To south and south...

One week stay in 洛阳 was very nice.
City is calm and hostel is one of the most neat and clean one that I've never
experienced before.

But the thing is... its bit too calm,haha.
I now realized that I am a city grown kid in Japan.

I will go to 南京 Sunday night, and arrives Monday morning.
Since I have relatively many friends in south part, hope June will be
more and more fun...

p.s.
Thanks JJ.
I knew that site before, but I can't type in even if I use it.
But now I'm used to express in English(I don't mean that my spelling
mistake is getting better), so its OK, thanks anyway!

Train trip

I usually use train to moving around China.
Today I just bought the ticket to Nanjing on Sunday.
In the small city like Luoyang where I am now, its gonna be very
difficult to get the ticket with bed, unless you buy 3 or 4 days
beforehand.

Although I planned to stay in Shijiazhuang, I couldn't find cheap
stay, so I moved to Luoyang now, which is very old and calm city, I
like it very much.

From Shijiazhuang to Luoyang, since I didn't expect that I can't find
hostel at Shijiazhuang, I ended up buying ticket without seat.
As is often happens in my stay, I couldn't understand what they(staff
in station) are saying and bought the ticket without seat for 6hours
trip! But you can find empty seat on your way so its OK...
At first time, standing in a crowded train for 6hours seemed to me a
clear violation of human rights! haha.
But when it turned out,it was nice. I came up with some heart-warming
sean in a train.
When mother carrying small baby came in(it seems to me she was ethnic
people) the man on the seat handed over his seat for them immediately.
Its not a subway or anything else, imagine if Japanese people do the
same thing on Shinkansen.(though there will be no standing people on
Shinkansen.)China is such a interesting country.
On one hand they are infamous for their repressive policy for ethnic
minority, on the other hand you can find such a scene among public.
Well...such a big country...

black tourism in China 2-May 27, 2010

Hi

I couldn't find cheap hostel in 石家庄, so now I moved to 洛阳。
It is very old city and I liked it much...

I usually book the train leaves night, and arrive next destination on
the morning.
From Dalian to Shijiazhuang, it took about 15hours, but most of the
time I sleeping or reading a book. I'm now used to it.

Today's blog goes as follows.

It is always difficult to find somewhere you can be really alone in China.
Ofcorce travelling I am trabelling alone and I sometimes feel alone as
I wrote in the past
blog.

But as many people know, current booming Chinese economy, I believe,
wouldn't be done without those flooding amont of people. And you never
feel really "alone".

On the other hand, ironically I may say, often you can find yourself
alone in the
museum or remains. In my experience, young people approximately under
30 don't have anti-Japanese feeling as you expected,(the people I met,
needless to say) or it may be more
correct to say not interested in.

However, it doesn't go that you don't need to study any history or
Japan-China relationship.
Because many people I fortunately got in close relationship asked me
about those issue, as I wrote. I believe one can't build further bond
or Kizuna without touching such a issue.

p.s.
I'm now struggling with humid and hot climate, after I spent 2weeks in
cool northern east
area. May be the time has come that I dare to try some fruits to help
me get more water in the street,haha.
(I think I always got stomachache in my first stay in Beijing)

May 23, 2010

Hi

Today's blog goes as follows.

This morning was really cool day here in Dalian, and I will head down
for over 30 degrees 石家庄！

Since I don't have so much money, I can't go into every museum or
cultural heritage I came into.But I usually try to see some spots
related to Japan-China history.
Especially in 东北部，where I spent about this past 2 weeks, has so much
to see from that context.

One thing new for me is that many young Chinese people using youth hostel.
And once you talk a lot with roommates, some people asked me what I
think about Japan-China relationship(including past and now, future)
And I always answer with ambiguos smile and would say“It's difficult to
say in Chinese...”. I usually talk a lot without worring about small
or big mistakes in grammer or phrase, but I don't wanna dare to do that
in complex topic like that.

