Fernweh

This was by far the most horrible day on this trip. Because of crappy public transport links I didn't get to see either one of my two Ainu villages – instead I sat around train stations waiting and experienced the gulf of the language barrier until all I wanted to do was scream. Instead I [...]

First the good news: I finalized my itinerary for Hokkaido today, picking out hostels, making reservations and looking up trains. Luckily there always seem to be helpful souls around to make phonecalls or find information for me – but I've got to admit, speaking Japanese would definitely be handy… Anyway, I'll be leaving Sapporo the [...]

This free net access is too good to pass up, so you might be hearing little bits and pieces from me every day while I'm staying in Sapporo… Today I took the train back south a bit, to Toya. There I caught a bus to two nearby volcanos, one of which was only 'born' 1946 [...]

Arrived in Hokkaido's capital today and am very much looking forward to spending 9 days on this most 'wild' of Japanese islands… Even found free internet access in the train station, but people are waiting so I'll keep this short. Hardly anyone here speaks English, even more so than down south, but so far this [...]

Three minutes of internet time left… Am in Kyoto now, all by myself, which does make things more interesting, to say the least. Even more so after tomorrow, when I will move north, to Hokkaido, where things are a bit more rustic, as far as I can tell. But I am looking forward to this, [...]

Still with Sabine and having a great time. We went to Mt. Aso yesterday, a volcano, which was pretty impressive, as I'd never been at a volcano crater before. It's really nice here in Kumamoto – Sabine is looking after me nicely and we cycle into town every day, on sightly rickety Japanese bikes, which [...]

Today I left Denise (), who had the doubtful pleasure of giving me my first introduction to Japan. I was definitely grateful to have her around, because I had already gotten the first taste of the vast language gap that exists between Japanese and non-Japanese on the train ride from Osaka airport to Kurosaki, where [...]

Amy here updating for Eva! She should have reached Osaka by now, and on her way to Fukuoka by train. Internet accessibility might be intermittent, and she's probably out of contact by phone, seeing that the telcom system is different in Japan. Let's hope we can still hear from her soon though

Just quickly, because I mentioned it to some people without going into details: The day before yesterday I was bitten by something, and since then developed an allergic reaction of some sort, which caused my right ankle to swell and turn red. After I could hardly walk anymore yesterday (btw, a wonderful day on the [...]

Amy's been showing me the Singapore lifestyle, together with some friends of hers. The heat and humidity are still getting to me, but luckily a lot of things happen in air-conditioned environments here. In one of the malls (in Bugis, which is cheaper than the city center malls) I even found the first two 'Serenity' [...]