The rest of the photos

For those two people who are still checking this blog for updates, this is the final one. I uploaded the October- March gallery, some 130 photos, with comments to the Photos section. So go ahead and browse there if you're interested! Anyway, a short recap of my exchange year:
1) I went to Kitami, Japan
2) I was together with my girlfriend
3) I cycled a lot
4) I went to karaoke a lot
5) I went to onsen a lot
6) I came back to Finland to actually do some studying and got a job which has kept me busy since then.

To experience all of this and more, you're probably better off not going to Kitami, but some better university and a larger city, if you're interested in either studying or nightlife or something else than just watching cows. If you're interested in downhill skiing or possibly cross-country, Hokkaido is a great place for you. If you love nature, Hokkaido is a great place for you. However, even under these circumstances, I wouldn't recommend Kitami. Go to Sapporo instead, from there you have easy access to all kinds of activities as well.

Even having said that, it was still a great experience, I would've just rather been somewhere else when I was in Kitami.

Kitami Map

We did a map of Kitami, highlighting the main attractions around the city. That is, supermarkets, restaurants, malls, bars etc. that we've frequented. Hope it helps the new students at KIT!
Map of Kitami at Google Maps

Pictures

http://www.kolumbus.fi/nikkes/japan/3/

Here's the latest picture gallery from July to September, covering the whole trip to Honshu and a few other things.

Not much has happened lately in Kitami, except that the school has started and two new Finnish students came here from close to Oulu. Other than that, it's just been studying and a few other things which I might go into later, but for now, just take a look at the gallery.

Niimi, Okayama & Kitami again

I had kind of lost my desire to travel anymore in Matsue, for a couple of reasons. I was tired of cycling since my hands were hurting due to some kind of nerve damage which must have occurred during cycling, especially with a bike like mine and with distances like I took. So if rest is a good remedy for most ailments, I'm sure it would work for my hands as well so I didn't want to make my hands any worse by prolonging the trip any further. Another reason was that I was running out of money and therefore wanted to be with Tomomi instead of going to new cities, since in my experience, the cities themselves are nothing to be interested about. I don't care that much about old buildings, no matter who gave the order to build them or what kind of destruction was planned inside them. They're overrated anyway.

So while presented with two choices, cycling 120km to Tottori and from there, at least a hundred more to Okayama, or go about 160km straight to Okayama, I took the latter option. Again, there was a pretty severe uphill at the start of it, right after Yonago, but before it got really hot, I was already past the highest peak and on my way down. After that, most of the trip was downhill.

I took a stop at Niimi, which was famous for one thing, its two limestone caverns. One of them, Ikura-do, was kind of built up to be an amusement park for kids and adults alike, with its theme-based restaurants full of miniature waterfalls and caves as well as the souvenir shops all the other adorable amenities of a tourist attraction. In other words, I loathed the place. But the cave itself, after getting over the 1000 yen entrance fee, was beautiful. Only that it was also infested with parasites of human form - children. While I was expecting to have a sort of serene experience just peacefully going through the tunnels, I was condemned to listen to the whine of the kids from 1 to 10 year-olds until the end. The parents didn't think, of course, that their darlings would have disturbed anyone in the cavern. So the kids just screamed constantly. What could've been more fun than that, right?

Well, in any case, after getting over the frustration and building a mental block to all sounds too high-pitched, I could enjoy the beauty of the cave too. It was definitely worth going, but I only wished that the ever-so-polite Japanese would also mind about their kids, as it's not the only place where they let them scream and run free.

After leaving Niimi, I eventually arrived to Okayama in a pretty good shape, all things considered. When I went to measure myself, though, I was only 67 kg, so in these few days, I had lost perhaps 1.5kg more, although I was eating normally. I suppose it's not enough to just eat normally, though. For the record, I'm 1.84m tall, so my weight is really too low. In Finland, it was 72kg before I left for Japan. I'll put myself on gaining my weight back right away.

