Oh Japan...

At the moment of writing this (with Word) I’m sitting in the plane. It got dark about 2 hours after departure. Next to me is sitting a Japanese girl of my age doing a face plant into the Finnair entertainment center (she’s asleep). The screen lights up from the touch of her forehead giving a blue glow to her face and hair ever so gently. Fantastic photo opportunity but I’d just get frowned upon so I leave the idea and look outside of the window. Red moon sinks into the night and from the opposite direction it starts to lighten up when we’re nearing the eastern shore of Russia. I wish I had photos of the first view of Japan. Suddenly there are high mountains everywhere and small clouds rest on the summits. Oh Japan…

Nagoya Chubu International Airport is an island in front of Nagoya’s shore. When the plane is landing it feels like an emergency landing into the ocean. Fishers below hold their hats while we go over them. It is an ancient belief here in Japan: the best place to catch fish is usually just before the runway.

Phew, got through from the arrival procedures. They say it’s about 20 degrees Celsius outside but it must be more. My coat is way too much for this weather. I got compliments from an elderly man for saying “Sumimasen!” so well when making way to get my backpack from the luggage belt. (Not the hardest Japanese word to pronounce.)

First impression: it’s clean. Clean, calm and nice. It’s a damn good start. But it’s only the airport.

From Nagoya I and Komugi went to Kyoto via bus. Before leaving we had a small bentou in the bus station waiting room.

The bus trip to Kyoto was great. Komugi didn’t see anything new in the amazing mountain vistas which we wiggled around and through on highways.

Kyoto, well, where to start from. Now it’s been approximately 30h without sleep and when we arrived I just fell asleep for a couple of minutes from exhaustion, sleep deprivation and insane hunger on the tatami floor of our beautiful ryokan room. Now it’s 9.21 pm and while I’m writing this my head is literally spinning and swinging back and forth. I don’t know if it because lack of sleep or our evening tour around Kyoto.

Oh Japan..

The First photo of Japan. Shot through greenish train window on my way to Nagoya.