Travelogue Japan
12th - 28th october 2007

Here we go! The moment all of us had been waiting for so long had finally arrived. We were eight pupils and two teachers: Annika Gries, Christiana Hinrichs, Daniela Lachmann, Insa Weilage, Jane Looschen, Jessica Jeske, Malte Schroeder, Vanessa Timmermann and Mrs. Meike Thoben and Mr. Takayoshi Yamaguchi.
"Koffer, Rucksack, Geldbörse, Auslandskrankenversicherung, Reisepass" were the things most of us were thinking of when we met at the Pferdemarkt at 7.30 a.m..
(Comment: Of course, I had forgotten my passport at home. Such things must happen, I suppose. Luckily we noticed it in time.)
We split up in groups, took our seats in three cars and went to Bremen Airport. At the check-in some of us got quite a bit nervous because their suitcases were too heavy: 20 kg per suitcase were allowed but the heaviest suitcase had almost 24kg. Luckily, the staff in charge was very lenient so that we did not have any trouble and departed to Frankfurt at 10.45 am.
(Comment: If we had known that the heaviest suitcase on our flight back to Germany would be 27 kg and still be accepted, we probably would not have worried at all.)
Fraport, where we arrived 45 minutes later, was incredibly huge, to say the least. Wandering through it you would think of a city consisting of shopping malls rather than of an airport. At the gate there was a Japanese group waiting next to us. After having learned this language for three or even four years it was exciting to hear native Japanese people talking. (Comment: We would hear enough of this language during the next weeks but listening to it for the first time was somehow impressing.)

Because of a luggage problem, our flight was 45 minutes delayed and started at 2.45 pm.
About an hour later Japanese style lunch was served: Soba noodles, salad, chicken teriyaki with lentils and coconut, and coriander rice. As we were starving we devoured it greedily. After lunch we could ask for onigiri (rice balls with filling). On the plane the onigiri were wrapped in noli seaweed and filled with salmon but in Japan there's a big variety in every flavour you can think of. (Comment: The next meal, breakfast, German: Brechfest, was not as good as lunch really. But you'd be surprised at what you eat when you are really hungry.)
The flight from Frankfurt to Osaka took about eleven hours. It was not too comfortable as it was not easy to just sit for such a long time or try to sleep while sitting in a noisy plane. The time shift was seven hours so that we arrived at about nine o'clock in the morning of the 13th October.

At Kansai Airport Ôsaka a warm and sunny morning welcomed us. We got our suitcases back without any problems. While Mr. Yamaguchi and Mrs. Thoben were changing money (100 € ~ 16.250 ¥) we pupils discovered the first vending machines. Those machines, from which you can buy drinks or cigarettes, are literally everywhere in Japan. So it is very easy to get something to drink quickly if you are thirsty. The bottle sizes are between 200 ml and 500 ml.
We then went to the Hankyuu Umeda Station by bus. It took about an hour. During the ride we watched our new environment carefully. Japan is a really colourful country: You see neon signs in Romaji (Roman script), Kanji (Chinese characters) and Kana (Hiragana and Katakana - Japanese script) in every street and on almost every house!
As there were lots of shops and restaurants in the station and we had more than an hour left, we could go and have lunch there. Some of us went to makudonaldo (MacDonald's), some bought Japanese obentou (lunch box) or a salad at a supermarket, and some went to a panya (bread shop). (Comment: There's neither brown nor black bread in Japan. What they call "bread" is mainly toast, three times as thick as in Germany, big cookies, small cakes, huge rolls and pastry.)
The train journey to the Hibarigaoka Private High School took about half an hour. On the train it became obvious how exhausted and tired most of us were as it was very hard not to fall asleep. We arrived at the station at about 1 pm and walked to the nearby high school. If we had not done so before, we then felt like attractions at a zoo. The Japanese pupils could not stop staring at us foreigners, especially at Malte who is two metres tall. They were waving and chuckling like mad. Half an hour later we were welcomed by the headmaster and our host families. But before that Mrs. Thoben, Annika, Christiane and I had our first short but impressing experience with traditional Japanese toilets: In contrast to "Western Style Toilets", as they are called in Japan, you cannot sit down on those Japanese toilets but have to cower over a chinaware toilet bowl which is set into the ground. As you are wearing slippers on Japanese toilets, you may easily get frightened by the thought that one of your slippers might fall into the bowl. Unfortunately, that is not unlikely to happen in those narrow toilet cubicle. The next discovery was that Japanese papers, toilet paper and paper tissues, are quite thin and that there are usually neither soap nor any towels in Japanese washrooms.
Full of new impressions of food, traffic, toilets, people and much more we were handed over to our host families. The rest of this day and the next, Sunday 14th October, were spent with them.

