Wednesday, September 28, 2005
Niigata
Une ville que nous avons aime. Nous y sommes restes trois jours, campant dans un parc public a la lisiere de la plage, puis entre deux bateaux apres qu'un policier nous ait reveilles le deuxieme jour de maniere tres impolie. Le pauvre homme a presque eu une attaque cardiaque en me voyant sortir de la tente.
Il y a beaucoup de sans abris au Japon. Les japonais disent qu'ils le sont par choix. Que le gouvernement leur procurerait un logement si ils le voulaient. On peu voir leus maisons de cartons couvertes de baches de plastique bleu dans les parcs de toutes les grandes villes, ou sagement allignees dans les souterrains qui quadrillent les sous sols urbains.
Notre policier devait donc s'attendre a voir un homme entre deux ages emerger de la tente, pas une fille blonde en debardeur mesurant une tete de plus que lui. J'ai explique que nous partions pour Hokkaido le jour meme, il a verifie mon passeport et est parti en gromelant des excuses.
La nuit suivante nous nous sommes installes entre deux bateaux de pecheur abandonnes, et avons cree l'evenement a l'aube, heure ou ces messieurs en bottes de coutchouc sortaient les barques a l'aide de mini tracteurs et reparaient filets et cannes a peche.
Usually, everything is tidy in Japan.
Usually.
But, you know, they don't have that much room, so sometimes, they have to pile things up.
Usually.
Niigata est une belle ville. Decontractee apres le stress palpable de la region de Tokyo. Il y a la mer, une riviere aux belles berges amenagees, un superbe centre artistique tout neuf a l'architecture impressionnante et la programmation passionante, des quartiers populaires pleins de cafes et restaurants, une rue entiere doublant comme marche permanent, des petits temples charmants... Nous avons eu de la chance: plus tard, a Hokkaido, nous avons rencontre des americains vivant a Niigata. L'hivers y serait gris, lour, humide et froid. Quand nous y etions le soleil a brille radieux sans discontinuer...
Il y a beaucoup de sans abris au Japon. Les japonais disent qu'ils le sont par choix. Que le gouvernement leur procurerait un logement si ils le voulaient. On peu voir leus maisons de cartons couvertes de baches de plastique bleu dans les parcs de toutes les grandes villes, ou sagement allignees dans les souterrains qui quadrillent les sous sols urbains.
Notre policier devait donc s'attendre a voir un homme entre deux ages emerger de la tente, pas une fille blonde en debardeur mesurant une tete de plus que lui. J'ai explique que nous partions pour Hokkaido le jour meme, il a verifie mon passeport et est parti en gromelant des excuses.
La nuit suivante nous nous sommes installes entre deux bateaux de pecheur abandonnes, et avons cree l'evenement a l'aube, heure ou ces messieurs en bottes de coutchouc sortaient les barques a l'aide de mini tracteurs et reparaient filets et cannes a peche.
Usually, everything is tidy in Japan.
Usually.
But, you know, they don't have that much room, so sometimes, they have to pile things up.
Usually.
Niigata est une belle ville. Decontractee apres le stress palpable de la region de Tokyo. Il y a la mer, une riviere aux belles berges amenagees, un superbe centre artistique tout neuf a l'architecture impressionnante et la programmation passionante, des quartiers populaires pleins de cafes et restaurants, une rue entiere doublant comme marche permanent, des petits temples charmants... Nous avons eu de la chance: plus tard, a Hokkaido, nous avons rencontre des americains vivant a Niigata. L'hivers y serait gris, lour, humide et froid. Quand nous y etions le soleil a brille radieux sans discontinuer...
Monday, September 26, 2005
Nikko
Une statue dans un des temples non touristiques de Nikko, un de ces temples de quartier aux cimetieres fleuris. Du moins, celui la l'etait quand nous nous y sommes aventures. Cent metres plus loin nous aurions du lutter contre des armees de vieilles dames a parpluies ou des groupes de salarymen en deplacement d'entreprise. La, il n'y avait qu'un homme et sa petite fille avec un bouquet de fleurs, et deux ou trois personnes entre deux ages qui nous ont souri comme a de vieux amis.
La riviere qui coule dans la vallee de Nikko.
La photo a l'air... normale...
En fait, un peu plus en amont et un peu plus en aval, il y a du beton. Plein. On ne sait jamais, la riviere pourrait deborder un jour, ronger ses berges, tout emporter.
A Shikoku il y a une riviere presentee fierement comme la seule riviere a cours libre du Japon.
Ca donne a penser.
La riviere qui coule dans la vallee de Nikko.
La photo a l'air... normale...
En fait, un peu plus en amont et un peu plus en aval, il y a du beton. Plein. On ne sait jamais, la riviere pourrait deborder un jour, ronger ses berges, tout emporter.
A Shikoku il y a une riviere presentee fierement comme la seule riviere a cours libre du Japon.
Ca donne a penser.
Tuesday, September 20, 2005
Note on pictures - a propos des photos
Up until now we have been using image venue as a free host for our pictures, but unfortunately the supporting advertising that appears with the enlarged version of the image has been getting seedier and seedier. We have decided that we can no longer send the good people who read our blog (and my younger, innocent brothers of course) to a page with links to free porn etc. etc.. so if anyone knows of a site that can host photos free for an unlimited amount of time, 2mb file size and a large number of files, perferably with a multiple file upload ability, we'd be very grateful. At the moment we are using the blogger picture up load but we can only up load one at a time. Another quicker and cleaner site would be best and we would be further able to protect my 'pure as the driven snow' younger brothers from suzys saucy sex line. yours puritanically - Kevin
Jusqu'a present nous avons utilise image venue comme hebergement gratuit pour nos photos, mais malheureusement la pub qui va avec est devenue de plus en plus axee sur la pornographie. Donc nous allons nous servir de blogger, mais nous ne pouvons ajouter les images que une par une. Donc si vous connaissez un site plus rapide sans pub pornographique qui hebergerait des images gratuitements, faites le nous savoir...
Jusqu'a present nous avons utilise image venue comme hebergement gratuit pour nos photos, mais malheureusement la pub qui va avec est devenue de plus en plus axee sur la pornographie. Donc nous allons nous servir de blogger, mais nous ne pouvons ajouter les images que une par une. Donc si vous connaissez un site plus rapide sans pub pornographique qui hebergerait des images gratuitements, faites le nous savoir...
Depuis Ashikaga
Et voila, ca fait trois semaines que nous sommes au Japon et nous avons a peine quitte la region de Tokyo.
Nous avons passe une petite semaine eprouvante dans la capitale. Tokyo est une de ces villes qui vous vide rapidement du peu d'energie qu'il vous reste. Arriver a moitie malade n'a surement pas aide.
Toujours est il que notre epuisement a ete l'excuse parfaite pour passer quelques jours paresseux chez Soness puis chez Darryl, tous deux rencontres par Couchsurfing.
Soness est americaine, elle vit au Japon depuis 8 ans et, bien qu'ayant commence sa vie ici comme prof d'anglais, elle est maintenant officiellement actrice et chanteuse. Comme si loin de chez soi on pouvait realiser ses reves d'enfant.
Elle vit a Chigasaki, un paradis pour surfeurs, une petite ville tranquille a une heure de Tokyo ou tout le monde se ballade avec des planches de surf accrochees a son velo, et de la plage de laquelle on peut parfois voir le Mont Fuji.
Darryl est canadien. Il est prof d'anglais ici depuis quatre ans. Il habite a Heda sur la peninsule d'Izu. Imaginez un village de pecheurs, des vieilles maisons de bois survivant sous les pentes abruptes de collines coucertes d'une foret dense, des orangeraies, des bateaux minuscules... ajoutez un peu d'architecture contemporaine, deux ecoles surdimensionnes des annes 60 et vous y etes. La peninsule d'Izu est splendide. Fuji San est encore plus proche que depuis Chigasaki.
Chris, qui nous heberge a Ashikaga, est americain et prof d'anglais depuis quatre mois.
A part durant notre tout premier jour au Japon, nous n'avons rencontre presque que des etrangers.
Et c'est par eux que nous commencons a nous faire une idee du pays meme si, bien sur, j'avais deja tous mes souvenirs d'enfance et toutes les images bizarres et fascinantes que le Japon projette a l'etranger.
Pour nous, simples touristes, tout est rose. Chaque jour nous sommes confrontes a la gentillesse de passants, de parfaits inconnus. Parfois, bien sur, quelque chose grince un peu vaguement quelque part. Des hommes qui hesitent avant de me serrer la main, en dernier, une jeune fille qui passe de politesse souriante a manque total d'empathie des qu'elle a fini de faire son devoir, des passants qui ne s'excusent pas apres vous etre rentre dedans...
Pas grand chose, juste assez pour casser le miroir lisse d'une politesse omnipresente.
Mais bien sur, quand on discute avec les etrangers qui vivent ici on devine une aute realite. Soness, Darryl et Chris ont coisi de vivre au Japon, et tous les trois y sont heureux, mais aucun d'eux ne vit vraiment dans la societe japonaise. Leurs meilleurs amis sont toujours etrangers.
La plupart de leurs amities japonaises sont entachees du soupcon qu'elles ne soient dues qu'a l'atrait de cours d'anglais gratuits.
La phrase "ce n'est pas etonnant quand on pense qu'il y a moins de deux siecles le Japon etait totalement ferme au monde exterieur" revient souvent dans les conversations.
Il est facile ici de parler de racisme, du droit des femmes, de l'education brutale des enfants. Tout comme il est facile de s'emerveiller de la creativite de ces memes enfants a l'ecole, de 'esprit de corps, de la production artistique, de l'inventivite japonaise.
Un tour dans le musee national a Tokyo, pour un oeil europeen non entraine, montre 2000 ans d'histoire, de production artistique homogene. Bien sur n'importe quel specialiste de l'Orient verrait immediatement la difference entre deux sabres ou deux theieres produits a 400 ans d'intervale. Pa nous. Le style est different mais pas la technique. L'histoire de la production artistique europeenne par comparaison est brouilonne et compliquee, pleine de rebondissements et de retours en arriere.
C'est la premiere fois que je suis dans un pays que je ne comprends pas. Dont j'ai l'impression que je ne comprendrai jamais les habitants.
Meme si Anton, un finlandais rencontre chez Soness m'a murumure en reponse: "au bout du compte, les gens sont toujours des gens...".
Chigasaki et Enoshima
Kamakura
Heda
Nous avons passe une petite semaine eprouvante dans la capitale. Tokyo est une de ces villes qui vous vide rapidement du peu d'energie qu'il vous reste. Arriver a moitie malade n'a surement pas aide.
Toujours est il que notre epuisement a ete l'excuse parfaite pour passer quelques jours paresseux chez Soness puis chez Darryl, tous deux rencontres par Couchsurfing.
Soness est americaine, elle vit au Japon depuis 8 ans et, bien qu'ayant commence sa vie ici comme prof d'anglais, elle est maintenant officiellement actrice et chanteuse. Comme si loin de chez soi on pouvait realiser ses reves d'enfant. Elle vit a Chigasaki, un paradis pour surfeurs, une petite ville tranquille a une heure de Tokyo ou tout le monde se ballade avec des planches de surf accrochees a son velo, et de la plage de laquelle on peut parfois voir le Mont Fuji.
Darryl est canadien. Il est prof d'anglais ici depuis quatre ans. Il habite a Heda sur la peninsule d'Izu. Imaginez un village de pecheurs, des vieilles maisons de bois survivant sous les pentes abruptes de collines coucertes d'une foret dense, des orangeraies, des bateaux minuscules... ajoutez un peu d'architecture contemporaine, deux ecoles surdimensionnes des annes 60 et vous y etes. La peninsule d'Izu est splendide. Fuji San est encore plus proche que depuis Chigasaki.
Chris, qui nous heberge a Ashikaga, est americain et prof d'anglais depuis quatre mois.
A part durant notre tout premier jour au Japon, nous n'avons rencontre presque que des etrangers.
Et c'est par eux que nous commencons a nous faire une idee du pays meme si, bien sur, j'avais deja tous mes souvenirs d'enfance et toutes les images bizarres et fascinantes que le Japon projette a l'etranger.
