Kagoshima/鹿児島

I was just three days back from Canada, when I already had to leave for another Conference to Kagoshima.

カナダから帰った3日の後で、次の鹿児島大学にある学会に参加した。

Kagoshima is a town in the south of Kyushu, which lays most south of the 4 main Islands of Japan.

鹿児島は日本の本島に関して一番南の九州にある一番南の町です。

I was really looking forward, because Machi came with me and Kyushu is very famous for it's hot springs. I love a bath in a Japanese hot spring the most. It's certainly my favorite Japanese cultural good.

九州は温泉でとても有名で、満知も一緒に鹿児島に行ったので、すごく楽しんだ！　僕にとって温泉は日本の最高な文品だ！

We arrived on Thursday noon, but on Thursday I had to attend the conference at the University of Kagoshima.

木曜日の昼ぐらい新幹線で着いたけど、僕はすぐ学会を参加しないといけなかった。

Since a Taifun was approaching Japan and was supposed to arrive on Saturday in Kagoshima we used the Friday to visit the volcanic Island of Sakurajima, east of Kagoshima.

台風の１７番目は日本に向かって、土曜日ぐらい鹿児島に着くらしかったので、金曜日の素晴らしい天気を使って、鹿児島から東の方にある桜島に行った。

We walked to the ferry port and stopped at the Statue of xxx

フェリー港へ歩いた時に、　xの像の所で止まった。

Funny little creatures gathered around the statue.

変なクリーチャーは像の回りにいたよ！

The ferry to Sakurajima was very cheap: only 150 yen – one way.

桜島に乗るフェリーめっちゃ安かった。片道切符は１５０円だけだった。

The Island is highly volcanic active, since the Island is actually a volcano.

桜島は火山だから、とても火山活動的な島だ。

The geology of the Island was amazing.

桜島のジオロジーは面白かった。

First we learned some things about the history of the Island in the Information center and logged at the same time our first Geo-Geocache. People lived on Sakurajima because the soil was fertile and they could grow the biggest reddish in the world!

最初に観光案内所で桜島の歴史について学んでと同時に満知と僕にジオジオカシューを始めてロクした。

Last year the volcano erupted 1355 times and when we arrived it had already erupted 910 times this year. The seismographs didn't show any movement of the ground when we stood in the information center. The volcano seemed to sleep today.

去年に桜島の火山は１３５５回噴火して、着いたと時に今年にはもう９１０回噴火した。　観光案内所にいた時に、地震計は全然動かなかって、今日には火山が眠そうだった。

We decided to have lunch in a small restaurant and take a tour bus around the Island to get closer to the smoking crater. Later we wanted to visit the hot spring of the Island.

昼ご飯を小さいレストランで食べて、火山を近い所から見えるようになるためにバスで櫻島の回り乗ることにした。　あとで、温泉に行きたかった。

I had Natto-Don. Basically something I have a lot for lunch in University, but my own creation is much simpler. Without the raw fish, the onions or potato. Basically only rice and Natto.
僕は納豆どんを食べた。一般的に岡山大学でよく自分で作った納豆どんを食べているけど、僕の納豆どんの方が簡単です。　刺し身、葱、と芋入れてない。　基本的に、ご飯と納豆さえ使えば、僕の納豆どんを作るよ。

The bus stops at many points on the Island, such at some art that was made from the numerous stones laying around.
バスは色々な所で止まった。例えば、桜島の火山石からできた美実のところで。

The moment we arrived at the closest point to crater the volcano erupted. It was my first eruption to see and I was just amazed by the black smoke rising into the air. The ground wasn't shaking and no magma was spilling out of the crater though, it was still beautiful to see.

火山から一番近い場所に着いたばかり、火山は噴火した。初めて噴火を見たことがないので、ゆっくり空のほうへあがってる真っ黒い曇を感心した。地震なくって、岩礁が見えなかったけど、とても綺麗だった。

From the view point we could also see Kagoshima, which was very close to the Island.

観測所から、鹿児島は桜島からとても近いことかすぐ分かった。

The hot spring water was quite salty, since it was very close to the see. Refreshed Machi and I left back to Kagoshima.

桜島温泉は浜にあるので、温泉水はけっこう塩水の味がした。　満智と僕は元気になって、鹿児島に戻った。

One really unique thing in Kagoshima is the always present volcanic ash in the city. It covers just everything. People collect the ash in bags and leave them at the street so that they can get picked up.

鹿児島の名物はいつもあるの火山灰のことだ。　本当にどこでもあるよ。　鹿児島人は火山灰を集めて、ゴミバッグに入れて、清掃夫はそのバグを取りまとめる。

The Taifun number 17 turned slightly to the east and missed Kagoshima. It was still rainy on Saturday though. We wanted to try a hot Sand-bath in a village that was about an one hour train ride in the south of Kagoshima, Ibutsuki.