At 8.15 am all pupils, their host sisters or brothers and some parents met in front of the school - probably about 30 persons. We then went to Nara by bus. Japanese traffic is a story in itself but to say the very least: You have to get used to more than cars driving on the left side of the road.
In Nara we visited the Toudaiji ("East Great Temple") and in it the Daibutsu ("Great Buddha") first. But before we could reach the building, we had to walk through a park where there were dozens of shikas (Japanese deer). As they are closely connected to the kami (Shintoistic Gods), they are holy animals and must not be hurt or offended. It is very popular with Japanese tourists (and even some foreigners) to buy "deer cookies" which they feed to the deer.
(Comment: Be careful with those animals! They are quite greedy and get unfriendly if you do not give them all the food you are carrying. When Malte was holding some of the cookies high so that no deer could reach them, they not only surrounded and followed him, which is still normal, but also bit him, which, of course, was not very funny. Since that moment shika were not very popular with us anymore. It would get worse at Mt. Misen, anyway.)
We did not learn much about Toudaiji and Daibutsu as our guides, Mr.Yamaguchi and some Japanese teachers, were rushing through the temple. That was quite a pity. Still, lots of photos were taken and some of us bought omiyage (presents from a journey). At the temple again, lots of people, even people we had never encountered before, stared at Malte and wanted to have their photo taken with him. Jane and Vanessa with their long blonde hair faced similar problems.

After the visit of the temple we walked for about half an hour until we had found a restaurant that was able to serve lunch to all of us. We had okonomiyaki, which is something like an omelette with onions and, if you liked, pieces of meat or fish in it. Some of us had yaki soba, which is fried soba noodles with some vegetables and again optional meat or fish.

Then the group split up: Some went shopping, the others went to visit some jinja (Japanese shinto shrines). At one shrine we learned how to pray in the shinto way: You first throw a coin, usually one yen, into a box, bow two times at a 90° angle, clap two times and bow again while thinking of your wish.
We could also buy omikuji (shintoistic horoscope) in English.
(Comment: People are used to foreign visitors there, you see. And, as most of us had "good" or even "very good" horoscopes, we wondered if they sell only positive ones in English to please the visitors.)
Time passed by quickly, and so we had to leave the beautiful city of Nara and its old houses, temples and shrines at 4.30 pm.

We actually wanted to only watch the lessons, but in every class we had to talk to the students, which was sometimes - due to our poor Japanese and their strange pronunciation of the English language - kind of difficult. Besides, most of the students, even from high school, were childish, which became somehow annoying after some time.
The Kendo and Judo lessons after that were very interesting. It took some time to get dressed for them, but then we could "beat up" the Japanese. But sometimes you were really sorry for striking so hard with those Kendo swords.

In the Music lesson we had to play "Shamisen", a kind of guitar with only three strings.
I guess, the teacher was kind of disappointed about us not being able to play the song properly at the end of the lesson.
Shogi club in the afternoon was quite exciting. There were people really capable of the game.

The - somehow late - official welcome consisted of a greeting by some Japanese students in English, three students playing "Koto", and us doing the presentation about Oldenburg.
Once again we wanted to watch the lessons but had to take part and talk to the students whose English was better this time.

The following calligraphy lesson was really interesting but the students were not as helpful as, for example, during Judo.
The impression of a late greeting was intensified by the Sayonara Party that evening.
There were some short speeches, a whole lot of photos, a good dinner and conversation, even though mostly among us, and - of course - we sang.
At home we kind of said farewell to our families for we were off to Kurashiki the next day.

On Thursday we all had to say sayonara to our host families in Hibari. It was a tearful good-bye for many of us. But we had enough time to dry the tears on our way to the Matsuo textile factory. Mr Matsuo is an old friend of Mr Yamaguchi, and so he gave us a free tour of one of his factories. To our surprise, he did the tour in German. He showed and explained us different techniques of printing on the fabrics, the old ones like silk screen printing by hand but also the newest like digital printing.
After this interesting tour we headed to Himeji Castle. There we got a nice lunch in the park of the castle. After that we had enough time to look around the castle and climb its highest tower. From Himeji we took the Shinkansen to our destination Kurashiki where we met our new host parents who took us home with them.

