Naoto inti Raymi’s “Tabiuta diary” -> 16.09.12 - 17.09.12
ナオトインテｲライミ「旅歌ダイアリー」 Naoto inti Raymi’s “Tabiuta diary” (Fan translation)
This is the first book I’ve read from Naoto's travel diaries, pretty much after I went for my first Naoto live in May and after watching his travel documentary (which forms the basis of this book) in the cinema. As the name suggests, it is a travel diary he kept during his trips to Ethiopia, Columbia and Trinidad and Tobago in the past year. I found it interesting because I do enjoy travelling though admittedly not quite in Naoto-style. As part of an exercise to practise my Japanese, I thought it might be interesting to translate and share his adventures. It doesn’t matter if you are a fan of his music or not, his travel tales are something else altogether.
Please do note that I am not a professional translator and this isn’t a line for line translation. Any comments/feedback is greatly appreciated. I have also included a ‘vocab list’ at the end of the entry for those who want to pick up some new words.
16.9.2012 (Sunday)
Narita -> Dubai
It’s been 8 years since my trip around the world*. And since then I had my 2nd debut. Another failure. From wandering around to becoming a back-up singer for Mr Children, and onto my 3rd major debut. And my first live at Budokan… 2.5 years have passed since that debut and I finally feel like I am standing on the start line.
Though there is a slight unease, I am really looking forward to what Ethiopia has in store. Looking forward to what I’ll experience, what I’ll take away from this trip. In what ways have I changed from that trip 8 years ago, how do I view travel now? And what thoughts will I have in Ethiopia, now that I’m 33 years old?? There isn’t a need to do much planning; just act on impulse! Onwards to Africa!!
17.9.2012 (Monday)
Dubai -> Addis Abeba (Ethiopia)
I’m really looking forward to what the 33 year old me would experience during this trip. What has changed and what hasn’t. First thing I did notice is how the backpack feels against my back. It sure didn’t feel this heavy back then! What hasn’t changed is that I still act on impulse. Instead of thinking and planning, I’ll go where my heart takes me. And that is how adventures begin. After all, all sorts of miracles and troubles occur when one travels, regardless of whether one asks for it or not.
It was an 11-hour flight from Japan to Dubai. And it was so cold on board the flight that a down jacket was essential. I slept, read, listened to music and stretched a little and here I arrived in Dubai. The transit is 6 hours long and waiting around in the transit hall for 6 hours will be just a bore. If that’s the case, I should move around. And once that thought came to mind, my feet found themselves moving. This IS travelling in ‘Naoto-style’! Hence I hastily set out for the streets of Dubai in a taxi.
Early morning Dubai! There’s ‘Morning Mac’s’, ‘Morning Curry’, so here’s ‘Morning Dubai’! Available from 5.30am to 7.30am. Driving down the street lined with palm trees on each side, it certainly feels like I have arrived in the tropics. Dwarfed by the surrounded by towering skyscrapers, it feels like I’m in a modern-day version of ‘Gulliver’s travels’. What the streets lack in warmth and cosiness, they certainly make up for it in impact and scale. This is what being the No. 1 city in UAE means!
There is the Burj Khalifa, tallest man-made structure in the world at 828 metres. It’s so slim and pointy that even Gulliver would find it painful to be stabbed by it. Then there’s 7-star hotel Burj Al Arab, where international celebs spent many a night here. Apparently a night’s stay costs around 200,000 yen (~USD 2000). From quite a distance away, I ‘pinched’ the hotel in between my fingers and took a picture.
It felt awesome to be on a beach in early morning. A beach that resembles a desert. Or perhaps a desert that resembles a beach. I suddenly thought ‘Why am I on a beach in Dubai this early in the morning?!’ and laughed when I recalled the mad dash out of the customs earlier in the day.
It seems like the locals only make up for 20% of the entire population in Dubai. The rest are entrepreneurs and businessmen from different parts of the world, as well as those from other parts of UAE and Asia who moved to Dubai, seeking to better their lives. After a quick spin around downtown, it’s time to return to the airport. This marks the end of my whirlwind tour of Dubai. Bye bye, Dubai!
10 am - Departure from Dubai.
I arrived in Addis Abeba, capital of Ethiopia. At 2,500 metres above sea level, it is the 3rd highest capital city in the world, after La Paz in Bolivia and Quito in Ecuador. Though it’s really sunny here, the air is crisp and dry.
