Funny travel on the hard seat in China.1

Hello,

It's gonna be red hot from tomorrow here in Changsha.
up to 35 for 2-3days...

Today's blog goes as follows.

From Hangzhou to Changsha,I could only buy the ticket for hard seat for

12hours, leaving Hangzhou at 19;00 and arriving in Changsha at 7;00 next morning.

No need to say, I got so tired that I immediately went to bed after I arrived in the hostel and when I woke up, it was already past noon.

By the way, you will rarely feel bored during the long train ride in China, if you like it or not.

First of all, in the hard seat coach(there are usually hard seat coach, sleeping coach, dining coach in the train), they don't even turn off the light during the night.

In exchange, they have so much to entertain passengers, (this,too,if you like to be entertained or not). Around 1;00am, there came a woman having some cosmetics and started to sell them with a cheerful expression.

And then there came 1 yuan "Mimikaki", then titan neckless...all came
with funny selling talk. At last, a man with a box of "Chie no wa" came
and "Chie no wa" party began in the coach,from 1;30am. On top of that, a man in front of me bought 10 yuan "Chie no wa" set and all of 4 passengers
including me started to play with them.

Untill then, all of us including me were looking at some screen, some using
cell-phones, I was reading Kindle... but the atmosphere all of a sudden
turned into party-like atmosphere...

Stay in Hangzhou

Hello,

I safely arrived in Changsha,hometown of 毛泽东

Looking back, I rarely write anything about the place I stayed,haha.
Let me write some about Hangzhou（杭州）which I stayed for about a week.

To express in one word, the city of Hangzhou is "green"
”西湖“, which is even famous for people from foreign countries, lies in the center of the city. And one needs 2or3days to see the whole sight-seeing places around 西湖.

There are so many rental cycling spots around the city and they are very cheep.

Public buses are using hybrid energy and later I learned that
Hangzhou was famous for eco-friendry city. On the other hand, especially
in China, eco-friendly means it costs some amount of money. And prices
in Hangzhou are bit higher compared to other cities I think.

I think it is more or less the same in Japan too, but being eco-friendly, unfortunatly, costs much more than usual.

I can only come up with a common conclusion, but that's something I felt most during my stay in Hangzhou.

My next stop is Changsha,home town of 毛泽东

Culture export

Hello
Today's blog goes as follows.

There are a variety of ways to export culture.
Let's say in Japan, pop culture is very famous around the world.
In Korea, their electric products are very popular.

And those exported cultures build the image of the country, especially
for the people who never visited that country.
Traveling in Japan usually costs a lot for everyone, and not so many
have a chance to visit our country, even if they want to.

So the image of Japan relies heavily on those Japanese exported
culture, whether you like it or not.
The French lady I talked with yesterday said Japan is a mysterious and
attractive country for French people because of its pop culture, and
they don't show much interest in Korea because Korea exports only electricity.

And then one day, I luckily was invited to dinner a few days ago, and those
cultural topic popped up as usual.
Many people in China like Doraemo, or Kureyon Shinchan, or those
Kawaii culture, so I'm usually well prepared to talk these topic in Chinese.(I read almost all the comics on Doraemo when I was young.)
But they came up with a topic of Pornography contents from Japan,
and on top of that said it's very good compared to that of China,lol.

Well... I froze for a moment and couldn't give them Japanese perspective in that field.
Well, pornography, electricity, cartoon, or whatever it may be, you have to
keep close watch on what your country is exporting...

World Cup in South Africa

Hello

I think I'm staying in the best hostel ever during my stay.
They invited me dinner just now and so friendly.

Today's blog goes as follows.

Title;World Cup in South Africa

I think so many people in the world are crazy about World Cup held in
South Africa these days.
Even in China its so popular that you can't miss it when you get to
bar or common room in hostel.
Because China failed to be qualified from Asia, they mainly back for those
famous countries or players, it seems to me they like Messi so much.
Of course I'm also very excited about Japan game and sit in front of TV
almost every night.
To me I feel more attracted to the country by seeing its players in
the field, rather than seeing souvenirs or eating dishes of the
country at Expo.

Those mixed feelings players express, joy, disappointment, etc...
Something we human have in common is the thing that I'm often attracted.
Whether its on TV, or the street, or whatever, it's in Japanese "Ningen no
Kibi" I may say.


By the way, the following URL is one of my favorite columns.
I learned a lot from his article so if you like soccer, take a look at it.

宇都宮徹壱
http://southafrica2010.yahoo.co.jp/news/cdetail/201006220006-spnavi

Hot, hot, hot!

Today,the day temperature was above 34 degrees,and at Hangzhou, which is
my nest stop, it was 35. Although I believe I am relatively used to be in this kind of climate,its still middle of June! Somebody let me know nice Noryo food in China...

Anyway,I'm enjoying Tapioka milk tea to get something cold these days. Since I was in US when Tapioka had big boom in japan, I'm not used to this drink, but its tastes nice.