The next morning we all met in the City Hall of Kurashiki. One of us told horrible stories of her host family and didn't want to go back to their house again. We held our speech in front of the Mayor and other representatives of the city after they had held their speeches. After all the speeches and the other formal rituals we finally had the chance to change into our normal clothes.
The organization that had made our stay in Kurashiki possible organized a bus tour around the town and its surrounding. We got to see the Seto Bridge and crossed it half-way to get to the island of Yoshima where we stayed for a short while before we headed back. For lunch they took us to a nice lookout. There we could enjoy the view and have some lunch.
The next stop was Nozaki House, a very old Japanese style house. It is also called the salt house because it was built with the profit from the salt business. By then the problems with the host family were solved and a new one was found.
The last stop before we were dropped off by the City Hall and picked up by our host parents was the historic quarter of Kurashiki. In the historic quarter were a lot of opportunities to shop, and at the end of the day everyone was happy and satisfied.

After a sentimental goodbye at Kurashiki Station we took the train destined for Hiroshima. Upon arrival in Hiroshima we went on to Miyajima Island to climb St. Misen. But before we got to climb the mountain, we visited the Itsukushima Shrine and, of course, took photos in front of the big Torii.
We used the last toilet on our way to the top of the mountain to take a short break. Malte wanted to use this break to tease a deer. At Miyajima there are a lot of deer that always want something to eat from you. This particular deer was trying to steal our bags after Malte had provoked it. After this adventure we went on to the top of the mountain with the intention to reach the top in 90 minutes. But in less than 30 minutes the group split in three smaller groups. The first group really reached the top of St. Misen first. The second group could have been the second on the top if they hadn't taken the wrong way. The third group turned back to use the ropeway. Invigorated by a good lunch, we went on to the submontane of the mountain and therefore to the souvenir shops.
At 6 pm, with mainland under our feet, we had dinner close to the station. Most of us chose Japanese food but three people preferred a dinner at MacDonald's.
After dinner we went on to our youth hotel. But before we could lay down in our beds we went over the Kintaikyoo Bridge.

With a walk through the Iwakuni park we started the day.
Arriving at the bus station we found out that the bus would come in one hour. Finally, after arriving in Hiroshima we went to the Atomic Bomb Museum and the Park of Peace.
After this short trip to Hiroshima our trip went on. We took the train to Otsu where we should meet our last host families in the Prince Hotel. It was a long walk from the station to the hotel and arriving at the hotel hungrily, we all felt dingy. The Prince Hotel is a 39-storeyed noble hotel, and with our jeans and t-shirts we felt like we didn't fit in. But during the really good dinner we forgot about it and enjoyed the food and the evening.

After having breakfast in our third and last hostfamily we went to youth hostel 'Arve Shiga' where we would spend our last three nights in Japan. Together we visited the elementary school of ishiyama, there we practised oshuuji (japanese calligraphie) and attended different classes. A german speaking japanese teacher explained a lot and gave more details about their school system. Our next station was Ishiyama temple. In the beautiful garden of the temple we had time to relax and fill up power which we needed for some sportive activities with Ishiyama sportsyouth in the evening. For dinner we had a great buffet with japanese specialities, different but delicious.

The mayor of Otsu gave us a nice welcome on friday. We had a Power Point Presentation about Oldenburg and some conversation with the officials. Afterwards we visited the museum of Lake Biwa. This fresh water lake, which is much bigger than the Bodensee in Europe, provides a large part of japan with drinking water. In the late afternoon we went shopping with our japanese companions, this was a good chance to buy japanese specialities for our friends and family in germany.

The last Saturday in Japan started with a "western-style" breakfast, or at least something that the people of Japan would expect of a "European breakfast".
Afterwards we went to Kyoto to the Nishijin Kimono Kaikan where we tried on kimonos.
We went on to the Golden Pavilion and took a walk in the park. After that we - finally - had a bit time for some shopping.
Back in the Shika Arve, our hotel, we had enough time to buy something to eat for the next day and get ready for the Sayonara party. Since our host-families were also there, we had to sing German songs again, more specifically: "Alle Vögel sind schon da" and "Hänschen Klein" .

Text: Annika Gries, Christiana Hinrichs, Daniela Lachmann, Insa Weilage, Jane Looschen, Jessica Jeske, Malte Schroeder, Vanessa Timmermann