tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5387053094913929642024-03-14T00:09:28.390+01:00Where Worlds Meet- Your Source of Insightful OpinionsMartinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00321275969724273640noreply@blogger.comBlogger40125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-538705309491392964.post-20232311791720206412014-11-16T15:38:00.000+01:002015-02-04T00:53:51.606+01:00Love Is in the Air: Vladimir Putin, the World's Greenest Politician?<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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As this post is being written, many eyes are still pointing in disbelief at the US-China deal on climate change that presidents Barack Obama and Xi Jinping closed on November 12. In the deal, Mr. Xi promised that his country's GHG emissions would "<a href="http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2014/11/12/world/asia/climate-goals-pledged-by-us-and-china-2.html">peak around 2030</a>," while Mr. Obama pledged a 26-28 percent cut in US GHG emissions by 2025 from their 2005 levels. Let us not discuss whether the deal will suffice to stop global warming at 2 degrees Celsius from pre-industrial levels, or whether it will even take off <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2014/nov/12/how-republican-led-congress-could-kill-climate-change-deal">before being killed</a> by the recently emboldened Republican congress. Instead, let us focus on what - or who - made this deal possible. And I am not talking about Mr. Obama and his famed diplomatic skills, or Mr. Xi and his vision. Rather, I am talking about the benevolent monarch-turned-green-activist that is Vladimir Putin, who is merely showing to us all how much he loves our planet. And love, as Mr. Putin put it on November 7, <a href="http://rt.com/news/203339-putin-love-meaning-life/">is the meaning of life</a>. </div>
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<tr><td><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiORTfipAWNoQqu06Lgyzdmi5yHG35k6oEvOMmWkBGefnCvStDpb9frpPH7Cx2vB8QrTWOtHqjFkxIE7cSr0qQB36usU2wjcUTNdJF2RIRSdKDoW9aokt3ROnrwpGhKgakxhrCwhBiXmiE/s1600/Putin+Love2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiORTfipAWNoQqu06Lgyzdmi5yHG35k6oEvOMmWkBGefnCvStDpb9frpPH7Cx2vB8QrTWOtHqjFkxIE7cSr0qQB36usU2wjcUTNdJF2RIRSdKDoW9aokt3ROnrwpGhKgakxhrCwhBiXmiE/s1600/Putin+Love2.jpg" height="219" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Vladimir Putin declaring his love for the Earth. Source: Author.</span></td></tr>
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Yes, this is (almost) not a joke. Vladimir Putin, Russia's president, is in fact the man pulling the strings behind the US-China deal. To see why, let us dig deeper into recent events. After his annexation of Crimea this March, Vladimir Putin has found himself in a difficult economic situation due to the sanctions (however feeble) initiated by the United States and their mostly European allies. To increase his cash-flow and decrease his dependence on gas exports to malicious Europe, Mr. Putin <a href="http://rt.com/business/203679-china-russia-gas-deal/">signed a deal</a> with China this May to supply it with 38 billion cubic meters of natural gas a year. On November 9 (two days after declaring love to be the meaning of life), he signed <a href="http://rt.com/business/203679-china-russia-gas-deal/">another deal</a> for a further 30 billion cubic meters per year. Together, these two deals amount to <a href="http://www.bloombergview.com/articles/2014-11-14/new-chinarussia-gas-pact-is-no-big-deal">nearly half</a> of Russia's yearly gas exports to the EU.</div>
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This new, enormous supply of gas gives China a unique opportunity to decrease its colossal dependence on coal: China generates around 80% of its electricity using coal and, together with India, adds <a href="http://martintengler.blogspot.co.uk/2014/03/the-carbon-crunch-book-review.html">three new coal-fired power plants</a> every week to its grid to satisfy its rapidly rising energy demand. From an environmental point of view, coal is <a href="http://martintengler.blogspot.co.uk/2014/05/why-coal-is-worse-than-nuclear.html">by far the worst fuel we have</a>. Burning it not only releases copious amounts of dust, sulphur, and other nasty chemicals, but also 25% more greenhouse gases than burning gasoline and <a href="http://srren.ipcc-wg3.de/report/IPCC_SRREN_Annex_II.pdf">twice as many</a> greenhouse gases as burning natural gas. </div>
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And here is where Mr. Putin's gas deal comes in: the 68 billion cubic meters of gas from Russia will displace the burning of coal in China - and a lot of it at that. It will enable China to displace between 150 and 180 million metric tons (Mt) of CO2 equivalent greenhouse gases (CO2e) per year. That is because in order to produce the same amount of electricity that the burning of the Russian gas can produce, China would need to burn coal that would release some 300 Mt CO2e annually. Burning the 68 billion cubic meters of Russian gas instead will release only between 120 and 150 Mt CO2e per year. To put things into perspective, <a href="http://www.eea.europa.eu/data-and-maps/indicators/greenhouse-gas-emission-trends-5/assessment">it took the EU four years</a> between 2009 and 2012 to achieve a reduction of this scale in its greenhouse gas emissions as part of its famed ETS.</div>
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<tr><td><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh5uzDEOblTHRchZrooaDRNk0KyJMOGGEdTMGPRUMXrC0tlNBxQB6WRzcKwpEk8TMKOkYxtJlvyXX_To8L97oYUajy9qalzdZIwuPnZ48g2yZz7yK5EcV3iRicFxu5EaRXWn-6XSwePwLk/s1600/russia-gas-deal.si.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh5uzDEOblTHRchZrooaDRNk0KyJMOGGEdTMGPRUMXrC0tlNBxQB6WRzcKwpEk8TMKOkYxtJlvyXX_To8L97oYUajy9qalzdZIwuPnZ48g2yZz7yK5EcV3iRicFxu5EaRXWn-6XSwePwLk/s1600/russia-gas-deal.si.jpg" height="179" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping after signing their second mega deal on gas. Source: <a href="http://rt.com/business/203679-china-russia-gas-deal/">Russia Today</a>.</span></td></tr>
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Now back to the US-China deal. China would not agree to a deal if it did not believe that it can stop its emissions from rising by 2030 without incurring additional costs. It would not believe that it can stop its emissions from rising by 2030 if it did not have access to large amounts of cleaner sources of energy (together with an economy that is expected to peak at around 2030 as well, of course). Russian gas is, at least in part, just the assurance that China needed to agree to a deal with the US.</div>
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Let us now summarize. On November 7, Mr. Putin declared love to be the meaning of life. To put his words into action, he showed his love for our planet on November 9 by signing a huge gas deal with China, which allows China to slow down the rise in its greenhouse gas emissions. This in turn helped give China the confidence to agree on a climate deal with the US on November 12. Oh, love is in the air, and all thanks to Mr. Putin, the humble, benevolent monarch-turned-green-activist. A few more Crimean crises and the problem of global warming will be all but over. And Moscow will be the capital of Europe.<br />
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Martinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00321275969724273640noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-538705309491392964.post-56031295514456908762014-08-24T15:34:00.002+02:002014-08-26T19:12:02.413+02:00Cutting Emissions in India: A Look at the Construction Sector<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
From the first week of August until the last week of September, I was given the opportunity to work as an intern for the <a href="http://www.wri.org/">World Resources Institute</a> (WRI), a Washington DC-based think tank, on a greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions reduction program in Mumbai, India. WRI is an organization whose mission is "to move human society to live in ways that protect Earth’s environment and its capacity to provide for the needs and aspirations of current and future generations". WRI has six main focus points: climate, energy, food, forests, water, and cities and transport. It works through various programs and initiatives in the areas of business, finance and governance.<br />
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One such initiative, aimed at the business side of things in the climate and energy areas, is the <a href="http://indiaghgp.org/">India GHG Program</a>, a voluntary framework for businesses to measure and manage their greenhouse gas emissions. The reader may ask: why would businesses, keen on maximizing their profits, want to put up with the cost of measuring, not to mention managing or reducing, their GHG emissions? The idea is simple: it is often in the businesses' interest. As notes Greg FitzGerald of Carbon Analytics, an Oxford-based technology venture, cutting emissions often leads to cost reduction, efficiency improvements, risk reduction (particularly in jurisdictions where legal GHG-reduction targets are expected), and brand and reputation improvement as a business that cares about more than just short-term profit.<br />
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In India, a developing country whose GDP has grown 7.5% per year on average in the last decade, a large source of GHG emissions is the construction sector. From now until 2025, <a href="http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/india-to-be-worlds-3rd-largest-construction-mkt-by-2025/articleshow/20856489.cms">11.5 million homes</a> are expected to be built in India every year, excluding office buildings, infrastructure and other construction. These buildings will emit greenhouse gases in three phases: during their construction, use and disposal. While many buildings today are built so as to minimize their in-use emissions by reducing their energy consumption, not so many are built with the idea of minimizing the GHGs emitted during their construction. That is despite the fact that embedded emissions <a href="http://siteresources.worldbank.org/FINANCIALSECTOR/Resources/Low_Cost_Green_Housing_Project_Report.pdf">comprise between 32 and 60%</a> of a building's total GHG emissions over a 20 year cycle, mainly from the production of cement, steel, glass, bricks and timber.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Mumbai's all new sea bridge in the front and Mumbai's all new skyline in the back. Zoom into the picture and see the cranes everywhere. The Indian construction boom is certainly real in Mumbai. Source: Author.</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjXZvqMI-NHVUT_xlbW2FNAc-I0Zy2z1j-FL_7PykuxOS4qf8UwVuYyOGi0Ko88He_H6lu87wsdcQjzabiOCi37I-WohSD0_fx9_MUnYw-MpU593rgH3NyEhz-1myabsU58Ypfml0peMjo/s1600/P1060440.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjXZvqMI-NHVUT_xlbW2FNAc-I0Zy2z1j-FL_7PykuxOS4qf8UwVuYyOGi0Ko88He_H6lu87wsdcQjzabiOCi37I-WohSD0_fx9_MUnYw-MpU593rgH3NyEhz-1myabsU58Ypfml0peMjo/s1600/P1060440.JPG" height="240" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">However, the construction boom is happening not just in cities. For example, see this set of apartment complexes being built near Asangaon, a village about 70km north-east of Mumbai. I wonder who will live in them: certainly not the villagers, who would not be able to afford it. Maybe we have a new bubble in the making? Source: Author.</td></tr>
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As a result, millions and millions of tons of GHGs will be emitted every year as part of India's construction boom. Assuming that there are inefficiencies in the construction process, countless tons of GHG emissions can be prevented. My job is to identify these inefficiencies and work to minimize them with some of India's largest construction companies. </div>
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This work will involve three broad steps. First, we need to find out who are the suppliers of key materials (cement, steel, glass, bricks and timber) to our construction company. Second, by working together with these suppliers, we need to gather precise data on their emissions using the <a href="http://www.ghgprotocol.org/calculation-tools">GHG accounting tools</a> developed by WRI and adjusted for Indian circumstances. Finally, we will develop a tool to analyze the data in order to identify inefficiencies and offer suggestions for improvement.</div>
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Of course if we are to reverse, stop or significantly slow down global warming while maintaining or improving our standard of living, reducing emissions from construction is only a drop in the sea. Reducing our <a href="http://martintengler.blogspot.co.uk/2014/03/the-carbon-crunch-book-review.html">dependency on coal</a>, <a href="http://www.economist.com/news/international/21613327-new-ideas-what-speeds-up-deforestation-and-what-slows-it-down-clearing-trees">stopping deforestation</a>, <a href="https://www.ted.com/talks/allan_savory_how_to_green_the_world_s_deserts_and_reverse_climate_change">reversing desertification</a>, implementing <a href="http://martintengler.blogspot.co.uk/2014/05/energy-empowering-consumer-talk-by-mp.html">smart incentives</a>, improving technology and other initiatives will be required as well. In other words, we will have to focus on the biggest opportunities for GHG emissions reduction--and the Indian construction sector is certainly one of them.</div>
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Martinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00321275969724273640noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-538705309491392964.post-9228513471878210152014-08-06T11:44:00.000+02:002014-08-06T11:44:47.131+02:00Published Article - Activists and Extractive Industries: An Alliance Against Social Development?<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Recently an article that I submitted to the United Nations Institute for Research and Development (UNRISD), was selected as a winner in the Young Scholar Think Piece series (YSTP). You can read the article here: <a href="http://www.unrisd.org/ystp-tengler">http://www.unrisd.org/ystp-tengler</a>.<br />
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Martinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00321275969724273640noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-538705309491392964.post-30414264361022127522014-05-14T12:32:00.000+02:002014-05-14T12:48:27.382+02:00Why Coal is Worse Than NuclearThe anti-nuclear lobby in some countries can be very strong: so strong, in fact, that merely the fear of it taking action can shape a country's domestic politics. Take Germany as an example: although the political attitude towards nuclear power in Germany had been shifting since the first Red-Green government took power in 1998, nuclear power accounted for <a href="http://www.world-nuclear.org/info/country-profiles/countries-g-n/germany/">25% of Germany's electricity</a><a href="http://www.world-nuclear.org/info/country-profiles/countries-g-n/germany/"> generation</a> in 2011. With its very low carbon intensity, nuclear power was to help Germany achieve the strict de-carbonization targets it has set for itself.<br />
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Today, nuclear energy generates only <a href="http://www.world-nuclear.org/info/country-profiles/countries-g-n/germany/">18% of Germany's electricity</a>, and is set to be phased out completely by 2022. Why did this happen? The answer is that Germany made a sudden turn after the March 2011 Fukushima Daiichi accident. Suddenly, all of Germany's political parties agreed that nuclear power generation has no place in the country.<br />
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To be able to withstand the phasing out of its nuclear power generation, Germany had to find a new source of energy. That source is coal, which now <a href="http://www.world-nuclear.org/info/country-profiles/countries-g-n/germany/">accounts for more than half</a> of Germany's electricity generation, compared to 43% in 2011. The share of coal is set to increase even further as more nuclear power plants are turned off.<br />
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For opponents of nuclear in Germany, this is a major victory. The chances that any German citizen dies as a result of a nuclear accident will be wildly diminished. But is the victory really as big as German politicians say? Or, in fact, is it a victory at all?<br />
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Unfortunately for Germany, the phasing out of nuclear in favor of coal is not a victory but an outright loss. The pollution from burning coal and other solid fuels is responsible for <a href="http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs292/en/">4 million worldwide deaths annually</a> according to the World Health Organization (WHO). In addition, compared with any other fossil fuel, and with nuclear, coal is by far the deadliest for its workers. Although there are no accurate figures, BBC estimates that about <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-11533349">12,000 people</a> die every year from coal mining accidents.<br />
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Compared to coal, nuclear power is a much safer option. In the history of nuclear power, only about <a href="http://www.physics.isu.edu/radinf/np-risk.htm">1,000 people died as a result of nuclear power plant meltdowns</a>, or approximately 2 deaths per year on average. Of those, 99% died in Chernobyl (note: in Fukushima, people died from Tsunami and not from the nuclear meltdown). Compare that to the four million and twelve thousand deaths caused by coal every year, and you see that every year coal kills about 2 million times more people than nuclear. From this perspective, every nuclear power plant that replaces a coal power plant <i>saves lives</i>. <a href="http://www.giss.nasa.gov/research/briefs/kharecha_02/">A recent study by NASA</a> quantified this relationship, calculating that nearly 80,000 deaths are prevented annually by nuclear power.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">80,000 deaths every year are prevented by nuclear power. Source: <a href="http://www.giss.nasa.gov/research/briefs/kharecha_02/">NASA</a>.</td></tr>
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So why did German politicians decide to eliminate nuclear power generation, even though the decision in fact <i>kills people</i>? In my opinion, the underlying reason is psychological: people fear what they do not understand. It is like flying on a plane: while it is statistically much less likely to die in a plane crash than in a car accident, most people still fear flying more than driving a car or crossing a road. Nevertheless, when a plane crash occurs, the news is full of it, further instilling the irrational fear of flying in people who are already prone to dreading it.<br />
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The same problem is with nuclear. When a nuclear reactor melts down, like it did in Fukushima, Chernobyl and Three Mile Island (the only three nuclear accidents in history), the media cover the event for months at a time. Simultaneously, when a coal mining accident happens, many media overlook it. Take the example of the coal mining <a href="http://www.aljazeera.com/news/middleeast/2014/05/turkey-mine-blast-death-toll-soars-2014513215846193247.html">accident that occurred in Turkey yesterday night</a> (13 May 2014). Over 200 miners are confirmed dead, and many more are still unaccounted for. Nevertheless, some of the most read newspapers, such as The New York Times, did not even mention the accident.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEitPKIBSbySfpfg3GsCwiXR5n3rXn4xyK9gXE_4z0CabdfsdYtRG_BGIBrS3MSzbSg1rgppDgaQrgoaVWUg3iq-8N6G7tt4GSL5pqjcAmi5emWnWSpbYKu7gpAQxNUAf8Nkq_kGWFwYOT0/s1600/NYT+14-05-2014.PNG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEitPKIBSbySfpfg3GsCwiXR5n3rXn4xyK9gXE_4z0CabdfsdYtRG_BGIBrS3MSzbSg1rgppDgaQrgoaVWUg3iq-8N6G7tt4GSL5pqjcAmi5emWnWSpbYKu7gpAQxNUAf8Nkq_kGWFwYOT0/s1600/NYT+14-05-2014.PNG" height="226" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">NYT did not report on Turkey mine blast (14/05/2014, 09:00)</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEivqqy7YMdnbdlvCqXqDICLFhqjNQUUsKHfVcOdJIN_XbJVfc33iCbT9c1KP_UTuK0Iz4N2Er8RU3tv7BFv38hPG9hdGOS9ixdcU71Su6jq4_wB-od9W-GApai164ItDe9nnV-bFAEiS4Q/s1600/Al-Jazeera+14-05-2014.PNG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEivqqy7YMdnbdlvCqXqDICLFhqjNQUUsKHfVcOdJIN_XbJVfc33iCbT9c1KP_UTuK0Iz4N2Er8RU3tv7BFv38hPG9hdGOS9ixdcU71Su6jq4_wB-od9W-GApai164ItDe9nnV-bFAEiS4Q/s1600/Al-Jazeera+14-05-2014.PNG" height="213" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Al-Jazeera did report on Turkey mine blast (14/05/2014, 09:00)</td></tr>
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So what is the moral of the story? People are irrational creatures who fear the unknown. The media know it and jump at every opportunity to sell a sensational story. Politicians know it, too, and jump at every opportunity that could raise their approval ratings. Therefore we live in a world where newspapers are read that show a distorted picture of reality, politicians are reelected who do not deserve to be, and more people die than need to.<br />
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A savvy reader may ask me: why do you promote nuclear power over renewable energy? Would it not be better for Germany to scrap both nuclear <i>and </i>coal in favor of wind, solar, biomass and other renewable technologies? In an ideal world, it would. However, current renewables have one problem: they are intermittent. Wind does not blow all the time, and the sun only shines so many hours a day. But coal can burn and nuclei can fission at any time of the day. Thus, a second moral of the story: we need a renewable energy source that can follow demand. So, rather than waste your energy on shunning nuclear (or coal), go out there and invent one!<br />
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Disclaimer: this article is in no way meant to promote one media source over another. It merely serves to illustrate the choices that media make every day.<br />
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Martinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00321275969724273640noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-538705309491392964.post-588675087476541702014-05-02T13:36:00.001+02:002014-05-07T12:31:16.999+02:00Energy: Empowering the Consumer? A talk by MP Laura SandysOn May 1st the <a href="http://www.geog.ox.ac.uk/">OUCE</a> hosted a talk by MP <a href="http://telllaura.org.uk/home/">Laura Sandys</a> (Conservative, South Thanet) with an elaborately long title: "From the other end of the telescope: mixed energy generation, plug & play grid - empowered consumers".<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Laura Sandys with me</td></tr>
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In her talk, the MP argued that there is not enough innovation in the UK energy sector. The sector is privatized but behaves like a 1970s public enterprise, she said. There are three main problems with the sector according to her: the system design may not be appropriate for the circumstances, there is lots of systemic waste (with 25-35% average heat loss in UK electricity production), and people do not understand their energy bills, making it difficult for them to make smart decisions.<br />
<br />
She then focused on the third point for the majority of her talk. Many consumers in the UK, she said, do not understand the basic units of energy measurement. Their bills come to them with kilowatts and they do not know what that means in terms of their consumption. How many dishwasher cycles does this represent? How many pizzas? How many hours on TV? In addition, she said, consumers often do not know that turning on their heating during January / February peak hours can cost them six times more per kilowatt than outside of the peak. This lack of information, she said, makes it difficult for consumers to make smart energy-saving decisions.<br />
<br />
In turn, energy companies have a problem ensuring that lights do not go off during peak hours. To do so, they keep large amounts of expensive excess capacity that they only use during the peak. This is in part why peak electricity prices are so so much higher than off-peak prices. At the same time, low-income consumers who spend too much on their electricity bill cannot afford to go out and spend their money in the local economy.<br />
<br />
Sandys offered a solution to this problem: add more marketing experts to energy companies who understand consumers and can communicate with them effectively. They could create solutions such as vouchers that allow them to take 50 pounds off of their energy bill if they go to Pizza Hut during peak hours. This would save money to energy companies money who would not need to run excess capacity and to consumers who would not pay for heating during peak hours. It would also boost the local economy. What is there not to like?<br />
<br />
The reactions from the audience were mixed. Some asked why this has not yet happened it if is such a great idea? Others noted that similar strategies have unsuccessfully been tried in the past. Sandys replied saying that the problem is in the people who are in charge of marketing at big energy companies. New marketing experts should be hired, she said.<br />
<br />
Perhaps Sandys is right and her idea should be tried. But, instead of attempting to change the practices of large energy behemoths, approaching some of the myriad of smaller energy companies, such as <a href="http://www.loco2energy.com/">LoCO2 Energy</a>, might be a better strategy. If these companies find it profitable to engage in such activities, the large ones will no doubt follow suit.<br />
<br />
However, the issue of unschooled consumers that Sandys described seems to have deeper roots. That is, does the UK have an education problem if people do not understand kilowatts? I leave that up for discussion.Martinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00321275969724273640noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-538705309491392964.post-43099130246395998452014-03-29T21:16:00.000+01:002014-08-24T15:00:23.802+02:00The Carbon Crunch: A book review<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Last week <a href="http://www.dieterhelm.co.uk/">Dr. Dieter Helm</a>, a well-respected economist at the University of Oxford, agreed to meet with me regarding my masters thesis. To come prepared to the meeting, I read much of his work, including his most recent book, <a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/The-Carbon-Crunch-Getting-Climate/dp/0300186592">The Carbon Crunch: How We're Getting Climate Change Wrong - and How to Fix it</a>. The book puts a very interesting spin on what we know about climate change mitigation policies and is well worth reading. </span></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 13px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/The-Carbon-Crunch-Getting-Climate/dp/0300186592">The Cover of Dr. Helm's book</a></span><br />
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<a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/The-Carbon-Crunch-Getting-Climate/dp/0300186592"><br /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Dr. Helm's main point is that current policies and technologies are not enough
to keep global warming below 2 degrees C, the threshold that most scientists agree would not cause catastrophic climate change. In the first chapters, he sets the scene with the following arguments:</span></div>
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<ol>
<li><span style="text-indent: -0.25in;"><b>Coal is by far the dirtiest fossil fuel </b>we have. Burning it
releases twice as much CO<sub><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: "MS 明朝"; mso-fareast-language: JA; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast;">2</span></sub> as burning natural <b>gas</b>, in addition to other
polluting gases from the NOx and SOx family, as well as small particles. These
cause major air pollution and cause the early deaths of millions of people every year.