Because I got here directly from a country like Japan, the difference between the two really made an impact as I looked out of the window on my way to the hotel. Every time we stopped at a traffic light, we were approached by people asking for food and money. Mothers holding snivelling babies in their arms. Barefoot children. Men on crutches. Men who are partially blind. A sight one won’t see in Japan.
4 pm - Hotel check-in.
Faro boutique hotel** in Bole (pronounced as ‘Bo-lay’. I suppose if one were to rank the hotel, it will be that of a lower class. To a backpacker, this is a treat. To the normal tourist, perhaps this might be seen as a hotel with some hygiene issues…
While exploring the area around the hotel, I stumbled across two young teenage girls having a scuffle. I stepped in quickly to stop the fight and was shocked at how strong they were! It took another male passer-by to pull them apart. If I were to have a sumo-wrestling match with these girls, I would have lost. Two girls in a scuffle on the streets. Again this is something you won’t see too often in Japan.
5:30 pm
I want to play at a street soccer arena we spotted on our way to the hotel but it’s not that easy to join in.
It’s a really lively place. The ones playing soccer are the youths but the place is interspersed with small children and elderly folk. Soccer is played on concrete grounds, with stones placed at both ends of the makeshift court, marking out goalposts. There are around 7,8 matches at any one time. When I made a gesture to express my interest in joining their teams, I was bluntly rejected. Baptism of fire… So I tried the next court. ‘Can you kick? Give it a go~’, said one of the players as he passed me the ball. I did some lifting and ended with balancing the ball on my head and was rewarded with ‘You aren’t bad at all. Let’s play together!’, meaning I had passed their test. I managed to shake off the opponent and scored an early goal. The other guys on the team began to trust me more and started passing the ball to me.
What’s interesting about this court is that people seem to stroll across the court at all times, even when we are in the midst of a game. While there aren’t clear lines to mark out the court, one can roughly make out the start and end of the court by looking at the players. However, that didn’t deter grandpas and kids from walking by, neither did it stop women from cutting across the court during the game. At one time, a truck and some cars suddenly cut into the court and went on their separate ways after that. Pure chaos. The number of times the match got interrupted is quite something too. Well, I guess this isn’t uncommon in overseas street soccer. With both sides making their own claims and neither was willing to budge even an inch, the match came to a stop after some 20 minutes.
Whether it was a foul or a goal or a pass that should have been considered out, the match was often stopped for the tiniest reason. When it first happened, I was going ‘Come on, guys! Let’s continue the game!’ But when my teammate was denied a goal that I assisted, I couldn’t keep quiet just like that. Not willing to lose out to the other team, I bickered with them. ‘No matter how you see it, this is a goal. Don’t be a douche!’ This must have gone on for about 20 minutes. Yet we all laughed about it in the end.
7 pm
Well, our side lost the match in the end. Even though this is just street soccer and the most important thing is to enjoy the game, it is still a game I don’t want to lose. There isn’t one match that I had played which I thought would be okay for me to lose. Not once. Thus I’m upset we lost the match today. If I had put up a stronger defence midfield and controlled the game more, it could have been a happy ending.
I want to become better. To be stronger tomorrow than I had been today. To become stronger the day after than the day before.
8 pm - Dinner at a well-known local restaurant called ‘Habesha 2000’***
Injera is a local crepe-like dish where teff flour is mixed with yeast and allowed to ferment for 2,3 days before baking. It’s soft and spongy with a mild sour taste, probably because of the fermentation process. It’s eaten with stir-fried vegetables and minced meat and this seems to be what the locals eat for all three meals.
The local beer ‘St. George’ is delicious. Refreshing and easy to drink, kind of similar to Japanese beers. A band then started playing some Ethiopian folk music. All five members had traditional Ethiopian instruments. Two had the krar, a lyre-like string instrument. The one with thicker strings played the position of the bass while the thinner strings give off higher pitch sounds, taking the position of a guitarist in a band. Other instruments included a kebero drum, a manseqo (similar to a lute) and a washint (wooden flute). They sometimes played slow, melodious tune not dissimilar to Japanese enka songs; at other times, reggae music. They also had quite a few fast tempo pieces.
Accompanying the music were traditional folk dancers in colourful costumes. One of the female vocalists, a middle-aged lady inclined to plumpness, started going round the tables in an attempt to get diners to dance. As she was looking at us throughout the whole routine, she finally got to our table and pulled me up to the stage. It turned out to be quite a vigorous dance. I didn’t feel embarrassed at all and let myself go.
9.30 pm - Let’s set out for ‘Naoto Club’ night!
Since it’s the first day of the trip, I’m running on full tank. This is the Naoto style after all!