台風の１７番目は土曜日にちょっと東のほうに曲がって、鹿児島に会ってなかったけど、一日雨が降っていたので、暖かい砂のお風呂に入るために、イブツキって言うの村に電車で乗って行った。

At a museum I talked to people who grilled some “Knüppelteig”, a kind of bread we use to make in Germany at one fires. They also offered us a red sweet potato, pizza and the bread. Those people were amazingly kind to us and we were happy to get some Haribo with us; just something we could give them in return.
イブツキの美術館でドイツのパンを焼いてる人と話した。　僕らに薩摩芋、ピザとパンをあげた。　本当に優しかった。よかったら、僕らはドイツのハリボも持って行って、美実間の人にあげた。

The sand bath was great and really heated our bodies up. As lunch we had in groundwater boiled eggs with a special Kagoshima-Don.
暖かい砂はとても素晴らしくて、僕らの身体に温められた。　昼食の時には地下水で茹でた卵どんを食べた。

Before we left Kagoshima the next day, we found a German bakery. They sold some things you can indeed get in Germany and I ate my first Mohnbrötchen since I had left Germany in March!!!

岡山に戻る前に、ドイツのパン屋さんを見つけた。　そのパン屋さんは本当のドイツのパン屋さんの焼き物を売れる。ドイツから日本に行った時から、メッチャ美味しいパンを食べてなかった。

If you ever happen to go to Kagoshima, make sure to enjoy the numerous Onsen in the city and around the town.

鹿児島に行くなら、絶対色々な鹿児島の温泉を楽しんでください！

Niagara Falls

My first day in Niagara I tried to recover from my sickness.

最初のニアガラにいる日には体を直してみた。

On Sunday everything was fine again.

Before the Conference opening I wanted to walk to the US.

日曜日の朝に気分はとても大丈夫になった。元気になったよ。

学会の前に、僕はUSAへ旅行して歩きたかった。

It was great to walk over the Rainbow Bridge and to see the gigantic falls.

レインボー橋を渡している間に、ものすごい滝に睨んだ。

Because both sides seem completely the same, you couldn't feel a different between both countries. Only the flag changed.

ニアガラ川の両方側はとても同じだので、USAとカナダでは違うことが感じられなかった。

First I thought the squirrels are different in the US, because they were brown, but at the end I recognized that in Niagara the squirrels were brown too.

最初に、茶色だったので、アメリカの木鼠が違うかなと思ったら、カナダのニアガラ木鼠も茶色のが気をついた。

To see the falls from a close distance was great.

ニアガラ滝は近い場所から見たのは本当にすごいだった。

During the conference I met old friends from Australia again.

学会の間にオーストラリアの友達と合った。

It was great to meet many people from 61 countries, and even from Dresden about 6 people came to the conference.

６１国から来た人を知り合ったのは本当に素晴らしかった。ドレスデンから六人もカナダに行った。

My presentation went really good and I got a lot of feed back from the audience during the last 3 days.

ちょっと緊張だったけど、発表はよかった。発表後の三日の間には色々な人からフィードバックをもらった。

On Wednesday I went to a trip to lake Erie and Ontario. The lake looked like ocean, but the water didn't taste salty.

水曜日にエリー湖とオンターリオ湖の研究旅行した。湖は海と同じな雰囲気だったけど、湖水の味は塩味じゃなかった。(実験した。)

On Friday we returned to Toronto and Saturday morning I flew back to Tokyo. I arrived pretty exhausted at 4 p.m. on Sunday in Narita and was 11 p.m. back in my apartment in Okayama.

金曜日にトロントに戻って、土曜日の朝に早く東京に飛んで出た。疲れて、日曜日の午後4時に成田に着いて、夜の11時にとうとう自分の岡山のアパートに着いてしまった。

From Tokyo to Toronto

Two weeks ago, on Thursday, I flew early from Tokyo Narita Airport to Canada. It was the first time for me to fly from or to Nariata.

早い先週の木曜日の朝に成田空港からカナダのトロントへ飛んだ。僕はその時まで成田空港から飛んだことがなかった。

The automatically check-in didn't go well because of the German "Umlaut" in my name. I was surprised that the immigration officer spoke Japanese to me even though I didn't say a word. Maybe it was because of my visa status?

僕のドイツの名前のせいで、自動的にチェックインできなかった。全然話さないのに、入国審査官は僕にすっと日本語で話した。僕のビーサのおかげでかなぁと思った。

The flight with ANA was long but pleasant, even though the seats seemed to be smaller than in Emeriates or Quatar planes. The food was great too - I have chosen western style, as it was quite a while since I had bread and western food.