Coal mining is also a dangerous business: by far more people die every year
from coal mining than from all nuclear power plant accidents to date combined.</span></li>
<li>Because of its relative safety (compared to coal) and very
low CO<sub><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: "MS 明朝"; mso-fareast-language: JA; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast;">2</span></sub> emissions (compared to all fossil fuels), nuclear power generation is a
good option. However, <b>nuclear is too unpopular </b>and public and
political sentiment about it changes very quickly. This was shown by the sudden
German exit from nuclear after Fukushima, despite previous heavy investment
into nuclear.</li>
<li><b>Current renewables are too intermittent</b> to be a reliable
source of energy. When the wind is not blowing and the sun is not shining
(which can be quite often in Europe, especially in the winter), coal- or
gas-fired power plants need to make up for the gap. The more renewables in the
system, the larger this gap becomes, and the larger the need for coal and
gas. </li>
<li><b>Carbon consumption is the largest problem</b>. Even if the power
and manufacturing sectors in Europe decarbonizes completely (which is
impossible due to the intermittency of renewable energy), Europeans will still
import carbon-heavy goods from other countries, mainly China. China uses coal
for 80% of its power generation and, together with India, adds 3 new coal power
plants every week.</li>
<li>Improving <b>energy efficiency will not help</b> us either, for
three reasons. First Jevon’s Law dictates that as energy efficiency improves,
so does energy consumption. Second, more energy will be consumed worldwide as
living standards in developing countries rise. Millions of people in countries
like China are already buying cars, fridges, and other energy-intensive goods. Finally, at least 3 more billion people will
be added to the world population by 2050, and they will also want to consume
energy.</li>
<li>New fossil fuel discoveries, such as the <a href="http://martintengler.blogspot.cz/2013/07/we-are-children-of-shale-revolution-why.html">shale gas revolution</a>, show that <b>we will not run out of fossil fuels</b> anytime soon. There
is no peak coal, oil or gas in sight. We have plenty of fossil fuels left to
warm the planet catastrophically.</li>
<li>The Kyoto Protocol is not effective enough and <b>there is
going to be no international agreement</b> on climate change that works for at
least for another decade.</li>
<li>The current <b>EU ETS is ineffective</b> because the price of
carbon is too low. The free emissions permit allocation system leaves space for
widespread lobbying.</li>
</ol>
Having set the scene, Dr. Helm recommends the following
actions for climate change mitigation.<br />
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<li>Given that burning coal releases twice as much CO<sub><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: "MS 明朝"; mso-fareast-language: JA; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast;">2</span></sub> per unit
of energy than burning gas, <b>replacing coal with gas</b> would be the best
transition strategy. In fact, it would
cut our CO<sub><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: "MS 明朝"; mso-fareast-language: JA; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast;">2</span></sub> emissions more than using renewables. This is demonstrated by the
fact that in the US, which replaced some of its coal capacity with cheaper
shale gas, CO<sub><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: "MS 明朝"; mso-fareast-language: JA; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast;">2</span></sub> emissions fell down rapidly in the past five years.</li>
<li>We must <b>stop investing in intermittent renewables</b>. They
are not financially feasible and their intermittency means we are still heavily
dependent on fossil fuels. Instead, we should <b>invest into R&D</b> for new
renewable technologies.</li>
<li>Decarbonizing our energy production is not enough—it may
even make things worse as industries move to coal-intensive countries like
China. We must <b>address our consumption</b> as well to truly cut our carbon
emissions.</li>
<li>To cut our consumption, a<b> carbon tax must be implemented</b>,
taxing every good by its carbon content. To keep our exporters competitive, we
will not tax our exports. We will also not tax imports that were taxed for
carbon at home. A carbon tax will give us a fixed price of carbon that we can
control and will remove the current space for lobbying.</li>
<li>The carbon tax has another positive: it will<b> put pressure on
our trading partners</b> to implement their own carbon tax. After all, why should
they leave the tax revenue to us if they can keep it themselves? Thus the
carbon tax will also lead to the creation of a bottom-up carbon pricing regime.</li>
<li><b>The carbon tax will hurt</b>. Consumers will substitute some of
their consumption for less carbon-intensive goods, but their real income will
fall nevertheless. Politicians are aware of this and must tell this to their
electorates.</li>
</ol>
From my perspective, Dr. Helm's arguments make perfect sense. They are supported by convincing examples. The book's recommendations are in line with what <a href="http://martintengler.blogspot.cz/2013/07/we-are-children-of-shale-revolution-why.html">I have argued</a> in the past. The only problem I see is that there might be a strong international political backlash against a carbon tax. EU trading partners could see it as protectionism and sue the EU in the World Trade Organization (WTO). Although Article XX of the WTO does provide exceptions for environmental protection, a result in favor of the EU is far from certain given the past rulings of the WTO Appellate Body. Dr. Helm replied to my concern by saying that invoking the WTO is EU's excuse not to change its current, ineffective Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS), into which it has invested too much political capital.<br />
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That may be true. But no matter who is right, one thing is certain. If we do not try a border tax, we will never know if it works. The current EU ETS is not working and needs an update. Dr. Helm's recommendations might be a very good start.</div>
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Martinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00321275969724273640noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-538705309491392964.post-75172840000214015622013-07-30T21:24:00.000+02:002014-03-16T11:56:34.671+01:00We Are the Children of the (Shale) Revolution - Why We Should Embrace the Shale<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">Although
still unknown to many, the technologies of hydraulic fracturing (also known as
fracking) and directional drilling are perhaps the two most important
inventions of the recent years. In combination, they are bound to have an
unprecedented impact on the world’s distribution of wealth and power in this
century. By using a horizontal (directional) drill and injecting extremely hot,
pressurized mix of water, chemicals and sand into the shale underneath, these
technologies allow us to extract oil and natural gas from the rock itself.
These “unconventional” methods of extraction have resulted in what is called
the shale revolution, completely redrawing the world’s natural resource maps.
Although there are clear positives to this so-called shale revolution, the
extraction of shale oil and gas must be carefully managed if we are to reap all
of its benefits.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhbRNdH9LCYuQqdWoRzrx77vkW2q3t5BISyQjMiEjwe2ELjIY12BlMiS9npr0EMq_TCT2KQ8w8t0VclEfPdb5iFqiqWfj8fLqIg9GcF4f0_FM1Hm_gWAbjLnAIOoa2ABn_gZIB55JkY4sc/s1600/marcellus-gas-well.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhbRNdH9LCYuQqdWoRzrx77vkW2q3t5BISyQjMiEjwe2ELjIY12BlMiS9npr0EMq_TCT2KQ8w8t0VclEfPdb5iFqiqWfj8fLqIg9GcF4f0_FM1Hm_gWAbjLnAIOoa2ABn_gZIB55JkY4sc/s1600/marcellus-gas-well.jpg" height="287" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption">This is how horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing work in practice.<br />© Geology.com</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">Most
of the positives of these developments are reasonably self-evident: we will see
a large increase in the world output of oil and gas, pushing down prices,
uplifting employment, and generally moving the world economy in a positive
direction. In the United States, the world’s foremost pioneer of fracking,
these effects are already beginning to show. According to the US National
Petroleum Council’s 2011 report, unconventional sources could result in more
than doubling the oil and gas production in North America. Such an increase
would make the United States a net oil exporter, leaving it to produce more
petroleum than Saudi Arabia or Russia. Now the US is already fully
self-sufficient in natural gas production, despite the fact that five years ago
it started building a gas-importing infrastructure. Employment has also been
positively affected. According to the latest report of the US Bureau of Labor
Statistics, the unemployment rate in North Dakota, a state that sits atop the
oil-rich Bakken Shale formation, is only 3.3%—the lowest in the country. As
there are at least two more similar shale formations in the USA, it is likely
that at least two other places in the USA will experience a similar revival. <o:p></o:p></span><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;">The price of gas in the US also dropped markedly in 2009, to about a third of its 2008 price. This will drive energy prices in the US down, further reviving the US economy. If the US chooses to export this gas abroad, world prices will also fall, bringing a more modest revival to other world economies.</span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi3reua4cq-9wfGP71nUZu5IaPaaC_94_-st0QHws4oqsWhqBAWqZ9_HmDBr1C0LaKYbetkBwPi9TWff5ThAYU4QXtRZBUIhawWcYSh5dEp6hshiv7dh9P1R0cCcZi9NCI7Av3fguw1Zrw/s1600/Price+of+Gas+in+the+US+-+Economist.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi3reua4cq-9wfGP71nUZu5IaPaaC_94_-st0QHws4oqsWhqBAWqZ9_HmDBr1C0LaKYbetkBwPi9TWff5ThAYU4QXtRZBUIhawWcYSh5dEp6hshiv7dh9P1R0cCcZi9NCI7Av3fguw1Zrw/s1600/Price+of+Gas+in+the+US+-+Economist.png" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The natural gas price dropped in the US with the new shale gas extraction technologies.<br />© Economist.com</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">In
addition to causing an economic uplift, a transformation of the USA from a net
importer to a net exporter of oil and gas will have an unprecedented impact on
world geopolitics. First, it will doubtlessly increase the importance and
(energy) independence of the USA, perhaps reversing its decline as the world’s
hegemon. Other countries that discover the existence of similar deposits on
their territory will experience a comparable rise in their wealth and geopolitical
importance. Second, if indeed the current predictions are correct, the shale
revolution will increase the known supply of fossil fuels so much that the
world will not need to worry about running out of oil for most of this century,
even if demand for it rises. The time thus gained, along with the financial
profits from the shale revolution, could be used productively to search for
new, cleaner, cheaper, and safer sources of energy after we reach peak oil (the
point where we start producing less oil and gas than we need). If such research
takes place and succeeds, the shale revolution could be seen as the turning
point in the energy security of humankind. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">While
the positive impact of the shale revolution is unprecedented, we should not
overlook the possible negative effects of these technologies. An
environmentally-minded reader might rightfully object that an increase in the
world’s supply of fossil fuels will result in more CO2 emissions and other
environmental externalities, such as groundwater contamination and minor
earthquakes, both of which have been associated with fracking. In addition, if
the right policies are not implemented, the aforementioned research might not
take place, thus in fact delaying the point when we start seriously researching
cleaner and sustainable sources of energy. In this scenario, our reliance on
fossil fuels would increase without having an exit strategy. This is a danger
we cannot afford.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;">Because
of such fears, some countries are opposed to joining the shale revolution and
prohibit fracking in their territory. In the EU, these include France, Luxembourg The Netherlands, Bulgaria, and the Czech Republic (where shale
reserves are minimal). Despite their current opposition to fracking, these
countries will start fracking sooner or later, when the economic benefits
outweigh environmental concerns. As all of these countries could use the
economic uplift associated with shale gas, and as it is in their interest to
decrease their energy reliance on Russia, it will most likely not take too long
for them to start issuing fracking permits. Their environmental fears may
result in tighter regulations, which may slow down the progress of drilling but
at the same time increase their citizens’ safety. Thus Europe will likely
experience a revival of its own, though it may take longer than in the United
States. The rest of the world will no doubt soon follow suit.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; text-indent: 0.5in;">In
conclusion, the shale revolution, if properly managed, will have a highly
positive net impact on the world in the coming decades. Fossil fuel prices will
fall and employment will rise, uplifting many economies from the lingering
economic crisis. The increase in fossil fuel usage must, however, be
accompanied by appropriate policies. It is essential that some of the proceeds
from </span>fracking<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; text-indent: 0.5in;"> be used to promote research of clean, sustainable technologies.
Simultaneously, the negative environmental </span>externalities<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; text-indent: 0.5in;"> of </span>fracking<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; text-indent: 0.5in;"> must be
mitigated by policies that increase its safety. Governments should encourage
inventions that make </span>fracking<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; text-indent: 0.5in;"> cleaner and enforce strict, loop-free regulations
that reward compliance and punish disobedience. As the world’s conventional
fossil fuel reserves dwindle, more and more countries will move toward
“unconventional” shale sources. As a result, the shale revolution cannot and
should not be stopped. It must only be properly managed.</span></div>
Martinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00321275969724273640noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-538705309491392964.post-17690368224555962082011-08-20T07:49:00.001+02:002014-03-16T11:46:37.688+01:00Two Weeks of Hell in Heaven, Part IIAs I drank, I started recuperating, and realized that I was walking the streets of the most beautiful medieval town that I have ever been to. The views from San Marino were breathtaking, especially given that it was sunset. What was perhaps even more breathtaking, though, was the atmosphere in the town. Without knowing it, we were in San Marino during one of the four days of its Medieval Festival. People dressed in medieval costumes were walking down the streets, playing songs, making performances, and eating together at long, wooden tables to celebrate the end of a long day. I finally found the guys on the top of San Marino's first tower, and we all agreed that this place was the best so far. Even better was the fact that the prices in San Marino were cheaper than in Prague. A delicious pizza dinner on top of the castle, with breathtaking views of the surrounding fields, hills, and the Adriatic sea, cost only six euros per person! We had no choice but to eat pizza on top of San Marino, our second and last warm meal of the trip. We then bought three bottles of good Italian wine for only five euros (!) and found a nice park in the middle of the city where we first drank the wine and then slept. There is no doubt that the night in San Marino was the best part of our trip.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-CP8h_0GjWNo/TkQWnc-NkzI/AAAAAAAAA-g/z1k8nwQphOc/s1600/P1010610.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-CP8h_0GjWNo/TkQWnc-NkzI/AAAAAAAAA-g/z1k8nwQphOc/s320/P1010610.JPG" width="240" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The view of the second Castle Tower from the First Castle Tower in San Marino.</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Igsp9WvTpGY/TkQWvHTGpVI/AAAAAAAAA-0/Yz3KTq9Btsg/s1600/P1010612.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Igsp9WvTpGY/TkQWvHTGpVI/AAAAAAAAA-0/Yz3KTq9Btsg/s320/P1010612.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Us seven in San Marino.</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-nhMPAv9ixRY/TkQW5QN6hhI/AAAAAAAAA-4/HbZCmFfoEmI/s1600/P1010619.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-nhMPAv9ixRY/TkQW5QN6hhI/AAAAAAAAA-4/HbZCmFfoEmI/s320/P1010619.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A group playing medieval songs in San Marino.</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-aycUEjnHnX4/TkQXB5t3jmI/AAAAAAAAA-8/Ot0zN9stV3o/s1600/P1010623.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-aycUEjnHnX4/TkQXB5t3jmI/AAAAAAAAA-8/Ot0zN9stV3o/s320/P1010623.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Six Euros for a delicious pizza and a view like this. That's San Marino.</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-9PCM9jkhMjw/TkQXKb71mDI/AAAAAAAAA_U/vi6NnIdgw74/s1600/P1010629.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-9PCM9jkhMjw/TkQXKb71mDI/AAAAAAAAA_U/vi6NnIdgw74/s320/P1010629.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Medieval festivities in San Marino.</td></tr>
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The day we left San Marino we had only one target left: Rome. Because we had a lot of time, we took the next few days easy, resting a lot, and biking less than a hundred kilometers a day on average. We had to cross the Apennines once again, this time at Paso di Viamaggio at 1050m. We spent the night in a muddy field north of the enormous Lake of Trasimene where Hannibal beat the Romans in one of world's most famous battles in 217BC. The next day we went to the lake, where we did not even end up bathing because it was quite dirty. Luckily, there were cold showers available next to it for free. The next night we spent in Citta della Pieve, south of the great lake. We found an old, abandoned shack with a roofed terrace to which lead a set of stairs. When we woke up in the morning, one of us unfortunately stepped on a rotten step on the way down, hurting his leg. We were slowed down a bit due to his injury, and took a break in Orvieto the next day, about 50km south of Citta della Pieve. Our plan was to bike another fifty kilometers to Viterbo, and take a train to Rome from there the next day, but we found out that the connection from Orvieto was much better and decided to stay there. This virtually marked the end of our trip. We toured Orvieto, and found out that it had a beautiful historic center on top of a mountain, much like San Marino but smaller in size. We enjoyed our tour, and then crashed in a park next to Orvieto's elementary school.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-2ewfdiWlGCQ/TkQXcSnz4sI/AAAAAAAAA_g/kezKiKsUrJM/s1600/P1010647.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-2ewfdiWlGCQ/TkQXcSnz4sI/AAAAAAAAA_g/kezKiKsUrJM/s320/P1010647.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Our accommodation the day after San Marino was not so good. We slept in a field next to the road, and woke up in mud and dew because we started looking for a place to stay when it was too late already. </td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-YqPnTVZJ-fo/TkQXpfBjk8I/AAAAAAAAA_0/Z5VmdODxS-k/s1600/P1010651.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-YqPnTVZJ-fo/TkQXpfBjk8I/AAAAAAAAA_0/Z5VmdODxS-k/s320/P1010651.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">We slept on the terrace of that house near Citta della Pieve. In the morning, one of us stepped on one of the stairs on the picture and fell through it, hurting his leg. </td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/--LGuMTDT-so/TkQX2XYdJTI/AAAAAAAABAA/7Qp3atir7QY/s1600/P1010654.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/--LGuMTDT-so/TkQX2XYdJTI/AAAAAAAABAA/7Qp3atir7QY/s320/P1010654.JPG" width="240" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The Cathedral in Orvieto. Though only about two centuries old, it was quite monumental and its design full of detail.</td></tr>
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The next day we took an early (though again delayed) train to Rome, and spent the rest of the day and the night there. We saw all that there was to see in the city: The Colosseum, the Forum Romanum, Circus Maximus, and of course Vatican City, the final micro state on our list. From there, we sent a postcard to the nice <i>padre</i> who let us sleep next to his church in Marina di Massa. As we found out, it was only allowed to enter the Saint Peter's Basilica in Vatican with pants which cover one's knees: one of us had to change after being refused entry. When the sun went down, we biked to the outskirts of the city and spent an almost sleepless night on a concrete sidewalk there. We biked to the Fiumicino Airport the next day, where we had a bad experience with the airline company, whose employees refused to check in our bikes unless they were "professionally wrapped". This included two slow men walking around our bikes with a roll of plastic wrap, and putting an official sticker on it, eighteen euros a piece. A true rip-off, especially given that we wrapped the bikes ourselves with our own wrap at the airport, that the wrapping they did was useless as some of our bikes got scratched, and that we almost missed our flight because of it.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-b7eZZ22fdAA/TkQYDXNfamI/AAAAAAAABAE/HZoDlWBkNJM/s1600/P1010674.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-b7eZZ22fdAA/TkQYDXNfamI/AAAAAAAABAE/HZoDlWBkNJM/s320/P1010674.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Us in front of the Colosseum, Rome.</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Zk2REg4fe0E/TkQYOSMTcuI/AAAAAAAABAY/j30Df-Z8G0g/s1600/P1010686.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Zk2REg4fe0E/TkQYOSMTcuI/AAAAAAAABAY/j30Df-Z8G0g/s320/P1010686.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Vatican City, the final destination of our trip.</td></tr>
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Nevertheless, an hour and thirty minutes later, we landed in Prague and our bike trip was officially over. I learned and/or confirmed a few things along the way. First, I could do it. Second, it hurt. It hurt a lot. Since day one your leg muscles start hurting, then your back joins, then your crouch gets all red because of the saddle, then your knees join the symphony, and finally you start losing feeling in your hands as the carpal tunnel syndrome emerges because of holding the handles all day. Third, the bike trip was a true hardship given our sleeping conditions, the food we ate, and the conditions we ate it in. Fourth, all this lasts for two long weeks. Two. Long. Weeks. Despite these hardships, though, you get stronger and more resistant every day, realizing that hundred and fifty kilometers on a bike is really not that long a distance.<br />
<br />
Perhaps most importantly, however, you will realize that you have become a humbler person, one who appreciates every little thing which makes life comfortable. Last year, while hiking in the desert of Utah, I wrote the following sentences in my diary. "Going into the backcountry is always a humbling experience. All the 'necessities' that one can barely imagine a life without, such as a bed, a roof, toilets, artificial light, a shower, clean, accessible tap water, electricity, beer, all the comforts that human civilization brings with it, suddenly become non-existent. One must sleep on the cold ground in all clothes available, without a decent pillow, in cold and sometimes wet conditions. The only source of light is a headlamp and sometimes fire when allowed and possible...Showering is impossible in the desert and so is any kind of bathing because all the water that survives the heat of the day must be conserved for other hikers to drink. Toilets are yet another story: digging a cat hole is necessary in order to Leave No Trace™. One also has to pump their own water in the backcountry. We used water filters, though iodine and UV are more reliable. I somehow do not trust these filters. For example, how do they get rid of dangerous bacteria? I guess that they are more of a placebo which helps us drink the water rather than actually being a working device for treating it. In any case, they always break or get stuffed with dirt and the omnipresent red desert sand, which renders them even more useless. Listing all of these things, no wonder that living in the backcountry has a humbling effect."<br />
<br />
Despite certain technical differences between hiking in Utah's desert and biking across Europe, I believe that no words can better describe my feelings after a job well done. I am proud I did it, and I am glad to be back.<br />
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Martinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00321275969724273640noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-538705309491392964.post-36273824175783192052011-08-11T20:01:00.000+02:002014-03-16T11:46:37.701+01:00Two Weeks of Hell in Heaven, Part IIt was raining in the night of July 20, 2011, when me and six of my Czech friends met in order to embark on one of the longest and most difficult vacations of my life. Duke, Glen, Míra, Preiby, Tomáš, Vašek, and me stuffed the van we rented with our bicycles and the little luggage we each had in our bike bags. We asked Duke's father to drive us to Zurich, and then take the van back to Mariánské Lázně, our hometown. Our plan was to bike from Zurich to Rome in two weeks, passing through Liechtenstein, Monaco, San Marino, and the Vatican City on the way. If you do the math and know some something about European geography, you will know that this trip involved biking over 1500km and required us to pass the Alps once and the Apennines twice. It also involved biking along Italy's hilly Ligurian Sea coast, and climbing up San Marino's Monte Titano, or Titan Mountain. In other words, almost every day we had a very hilly climb up a mountain or mountain pass, and almost every day we biked over 100km. Our longest stage was more than 170km long.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-g-AHCdeLgJQ/TkQT5E69DMI/AAAAAAAAA70/xv0zVsA6SDU/s1600/P1010414.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-g-AHCdeLgJQ/TkQT5E69DMI/AAAAAAAAA70/xv0zVsA6SDU/s320/P1010414.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Sunrise in Zurich.</td></tr>
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Other than its length, the second feature of our trip was its low budget. The van ride from Mariánské Lázně to Zurich, three train rides in Italy, and a flight from Rome's Fiumicino Airport to Prague with our bicycles only cost us about $250 in total. In addition, our food budget was about five euros per person per day on average. We would buy the cheapest breads, cheeses, yogurts, cookies, and such in supermarkets, then sit right in front of them and ate. Depending on the country, locals passing us by gave us bad or worse looks, or, if we were lucky, no looks at all. We got the most curious looks when doing our most favorite thing, buying the largest watermelon that the supermarket had, cutting it into two pieces, and eating it out with spoons right outside of the supermarket. We only ate a warm meal twice during our two weeks, and only drank our first cup of coffee on the ninth day.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-TalvzRUchQA/TkQVXkbeacI/AAAAAAAAA9Q/KmNB5X5Tte8/s1600/P1010548.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-TalvzRUchQA/TkQVXkbeacI/AAAAAAAAA9Q/KmNB5X5Tte8/s320/P1010548.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Eating a melon outside of a supermarket.</td></tr>