1st stop - A place that plays live Ethiopian pop music. I became fast friends with the pianist ojisan and the vocalist and asked the pianist to teach me Ethiopian scales. He began to teach while playing for the crowd. What a kind ojisan!
2nd stop - Dance club. The band in the club had the same instruments and set-up as the one that played during dinner. Yet it was house (dance) music they played! And really loudly too! These traditional instruments do cover such a wide range of music. (They mixed in some Somalian instruments as well)
The crowd consists mainly of young Ethiopians who were out to party and is probably the place to be seen in the city. I was grooving to the beat of the music when the guy playing the krar suddenly asked me if I sing. I didn’t say a thing before that moment but it appears that he knew that I’m a musician from the way I groove. I’m really happy~
When I was travelling around the world, I took hold of every chance I could get, to go up and ask for the permission to sing and perform. That part of me seems to have mellowed a little with age. I’m not about to ask them for a chance to sing but perhaps the desire to sing is still clearly seen on my face and body. Perhaps I haven’t changed much at all. Perhaps what has changed is the way I express myself.
They passed the microphone over and I started singing to their music. What they were playing resembles Kina Shoukichi’s ‘Hana’ so I matched Hana’s lyrics to their tune. Halfway through the song, one of the member gestured that they were going to increase the tempo of the song. The fast beats of the drums resulted in a rap-style tune and totally changed the mood in the club. Towards the end, the tempo dropped back to the folk music like ‘Hana’ again. There were rounds of applause and cheers and some threw me tips. No matter what, I’ll take it all. Itadakimasu.
I didn’t expect to experience so much of the local music scene on my first day here. In the end, my first day in Ethiopia was spent playing soccer and music.
Midnight - Back in the hotel
There is WIFI in the hotel lobby. Pretty amazing times we live in yeah? That said, the speed of the WIFI speed is extremely slow. Used to high-speed internet back home and getting to whatever site I want to go in a split of a second, I soon became unnecessarily stressed by the hotel WIFI. I suppose I’ll get used to it after a while. This got me thinking, about how fortunate we are to have grown up in a country like Japan.
2 am - Shower
It was a truly stressful experience. I wanted a hot shower since I was feeling cold but as luck would have it, the temperature control for the shower wasn’t working. It was either ice-cold or scalding hot. It takes around 3 seconds for the water to become really hot or really cold. Those three seconds was the only time I could stand under the shower. All in all, it took 30 times of switching between hot and cold before I could finish my shower. Time wise, it took 20 minutes. I also washed my soccer jersey in the toilet. I am sleepy but thought it’d be better to get the chores done on the same day. Then I started to feel a little hungry. If we were in Japan, this means grabbing a snack from a nearby conbini. Obviously there aren’t such shops around here. That’s right! There’s still kibi-dango (a kind of sweet mochi dumpling) that I bought and planned to eat during my flight. I’m saved by this humble sweet on my first night.
Be it facilities or convenience, this nagging, slight dissatisfaction I’m feeling is sweet. The adventure has finally begun…
4 am - Sleep
I fell into a deep sleep the moment my head touched the pillow. Completely knocked out.
[To be continued…]
*Following the failure of his first debut during his university days and 8 months of living as a recluse (hikikomori), Naoto set off on a trip around the world, covering some 28 countries from August 2003 to the end of 2004. It was a trip that shaped him into the person he is today
** It’s ranked 2.5 stars on Tripadvisor and has received some appalling reviews indeed. http://www.tripadvisor.com/Hotel_Review-g293791-d2733040-Reviews-Faro_Boutique_Hotel-Addis_Ababa.html
*** Habesha 2000’s webpage http://2000habesha.net/index.html
Vocab for me ♪ ♪
急遽 （きゅうきょ) - in a haste
繰り出す (くりだす) - set out
ヤシの木 - palm tree
ぬくもり - slight sense of warmth and tenderness
迫力 （はくりょく) - impactful
指をくわえる - hold it between fingers
いわゆる - so called
終焉 (しゅうえん) - the end
カラッと - crisp and dry
松葉杖 (まつばづえ) - crutches
奮発 （ふんぱつ) - a treat
取って組合（とってくみあい） - scuffle, coming to blows
洗礼 (せんれい) - baptism
中断 （ちゅうだん) - interruption, postponement
ありがち - not uncommon, prone to
言い争い （いいあらそい) - bicker, quarrel
ボランチ - Defensive midfielder position (in soccer)
チップ - tips
支配 （しはい) - control
ひき肉 - minced meat
うずまる - burrow
流儀 （りゅうぎ) - style, fashion, one’s way
This is the first book I’ve read from Naoto's travel diaries, pretty much after I went for my first Naoto live in May and after watching his travel documentary (which forms the basis of this book) in the cinema. As the name suggests, it is a travel diary he kept during his trips to Ethiopia, Columbia and Trinidad and Tobago in the past year. I found it interesting because I do enjoy travelling though admittedly not quite in Naoto-style. As part of an exercise to practise my Japanese, I thought it might be interesting to translate and share his adventures. It doesn’t matter if you are a fan of his music or not, his travel tales are something else altogether.
