Japan
OK, perhaps I'm able to write some sort of memories of the trip. All in all, it was great and I rarely feel after a longer (well it was not too long, but 10 days is quite enough) trip that I could go to the same place soon again. And we definitely will go if we just get a chance one day.
We mainly stayed in Tokyo, although we flew to and from Nagoya. From Nagoya we took the fast Shinkansen-train to Tokyo and after the flight it didn't feel too fast, although the trains do drive about 280km/h. It felt safe and that's what matters. Our hotel in Tokyo was in Shinjuku, a very good place to be thinking about the subway and train lines. The hotel was cheap, clean and the staff was terribly friendly and polite (as everyone there) and it was not too far from anything we mostly wanted to see. We spent some days just walking around in the different centers of the city and the friend's girlfriend Eeva showed us places since the friend himself was working. In the evenings we went to restaurants we never would have gone without Jaakko's help... Sometimes there were no English menus or not even photos of the meals (although they were luckily quite common in many restaurants). We didn't eat too exciting things, except for one night when we, me and J alone, accidentally ordered chicken cartilages... OMG, they looked delicious but were...erm, a bit too crispy for our taste. Didn't eat them :/ . But in general, eating there is easy and English menus are often available. J tasted sushi one night and although we like the Finnish raw salmon and herring a lot, sushi didn't become our favourite. The smell in the restaurants is just like at a fish market... "Normal" Japanese food with rice was yummy and eating with the chopsticks turned out to be easier than thought.
We made a day trip from Tokyo to Kamakura (a place with dozens of temples/shrines and a huge statue of Buddha) one day and on Midsummer Eve we drove to the countryside and visited a hot spa outside. It was a nice experience although I must admit sauna feels a bit more comfortable. The water there was sooo warm and just sitting there in the water much warmer than when taking a bath was at times a bit awkward. The spa itself was lovely though. The weather was hot all week, the humidity was also much different from what we've used to here. We saw wild monkeys on our way to the spa in the forest but after seeing us they ran away fast :) .
The people often answered that they only speak a little English after asking it, but usually they were still able to help us very well. And in many places where we didn't find a common verbal language, the things still worked out much easier than in some places where we've been and where we speak the language of the country. The people truly feel sorry if they can't help us better and try to do everything they can to make it work. I know it's part of the culture of the Japanese and it may not always be a good thing but for a visitor it's great. I really don't feel like seeing angry or frustrated people on my holiday, in Japan you see none! :) . Oh, and when speaking English, many people really pronounce "R" as "L" and the other way round... When we left our hotel, the man in the reception said "Here is your leceipt" and a woman at the Nagoya airport wished us "a nice fright" when we were about to board :) .
Shortly said, I fell in love with the nightly skyscrapers, the neon light, the gardens and the parks, the people and the food :) . Japan is also a funny country with all sorts of employees you never see in Finland. Despite the traffic lights, there might still be a special worker in the corner with a red neon Star Trek sword showing you "Now you can go". And there are people selling tickets to the park outside of them. A nice thing in itself but a small machine swallows the ticket immediately when you enter the park...
There are some many things I could mention but I'd better leave it here. Nobody wants to read a story too long :) .
We mainly stayed in Tokyo, although we flew to and from Nagoya. From Nagoya we took the fast Shinkansen-train to Tokyo and after the flight it didn't feel too fast, although the trains do drive about 280km/h. It felt safe and that's what matters. Our hotel in Tokyo was in Shinjuku, a very good place to be thinking about the subway and train lines. The hotel was cheap, clean and the staff was terribly friendly and polite (as everyone there) and it was not too far from anything we mostly wanted to see. We spent some days just walking around in the different centers of the city and the friend's girlfriend Eeva showed us places since the friend himself was working. In the evenings we went to restaurants we never would have gone without Jaakko's help... Sometimes there were no English menus or not even photos of the meals (although they were luckily quite common in many restaurants). We didn't eat too exciting things, except for one night when we, me and J alone, accidentally ordered chicken cartilages... OMG, they looked delicious but were...erm, a bit too crispy for our taste. Didn't eat them :/ . But in general, eating there is easy and English menus are often available. J tasted sushi one night and although we like the Finnish raw salmon and herring a lot, sushi didn't become our favourite. The smell in the restaurants is just like at a fish market... "Normal" Japanese food with rice was yummy and eating with the chopsticks turned out to be easier than thought.
We made a day trip from Tokyo to Kamakura (a place with dozens of temples/shrines and a huge statue of Buddha) one day and on Midsummer Eve we drove to the countryside and visited a hot spa outside. It was a nice experience although I must admit sauna feels a bit more comfortable. The water there was sooo warm and just sitting there in the water much warmer than when taking a bath was at times a bit awkward. The spa itself was lovely though. The weather was hot all week, the humidity was also much different from what we've used to here. We saw wild monkeys on our way to the spa in the forest but after seeing us they ran away fast :) .
The people often answered that they only speak a little English after asking it, but usually they were still able to help us very well. And in many places where we didn't find a common verbal language, the things still worked out much easier than in some places where we've been and where we speak the language of the country. The people truly feel sorry if they can't help us better and try to do everything they can to make it work. I know it's part of the culture of the Japanese and it may not always be a good thing but for a visitor it's great. I really don't feel like seeing angry or frustrated people on my holiday, in Japan you see none! :) . Oh, and when speaking English, many people really pronounce "R" as "L" and the other way round... When we left our hotel, the man in the reception said "Here is your leceipt" and a woman at the Nagoya airport wished us "a nice fright" when we were about to board :) .
Shortly said, I fell in love with the nightly skyscrapers, the neon light, the gardens and the parks, the people and the food :) . Japan is also a funny country with all sorts of employees you never see in Finland. Despite the traffic lights, there might still be a special worker in the corner with a red neon Star Trek sword showing you "Now you can go". And there are people selling tickets to the park outside of them. A nice thing in itself but a small machine swallows the ticket immediately when you enter the park...
There are some many things I could mention but I'd better leave it here. Nobody wants to read a story too long :) .