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Most importantly, however, we spent no money at all on accommodation. We set up camp wherever possible, and always almost at dark, so that we wouldn't get caught by police or locals for doing it. This was not always possible, and not always comfortable. The morning of our first night, we got caught by Lichtenstein police for illegal camping, and were asked to leave immediately. The fourth night, we didn't find "accommodation" until about 3am, and the ninth night we camped out in the open on top of a mountain pass in the Apennines, getting extremely wet and cold during the night. Our last night we spent in a sketchy quarter in the outskirts of Rome, where some of us got no sleep at all because of being afraid that our bicycles would get stolen by sketchy hooded types walking around us all night. In general, though, the places that we slept in were not bad at all and I believe that they are worth mentioning.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-Kmjs-RPoJF0/TkQYjmtdhyI/AAAAAAAABAk/VkQdajZE9vM/s1600/Panorama+Liechtenstein.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="146" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-Kmjs-RPoJF0/TkQYjmtdhyI/AAAAAAAABAk/VkQdajZE9vM/s400/Panorama+Liechtenstein.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A view of Liechtenstein. We slept in one of the fields below, on the closer side of the river.</td></tr>
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</div><div style="text-align: -webkit-auto;">On our first night, after having biked about 130km from Zurich to Vaduz, Liechtenstein, we camped out in tents on a grass field next to the Rhine River, just outside of the city. Because the grass was soft, and because we only got woken up by the police at about 10a.m., we slept long and well. On our second night, we camped in tents next to the Sufrensee lake in Sufers, Switzerland, in about 1400m above the sea level. The lake was beautiful and the environment was quiet, and though it rained at night, we slept well again. Perhaps it was because of the kilometer in elevation we gained that day. On our third day, we climbed up to 2065m above the sea to Paso di San Bernardino, or St. Bernard Pass, and then descended to Lugano, the largest city in Ticino, Switzerland's only Italian canton. We hoped to sleep on the shores of the beautiful Lake Lugano, which however proved impossible because the whole area was crowded with houses. We had to sleep in a more humble place, a small strip of grass between Switzerland's Highway #2 and a graveyard. The bad thing was that the highway was extremely loud and that we weren't able to bathe in the lake. On the other hand, we found fresh tap water at the graveyard, and used it to wash our sweaty bodies at night, a true luxury after three days of no showering. Also, the third night was the last night that we bothered to put up the tents. From then on until the end of the trip, we only slept in the open.</div><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-vNXCcGs8Ess/TkQULlGVqhI/AAAAAAAAA8Q/97hLO9d_xMA/s1600/P1010467.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-vNXCcGs8Ess/TkQULlGVqhI/AAAAAAAAA8Q/97hLO9d_xMA/s320/P1010467.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Us at Paso di San Bernardino.</td></tr>
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On the fourth day, we went from Lugano, Switzerland, to Milan, Italy. From this day until the end of our trip we got exposed to crazy Italian drivers, horrible Italian roads, and dysfunctional Italian road signs. About fifty percent of Italian drivers have a very dangerous habit of blowing the horn before passing a biker. I believe that they do it because they want the biker to become aware of them, which is unnecessary given that their car's engine can be heard from far away. The only effect that blowing the horn has on the biker is that they freak out and do something stupid, such as turning suddenly to the left, straight into the car's way. Another problem about biking in Italy are its very bad roads. Their asphalt is often broken, especially on the sides which bikers are supposed to use. Finally, the Italian road sign system must have been designed by an idiot. For example, when we got to a roundabout, the sign would say "Milan 40km," but as soon as we got off the roundabout, there was a "Milan 36km" sign. Finally, about five kilometers later, there was another sign saying "Milan 40km". This repeated itself many times over in Italy. Even worse, though, is that small, regional roads often become highways out of nothing. Suddenly, without a warning, we ended up biking on a highway at least three times during our time in Italy. This was especially dangerous when one of us got a flat tire in a highway tunnel, having to walk through it for at least a few hundred meters.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Z0d92qIsGgo/TkQUhyKzM8I/AAAAAAAAA8Y/phIJ2-iW9fc/s1600/P1010486.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Z0d92qIsGgo/TkQUhyKzM8I/AAAAAAAAA8Y/phIJ2-iW9fc/s320/P1010486.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Milan.</td></tr>
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When we got to Milan, we boarded a train to Ventimiglia, which lies on the Ligurian Sea coast, in the very west of Italy, just a few kilometers away from the French border. On the train, we each got fined ten euros despite having bought our tickets in advance. Apparently, in Italy it is not enough to buy a train ticket, but one must also stamp it on the platform. If you forget to do this, you can be subject to a fine of up to fifty euros. I assume that this is how Italian Railways make most of their profits, given their otherwise relatively cheap prices. After this little problem, we arrived to Ventimiglia with a slight delay, at about 2a.m. After an hour of looking for a place to sleep, we finally found a nice building which stood on wooden columns right on the beach. There were even plastic deck-chairs which we used in order not to sleep in the sand. The problem was that since this was private property, we had to wake up at sunrise to not get caught. We found a shower on the beach - a welcome bonus.<br />
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That morning we took off early, going west toward Monaco. We crossed into France: some of us, myself included, for the first time. Because the sun was shining and the visibility was good, we could see Monaco's skyline from far away. Since the city-state is the world's most densely populated area as well as its richest country by GDP per capita, we hurried to be there as early as possible. Monaco's streets were truly crowded, and so were its roads; maybe even more than <a href="http://martintengler.blogspot.com/2011/01/tokyo.html">Tokyo's</a>. Especially crowded was Monaco's historic center and the area around the Monte Carlo Casino. Interestingly, though, despite Monaco's crowds and lack of space, we found a beautiful beach there with almost no people on it. We were also pleasantly surprised about the prices: food in Monaco was no more expensive than in France or Italy.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-XmVDB6l-Ocw/TkQU97w9XSI/AAAAAAAAA84/mQHKEtMB56w/s1600/P1010505.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-XmVDB6l-Ocw/TkQU97w9XSI/AAAAAAAAA84/mQHKEtMB56w/s320/P1010505.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A lonely beach in Monaco. Perhaps the only beach in Monaco, too?</td></tr>
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That day we left Monaco at about 5p.m., and biked back east to Ventimiglia and finally to San Remo, a town located about twenty kilometers east of Ventimiglia. There was a nice bike trail (the only one we found in Italy) along which we found a coffee house in the process of being built. But, given that it was 9pm and no one was there, we decided to set up "camp" right on the coffee house terrace. We also found out that the terrace had a roll-off roof, which we unrolled using a tent pole, standing on each other's backs. That night we slept on a terrace under a roof; an unexpected luxury.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-aCXPM0053gI/TkQVKPEV-FI/AAAAAAAAA88/P38inbTvMuI/s1600/P1010545.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-aCXPM0053gI/TkQVKPEV-FI/AAAAAAAAA88/P38inbTvMuI/s320/P1010545.JPG" width="240" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Rolling the roof under the cover of night.</td></tr>
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The next day we woke up early and biked along the coast from San Remo to Genoa and past it. The interesting thing about biking along Italy's Ligurian Sea coast was that every five or ten kilometers, we arrived into a long town on the beach where we had to pass through bottlenecks caused by tourists who came to do nothing during their vacation. After leaving the town, we usually had to climb up a two to five kilometers long hill, and then descend it on the other side, arriving in a town no different from the previous one. In this sense, Genoa could be considered just another one of these crowded towns, though over 20km long, and with one large bottleneck all the way through it. Other than its old town, there did not seem to be many interesting things about Genoa. For us bikers, going through Genoa was equivalent to biking in a crowded garage because of all the exhaust gasses we had to inhale. It was a long day and by the end of it our speedometers showed over 170km. Despite the length, however, we were surprisingly not dead tired after arriving at sunset at a parking lot just off the road in Recco, our next "campsite."<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-OQHN4mN4lF0/TkQVmA5RrsI/AAAAAAAAA9c/ngEEHRh42P4/s1600/P1010554.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-OQHN4mN4lF0/TkQVmA5RrsI/AAAAAAAAA9c/ngEEHRh42P4/s320/P1010554.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 13px; text-align: center;">A parking lot we slept at in Recco, Italy.<br />
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Though our sixth stage was shorter than the previous, it proved to be harder. The Ligurian Sea coast changed after Genoa: it became rockier, rougher, and much hillier. There were now 5-10 kilometer climbs, 5-10 kilometer descends, and no towns on the coast whatsoever where we could rest while waiting for the light to change. Our hope was to bike through Cinque Terre, a coastal national park consisting of five remote towns and the nature around them. We didn't know, however, that there would be no road leading through them, and thus the only way was to go around would be through a 700m high mountain pass. Given that it was raining, we decided to take a train from Sestri Levante to La Spezia, two cities on the edges of Cinque Terre.<br />
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Because it was no longer raining in La Spezia, we continued biking, arriving to Marina di Massa by sunset. We were desperately looking for a place to stay, but there was nothing to be found. All beaches were private or entry to them was strictly prohibited, and there were no hidden parks or fields where we could set up camp. We finally arrived at a church, where there was a party going on that evening. After explaining to the locals and then to the <i>padre </i>that we were pilgrims, traveling to from the Czech Republic to Vatican, we were allowed to take part in the party and then crash under one of the tents which were set up there. We got to eat a warm meal there, as well as to talk to three girls from Verona who were members of a camp organized by the Church. Glad that we got to eat something warm for the first time on our trip, we went to sleep slightly after midnight when the party was over.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-0tSvAysRauE/TkQVyYNmlsI/AAAAAAAAA9g/hPNQ_5NsvHc/s1600/P1010561.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-0tSvAysRauE/TkQVyYNmlsI/AAAAAAAAA9g/hPNQ_5NsvHc/s320/P1010561.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The church party we crashed.</td></tr>
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The morning after we continued to bike along the coast until we hit Pisa, where we saw the famous Leaning Tower. It was leaning indeed, in fact, probably more than any of us had expected. Though Pisa itself was a very small town, the area around the tower was crowded with people and with a large group of African men trying to sell us watches and such. Because entry into the tower cost fifteen euros, we decided against going. After all, it cost as much as three days of food for us! After a long lunch in front of a grey supermarket in Pisa, we left in the direction of Florence. Because the road no longer lead along the coast, we got immediately lost and it took us a while to find the right direction. After getting lost a few more times and a few disagreements about our direction, we arrived at a nice hill with an olive orchard, just west of Empoli, a town on the outskirts of Florence. There was a nice view of the surrounding landscape, and also bushes full of red wine and blackberries, and so we decided to call the place our home for the night.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The Leaning Tower of Pisa.</td></tr>
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The next day we got to Florence, with its beautiful old town. As usual, we divided into two groups: one group went out to take pictures, the other stayed with the bikes, and then we would switch. I joined the picture-taking group, and went out for about fifteen minutes. When we got back to the place where our bikes were, there was just one left. The local cops made the guys with the bikes move them away, apparently bicycle parking was not allowed in front of the bell tower in Florence. The cops came to us and one of them, a guy in his forties with a very strong Italian accent, told us that bike parking was not allowed. When I protested, saying that there was no sign saying against it, the policeman tilted his body toward me, put his face so close to mine that it looked as if he wanted to kiss me, and shouted in the strongest Italian accent I have ever heard: "Is the bell tower not enough!?" Though it was difficult not to laugh at him, I decided to stay quiet. Saying something was just not worth spending the afternoon at a police station full of guys as stupid as him. We left Florence in the afternoon, and continued northeast in the direction of San Marino. To be able to get to San Marino the next day, we had to get to the top of Paso del Muraglione, a 907m tall pass in the Apennines. When we got to the top after two hours of hard work, we were rewarded by a beautiful sunset over the mountains. Because it was getting dark, we had to find a place to sleep at the top. We found a hiking path with grass around it, and because we knew we wouldn't be able to find a better place, we stayed there. The stars were beautiful that night, and it was very cold. Some of us had to get up in the night in order to dress up warmer, but because a lot of dew fell as a result of the cold night and got us wet, this didn't help much.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-_qepA4U5yko/TkQWfIRgmZI/AAAAAAAAA-Y/6lepMYRUwvM/s1600/P1010587.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-_qepA4U5yko/TkQWfIRgmZI/AAAAAAAAA-Y/6lepMYRUwvM/s320/P1010587.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">On top of Paso del Muraglione.</td></tr>
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In the morning, perhaps because the night was cold, we decided to get a coffee at a restaurant on top of the mountain. It was the first dose of caffeine we had in nine days. That day, our goal was to reach San Marino, third of the four micro states on our list. The first hundred kilometers were supposed to be easy: down the hill to Forli, and down the hill to Rimini, a harbor on the Adriatic Sea. They were easy, though it was extremely hot that day, and the wind kept on slowing us down. The heat made me feel a little sick and dehydrated, which made my climb up San Marino's 739m tall Monte Titano extremely difficult. I don't know how much longer it took me to climb the hill than the rest, but when I finally got to the top I was exhausted beyond words. I found everyone else's bikes tied to each other below the gates of the old town, and added mine to the rack. After grabbing a cold bottle of Peroni beer from the first shop I entered, I started walking the streets of San Marino's old town, looking for everyone else.<br />
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To be continued...Martinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00321275969724273640noreply@blogger.com0Liechtenstein47.166 9.555373000000031447.0548715 9.4733580000000313 47.277128499999996 9.6373880000000316tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-538705309491392964.post-36120103664709259532011-07-16T22:47:00.001+02:002014-03-16T11:46:37.696+01:00Summer in MontereyBetween Jun 19 and Jul 16, 2011, I spent a month as a student of the International Trade and Development Program at the Monterey Institute of International Studies in Monterey, California. It was a privilege to be here as the only way to get in was by being a <a href="http://www.uwc.org/">UWC</a> graduate and receiving a scholarship from the <a href="http://www.davisuwcscholars.org/">Davis Foundation</a>, who is also generously supporting my studies at Colby.<br />
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In a group of twelve UWC graduates, we attended trade and development classes and went on site visits to various companies, from less known start-ups to giants like Google and Cisco. The location was perfect for such visits as Monterey lies about an hour south from the famous Silicon Valley, a huge brainpower hub where mighty IT companies base their headquarters. I will write a separate post on our visit to Silicon Valley, but in this post I will focus on Monterey and its surrounding areas. I visited all of the places which I write about in this post.<br />
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The interesting thing about Monterey and California's northwest coast in general is that it has its own little micro-climate. Even though the air is very humid, it almost never rains in Monterey during the summer months: it only rained here once here during the whole month. Monterey's summer and winter temperatures are almost the same, rarely rising above 20°C during the day, and staying between 5 and 10 °C during the night. In addition to the moderate temperatures, weather on the Monterey Peninsula tends to be very cloudy and foggy, which is an exception to the otherwise sunny and hot Californian climate. The peninsula can sometimes get so cold in the summer that wearing a jacket becomes necessary. In fact, Monterey's weather is very similar to San Francisco's, which was once best described by Mark Twain: "The coldest winter I ever saw was the summer I spent in San Francisco."<br />
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The Monterey Peninsula serves as a sanctuary for wildlife. Whales, seals, sea otters, and other water creatures can be found in the surrounding waters, plentiful deer and squirrels roam Monterey's forests, and all kinds of birds watch over the peninsula from its cloudy skies. In addition to the fauna, Monterey's pleasant weather supports all sorts of flowers, grasses, bushes, and trees. No matter the season, something is always blooming on California's west coast. My personal favorite is the Night Blooming Jasmine, a simple plant whose white blossoms give out an addictingly sweet, refined aroma. Biking around the peninsula on the famous 17 Mile Drive will give you a great opportunity to spot a dear, find a beach full of sea lions, appreciate beautiful coastal rock formations, and smell the fragrance of dozens of blooming flowers.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-_d9jnVMGnGI/TiEpXdKNyqI/AAAAAAAAA2k/S26Vl91XN6I/s1600/P1010036.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-_d9jnVMGnGI/TiEpXdKNyqI/AAAAAAAAA2k/S26Vl91XN6I/s320/P1010036.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Night Blooming Jasmine</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-uD8Jt4wXzWQ/TiEqEOwhX5I/AAAAAAAAA3c/Ps1AIgxizs4/s1600/P1010203.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-uD8Jt4wXzWQ/TiEqEOwhX5I/AAAAAAAAA3c/Ps1AIgxizs4/s320/P1010203.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A deer near Pebble Beach, Carmel.</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Drk719NFlh8/TiEp9T8wOcI/AAAAAAAAA3M/xvgNSb3R15g/s1600/P1010196.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Drk719NFlh8/TiEp9T8wOcI/AAAAAAAAA3M/xvgNSb3R15g/s320/P1010196.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Sea lions lying on a beach near Carmel.</td></tr>
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The peninsula itself features an ecosystem which is very different from its surroundings. Its moderate weather allows for a green environment filled with various forms of life. The moment you leave the peninsula, however, the temperatures rise sharply by as much as 20°C during the summer and fall by the same amount during the winter. These high temperatures are the reason why there is a large agricultural region to the northeast and a hot wine-growing region to the southeast of Monterey. The city of Salinas, which lies about twenty miles northeast of Monterey, is the center of an agricultural area called Salinas Valley, one of USA's most fertile regions. Called the Salad Bowl of America, this 150x10km strip of land produces sixty percent of all the lettuce consumed in the United States. Castroville, a small town north of Salinas, is in turn called the Artichoke Capital of the World, producing eighty percent of America's artichokes. The town of Watsonville, a few kilometers north of Castroville, produces a large portion of America's strawberries. Carmel Valley, the area southeast of Monterey, is popular because of its many wineries and wine-tasting rooms.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-DVVadLmaj7c/TiEqNL41bwI/AAAAAAAAA3o/x7q1bRu0e8I/s1600/P1010263.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-DVVadLmaj7c/TiEqNL41bwI/AAAAAAAAA3o/x7q1bRu0e8I/s320/P1010263.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A field in the town of Spreckels near Salinas.</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-zZcNGU_hXR4/TiEpot6OMKI/AAAAAAAAA24/AEsGHgUTZsM/s1600/P1010116.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-zZcNGU_hXR4/TiEpot6OMKI/AAAAAAAAA24/AEsGHgUTZsM/s320/P1010116.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The Chateau Julien winery in Carmel Valley.</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-6ZOr7YreOBw/TiEpbiH-qBI/AAAAAAAAA2o/ceOZ06wvvF0/s1600/P1010046.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-6ZOr7YreOBw/TiEpbiH-qBI/AAAAAAAAA2o/ceOZ06wvvF0/s320/P1010046.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Me and my two roommates at a wine-tasting room in Carmel Valley.</td></tr>
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The area around Monterey is known for being home to many writers, celebrities, and rich people. The cities of Salinas and Monterey served as a base for John Steinbeck, one of America's most famous writers. He gained inspiration for many of his books in these two cities. "Cannery Row", his 1945 novel, is situated in Monterey's fish cannery district. Today Cannery Row is Monterey's most famous street, hosting numbers of tourist shops and restaurants, as well as Monterey's famous marine aquarium. The nearby town of Carmel-by-the-sea is well known for its romantic, European town feel, expensive art galleries, and a long, white sand beach. Carmel is also famous for being the home of Clint Eastwood, who served as its mayor and owned the Hog's Breath Inn, now a well-known pub. He still owns a hotel Carmel and visits the town regularly.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-WqqHkhJDNIU/TiEpLphN1DI/AAAAAAAAA2E/Cb56Cepa7Mw/s1600/P1000971.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-WqqHkhJDNIU/TiEpLphN1DI/AAAAAAAAA2E/Cb56Cepa7Mw/s320/P1000971.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Cannery Row from Steinbeck's novel</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-Awkrj4iFPIk/TiEpV5BCdEI/AAAAAAAAA2g/S-ZcjGZr-lI/s1600/P1010012.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-Awkrj4iFPIk/TiEpV5BCdEI/AAAAAAAAA2g/S-ZcjGZr-lI/s320/P1010012.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Carmel-by-the-sea.</td></tr>
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In contrast to the rich, touristy towns of Monterey and Carmel, the city of Salinas is poorer. A reason for this is perhaps its large Hispanic community, comprising over eighty percent of the city's population. In fact, English may not get you too far in many parts of Salinas; Mexican Spanish is the preferred language in most of the city. The Hispanic immigrants perform mostly low-paying jobs: they work as farmers, bus drivers (Monterey and Salinas have a working public transport system, which is quite a rarity in small towns in the USA), and cleaners. Indeed, all of the cleaners in our Hotel Pacific are Hispanic.<br />