EmiratesのとQuatar　Airの席と比べて、ANAの席のサイズの方が小さそうだったけど、 飛んだ時には本当に楽しかった。食事もとても素晴らしかった。僕は最近和食しか食べなかったので、洋風食を選んだ。

When we flew over America I realised how spacious everything is. It reminded me on Australia. The staff at the immigration was unfriendly, but what did I expect, coming from Japan?

From the aircraft I could see that streets were arranged in a straight, net-like system and so the cities seemed to be not organic but very artificial.

I met the two guys, who sat next to my in the plane at the airport again and we talked in Japanese about our further travel, to shorten the time while waiting for the immigration. The immigration registration is very strict in America, so it took us almost one hour to get through.

We tried to find out what Chicago is famous for, but I could only come up with "Mafia".

アメリカの上に飛んでいた時に、広場が多いの気をついた。　オーストラリアみたいと思った。

飛行機から見たら　道路システムはますぐで網形のシステム見たいに企図されたと思った。

　 入国審査官たち はあんまり丁寧ではなかったけど、日本と比べて前に何が思ったかな？待ってる間に、飛行機に僕の隣席に座っていた男の人々と日本語でその後の予定について 話していた。アメリカの出入国管理はとても厳しいので、けっこう一時間ちょっとかかった。チカーゴは何で有名だかなっていうかについて考えっていたけど、 僕はマフィアのことだけ考えた。

We booked previous to our departure into a very neat looking B&B hostel. The owner only left us a note at the door, telling us we shall enter with the key code he gave us.

カナダに行く前に、ホステルを全部予約して置いた。「もう入って下さい」って言うノートをオーナーから書かれて置いた。

But unfortunately, we had no key code.

We called him and left him a msg. eventually he rang us back ad told us the door code, while we had dinner in a thai restaurant.

残念ながら、コードを持ってなかった。どうしよう？っと思った。オーナーを電話かけて、メッセージを置いて、タイ料理のレストランに行った。食べていた間に、オーナーが僕に電話して、コードを教えてくれた。

The house was really interesting. An old building from the Victorian time and very beautiful inside.

ホステルはほとんど面白かった。　イギリスの伝統的で美しい建物だった。

There was no reception. Only sometimes in the evening and morning the owner of the hostel appeared. 

受付なかった。時々、朝と夜時にはオーナーがホステルに来た。

It was like in those horror films, when the guests are all alone by themselves.

ホラームービー見たいな感じで、皆のお客さんは一人いる…

It was very rainy on Friday.

I still went with an umbrella I borrowed from my Professor to an Island south of Toronto, on Lake Ontario.

金曜日にはちょっと一日雨が降っていた。

先生からもらった傘を持っている僕は、トロントから南方面にある島に行った。

It was nice to be in a green park, but unfortunately the Island wasn't very natural. Everything felt man made. After a nice walk, I took the ferry back which was very cheap with just 7 Dollar two-way.

森の中を散歩することは本当に良かったけど、残念ながらその島はあんまり自然の島ではなかった。

I walked through china town and the University back to our hotel which was quite a long walk and took me about 5 hours. I must have eaten something strange in china town, because I became sick in the evening and stayed sick for the whole Saturday.

中国街から、トロント大学を潜って、ホテルに戻った。その散歩時間は5時間ぐらいかかった。　急に夕方の時に気持ち悪くなったので、 中国街であまり良くない昼ごはんを食べたはずだ。

Only Sunday it got better. I noticed that squirrels in Toronto are black, not red as they are in Europe. I also noticed that many people walk around with "coffee to go" cups, much more than I have ever seen in Japan or Europe.

日曜日には気分どんどん良くなった。　トロントの木鼠の色は、ヨーロッパの木鼠の色と比べて、真っ黒くて、赤くない。　日本にとヨーロッパにいる人のより、トロントにいる人の方がすごい『Coffee to go』って言う物を持っているの人は多いのこと気をついた。

Toronto is also very multi-cultural. 50% of its population was born outside of Canada. There are so many different nations gathered in one city and they live very peaceful together.

トロントはとても多文化的だ。　トロントの人口中で5割ぐらい外国で生まれた。　色々な国から来た人が一つの町に安穏に住んでいるのトロントだ。

The owner of our hostel told me (he is from Turkey) that it is that what he likes the most in Canada, that people except and respect each other.

トルコ人のホステルオーナーは、トロント人は尊敬し会うことが一番大好きだって教えてくれた。

He said "no matter where you come from, if you contribute to the country and you are a good person you should get the right to stay in that country.".