Pour nous, simples touristes, tout est rose. Chaque jour nous sommes confrontes a la gentillesse de passants, de parfaits inconnus. Parfois, bien sur, quelque chose grince un peu vaguement quelque part. Des hommes qui hesitent avant de me serrer la main, en dernier, une jeune fille qui passe de politesse souriante a manque total d'empathie des qu'elle a fini de faire son devoir, des passants qui ne s'excusent pas apres vous etre rentre dedans...
Pas grand chose, juste assez pour casser le miroir lisse d'une politesse omnipresente.
Mais bien sur, quand on discute avec les etrangers qui vivent ici on devine une aute realite. Soness, Darryl et Chris ont coisi de vivre au Japon, et tous les trois y sont heureux, mais aucun d'eux ne vit vraiment dans la societe japonaise. Leurs meilleurs amis sont toujours etrangers.
La plupart de leurs amities japonaises sont entachees du soupcon qu'elles ne soient dues qu'a l'atrait de cours d'anglais gratuits.
La phrase "ce n'est pas etonnant quand on pense qu'il y a moins de deux siecles le Japon etait totalement ferme au monde exterieur" revient souvent dans les conversations.
Il est facile ici de parler de racisme, du droit des femmes, de l'education brutale des enfants. Tout comme il est facile de s'emerveiller de la creativite de ces memes enfants a l'ecole, de 'esprit de corps, de la production artistique, de l'inventivite japonaise.
Un tour dans le musee national a Tokyo, pour un oeil europeen non entraine, montre 2000 ans d'histoire, de production artistique homogene. Bien sur n'importe quel specialiste de l'Orient verrait immediatement la difference entre deux sabres ou deux theieres produits a 400 ans d'intervale. Pa nous. Le style est different mais pas la technique. L'histoire de la production artistique europeenne par comparaison est brouilonne et compliquee, pleine de rebondissements et de retours en arriere.
C'est la premiere fois que je suis dans un pays que je ne comprends pas. Dont j'ai l'impression que je ne comprendrai jamais les habitants.
Meme si Anton, un finlandais rencontre chez Soness m'a murumure en reponse: "au bout du compte, les gens sont toujours des gens...".
Chigasaki et Enoshima
Kamakura
Heda
Saturday, September 03, 2005
From Tokyo
We are sitting in a rather trendy Internet Cafe joint in the Shibuyu district of Tokyo, trying to download photos and sort out CDs and what not. No more free internet in the apple store - it is a bit of a killer as you have to stand while typing... nevermind.
Anyway, Solene is downloading our photos and crashing computers while she is at it and trying to explain to the assistant why the machine is crashing. Of course nobody speaks english here, let alone French, so there is an awful lot of Polite nodding going on. I will keep you informed.
Sitting in the common room of the New Azuma Hotel last night, swapping tales with various travellers.(somebody has arrived speaking english to Solene - it appears that ctrl-alt-del function might do something different on a Japanese Keyboards - I am sure he speaks english - I am not sure he knows what he is doing) the freshly arrived travellers in Japan just newly embarked on new travels were shocked at the traffic and aggressive Taxi Drivers. Unfortunately I couldn`t hold myself back - it was `You should have been in Tbilisi` before I could stop myself and then I embarked on our lengthy travel stories centred on crazy Turkish truckers and Georgian `Taxis`...
I already fear for the attention span of potential Grandchildren, let alone immediate friends and family. I am already boring the pants of total strangers. And Solene. She has heard it all before, at least ten times, heard all the theories, all the jokes, so much so that there was a soft cough from the other side of the common room which rescued many holiday makers from certain slide show type boredom. I am already an old fart. I belong at the end of the Bar in some country pub. C`mere `til I tell you about Japan. Pass that Pint.
I suppose my need to tell everyone I meet about our travels and adventures is a reaction of sorts.....5 months is a long time on the road, especially when you are moving practically every second day. There is a lot to take in and a lot to absorb. Yet you dont ever get the opportunity to absorb and reflect. That is, we thought, unless you have a friend or refuge in the corner of the world that can offer you a darkened room and a cup of Barrys Tea (thanks to all of them - too many already to nention in a pair of brackets). Unfortunately our hosts around the world are wonderful people and refuse to neglect us in anyway, and thus ply us with local liquor, points of view, food and introduce us to even more friends and leave us with yet more to absorb.