There's not much else to tell - I spent a few more days in Okayama and then it was time to hit the ferry again. I took a couple of trains and a bus and a ferry and then, I was back in Hokkaido. Because my hands were still aching, I went to Kitami by bus as well. A bit inconvenient but it couldn't be helped, since my hands are more important for me than gaining mileage. I just hope they will get better soon.

Matsue

Although it kind of ended in a sour note, Miyoshi was still ten times better than cycling through completely urban landscapes. It only got better though as I left for Matsue, since there was going to be a whole of 20 km or so of constant uphill! Aces! Well, at this point I really didn't mind about it and in retrospect, it felt good. However, so many people say about the army as well, yet they swore to rather be anywhere else while serving. And some people do like to get spanked, too, so it doesn't really justify my point. That is, cycling on roads with almost no traffic and surrounded by nature was just a great experience.

Doing the same thing in Hokkaido before had no such beauty to it, because I pretty much knew what to expect on those northern routes. Here, I had no clue, since I lacked the map. So I was pleasantly surprised at first to notice a road sign for waterfalls and immediately switched route there. I was even more surprised that there was no tourist resort built around the river which flowed from the said falls and there was just a single car parked on the lot. Even that left pretty soon after I arrived.

After getting off the bike, I went on the short hiking route up to the waterfalls. Pretty soon, I thought to be already there as a 20-meter waterfall was facing me after no more than 200 meters. I thought, "wow, it was worthwhile to come here" but noticed that the path went on, so I just kept on going up. Then another waterfall, and another, and so forth, until I was at the end of the road. At the end stood a two-stage waterfall, perhaps not so tall as the first I saw, but more beautiful on all other aspects. And it was not just the last waterfall which was beautiful, but the whole path through the area. While being there, I felt enchanted and stopped hurrying back on the road, although I knew all too well that lingering for too much would cost me a lot of time from Matsue. I'm glad I didn't mind, though, as I would have rather spent even a night there, had it been possible.

The rest of the route to Matsue was uneventful but as I finally arrived on the shore of the western lake Matsue is situated on, there was a storm about to arrive. Sure enough, I got soaked a few minutes after seeing the lake, but it passed quickly, only leaving strong winds behind.

In Matsue, I took a look at the castle which was the major attraction, but after Himeji-jo, it didn't feel so impressive. No other castle can, I suppose. Then, an important attraction was also supposed to be the fish from the lake, so I went to eat sashimi. Perhaps I chose a bad restaurant, but I honestly couldn't know a difference between the sashimi you get from a supermarket and this one. It was all the same to me, so I made a decision not to waste my money like that again, especially since getting one's stomach filled with just tiny slices of fish is pretty damn difficult. So I bought a Big Mac instead.

Such was Matsue - in the evening, the stormy winds calmed down a little but when I woke up next morning, they were still blowing from the west. Good for me, though, since I was headed east for Yonago and from there, to either Tottori or Okayama.

Miyoshi

Going from Hiroshima to Miyoshi was really easy. There was only a single heavy uphill and during that rise, a few tunnels manifested themselves as well. After that, it was all easy up until Miyoshi itself. There was a single natural event worth mentioning, though, right after the tunnel-infested rise. The plateau was filled with fog and you could probably see 500 meters, no more. The sun was at times completely hidden, there was no telling where the disc was. But the clouds above were moving, momentarily revealing the sun and letting some of the rays through. Then, the sun was suddenly gone again. It was also really cold - only plus 20 degrees! It was the coldest since I had left Hokkaido, which I was really happy about. No sweating was possible in such pleasant morning weather.