Please do note that I am not a professional translator and this isn’t a line for line translation. Any comments/feedback is greatly appreciated. I have also included a ‘vocab list’ at the end of the entry for those who want to pick up some new words.
16.9.2012 (Sunday)
Narita -> Dubai
It’s been 8 years since my trip around the world*. And since then I had my 2nd debut. Another failure. From wandering around to becoming a back-up singer for Mr Children, and onto my 3rd major debut. And my first live at Budokan… 2.5 years have passed since that debut and I finally feel like I am standing on the start line.
Though there is a slight unease, I am really looking forward to what Ethiopia has in store. Looking forward to what I’ll experience, what I’ll take away from this trip. In what ways have I changed from that trip 8 years ago, how do I view travel now? And what thoughts will I have in Ethiopia, now that I’m 33 years old?? There isn’t a need to do much planning; just act on impulse! Onwards to Africa!!
17.9.2012 (Monday)
Dubai -> Addis Abeba (Ethiopia)
I’m really looking forward to what the 33 year old me would experience during this trip. What has changed and what hasn’t. First thing I did notice is how the backpack feels against my back. It sure didn’t feel this heavy back then! What hasn’t changed is that I still act on impulse. Instead of thinking and planning, I’ll go where my heart takes me. And that is how adventures begin. After all, all sorts of miracles and troubles occur when one travels, regardless of whether one asks for it or not.
It was an 11-hour flight from Japan to Dubai. And it was so cold on board the flight that a down jacket was essential. I slept, read, listened to music and stretched a little and here I arrived in Dubai. The transit is 6 hours long and waiting around in the transit hall for 6 hours will be just a bore. If that’s the case, I should move around. And once that thought came to mind, my feet found themselves moving. This IS travelling in ‘Naoto-style’! Hence I hastily set out for the streets of Dubai in a taxi.
Early morning Dubai! There’s ‘Morning Mac’s’, ‘Morning Curry’, so here’s ‘Morning Dubai’! Available from 5.30am to 7.30am. Driving down the street lined with palm trees on each side, it certainly feels like I have arrived in the tropics. Dwarfed by the surrounded by towering skyscrapers, it feels like I’m in a modern-day version of ‘Gulliver’s travels’. What the streets lack in warmth and cosiness, they certainly make up for it in impact and scale. This is what being the No. 1 city in UAE means!
There is the Burj Khalifa, tallest man-made structure in the world at 828 metres. It’s so slim and pointy that even Gulliver would find it painful to be stabbed by it. Then there’s 7-star hotel Burj Al Arab, where international celebs spent many a night here. Apparently a night’s stay costs around 200,000 yen (~USD 2000). From quite a distance away, I ‘pinched’ the hotel in between my fingers and took a picture.
It felt awesome to be on a beach in early morning. A beach that resembles a desert. Or perhaps a desert that resembles a beach. I suddenly thought ‘Why am I on a beach in Dubai this early in the morning?!’ and laughed when I recalled the mad dash out of the customs earlier in the day.
It seems like the locals only make up for 20% of the entire population in Dubai. The rest are entrepreneurs and businessmen from different parts of the world, as well as those from other parts of UAE and Asia who moved to Dubai, seeking to better their lives. After a quick spin around downtown, it’s time to return to the airport. This marks the end of my whirlwind tour of Dubai. Bye bye, Dubai!
10 am - Departure from Dubai.
I arrived in Addis Abeba, capital of Ethiopia. At 2,500 metres above sea level, it is the 3rd highest capital city in the world, after La Paz in Bolivia and Quito in Ecuador. Though it’s really sunny here, the air is crisp and dry.
Because I got here directly from a country like Japan, the difference between the two really made an impact as I looked out of the window on my way to the hotel. Every time we stopped at a traffic light, we were approached by people asking for food and money. Mothers holding snivelling babies in their arms. Barefoot children. Men on crutches. Men who are partially blind. A sight one won’t see in Japan.
