Summary of the first 5 days in Japan

Hey everyone! I was thinking whether I should describe my adventures in Japan before the 10th day (when I started writing about it here) since everything is going to be on this Erasmus blog and would be nice to have then naturally everything here. The reason I have not done that until now was that I already wrote in details about it on my personal travel blog on tumblr and that would be against the rules. And as you can guess, my tumblr has been pretty much empty and inactive for the last 5 months. However, I think I can bring you a short stories and impressions of every of these days here.

Enough of talking, let's start!

Day 1: The flight from Zagreb to Doha (Qatar) and waiting for the night plane to Osaka

My flight was scheduled on 2nd of July and I was nervous just a little bit before the flight. In the morning on the day of the journey I found out that my host family had to be changed due to some problems at home and the new one was supposed to be an old couple (with a cat! ) that is a restaurant owner and they spoke no English at all. I was just thinking "Great! " and how was I supposed to survive. On the other hand it proved to be an interesting challenge and for the first time to be in a situation where the language barriers was the problem number one. It also forced me to learn Japanese (and use both my hands and feet). The place of my host family was in the relatively smaller town called Gobo which is located on the coast of the Pacific in the south of Wakayama prefecture and Osaka Kansai region.

My flight started at Zagreb Pleso airport about 1. 30 p. m. and it took about 6 hours to reach Doha, Qatar, where I had several more hours before my flight to Osaka KIX. I had all of my stuff packed (and more than I really brought) and went with my mom and dad to the airport. As soon as we found our agency - Qatar Airways we became more calm as everything seemed to be good with them. I was really not nervous and did not care much now.

While waiting in the line for the plane I met a friend next to me from Shanghai who had spent a year in Croatia so we chatted. For me it was the first experience to travel so far, the first to go outside Europe (and the first logically to Asia). I was having a huge comfort of having the whole row of 3 seats just for me so I could even sleep with my legs on the seats. And the service of Qatar Airways was really amazing. I remember two things:

• One could enjoy the multimedia display integrated in the seat in front of you with tons of music playlists including the radio ones, a large database of movies, books to read, ordering lunch menu, playing games and much more. I was mostly listening to the music playlist and also tried Qatar radio which was quiet good. Before landing to Japan the other day I tried to master numbers and greetings. Numbers were okay and I came prepared there but the greetings and elementary phrases were just too much for me and not even the super easy games helped me remember it.

  

• One of my favorite features this software had was this satellite map where one can track our route, get the information on the distance, the speed, temperatures, how long does it take to reach our destination and much more. I used this quiet often as I love maps and tracking our location. I find it also interesting as (if possible) when looking out of the window you were able to locate yourself. When seeing we were close to some lake, bay, sea or a bigger place I would immediately turn my head towards the window and check the area. Oh yes, I am this kind of a person who wants to sit next to the window, not close to the middle of the plane!

  

• The second thing you are going to love are the meals and the lunch menus. I remember the stewardesses asking me "Sir, what do you want to eat, which lunch menu would you prefer...? " I just stuck to the chicken and potatoes with lots of vegetables. And it was all fresh, hot and so delicious! I have to say I cared of no accidents at the moment and was able to fall asleep within seconds. Besides the main menu which makes you really satisfied and not hungry until landing you also get free drinks as much as you wish, some sweets such as chocolate and pudding and salad. They were also giving away some chopsticks but (you know me) I put them into my backpack unopened and use the fork and the spoon instead.

Our route was something like this - going over Serbia and Bulgaria towards Istanbul and I had seen this enormous city from above (Istanbul could contain 4x population of Croatia), then through the lands of Mesopotamia where I enjoyed the view over half deserted mountain ranges that probably led later to the Himalayas.

Time flew by (flew, get it? ) quickly and when approaching the Arabian Bay and were close to our destination (at least on the map) the sun was already pretty low. I forgot that we were going towards the equator and since it was in July the days were shorter there...plus the time difference between Zagreb and Doha was 2 hours... I was looking forward to seeing the city of Doha and the area during the day, to look at the skyscrapers and make a video of course... but it did not happen. Nevermind, on my way back to Zagreb 4 weeks later the weather granted me this wish.

We landed about 8 pm there and the whole night scenery of landing was marvelous, as much as I could have seen. Unfortunately, it was too much for my camera so most of the photographs are pretty blurry. I was also very happy to hear "Welcome to Doha, have a nice rest of the day... ". I found my Chinese friend after leaving the airplane and shortly after getting checked we headed to discover the airport. My baggage was luckily already sent to wait for the next flight so no worries (otherwise I would be probably in panic).

The airport looks great and... enormous. From the bigger airports I just remembered the relatively fresh experience a year ago at Zurich airport. This one also had a hundred gates and it took about 10 minutes of my faster walk to reach my next gates for the flight to Osaka. My flight to Japan was scheduled at about 1. 30 am so I had about 4 hours before it and my friend had her flight to Shanghai an hour earlier.