In fairness whole days have been spent in darkened rooms, but only to recover from Vodka hangovers and general excesses of hospitlality.
SO I suppose we are complaining - well at least I am - that we need a holiday from this travelling in order to make sense of it all - or at least to download the last 1.5gb of photos and to try and catch up on all the blanks in my journal (SOlene has left for some other machine with the assistant and interpreter - I am afraid that story ends here) - remembering names of people and places from three countries ago, sequence of events and overall impressions and to just get it down and absorb it somehow. A year on the road is a gluttony of sorts, and is bound to lead to indigestion, or worse lack of appreciation.
On the other hand I have realised that taking a tour like this has numerous benfits, in that you can travel relatively slowly yet cover much more ground than you would in a three week holiday, get places that you wouldnt consider going, meet a lot more ordinary people and not just those on the tourist trail. It is like 12 years of holidays in one trip. Also you can compare all the countries with their prior neighbour -
In fact I am not sure that I can do a decent comparison anymore between Ireland or Netherlands or even the UK with any of the countries we have been in the last 5 months. The country that lives on in your RAM is the previously visited country. And besides, it is two years since I arrived in the UK and it 4 years this month I left Ireland for the Netherlands. It seems like an age and no time at all. But I am sure they have all changed. But these 5 months seem timeless - endless and full. The difficulty is that you begin to wonder if you actually appreciate all of this.
I was talking to a fellow traveller about this last night, and i think that the interest in the museums and sights and `special` things wane after three months of touring. You feel like you can be more selective and you know what you will enjoy visiting or seeing.
But what gets more and more interesting and even fascinating is meeting the people in and from a place. Fortunately everywhere we have been so far we have been lucky enough to be able to stay with people from or living in the country or region. It really is the best part of the travelling. I suppose it is a bit like reading Marco Polo or any of the earlier travellers who had no choice but to stay with the locals in the locals house or hut or Yurt or whatever. There was just travelling, no tourism at all.
Solene was reading me an article in a Japanese english language magazine, about tourism in Indonesia, where the effect of tourism on local society has been taken to a new level. There, tourists are clamouring to go to see cremation ceremonies. there are stories abound of so many Japanese, European and Australian tourists clamouring around the pyre to get a look and a sniff that the locals from the village and presumably personally connected to the deceased cant get near the pyre.
The Tourist Board have tried to do recreations, but admit that they cant get the atmosphere and particularly the smell right.
What does it smell like?
A damn good barbeque apparently.
I remember bus tours of Belfast for tourists who wanted to see all the different areas from the Troubles.....that was just a bit macabre, but you can understand and even appreciate peoples curiosity in that case....But a funeral?
My Great Uncle Willie Doyle back-packed around Europe at the end of the second World War. I suppose that maybe regarded as macabre too. I am sure after nearly 6 years of listening to war reports on the Radio, off the coast of everywhere else, I would want to go and see what had happened. I don`t know if he kept a journal, photos or anything. But I do know that he spent the next 30 years trying to get Ireland into the EU as a Senior Officer in the Ministry of Finance...
Good job too.
Gianluca, an Italian Photo Journalist we met in Tbilisi had a nice toast -
"If life is a journey, then travelling is living twice."
Sayonara from Tokyo for tonight -
Anyway, Solene is downloading our photos and crashing computers while she is at it and trying to explain to the assistant why the machine is crashing. Of course nobody speaks english here, let alone French, so there is an awful lot of Polite nodding going on. I will keep you informed.
Sitting in the common room of the New Azuma Hotel last night, swapping tales with various travellers.(somebody has arrived speaking english to Solene - it appears that ctrl-alt-del function might do something different on a Japanese Keyboards - I am sure he speaks english - I am not sure he knows what he is doing) the freshly arrived travellers in Japan just newly embarked on new travels were shocked at the traffic and aggressive Taxi Drivers. Unfortunately I couldn`t hold myself back - it was `You should have been in Tbilisi` before I could stop myself and then I embarked on our lengthy travel stories centred on crazy Turkish truckers and Georgian `Taxis`...