However, if I were fluent in Chinese, or even in Japanese, could I
answer that question?
One of my teacher in university once told me that Japaneses students'
english is not so bad as it is often said, compared to the students
from overseas.
But they just don't have any opinion they wanna express or discuss!

Well... for me, or for you, do you have any opinion you wanna really express?

To be continued.

Tabi no Koyo

Since I am little frustrated that I can't express my feeling in
Japanese, let me cite one page I found on mail magazine by Muji, which
helps me answering the question why I dare all the way come to
China.
http://www.muji.net/lab/theme/travel/column/100519.html

Actually, it doesn't need to be China, to say the truth.
But I just wanted the time which allow me to stop a while(and bit of
tasty food) and just China happened to be there.

Of course, I sometimes feel lonely or missed my friends, or whatever I
can easily have in Japan, since 「旅は、孤独になるための装置だ」However,
孤独は、自由で創造的な自分を見つけ出してもくれます。

So that's the biggest reason that I don't write too much about what saw
here or what
I ate, etc...

Allow me that I don't write much about China...
And I will be very grateful if you spare time to see my humble
struggling diary.

goodbye Harbin, hello Dalian

How many days you think is needed to know one city?
I stayed in Harbin for about 1week, which I think pretty good amount of
time to know one place. But to know one place by just staying as a
tourist is, after all, is impossible.

And now I arrived in Dalian! often called as north east Hongkong.
But again raining... Last week when I reached Harbin, got of the train
and saw dark sky and rain, I felt bit depressed...

Anyway, another adventurous week will begin!

I will be on SKYPE around 7to9 pm, so feel flee to SKYPE me when you
find me online

out of daily life, still looking for routine

Usually it is said that the biggest reason one goes to travel it to go
out of daily, everyday the same life.
But in a big trip like what I am doing now. I realized that (may be
only me, haha) one try to find something routine, even in a different
world.

For me, for example, I wake up like 7;30 am and do little exercise.
And I take a lot of time to read a newspaper and eat breakfast, really
slowly(which I usually don't do in Japan) then go out like until 5 or
6 pm, go back to the hostel and eat dinner.
Then I finally use PC, usually from 6 to 8pm, then read some book, go to
sleep around 10pm. You may think it's Mottainai to lead a daily
life, even though I should be in undaily life. But whatever they may
say, I like it.

I feel like I'm having one of the longest vacation in my life!
Though bit challenging...

transportation in China

These two days were really warm and I even feel the summer coming,
though its still middle of May. How is Japan?(or any place you live)

From big city to city I usually use the train, since its very cheap,
though its bit slow which I don't put so much stress on.Cheaper the
better.
You can also make use of the buses, but I never tried yet. My Chinese
friend in Japan told me even for Chinese its seems dangerous, since
the drivers were crazy.

And as I said in the previous blog, I like spending time whatever the
transportation is.
The scenary outside the window makes me feel eased, and sometimes
melancholy in a good way.And the reading time is very nice in the
train(I started to read Bushido, by Nitobe Inazo for the first time in
English on my Kindle)

So that may be the reason I still haven't got driver's license.
I like to be taken,rather than go by myself, haha.

next time I will write about odd feeling during my trip.

Mixed culture in Harbin

If you walking around central street of Harbin, you come up with a lot
of Russian
style building and souvenir shop. From here you can go directly to Vladivostoc.

In such a city, today I came up with Japanese restaurant, with Japanese
music(may be some old pops, I don't know). I feel really strange,
walking among the East European building, Chinese pass-by, listening
Japanese...
Some day I wanna visit Russia, when its warm up there.

And I went to some museum today and enjoyed history of Harbin, which I
wanna write a bit during my stay. But the thing is I'm not a type of
person who goes to every museum you came up with. So I don't know why
I feel like going to many museum since I arrived. Does anybody have
such a feeling like me?

Anyway, these three days were all cloudy and bit too dark.
Hopefully tomorrow its gonna be sunny...

Next time I will report the way I move in China...

Hello from Harbin!