And I met one of my friends in Ningbo yesterday. She's working in a big hotel as an internship trainee from AIESEC from March, and said planning to work in Ningbo until end of this year. I
met(and planning to meet ) some of trainees from AIESEC during this trip. I think they are so brave all the way come from their home country for such a long time.

In my opinion, just going to abroad is next to nothing, that's something only rich Japanese students can do. However, fortunately, people around me rarely do such a poor oversea experience.
Once they determine to go, they always come back with something worthwhile, and I'm often encouraged by their attitude. So don't be too humble, be positive, realize how great thing you are doing right now, my friends!

And for me, I don't mean I'm doing something great,but I believe I'm making my step forward.--

Rainy season

Hello

I'm eating pretty well since I arrived in Ningbo.
One of my friend working in Ningbo introduced me lots of nice food!

Today's blog goes as follows.

I haven't written articles these days,yes, I realized...
Needless to say, it's really difficult to write something if you haven't
strong desire to express. Being asked whether I didn't have anything to write after a usually
long day, of course there were something, but just drank a little bit too
much Chinese beer and sometimes public PC is being used by others when I
wanted to use...


'''sate,
In China too,it's now rainy season.
Here in 宁波 where I’m staying right now also see lots of rain these days.
In 宁波 I feel something in common with that I felt in 大连， and may be with
Makuhari，which is my hometown.
In coastal area like 宁波 one should try seafood, and I had some with one
of my friends yesterday.
I think food is something that I can't cut the expense of.
One who's visited China would know how people in China, from the
bottom of hierarchy to the top,put stress on every meal.
To realize how important it is, I tried one-day fast yesterday, just for fun.

I am encouraged by so many comments everyday and I'm afraid that I
can't get you back for each comment, but I'm reading!

I'm stuck in hostel today, its too hot today!

Staying in 华南 area

I've been 华南 area for these 2weeks and now accustomed to this humid climate.
Actually its more close to Japan,lots of rain,high moisture in the
air, I'm used to it.

One of my friend wrote me comment(thanks Yamada!) that Japan got into the Tsuyu.
I think here in China more or less the same,it rains a lot especially
in southern provinces, 广洲

，福州，浙江,for example.
Those southern areas, or coastal areas in other word, are developing
rapidly especially in current

China.I felt like I was living in "forest of Neon light" in Shanghai.
And personally I come from Chiba,which is next to ocean so I will more
ease at these places.

I drank coffee for the first time in the last month and a half to
get stuck in McDonald's cheering Japan from TV. Hope coming June will be filled with joy of blog Worldcup!

上海にて

久しぶりに日本語を書く機会に恵まれました（無理を言ってホステルスタッフのPCを貸してもらっています）

ここ上海は毎日曇り空か小雨の続く恵まれない天気ですが、友人に言わせるといつもこんな感じとのこと。今のホステルは市場から徒歩１分の立地にあり、安い食事には事欠かないとはいえ、やはり洛陽の２倍以上する宿泊費やホステルに溢れる外国人の多さから、自分が中国有数の発展都市にいると実感します。

火曜日には上海エキスポに友人と赴いて、朝８時から５時間の待ち時間の末日本パビリオンに入ったのですが、期待以上の出来栄えで驚きでした。ちなみに全体の中でも１，２を争う人気だそう・・・
正直なところ、最近日本のニュースを追っていてもあまり日本人であることを誇らしく思えるような機会も少なかったのですが、ソフトパワーの結集とはいえ今回の日本パビリオンの出来はすばらしかったと思います。相変わらずデザイン面はいまひとつでしたが笑
エキスポ参観予定の人は必見だと思いますよ！

次に日本語で書けるのがいつになるかわかりませんが、珍しく天気がよくなってきたので
早々に切り上げfることにします。６月は日中の友人に会う機会が多くて楽しみです！

long and short one month

Hello

I arrived safely in Nanjing yesterday morning.
I think famous three hot city in China is Nanjing, Chongching, and
Bukan, not Luoyang.

Anyway, here in Nanjing is not as hot as Luoyang, at least today.

About a month has passed since I come to Beijing on April 30th.

I've been to 北京，哈尔滨(Harbin)， 大连(Dailen)，洛阳(Rakuyo) so far.
Harbin and Dailen was really comfortable under the cool weather, then
used these one week to get used to the climate of south part.

But still its tough to walk so long under the shining sun.
I often go to supermarket to get rest. In China, Carfurr(not sure my
spelling is right), French based supermarket is very popular, and you
can find them frequently when you are in big city. May be Carfurr's
"sell a lot" style fits to the Chinese culture than that of Japan.

One thing new for me is, during self-cordinated trip like this, I feel
more sensitive to the amount of money I spend for my daily life.
For example, the hostel now I'm staying in Nanjing is 45 RMB（about
650yen）. The hostel in Luoyang was 30RMB. But the hostel in Luoyang
was more comfortable.
And I spend about 15RMB per day for food.200RMB from Luoyang to
Nanjing for train ticket, etc...

You always need money to live,so that is the biggest reason that (most
of the people, I may say)people work.
Yes we need to work to live.What for?

Let me continue this next time...

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！