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South of Monterey and Carmel lies Big Sur, or Big South, a stunningly beautiful coastal state park. Known for its steep cliffs, blue ocean, sandy beaches, imposing bridges, breathtaking views, misty scenery, tall coastal redwoods, grassy mountains, steep waterfalls, and abundant wildlife, this park is a true jewel for any lover of nature.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-yC6unFNDCfk/ThFwONT75QI/AAAAAAAAA0U/YqdcBGgYcu4/s1600/Panorama+Big+Sur.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="190" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-yC6unFNDCfk/ThFwONT75QI/AAAAAAAAA0U/YqdcBGgYcu4/s400/Panorama+Big+Sur.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Panoramic view in Big Sur.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>Monterey and its surrounding areas have so much to offer that I simply can not list everything in this blog post. Whether you like the sea, the mountains, wildlife, or deserts, Monterey has it all. I will never forget the amazing one month which I spent here.Martinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00321275969724273640noreply@blogger.com0Monterey, CA, USA36.6002378 -121.8946760999999736.5595808 -121.95406509999997 36.640894800000005 -121.83528709999997tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-538705309491392964.post-89560488163269192462011-06-12T00:04:00.000+02:002014-03-16T11:46:37.709+01:00Window Shopping in Amsterdam<div class="MsoNormal">From June 1 to 6, 2011, me and my friend Martin went on a small trip of three European cities; Brussels, Amsterdam, and Bremen. Because the cities themselves as well as our trip turned out to be extremely interesting, I decided to tell you a little bit of our story.<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">We woke up, at 2.50am on Wednesday, Jun 1, in order to make it to the airport for our 6am flight to Brussels. We would normally not wake up that early, but it so happens that most European low-cost airlines sell the cheapest tickets for Wednesday mornings. The ticket from Prague to Brussels cost us 684 CZK, or about €25 per person. Had we chosen any other day, the price would have easily doubled or even more. In fact, the reason why we flew to Brussels at all was that the ticket to the Brussels Charleroi Airport, the taxi from Charleroi to Brussels, and the bus from Brussels to Amsterdam, turned out to be significantly cheaper than any direct flight to Amsterdam, plus we got to see the European capital. But later about the city; first I will tell you about our experience with Belgian taxis. </div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">We decided to share a cab with seven other people: three Africans and four other Europeans, in order to get to Brussels. We took a cab because it left earlier than the Airport shuttle, promised to cost only two Euros more (€15), and the driver said that he would get us into the city in thirty minutes instead of the usual hour. At the time of getting into the taxi, we did not know that the driver was willing to risk his life, and ours in turn, to keep his word. The driver stuffed our group of nine into a van which only had eight seats and no seatbelts, and before we knew it we were speeding down a Flemish highway at 150km/h, thirty kilometers per hour above the speed limit. The real danger, however, came when we got into a traffic jam on the same highway about ten minutes later. </div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">Unlike the usually calm German drivers who just patiently suffer through long “Stauben” on their autobahns, the hot-blooded Arab who was our driver showed an incredible willingness to risk his life to fulfill his promise, getting us to downtown Brussels in half an hour. To go around the bottleneck, ha drove the van into and right through the rightmost lane of the highway, the thin stripe at the very edge of the road in which no cars ever drive and which must stay clear at all times during a jam for the ambulance and police to pass. In that lane, the road was quite damaged, and the line between the cracked road edge and the ditch next to it was far from straight and very thin. Twice we almost ended up falling straight into the ditch at a speed of about 110km/h. At one point, though, we almost got pushed straight into the ditch by a large truck whose driver also wanted to speed his way through the jam and did not seem to take into account that there was our car passing right next to him. Had our hot-blooded Arab not stepped on the brake pedal sharply, we would have likely ended up in that ditch with quite some damage to our bodies given the speed and the lack of seatbelts in our van. </div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">The moment that the truck got back into its lane, our driver opened the van’s window and splashed the truck’s driver with a series of thick-accented, hardly comprehensible French swearing words. He told him “fils de pute, ta mère est une pute”, or “son of a bitch, your mother is a bitch.” About five or ten minutes later, we got to the end of the jam, the cause of which was incredibly amusing. </div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">A man in his sixties was parking in the middle of the highway, taking a bike out of his car’s trunk and putting it together. “Tour de Belgique, peut-être,” I said aloud, lightening the atmosphere in the van. Twenty minutes later, an hour after we left the airport, we made it to Gare de Midi in downtown Brussels; the two extra Euros were well worth the experience. Had we taken the shuttle, who knows how many hours we would have been stuck in the jam caused by the passionate cyclist. Thanks to our hot-blooded Arab, we could afford to spend about ten hours in the city of Brussels, an opportunity which we used to the fullest.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.blogger.com/video.g?token=AD6v5dz-_H9bdSlFHqaSF6XAkwNkaJ9QF1vr8F_rSLujWywolQoD7ifCN4t6Bgw9eVp6po82__XMhwHWRf9i9leK5w' class='b-hbp-video b-uploaded' frameborder='0'></iframe></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">A video I took during our crazy cab ride, which ends with a picture of the old man and his bike.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">For some reason, I thought that as its capital, Brussels would be a clean, monumental city worthy of representing the proud bureaucratic colossus which is European Union. I am sorry to conclude that my hypothesis was largely incorrect. Other than the immediate city center and a few select spots like the surroundings of the European parliament and Brussels’ famous Atomium, the city was quite dirty, full of cigarette butts and other garbage polluting the streets. In addition, there were many homeless people who, because the use of public toilets is charged with a 40-50₵ fee, simply used the parks and corners of train stations to do their business, making it extremely unpleasant to venture into such places.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">In addition to a shock in the form of a dirty Brussels, I was also surprised about the composition of the city’s inhabitants. I had sure expected a large minority of immigrants and citizens of Arabic or African descent, but I was surprised that they in fact seemed to form a majority over the white inhabitants of the city. Also, I daresay that more women in Brussels’ metro wore Muslim habits than not. I will not judge whether what I saw was right or wrong. I do now understand, however, why so many neo-Nazi movements are emerging in those parts of western and northern Europe newly affected by immigration. They do not want to end up ruled by the descendants of those whose lands their own ancestors had colonized and impoverished a few centuries ago. It is incredible that we are still harvesting the bitter fruits of African colonization, centuries after Europeans started it. Given the amount of non-whites in Brussels and other EU cities, I wonder when the first black president of the European Union will emerge. My guess is that we will have the first one, and certainly not the last one, in less than fifteen years. If the EU continues to exist as we know it, that is.<o:p></o:p><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-nwQSFLdLjLg/TfPbqDDXK5I/AAAAAAAAAuo/tkPdzV4VFV8/s1600/P1000649.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-nwQSFLdLjLg/TfPbqDDXK5I/AAAAAAAAAuo/tkPdzV4VFV8/s320/P1000649.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The Brussels Town Hall.</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-qRakbNVlGSw/TfPbs24QweI/AAAAAAAAAus/BcpdrDjcd3s/s1600/P1000654.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-qRakbNVlGSw/TfPbs24QweI/AAAAAAAAAus/BcpdrDjcd3s/s320/P1000654.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Old Flemish houses at the main square.</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The European Commission.</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-4wIxLpFDN6E/TfPbxvbtDUI/AAAAAAAAAu0/JAQtm0T5Vpc/s1600/P1000678.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-4wIxLpFDN6E/TfPbxvbtDUI/AAAAAAAAAu0/JAQtm0T5Vpc/s320/P1000678.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A sort of replica of the Brandenburger Tor in Brussels.</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-iIh8H3jECmU/TfPbzu7UZpI/AAAAAAAAAu4/4o2dLKJZM0Q/s1600/P1000698.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-iIh8H3jECmU/TfPbzu7UZpI/AAAAAAAAAu4/4o2dLKJZM0Q/s320/P1000698.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Brussels' famous Atomium.</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-ag6_-TPVx2s/TfPkX8DCvtI/AAAAAAAAAwE/uQsJ5eTaq3k/s1600/P1000708.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-ag6_-TPVx2s/TfPkX8DCvtI/AAAAAAAAAwE/uQsJ5eTaq3k/s320/P1000708.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Dirt at Brussels' Gare de Nord. </td></tr>
</tbody></table>After a day spent exploring the European capital, we left Brussels’ dirty Gare de Nord on a delayed bus to Amsterdam. Slightly less than four hours later, at about 10.30pm, we arrived to the Amstel station in Amsterdam. I had arranged accommodation with Sebastian, a Hollander friend of mine from Pearson College. We had the directions to his house and it was no problem to get there by 11.30pm. The problem emerged when we tried to get into his house, though: Sebastian was simply not at home. We tried calling him, but to no avail. After a few minutes of confusion and hesitation, Martin managed to connect to the internet using his smart phone. We found a Facebook message from Sebastian saying that he totally forgot but that he had to do something important out of town and thus would not be in Amsterdam that night. Tired and knowing we had little time to act before the last metro back to the city center left, we quickly looked up a hostel downtown and made our way to the Amsterdam central station at about 12.30 in the night.<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">Because we were tired, because the trams were no longer running, and because we had no map of the city, we decided to take the taxi to the hostel (the second that day already). We ended up paying €15 for a twenty minute taxi tour of the city. Funnily enough, the walk back to the central station the next morning took us fifteen minutes. I wonder what could be done to prevent cab drivers in Europe from ripping tourists off. At the hostel we each paid €22 for a night, four Euros more than its web page advertised. We were too tired to argue. <o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">The next morning we woke up to a pleasant sunny day and met up with my old Pearson friend Svend from Greenland. The last time we had seen each other before then was two years ago, at the end of our month-long trip of Eastern Europe. We took the advantage of seeing each other and visited some of Amsterdam’s famous Coffee Shops, where marihuana can be smoked legally. We then went to Sebastian’s place, who had made it home in the meantime and had a happy Pearson reunion. <o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">Other than the coffee shops, another interesting feature of Amsterdam is its legalized prostitution. Just like smoking marihuana, though, prostitution is well regulated by the city’s government. First, it is enclosed in a “red light district,” an area of no more than a few blocks. Second, you must use a condom. Third, prostitutes can only stay inside buildings while on the job. The prostitutes of course craftfully go around this rule by showing their splendid bodies behind red-lit glass windows, giving you winks, smiling at you, and seductively opening their mouths and licking their lips when you pass around their window. This creates an unforgettable atmosphere, which is indeed very hard to resist. However, we did not let these excellent women seduce us. Instead, we enjoyed a few hours of window shopping. Unfortunately, as we were reminded by a friendly couple of police officers, no pictures of the girls are allowed, and so all of those I took are in a bad quality and tilted in various ways as I tried to take pictures inconspicuously.<o:p></o:p></div><br />
There is much more to Amsterdam than the drugs and prostitutes, though. The city itself in an architectural wonder, featuring a large historical center connected with canals, in many ways similar to Venice. The only difference is that there are also cars and trams and trains in the center, unlike in Venice. Another interesting feature were the historical houses themselves. Rather than standing perpendicular to the ground, they are tilted outwards, making the visitor feel like they are in a fairy tale. Apparently the reason for this shape of the houses is threefold. First, since space in Amsterdam is expensive, you gain a few free square meters in your houses’ upper floors. Second, when it rains, the walls get less washed and thus need less repairing. Third, when you come home after a long night and urgently need to vomit from the upper floors, the building’s shape ensures that your house’s walls stay clean. Practical in every possible way, isn’t it?<br />
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<div class="MsoNormal">After leaving Amsterdam, we took the train to northern Germany’s city of Bremen. We unfortunately only had about two hours to spend in this historical city before making our way north to Germany’s coast on the Northern Sea. There we stayed a night with Martin’s German friend Kana, whose mom is Japanese. This gave me a great opportunity to practice both my German as well as my Japanese: the ideal multilingual experience. Then we drove to Jena, where Martin and his friend study, and from Jena I went back using German car pooling. I got driven for mere €5 to the Czech border by a nice German girl who was traveling in the same direction. It saved both of us money, saved German highways some clogging, and saved the planet some gas. The German carpooling system, Mitfahrgelegenheit, is truly amazing.<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">That’s it for the Martin & Martin trip, thanks for reading!<o:p></o:p><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A cheese shop in Amsterdam.</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The thing in the corner is designed to prevent you from peeing in the corners.</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Red light district.</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-3thgEsmU1j8/TfPb8VQcJfI/AAAAAAAAAvM/fAWpMzAFX-U/s1600/P1000775.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-3thgEsmU1j8/TfPb8VQcJfI/AAAAAAAAAvM/fAWpMzAFX-U/s320/P1000775.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A canal in Amsterdam.</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-TwsaTKyiXgg/TfPb-69BomI/AAAAAAAAAvQ/_gsOKZ5jriA/s1600/P1000793.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-TwsaTKyiXgg/TfPb-69BomI/AAAAAAAAAvQ/_gsOKZ5jriA/s320/P1000793.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A bike repair shop on the streets. Because the city is flat, everybody bikes there. The XXX flag is the city's flag, and XXX the city's symbol.</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A man smoking up in a coffee shop.</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-mKwdmrKXsyM/TfPcC8W1UxI/AAAAAAAAAvY/Q-uWpFiYWeo/s1600/P1000800.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-mKwdmrKXsyM/TfPcC8W1UxI/AAAAAAAAAvY/Q-uWpFiYWeo/s320/P1000800.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A half-naked guy sitting on top of a police car, smoking a joint. This is Amsterdam. </td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-2OCDyyC1nsE/TfPcEaHDnDI/AAAAAAAAAvc/sBlQJif7REM/s1600/P1000803.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-2OCDyyC1nsE/TfPcEaHDnDI/AAAAAAAAAvc/sBlQJif7REM/s320/P1000803.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A happy Pearson reunion. Me and Sebastian are in the middle, the other two are Sebastian's friends.</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-hgCp6reBDjg/TfPcLAztt0I/AAAAAAAAAvo/FnoYEpeZR5s/s1600/Panorama+2.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="151" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-hgCp6reBDjg/TfPcLAztt0I/AAAAAAAAAvo/FnoYEpeZR5s/s320/Panorama+2.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A Square in Amsterdam.</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-l_YxiDzmBsQ/TfPcHdWtKJI/AAAAAAAAAvg/YnHsoZwkJyA/s1600/P1000812.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-l_YxiDzmBsQ/TfPcHdWtKJI/AAAAAAAAAvg/YnHsoZwkJyA/s320/P1000812.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The Markt square in Bremen.</td></tr>
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</div></div>Martinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00321275969724273640noreply@blogger.com1City of Brussels, Belgium50.8503396 4.351710300000036150.7916046 4.2901203000000363 50.9090746 4.4133003000000359tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-538705309491392964.post-89500272970546290042011-05-03T11:10:00.000+02:002011-05-03T11:10:29.787+02:00What Next?On Wednesday, Apr 27, I left Japan. After a ten-hour flight to Helsinki and a two-hour flight to Prague I finally arrived to the Czech Republic, my homeland. I have been here for five days now and still have not written the promised <i>last</i> post about my Japanese experience. What did I learn, how did I change? There are too many things which I could write about and many which I prefer not to write about. Let me, though, summarize my Japanese experience. I encourage you to click on the links within this post as they will take you back to my past posts about Japan. They will hopefully refresh your memory, will help you make more sense of what Japan is, and definitely will make parts of this post easier to understand. So again, What did I learn, how did I change during my eight months in Japan?<br />
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First and foremost, I became capable of having a decent conversation in Japanese about almost anything, though I do not dare to call the present state fluency. Japanese is a very complex language, and eight months in Japan were unfortunately not sufficient for me to grasp all of it. I am afraid that eight years might also not be enough. I am confident, though, that I did well considering the little time I had. I am proud to say that my current language ability is largely a result of making many Japanese friends and restraining my communication in English to the bare required minimum. I spent little time with English speakers and I did the right thing. If you ever decide to study abroad in order to learn a foreign language, do not fall into the easy trap of befriending almost exclusively the people who speak the same language as you. If you do, you will then leave your target country and regret it.<br />
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Other than language, I also became quite adept at seeing into the minds of Japanese people. What seems normal to me or you may be wrong for the Japanese and what seems right for them may seem wrong to us. This starts with the different ways in which the Japanese take a bath, to their way of expressing the most complex feelings in the most subtle ways possible. The Japanese take a shower before entering a bath (o<i>furo</i>) and then have the whole family use the same water in the bath tub. They also practice different table manners; it is quite fine, if not required, to slurp aloud while eating noodles or drinking soup (yes, drinking soup). If you do not slurp, you are not showing enough appreciation for the cook. Another difference is that the Japanese barely show their emotions in public. It is rare to see a couple kissing on the street in Japan, a quite frequent occurrence in most European countries. The Japanese are nicer in general than the Czechs or Americans in dealing with customers or strangers. In a Japanese store, the employees smile, call you their honored customer (<i>okyakusama</i>), and their customer care is stellar. In the Czech Republic, you are lucky if they respond to your "hello" and you often have to go to great lengths to get the clerk's attention. When you do, they are almost angry that you are wasting their time which they could instead spend doing nothing.<br />
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To be honest, I only noticed the above things when I came back home. I realized that I was not greeted by the restaurant staff, I was not smiled at, and I was not given proper customer care while shopping. In this sense, I believe that the world, or at least people in the former Soviet block countries, have a lot left to learn. The manners from back in the times of communism, when everyone had to work but no one was motivated enough to work properly, are unfortunately still deep-rooted in the minds of the Czechs. It will take a generation or two to change. This change will happen when the people of my age who have experiences from abroad take over the leading positions in the country.<br />
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There are other things which many of us should learn from the Japanese. I was a witness to how people dealt with the aftermath of the <a href="http://martintengler.blogspot.com/2011/03/little-info-on-earthquake.html">horrible earthquake and tsunami</a> in the northeast of the country. Instead of going out armed into the streets and looting shops for food and other supplies, as Americans in New Orleans did in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina six years ago, the Japanese ran away into shelters, where they shared (and still are sharing) what little supplies were available. They did not go and ransack what was left, but felt a collective responsibility to restoring the old order as fast as possible. I dare say that most Europeans and Americans do not possess this quality of seeing the bigger picture. There are other things where the Japanese see the bigger picture. A good example is when someone gets sick, they most often wear a white face mask over their mouth and nose so as not to spread their disease to others.<br />
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All in all, there are many things which I see as better in Japan and which I see as better in other places. I dislike the Japanese people's general lack of showing their emotions in public, I am not fond of how much they <a href="http://martintengler.blogspot.com/2010/11/prisoners-of-themselves.html">work</a> and I am not a big fan of how the country is <a href="http://martintengler.blogspot.com/2010_10_01_archive.html">crowded</a>. I like how the Japanese can see the bigger picture and are not as selfish as the average American or European person. I like how they <a href="http://martintengler.blogspot.com/2010/12/respect.html">respect</a> others, though even respect should have limits and the Japanese are sometimes overly respectful in my opinion. I love the customer care in Japan and how people are nice to each other, a difference which I only came to fully realize and appreciate after going back to my homeland. There are <a href="http://martintengler.blogspot.com/2011/03/seven-things-you-can-only-buy-in-japan.html">things which you can only buy in Japan</a>. Some of these, like unsweetened tea, I think should be sold in the US and Europe as I believe that they would find a large customer base. Living in Japanese cities is convenient, and shopping for basic goods in Japan is fast thanks to their omnipresent <a href="http://martintengler.blogspot.com/2011/03/convenience-stores.html">convenience stores</a>.<br />
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I love the city of <a href="http://martintengler.blogspot.com/2011/02/checklist.html">Kyoto</a>, with its old <a href="http://martintengler.blogspot.com/2010/12/lights-temples-speeches-and-holidays.html">temples</a>, beautiful surrounding <a href="http://martintengler.blogspot.com/2010/09/mountains.html">mountains</a>, <a href="http://martintengler.blogspot.com/2010/12/lights-temples-speeches-and-holidays.html">light-ups of autumn leaves</a>, and other attractions, as well as its amazing atmosphere which is just so hard to describe to someone who has not lived there. The red leaves in the fall, and the pink <a href="http://martintengler.blogspot.com/2011/04/gone-with-sakura.html">Sakura</a> in the spring. The haze in the summer and the clear views on cold winter afternoons. The Geisha in their colorful kimonos and wooden slippers pattering around the old wooden houses in the Gion district, and <a href="http://www.myspace.com/maruyamahan/music">random artists</a> playing their music in the night near the Kamo River. Souvenir shops selling useless overpriced junk to oblivious foreign tourists, and monthly markets where you can buy real gold for almost no money. But Japan is not just Kyoto. It is a large country with an enormous vertical spread, making it possible to go <a href="http://martintengler.blogspot.com/2011/02/hokkaido-take-two.html">skiing to Hokkaido</a> one weekend and then <a href="http://martintengler.blogspot.com/2011/04/okinawa.html">relax on a tropical beach</a> the weekend after that (if you are not <a href="http://martintengler.blogspot.com/2010/11/prisoners-of-themselves.html">employed</a>, that is). Japan hosts <a href="http://martintengler.blogspot.com/2011/01/tokyo.html">Tokyo</a>, the largest metropolitan area on the planet, which packs more people than Canada on an area smaller than Rhode Island. But enough about Japan.<br />
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I have decided upon one very important thing. I will not end this blog with my return from Japan. After all, I did not call it <i>Martin in Japan </i>or <i>A Czech Guy in Kyoto</i>, but <i>Where Worlds Meet</i>. I called it that because I have lived in four countries in my life, speak multiple languages, and have friends in well over one hundred countries. I often get to visit interesting places, meet interesting people, and my overall life experience is not that of an average person. People who read this blog reflect well the broad base of friends and acquaintances which I have all over the world. People from all countries, of over one hundred nationalities and citizenships, of all possible sexes, colors, religious beliefs, sexual and political orientations, people with more or less money and more or less power, everyone can and does read about my experiences and ideas on this blog. This blog is a place where all of my friends and people I know, and also people I don't know, get to meet and find a common ground. That is why I called it <i>Where Worlds Meet</i>. As long as my life continues to be interesting and unusual, as long as I continue meeting interesting people and visiting interesting places, I will continue to write in this blog. I will probably not be writing as regularly as I did when I was in Japan, where I experienced entirely new, interesting things almost every day, but I will continue to write. I hope that you will continue to read.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Thank you, people of the whole world, for reading my blog. I truly appreciate it.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>Martinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00321275969724273640noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-538705309491392964.post-73712500070268724942011-04-22T06:37:00.002+02:002014-03-15T22:04:38.048+01:00Gone with the SakuraStarting approximately the week of Apr 4, Kyoto's famous cherry trees started to bloom. Called <em>Sakura</em> (桜 or 櫻) in Japanese, they are as much a symbol of Japan as sushi is. Since the time of the Heian-kyo, which is how the city of Kyoto was called in the early medieval, many poets and artists have tried to express the beauty of the <em>Sakura</em> on paper. I will be less poetic, and instead of writing a poem I will portray the beauty of the <em>Sakura</em> in the .jpg form at the end of this post. Let me first, however, explain a little more about these curious cherry trees. <br />
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It is really difficult to explain how much Kyoto changed during the first week of April. From a slightly grey, misty, cold old lady, the city transformed nearly instantaneously into a pink, warm, blooming beauty as the cherry blossoms popped out of their buds almost overnight. Literally, everything in the city became pink. Everywhere I rode the train, I could see pink cherry blossoms beautifying the landscape. Every shrine and every temple, every street, every school, every backyard, every mountain, both banks of the Kamo river, everything was pink. <br />
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Before and during the Sakura season, the weather forecasts included predictions of when the Sakura would start blooming in a particular region. Because Japan is a big country spread over a large vertical distance, the Sakura do not bloom in all parts at the same time. They first start blooming in the warm <a href="http://martintengler.blogspot.com/2011/04/okinawa.html">Okinawa</a>, then in the central regions where Kyoto is, and then slowly make their way to the north of the country. <br />
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The day that the cherry trees started blooming in Kyoto, the mood in the city turned around. People of all ages and all occupations, be they university students, housewives, or salary men in their sixties, went out where the cherry trees were, engaging in an activity called <em>Hanami</em>, or "Looking at the Blossoms." When I heard this phrase for the first time, I thought that nothing could be more boring than staring at blooming trees; how wrong was I. Let me describe to you what <em>Hanami</em> is really about.<br />
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In my opinion, <em>Hanami</em> (花見), looking at the flowers, should be renamed to <em>Hananomi</em> (花飲み), or drinking under the flowers. Literally, crowds of people of all ages set up blue plastic tarts under the blooming trees at major shrines and temples, around the Kamo river, at the Imperial Palace, and other popular places, bringing lots of food and alcohol, and drinking until late in the night. Hundreds of food stalls emerged around the main cherry-viewing spots, selling everything from okonomiyaki, takoyaki, teriyaki, taiyaki, oden, sausages, and noodles, to sweets and alcohol. No one cared whether it was Saturday or Wednesday, and if they had to go to work tomorrow or not. Today the Sakura are here, and tomorrow they may not be. If the winds are strong or it it rains too much, the blossoms could fall down in a few minutes. <br />
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Their impermanence is the worst as well as the best thing about the <i>Sakura</i>. The worst thing about their impermanence is that their beauty does not last. The best thing about their impermanence is exactly the same; if the blossoms did last, no one would ever appreciate their beauty so much. This idea is deeply rooted in the minds of many Japanese, a philosophy called <em>mono no aware</em>, which literally means something like "the pathos of things." Everything is impermanent, everything will die, which is also what makes it beautiful. Literally, the blossoms disappeared as fast as they came. First, everything was grey. One day, every tree was pink. Three days later, the ground was pink as well, because the <em>Sakura</em> leaves started falling down. Another three days later, the show was close to being over. See you next year, <em>Sakura</em>. The Japanese know this very well and waste no time to see the <em>Sakura</em> trees in full bloom. <br />
