Lieshout - It's 01:30 in the morning. I'm going to try to get some sleep before I'm off to the Airport in Amsterdam. This really great new step in my life is about to begin. A thrilling and exciting one. The next time you find me writing on this page it will be from Tokyo.

Tokyo, Sunday March 26th; 18:45h
Arrived in Tokyo this morning. The city doesnt seem so busy as I thought - I was lucky that Keiko (whom I was with during my year in Michigan)picked me up - she could make sure that I didnt get lost right away!! I think that 2nite I will have a good nights sleep and stay at least untill tuesday in Tokyo, to then move on to the West of the country. Bye for now.

Kyoto, Wednesday, March 29th; 16:30h
Arrived in Kyoto this morning with the night bus from Tokyo. Those were some really busy first days.. Saw the dazzling Shinjuku bussiness disctrict with all of it's flashing & flickering light where electronica is sold at every corner of the street. On the other hand, Tokyp offers some really quit areas where you can relax and come back to earth.

The main problem the first days was that you can't understand anything you see or hear. The Japenese characters are really beautifull but damn hard to understand (might it be fair to say impossible?!!). And yes, the prizes is everything anyone ever said - expensive! This made me decide to stay 2 instead of 3 weeks in Japan. Must be enough & it will give me at least 3 weeks in SE Asia.

Then Kyoto - a very nice city from what I've seen so far - many temples and the most beautifull of it all is the Cherry Blossom season - the cherry blossom trees only bloom two weeks a year - normally the first 2 weeks of April - so by I'm lucky to see it - it's the realy typical Japanese thing. . For now it's time to find my hotel - either by bus or metro - and yes, it's a real challange trying to buy a ticket for either of the two. Cheers!

Kyoto, Thursday, March 30st; 19:00h
Just got back from a great cycling trip through Kyoto - did I ever tell you that in Japan they drive on the left as well? So while biking this does give some problems once in a while. I'm in a hostel a bit in the north of Kyoto - Tani House -. It's really nice as it has a lot of japanese charm; take your shoes of before coming in the house sitting and sleeping on the floor and the paper slide doors between the rooms. Met a couple of Australians, Americans and Kiwi's. Most of them will be living in Japan teaching enlish. Also got my plain ticket to HK arranged for next week sunday - well, I must say that it was done with the great help of Keiko, otherwise I would have spent close to $1000 !! China Airlines, via Taipei.
Kyoto really is a great city. It was really sunny today which gave the city and the surroundings a great look; I really like it. Well - I'm going to have a beer here at the Internet cafe ($10 which is a very normal price!!), buy some takeout food and had back to the hostel to eat it. I'm of to Kobe tomorrow afternoon. Cheers all!

Hiroshima, Mondaymorning, March 3rd

Welcome to a new week! Yep, and so time passes as I'm in Japan for more then a week now. Arrived in Hiroshoma yesterday. This place has definately made the most impression on me so far. It really is horrofying what happened at 08:15 AM on August 6th 1945 when it was decided to drop the first A-bomb on Hiroshima. One moment people were off to there work, the other moment 75.000 people were dead immedialtely in a circle of 2km from the epi-center. 200.000 have died because of the bomb ever since, due to the radiation effects. In comparison, 30.000 people died of bombings in London in whole WWII and 30.000 in the rest of the UK@during WWII. The A-bomb Dome (previous Hiroshima City Promotipon Hall) is the only ruin still standing from the disaster as an eternal reminder of the tragedy. It has become a symbol of Hiroshima's plea that nuclear weapons should never again be used.

Before coming to Hiroshima I went by Kobe, Okayama and Kurashiki (yeah, look it up).. Kobe is a really modern town, next to Osaka. It was completely destroyed by an earthquake in 1995. No sign of this shows today though. To me, part of it looked like modern Manhatten. Kurashiki is a realy nice town between Kobe and Hiroshima, But what do you get with nice towns? It's full of tourists. And I don't mean foreign tourists, no, the Japanese love to travel & photograph as much in Japan as they do outside of Japan. Last night I finally managed for the first time to order a decent Japanese mail in aq small but cosy eatout place. I got into conversation with a Japense student and her sister. We had a really nice talk but it stays difficult to have a real conversaton as not many people speak english. Even if they do it's just a little bit. At the Hostel I ran into the 1st football team of Nagasaki. They had been to Amsterdam last year to play some practise matches in Holland.
Almost one o'clock - with the 8 hours time difference this means that everyone still has to start the dreadfull moday (working?) morning. Me, I'm off to an island just south of Hiroshima. It's about 15c here. Tonight I take the nightbus to Nagasaki. Till the next time - take care. Floris

Nagasaki, Wednesdaymorning, March 5rd
A really quick message from Nagasaki. Fortunately it's sunny today. Yesterday was a real off day! Spent 7 hours in the bus from Hiroshima and was tired when I arrived. Did see hte beautifull Clover garden though and the old dutch settlement in Nagasaki. Besides the A-bomb, Nagasaki was long known for it's trade, especially with the dutch - they were the only country that could still trade with japan during the 200 years seclusion of Japan.
Saw the a-bomb museum of Nagasaki. It's impressive, just like the one in Hiroshime, although the first time you get confronted with these things leaves the biggest impression. Just had lunch with Keeko, a Japenese girl I met in the hostel last night. At least she can tell me some more about the things I see around me as she is able to read everything. Slept on a room with two Japenese guys, Koji & Toshi. They didn' really speak any English so we tried to get by with the phrases from the LP book. Had a big laugh - well, at least I'm starting to understand a bit of how the different Japense languages are (the Kanji, Hiragana & Katakana - very difficult!!)
It is not easy by the way finding your way to an internetcafe once someone tells you on the map where it is. You really have to ask a ton of people to finally get there. Tomorrow I'm off the the last part of my Japan trip. I will take a five hour train & boat trip to Kumamote and the beautifull Aso mountain (no, not the Usu mountain which erupted a couple of days ago.) Then sunday off to Hong Kong. A new country, a new adventure. This means I will probably write again from there.

For now, take care and thanx everyone for writing e-mails (even if I don't answer them all back). Floris