I already fear for the attention span of potential Grandchildren, let alone immediate friends and family. I am already boring the pants of total strangers. And Solene. She has heard it all before, at least ten times, heard all the theories, all the jokes, so much so that there was a soft cough from the other side of the common room which rescued many holiday makers from certain slide show type boredom. I am already an old fart. I belong at the end of the Bar in some country pub. C`mere `til I tell you about Japan. Pass that Pint.
I suppose my need to tell everyone I meet about our travels and adventures is a reaction of sorts.....5 months is a long time on the road, especially when you are moving practically every second day. There is a lot to take in and a lot to absorb. Yet you dont ever get the opportunity to absorb and reflect. That is, we thought, unless you have a friend or refuge in the corner of the world that can offer you a darkened room and a cup of Barrys Tea (thanks to all of them - too many already to nention in a pair of brackets). Unfortunately our hosts around the world are wonderful people and refuse to neglect us in anyway, and thus ply us with local liquor, points of view, food and introduce us to even more friends and leave us with yet more to absorb.
In fairness whole days have been spent in darkened rooms, but only to recover from Vodka hangovers and general excesses of hospitlality.
SO I suppose we are complaining - well at least I am - that we need a holiday from this travelling in order to make sense of it all - or at least to download the last 1.5gb of photos and to try and catch up on all the blanks in my journal (SOlene has left for some other machine with the assistant and interpreter - I am afraid that story ends here) - remembering names of people and places from three countries ago, sequence of events and overall impressions and to just get it down and absorb it somehow. A year on the road is a gluttony of sorts, and is bound to lead to indigestion, or worse lack of appreciation.
On the other hand I have realised that taking a tour like this has numerous benfits, in that you can travel relatively slowly yet cover much more ground than you would in a three week holiday, get places that you wouldnt consider going, meet a lot more ordinary people and not just those on the tourist trail. It is like 12 years of holidays in one trip. Also you can compare all the countries with their prior neighbour -
In fact I am not sure that I can do a decent comparison anymore between Ireland or Netherlands or even the UK with any of the countries we have been in the last 5 months. The country that lives on in your RAM is the previously visited country. And besides, it is two years since I arrived in the UK and it 4 years this month I left Ireland for the Netherlands. It seems like an age and no time at all. But I am sure they have all changed. But these 5 months seem timeless - endless and full. The difficulty is that you begin to wonder if you actually appreciate all of this.
I was talking to a fellow traveller about this last night, and i think that the interest in the museums and sights and `special` things wane after three months of touring. You feel like you can be more selective and you know what you will enjoy visiting or seeing.
But what gets more and more interesting and even fascinating is meeting the people in and from a place. Fortunately everywhere we have been so far we have been lucky enough to be able to stay with people from or living in the country or region. It really is the best part of the travelling. I suppose it is a bit like reading Marco Polo or any of the earlier travellers who had no choice but to stay with the locals in the locals house or hut or Yurt or whatever. There was just travelling, no tourism at all.
Solene was reading me an article in a Japanese english language magazine, about tourism in Indonesia, where the effect of tourism on local society has been taken to a new level. There, tourists are clamouring to go to see cremation ceremonies. there are stories abound of so many Japanese, European and Australian tourists clamouring around the pyre to get a look and a sniff that the locals from the village and presumably personally connected to the deceased cant get near the pyre.
The Tourist Board have tried to do recreations, but admit that they cant get the atmosphere and particularly the smell right.
What does it smell like?
A damn good barbeque apparently.
I remember bus tours of Belfast for tourists who wanted to see all the different areas from the Troubles.....that was just a bit macabre, but you can understand and even appreciate peoples curiosity in that case....But a funeral?
My Great Uncle Willie Doyle back-packed around Europe at the end of the second World War. I suppose that maybe regarded as macabre too. I am sure after nearly 6 years of listening to war reports on the Radio, off the coast of everywhere else, I would want to go and see what had happened. I don`t know if he kept a journal, photos or anything. But I do know that he spent the next 30 years trying to get Ireland into the EU as a Senior Officer in the Ministry of Finance...