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Companies sell special Sakura edition foods, which are often no different from the usual products except that they have a pink wrapping instead of their usual color. A good example are the special <em>Sakura</em> beer editions, which feature pink blossoms on the can but the beer inside tastes the same. Sakura themselves can also be used as a food. Pickled in salt, they are put into tea or used to decorate traditional Japanese sweets. The fact that they are pickled in salt, however, means that they only smell nice, but taste horrible. Pickling the <i>Sakura </i>is only a meager attempt to preserve these amazing blossoms which are gone before you even notice that they are there.<br />
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Appropriately enough, my time in Japan will be gone with the <em>Sakura</em>. As the last lonely pink leaves fall to the ground, my eight-month long stay in Kyoto will come to an end. Next Wednesday, I will be gone from the amazing place which the city of Kyoto is. The eight months here indeed felt like the life of a Sakura: beautiful, interesting, and very short. What did I learn, how did I change, and what will come next? Did I make the best out of the time here? I assume that the pages of this blog can tell you better than I. Before I leave for Prague, though, I will try to write one more post concerned with exactly the above questions. <br />
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At the beginning of the last month of her stay in Argentina, my friend Kayla wrote in her blog that she had thirty beautiful sunsets above Buenos Aires left to watch from her apartment house's balcony. She also said that she must do the best with these thirty days because they will never repeat. I will now go and do exactly that during my last week in Japan. See you on the other side.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><object width="320" height="266" class="BLOGGER-youtube-video" classid="clsid:D27CDB6E-AE6D-11cf-96B8-444553540000" codebase="http://download.macromedia.com/pub/shockwave/cabs/flash/swflash.cab#version=6,0,40,0" data-thumbnail-src="http://0.gvt0.com/vi/3_BT3KcBsBg/0.jpg"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/3_BT3KcBsBg&fs=1&source=uds" /><param name="bgcolor" value="#FFFFFF" /><embed width="320" height="266" src="http://www.youtube.com/v/3_BT3KcBsBg&fs=1&source=uds" type="application/x-shockwave-flash"></embed></object></div><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="padding-top: 4px; text-align: center;"><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">A great example of Sakura alcoholic beverages . Orion beer, sold in Okinawa, even made a special commercial for its Sakura special edition cans. The beer tastes the same, but the can has cherry blossoms on it. The music is actually Cojaco, the artist whom I met in Okinawa.</div></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Tjg9TsBnO9Q/Ta2Tg-l9sMI/AAAAAAAAAiw/FjzyD52gC3w/s1600/P1000170.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" i8="true" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Tjg9TsBnO9Q/Ta2Tg-l9sMI/AAAAAAAAAiw/FjzyD52gC3w/s320/P1000170.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">New friends that I made during one of my walks through the Imperial Palace. They were doing <i>Hanami</i> and asked me if I wanted to join. I did, and we have been hanging out ever since. The trees in the back are actually peach trees, and not cherries. They last longer, but are not considered to be as beautiful. The Chinese, on the other hand, cherish their longevity.</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-5thFYXRPj1c/Ta2TrZyxx7I/AAAAAAAAAl0/XAGioyweIno/s1600/P1000227.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" i8="true" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-5thFYXRPj1c/Ta2TrZyxx7I/AAAAAAAAAl0/XAGioyweIno/s320/P1000227.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A little UWC reunion: my friend Minami from Pearson came to Kyoto and we met under the Sakura trees. It was lovely.</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-EUaosuE8qMg/Ta2Ty2lJJaI/AAAAAAAAAjU/2wxrfGtQHoo/s1600/P1000230.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" i8="true" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-EUaosuE8qMg/Ta2Ty2lJJaI/AAAAAAAAAjU/2wxrfGtQHoo/s320/P1000230.JPG" width="240" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A night light up of Sakura in Maruyama Park, downtown Kyoto.</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-aVMaaBaO424/Ta2T2FNm7XI/AAAAAAAAAl4/FqRZ4CoHK1A/s1600/P1000239.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" i8="true" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-aVMaaBaO424/Ta2T2FNm7XI/AAAAAAAAAl4/FqRZ4CoHK1A/s320/P1000239.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">This is what Hanami is all about: drinking and eating under the trees. The signs advertise Oden (an indescribable but delicious food), and Soba and Udon (types of noodles).</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-vyhfpeLN_iU/Ta2U1CrWCrI/AAAAAAAAAlE/-wwVh5ksGGs/s1600/P1000334.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" i8="true" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-vyhfpeLN_iU/Ta2U1CrWCrI/AAAAAAAAAlE/-wwVh5ksGGs/s320/P1000334.JPG" width="240" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A detail of Sakura.</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-zV0IijQlhsM/Ta2Ura0HFRI/AAAAAAAAAk4/4Sl0HtBo8KM/s1600/P1000306.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" i8="true" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-zV0IijQlhsM/Ta2Ura0HFRI/AAAAAAAAAk4/4Sl0HtBo8KM/s320/P1000306.JPG" width="240" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The Philosopher's Path, Kyoto.</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-bnowe3XUP2o/Ta2UfFqIeRI/AAAAAAAAAmQ/HbrFs72H5tA/s1600/P1000287.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" i8="true" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-bnowe3XUP2o/Ta2UfFqIeRI/AAAAAAAAAmQ/HbrFs72H5tA/s320/P1000287.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A scene at the Kamo River. Notice the birds as well as the Sakura on all four of the banks.</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-gilkQMfXeiU/Ta2UEiPzTGI/AAAAAAAAAl8/znYsbK0aP6k/s1600/P1000262.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" i8="true" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-gilkQMfXeiU/Ta2UEiPzTGI/AAAAAAAAAl8/znYsbK0aP6k/s320/P1000262.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Weeping Cherries at the Nijo Castle, Kyoto.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>Martinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00321275969724273640noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-538705309491392964.post-27881071281925034702011-04-14T05:13:00.003+02:002014-03-15T22:04:38.025+01:00OkinawaBefore you start reading, please turn up your speakers and play the song below.<br />
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</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">What you are listening to is an Okinawan three-stringed instrument called <em>Sanshin</em>, something very similar to the Japanese <em>Shamisen</em>, except that it is covered with snake skin and not cat skin. The singer is an Okinawan artist who calls herself Cojaco, who I met in one of the many "Live Music Bars" (Raibu Myuujikku Baa) of Naha, Okinawa's capital. The song is called <em>Umui Uta</em>, which is a mix of Okinawan and Japanese meaning "A Song Filled With Thoughts". </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">During our first night in Naha, me, Irene, and Sakura, a new friend of ours, decided that since we were in Okinawa, we should listen to some live<em> Sanshin</em> music. The same night we visited a live music bar which advertised a <em>free</em> beer upon entry (of course after we paid an entry fee which cost the same as two beers). As it turned out, entering that bar was one of the best decisions of our Okinawan trip. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">As we entered, we indeed received our three <em>free</em> beers, and a little later the music performance started. A tall Okinawan woman in her early thirties and a man of a similar age with curly long hair, very unusual for a Japanese man, appeared on the stage. As we later found out, the woman's name was Cojaco, and the man's name Kaworu. They played a variety of Okinawan songs, mostly of their own production, for about thirty minutes. During this whole time, people were singing along, and the overall atmosphere was just amazing. A slightly drunk man in his early sixties was supporting the couple with a very loud voice, obviously enjoying their music more than everyone else. For this whole time, the three of us were clapping and trying to sing along, even though we did not know the lyrics. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">During the whole performance, I was waiting for the two to start singing the song which was the real reason why I entered the bar. The song I wanted to hear was <em>Shima Uta</em>, a 1993 piece by the Japanese group BOOM, and perhaps my most favorite Japanese song of all times. When the performance was over and they still did not sing it, I shouted out in Japanese: Please sing <em>Shima Uta</em>! Maybe because they were surprised by a foreigner who could not only ask for <em>a</em> song but who also knew what he wanted to hear, the two pleased me with an encore in the form of <em>Shima Uta</em>. When the musicians finally left the stage after my standing ovations, the bar emptied quickly. In a few minutes, there was no one left except for the three of us, the older man, his wife, and a few other people. Suddenly, the couple emerged from the backstage area and started selling their CD, called <em>Umui Uta</em>.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">As they got closer, the older man, obviously a large fan of theirs, shouted out to the waitress: "Beer for the musicians, please!" Before long, Cojaco and Kaworu were sitting with the man and his wife, drinking the beer which the man paid for. I took up my courage, and asked if I could join them. "Of course," they said. As usual, I was asked how a white man like myself speaks such good Japanese, then asked how many years I have been living in Japan, and where I am from. When I said that I was Czech, I received the usual reaction: "You are the first Czech person that I have met," or something like that. I ordered another beer (my fourth, because the girls each gave me their <em>free</em> one), and the conversation went on.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">As it turned out, the older man was a graduate of Doshisha University in Kyoto, the school which me and Irene go to. He and his wife met in Kyoto, going on dates to the many of the beautiful city's temples, and are always happy to come back there. It is a Japanese custom that older classmates, <em>Senpai</em>, pay for the drinks of their younger classmates, <em>Kouhai</em>. It is almost a necessity required by the society. Thus he said that we are free to order whatever we wanted, and he would pay. His wife, to my surprise, was supporting her husband in his spending. "He has to do it," she said, and ordered another beer for me, despite my glass being almost full. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">The conversation continued, and I got to talk to Kaworu, who let me try to play his <em>Sanshin</em>, without me even asking for it. He and Cojaco showed me how to hold it, and I was enjoying this precious moment to its fullest. We also took a group picture, with me holding Kaworu's <em>Sanshin</em>, and I bought Cojaco's signed CD. They also taught me some phrases in the Okinawan language, which made me realize ever so more that there was a time when Okinawa was not a part of Japan. We drank and talked until the man's wife decided that her husband has had enough, and said that he has to go home. They paid the bill, and we parted ways.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-oeBH21LatJM/TaMaP8QlyTI/AAAAAAAAAhc/j4nLiSbMoCY/s1600/DSCN0638.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="300" r6="true" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-oeBH21LatJM/TaMaP8QlyTI/AAAAAAAAAhc/j4nLiSbMoCY/s400/DSCN0638.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Top row from the left: Our new friend Sakura, Cojaco, generous older man's wife, generous older man, Kaworu.<br />
Bottom row from the left: Me with the <em>Sanshin</em> (notice the snake skin), Irene.</td></tr>
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">There are a few things which you should learn by reading the above anecdote and listening to the song. First, Okinawan music very often involves the <em>Sanshin</em>. Second, Okinawan people are very open-hearted. Third, there is a Japanese custom to pay for younger subordinates in bars and restaurants, and to require them to drink quite heavily. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">So what else is there to Okinawa? Okinawa, also known as the Ryukyu Archipelago, is a set of islands to the south-west of mainland Japan. Okinawa used to be a country of its own, called the Ryukyu Kingdom, until Japan annexed it in 1879. Even now there is an independence movement in Okinawa. Okinawans have their own language, which is however fading quickly, and its today's version resembles Japanese with an accent and a few different words. Okinawa has a very sad history, as it was the only place in Japan where fighting took place during the WW2. Over two hundred thousand people died there during the final months of the battle, including women and children. Many chose to commit suicide rather than be taken by the Americans. After the War, the Americans occupied the Ryukyu Islands until 1972. Okinawa was officially an American territory, the US dollar was used, and cars drove on the right. Even though the Americans returned Okinawa to Japan in 1972, one fifth of the main island still remains under US control in the form of military bases. The bases remained in Okinawa for two main reasons. First, the US is obliged to protect Japan in case of War. Second, Okinawa is very close to major East Asian cities, like Shanghai, Taipei, Tokyo, Manila, Hong Kong, Beijing, and others, giving the US a strategic advantage in case of armed conflict. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">It suffices to say that US soldiers stationed in Okinawa do not always behave like gentlemen. There have been cases of rape and murder, and since 1950, over one thousand Okinawans died because of American presence. Many Okinawans despise the US military presence on their island, though at the same time they realize that it helps to keep peace in East Asia. The bases are thus a very controversial topic, and some will likely disappear in the near future. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">The reason why I went to Okinawa was, other than to enjoy the vista of blooming <em>Deigo</em> trees and sunny beaches, to learn about Okinawa's history and see what kind of presence the US military has in Okinawa. To do so, I first went on a bus tour of the southern part of Okinawa which was focused on former military sites or other WW2-related topics. I had the chance to enter some of the tunnels where Japanese and Okinawan soldiers were hiding and where many died or committed suicide. I also visited the Himeyuri peace memorial, dedicated to 240 medical school female students who were forced to treat injured and dying soldiers in horrendous conditions and of whom over three quarters were killed on the run after their unit was dismantled. I also visited the Okinawa peace memorial where the names of all soldiers fallen in Okinawa during the war are written, independently of their nationality. Seeing all of the above, it became obvious to me that Okinawans do not want the terrible history to repeat itself. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br />
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</div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-OpOhG2__p14/TaMZBukOCSI/AAAAAAAAAfA/YDhD-6E9HNg/s1600/DSCN0507.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" r6="true" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-OpOhG2__p14/TaMZBukOCSI/AAAAAAAAAfA/YDhD-6E9HNg/s320/DSCN0507.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Some of the tunnels where Japanese and Okinawan soldiers were hiding before the end of WW2 and where many found their deaths.</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-xUh9R-xS97Q/TaMZIscEyYI/AAAAAAAAAfQ/4TAIqwQAXgs/s1600/DSCN0531.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" r6="true" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-xUh9R-xS97Q/TaMZIscEyYI/AAAAAAAAAfQ/4TAIqwQAXgs/s320/DSCN0531.JPG" width="240" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The Okinawa Peace Memorial.</td></tr>
</tbody></table><br />
Despite the past occupation and the current military presence, or maybe exactly because of it, Okinawans love American food and other products. Many American goods can be bought in Okinawa, American steakhouses are probably the most popular of all restaurants, and many American chains which do not appear in mainland Japan (for example A&W) have a large presence in Okinawa. At the same time, however, the customers of the above establishments seem to be largely Japanese or Okinawans. I found it very surprising that there are actually very few American soldiers present in the city of Naha and its surroundings. The soldiers generally live near their bases so that they do not have to commute too far every day.<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-bZiYoT0y3Zs/TaMaLcHKB9I/AAAAAAAAAhU/EycPi6y8AT8/s1600/DSCN0623.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" r6="true" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-bZiYoT0y3Zs/TaMaLcHKB9I/AAAAAAAAAhU/EycPi6y8AT8/s320/DSCN0623.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A store in Naha selling imported American goods. I bought myself a can of A&W Root Beer.</td></tr>
</tbody></table> <br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-IVsVyySduXM/TaMaM_iQCsI/AAAAAAAAAhY/d1xUg3_dcJQ/s1600/DSCN0628.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" r6="true" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-IVsVyySduXM/TaMaM_iQCsI/AAAAAAAAAhY/d1xUg3_dcJQ/s320/DSCN0628.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A poster in front of a Live Music Bar in Naha. The woman on the left is holding a pig head.</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Dol57c_e1Ho/TaMZdUsusdI/AAAAAAAAAf0/pKRnADvwnIc/s1600/DSCN0568.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" r6="true" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Dol57c_e1Ho/TaMZdUsusdI/AAAAAAAAAf0/pKRnADvwnIc/s320/DSCN0568.JPG" width="240" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Jasmine tea, or <em>Sanpin Cha</em>, is an Okinawan specialty which can be bought in any of Okinawa's omnipresent vending machines. Notice the lion-like creature on the label. It's called the Shisa and is Okinawa's symbol.</td></tr>
</tbody></table><br />
Finally, me and Irene also went to the castle in Naha, which was also destroyed by American bombing during WW2 and rebuilt in the 1970s. We also cooled our feet in the almost pleasantly warm Pacific ocean, and tried some Habu sake. Habu sake features the <em>Habu</em>, an Okinawan poisonous snake, which is submerged into the alcohol (either straight alive or dead and gutted), supposedly giving the drink medicinal properties. Habu sake is sold in bottles which have the snake in them, and you can eat it if you wish. We also went whale watching, checked out some amazing caves with beautiful rock formations, and generally enjoyed the blooming paradise which Okinawa is. <br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-VLxBcXybV1w/TaMZsSHLz_I/AAAAAAAAAgc/UshffX6pKks/s1600/DSCN0588.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" r6="true" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-VLxBcXybV1w/TaMZsSHLz_I/AAAAAAAAAgc/UshffX6pKks/s320/DSCN0588.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Bottles of Habu Sake.</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-GZ86YmrTdgY/TaMZ5ZJc53I/AAAAAAAAAgo/uYSSDljyWp0/s1600/DSCN0610.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" r6="true" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-GZ86YmrTdgY/TaMZ5ZJc53I/AAAAAAAAAgo/uYSSDljyWp0/s320/DSCN0610.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The main building in the Okinawan castle. We did not want to pay the ridiculous 800 Yen ($10) for entrance, and so I climbed up on a castle wall and took a picture of it for free.</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-GtNVbGzfGzg/TaMZqKdm4dI/AAAAAAAAAgY/ZAx2AalmYVk/s1600/DSCN0582.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" r6="true" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-GtNVbGzfGzg/TaMZqKdm4dI/AAAAAAAAAgY/ZAx2AalmYVk/s320/DSCN0582.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Caves in Okinawa.</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-PE4B_p1X4Cc/TaMZcHgusmI/AAAAAAAAAfw/uINaEce5ZX4/s1600/DSCN0562.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" r6="true" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-PE4B_p1X4Cc/TaMZcHgusmI/AAAAAAAAAfw/uINaEce5ZX4/s320/DSCN0562.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A beach in Okinawa.</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-eVc40zMjR2k/TaMaKHVyjOI/AAAAAAAAAhQ/ZdOF6pac4Sg/s1600/DSCN0622.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" r6="true" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-eVc40zMjR2k/TaMaKHVyjOI/AAAAAAAAAhQ/ZdOF6pac4Sg/s320/DSCN0622.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Okinawan Soba, the island's traditional noodle dish.</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-eorkLTa2LSg/TaMZ-SK4eWI/AAAAAAAAAgw/xLnhz2va5V8/s1600/DSCN0618.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" r6="true" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-eorkLTa2LSg/TaMZ-SK4eWI/AAAAAAAAAgw/xLnhz2va5V8/s320/DSCN0618.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Detail on an Okinawan roof. They are traditionally made of red brick and create an amazing atmosphere. This one is the roof of a Buddhist temple wall in Naha. Please note that the reversed Swastika is a Buddhist symbol, and Japan is full of them.</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-_jRbYh-8YzI/TaMaZPRC79I/AAAAAAAAAiE/T3HoI5nmgEM/s1600/DSCN0676.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" r6="true" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-_jRbYh-8YzI/TaMaZPRC79I/AAAAAAAAAiE/T3HoI5nmgEM/s320/DSCN0676.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A sunset in Okinawa.</td></tr>
</tbody></table><div align="center"></div>Martinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00321275969724273640noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-538705309491392964.post-91746829848875445182011-04-08T04:47:00.000+02:002014-03-16T11:46:37.713+01:00Korea Part 2<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"></div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;">As promised, here is the second part of my Korea journal. Sorry for the note format, but there is too much to be said and too little time to do it. I also do not guarantee a 100 per cent accuracy of what I wrote as I received much of the info from unverified sources, such as locals who spoke miserable English or Japanese. Next week I will try to post a more sophisticated post on Okinawa, which was amazing.</div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><br />
</div><strong>Korea in general:</strong><br />
<ol><li style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;">All Korean food includes Kimchi (fermentred spicy cabbage), and some type of hot sauce.</li>
<li style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;">Tap water in Korea is not drinkable. </li>
<li style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;">Korean drinks of choice are Soju (about 20% alc. clear liquid made of rice tasting like watered down vodka) and Makkori (a thick, almost soup-like rice wine, 5 - 10% alc.).</li>
<li style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;">Drivers in Korea will kill you if you don't pay attention, even if you're crossing on a green light. They also honk all the time for no apparent reason.</li>
<li style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;">Motorcycles often drive on sidewalks in Korea (!).</li>
<li style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;">Even in the more legitimate stores, such as Family Mart and 7/11 and other international chains, they often do not put up price tags. This sucks especially if you are a tourist because the shopkeepers often try to charge you double the usual price. </li>
<li>Housing in Korea is quite monotonous. There are tall apartment houses stuffed one next to another, all looking the same in every city, all with numbers on them, like this: 100, 101, 102, ..., 155, ...</li>
<li>Koreans are mostly Christian (as opposed to Japanese who are Shinto and Buddhist), and their churches feature neon crosses, ads, and such. When you drive in Korea at night, along with Family Mart signs you see red neon crosses all over the place.</li>
<li>According to linguists, the Korean alphabet, Hangul, is one of the most sophisticated, efficient, and scientific alphabets in the world. I can add that it is also very easy to learn to read (took me about two hours).</li>
</ol><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><img alt="" aria-busy="false" aria-describedby="fbPhotoTheaterCaption" class="spotlight" height="240" src="http://a2.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc6/195886_10150173269096007_639776006_8755377_4442412_n.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" width="320" /></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A Christian sect recruiting people in the middle of the street in Seoul. Many Koreans are Christian, and there are many churches in Korea. When the night falls, the churches light up neon crosses (!) and signs to attract attention. My most favorite was one which said "Strong Jesus".</td></tr>
</tbody></table> <table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgA7A4kx5zmoWsL_SuKLo9T7ZJBH8s5QTCje0pK1jsKVDIv9vKTbjanCaERUgbutzZKfK4V0OjwTCmaXFaZ-JgDNZVRRs8LX5Gc3X0-Ji1izCrats6xT5e3dVTVRwX-yCUJYy3pV1Pg81U/s1600/Bus.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" r6="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgA7A4kx5zmoWsL_SuKLo9T7ZJBH8s5QTCje0pK1jsKVDIv9vKTbjanCaERUgbutzZKfK4V0OjwTCmaXFaZ-JgDNZVRRs8LX5Gc3X0-Ji1izCrats6xT5e3dVTVRwX-yCUJYy3pV1Pg81U/s320/Bus.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A FREE bus for foreigners from Kyeongju to Seoul. All buses in Korea seem to have huge, luxurious seats, and yet cost very little money.</td></tr>
</tbody></table> <div style="text-align: left;"><strong>Seoul (Day 1, 2, and 7):</strong></div><ol><li style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;">Seoul is the second largest metropolis on the planet, has twenty million people.</li>
<li>You can smell the sewer in many places in Seoul and the rest of Korea.</li>
<li>There are many palaces in Seoul, the most famous one being the Gyeongbok palace, which was burnt down by the Japanese in 1598 and then rebuilt later. (One more reason for Koreans to love Japan...)</li>
<li>Public transport is quick, clean, efficient, and CHEAP. The most expensive ride we took was about $1. </li>
<li style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;">Of all the places we went in Korea, Seoul was probably the least attractive.</li>
</ol><ol><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://a5.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc6/196006_10150173268356007_639776006_8755359_2028722_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="" aria-busy="false" aria-describedby="fbPhotoTheaterCaption" border="0" class="spotlight" height="240" src="http://a5.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc6/196006_10150173268356007_639776006_8755359_2028722_n.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The Gyeongbok Palace in Seoul.</td></tr>
</tbody></table></ol><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><strong>DMZ (Day 2):</strong></div><ol><li style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;">Patrolled by two million South Korean soldiers. </li>
