After my superweekend in Nagasaki now I am in Fukuoka… this is actually my second stop over in this city, as I spent two days here on my way to Nagasaki… this city is more or less the gateway into the Kyushu island and due to its size (1.4m people) and its wealth of history as one of the major trading points in its past well worth a stop over… but there is more to this than that… there is Ramen and Yamakasa… yes, you can see I improve on my vocabulary… and it is a pleasure for me to pass my newly acquainted knowledge on to you… Ramen are Japanese noodles in a white soup… this dish is served here everywhere – dirt-cheap as well as super yummy… do not tell this the Italians, but I think now Spaghetti is only my number two pasta dish – Ramen forever… and now to Yamakasa… this is somewhat of a strange event… at the 15^th of July members of every city district gather around a huge shrine with many funny comic and real life characters on… for this they wear some outfit you might land in jail in about every coutry in the western world (enlarge the picture)… furthermore the shrine weights about one ton… yes, it is made of real wood – no cheap imitations… than at 4:59 in the morning (what a convenient time) they lift this monster (some 30 or so people) and run through the city… each district with its own monster shrine… OK, at this time we already had some 100% humidity and the temperature is about 30 degrees (ahh, I did not tell you, but visiting Kyushu in July is about the same as visiting Cairo in August)… and now the fun starts… while they run a predefined path through the city (several kilometers), the participants and audience shout Oisa-Oisa and pours water over these poor-heavy-lifting-shrine-carrying-wet-and-half-naked-Fukuokans… and of course, you will not stay dry neither… but than, it is Yamakasa after all…

Assuming that you know the sad story of the A-Bomb and all the writing connected with it… after seeing the history museum of Nagasaki I tell you will still be missing words for hours… it is hard to believe the extend of the damage this bomb has done… but than you step out and Nagasaki charms you again… located in a small valley with a beautiful bay you will not believe that this city was 60 years wiped out… with its cozy windy streets uphill, his many shrines and temples, his superfriendly inhabitants, this city is the Paris of Asia… honestly, would I not have this unexplainable adventurer gene in me, there is nothing which would have gotten me to move on… the city is like Barcelona or Buenos Aires – once you visit it, you just do not want to go… so, if you have the smallest chance to come to Japan this is the must on your tour - I give you my word, you will not be disappointed…

The last few days I spent in Kyoto and Nara… you might not know more about these cities as there is a G8 protocol a big nation does not want to sign… but there is much more to it… in fact together these two cities host 21 UNESCO world heritage sites combined… not too bad, and than you might not even have heard of it – shame on you… but anyway, besides some fabulous temples and shrines (in Nara there for example the largest wood building in the world) I witnessed also one of the best optical illusions of my life… during my time in Kyoto I visited the temple complex of Myoshin-Ji… and in one of the main halls, there is a painting on the ceiling which can take up with any painting in the famous chapels in Rome… the picture you see (of course taken from a leaflet as they wont let you take pictures of it inside to protect the painting) was not touched for over 350 years… but still it is incredible beautiful… and best of all, when you look at it from the west the dragon in the painting flies up to heaven and when you stare from the east the dragon flies right down on you… and from the middle he just smiles and nothing else… and I think this is just a summary of the entire region here of Kansai - it leaves you breathless in so many ways – constantly… a real gem to visit, do not miss it out when you are here… so now I am on my way further south… after it was so simple to find a place in Kyoto, I am now very brave and just try to go to Nagasaki and have faith in my luck to find a place to sleep over equally easily… ahh, and there are now the first Japan pictures also in the picture section..

I know, you all wait for stories of Japan… and I promise, they will come, but just not today… because yesterday I had two touching experiences… something, which makes traveling so delightful… in the morning I went to the impressive Edo museum here in Tokyo… looking for some English leaflet which would explain me what I actually see, I noticed a sign saying volunteers guide… going to the indicated table I was “assigned” my personal museum guide… and what a person I was assigned… Mr. Toku (or at least this is how I understood his name) told me that I have to forgive his bad English (which was not bad at all)… but as he learned English just 6 years ago, he is not that fluent… now I have to say that Mr. Toku was in his mid 60´s… how impressive is this… he learned English when he was 60 and volunteers now in the museum to tell foreigners all about Tokyo… needless to say with a “shy” person as me, we spent more than three hours talking about Edo (the former name of Tokyo), Japan, Austria and so basically everything else in the world… but what was most impressive is that he was asking me a lot about Europe as he plans to visit it… but not next year, in the future but not in the near future – and now tell me again that you feel old with 30 something… yes, and not only this, the day ended on a high note too… in the evening I had the pleasure to eat with the “Wanderers”… you might say, who are they, are this some Japanese celebrities…? well, not quite this, but they are a super-friendly couple I meet 4 months or so ago in Ecuador (and their picture gallery is much better than mine, as Shawn knows how to use his camera – check it out: www.wanderingwhy.com)… and as our travel plans wants we meet here in Tokyo as they are on their way to Vietnam… now, is this a small planet on which we are living or what..?

