I feel teary when thinking about the places I am visiting and how I would love for my father to be with us.

Kati’s personal smallish advice for surviving in Greece

1. Bring sun cream. Cover your nose, your ears and specially your back with it. Your legs can also burn so pretty much more the cream on the better. Of course this is also the possible way to socialize with attractive fellow travellers or Greekmen “Could you do my back?”
2. Drink all the time. This means you’ll need about 4litres of water every day and you’ll get very familiar with the local loo facilities and their cleaning ladies. But this will stop you from collapsing and dehydrating, possibly the most important part of your well being.
3. Salt. When you are drinking water all the time, you need to bear in mind that you need much more salt to keep your body going. I recommend olives.
4. Hats & Scarfs, if you are in the sun. Cover your head or the sun will knock you down.
5. Be social, people will probebaly touch you and get to your uncomfort zone, but be prepared and non jumpy, even if you are a Finn with a huge personal space complex. Be active, you get so much more out of your time in Greece. Throw in a few “Kalimeras”, perhaps think about smiling sometimes – this will get you far. Greeks are really generous and welcoming people. Embrace the possibility to wake up from your Finnish social hybernation.
6. Realise that Greek red wine is much stronger than wine back home. There is probably going to be some Raki later, so keep in mind that your over heated body will get dizzy faster than back home as well. There is always a stronger Booze.
7. Early dinner is at 2200. After that, there is night clubbing. This is due to it being so much less hot during the night. Get your body sorted out with the late dinners and weird eating times in general.
8. Keep your Siesta for sleeping. There’s a reason why nothing happens in the afternoon – do not do it like me and schedule work on those slots. Just have a nap, or the ‘cover sleep’ to cover the 5hours lack of sleep you’ve gotten while staying up until 4am on the Beach. You’ll be feeling so much better at 6pm when it’s time to work again. The Greeks sleep in two phases: from 2am to 7am and 1pm to 5pm.
9. Air conditioning can also give you a sore throat or keep your cold going for a week.
10.Realise that your body is not used to Greece. It’s a full time job to just keep you going and manage your survival.