In Miyoshi, I eventually decided to find out where the youth hostel was and stay there since it was going to get really hot in any case. So after a while, I ended up in a house with 80-something couple running the hostel and a grand-grandmother of 103 years. If anyone in that house, that lady had lost some, if not most, of her marbles. Even the 86-year old grandma agreed on that. In any case, my Japanese skills are nothing to be held in high regard so needless to say, I was in kind of trouble when they started talking. And did they talk! They just didn't stop when they got it going and it was hard to leave while they were on it. I felt not in the slightest like talking, though, especially in Japanese which is not exactly a forte of mine. But I didn't have a choice so I just sat it out until they grew tired or found other interests. This same event reoccurred later in the evening a few more times.

Miyoshi could be known for Japanese from its winery and grape farm, but I suspect there would have been anything else of interest to draw tourists to. It was really a relaxed village but I grew so bugged out by the over-curious uncles and aunts of the youth hostel that it didn't leave me with a good feeling.

Lastly, in the evening, there was to be some fishing on the river. It was not of the ordinary kind, as the fishing was not done by a pole or a net, but by live birds. The real "original local culture experience" was this circus trick: the birds, which are attached to ropes so as not to escape, catch some local fish and proceed to swallow them. Next, a brutal Japanese man squeezes the fish out of the poor bird's throat and presents it to the audience, who will proceed to pay hefty sums to be able to eat this once-vomited fish again. Such is Miyoshi and I will conclude telling about it here, as next morning I left for Matsue.

Hiroshima

After spending a week or so in Okayama with Tomomi, I decided it was time to go again. I wanted to see a few places on bicycle and Hiroshima was the number one for me, as I had already come from the eastern side.

I started early, as always, around 5am when it still was dark and went off cycling for some time until having breakfast at a convinience store, be it 7/11, Lawson or Sunkus. I saw a sunrise at a bridge somewhere around Kurashiki and went on all the way to Onomichi, to which I stopped since there were some beautiful temples on the hillside all over the city. After taking a look at some of them, I went onwards. There were some problems to occur, though - it was going to be the hottest day of the month or so, perhaps even the hottest of all summer. I didn't know that when I went on cycling, though, and came to regret it later.

On the digital boards above the roads, the thermometers read 39 celsius degrees. If I bought something to drink, it was soon warmer than a cup of cocoa. So, I bought ice, but it didn't last for a long time either. And the distance I had to cover was 160km, which by itself was enough of a problem. Before, when I went from Kitami to Asahikawa, 180km wasn't all that bad and neither was Maizuru to Himeji, around 150km or so. But this was bad. It was positively dangerous and even lethal, but since I'm posting this, I didn't die although I felt like it. My heart was beating crazy every time there was a serious uphill and all I could think of was having something to drink although I drank all the time. Even after 6 liters of drinking, I was still thirsty when I finally got to Hiroshima.

As for Hiroshima itself, I went to a nice guesthouse called J-Hoppers. Oh, the memories from backpacking... it was exactly of that kind, a few locals mixed in with a bunch of Europeans and Americans all with different destinations and reasons to be in the country. After some chatting, though, I quickly passed out, since I was just dead tired from the toil of that day.

The next day I cycled to Miyajima in the morning. This was a mistake, as there were far too many people on the island. I heard later that in the evening, there had been almost no one around so it should've been my choice as well. Oh well, it was still a beautiful place but somehow I didn't feel that impressed. I just had to go there anyway, since it had been advertised as such.

Visiting Miyajima affected me in one way, though. I really didn't want to see any more touristy places after being there, so I dropped my plans to go to the Hiroshima castle and just visited the peace memorial museum instead. There, people at least didn't make a number about themselves, not even the kids. It was a profoundly sad museum with all the stories about the victims as well as all kinds of relics from the city after the bombing. What touched me the most was the story of Sadako, which I'm sure can be found in Wikipedia for those who are interested.

I met some nice folks in the guest house that evening and I ended up going to bed around midnight, getting only 4 hours of sleep. Not enough, not enough. But that's the only way - wake up early or don't leave at all.

The next day, I went to Miyoshi, a small village some 70km north of Hiroshima. I'll write about that later.