Another planet

After spending over 2 month in the old English colonies (NZ, Fiji and Australia) we were looking for achange of culture - and where else to go than Japan where everything is different:

The language: Even though Martin had freshed up his Japanese with a 10 min. course during the the flight, we still had a hard time understanding the strange sounds and letters from these guys.

The restaurants: If you don't want a very loud and passionate Japanese waiter to yell what seems to be bad Japanese words in your face, do take off your shoes before entering one of the traditional restaurants. While eating it is considered polite to slurp as much as possible.

The toilets: The toilets have more functions than the computers back home. This makes it possible to choose different flush pressures, seat temperatures, odours and music/ forest sounds - and don't be surprised if the seat goes up by itself when you lock the door.

Ninjas: The city streets and roof tops are packed with ninjas. However, they are impossible to see since they always move in the shadows and with the speed of light.

When we landed in Tokyo we were picked up by the "wanna-be ninja" Christina who had travelled all the way from Denmark, to be among fellow ninjas. We spent 2 days in Tokyo trying to catch up with Christina who jumped around in her selfmade ninja-outfit, swinging her nunchakus and yelling Japanese ninja-slang.

The highlight of our time in Tokyo was (besides Christinas ninja training) the Tsukije fish market where we spent a very early morning looking among the nights cach. We enjoyed not being as busy as the traders, and took our time to look at all the strange fish, mussels, squids etc. The experience ended with a very fresh dish of sushi served around 9 am. Nice breakfast!!

After Tokyo we jumped on the local high-speed train, Shinkansen, and drove to the old capital Kyoto with a speed of almost 300 km/h. We spent 3 magnificent days walking around tempels, geishas, old tempels, red paper lanterns, Japanese Zen gardens, and very old temples. We even got a glimse of some temples. Christina was still running around in her black clothes desperately trying not to hurt herself with her nunchakus.

On our way back to Tokyo we had a short stop in Hakone at the base of Mt. Fuji. Christinas last nunchaku had broken during a small incident with a train officer and she was getting a little more interested in the sightseeing. Unfortunatly Mt. Fuji was covered in clouds, so we looked at some temples instead.

We love Japan!