This is the second day from Harbin,which is my second place to visit.

Its great that most every hostel can use free PC and internet, but one
big drawback
is I can not use Japanese><

Today's lowest temperature was 4 degrees, which is not so cold than I expected.
The inner Mongolia that I visited 2 years ago was much more terrible...

But down jacket will be needed if you walk around at night, and I just
don't feel like take a shower or something in the temperature like
this.
I miss"Furo" in Japan!
But nothing starts from just miss something that impossible to reach.
Looking around, the food is cheaper than Beijing and one big thing is
I can enjoy
real one-people room even in dormitory!
Yes, on season in Harbin is winter, and there is no other hosteler
staying in my 8 bed room so far.

In the morning I just buy some bread(which is popular here, influenced
by Euro culture) and read a newspaper on Kindle, one of my favorite
time after I come here.

I will report some Russian building next time...

p.s.
I am so happy to see so many comments.
Hope to talk all of you after I go back and looking forward to receive another.
Thank all of you so much.

出会いあり、別れあり、再会あり

５月７日　北京　晴れ

今日は５月晴れで、気温もあまり上がらずに過ごし易い一日でした。
昨日遅くまでルームメイトと話していたのだけど、８時（こちらの生活では早起きな部類に入る）の起床はそれほど苦にならず。
朝食はほぼ恒例となった近くの出店で、肉を挟んだ饅頭のようなパンのようなものを２個。100円くらいなり。

昼前から２年前の夏に２ヶ月ボランティアをしたNGOに訪れ、しばしの再会を楽しむ。
皆が覚えていてくれて素直に嬉しい。オランダ人の女性が２年前の自分と同様にボランティアをしており、詮方なくたたずんでいる姿が当時の自分と重なる。
これが再会。短時間でまとめて中国語を喋ったのは久しぶりだったが、わずかな進歩は感じることができた。

16時過ぎまでNGOに居て、その後オリンピック会場周辺に行き鳥の巣等の夜景を撮ろうかと思ったけど、疲れたのでホステルに戻ることにする。夕飯はやはり炉辺の店でどんぶりものを食べて、不足しがちな野菜を取った。

前回の滞在に比べて、携帯メールすら通じる今回の滞在は日本と心理的に近いはずなのに、孤独感を感じることも多い。空き時間が多いからか、先が長いせいか分からないが．．．この一週間は長かった。
友人曰く、最初の二ヶ月は長いそうだ。さてどう乗り切るか・・・
自分で選んだ道は苦労ではない、と携帯の待ちうけにはあるけれど笑


追雑記
写真を簡単にアップして皆さんに共有できる方法を探し中。
フリッカーズを試しているが、他にも何かあれば教えてください

あと、JJ、だいち、コメントありがとね！

北京に着きました！

北京からこんにちは。こちらに来ていきなりの洗礼はブログが見れないということ。
フェイスブック、ツイッターが使用出来ないのは聞いていたけれどまさかここまでとは。。。
そんな理由から更新も一度この原稿を実家に送って、日本経由でアップしているという
大変面倒なやり方になっております。其故コメント頂いても、帰国まで返信ができないのご勘弁ください。ただ！コメントの内容は見れるので、どうかどんどん応援コメント頂けると、いつも以上にこちらは孤独なので幸いです笑

さて、北京には今週末９日まで滞在するのですが、こちらは先日31度を記録するなど日本より暑くて、雨も来てから殆ど降っていません。乾燥しているのは相変わらずですが、体調管理には気を使います・・・当然ながら一人で食事をする機会が多いので、文字通り「歩き食べ」することもしばしば。時おり炉辺の店に入っては極力野菜を取るようにしています。

やはり北京は前回の滞在も大きくて、良く言えば住み慣れている、逆に言えば少し歩き尽くした感がありますが、準備段階にはちょうど良いかなと思います。

最初なので軽めにまとめますが、今後は英語であれ日本語であれ更新は頻繁にしていくつもりなので、応援よろしくお願いします！