I am typing for you from Shinkansen, the bullet train from Kyoto to Okayama. From there we’ll change to a lesser train (I assume) to Tadotsu in Shikoku. On our third day in Japan, we’ve already visited the Kyoto tower, which we got free tickets to since staying at the hotel on the base of the tower. The view of the city tells you a lot, there is sightseeing at only one of the directions. Kyoto tower and station are based on the very bottom of Kyoto.

Shinkansen never stops to amaze me. Not just the speed, but also the huge leg space, the extremely clean toilets and smooth service. We are in Okayama in no time at all and then pass onto the fast, but not so incredible speed train to Tadotsu.

When we first reach the long lost city of my dreams, it’s about 38celsius outdoors and in the hotel reception, whose receptionist lady has gone for a siesta expecting no one to turn up. Our japanese speaker saves us again by calling her and we get our rooms. There was only one western style room available (perhaps it’s the only one in the whole hotel – last year Kirsi and Timo stayed in the same one! – Keep in mind that Tadotsu only has this *one* hotel. My husband and I stay at a Japanese style room, which is actually very comfortable. I don’t mind sleeping on futons.

Speaking Japanese has its advantages, we find out that there is a washing room on the roof for 300 yen (2,3euros) per machine. We also managed a first trip to ‘hombu’, the headquarters for Shorinji Kempo. From there we find a huge box of Gis, Shorinji Kempo gear, which has been posted for us by Osaki shop, which we repost to Finland in smaller boxes. This operation takes about an hour or two. To be honest, you might think there is not much to do in Tadotsu. You might be right. But for a kenshi (Shorinji Kempo practiser) it’s got all you need. There’s the occasional restaurants, if you can read enough kanjis and hirakanas to understand where they are, and you can also check out the sunset from a mountain. This concludes the activities.  We are here to train and finding almost working wireless internet in our room – there’s not really much other things that a treesom of Finns companied by an english writer would want.

We go out to eat in a sea food restaurant in a shipping area of the harbor. Timo and Kirsi have been there last year and you can imagine the stunned herd of waitresses when we ask for a shit loads of sushi, Chicken by barbarians (kentuky fried chicken) and some aubergines with cheese on top… Then I take very pictures of the food of course with a camera that most of the waitresses don’t come across in their lives. Perhaps they thought we were from the Times or something. Restaurant owner seems touched when he realises that these are the same Finns as last year, and that they have recommended this place to all of us. They certainly didn’t think too much about the restaurant themselves!

Tomorrow it’s the real thing. Visiting Hidemi san, one of the WSKO secreteriat women, gave  us the details: 99 kenshis, nine of which are foreign. One of them is a brazillian Branch Master who is there for the third week and overly eager to train all the time. There is one Engish kenshi from Mayfair, and one Swedish one. It should be an interesting bunch of sessions though. I have prepared myself to death. Everything less would be a bonus.

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.

However much you think you are the master of killing jetlags, going for a 6 time-zone difference at one night – it’s always going to be painful. We flew through the night so that our night basically disapeared and we had to do two days in a row without sleeping. I had slept pretty badly for the last week, so this was not helping the body to adjust: Even if it was not as bad as we had been preparing ourselves to – the flight was probably the most comfortable 9,5 hours in a plane that I’ve ever experienced, and the heat was *only* +30degrees celcius – which it could have easily have been something closer to +40… It was still a hard day. Luckily my husband’s Japanese is fluent, so we had no real problems getting a Haruka (ray-of-light) train from Osaka Kansai airport to the Kyoto central station.

I was shocked with how normal this felt to me: there is small, dark haired people everywhere and all the signs in kanji. But I’ve been to Kyoto before, so walking around station, looking for food, shops, post office, atm and what not is a piece of cake. Also it felt very natural and normal to be surrounded by the Japanese all the time. Our week in Kyoto 2007 probably did just that. However, Finland has been comfortably cold for many months now, so the last I was this hot was in Crete. I know that I’ll just need some adjustment time right now.

Our hotel is called ‘the Kyoto Tower’ hotel, which means exactly what it says: It’s *in* kyoto tower. My husband and I get a very comfortable room with airconditioning which is great at medium, but at high starts to make horrible noice. However my fellow relatives travelling with me have some adjustments to do for their airconditioning before they are happy with it. We waiver the first day without too much of hard goals – we buy tickets to Tadotsu for Monday, where the headquasters of Shorinji Kempo is located. we’ve been to Japan for the amazing amount of two hours when I see a familiar face: One of my friends told me about these four boys travelling in Japan on the same time as us… What are the chances of meeting someone you know like that… I don’t know. But in any case, we have a nice chat before they head off to Tokyo surroundings to spend some time in a spa and to drink some more sake I assume.

After a much needed lunch and nap we find ourselves in the Teramachi, the shopping arcades of Kyoto. We visit my favourite camera shop which temptingly offers the lens of my rdeams second hand (Canon 28-70 /2.8L) for third of the price in Finland. I try it and it feels quite bulky and huge, the pictures are excellent of course, so I might end up regretting that I left that lens to the shop. Decisions based on the fact that I had to buy a new camera two weeks ago as well as the fact that my good friend lended me 70-200mm/4L, which I know I would not use as much if I had this new lens to go about. Plus I love wide-angle view just a little bit too much. Check out my pictures and you’ll see what I mean.

I don’t know if we are just another version of those *burger-king-lovers* as the two restaurants we ate today were “Japanese Chinese” and “Japanese Nepalese”… The latter one, “Yak and Yeti” has soon become my second favourite restaurant in Kyoto. But it also might be that I get an orgasm when having curry – instant calmer, instant happiness, that’s what it is! Overall, with the jetlag hanging over me, I feel extremely satisfied of this day number one. i got some pictures that I was happy with (the quality of my photography has really taken a turn to the better over the last two years – Back then I was nothing but a learner… But yes Darth, perhaps I’m not a master, but however a person who feels happy about her skills), and we got to do some shopping, eating and sightseeing.

Tomorrow is our only full day in Kyoto, which we are spending by temple hunting and in the evening we’ve got an invitation to the Rakuto-doin, a home and training hall of a Japanese sensei whose son (now a sensei as well) visited Kajaani (my ex-home town, check from the map, in the middle of nowhere near the artic circle) and stayed with us when I was around 8 years old. Finn out.