<li>You can only enter the DMZ as part of a tour.</li>
<li style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;">Along the Freedom Highway which leads to the DMZ, there is a river on the left which is barricaded by a huge barbed wire fence and a soldier post every 100m - just in case of an invasion from the North.</li>
<li>As you enter the DMZ, the bridge which leads to it is obstructed with barricades every 20m or so, making it impossible to drive straight - smart way to slow down tanks and artillery.</li>
<li>No pictures of North Korea allowed.</li>
<li>They sell North Korean alcohol and stamps in the DMZ. Though very expensive, the lager I drank was pretty good (7/10 on my beer scale, somewhere around Kirin beer or Bass Ale).</li>
<li>There have been four tunnels found so far which North Korea dug in the past to invade the south, we visited one of them.</li>
<li>UN soldiers cross the border every day to ensure the safe crossing of 900 (!) South Korean managers which work in the North as part of unification-cooperation efforts. North Korean labor is five times as cheap as Chinese.</li>
<li>The south propagates the DMZ as a great natural protection area where many endangered species live. </li>
</ol><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><img alt="" aria-busy="false" aria-describedby="fbPhotoTheaterCaption" class="spotlight" height="240" src="http://a7.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc6/197978_10150173269706007_639776006_8755401_5933925_n.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" width="320" /></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">This is as close as we were allowed to take a picture of North Korea. The mountains in the back are North Korea.</td></tr>
</tbody></table> <table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><img alt="" aria-busy="true" aria-describedby="fbPhotoTheaterCaption" class="spotlight" height="320" src="http://a4.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc6/197390_10150173269881007_639776006_8755407_4237345_n.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" width="240" /></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">North Korean beer that they were selling on the border. Very expensive ($5 per bottle), and surprisingly very tasty!</td></tr>
</tbody></table> <div style="text-align: left;"><strong>Jeju Island (Day 2, 3, 4):</strong></div><ol><li>Called Korea's Hawai, Jeju is the biggest island of South Korea. There is a huge volcano, Mt Halla, in the middle. Mt Halla is South Korea's tallest mountain.</li>
<li>The approx. one hour long plane ride from Seoul to Jeju cost us as little as $30. Cheaper than even just getting <em>to</em> the airport in Japan.</li>
<li>Jeju is a volcanic island and thus has many volcanic traits. Most of the rocks on the island are of volcanic origin, have air bubbles in them, and thus float! There are also ENORMOUS lava tunnels beneath the surface as well as other minor volcanic formations, such as six-sided rock crystals.</li>
<li>Jeju is famous for the yellow Rape Flower (no puns intended), which is used to prodce oil. They also sell Rape Honey (again, no puns intended).</li>
<li>The sea water in Jeju is beautifully clear, which however does not apply to the beaches.</li>
<li>Oranges and coconuts are Jeju's major products.</li>
</ol><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><img alt="" aria-busy="false" aria-describedby="fbPhotoTheaterCaption" class="spotlight" height="181" src="http://a5.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/188892_10150173273366007_639776006_8755482_271868_n.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" width="400" /></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Six-sided rocks on Jeju Island. There are similar ones in the Czech Republic.</td></tr>
</tbody></table> <table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><img alt="" aria-busy="false" aria-describedby="fbPhotoTheaterCaption" class="spotlight" height="240" src="http://a1.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc6/188916_10150173271901007_639776006_8755456_1405991_n.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" width="320" /></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Probably the most amazing thing that I have ever seen in my life. On Jeju, there are tens of kilometres of enormously wide lava tunnels under the ground, and some are lit up for tourists to enter.</td></tr>
</tbody></table> <table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><img alt="" aria-busy="false" aria-describedby="fbPhotoTheaterCaption" class="spotlight" height="240" src="http://a6.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc6/200070_10150173270621007_639776006_8755431_4524213_n.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" width="320" /></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A scene in Jeju. The mountain in the back is Mt Halla, the highest peak of South Korea. The statues, made of the floating rock I described, were everywhere in Jeju.</td></tr>
</tbody></table> <strong>Pusan (Also written as Busan; Day 5):</strong><br />
<ol><li>Pusan is Korea's number two city in terms of size and importance after Seoul.</li>
<li>It is located on the Southeastern coast, and is, along with the near city of Ulsan, one of the places where Korea produces its famous ships and where Koreans ship their cars, LCD TVs etc. into the rest of the world. In other words, Pusan IS South Korea's economy.</li>
<li>The city is divided into tiny "noodles" by ranges of 500-800m tall mountains.</li>
<li>Because it is on the sea, Pusan is famous for its raw fish. We tried it and it was delicious.</li>
<li>As opposed to Seoul, no one really speaks English or Japanese in Pusan, which makes it very hard to get by, especially considering that price tags are usually not present.</li>
</ol><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><img alt="" aria-busy="false" aria-describedby="fbPhotoTheaterCaption" class="spotlight" height="168" src="http://a1.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc6/196902_10150173273256007_639776006_8755480_4661620_n.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" width="400" /></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">This one picture tells you everything you need to know about Pusan. It captures the beautiful Pusan port as seen from the ugly Pusan tower. Notice the MANY ships waiting at the sea to get permission to dock. This is Pusan.</td></tr>
</tbody></table><div align="center"></div><strong>Kyongju (also written Gyongju or Gyeongju; Day 6):</strong><br />
<ol><li>Korea's oldest city.</li>
<li>There are many mounded tombs (Kofun) of kings from as far as the 6th century in the city. This is very similar to the ancient Japanese capital of Nara (close to Kyoto).</li>
<li><div style="text-align: left;">The "historical center" of Kyongju is one big shopping area full of McDonalds, Pizza Huts, Alpine Pro stores, Merell stores, and the like. A little disappointment to me, to be honest. </div></li>
<li><div style="text-align: left;">Famous for the nearby Bulguksa temple.</div></li>
</ol><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><img alt="" aria-busy="false" aria-describedby="fbPhotoTheaterCaption" class="spotlight" height="240" src="http://a8.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc6/189652_10150173272706007_639776006_8755470_6332859_n.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" width="320" /></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Kofun (mounded tombs) in Kyeongju.</td></tr>
</tbody></table><div style="text-align: center;"></div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjPh-6Zfk7eo1ALA0MYhN7iYvdCuIJPQQVOaPGg6ScbIkp-9Wt3aE35xY-hfVDcYNhk5ESy0rycKkmdPu0Ksk5of464mkbhovMNqL01tJ7mHw-fCH95a9u870p7vWHzqQzxQPR6gRRQsVY/s1600/Bulguksa.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" r6="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjPh-6Zfk7eo1ALA0MYhN7iYvdCuIJPQQVOaPGg6ScbIkp-9Wt3aE35xY-hfVDcYNhk5ESy0rycKkmdPu0Ksk5of464mkbhovMNqL01tJ7mHw-fCH95a9u870p7vWHzqQzxQPR6gRRQsVY/s320/Bulguksa.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The famous Bulguksa Temple near Kyongju. Beautiful.</td></tr>
</tbody></table><div style="text-align: left;"><br />
</div>Martinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00321275969724273640noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-538705309491392964.post-33366926044236170322011-04-01T05:09:00.000+02:002014-03-16T11:46:37.692+01:00Korea Part 1<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><img alt="" aria-busy="false" aria-describedby="fbPhotoTheaterCaption" class="spotlight" height="240" src="http://a6.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc6/190188_10150173270341007_639776006_8755425_1553976_n.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" width="320" /></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The one and only preview picture, just to wet your apetite. This one captures a scene from Jeju Island.</td></tr>
</tbody></table><br />
<br />
Last week me and three of my AKP friends went on a trip to South Korea as a part of our spring break. We visited the country's capital city, Seoul, and then made our way to its largest island, Jeju. From there we went to Pusan, the number two city and number one port in Korea, and to Kyeongju, Korea's oldest city. We also visited the famous Demilitarized Zone, or DMZ, which marks the border between South and North Korea.<br />
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South Korea is Japan's closest neighbor, and just like Japan, over seventy percent of its territory consists of mountains. There are many other similarities between Japan and Korea. Korea's capital, Seoul, is the second largest metropolitan area in the world after Tokyo, with its roughly twenty million people comprising about half of the country's population. Korea is also a large producer of cars, ships, and modern electronics, and serves, just like Japan, as a large base for American troops in East Asia. Korean pop music is very popular in Japan, as are Korean food and alcohol. The two languages, despite having a different writing system and other differences, are related and many words are pronounced the same. However, there are also many differences between Japan and Korea.<br />
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First and foremost, Japan occupied Korea between 1910 and 1945, which causes occasional bitterness in the two countries' relations even now. Second, I noticed in Korea that there is an incredibly large military presence as compared to mainland Japan (not counting Okinawa with its many American bases). Literally, there are soldiers everywhere you go. Spending eleven percent of its GDP on the military and having a compulsory two year military enrollment for males, South Korea is one of the most militarized countries in the world. That is because, as hopefully most of you know, the Korean peninsula is divided into two parts, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea in the North (DPRK) and the Republic of Korea (ROK) in the South. This division was a result of the Korean War which reached a stalemate in 1953 but on paper, however, it never ended. The countries are divided at roughly the 38th paralel by a four kilometer wide line called the Demilitarized Zone, or DMZ, which is ironically the most militarized place on the planet (just like the DPRK is probably the least democratic place in the world). The North Korean side of the DMZ contains so much artillery that it could annihilate the city of Seoul within three minutes. The south Korean side hosts two million heavily armed soldiers and at least seven million land mines ready to defend the country from an invasion by the North. South Korea has about twice the population of North Korea, and a twenty times higher GDP per capita. <br />
<br />
That is enough about Korea's history, now let me tell you what I did and what I found interesting about the country. Because my posts of late tend to be too long, I will give you bullet points to each place, just like I did in the case of Taiwan. However, because I have little time now as I have to catch a place to Okinawa, I will post those later. For now, enjoy this post.Martinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00321275969724273640noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-538705309491392964.post-45341681211230816712011-03-18T04:23:00.001+01:002014-03-15T22:04:38.040+01:00A Little Info on the EarthquakeAs probably all of you know, a magnitude 9 earthquake took place off the northeastern coast of Japan last Friday, March 11. It was the biggest earthquake in Japan's history and caused massive damage to areas as far as Tokyo, which is about 250 km away from the epicenter. The bigger problem, however, was the enormous tsunami which came as the earthquake's result. It literally leveled the city of Sendai and other northwestern coastal areas, killing many thousands (!) of people. Because the fate of over ten thousand people is still unknown, the Japanese government expects the death toll to rise over ten thousand, or four times the population of Colby College.<br />
<br />
The biggest problem, however, is that a nuclear power plant in Fukushima prefecture got damaged by the earthquake. The emergency cooling system, which turned on right away, got destroyed by the tsunami about an hour later. As a result at least four of the six reactors in the power plant started overheating and there is a danger that large amounts of radioactive material could escape into the environment in the form of a meltdown or an explosion. Some people are talking about a second Chernobyl. <br />
<br />
Though I am no nuclear physicist, and have little idea as to how a nuclear power plant works, I am quite certain that what happened in Chernobyl will not happen in Fukushima. The main reason for that is the fact that the Fukushima nuclear plant uses a different technology than the one that the soviets used in Chernobyl. The soviets used graphite as a moderator, which is highly flammable, while the Fukushima generator uses regular water ( = light water). What I believe could happen, though, is a meltdown of the reactor. In other words, the radioactive material could overheat and literally melt through the floor and the walls of its containment, polluting the environment. This is exactly what happened at the Three Mile Island nuclear plant in Pennsylvania, USA, in the year 1979. This, however, "only" affected the radius of approximately 20 miles away from the plant.<br />
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Now that you know what I know (let's hope we are being told the truth), let me tell you about the situation here in Kyoto. First and foremost, those of you who are worrying about my safety, thank you for your concern, but it is so far unnecessary. In Kyoto, the earthquake was barely felt (I didn't feel it at all), and no damage was caused. Because Kyoto is far from the sea, there was also no tsunami; in fact, there was no tsunami in Osaka either. As to the radiation problem, Kyoto lies about 700 km away from the plant in Fukushima, and therefore is not being affected at all. If a meltdown happened, Kyoto would still most likely not be affected. And, in the extremely unlikely situation that the reactor blew up like the one in Chernobyl, there is one good news for Kyoto: the winds blow to the east, and not to the south-west. Therefore the radioactive material would most likely not make its way here.<br />
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Now that you know that I am safe for now, let me tell you a little about how the people here are taking it. Here in Kyoto, though it has of course been a big topic of conversation, people are living their lives just the way they did before. The one thing which surprises me, though, is that <em>all</em> TV channels are showing info on the earthquake, and <em>all </em>keep on repeating <em>one</em> commercial for <em>one</em> company. Both of these things have me puzzled. In my opinion, one or two TV channels would seem enough to cover all the news and a larger commercial diversity would not make you feel so brainwashed. Perhaps it is because the government wants the population informed and thus ordered all TV stations to show the same thing? Literally, TV news of the past week make me feel as if the civil war in Lybia and the recent Doshisha University entrance exam cheating incident (yes, my university) never happened.<br />
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Before I finish, let me tell you one last interesting thing which you should already know if you have been reading this blog carefully. In 1995, there was a huge earthquake in the city of Kobe, just outside of Osaka and Kyoto. Though all three cities shook severely, Kobe got most of the damage. The earthquake (magnitude 7.2 as opposed to 9.0 last week) leveled the city of Kobe, and killed over 6,400 people. As you can see, destructive earthquakes are on daily (or yearly) order in Japan. To commemorate the horrible Kobe earthquake, the city organizes a light show called Kobe Luminarie, which I have already written about. Here's the link in case you need to refresh your memory: <a href="http://martintengler.blogspot.com/2010/12/lights-temples-speeches-and-holidays.html">http://martintengler.blogspot.com/2010/12/lights-temples-speeches-and-holidays.html</a>.<br />
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Finally, next week I will be going to Korea, and the week after that to Okinawa, so stay pumped for some exciting reports!Martinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00321275969724273640noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-538705309491392964.post-91002666592628630542011-03-11T03:48:00.001+01:002014-03-15T22:04:38.051+01:00Seven Things You Can Only Buy in JapanI bet that when you read the title "Things You Can Only Buy in Japan", most of you thought of sushi, miso soup, Japanese manga books, etc. However, Japanese food and books you can actually get in other parts of the world if you know where to look. What is it then that you actually can buy in Japan that you can not buy anywhere else? Or, more precisely, what have I seen in Japanese stores that I have not seen in stores in other countries?<br />
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<u>Sake Juice boxes</u><br />
It is not so hard to bump upon alcohol sold in boxes in Europe or America. These boxes are, however, usually relatively large and contain most often wine. When the box is smaller, like 200ml or so, I would tend to associate it with fruit juice that kids bring for lunch to school. The Japanese, however, sell small, 180ml juice boxes of s<em>ake</em>, their traditional alcoholic drink. You can get those in any convenience store for a mere hundred yen, which, if you measure in booze per buck units, is a really cheap deal compared to other forms of alcoholic drinks in Japan. My favorite brand of box <em>sake</em> is<em> Oni Koroshi</em>, or Demon Killer. It tastes decent, is not too sweet, and warms your heart and soul on a cold winter day.<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-gThOpjhcQ9M/TXjGq25HvzI/AAAAAAAAAdg/D4C2DKnv_F0/s1600/P1000104.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" q6="true" src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-gThOpjhcQ9M/TXjGq25HvzI/AAAAAAAAAdg/D4C2DKnv_F0/s320/P1000104.JPG" width="240" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><em>Oni Koroshi</em> (鬼ころし), my favorite juice brand.</td></tr>
</tbody></table><br />
<u>Purikura</u><br />
<em>Purikura</em> is less of a good and more of a service. I promised to post a few pictures of it online in early September already, so here you go. The deal with <em>Purikura</em> is simple. You take a bunch of your friends, one of whom has to be female in order to be able to enter (in theory at least). You enter a <em>Purikura</em> salon, most of which tend to be near <em>karaoke</em> bars, <em>izakaya</em>, game centers, or other drunken-teenager-producing establishments. You put together four hundred yen ($5). You go inside a picture booth and take a few "crazy" pictures (or love pictures etc.). Then, on a touch screen, you draw whatever you want on the pictures and give them a cool background. Then you print them out and have them sent to your email address. I am actually not sure if Purikura is only available in Japan, but I have yet to see it in Europe or the US.<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-q2StZggX22o/TXjHUGInnoI/AAAAAAAAAds/jturluSLaWQ/s1600/notitle00250001.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" q6="true" src="https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-q2StZggX22o/TXjHUGInnoI/AAAAAAAAAds/jturluSLaWQ/s1600/notitle00250001.JPG" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The first <em>purikura</em> I ever did in Japan, featuring myself and my two lovely AKP orientation guides, Saki and Erina.</td></tr>
</tbody></table><br />
<u>Racoon Tails</u><br />
One of the latest fashion trends among Japanese girls seems to be hanging racoon tails to their belts. Literally, they hang on their belt the tail of a racoon, fox, or other fluffy-tailed animal, or more frequently a fake tail. I have seen racoon hats in Canada, and dog coats in the 101 Dalmatians movie, but I have yet to see department stores selling racoon tails to young girls in such numbers as they do in Japan.<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh3sXL2iO4Xdh-1tlNafhIATrgk-nyWPvyWG3IDtafRMOBEO84bHtDqIdZzkvrVb5GR2Q7c_4unxXWPIkVHA8XKNg7ceJqt7Tm5socB7bR5eaC0BOKIi81tArSUfITkbYZyFA9nmeAuaqk/s1600/Tails.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" q6="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh3sXL2iO4Xdh-1tlNafhIATrgk-nyWPvyWG3IDtafRMOBEO84bHtDqIdZzkvrVb5GR2Q7c_4unxXWPIkVHA8XKNg7ceJqt7Tm5socB7bR5eaC0BOKIi81tArSUfITkbYZyFA9nmeAuaqk/s320/Tails.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A set of tails, ready to use. Source: <a href="http://ohcottoncandy.blogspot.com/">http://ohcottoncandy.blogspot.com/</a>.</td></tr>
</tbody></table><br />
<u>Double Eyelids</u><br />
It is the dream of many Japanese women (and most likely other Asian women) to have double eyelids just like white women do, and thus a market developed to satisfy this desire. You can buy a product which you "paste" on your eye like an eyepatch, and when on, you look like you have double eyelids. I wonder if there are any single eyelid patches available for white women?<br />
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<u>Vending Machines</u><br />
I have already mentioned that vending machines are everywhere in Japan, and I mean <em>everywhere</em>. They are on <em>every</em> street, on <em>every</em> corner, on <em>every</em> road, on the top of almost <em>every</em> mountain, inside <em>any</em> forest and on <em>any</em> boat. The bad thing about them is that they really don't beautify the scenery. The good thing is that they sell stuff which you can not buy anywhere else. They not only sell cans and bottles of Coke, Fanta, etc., but also cans with milk tea*, tens of varieties of coffee, hundreds of varieties of carbonated drinks, and of course cigarettes and alcohol, which is a good news for all underage drinkers. You can also choose whether you want your milk tea or coffee bottle hot or cold. <br />
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*Bottled milk tea is not only sold in Japan, but also in other parts of Asia. They had it in Taiwan, and I assume that you can buy in it China, Singapore, Malaysia, Korea, and other Asian countries. Why they do not sell it in Europe or America is a mystery to me.<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-Ium7UWuPQWE/TXjGptztFsI/AAAAAAAAAdc/W2Bso8-xDEs/s1600/P1000108.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" q6="true" src="https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-Ium7UWuPQWE/TXjGptztFsI/AAAAAAAAAdc/W2Bso8-xDEs/s320/P1000108.JPG" width="240" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A box of Lipton milk tea. 100 Yen in Japan, 50 Yen in Taiwan. Simply delicious. </td></tr>
</tbody></table><u><em>Gentei</em> merchandise</u><br />
<em>Gentei</em>,<em> </em>a Japanese word which literally means "limit", is used to describe a thing which you can only buy in one place. For example, <em>Hokkaido gentei</em> means that you can only buy the product on the island of Hokkaido. The Japanese seem to have a liking for <em>gentei</em> goods as in almost every place in Japan they sell some. There are, of course, many <em>gentei</em> products in Kyoto. The perhaps most famous are so called <em>Yatsuhashi</em>, rice dough sheets with a sweet filling. In Hokkaido you can buy <em>Shiroi Koibito</em>, a delicious white chocolate sheet sandwiched between two cookies, or Sapporo Classic Beer, which supposedly tastes different from the regular Sapporo beer available worldwide. Interestingly, as is the case with Sapporo Classic Beer and other <em>gentei </em>products, many are produced by huge conglomerates like Mitsubishi etc., which however are smart enough to keep selling the products in their region of origin in order to increase their sales. Kyoto's <em>Yatsuhashi</em> are an exception to this as there are seventeen (!) companies in Kyoto producing them.<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgiNmNdpZUM7awzl5MXMHD8p8qQkm8L9G2lPs0awbh3-fba6f9VuGbKLxwbbcUi53MjEhIQgWW21YVsgdhr8Hzz3CkwAgPbrxjrOeKrcP6kO-MnDh8TgO_WWfXc_vgOpZznCS3uLWOmlTU/s1600/%25E5%2585%25AB%25E3%2581%25A4%25E6%25A9%258B.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" q6="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgiNmNdpZUM7awzl5MXMHD8p8qQkm8L9G2lPs0awbh3-fba6f9VuGbKLxwbbcUi53MjEhIQgWW21YVsgdhr8Hzz3CkwAgPbrxjrOeKrcP6kO-MnDh8TgO_WWfXc_vgOpZznCS3uLWOmlTU/s320/%25E5%2585%25AB%25E3%2581%25A4%25E6%25A9%258B.jpg" width="228" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Kyoto's very own Yatsuhashi (八つ橋). Top to bottom: Tea flavor, plain flavor, sesame flavor. Tea flavor is the best. Source: <a href="http://item.rakuten.co.jp/piyonya/6007-s1-3/">http://item.rakuten.co.jp/piyonya/6007-s1-3/</a></td></tr>
</tbody></table><br />
<u>Japanese Toilets</u><br />
I doubt that you can buy the thrones which Japanese toilets are anywhere else. Because I have already written a lot about Japanese toilets, here is a link in case you need to refresh your memory. <a href="http://martintengler.blogspot.com/2011/01/japanese-toilets.html">http://martintengler.blogspot.com/2011/01/japanese-toilets.html</a><br />
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There are of course many more things which you can only buy in Japan. They range from souvenirs to traditional longbows and hi-tech electronics, but these are, with the exception of souvenirs, of little interest to the average consumer. Let me know if you happen to know some other interesting things which are only sold in Japan!Martinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00321275969724273640noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-538705309491392964.post-11323770041350764552011-03-03T13:59:00.003+01:002014-03-15T22:04:38.010+01:00Convenience StoresWhen I was still taking Japanese back at Colby, I was startled when I first came upon the word <i>konbini</i>, or convenience store. I was surprised how often it was mentioned in our textbook, and had little idea of what it entailed. Of course I had a general idea inspired by the convenience stores in the US and Canada. But when I entered Japan in September, I realized quickly that a Japanese <em>konbini</em> is much more than that. Last week I got the opportunity to attend a very interesting presentation about these little stores by Gavin Whitelaw, an American anthropologist who has been studying them for over a decade. Let me tell you what I learned.<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-XO1DIAwpfqY/TW-FiocKMZI/AAAAAAAAAcc/oBmcgeheX7M/s1600/P1000069.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-XO1DIAwpfqY/TW-FiocKMZI/AAAAAAAAAcc/oBmcgeheX7M/s320/P1000069.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A Family Mart <i>konbini</i> across the street from Doshisha's Imadegawa campus where I go to school.</td></tr>