We decided to hang out at one of many lobbies and "halls for fun and relaxation". You can find there many tables to sit and relax, there were also Macs where the Internet connection was not working and some large children playground. We sat there and I tried to charge my mobile phone over the Macs and also go on my laptop for a little bit. I even had a short conversation over Skype with my grandparents. And of course - I took the sandwiches my grandma prepared for me and ate them there. One simply does not got around the world without 'bakini sendviči'.

I also had the opportunity (or need) to check their restrooms there... and I am a bit disappointed. Firstly, they were not so clean. I am not sure whether the cleaning staff was not doing their job good or the visitors of the restrooms were just ignorant and lacked some manners. It was a bit better than the public restroom in smaller towns and the areas where you really hate going there. The second thing that bothered me and other taller people was that the doors were a bit shorter. I could have almost seen on the other side and when I stood someone else could have seen me. I think the restrooms should have more privacy and not expose you like some show.

Alright, after few hours of being there and just waiting... time has finally come to say goodbye and until next time. I had also been visiting the shops with her earlier (but bought nothing) and we were having jokes on the short Arabian businessmen walking by covered in the white clothing (but they could have bought us easily I guess if they wanted).

I was now left for about an hour before boarding the airplane. I went to search for my gates at the other end of the airport and then went downstairs into another bigger hall. As I was getting thirsty (and also had to talk to my family as they were constantly thinking something had happened to me) I bought one 0, 5 L bottle of water for about 2 euros and got one paper Rial as a souvenir back.

The boarding started and soon I found myself on the biggest plane I have ever been in so far. It had 9 seats in a row, 3 on each side and in the middle. I noticed there were now many Japanese around me, they were the majority of the passengers, but I was lucky again to sit alone.

In the last minutes before taking off I took a photo of the map showing the route Qatar-Japan and sent it on Facebook. I hoped the photo was uploaded (the wifi signal from the airport was barely alive) and was looking forward to the comments in the morning as I did not tell many where I was heading too.

Day 2: Landing in Japan and first impressions

Alright, I am sorry, my "short" summary was not that short... I will try to keep it to the most important information now.

The flight to Osaka was about 9-10 hours and mostly during the night. I wanted to see the Himalayas through the window but we had to keep the roller shutters down. I was also sleeping like the majority of the plane (with my headphones on), was shocked when we had lunch just 2 hours after the flight but then forgot on the time zone and that we were flying "deeper into the future".

When I saw on my mobile phone that it was about 8-9 in the morning (Zagreb time) I felt fresh and wanted to peak out a little bit. Now I knew why we had to keep them shut because the sunlight almost made me blind. We were close to Beijing and till the rest of the flight I was more or less playing the games and listened to the music.

To skip the parts the exciting parts were flying from China to Southern Korea and looking at the huge sea and the ships below. The part above Korea is blurry to me as I was sleeping a bit and not paid much attention (and there were clouds everywhere). But then we were approaching Japan and my heart was beating.

Then the land of rising sun came out of the clouds and I saw thousands of islands and mountains. My face was glued to the window glass and I even broke it a bit. My camera betrayed me here as it focused on the glass instead of Japan but okay...

After less than 15 minutes we approached Osaka. What it all looked like from the air you can only imagine! The airplane started making the circles until we got really close to the surface. The airport KIX was actually a platform about 4-5 kilometers away from the coast connected with a few kilometers long bridge! Marvelous!

While leaving the airplane one Japanese couple sitting in front of me gave me Pringles and they spoke a bit English suggesting me to visit Kyoto (but I have never visited it). I used my poor "arigatou" to thank them for the food I never asked for.

We used the shuttle to transport us to some other point where the stairs led us towards the checking before letting us leave the airport. I had also seen a poster for the Universal Studios Japan. And Japan is pretty strict when talking about letting passengers into the country. Here is the whole process before I left happy and with no worries to the place to meet my host family:

1. You will be given in the airplane (or can grab here) two papers where you have to write details about yourself, about the place you are going to stay at and write precisely all the contact information of the Japanese hosts in the period you were going to stay there.

   You also have to check all the fields that you had no dangerous things with you in the luggage and no alcoholic drinks (I had some bottle as a present but checked as I had nothing and hoped they were not going to open it).

2. When you are done with that you step into one line for non-Japanese (citizenship) travellers where this angry and strict woman would not allow you to go unless all the information was needed. She also asked me why I came and I had to explain her about Lions exchange. Afterwards I was asked to do the fingerprint and then she let me pass.
3. The last control before leaving the hall was after picking up our luggage. I waited several minutes for my huge pink-red bag with Croatian fan scarf around it (tradition). Then you have to pass by the police office who is checking your ID. I gave him my card and the signed papers, I had all the clear stuff in the bag and hoped they were not going to check it.