4 pm - Hotel check-in.
Faro boutique hotel** in Bole (pronounced as ‘Bo-lay’. I suppose if one were to rank the hotel, it will be that of a lower class. To a backpacker, this is a treat. To the normal tourist, perhaps this might be seen as a hotel with some hygiene issues…
While exploring the area around the hotel, I stumbled across two young teenage girls having a scuffle. I stepped in quickly to stop the fight and was shocked at how strong they were! It took another male passer-by to pull them apart. If I were to have a sumo-wrestling match with these girls, I would have lost. Two girls in a scuffle on the streets. Again this is something you won’t see too often in Japan.
5:30 pm
I want to play at a street soccer arena we spotted on our way to the hotel but it’s not that easy to join in.
It’s a really lively place. The ones playing soccer are the youths but the place is interspersed with small children and elderly folk. Soccer is played on concrete grounds, with stones placed at both ends of the makeshift court, marking out goalposts. There are around 7,8 matches at any one time. When I made a gesture to express my interest in joining their teams, I was bluntly rejected. Baptism of fire… So I tried the next court. ‘Can you kick? Give it a go~’, said one of the players as he passed me the ball. I did some lifting and ended with balancing the ball on my head and was rewarded with ‘You aren’t bad at all. Let’s play together!’, meaning I had passed their test. I managed to shake off the opponent and scored an early goal. The other guys on the team began to trust me more and started passing the ball to me.
What’s interesting about this court is that people seem to stroll across the court at all times, even when we are in the midst of a game. While there aren’t clear lines to mark out the court, one can roughly make out the start and end of the court by looking at the players. However, that didn’t deter grandpas and kids from walking by, neither did it stop women from cutting across the court during the game. At one time, a truck and some cars suddenly cut into the court and went on their separate ways after that. Pure chaos. The number of times the match got interrupted is quite something too. Well, I guess this isn’t uncommon in overseas street soccer. With both sides making their own claims and neither was willing to budge even an inch, the match came to a stop after some 20 minutes.
Whether it was a foul or a goal or a pass that should have been considered out, the match was often stopped for the tiniest reason. When it first happened, I was going ‘Come on, guys! Let’s continue the game!’ But when my teammate was denied a goal that I assisted, I couldn’t keep quiet just like that. Not willing to lose out to the other team, I bickered with them. ‘No matter how you see it, this is a goal. Don’t be a douche!’ This must have gone on for about 20 minutes. Yet we all laughed about it in the end.
7 pm
Well, our side lost the match in the end. Even though this is just street soccer and the most important thing is to enjoy the game, it is still a game I don’t want to lose. There isn’t one match that I had played which I thought would be okay for me to lose. Not once. Thus I’m upset we lost the match today. If I had put up a stronger defence midfield and controlled the game more, it could have been a happy ending.
I want to become better. To be stronger tomorrow than I had been today. To become stronger the day after than the day before.
8 pm - Dinner at a well-known local restaurant called ‘Habesha 2000’***
Injera is a local crepe-like dish where teff flour is mixed with yeast and allowed to ferment for 2,3 days before baking. It’s soft and spongy with a mild sour taste, probably because of the fermentation process. It’s eaten with stir-fried vegetables and minced meat and this seems to be what the locals eat for all three meals.
The local beer ‘St. George’ is delicious. Refreshing and easy to drink, kind of similar to Japanese beers. A band then started playing some Ethiopian folk music. All five members had traditional Ethiopian instruments. Two had the krar, a lyre-like string instrument. The one with thicker strings played the position of the bass while the thinner strings give off higher pitch sounds, taking the position of a guitarist in a band. Other instruments included a kebero drum, a manseqo (similar to a lute) and a washint (wooden flute). They sometimes played slow, melodious tune not dissimilar to Japanese enka songs; at other times, reggae music. They also had quite a few fast tempo pieces.
Accompanying the music were traditional folk dancers in colourful costumes. One of the female vocalists, a middle-aged lady inclined to plumpness, started going round the tables in an attempt to get diners to dance. As she was looking at us throughout the whole routine, she finally got to our table and pulled me up to the stage. It turned out to be quite a vigorous dance. I didn’t feel embarrassed at all and let myself go.
9.30 pm - Let’s set out for ‘Naoto Club’ night!
Since it’s the first day of the trip, I’m running on full tank. This is the Naoto style after all!