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First, what is a Japanese <em>konbini</em>? A <em>konbini</em> is a little store where you can buy anything that you really need in your life, and more: bread, sushi, pre-made meals, coffee, beer, whiskey, cigarettes, cigars, magazines, newspapers, porn manga, toothbrushes, notepads, writing utensils, battery chargers, computer games, and everything in between. In addition to that, you can also use their courrier and postal services, pay for your bills, pay for the concert or plane ticket you booked online, pay your taxes (!), photocopy or fax your documents, use an ATM 24/7 (which is otherwise impossible in Japan), ask for directions, use their clean public toilets without actually having to buy anything, read a whole magazine without paying for it, microwave your food, put hot water in your noodles, and dispose of your garbage in their garbage bin (another near impossible thing anywhere else in Japan). <br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-gyrBjymlXjc/TW-FmPykZ2I/AAAAAAAAAck/-g_oHdX4FsU/s1600/P1000070.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-gyrBjymlXjc/TW-FmPykZ2I/AAAAAAAAAck/-g_oHdX4FsU/s320/P1000070.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A Lawson <i>konbini </i>in Kyoto. Just like in the picture above, notice the garbage bins.</td></tr>
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What is even more interesting is that despite the small size of these stores, they are generally not more expensive than supermarkets or department stores, and have larger overall sales than the two combined. In fact, one of the commercials for a <em>konbini</em> asks nonchalantly: "where does the supermarket manager go to buy <em>his</em> loaf of bread?" The question is, though, how in the world is it possible that these small convenience stores actually outsell the supermarkets? In other words, why are they more popular than stores like Wal Mart?<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-S-MVAgtkYhc/TW-FpMqzBII/AAAAAAAAAcs/hWCQVEVDkdM/s1600/P1000071.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-S-MVAgtkYhc/TW-FpMqzBII/AAAAAAAAAcs/hWCQVEVDkdM/s320/P1000071.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The <i>Tachiyomi</i> (stand and read) corner at Lawson's: you can read anything they sell for free for ever and ever. The woman with the backpack is just about to enter the toilet (the door in the back).</td></tr>
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The answer to the question is not simple, but can be summarized in a few words: Extremely good organization into large chains, targeted sales, <em>convenience</em>, cheap prices, and friendliness.<br />
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<u>Organization</u>: <em>Konbini</em> are on every corner, and despite being owned by small, individual people, almost all are members of large international chains, some of which you may have heard of or seen in your own country: <strong>7 Eleven</strong> (Japan, Canada, Taiwan, Singapore, China, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Thailand, Australia, Sweden, Norway, Mexico), <strong>Lawson</strong> (Japan and Shanghai), <strong>Family Mart</strong> (Japan, Thailand, Taiwan, China, United States, Vietnam, Bangladesh, South Korea, and even North Korea!!!), and <strong>Circle K</strong> (USA, Canada, Japan, Mexico, Hong Kong, and others) are among the biggest. The individual owner of a cornerstore signs a contract with one of these large chains, who grant their store the name, rearrange the store, provide access to ATMs, and ensure that the shelves are always full. In addition, because each chain provides for tens of thousands of stores, the goods become significantly cheaper. In exchange for all that, the owner pays a royalty to the chain which ranges somewhere between forty and seventy (!) percent. What is even more interesting is that the chains themselves, as is usual in Japan, are owned by other large corporations. For example, 7 Eleven is owned by the Ito-Yokado corporation, Lawson is owned by Mitsubishi, Circle K by the Canadian chain Couche-Tard, etc. In fact, much of corporate Japan is divided between a few major conglomerates like this, which concentrates power in a very few select hands. <br />
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<u>Targeted sales</u>: Even though all <em>konbini</em> sell pretty much the same stuff, the customers in say Okinawa may have different needs from those in Hokkaido. Thus for example in a <em>konbini</em> in Hokkaido you can buy mitten gloves and hats. In addition, with every customer, the <em>konbini</em> clerk, before being able to open the cashier, must enter your gender and age into the computer. The cashier also records the weather, the location of the store, time of purchase, location of the shelf from which you bought your product, the clerk's name, and the register number. All this data for each and every customer is then sent to the corporation, which has access to data for years and years back in the past. They are thus able to see how your sales are changing, who comes to the store at what time and during what weather, and which clerks sell more than others. The corporation then sends the stats back in a workable form to the store owner, who immediately knows what he should be selling more or less of and when, which employees to cherish or not, etc. Ingenious, isn't it?<br />
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<u>Convenience & Friendliness</u>: There is a reason why these shops are called <em>convenience</em> stores. They can be found on any corner, are easy to navigate in as all look pretty much the same. They sell fast, and they have all you really need plus provide the amazing services I talked about above. On top of all that, most stay open twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week, including even the most sacred holidays. The staff is usually very friendly, and will help you with diretions etc. even if you do not buy anything. You really do not need to go anywhere else to satisfy your everyday shopping needs.<br />
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<u>Cheap Prices</u>: As I already said, because the <i>Konbini </i>are chains, the price of the products they sell drops dramatically. The other reason why they are cheap is that the typical employees are university students who receive the minimal wage, which is less than 800 Yen per hour.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-p1pZmRJ6uDI/TW-Fs68SsFI/AAAAAAAAAcM/44c7gcryIGA/s1600/P1000073.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-p1pZmRJ6uDI/TW-Fs68SsFI/AAAAAAAAAcM/44c7gcryIGA/s320/P1000073.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Two young employees of a Lawson replacing the food in the Onigiri (rice ball) and prepared meals shelves.</td></tr>
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</div><div style="text-align: -webkit-auto;">Convenience stores play a large role in Japanese lives, one similar to that of Wal Mart in the USA. They serve not only as providers of services and employment, but also as social spaces in front of which people gather. The Lawson at Kamogawa Sanjo, one of Kyoto's busiest places after dark, serves as a good example. People sit at the Kamogawa river, drinking the beer and eating the snack which they bought at the Lawson's, from time to time using the free and clean toilets which the store provides. In addition, it is significantly cheaper than an <em>Izakaya</em> (a popular type of bar in Japan), and no one forces you to leave after two hours (which is a common practice in most Izakaya at a busy hour).</div><div style="text-align: -webkit-auto;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: -webkit-auto;"><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-align: center;"></div><div style="text-align: -webkit-auto;">Anyway, enough talk. I need to go to the the Family Mart across the street to get my lunch and pay for my plane tickets to Okinawa next month.</div></div><div style="text-align: -webkit-auto;"><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-a0D66wKNwGU/TW-FrGlUE5I/AAAAAAAAAc0/2sJk86y9Na8/s1600/P1000072.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-a0D66wKNwGU/TW-FrGlUE5I/AAAAAAAAAc0/2sJk86y9Na8/s320/P1000072.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The beer selection at Lawson's is not bad.</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-aNH4fZmOPDk/TW-FwUQfU0I/AAAAAAAAAdE/C5Phe7D9lC0/s1600/P1000075.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-aNH4fZmOPDk/TW-FwUQfU0I/AAAAAAAAAdE/C5Phe7D9lC0/s320/P1000075.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Plastic cups, toiletries, cleaning agents, batteries, notebooks, pens, erasers. Who needs a supermarket?</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-fqjylpUmjDU/TW-FuaPOi-I/AAAAAAAAAc8/dDC1x8EtQP4/s1600/P1000074.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-fqjylpUmjDU/TW-FuaPOi-I/AAAAAAAAAc8/dDC1x8EtQP4/s320/P1000074.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The snack shelves.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>Martinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00321275969724273640noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-538705309491392964.post-239206961685113282011-02-25T04:16:00.002+01:002014-03-15T22:04:38.022+01:00ChecklistOn March 1, it will be exactly six months since I landed in Japan, and on March 7, it will be six months since I first set my foot in the city of Kyoto. During these six months, I have been telling you all kinds of different things about my experience in Japan, but I have touched very little on the topic of the city that I live in. Let me tell you more about it.<br />
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You should know, if you have been reading this blog carefully, that between the years 794 and 1868, Kyoto served as Japan's capital. You should also know that it is located in central Japan, in a region known as Kansai. It lies about an hour northeast of Osaka, Japan's second biggest city, and an hour north of Nara, Japan's oldest permanent capital. Kyoto is surrounded by scenic mountains to the East, North, and West. These mountains not only provide a picturesque view of the city, but also act as its natural borders. Thanks to this topographical feature, Kyoto is not as big as Osaka or Tokyo which lie on enormous flat plains near the ocean. In fact, wherever you are in Kyoto, it will not take you more than forty-five minutes to walk to the nearest city's edge and disappear into the surrounding hills. <br />
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Now let me tell you about the things which you may not know. First, because of the fact that Kyoto was Japan's capital for over a millennium, it contains many old, beautiful buildings. These are usually Buddhist temples and Shinto shrines, but there is also a castle and an enormous imperial palace complex. Though these buildings are old, there are rarely any which are older than a few hundred years. This is because many times throughout its long history, the city of Kyoto was burnt down by fires, destroyed by wars, or both at the same time. Even though the Japanese took many construction technologies from the Chinese, they did not take over the use of bricks, but instead built their buildings of wood and covered them with paper walls. Thus with any major fire, the whole city burnt down to ashes, and then had to be rebuilt only to be burnt down a few years, decades, or centuries later. Because of this, there are only a few buildings which are actually a thousand years old and even the buildings which claim to have a thousand year old history are mere replicas built after the last time they burnt down. This, though, does in no way take away from their beauty. The most famous structures in Kyoto are the Nijo Castle, the Kiyomizu Temple (the pictures of which I used to accompany two of this blog's entries), the Golden Pavilion, the Silver Pavilion, the Meiji Shrine, the Kamo Shrine, the Kamigamo Shrine, the Shimogamo Shrine, the Enryaku Temple, the Nanzen Temple, the Tenryu Temple, the To-ji (also a temple), and so on and so on. There is, as you can see, little point in me listing any of these buildings' names as they will mean little to most of you and because the list would be inexhaustible. The point is that wherever you go in Kyoto, you are bound to bump into a temple or shrine within the next one minute, and into one listed by UNESCO as a world heritage site every half hour. Literally. <br />
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Despite having all these old, pretty temples, shrines, castles, and such, Kyoto is also known to be the city of modernity. By this I mean that these old buildings are mixed with modern glass buildings which serve as the headquarters of many famous companies. The most well-known one is Nintendo, every Japanese teenager's first love. Another well-known one is the advanced ceramics producer Kyocera, in Japanese 京セラ, which literally means Kyoto Ceramics. There are numerous others, more or less known, such as Intelligent Systems, which produces games for Nintendo, or Kyoto Animation, another animation and game developer. Kyoto is also famous for its film and Manga industry, both of which attract many foreigners into the city. Two other buildings of note are the Kyoto Tower and the Kyoto Station, both controversial because many people see them as too modern, not fit for a historical city like Kyoto. <br />
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The point is that Kyoto is a city of contrasts, a place where the old and the new meet to create a unique mixture unseen anywhere else. Old and new buildings stand next to each other and people wearing Kimono are almost as frequent as people wearing suits. In fact, the city promotes its centuries old identity by providing discounts for people who are wearing a Kimono. If you wear a Kimono, you get discounts on all kinds of things, from taxis to dinners in expensive French restaurants; a smart way of investing money into the city's beautification.<br />
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On March 1, it will be exactly six months since I landed in Japan, and on March 7, it will be six months since I first set my foot in the city of Kyoto. On February 27, it will also be exactly two months before I depart this amazing place for my beloved homeland. Because there are so many places in Kyoto that I would like to visit before this happens, I have created a checklist for myself. This checklist is, just like the number of potentially interesting places in Kyoto, almost infinite. Every day since I created this checklist, I have been trying to visit at least one of the places on it, but with every place I erase from my list, I add two others, getting one point closer and yet one point farther away from my goal. <br />
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By now, however, I have visited more places in Kyoto than most of my Japanese friends who have been living here for three or four years. They all have the same excuse as to why they did not explore the city too much: there is always a next time, they say. However, because their time in Kyoto as well as their lives are finite, and because the list of interesting places in the city is not, I hope for their own sake that they will one day be able to say that they really <em>lived</em> in Kyoto. Kyoto, however, is not the only interesting place in Japan or around the world. Whatever place on this planet you are in, I am sure that there are many interesting things to see and do. More, in fact, than you will ever have the time to visit. Therefore, go out and explore! It will be worth it in the end.Martinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00321275969724273640noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-538705309491392964.post-40749241217726049852011-02-14T13:58:00.000+01:002014-03-15T22:04:38.037+01:00Hokkaido, Take Two<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-bottom: 0.5em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; padding-bottom: 6px; padding-left: 6px; padding-right: 6px; padding-top: 6px; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-d4QC-2YjwyE/TVkhQ0EJVDI/AAAAAAAAAY4/b45yu-G-idE/s1600/IMG_0711.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="180" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-d4QC-2YjwyE/TVkhQ0EJVDI/AAAAAAAAAY4/b45yu-G-idE/s320/IMG_0711.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 13px; padding-top: 4px; text-align: center;">One of the largest snow constructions at the Sapporo Snow Festival, featuring Sapporo's two symbols, and owl and a fox. Courtesy of Irene Hofstetter.<br />
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During the week of Feb 7-13, high school seniors from the Kansai area as well as from the rest of Japan flooded the Imadegawa campus as Doshisha University held its entrance examinations. Because they had been working hard to prepare for the exams, Doshisha granted the stressed high-schoolers a quiet environment by sending its students on a week long vacation. In fact, for the Doshisha students, a month and a half long spring break started that day, while we at the AKP got just a week of vacation. Though far not as long as the Doshisha break, I took advantage of the opportunity and visited for the second time in my life the snowy island of Hokkaido with four other AKP friends. We spent two days in the city of Sapporo enjoying the atmosphere of its famous Snow Festival, and then went off west to the renowned Niseko ski resort, where we enjoyed three days of amazing powder skiing. Let tell you the whole story.<br />
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Every February for the past sixty-two years, the city of Sapporo has been regularly attracting over two million tourists from all over the world. They all come for one main reason: they want to to see with their own eyes the amazing snow and ice statues exhibited at the week-long Sapporo Snow Festival (札幌雪祭り). The conditions for the festival are ideal: Sapporo is the biggest city on Hokkaido, Japan's northernmost island, and thus gets very cold in the winter, and is also large enough to absorb the visiting crowds. Designed by American architects during the last third of the 19th century, the city resembles an American city by its uniform grid system as well as by its young age. The majestic <i>Ōdōri </i>(大通), or Great Street, leads through the city from East to West, and serves as the main exhibition ground for the festival. The festival is a great way for companies to make money: during the week that it takes place, the prices of accommodation in the city virtually double, as does the price of transportation to the island. Nevertheless, I still decided that since I am in Japan I should not miss out on such a wonderful opportunity, and became one of the two million tourists who visited the festival this year. The festival features many ice and snow statues impressive in both their size as well as level of detail. These are built well in advance by artists from all over the world, including those from countries which I doubt get any snow at all, such as Thailand, Malaysia, or Indonesia. The artists use no backward technologies: armed with electric chainsaws, hot air blowers, and flame throwers, they cut through the ice blocks as if they were butter. Among the statues are huge snow castles and ice stages, a museum of ice dinosaurs, a park full of cartoon characters, an animal zoo, and an enormous area full of small random statues built by all kinds of festival sponsors. Though the statues are still beautiful to see during the day, they reveal their true beauty at night when they become lit by various colorful lights. Next to the statues stand hundreds of petty food and souvenir stands, selling anything from mulled wine and sausages to cigarettes, T-shirts, and toys. The rest of the space is filled by ice slides, heated smoking corners (though surprisingly no heated non-smoking corners), a skating rink, and an enormous ski jump featuring flying snowboarders every other hour. As one would expect of Japan, the festival is extremely well organized. There is a large medical tent in the middle, the snowboarding events start on time, hundreds of policemen regulate the traffic, and after a snow flurry, the statues are always cleaned into a perfect condition. To be sure, the organizers left nothing in the hands of fate, making the festival a truly supreme experience.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-Ev8wFymnuM0/TVkhS-TJpqI/AAAAAAAAAZM/oi4i49frk40/s1600/IMG_0723.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="180" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-Ev8wFymnuM0/TVkhS-TJpqI/AAAAAAAAAZM/oi4i49frk40/s320/IMG_0723.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">One of the stages at the Festival, featuring the Lion King in the back. Courtesy of Irene Hofstetter. </td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-PbAgoMK-e-I/TVkhWc7IisI/AAAAAAAAAZQ/P9CwAoni1C4/s1600/IMG_0731.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="180" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-PbAgoMK-e-I/TVkhWc7IisI/AAAAAAAAAZQ/P9CwAoni1C4/s320/IMG_0731.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">An ice pavillion. Courtesy of Irene Hofstetter.</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-jjh6ihd44vQ/TVkhaX8NmcI/AAAAAAAAAZU/q4EEwZIb54c/s1600/IMG_0779.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="180" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-jjh6ihd44vQ/TVkhaX8NmcI/AAAAAAAAAZU/q4EEwZIb54c/s320/IMG_0779.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">One of the statues at the Dinosaur Museum at night. Courtesy of Irene Hofstetter.</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-cC3C4rTMm5A/TVkhgP5Te5I/AAAAAAAAAZg/fAW981tebSc/s1600/IMG_0793.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="180" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-cC3C4rTMm5A/TVkhgP5Te5I/AAAAAAAAAZg/fAW981tebSc/s320/IMG_0793.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Cleaning the same dinosaur after a snow flurry. Courtesy of Irene Hofstetter.</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Ttx83GNgvWI/TVkhea7aj7I/AAAAAAAAAZc/sMGQhdrflUE/s1600/IMG_0785.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="180" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Ttx83GNgvWI/TVkhea7aj7I/AAAAAAAAAZc/sMGQhdrflUE/s320/IMG_0785.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Workers building an ice slide. Notice the chainsaw. Courtesy of Irene Hofstetter.</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-CNLrHVgzR4Y/TVkhjKzSyrI/AAAAAAAAAZk/JEsrnHPsKt8/s1600/IMG_0796.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="180" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-CNLrHVgzR4Y/TVkhjKzSyrI/AAAAAAAAAZk/JEsrnHPsKt8/s320/IMG_0796.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Two of the many large smoking spaces: the one on the front is an ice building, and the one in the back is heated. Like I said earlier, too bad they had not heated non-smoker spaces. Courtesy of Irene Hofstetter.</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-wCW79DgcbaI/TVkhoAe89kI/AAAAAAAAAZ4/_ms55JBa-ic/s1600/IMG_0806.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-wCW79DgcbaI/TVkhoAe89kI/AAAAAAAAAZ4/_ms55JBa-ic/s320/IMG_0806.jpg" width="180" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A boarder at the show. Courtesy of Irene Hofstetter.</td></tr>
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After two days spent in the confines of Sapporo City, our group of five made its way west to the famous Hirafu ski resort in the village of Niseko. Located on the slopes of the 1308m tall Mt. Niseko Annupuri, the Hirafu resort is not famous for its size, which can not outmatch that of the resorts in the Japanese Alps around Nagano, but for probably the fluffiest powder snow in the world. Also, Niseko is known for being located next to another mountain, the imposing Mt. Yōtei (羊蹄山), an active, 1898m tall volcano in the shape of a perfect cone, resembling closely Mt. Fuji. The Niseko resort is so renowned that not only does it attract residents of Nagano, but also a sizable international population. Interestingly enough, the most represented country at Niseko is Australia. With no exaggeration, the number of Australians at the ski resort probably outmatches the number of the Japanese! They not only come for vacation, but also to work here during the ski season. There are Australian-owned restaurants, there are Australian employees at the hotels, Australian ski instructors, and even an Australian Cultural House. Indeed, the Australians love skiing in Niseko so much that some of them even left their recently flooded houses in Queensland and came to ski instead. One of them clearly explained his priorities to me: "My house got all flooded, but I don't care until I'm done skiing, mate!"<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-DnaP98Cv7_I/TVkgXeLdvYI/AAAAAAAAAaQ/fzfH-hkoh7M/s1600/2011020907210000.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-DnaP98Cv7_I/TVkgXeLdvYI/AAAAAAAAAaQ/fzfH-hkoh7M/s320/2011020907210000.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The view of Mt. Yotei from the ski lodge we stayed at.</td></tr>
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Before I went to Niseko, I expected the ski resorts to be filled with people. However, to my very pleasant surprise, despite the fact that most Japanese universities are out of session and the fact that two million people were in the nearby Sapporo, the lines at the lifts were close to inexistent, and the amount of untouched powder snow close to infinite. After one night of an all-out snow storm, the skies cleared out and hundreds of powder-hungry skiers and boarders including myself woke up early that morning to get the most of it. First we rode what was served by the lifts, but the most exciting attraction was the opening of the top of the mountain at 10a.m. No lifts led there and thus everyone was forced to hike from the top of the highest lift. By 10a.m., the count of people in front of the gate to the top reached over three hundred, and the atmosphere could only be compared to that before the start of an important marathon or Olympic race. After all, the first prize was worth more than gold: a ride from the top to the bottom of Mt. Niseko Annupuri through an infinite field of powder snow, with a prime view of Mt. Yōtei. When the gate opened, the powder-hungry crowd started started to quickly make its way up to the top of the mountain. When looked from far away, the scene must have looked like a skier exodus. The hike took me approximately twenty-five minutes, and despite starting from the back rows, I was the fifth person to reach the summit. I wasted no time, put on my snowboard, and became the second person to board down that enormous powder field. Literally, there was no one in front of me but a powder heaven all the way down the mountain. The three or so minutes it took me to board down the slope were probably the best ones of my career so far. At one point, I paused and looked behind, only to see a hundred or so skiers and snowboarders screaming out loud with happiness, leaving their tracks in the powder, transforming it into ugly moguls. Within ten minutes after the first skier went down, the powder on the top of Mt. Niseko Annupuri was completely gone. Luckily the rest of the ski area offered lots of glades with plentiful powder, and the overall experience was absolutely stunning.<br />
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In the nights we would cook our own dinners because it was too expensive to go to the restaurant. Afterwards we went to relax our muscles to the Onsen (温泉), or public bath, and also made some Australian, Japanese, and European friends along the way. In all the senses of the word, our time in Hokkaido was an unforgettable experience. When I returned to school on Monday, I was sad to find the campus almost empty, with most students gone for the next six weeks-probably for a Hokkaido vacation. And the moral of the story? If you ever get the chance, do not hesitate and make your way to Hokkaido; it will be more than worth it.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-Bql49WzWH1E/TVkgaqau6sI/AAAAAAAAAaY/2Ber8uvSfo8/s1600/2011020909450000.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-Bql49WzWH1E/TVkgaqau6sI/AAAAAAAAAaY/2Ber8uvSfo8/s320/2011020909450000.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The line in front of the gate to the top, at approx. 9.45a.m. By 10a.m., the amount of people waiting probably more than doubled.</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-a16wb0VLGz0/TVkgfTVq06I/AAAAAAAAAYY/Hq0NJNEJp-M/s1600/2011020910140000.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-a16wb0VLGz0/TVkgfTVq06I/AAAAAAAAAYY/Hq0NJNEJp-M/s320/2011020910140000.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The only half-decent picture on the way down from the top, taken with my phone. Unfortunately I put my finger in the view.</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-XXBRuJfWd1M/TVkgj195QJI/AAAAAAAAAYg/LtQUF-r8hgI/s1600/2011020911030000.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-XXBRuJfWd1M/TVkgj195QJI/AAAAAAAAAYg/LtQUF-r8hgI/s320/2011020911030000.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Me almost on the top, with Mt. Yotei in the back.</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-KYGL442xVMo/TVkh1cPyrgI/AAAAAAAAAaA/dQX8eIATg0M/s1600/IMG_0908.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-KYGL442xVMo/TVkh1cPyrgI/AAAAAAAAAaA/dQX8eIATg0M/s320/IMG_0908.jpg" width="180" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Riding some pow.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>Martinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00321275969724273640noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-538705309491392964.post-69988537955934148752011-01-30T10:48:00.000+01:002014-03-15T22:04:38.046+01:00Japanese ToiletsSince I started writing this blog, I promised to you that I would write a post on the subject of Japanese toilets, which happen to differ in some major ways from those which we are accustomed to in Europe and North America (not counting toilets in Europe's Muslim countries, that is). Because this week I was unfortunate enough to catch a stomach flu, I have been blessed with numerous daily opportunities to visit and take pictures of the throne which my home toilet is.<br />