   Funny thing happened here as he was observing my ID and turned to me confused "It does not look like you?! " and I took of my glasses and did the serious face like on my ID. He was then laughing and said everything is OK! That made me think Clark Kent really could pass as a different guy with and without glasses.

   

As soon as I left the room I was looking for the Lions Club and my host family who were waiting for me among the crowds. And there we met, they had my name on the paper and 3 persons in total (my host father Mr Ishikura and two from the Lions Club Gobo). I asked first for the toilet and then we went to our car.

It took us about an hour to get to Gobo and it was already evening there. I was directed to my room and put all of my stuff, met the family members, discovered I was going to struggle a bit more with English and Japanese (but then was happy to accept the challenge) and got to go to the restaurant called Anchin for the dinner.

They prepared the whole set of dishes for me and i tried to eat everything. This is where I started my journey with learning the Japanese customs and names for the food.

Shortly after the dinner I headed back to my room as I was now tired and tried to learn Japanese before sleep. I was still trying to get it into my head I was now on the other side of the planet and how all of that was not just a dream. Shortly before sleep my host mom Mieko-san showed me all the rooms in the house, the bathroom and the kitchen so I went for a shower (and had to learn how to control it) and then back to my bed. I was sleeping on a large mattress with many blankets surrounded with tons of manga.

Alright, I skipped a lot.

Day 3: First morning, roaming around the area and the welcome party at the restaurant by the local Lions Club

I experienced the jet lag not just the first night and the morning but for about 5 days! In the evening I felt like i drank too much beer and the same was in the morning, feeling a bit dizzy. However, after 5-10 minutes it disappeared. I also had to be busy and then my bio-rhythm would try to adjust to the new circumstances. My whole organism suddenly had to change its inner clock for 7 hours in advance!

Mom Mieko prepared food and drink on the table for breakfast and i also brought everywhere my little notebook to write down the phrases and vocabulary (and to draw the situation if needed). The photo above was my everyday but of course I did not always eat or get this kind of food, while being there I tried more of domestic (as much as it was possible in globalization).

Here is a look from my window and an average area of the edge of smaller towns and places.

After breakfast I found Mr Ishikura watching TV in the room for children and told him I was going to go for a walk around the area. Here are a few photographs of the neighbourhood. I also passed by the stairs that led to the temple Dojo-ji.

I also took my analog camera and did one shot. Here is the first photograph of Japan. A documentary one.

So that's basically the neighbourhood! I lived at the edge of Gobo or some area called Hidaka. But was interesting as you already found out (if you read my previous posts).

Nothing much to say about the afternoon. After lunch I felt sleepy again and slept for 2 hours. Later on Ishikura-san came to tell me we were going to have a welcome party tonight. And that I should prepare some trousers not to look totally like a tourist.

The evening came and we went together upstairs on the 2nd floor of the restaurant Anchin. We took off our shoes and entered the great hall and then I saw a large amount of seniors in suits and got a bit nervous. I had no idea what to do and had had no prior experience with formal meetings with Lions before.

This was a food party and there were around at least 30 people there. This was the first and the last time in Japan that I was nervous as I spoke no Japanese, barely a few phrases what I tried to memorize... but was lucky to have at least one person who spoke English and was sitting next to me. But I was deeply grateful and had a huge respect for everything. They were happy to meet me and very curious about my background. I was even given a cake with my name totally distorted (which became hit at home! ) and did their best to make this evening enjoyable. Here are a few photos of it. I also met some of my future colleagues or co-workers at the restaurant.

I came back home full of new experience and shared the news with the world by standing next to the toilet as the signal there coming from the restaurant was strong enough for my smartphone. Ready for more?

Day 4 and 5: Working at the restaurant and welcoming the guests

I described most of this in a special post regarding Anchin restaurant. Please have a look at it. Thus I would just share a few sentences here not to repeat myself.

The first day was breaking the ice, I had no idea what to expect and also did not want to disappoint my hosts. It all turned to be one of the best experiences I have ever had, the most fun and the most memorable moments from Japan. I became one of the restaurant's crew and assisted in preparing the daily meals for lunch and dinner. This included preparing sushi, rice, salads, desserts, carrying boxes, setting the tables, transporting the boxes with meals to the other restaurant and around ours, helping the others with carrying heavier stuff and packing the cookies into the boxes ready to be send to our shop for the visitors.

This is also where I learnt most of my Japanese and had a special relationship with the locals working there who accepted me and made me feel like at home. I had been visiting them quiet a lot almost every day while I stayed in Gobo and told them not only about Croatia and my family but also about all the adventures I had had in Japan later during the camp. With some of them who are on Facebook I keep in touch relatively often and share the news.

I also had a Skype conversation with my grandparents and mom in the evening and then went with my laptop around the restaurant introducing my family to my new friends which was pretty fun.

That's it for now. I hope you enjoyed. Now we need the summary of the next 5 days and finish the journey about Japan, it's pretty tiring I have to admit.

Thanks for reading.

Photo gallery