さよなら!

It's come the day. Tomorrow morning I'm leaving for Barcelona. My journey from Tokyo to Okinawa has been obviously great. Highlights were Okinawa and the white sand beaches and Mount Aso and its green boiling stuff. Kyoto, Nara, Okayama, Hiroshima, Miyajima, Kagoshima, Sakurajima... 'tis been something. However, and this is very sad, somehow all the pictures taken and stored in the 1.0 GB card are gone, over 600. Some of you were perhaps waiting for them... So bye to all the pictured memories and people I met along the way. They're all in my head anyway, and that's the important thing. Anyway, as the 250 card seems to work perfectly I kept some pictures of the first day in Kyoto. I'm posting here the most typical and touristy one: the Golden Pavilion.

This might be the end of this blog as well I guess. I should relaunch it when I come back here, 'cos I'm coming back. Dunno when. I had an interview with an architect at the Shibaura uni today and he found the theme for my intended research interesting and has no problem in taking me as his tutoree and writing a letter of acceptance. That's great, but I need the money now. Anyone willing to finance my thesis on Tokyo Urban Voids?

Ozeano Barean...

Bihar amaitzen da bidaia bidaia barruan. Hots, Tokiora bueltan nihoala eta larunbatean Bartzelonara. Lasaitasunez ari naiz, izan be Okinawan nago, are zuri eta ur urdin argiko paradisua. Gaur hondartzan egon naiz, bakar-bakarrik. Topikoegia ezin da izan, baina ossssso gustora. Bihar, joan baino lehen, berriro be uretan murgildu eta eguraldiaz gozatzera, 4 egunetatik bitan bederen eguzkiak bisitatu gaitu ta.

okinawa here i come!

Me'n vaig de Tokio per 10 dies. Passaré per Kyoto, Nara, Okayama, Hiroshima, Kagoshima i l'illa-volcan de Sakurajima per a acabar a Okinawa, on romandré per 4 dies abans de tornar a Tokio. A veure si em fa bo.

basku, hai, passport?

Egun eguzkitsua gaurkoa, baina baita haizetsua be. Lorentzu inguruan ibili den bitartean, no problemo, baina gero hau hotza! Irudian ikusten denez haizeak txirringak bota ditu, eta txirringak ezezik iragarkiak eta motorrak be bai. Haizeari esker baina, Asakusako complejo hotelero, barkatu, templeroaren kanpaiek izpiritu txar asko uxatu dituzte gaur. Entzun nahi badozue, klikatu irudia.

inside, outside

So today I climbed these towers, the Tokyo Metropolitan Government towers. Great views from the 45th floor, both inside and outside. The first view I'll let you name it. The second is the world famous Fuji-san... or the intuition of it. Both are videos.

On the other hand, it seems like I've taken the somehow weird custom of encountering German people on the heights. Remember the episode with Wolfgang Becker? Right, so up there I am looking out of the window trying to guess Mount Fuji in the distance, when a woman with a big reflex camera adresses me in German: "Der ist da!" (she was refering to Fuji) and so on. So I started to chat, whether I thought that it was easier/clearer to see Mount Fuji in the morning, whether I knew or didn't the opening time of the towers... and so on. Do I have a German face or what?

in shinto we trust

Si, segueixo a Tokio. O no...

やきとり

Manavu eta Chikakorekin oilaskoagaz egindako 1,001 plater ezberdin jan da gero. Eta hainbat garagardo eta sakeren ostean be. Gehien gustatu zitzaidana oilasko bihotzak. Bost bihotz ditut orain!

Raining

This is a video, so click on the image to view it. It's high quality so it might take a while depending on your connection...

It's raining today... and kind of cold as well. I went out to buy some stuff at first but I decided to stay home and arrange some postcards for the people who asked for them and others, to whom sending postcards has become a tradition, sort of, when I'm away, learn some Japanese... I'm also doing the laundry this moment. I bought soap for this but it's all in Japanese so I'm wishing I don't have to buy new clothes, cos I've only got 40,000 yen and they're all counted! Anyway, there was a kind of Akiraish feeling in the air, with the elevated motorways roaring above my head, the rain falling down and this mixture of ultra-modernity and tradition in the neighbourhood. Only that it wasn't dark, but full daylight.

We've got an interesting weekend ahead. Tomorrow noon Manavu will pick me up with his car and we'll head towards Hongo, where he lives, for lunch and sightseeing. Manavu is a friend of Keita, the guy who's staying at our flat in Barcelona while I'm here. Then I guess I'll meet Edgar for a beer or two and a girl I met last Saturday at a club, Lexington I think it was called.

On the other hand I also decided my itinerary for my week out of Tokyo. I'll visit Kyoto first, and depending on the usual things, Osaka as well. Then I'll go south to Hiroshima to end up in Kagoshima and Sakurajima, an activ volcano-island. So no Okinawa this time, too expensive to get there regarding my economical situation. Nor the Ainu People up in Hokkaido, which I was very interested in. On the way up back to Tokyo I might call somewhere at the coast in front of Shikoku.

Did I mention that I love it here?

master turtle

Dordoka Maisuaren existentziaren froga behar zenutenentzat. Ez horregatik.

Hallo Herr Becker!

Avui , ja amb menys mocs, he anat a recollir la bici i m'he passat pel Palau, no de la música, sinó imperial. No m'han permés entrar a saludar a la Masako, diuen que no em podia rebre per depresió. Com un turista més, llavors, he entrat als jardins imperials de l'Est, que és l'única cosa que es pot veure, i és gratis escolti. Després he sapigut que hi ha visites guiades, cony, hauré de tornar. S'ha de trucar per fer reserva.

Després d'això i d'un parell de cridades d'atenció per part de la policia imperial (vigileu amb la bici), m'he passat pel Tokyo International Forum (res a veure amb el de les cultures, aquest no amaga el que és). La vista des de dalt de tot està molt bé. Doncs això, era jo allà dalt mirant per un raconet quan sento darrera meu la presència d'un dels alemanys que amb els seus comentaris m'estaven espallant el video que estava grabant. Aquest raconet està molt bé, així que com que sé que el tio el que vol és fer la foto i ja està, li pregunto "Wollen Sie ein Foto machen?" i evidentment em diu que si, que només una. Entra al raconet i en fa però amb flash, i clar, com que hi ha vidre entre ell i la vista no surt bé. Ho intenta dues vegades més i li ofereixo ajuda. Li trec el flash i la fa, finalment, i es queda a gust. "Danke!", cap problema, cap problema... Se'n va i em fico al raconet per a seguir grabant i a poc a poc me'n adono de qui era: Wolfgang Becker, el director de Good Bye Lenin! Si, si, una coincidència, però és que a un turc de Barcelona em vaig trobar amb en Daniel Brühl, el protagonista de la peli. Quines coses!

meine erste japanische Erkaltung

Bizitza honetako gozamenetako bat: waterfront batean garagardo fresko bat hartu. Oraingo honetan Sumida gawa (ibaia) da eta garagardoa sevenilevenean erositako Sapporo bat. Ibai ondoan eserita, emakume japoniarrak paseoan turboa jarrita, "mujer que va a andar a Zierbena"ren bertsio autoktonoa, kolorez beteriko jatetxe flotanteak eta uraren hezetasuna...
Momentua gehiegi luzatu izanak gaurko aieneak dakarzkit: hotza hartu eta piper-sudurra. Kalera atera naiz limoi, laranja, eztia... erostera, ea infusioek osatzen nauten. Edgarrekin geratua nintzen baina beste egun batetan izan beharko: ohera segituan.

Albiste onik be badau: hiruretan txirringa hartzen pasatu behar dendatik. Auzoan dagoen denda da, hainbeste ibili ta azkenean etxe alboan nuen aukera. Dendan ez dute saltzen nik nahi nuen moduko txirringarik: merkea. Dendariari grazia egin diot nonbait, eta berak duen txirringa bat konponduko dit biharko, nahiz eta atzo gaurko zena esan. Klitxea apurtu dit dendari honek, japoniar efizientearena. 7,000 yenetan uzten dit (50 euro), ta utzi, ze zertarako nahi dut nik Tokion txirringa bat Bartzelonara bueltatutakoan? Joan baino lehen bueltatuko diodana esan diot eta ez bazuen espero be ondo iruditu zaio, nola ez. Alokairua suertatu da azkenean.

caminante no hay camino...

Cities come inside you through your feet. I end up the days so tired. I think cities come inside you also through the wheels of the bike you ride, so I walk all the way up from Suitengumae to Ueno to get myself a bike, but all I found was new ones, the cheapest for about twice the price I had in mind... I'm trying to buy on the net as well: I have two pointed out, one's too far away, the other does not reply to my messages. But I'll find one, eventually. I keep up the search.