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In fact, there are actually two types of Japanese toilets: the traditional, and the western-style Japanese toilet. I will, without getting into a discussion about the definition of tradition, start with the traditional style of Japanese toilet. Most traditional things have one characteristic in common: despite being invented a long time ago, their use has persisted until now, even though other, more practical things, have been invented. And, the Japanese also have one thing in common: they love tradition. Thus many prefer to sit on the floor despite the invention of chairs, live in cold houses with paper walls despite the invention of bricks and central heating, drive on the left despite the rest of East Asia driving on the right, and use traditional toilets despite the invention of toilets with seats. Yes, not having a seat is the major characteristic of a traditional Japanese toilet. It is a very simple, oval hole in the ground above which you squat and do what you must; very similar in style to the Turkish toilet. To say it is not practical would actually be a lie: being on the floor level, it is extremely easy to clean the area around the toilet, making it thus the preferred model at public bathrooms, cheap hotels, etc.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_8nTXISIIMqQ/TUFcWNRjPAI/AAAAAAAAAWc/lFfOC_gPL_Y/s1600/DSCN7711.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="300" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_8nTXISIIMqQ/TUFcWNRjPAI/AAAAAAAAAWc/lFfOC_gPL_Y/s400/DSCN7711.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">My Colby roommate Kent demonstrating the proper use of a traditional Japanese toilet in Hokkaido, Japan.</td></tr>
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However, the Japanese also love things modern. They sit on the floor of a cold building under a Kotatsu, or heated table, they build huge glass skyscrapers, invent robots with a human persona, drive cars with built-in TVs, and their western-style toilets have futuristic qualities. On the first glance, the Japanese western-style toilet has the same shape as as a regular toilet that we are accustomed to. What makes it different is the control panel next to it. This panel controls a powerful stream of water which will spray your front or back side clean within seconds. The panel usually looks similar to the one on the picture below.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_8nTXISIIMqQ/TUUnWQ-LDxI/AAAAAAAAAW8/4RZWAcOg9w4/s1600/2010102522490000.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="300" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_8nTXISIIMqQ/TUUnWQ-LDxI/AAAAAAAAAW8/4RZWAcOg9w4/s400/2010102522490000.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The toilet control panel.</td></tr>
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The top four five buttons on the panel are quite self-explanatory, and not much of a Japanese language skill is needed to decipher their meaning. The leftmost means stop, and is very important in case you mis-pushed. The second button from the left will cause a very directed stream of warm water to clean your butt. The middle button will do the same as the previous, though the stream will be lighter and more spread out. The fourth button is meant for women only and I have yet to try what it does. Finally, the rightmost button means dry and will cause a stream of hot air similar to that of commercial hand dryers to dry your cleaned butt. The smaller buttons below can help you adjust the strength, temperature, angle, timer, etc. of the water stream. And, all this happens while you are comfortably seated on a warm, electrically heated seat. In addition, home toilets are equipped with one more technologically advanced feature: a tap. When you press the flush button, the toilet's water tank will start refilling through a tap above the tank, whose water you use to wash your hands; how very nature-friendly!<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The toilet at my host family's house. Notice the tap on the top, and the control panel on the left.</td></tr>
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In Japan, unlike in any other country that I have ever been to, there is an abundance of free, clean public toilets. They are on every corner: be it a special toilet building, a convenience store, a restaurant, a shopping mall, there is always a free, clean toilet somewhere nearby for you to use. In a typical Japanese men's public bathroom, there are usually several urinals, and about two or three booths, one western, and the other ones traditional: the western one supposedly for the disabled, and the traditional ones because they are easier to clean. Even during a rush hour, there is typically a line of people waiting for the western toilet to free up, while the traditional ones are left unused. To be honest, given how much I hate squatting, I am not surprised at all. Finally, very few public toilets provide toilet paper, and so it is always a good idea to carry a bag of tissues with you. To prevent a drastic cultural shock, the AKP office provided us with one right on the first day of the orientation.<br />
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Since very early history, the Japanese have been known to take over things from other cultures, subsequently improving, "Japanizing" them. They took Buddhism from Korea and adapted it to complement their native Shinto religion, they took city-building technologies from the Chinese and built their ancient capital, Kyoto, they took the Prussian constitution and conquered half of East Asia, and they took the western toilet and added a magical panel. On the other hand, the Japanese still remain true to their own inventions: they preserve the Kimono, the tea ceremony, the martial arts, houses with paper walls, left-side driving, and the traditional toilet. Being a European, I cannot blame them.Martinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00321275969724273640noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-538705309491392964.post-1796423508011085312011-01-19T15:08:00.003+01:002014-03-15T22:04:38.019+01:00東京 (Tokyo)Last weekend, I had the chance to visit my Colby friend Yuki at his home in the Japanese capital, Tokyo. The city has served as the country's capital since 1869, when it replaced Kyoto as part of the very successful attempt to "modernize" Japan. Today, with its 32-39 million people (depending on definition and source), Tokyo constitutes by far the biggest metropolitan area in the world in terms of population; Seoul and Mexico City hold the second place with a lousy 20 million people each. To give you a couple of comparisons, Tokyo has three and a half times as many inhabitants as the Czech Republic, about the same amount of people as Canada, and half of that of France. Moreover, all of those people are packed on roughly 2200 square km, an area smaller than Luxembourg or Rhode Island. In other words, to get an idea of how daily life in the city of Tokyo feels, imagine stuffing all Canadians into Luxembourg. Packed would not be a strong enough word to describe it.<br />
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Yes, when Tokyo's crowds decide to walk the city's streets during the busiest hours, the sidewalks get so packed that all you can see in front of yourself is the back of someone else, and the same works for the person behind you. The craziest thing, though, are not the packed streets themselves but the pedestrian crossings. Many crossings in Tokyo, such as the famous Shibuya crossing, work in the following way. All traffic is stopped, and people can cross the road in any direction; left, right, and diagonally. Thus when twelve different rivers of people start crossing the same road in eight opposite directions, the result looks looks very much like the diagram below.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption">Diagram of an 8-way crossing. Black = blocks of buildings, gray = sidewalks, red arrows = streams of people.<br />
© Yours Truly. </td></tr>
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But not only are there many people in Tokyo. There are countless skyscrapers, multinational company headquarters, famous universities, galleries, museums, statues, karaoke bars, restaurants, shops, malls, Don Quijotes, trains, sky trains, train stations, buses, cars, bridges, policemen, dealers, parks, a 333m tall tower, and so on. In other words, the reason why so many people live in Tokyo is that it has so much to offer.<br />
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</div><div>It will therefore not surprise you that I took advantage of being in this amazing if crowded city and enjoyed my time to the fullest by exploring its various perks. I had one major advantage: having Yuki, a Tokyo native, on my side as a guide. Thus not only did I get to see all the major tourist attractions where throngs of white tourists make you feel like you are no longer in Japan, but I also experienced the Japanese side of Tokyo, the places where natives actually live in and go to. </div><div><br />
</div><div>Among the touristy places I saw are the following. The famous Tokyo Tower, a 333m tall, red and white, Eiffel Tower-shaped reminder that Tokyo is cooler than Paris (by 9 if meters are your measuring units). However, given that the line for getting to the top was probably longer than the tower itself, and the price of it in Yen five times that, we decided to save this beauty for another time. Interestingly enough, just like the Eiffel Tower is not the tallest building in France, the Tokyo Tower is no longer the tallest building in Japan. Just this year it was overgrown by another building in Tokyo, the soon to be finished, 634m tall Tokyo Sky Tree.<br />
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The second touristy place I visited was the Shinjuku district, probably the most well known part of Tokyo among foreigners for its night life. Similarly well known for their rich night life are the Shibuya and Roppongi districts, both of which we also visited. Right adjacent to Shinjuku is the Meiji Shrine, the place where the soul of the Meiji Emperor (1868-1912), is enshrined. During Meiji's rule, Japan transformed into a modern nation capable of defeating countries like Russia and China in war, and eventually colonizing much of East Asia. Interestingly enough, Meiji's body is not buried at the Meiji Shrine in Tokyo, but rather in the ancient capital of Kyoto, close to where I live. I wrote a whole essay on the matter, which you can download from the link bar on the right side if you are interested. The last famous place we went to was was Odaiba, a large man-made island just off the coast of Toyko. Originally built in the 1850s to defend the city from a potential attack by the western powers, it now serves as a recreation area for Tokyo's inhabitants. Among other things, it hosts the architecturally interesting headquarters of Fuji TV, and a replica of the Statue of Liberty. The island is served by a driverless monorail sky train, similar to the one in Vancouver, the ride on which provides you with beautiful views of Tokyo from the seaside.</div><div><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The Tokyo Tower. You can see it from virtually any place in the city.</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The Fuji TV Building. Notice the huge sphere on top of it.</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Tokyo's Statue of Liberty.</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Four Japanese people taking a video of the ride on the Sky Train. Three of them used an iPhone - Steve Jobs would be proud.</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Nightlife in Shibuya.</td></tr>
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</div><div>The Japanese side of Tokyo I experienced was at least as interesting as the touristy side of it. I got to stay with a Japanese family in their home, and I got invited by them for a delicious Tonkatsu dinner (Japanese version of Wiener Schnitzel). I went shopping to one of Tokyo's Don Quijotes, a store where you can buy literally everything that you would think of, from socks through humidifiers to artificial vaginae (before you ask, I bought neither). I also walked through Tokyo's various parks where virtually no foreigners set their foot. These are filled with couples, young families, kids, drunk teenagers, junkies, performers, homeless people, and other members of the Japanese society other than salarymen in suits. </div><div><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Two comedians practicing in a park.</td></tr>
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</div><div>As you may well imagine, my two days and two nights in Tokyo passed way quicker than I would have liked. On the way back to Kyoto, unlike on the way there where I went by night bus, I took the Shinkansen, Japan's symbolic bullet train. As a result, I had the opportunity to see the beautiful Mt. Fuji, Japan's tallest and most famous mountain. Unlike the bus which takes eight hours, the Shinkansen conquers the 500km of distance between Tokyo and Kyoto in mere two hours and seventeen minutes. Moreover, the ride is so quiet and smooth that you really don't even feel like you are on a train but rather on a mild massage chair with a view. In fact, the Shinkansen is the fastest and most efficient way to travel between Japanese cities, much faster and much more convenient than planes. There are no security checks, the stations are located right in the middle of the city, and the trains leave about every ten minutes - more often than those I take on my way to school! Given this frequency and efficiency, however, taking the Shinkansen is actually about as expensive as flying.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_8nTXISIIMqQ/TTbq7sM4zNI/AAAAAAAAAU4/Jm6ZsrxArnQ/s1600/Tokyo+8-10.1+%252885%2529.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_8nTXISIIMqQ/TTbq7sM4zNI/AAAAAAAAAU4/Jm6ZsrxArnQ/s320/Tokyo+8-10.1+%252885%2529.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The Shinkansen I took back to Kyoto. Excuse the blurriness, it's not the train's speed but my old camera which caused it.</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_8nTXISIIMqQ/TTQcF3hWGPI/AAAAAAAAAUY/dEw-yJzc8IA/s1600/Tokyo+8-10.1+%252896%2529.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_8nTXISIIMqQ/TTQcF3hWGPI/AAAAAAAAAUY/dEw-yJzc8IA/s320/Tokyo+8-10.1+%252896%2529.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The Fuji-san as seen from the Shinkansen.</td></tr>
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Overall, my time in Tokyo as well as the way back were amazing. Though I would not choose to live in such an enormous city, it is a great if expensive place to visit for the weekend. I wonder, when I read this post in a decade or three, how much Tokyo will have changed. Will the Sky Tree be conquered by the planned Sky City 1000, a kilometer tall building with 8 square kilometers of floor space? Will Tokyo still be the biggest metropolitan area in the world, or will some other city take the prime? Will the Shinkansen be replaced by a MagLev train? Will an earthquake level the city to earth like it did in 1923 and many times before then? Or will Kim Jong Il or Un decide to speed the process? Sometimes it is better not to know.</div>Martinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00321275969724273640noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-538705309491392964.post-13429122163478666952011-01-14T08:25:00.000+01:002014-03-15T22:04:38.016+01:00Hatsumode <div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;">Unlike most Europeans and Americans, the Japanese do not celebrate their New Year's by waking up with a hangover. Or at least most of them don't. The reason for this is that they believe that everything should be perfect, just the way they would want it to be for the rest of the year. Therefore they spend their New Year's Eve and the first two or three days with their family, enjoying the presence of their closest in a very, very, very clean house. They enjoy together the first meal of the year, the first TV program of the year, the first hot bath (Ofuro) of the year, and also the first (and for many the last) visit to the Shinto shrine of the year. This first visit to the shrine is called Hatsumode, and in the following photo essay I will show you how it works. We actually went to two Hatsumode with my host family, at two different shrines on two different days, just for the effect. Featuring: myself and my host family.</div> <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div> <br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The entrance to a typical shrine.</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_8nTXISIIMqQ/TSXIO30GvzI/AAAAAAAAAQ0/V4N7E6Og8vQ/s1600/DSCN9540.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" n4="true" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_8nTXISIIMqQ/TSXIO30GvzI/AAAAAAAAAQ0/V4N7E6Og8vQ/s320/DSCN9540.JPG" width="240" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Before you enter the shrine, you must clean your hands to purify your body as well as your soul. </td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">No visit to a Shrine can be conducted without proper manners, which includes payment to the gods. You throw them some money (the more you believe the more you throw), clap twice, pray, and clap again.</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_8nTXISIIMqQ/TSXH8nHA-FI/AAAAAAAAAQU/HTAH9gKmKFc/s1600/DSCN9527.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" n4="true" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_8nTXISIIMqQ/TSXH8nHA-FI/AAAAAAAAAQU/HTAH9gKmKFc/s320/DSCN9527.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Throwing just any coins to the gods doesn't work as good as throwing them lucky coins. The lucky coins are 5 and 50 Yen coins because they have a hole in them. There is a 5 Yen lucky coin in the middle. </td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_8nTXISIIMqQ/TSXIWmuxZ-I/AAAAAAAAARI/no1ur41aZbM/s1600/DSCN9545.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" n4="true" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_8nTXISIIMqQ/TSXIWmuxZ-I/AAAAAAAAARI/no1ur41aZbM/s320/DSCN9545.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">People actually wait in LONG lines to pay their respect to the gods.</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_8nTXISIIMqQ/TSXIRq1KpYI/AAAAAAAAAQ4/L6I_fdaka4I/s1600/DSCN9544.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" n4="true" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_8nTXISIIMqQ/TSXIRq1KpYI/AAAAAAAAAQ4/L6I_fdaka4I/s320/DSCN9544.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Many people like to dress up in the fanciest kimono they own. Of course even your doggie must be dressed up well for the new year's!</td></tr>
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_8nTXISIIMqQ/TSXIah1Bt2I/AAAAAAAAARU/tgzyS_I8K-Q/s1600/DSCN9549.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" n4="true" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_8nTXISIIMqQ/TSXIah1Bt2I/AAAAAAAAARU/tgzyS_I8K-Q/s320/DSCN9549.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Then you, for a mere ¥100, pay for a human form paper and write your name on it. Then you throw in in the jar and you will be lucky.</td></tr>
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_8nTXISIIMqQ/TSXH3JdGhjI/AAAAAAAAAQQ/Rkosr0fhXIw/s1600/DSCN9519.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" n4="true" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_8nTXISIIMqQ/TSXH3JdGhjI/AAAAAAAAAQQ/Rkosr0fhXIw/s320/DSCN9519.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Just to make sure that you will actually be lucky, you can also buy an Omamori, or charm. For as little as¥300, you can become lucky at school, at work, in the kitchen, or in love (or all!).<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_8nTXISIIMqQ/TSXIfw4jCCI/AAAAAAAAARc/U2P0-yAVe6Y/s1600/DSCN9551.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" n4="true" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_8nTXISIIMqQ/TSXIfw4jCCI/AAAAAAAAARc/U2P0-yAVe6Y/s320/DSCN9551.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">At the end, you buy yourself for ¥200-500 a sheet which will tell you whether you really will be lucky in the next year. Of course if you are unhappy about the result, you are always welcome to buy another one, or to first buy more omamori and then buy another sheet. As you can see, religion in Japan is a really good deal.<br />
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<div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"> </div><div class="separator" style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; clear: both; text-align: center;"></div>Martinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00321275969724273640noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-538705309491392964.post-65528420808103642092011-01-03T04:41:00.000+01:002014-03-15T22:04:38.043+01:00Reflections on the past, present, and futureFor the 31st of December 2010, I had in mind creating a post which everyone would be going to remember. Something clever, memorable. However, it is three days past the 31st, and have I come up with nothing. Thus instead of any deep philosophies which make no sense to even myself, I will tell you shortly about my year 2010 and my reflections on its most important actors. Because it would be too long for you to read, I will delay by a few days the publishing my little report on Hatsumode, the first shrine visit of the year, which many Japanese including my host family take part in on New Year's Day. <br />
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First, my 2010. I celebrated New Year's 2010 with Chris in Oakland, California. I saw the famous Golden Gate Bridge, hiked around the hills of San Francisco, met Chris' friends, and generally had a great deal of fun. After that we rocked it with Kent in our lovely Dana double for the next five months. I got accepted into the AKP, the program which I am currently enrolled at in Japan. In March I had the chance to co-lead a Colby Outing Club trip to the Canyonlands, Utah, which was one of the most gorgeous places I have ever seen in my life. I will be coming back there, sooner rather than later. I will never forget the red rocks, sharp desert sun, enormous canyons, islands in the sky, the imposing view of Sierra la Sal mountains, the Druid Arch, the thrill of finding water when our bottles were almost empty, and the great group of people who were there with me. On my way home in May I stopped over for 25 hours in Iceland, which turned out to be one of the best decisions of the year. I took a bus tour and saw Iceland's beauties just before the main season started; right on time. I made a new friend there, I ate whale for the first time, and I had the best hot dog in the world according to Bill Clinton (not a joke). Then I spent three months at home in the Czech Republic, moving between my home and Prague where I worked on two internships, which were both very useful in helping me decide what I want to do in the future. During the summer I took some time off to have fun as well: we hiked up some of the mountains around the gorgeous Austrian city of Salzburg with my old friends from Czech, and visited the mountains around Innsbruck with my family. I also hung out with my Czech high-school friends and did some good old orienteering. In August I said my goodbye to friends and family and left for Japan. I made some Japanese friends on my way there on a three day layover in Finland's capital of Helsinki and then spent a week traveling through the island of Hokkaido with Kent. Then the AKP started, which you have been reading enough about for the past four months. In November I also had the chance to visit my old high-school friend in Taiwan, increasing the count of countries I visited in 2010 to nine (if Taiwan counts as a country, that is), and increasing the count of unforgettable experiences to ∞. <br />
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One of the most important things which I realized in 2010 is that I no longer wish to work in the service of the Czech Republic or any other country. After all, it is not just governments and revolutionaries anymore who have the power to change the lives of individuals on a mass scale. Take Julian Assange's Wiki Leaks, which have had and will continue to have a bigger impact on world's international politics than all the of the past, present, and future journalists, spies, and double, triple, and quadruple agents combined. Or take Mark Zuckerberg and his Facebook, which has gained over half a billion (yes, 500,000,000) users, becoming the world's third biggest "country". However, a country which knows more about its citizens than any other government does. Facebook knows your interests, religious views, likes, dislikes, friends, addresses, phone numbers, and you give it out for free. No wonder that the FBI and CIA are trying hard to have Zuckerberg on their side. Facebook is also a country which can organize its citizens in mere hours to serve a cause, be it protesting against governments or supporting gay rights. Then there is Google, which gets to decide which sources it will include in its search and which it will not, thus being able to virtually erase one's existence from the world, having potentially a more powerful impact than any individual state's censorship. And of course Google's street view maps probably constitute the biggest breach of privacy the world has seen so far (if you choose to see it that way, I see it as a good way of organizing the world's infinite amount of information). What all these things have in common is that they are examples of how three-year old organizations like Wiki Leaks, the five-year old Facebook and the twelve-year old Google are in a much better position to change anything in this world than governments do, be it for the better or for the worse. While Assange, Zuckerberg, and Google do not get to decide your tax rate, they have the power to take down those who do. Therefore I have come to realize this year that work in the state sector is not what I want to do. Instead, I will try to join an organization such as Google or Facebook (probably not Wiki Leaks, I still have my reservations about the way they do things) in order to have the power to change the way this world thinks, hopefully for the better. Speaking about their power, the people at Google and Facebook will be the first two to be able to read this post; those at Google before I even publish it. <br />
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A final note on Facebook: my Google Chrome told me that in 2010 I have spent too much time browsing Facebook, and that it is by far the site which I visit the most. Because addictions of any kind are no good, I have decided that as of 2011 I will only visit Facebook once a day. Sorry in advance to you all for all the late replies, likes, comments, and photo uploads, but this way I will have more time to look inside people’s houses on Google and read state secrets on Wiki Leaks. Just kidding. <br />
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Finally, though I have already written it, I will publish the post on Hatsumode in a few days, so that you actually read both posts. Sorry to those who would, but I know I wouldn’t read both at once.Martinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00321275969724273640noreply@blogger.com0