Good job too.
Gianluca, an Italian Photo Journalist we met in Tbilisi had a nice toast -
"If life is a journey, then travelling is living twice."
Sayonara from Tokyo for tonight -
Thursday, September 01, 2005
Photos from St. Petersburg, Moscow to Irkutsk
Tokyo
Quelques lignes depuis l'un des endroits les plus branches de la planete...
Se retrouver au Japon apres deux jours sur un bateau russe fait un choc. Mais pas aussi grand que je m'y attendais.
En fait, je suppose que nous connaissons tous le Japon, d'un sens. Que l'on y ait vecu ou non. Nous en voyons des images constamments, dans des films, des publicites, les mangas...
Cet imaginaire collectif est probablement plus implante en moi maintenant que mes souvenirs d'enfance.
Mais je ne m'attendais pas a ce qu'il y a de plus visiblie ici, cet aspect immacule de toutes choses. La campagne entre Fushiki et Toyama etait decoupee en petites rizieres parfaites, toutes lourdes de riz pret a etre moissonne., Les maisons etaient aussi belles que sur des cartes postales, les routes toutes comme neuve (apres la Russie et le Caucase, vous parlez d'un depaysement...).
Nous avons fait du stop entre Fushiki et Tokyo. Il nous a fallu une heure et demie pour etre pris la premiere fois, mais notre deuxieme chauffeur est arrive en moins de dix minutes. Et la, tres vite, nous avons ete confrontes a la gentillesse extraordinaire des japonais. Entre un monsieur rencontre sur le bateau qui voulait nous preter 10000 yens chacun, un homme qui, apres nous avoir parle 5 minutes, a laisse 400 yens sur notre table "pour acheter a boire", notre second chauffeur qui nous a nouri, nous a offert des boissons, et a fait un detour par le centre ville de Tokyo rien que pour nous a minuit passe...
Tous ces pays ou des etrangers vous offrent leur hospitalite, leur temps, leur argent, leur sourire sans rien attendre en retour me font trouver l'Europe de l'Ouest bien mesquine et refermee sur elle meme. Le reste du monde, au jour le jour, est genereux. Pas nous.
Se retrouver au Japon apres deux jours sur un bateau russe fait un choc. Mais pas aussi grand que je m'y attendais.
En fait, je suppose que nous connaissons tous le Japon, d'un sens. Que l'on y ait vecu ou non. Nous en voyons des images constamments, dans des films, des publicites, les mangas...
Cet imaginaire collectif est probablement plus implante en moi maintenant que mes souvenirs d'enfance.
Mais je ne m'attendais pas a ce qu'il y a de plus visiblie ici, cet aspect immacule de toutes choses. La campagne entre Fushiki et Toyama etait decoupee en petites rizieres parfaites, toutes lourdes de riz pret a etre moissonne., Les maisons etaient aussi belles que sur des cartes postales, les routes toutes comme neuve (apres la Russie et le Caucase, vous parlez d'un depaysement...).
Nous avons fait du stop entre Fushiki et Tokyo. Il nous a fallu une heure et demie pour etre pris la premiere fois, mais notre deuxieme chauffeur est arrive en moins de dix minutes. Et la, tres vite, nous avons ete confrontes a la gentillesse extraordinaire des japonais. Entre un monsieur rencontre sur le bateau qui voulait nous preter 10000 yens chacun, un homme qui, apres nous avoir parle 5 minutes, a laisse 400 yens sur notre table "pour acheter a boire", notre second chauffeur qui nous a nouri, nous a offert des boissons, et a fait un detour par le centre ville de Tokyo rien que pour nous a minuit passe...
Tous ces pays ou des etrangers vous offrent leur hospitalite, leur temps, leur argent, leur sourire sans rien attendre en retour me font trouver l'Europe de l'Ouest bien mesquine et refermee sur elle meme. Le reste du monde, au jour le jour, est genereux. Pas nous.
Tokyo, Ginza District, Apple Shop
Taking advantage of Apple`s free internet in their amazing store in Tokyo.
