Biwa

To celebrate our koseki (family register) producing visit to the municipality office, Yuya and I decided to cycle around lake Biwa (the blue spot on the map East of Kyoto). After three hours cycling from our home we arrived at ten in the morning at the starting point of our trip, a bridge.
The East side of the lake













When we arrived in the old town of Nagashima we were smelly and dirty enough to go to a nice and clean hotel. The next day we passed the north and the most beautifull side of the lake.






The last part of our trip was definitively the hardest. We almost managed to forget, but there are a couple of mountains between the lake and Kyoto. And it stinks being passed with great speed by 'real' pro looking cyclists when you are trying very hard to crawl up a mountain.
Still, we made it!

School trip

I noticed that I did not manage to tell what it is that I do in Kyoto.
So I will start with part one, I study. I am a student at the Japanese
history department of Kyoto University. A very stimulating
environment with an occasional field trip. It is nice to go, see and climb ancient burial mounds once in a while. See old stuff. But for some reason it feels like an ordinary school trip, which goes accompanied with lots of candy or beer.

I forgot to update my blog, for a while. Thankfully somebody was so nice to ask me for an update. It is not the case that nothing happened during the time but where should I start.

After getting the state more than broke by measurements against the economic crisis with highly questionable effectiveness. The Japanese government has found a solution to the economic crisis and the low birthrate. They will lift the ban on carrying two children on one bicycle.

Accordingly women will no longer see any objections against a second child and thus both bicycles and baby products will see a boom in sales.


A bicycle designed for mothers to carry two children. Notice the extra front wheel.

Sweet Kyoto

Although I am normally not a great fan of culture shocks, I do have to admit that I felt attacked by the Japanese cleanliness after spending two days in Cairo. The changes between Cairo airport and Kansai int. are quite large. In Cairo you should among a terrible chaos find out where to pay for getting into the country and than line up (not the other way around, it makes you line up twice). In Japan on the otherhand they let the foreigners line up sepperatly as a prevention against terrorism and other criminal activities. At least that is what a big banner tells you; "We are fighting terrorism". It means every time you enter the country they take a picture and fingerprints.

After getting through these checks out of the people waiting at the excit somebody came dancingly running at me, Yuya.

The view from my balcony, between Yuya and the other building mount Hiei

Egypt

view from the guesthouse

I had meant to write here about Japan. But because it was cheaper and I had never visited Egypt before I first went on a flight to Cairo. I stayed in a Japanese guesthouse were I made a friend, Yuki, together we went to see Gizeh and some other spots together.

The big one

Under large pressure of my father I will start posting regularly on this blog again. Because I will be away again. Starting from next Thursday when I will go to Cairo to see old stuff while waiting for a flight to Osaka. According to schedule Yuya will be waiting for me in Osaka on Sunday. Than we can go to a place buried in cherryblossoms, Kyoto. Where I will try to fill my time until my parents come to see me in August. So I will try to update everybody of my activities in the meanwhile.

Cheers

More Monkey, Yeah Yeah. And some toilet paper

Alloma tellapy

Bluenet,

The form which gives satisfaction varies according to people. However, common element is a satisfied feeling that high standards can produce.

Feeding monkeys

Last week two Japanese woman held a wedding ceremony. And one of them is going to run for parliament. Hardly any attention in the Japanese media though. They did however rapport (not to much though) about gay marriages in Amsterdam, San Fransisco and Barcelona. Gays are apparently a kind of people you can find in foreign countries but not in Japan.