Going North!

After staying a good week @ my host-family`s place it got a bit boring.
You can`t really do much stuff there. It`s kind of a countryside.
You get around almost only by car. You could ride a bike (as I did everyday in my exchange-time). This time I rode it only one time...as I got home I was so "sweat-through"...wasn`t so much fun. (therefore only the people who can`t use a car do it)

I was quite glad to finally go north.

Because I`m on a "low budget" tour, I`m trying to use always the cheapest way to get round... But my Granddad said that I should take the ferry up to Hokkaido (northern island).
The ferry would cost the double of what I would have payed w/ the train (w/ one night-stop on the way) - ferry:~80Euro, train (in two days):~40Euro.
He said it would be a very good experience, especially because I did not drive w/ a ferry so far & because there are (almost) no ferries in Germany.
Therefore he said he would pay it!
WOW. nice one! like that!^^

So I took the ferry to Hokkaido on the 28.07 @ night (around 0:30am ... actually 29.07)



the content of my backpack before going



let`s go~





interior of my room



& my sleeping place



chilling on deck as we were leaving







a good night beer (as you can see from the Sapporo brewery - the place where I`m going ;p)



good morning!





somewhere over there is China...at least it should be there ^^





lunch - on the left a home-made Onigiri & on the right a bought Shrimp-Tempura-Maki



& now a chronological history of eating an Onigiri :D







^^





nice evening...



arrived around ~9:20pm in Otaru (about one hour drive from Sapporo)

-> 21h on the ferry, around ~1500km

& it was actually a quite pleasant way to travel (especially if I think about my train-travels), you can walk around freely, don`t worrying about changes,etc...

more to come...


(We - 28.07~ Th - 29.07)

japanese BBQ

some friends of my sis came from Kyoto.
@ first we wanted to grill on the beach, but the weather wasn`t really looking too good, so we changed location to the front of our house.



in my hand : Strong 7 tallie :))



them: "& now let`s make some funny faces.."
me: "bllllhh"
-.-









I didn`t really have time to take pix. was occupied w/ drinking`n`eating`n`chatting ^^
we had some different kinds of meat, loads of vegetables (self grown by g-mom & -dad) like pumpkin, onions, paprika, potato,...
& also some fu%$in tasty shrimps (love`em ;)
&&&...




some (mom`s) hand made plain rice onigiris



YummY!



In the end we actually drove to the beach...but as you see the weather wasn`t a blast...


(Su - 26.07)

BEEEEER!

dad`n`me did a lil beer-testing.



THE winner of the lil competition!

"STRONG SEVEN - HARD AND CLEAR" ^^
Alc. 7%


some of the other participants :







testing...

me: "how is it...?"
dad: ".........:/"
me: "ok, I`ll take a different one."



Sapporo is the biggest city in Hokkaido (northern island of Japan)
Sapporo is also the place of the first japanese beer brewery.
(but I`ll get to this interesting story later...)





yeah, it was fun!

:)


but still, you can`t compare bavarian w/ japanese...
it`s if you would compare BMW w/ Mitsubishi....HA!


(Sa - 25.07)

new murder in town!

:)

luggage & temple (yeah, that breakes it down^^)

that`s pretty much the stuff, what was in my backpack when I came to Jpn.
Minimal luggage! ^^



the house.



view from the front of the house



sis



we drove w/ the car to a temple.







I really like the mood, which temples & shrines are giving you.
(kinda similar to old churches.)
Especially when your almost alone in an old one.
This one was a bit crowded, but well...



When you enter a temple-area, you usually first wash your hands @ these springs.
you take some water w/ one of these "water-spoons" and pour the water over one hand, then on the other hand.
some people also "wash" there mouth w/ some fresh water.



you also can buy in every temple an "Omikuji", this is something like a "fortune teller". You pick your omikuji out of an big box & then open it.
As far as I know there are 3 different kinds, small-, middle- & big-luck.
On each Omikuji there is also written how it will go in your job/love/life/whatever...
(but that`s a bit tricky to understand, so I`m just happy over some luck.)



in the middle, the red characters are saying "shokichi"
(小吉　ー　しょうきち）
small luck...but hey it`s luck, right!? :p

The most common Omikuji is "just" a white, folded paper.
In this temple you could choose between several ones.
Fist time I saw one like this & it`s the best so far.
It is a small fan & you really could use it :D.



many people hang there Omikuji on trees/bushes/etc. somewhere near the temple.



But i took mine w/ me...the little fan is just way too kewl!! ;)



dad`n`me



sis`n`me


(Sa - 25.07)