Madness! we managed to hitch from Toyama to Tokyo yesterday after finally disembarking from the MV Rus chock full of Russian Car buyers. Unfortuntely we ended up in Tokyo way too late (1am), and even the parks were closed - so no where to pitch a tent! So we kipped in someones front garden in the Shibuya district. Didnt pitch the tent though - it was roasting.
We also had ship lag, as Japan is two hours behind Vladivostok, somehow, despite being further east....
I suppose it is a bit like kipping overnight in the front garden of a house in Aylesbury Road, except much safer!
Anyway we have accomodation now....
Certainly most things bar the train is on a par price wise with the UK and Ireland. We are seeing if we can swing a 43 euro a day budget between us. We managed ok until now except in Greece and Italy - it is going to be a challenge now though!
Hitching was brilliant. It took an age to actually get onto the main Highways but after that two lifts saw us the 450 km to Tokyo - the last guy was actually going to Yokohama and went 100k out of his way to drop us in the centre of Tokyo. Unbelievable.
We met up with Solene`s sister Perrine today and had a really relaxed time just looking around. Tokyo is an amazing place, especiall cliched as it is, for us architects. Everything we have seen is brilliantly designed, brilliantly detailed and brilliantly built.
Perhaps it was just to long in the Taiga and Permafrost fo Siberia, but I dont think so.
It is forecast to rain for the next two days or so we are hopeful to post a few more em..posts... about Russia et al.
Oh, and the continuing mystery of the spread of Dunnes Stores shopping bags....
Madness! we managed to hitch from Toyama to Tokyo yesterday after finally disembarking from the MV Rus chock full of Russian Car buyers. Unfortuntely we ended up in Tokyo way too late (1am), and even the parks were closed - so no where to pitch a tent! So we kipped in someones front garden in the Shibuya district. Didnt pitch the tent though - it was roasting.
We also had ship lag, as Japan is two hours behind Vladivostok, somehow, despite being further east....
I suppose it is a bit like kipping overnight in the front garden of a house in Aylesbury Road, except much safer!
Anyway we have accomodation now....
Certainly most things bar the train is on a par price wise with the UK and Ireland. We are seeing if we can swing a 43 euro a day budget between us. We managed ok until now except in Greece and Italy - it is going to be a challenge now though!
Hitching was brilliant. It took an age to actually get onto the main Highways but after that two lifts saw us the 450 km to Tokyo - the last guy was actually going to Yokohama and went 100k out of his way to drop us in the centre of Tokyo. Unbelievable.
We met up with Solene`s sister Perrine today and had a really relaxed time just looking around. Tokyo is an amazing place, especiall cliched as it is, for us architects. Everything we have seen is brilliantly designed, brilliantly detailed and brilliantly built.
Perhaps it was just to long in the Taiga and Permafrost fo Siberia, but I dont think so.
It is forecast to rain for the next two days or so we are hopeful to post a few more em..posts... about Russia et al.
Oh, and the continuing mystery of the spread of Dunnes Stores shopping bags....
the other side of the world
(copy of a group email...)
we arrived there in the end, far far far away.
Valdivostok.
It does exist!
In a few days we will be in a boat to Japan, not quite ready maybe to deal with the shock of a so different culture.
Travelling in Russia is like going constantly from one extreme to the other, from ugliness to beauty, aggressivity to amazing generosity...
It is a country I came to love in a few hours in a train being offered shot of vodka after shot of vodka while a marvellous lanscape of forests and marshes dotted with timber houses passed by. Endlessly it seemed.
It is also a country where I was afraid of policemen for the first time of my life. Or where getting a smile from anybody behind a counter can seem to be a victory. We are getting good at this sport.
We can't say that we know Russia after just a month in it. It is way to huge for it.
I just know I would like to come back to the East, to Siberia and to the Pacific coast, for the landscape and the amazing people you can meet there.
But probably I will go back to Moscow as well because Ksenia and Alexandra were like gardian angels for us, helping us finding places to stay as far as here (thank you Ksenia!!!), and that we didn't spend enough time with them in a way. Moscow is so complex that we need Moscow people to explain it to us.
From now on we will be heading South, mostly. The US are tempting, so close when you are in Eastern Russia (just look at a map!), but we will save them for another time.