1st stop - A place that plays live Ethiopian pop music. I became fast friends with the pianist ojisan and the vocalist and asked the pianist to teach me Ethiopian scales. He began to teach while playing for the crowd. What a kind ojisan!
2nd stop - Dance club. The band in the club had the same instruments and set-up as the one that played during dinner. Yet it was house (dance) music they played! And really loudly too! These traditional instruments do cover such a wide range of music. (They mixed in some Somalian instruments as well)
The crowd consists mainly of young Ethiopians who were out to party and is probably the place to be seen in the city. I was grooving to the beat of the music when the guy playing the krar suddenly asked me if I sing. I didn’t say a thing before that moment but it appears that he knew that I’m a musician from the way I groove. I’m really happy~
When I was travelling around the world, I took hold of every chance I could get, to go up and ask for the permission to sing and perform. That part of me seems to have mellowed a little with age. I’m not about to ask them for a chance to sing but perhaps the desire to sing is still clearly seen on my face and body. Perhaps I haven’t changed much at all. Perhaps what has changed is the way I express myself.
They passed the microphone over and I started singing to their music. What they were playing resembles Kina Shoukichi’s ‘Hana’ so I matched Hana’s lyrics to their tune. Halfway through the song, one of the member gestured that they were going to increase the tempo of the song. The fast beats of the drums resulted in a rap-style tune and totally changed the mood in the club. Towards the end, the tempo dropped back to the folk music like ‘Hana’ again. There were rounds of applause and cheers and some threw me tips. No matter what, I’ll take it all. Itadakimasu.
I didn’t expect to experience so much of the local music scene on my first day here. In the end, my first day in Ethiopia was spent playing soccer and music.
Midnight - Back in the hotel
There is WIFI in the hotel lobby. Pretty amazing times we live in yeah? That said, the speed of the WIFI speed is extremely slow. Used to high-speed internet back home and getting to whatever site I want to go in a split of a second, I soon became unnecessarily stressed by the hotel WIFI. I suppose I’ll get used to it after a while. This got me thinking, about how fortunate we are to have grown up in a country like Japan.
2 am - Shower
It was a truly stressful experience. I wanted a hot shower since I was feeling cold but as luck would have it, the temperature control for the shower wasn’t working. It was either ice-cold or scalding hot. It takes around 3 seconds for the water to become really hot or really cold. Those three seconds was the only time I could stand under the shower. All in all, it took 30 times of switching between hot and cold before I could finish my shower. Time wise, it took 20 minutes. I also washed my soccer jersey in the toilet. I am sleepy but thought it’d be better to get the chores done on the same day. Then I started to feel a little hungry. If we were in Japan, this means grabbing a snack from a nearby conbini. Obviously there aren’t such shops around here. That’s right! There’s still kibi-dango (a kind of sweet mochi dumpling) that I bought and planned to eat during my flight. I’m saved by this humble sweet on my first night.
Be it facilities or convenience, this nagging, slight dissatisfaction I’m feeling is sweet. The adventure has finally begun…
4 am - Sleep
I fell into a deep sleep the moment my head touched the pillow. Completely knocked out.
[To be continued…]
*Following the failure of his first debut during his university days and 8 months of living as a recluse (hikikomori), Naoto set off on a trip around the world, covering some 28 countries from August 2003 to the end of 2004. It was a trip that shaped him into the person he is today
** It’s ranked 2.5 stars on Tripadvisor and has received some appalling reviews indeed. http://www.tripadvisor.com/Hotel_Review-g293791-d2733040-Reviews-Faro_Boutique_Hotel-Addis_Ababa.html
*** Habesha 2000’s webpage http://2000habesha.net/index.html
Vocab for me ♪ ♪
急遽 （きゅうきょ) - in a haste
繰り出す (くりだす) - set out
ヤシの木 - palm tree
ぬくもり - slight sense of warmth and tenderness
迫力 （はくりょく) - impactful
指をくわえる - hold it between fingers
いわゆる - so called
終焉 (しゅうえん) - the end
カラッと - crisp and dry
松葉杖 (まつばづえ) - crutches
奮発 （ふんぱつ) - a treat
取って組合（とってくみあい） - scuffle, coming to blows
洗礼 (せんれい) - baptism
中断 （ちゅうだん) - interruption, postponement
ありがち - not uncommon, prone to
言い争い （いいあらそい) - bicker, quarrel
ボランチ - Defensive midfielder position (in soccer)
チップ - tips
支配 （しはい) - control
ひき肉 - minced meat
うずまる - burrow
流儀 （りゅうぎ) - style, fashion, one’s way