Malaysia - an insight from a buddhist life

When I landed in Malaysia on Monday late afternoon and not knowing what to expect as I had nothing planned for the following 10 days, I was overwhelmed with joy and happiness caused by the kindness and cordiality of the people I was about to meet the following days.
This week I had the amazing opportunity of staying in two different Buddhist temples, enjoying Buddhist chanting, sitting on a motorcycle and driving around Kuala Lumpur and visiting many more Buddhist temples.

One of the temples where I stayed

The bedroom, I slept on the floor

So after staying two nights at two different Buddhist temples (free accommodation and free food) my Chinese-Malaysian friend (who I met more than 3 years ago in Vietnam) and I went to Cameron Highlands. This part of Malaysia has lush forests and the climate is much more comfortable, temperatures only as high as 20-25 degrees and humidity much lower than in Kuala Lumpur, where it is almost 100%. So I took the chance of climbing a hill (or mountain, whatever you prefer, the height being around 1800 meters or nearly 6000 feet) and enjoying the mountaintop view. My friend was waiting for me in the meantime down below, as he is already over 50 years old and his feet don't take him very far anymore.

Overlooking the valley

Right now I am in Penang, an island in the northwest of Malaysia, staying at Edwins (my malay friend's name) house for the next couple of days until I will be flying to Sabah and Sarawak (formerly known as being a part of the island of Borneo), where I will meet my dad for a 3 week hiking trip. As Edwin has dedicated his last 20 years to Buddhism and his Buddhist temple in Penang, therefore I have had a chance to meet a lot of his Buddhist friends and get a better insight on the Buddhist way of life.

This is what we did most of the time:

This weekend I will spend in Thailand, enjoying Thai food and nightlife, so I will continue this blog when I get back early next week.

Tokyo - The city that never sleeps

Continuing Friday the 24th of October: After visiting the emperor's castle and the fish market, which was no fun at all as it was raining very heavily I had the opportunity of enjoying Japanese night life. I met this German guy in the hostel and we decided to spend Friday night in Roppongi, Tokyo's nightlife district. We went out for a Mexican dinner and lingered around the streets of Roppongi, when we bumped into a group of Japanese guys, who offered us to join them at a Karaoke bar (what an experience, apart from the fact that they wanted to rip us off when it came down to paying, luckily I didnt have much money on me). So the German guy and I were in the Karaoke bar until 3 o'clock and after that wandered around the streets waiting for the first subway to come. Unfortunately there is a lot of prostitution around this area so you are constantly hassled by people that try to make you visit their stripclub. Well no one can drag me into any of those. So after coming home at around 6 o'clock my plans for the following day were shortened. I just visited a couple of different districts and very view sights including the Meji Temple. In the late afternoon I went to Yokohama, which is the harbour district of Tokyo, and I must admit: it was the part I liked about Tokyo the most (beautiful promenades, a very vivid Chinatown and nice live music to enjoy).

The last day in Tokyo I walked around my neighboring districts including Akihabara (electronics, electronics and more electronic gadgets), Asakusa with the Sensoji Tempel and Ueno where I had the chance of listening to a Japanese school orchestra, playing classical, musical and traditional Japanese tunes in an open auditorium in Ueno park.

Later that night I took the overnight-bus from Tokyo to Osaka, as my flight to Malaysia was from Osaka Kansai Airport.
So the chapter Japan can be closed from now and I must say: there were many things I loved and admired about Japan, but also a few things I really had to question as for a European these customs are quite peculiar (e.g. you are allowed to slurp while eating noodles but blowing your nose is considered as having no self control).

Iya Valley - in the middle of nowhere

The journey from Matsuyama to Oboke unfortunately happened at night so I was not really aware of the beauty of the Iya Valley until the very next morning. This part of Japan can still be considered a remote and abandoned place, not visited by many tourists. Unfortunately it has also its down sides to it. As I was expecting to be able to go hiking for some hours and enjoy myself whitewater rafting, not all my plans came true. The latter did not happen due to communication problems (the company suddenly charged double the amount) so I decided to explore the Iya Valley for a full day. I took the local bus to one of the main attractions of the Iya Valley: one of the few still remaining and well preserved vine bridges (a bridge entirely made out of vine branches). From there I started my hike towards a famous outlook of the Iya Valley, the so-called "man-peeing statue". As there are no real hiking trails in this remote part I had to walk on the paved roads, which was half the fun. And not being able to read the local bus signs, while trying to get back to my accommodation, I had to walk back (this road was frequented by even more cars and I had to go through a tunnel). So this was where the fun ended, even though the scenery was stunning. So this place is recommendable to anyone wanting to escape the hassles of a big city, but spending more than 2 nights is highly recommended. On top of the mountains there are a few plateaus, where hiking on hiking trails is actually possible.

Iva Valley

The famous vine bridges

Daily labour

View of the Iya Valley

Peeing statue in the Iya Valley

Taking a dip in a Japanese onsen

After my visit to the Iya Valley, where at night instead of taking a shower I could relax myself in an onsen (the Japanese bathhouses I mentioned before), I took the train to Tokyo. And right now I am typing this blog as it is raining so heavily my sightseeing will be very short today. Before going to Malaysia on Monday I will report on my experiences in Tokyo and how Tokyo nightlife looks like.

Kyushu and Shikoku, two islands two different worlds

Yesterday I spent the entire day wandering around the streets of Nagasaki, the former only connection to the European world during the Japanese so-called sakoku (closed-country) policy period. Therefore the European influence can be seen anywhere, starting from food, historical architectural buildings and the oldest Christian church that can be found in Japan. Apart from that there is still this dramatic event that shocked the world in 1945, when 1/3 of Nagasaki was wiped out. Therefore there are many reminders of this tragic incident, the most impressive and moving that being the Nagasaki Atomic Bomb Museum.
At last I spent my day close to the Nagasaki harbour in the Glover garden, where historical buildings of the end of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th century are well preserved. I was hoping to see the sunset in the Nagasaki harbour but unfortunately it was cloudy so no sunset at all.
Today I travelled to the smallest of Japans 4 islands, which is called Shikoku. This island still seems to be living in the 19th century. Much more untouched scenery and old traditional houses can be seen here. The highlight of today was the visit of a traditional and supposedly oldest onsen (hot spring with an attached bathhouse) in Matsuyama. The water had a relaxing temperature of around 40 to 45 degrees and it felt like being somewhere in Japan in the 19th century.
My next days I will spend one night in Matsuyama and then head deeper into the untouristic area of this island called the Iya-Valley where I will spend 2 days hiking and whitewater rafting. Therefore I will continue this blog on Thursday or Friday when I get to Tokyo, my final destination in Japan.

Nagasaki - the southest I could get!

Yesterday I spent the last night in Kyoto going for a daytrip to Kanazawa, where old historical houses of Geishas and Samurais are well preserved. Also the castle and the garden of Kanazawa are worth while visiting, as the garden is considered as one of the most beautiful gardens of Japan. At last I visited the local market of Kanazawa, where traditional Japanese vegetables and fish can be bought. As being a wasabi junkie I had to buy 1/2 a kilo of wasabi beans.

Today I spent the entire day getting down to Nagasaki and had my first experience with the Shinkansen. Well there is not much time of watching the scenery or taking a picture from it as it goes mainly underground or so fast that it feels like if you are on a roller coaster ( it goes up to 300 km/h).

Kyoto - once you are there, you cannot leave!

Konban wa (Good Night),

Something I already learnt in my first Japanese class, which I took yesterday as part of a tour. This tour was offered by Kyoto volunteers and only the 1-hour Japanese lesson had to be paid. Something I would recommend anyone coming to Japan and especially visiting Kyoto. (http://j-space.sakura.ne.jp/w-frame.html) 

During this tour we got to know some parts of Kyoto (a historical townhouse and some temples) I would not have visited. 

Actually, I should start from the beginning:

My primary intentions were to leave Kyoto after 2 nights, but my plans got all messed up. First I wanted to go to the Goto Islands, which are south of Nagasaki. Well since they are not very touristic even for Japanese people it is hard to visit them individually as there is no information online or anywhere else. So thats when I decided to stay 2 more nights in Kyoto, giving me the chance to see more of Kyoto's sights. You probably need an entire month in Kyoto to visit all of the 50 different shrines and temples, and not including the castle, the palace and all the museums.

So after my first Japanese lesson and the guided tour (we had 4 guides and 3 visitors, thats what I call service), we ended our tour in Gion a famous district of Kyoto, where you can supposedly see either Geishas or Maikas (Geishas in training). To be honest I think you will never see them, and if you think you do than they are mainly tourists dressed up as Geishas or Maikas, thats what at least my guidebook says.

After waiting and walking some time in the Gion district I went to the food market to get some fried shrimp with leek (very recommendable) and went home earlier after walking for almost 12 hours. After 5 days in Japan I dont even wanna know how many kilometers I have walked, but every day it was around 10 to 12 hours.

Today I tried to visit the sights of Kyoto I haven't seen yet. That including the Imperial Palace (waste of time as you dont get inside any building and you are with a guided tour of 100s of people as it is for free), the Golden Pavillon (Kinkaku-ji) and the best example of a proper Japanese zen-garden at Ryoan-ji. In the afternoon I went to the Kyoto International Manga Museum, to get an insight on a cultural tradition that has shaped Japanese history through the last couple of centuries (so Manga is nothing from the 20th century).

The highlight of the day was a traditional tea ceremony (http://teaceremonyen.com), which I can warmly recommend to anyone visiting Kyoto especially if you are interested in the higher arts (such as the traditional martial arts are too; there are certain commonalities in both practices).

Sayonara (Good bye)

Things to like and things you need to get used to

So I have survived my first full two days and I must admit there are certainly things I love about Japan but on the other hand there are many things I still need to get used to.

I have left Osaka after staying 2 nights there and I am now in Kyoto for 2 nights maybe even 3, depends on if finish what I am aiming for. 

Osaka is the perfect city to start a Japan tour, especially if you have never been to Japan. It offers both the historical sites and the technological advanced facilities and electronic stores of the future. The first night in Japan was a big problem for me, at around 3 am I was bright awake and it was really hard to get back to sleep (stupid jet lag). But the second night was much better as I went out with a couple of people from the hostel. We went to a typical Japanese restaurant (luckily one person spoke Japanese) and afterwards we went to an underground bar (underground because of the interior, it was like 10 squaremeters big, but also we would not have found this place if we would not have asked the staff from the hostel). 

The trip to Kyoto was a horror. After Monday being totally sunny and really warm it was pouring cats and dogs today (es hat aus Kuebeln geschuettet). So by the time I got to my hostel, which was almost impossible to find as the address description was not very helpful, I was soaked. But after the owner of the hostel offered me a bigger umbrella (Japanese people are incredibly friendly, they are only scared to talk as they are embarrassed of their English knowledge), I walked around Kyoto downtown and went to Kyoto's castle.

Tomorrow I will enjoy my first Japanese lessons and get to know more of Kyoto.

The first pictures you can watch in the Diashow are some impressions of my first days in Japan.

Japan lost in translation, or is it a myth?

After arriving from a 24-hour trip in Osaka I was actually stunned how easy it was finding my accomodation. Most of the tramways and trains have signs in English too the only thing that might be annoying or something you would have to get used too is that everything is enormous and very bright. These are my very first impressions and many more to come.
Right now I am in Osaka for 2 days, living in a typical Japanese Guesthouse. I will add pictures later so everyone can get an impression of what I am talking about, especially from the shower which is right underneath the stairs. That means you have to squat if you want to shower, which can be very inconvenient if you do something like that for the first time.