「どんな国から来たのを関係ないままで、良い人は社会に手伝ってあげるなら、カナダに住んだら大丈夫だ。」ってオーナーは僕に言った。

I agreed with him that many countries in Europe and Asia can learn from Canada about this.

カナダはヨーロッパとアジアにそのことが教えられたら良いのを濁了した。

We took a bus on Saturday to Niagara.

 土曜日の昼ぐらいバスでニアガラにとうとう出発してしまった。

中国弓道選手権大会

Today I went with nine people from Tokuyama Dojo to the middle-Japan Kyudo competition.

今日には九人の徳山道場の友達と中国弓道選手権大会に行った。

People came from The prefecture of Hiroshima, Yamaguchi, Shimane, Tottori and Okayama to Tamano to participate at the competition.

広島県、山口県、島根県、鳥取県と岡山県から来た人が試合に参加した。

Besides me only two more person had the first Kyu; everyone else had a Dan-title or even a Renshi, Kyoushi, or Hanshi title. The level was rather high and I really enjoyed it to see so many skilled people.

僕とほかにもう二人の一級を持ってる人はいなくて、他人は段っていうタイテルを持ってる人がいて、練や教や範っていうタイテルを持ってる先生もいた。巧妙さのレベルは本当にちょう高くて、そんなにたくさん上手な人がいるのはそごく楽しかった！

The Tamano Dojo provided even a lunch box and cold tea for us. Because it was very hot today, we were happy to have plenty of drinks.

玉野道場の人は美味しいお弁当も冷たい麦茶も準備して置いた。とても暑かったから、麦茶の飲み放題があったのは良かった！

Everyone was shooting four arrows in two rounds. The competition started at 9 o'clock in the morning and finished at five o'clock in the afternoon.

皆は二回に四射の矢を引いた。玉野の大会は朝の九時に始まって、午後の5時ぐらい終わった。

When we didn't shoot we helped to collect the arrows back and cleaned them. 弓道をやってない時に、僕らは引いた矢を集めて手伝って、矢を掃除してあげた。

We were all not so bad. Three of us came into the final and and one if them even became fourth place of the single guys competition! My team managed only place 32 of 64 with 11 hits.

皆さんはけっこう当たった。徳山道場から参加した人の中で三人ファイナルにはいるのができた！その三人の中で一人は男性個人の4位になった！僕のチームは全部の参加した64チームの中で当たった11射の矢で34位になった。

It was really a great day and I hope that I can join into a competition in October again before i will take my 1. Dan exam.

今日本当に素晴らしかった。初段の新参の前にもう一回十月にの他の大会を参加したらいいと思ってる！

Uraja - the Demon festival

This weekend was introduced with the annually highly expected fireworks around Okayama castle. I gathered with Machi, Sten, and three other friends in Korakuen (後楽園), where we had a beautiful view on the castle and watched the exploding rockets. Two years ago I was watching this spectacle at the Asahi river (旭川) among a huge crowd. Since there is at the moment a light festival in Korakuen (後楽園) and not so many people (but still way more than usually) went to the park, we enjoyed the night in the park much more than at the crowded river bank; nibbling on our bottle of wine.

Beginning of the fireworks at 19.30

Final rockets at 20.30

On Sunday the festival in Okayama continued! This festival is called "Uraja" (うらじゃ), the festival of the Demons and marks a feast that was introduced in Okayama 1994. Along the main road in front of the main station, groups from all over Okayama gather and dance from the afternoon until 9 pm. They paint their faces and dress in colourful clothes to become demons! But why demons? 

One of the most famous stories about and around Okayama is the story of Momotarou (桃太郎) - the peach boy. That's probably also the reason why the peach price in Okayama varies from 5 to 10 Euro per peach (o.o)7. You can read about the story here. Since Machis friend "Poly" danced in a group at the festival, Machi, Joe, "Polies" boyfriend Yoshipi, and I went of course in to the city to see all the dancing children and growing ups. The last two months in Okayama were pretty hot and humid, but "thanks" to a Taifun in the south of Japan, the wind was rather strong yesterday and gave us some cooling. At 9 pm all groups and visitors gathered and danced together on the street. I can't tell how many people were there, but south and north along the street I could only see folks, dancing together. I really enjoyed the atmosphere.

Break for young dancers!

And Poly

It must have been pretty hard to dance all afternoon for the little ones.

Yoshipi and Poly.

Final dance with everyone at 9 pm.

People gathered to dance together!

I tried to capture the atmosphere during the folk dance with my iphone, but blogspot has somehow problems uploading the mov file - I apologise for the bad converted version: