Well fed men

Florian

During my stay in Japan I definitely wanted to see Sumo wrestling live. However, I didn’t really look into it until after my workaway stay in Suzaka. There are six grand tournaments a year, each 15 days long. Three take place in Tokyo, the others are carried out in Osaka, Fukuoka and Nagoya.

Coming to Nagoya without knowing about the tournament, I couldn’t believe my luck, when I saw on Couchsurfing that Rebecca from Wellington, New Zealand was looking for someone to join her the same week for the competition in town. The perfect fit with my travel plans. Continue reading “Well fed men” →

Welcome to Horakuan

Florian

To experience local life and get some experiences beside the tourist tracks is one of the things I enjoy most about traveling with so much time on hand. So also for Japan I looked on the Workaway website for a place to stay for a few weeks. As the offer is very scarce here, there are currently only nine registered hosts in Japan, I was very happy when I found a nice place in Suzaka, close to the former Olympic city of Nagano. Continue reading “Welcome to Horakuan” →

Isolation

Florian1 Comment

Every country has its peculiarities, but for me Japanese always had a few more of them. So far my major impression I got about them stemmed from the rather entertaining appearance of Japanese tourist groups and Western produced movies and their interpretation of this Asian country.

Historically Japan was a very isolated country. On the one hand the geographic location in middle of the ocean without any direct neighbors limited the options for exchange. On the other hand only the beginning of the Meiji Restoration in 1868 marked the political opening to the rest of the world.

Still today Japan with its 128 million inhabitants, the 10th biggest country by population, plays a lonely role on the stage of the world. Two rather astonishing figures bring this to the point: In Japan the ethnic mix is made up by 98.5 % Japanese and only 1.5 % other nationalities (mainly Chinese and Korean). In Austria the ratio is 91.0 to 9.0 % letting aside the number of granted citizenships. Looking at the total number of people speaking Japanese not even a million have chosen Japanese as their second language. German is spoken by roughly 105 million as their mother tongue and up to 80 million as a second language.

Travelling in Japan now for three weeks for sure helped to get a better understanding. Still sometimes the little details just make me smile, other habits render me puzzled. Toilet shoes, high-tech toilets, the size of an average car and Maid Cafes fall into the first category. Among the second I would count the contrast between the awareness for little details in design and apparently missing eye for the big picture.

日を歓迎

Florian1 Comment

Two weeks earlier than originally planed I arrived last weekend in Tokyo, after spending the final three weeks of my stay in New Zealand on the north island. There I had some very spoiled days with Laila and Sean in Wellington, I enjoyed the beautiful Art Deco city of Napier, I almost froze to death in the hostel in Taupo, warmed up again in the thermal region of Rotorua and finally ended my visit with two nights in Auckland.

Although I very much enjoyed my time in the country, in the end I had the feeling I stayed a bit too long. I guess I changed hostels too often, saw too many nice mountains and in the end it was definitely too cold for relaxed traveling for such a long time. Therefore I very much looked forward to get to Japan.

The first week in Japan I spent in the mega-metropolis of Tokyo. Although over 35 million people live in the greater area it is a perfectly organized city and actually rather quiet. It doesn’t take long to get used to find your way around – it for sure helps that the street names and subway stations are labeled in English, but also Japanese are very helpful (although there limited skills in English). When I left for Suzaka, a small community next to Nagano, for my next Workaway stay there was still so much to see 😉

A chopper please!

Florian

To make a nice, smooth Chopper start with two fingers of gin, add flavor with natural cranberry juice, sweeten it with a spoon of brown sugar and finalize it by filling up the glass with sparkling water. Try it and you’ll know why this new drink will conquer the world in a storm … that’s at least what Marty and I thought after our days of chopping down Manuka trees to fill up the firewood supplies 😉 Continue reading “A chopper please!” →

Whales … finally ;-)

Florian

I was patient and now I’m happy. When I was in Taiwan in 2006 I went on a whale watch tour for the first time. However, as it was not the right time of the year, we only saw some dolphins back then. So I was quite happy to learn about Kaikoura, a small town on the east coast of New Zealand, where due to the geographic features of the sea bottom male giant sperm whales stay all year round. Coming there a few weeks ago I already tried my luck on a tour, but instead of whales we only saw lots of Albatrosses. With their wingspan up to three meters, they are quite impressive, but not what I came for.

So at the end of my trip around the south island of New Zealand I decided to go back to Kaikoura and try my luck again. Due to the weather the boats where bound to the harbor the first two days, but when it finally got out on a perfect warm and sunny day, I was lucky. On the tour we managed to see five dives of giant sperm whales, a humpback whale, a group of the rather small Hector dolphins and a lonely New Zealand fur seal taking a sun bath on the ocean.

Offtopic: For those of you not so interested in whales, I also learned how to bake bread 😉

The routine of travelling

Florian

My parents always nurtured my interest in travelling and during school summer holidays I had the luck to see almost all countries in Europe, going back and forth with the campervan. Later on I did my first oversee journeys on my own and also different work experiences gave me opportunities to spent time abroad. So I thought I know a bit about travelling.

Well, this time is quite different! Some people asked me how it is to travel for a year. To avoid any illusion from the beginning: it is definitely not like being on holidays! Quite the contrary, it can be rather exhausting. Sometimes you even get the feeling you need time off from travelling, but maybe I should start with first things first. Continue reading “The routine of travelling” →

Hitchhiking Country

Florian

Inspired by Mojca from Slovenia I decided for hitchhiking as my main means of transport here in New Zealand. I haven’t really considered this option before, but after the first day on the road I knew that it’s the way to travel 😉

I don’t have a lot of experience on travelling with the thumb up (the last time I was hiking with Robert and we lost our way a bit, so we needed a lift to get back to the car) so I cannot compare it to other countries, but Kiwiland seems like a very good country to get your first experiences. I really like it. It is cheap, it’s flexible, it’s definitely faster than the buses and you meet a lot of people.

Farmers, doctors, other world travelers, young and old people, locals, … before entering the car you never know whom you’ll meet this time, but you can be sure you’ll get to hear some interesting stories. 72 year old Robinette from Te Anau told us about her life travelling the world, Robin who forgot his age long ago was going to live in the woods for the next 10 days, Lynda and her daughter Sophie from Christchurch who were on vacation around Queenstown and not only gave us a ride to and from Milford Sound, but also showed us around in their home town a few days later.

All in all a good way to meet people from and travelling in a country and learn new things you never expected 😉

For some further information about hitchhiking have a look at the comprehensive Hitchwiki or the respective section on Wikitravel.