What to write about me first few days in Japan… guess it is not simple to summarize my impressions after such a short time, but I guess to say Japan is really different than any other country I have visited - that´s about it… how different…? can’t you read..? completely different…!!! starting from the fact that they drive on the other side of the road, which makes you bump into people every time you try to avoid a collision with them when you walk in a busy street - you will instinctively go to the right and they go to their left and boom… and there are many people here in the town… than everyone is super considerate… no cell phone use in the subway and it is super relaxing and quite even during rush hour – not like the noisy hell and kicking people as you have in Barcelona or other large cities… than no shouting, no public smoking – just a considerate society… and than, the toilets… I can not describe it well, but there is a build in shower in every toilet you find – I leave it to your imagination for what it is, but I think it is the most important invention after the PEZ dispenser (and this is from an Austrian by the way)… and than, what some of my reader are most interested in - the girls… press the “continue reading this post” button if you are over 18 and want to read on and are a male… Continue reading this post…

Yes, I did it… I am in Japan now… finally, the last great place I always wanted to visit and now I am here… well, and how is it you might ask? What to say… the parts I have seen so far are not so super high tech as I expected, but than, there were already several highlights… starting with the airport where when we landed I glimpsed out of the window just to see the new airbus A380 next to us… what a nice and big plane… and although not omnipresent there were plenty of new things to learn… I managed to get the train tickets, found my hotel and even have an personalizes subway pass by now… what more? I found out that taxis have remote controlled doors for the passengers… I watched one of the fancy dressed girls stopping a cab… and I thought why does she not open the door, is she too posh to do so…? strange enough, but she waited there and suddenly the door swung open, she entered and once she sat down the door closed… wohooo, not to bad I thought… and than there is the high tech toilet and the police cars, but to this, I will write later to keep you interested… ahh, and how did my first day end here in Tokyo? Well, as I can not read the fancy signs on the restaurants, I had not sushi yesterday.. no no… I ended in a Vietnamese restaurant at curry… jeje, so much to my knowledge of Japanese

Yes, you see right… this is the inside of the famous Wörthersee-stadium… just recently chosen as the nicest football stadium of the Euro2008 and I tell you that it is really a beauty… but you might think what GeraldN want to say with this… well, yesterday I had the super great pleasure to see “en directo” the 11^th match of the Euro2008… the stadium, sold out of course, was bustling in anticipation of the match between Germany and Croatia… and what a game it will turn out to be… just marvelous – two goals of Croatia and than near comeback with a late goal of Podolski… but this should just turn out to be the start of a crazy Euro2008 night.. my friends and I went on to a “Bierzelt” where we would party until early morning… exactly what one would expect of such a serious sport event… 

After my water adventure in Croatia I had my mind set to do something on solid ground… luckily a friend of mine had to do the annual revision on his motorbike in Germany… more lucky he has a stressful job and can’t take the time off… so I could do him a favor to drive to Germany and do the revision as well as I got a fabulous bike for free for few days… and even more lucky, Reinhard, a colleague from my university times in Austria, took a week of vacation and joined me on this trip… so we both were fast clear on the route (Alps, Alps and more Alps)… besides the usual hick-ups on such a trip as police and rain, we had a great time… we had a great ride, along the “Alpenhauptkamm” enjoying the scenery of Central Europe… after two days we landed in Munich were our common tour ended… Reinhard returned via Tyrol back home, where as I visited some friends and returned days later via Styria to my beloved hometown Klagenfurt… and all this with lot of sun, bike and Alps…

Throughout my journey I have the special opportunity to see that friendship is something special… over the last few months I meet so many friends, new and old, that this alone is worth my sabbatical… and more wonderful is it, that even as I have not seen some of them in years, we mostly kick off where we left -  and this does not mean with wine, although this seems to be the practice… ahhh, and if you are a careful reader, you notice, that this story goes nowhere… so I rather stop and have a moment of silence to listen deep into me and be just happy to have this opportunity…

Last week I had the pleasure to participate in a week long sailing turn just off the coast of Croatia… and it was a real pleasure… Captain Peter V. gathered a real fun crew around him (you can say I was the only mistake, but what the heck it is my life so I do not feel overly guilty)… so we all meet last Saturday to board our Bavaria 37 cruiser… just like the name of our “vessel”, FUNKY, that is how the entire trip would turn out - funky… when we left we had winds of up to 32 knots (for non-sailors – this is a lot especially if you do not know how to sail)… regardless we fought the sea with its two meter waves (some said they were 5 meters, but this is just how the fish gets bigger after you caught it) and safely got to the marina of our choice… the high winds and shaky sea were actually that much fun that a board member decided to return his food to the sea (do not worry Mario, I won’t mention it was you)…  but given that the sea is large, this did not impact the beautiful scenic around Biograd (see picture section)… plenty of small and larger islands, lots of wonderful marinas and the right crew to have fun… although the weather was changing every day from sunny to rainy I had a great time on board… the entire crew was clear that sailing is about wind, sea and beer… and I think this mix was the reason we had so interesting conversations… you are interested what men talk when they a one week in a boat…? here two examples of the right to the point thoughts after long and thoughtful discussions: “in most cases the mothers in law are older than their daughters” and my personal favorite: “wennst de Augn zua host sigst nix” (for my international readers here the translation: “if you have your eyes closed you can’t see”)… well, did I promise too much…? now reflect over this and until soon…