8,000km

It has been quite long long journey and yesterday caluculator of my bike recorded 8000km from Istanbul since 22 of April. I never thought that I would make that record and probably, I will need another caluculator before I get to UK!! But, UK has not km but they use mile as they use British Paund different from Finland and other main wester European country. But I just heard the country, Norway, probably the next country of my jurney hasn't still even EU member and they use their own currency, that is stronger than Euro. They will might be bring something new for my idea!

So, this time I am trying to thought about what I have experienced during this trip as my calculator!

0km Istanbul, Turkey

That was starting point of my journey and that was one of beautiful city in Europe or even Asia. I thought that Istanbul is the starting point or border between Europe and Asia, that is the reason why I choose Istanbul as the first place of this journy. At that time, I had other cities as a starting point actually. Those places were Sanfransisco in CA, Araska, Australia(couldn't find out the city) , and Helsinki and Moskow. Anyway, I am still believing the place where I have chose was best! Actually, people in Turkey were quite gentle for me even if they and I couldn't speak in English very well. Without words we could communicate with each other! I want to go there again someday!

2,000km Timishoara, Romania

Timishoara is one of the place that I remenbered it clearly because I staied with Cristina and she was student and nice host! In Romania, the Jesus is quite familiar with the citisen and we went to Church for the porpose to pray for it. Actually, I don't have any religion but I can pray for the God as I did in Japan and I did the same style in Istanbul. City was quite developed and there was some shopping moal for the people. But not everybody can buy something from there because of the place. To be able to adapt for the everybody living in there, time is needed.

4,000km Plonsk, Poland

Plonsk? I need a map to be able to find out where is Plonsk but my bike recorded 4000km in there, anyway. I think Plonsk is somewhere on my way to Warszawa. Just on the way, and that's it, unfortunately!

6,000km Talsi, Latvia

The name Talsi barely reminded me where was that and what I did in there. I just made my tent to be able to sleep near the main road. When I was in there, I tried to go through the Baltic sea to have fun in there and how different color they have compared to Gdansk in Poland. The night I slept in a glass and it was close to the rail. That is why I forced to wake up in the middle of the night because of the noise from Train, anyway.

Oh, I made a mistake that Talsi is not a city what I thought! I thought that it was Lithuania anyway I left it here.

Sorry! Talsi is a small countryside city, so called. I stayed a house which I know through the internet and actually he couldn't host me in there because he studies in Riga, the capital of Latvia. That's why his father hosted me for one night with special meal! He speaks Germany and Latvian, Polish as well as Russia. Unfortunately, his couldn't speak English that much and I could speak any language which he could. Barely, I can understand Germany and we could communicate with each other but anyway as I told you without language we could really communicate with, that was nice! He brought me to hill of the Talsi and there was a huge wooden tower to be able to watch the enermy when was the war time. We climb up to the top but it was moving all the time because of the wind and I was really afraid of it if it would fall down. Anyway that was a nice memory of my journey. And the next day in the morning, I tried to use skype to be able to contact to my friend and celebrate to the party of my seminar, I would say it. Actually, the seminar is neither my department nor faculity. Just I take the lesson because it was really interested in me of the study in sociology as well as the teacher! The teacher, Prof. Tanaka he is very young for me, I think he is 30s or so and always active and intelligent, that is why I learned a lot from him as well as his seminar students. Before, coming to here they and he cerebrated me to go in a nice bar(we call it Izakaya) in Ikebukuro. Just I imagined and had really fun!
Anyway, I enjoyed staying there!

8,000km Kokkola, Finland

Now I am in here!! Kokkoka is located 120 northeast from Vaasa and 200km southeast to Oulu, city itself is quite small but some part has so called old wooden house. The painting of those house is normally red, it is originally from the rever of the fish which they caught from the sea I heard. Yesterday I stayed with a house of woman & her dauther, which is located 3 km away from the central Kokkola and her house was wooden house, amazingly! I stayed with a room which was in upstairs and somethig like between the floor and roof. It riminded me ex-my apartment which I had stayed for two years before this trip to be able to go to my school. It is located Kagurazaka, one of the central city in Tokyo and I can go to school about 20 minutes by walk and 10 minutes by bicycle. Between my school and apartment there was a shop which I worked so called MacDonal'd at Iidabashi Station, anyway. If I were in there, I am still working in there. But I am going to find new part-time job when I get back to Japan, maybe English teacher is the best choise to keep my English is better and for my study as well!

Now, I am going to find a city which will record 10,000km from Istanbul, hopefully somewhere in Norway!

Yuji @ Kokkola, Karleby(Swe), FIN

2.7 EURO

In Finland, people can cash it back from empty bottles after they drunk it. And a lot of empty bottle was thrown to the glass by the roads. That's why I have started to carry it to get some money to be able to support to my journey. Moreover, it is a kind of joy because on the main road there are a lot of trucks and cars making a lot of noise....

Yesterday from Vaasa, I started to pick those bottles from glass. Almost all the bottle which lying on a glass are empty beer bottle. The process to get money are quite simple.
Firstly, I picked up from the ground and then I take it to a supermarket. Almost all supermarket have a machine to treat it and caluculate the total price of those bottles. Each bottles have different prices as follows.

0.1 euro- grass bottle
0.15 euro-can of 335ml & 500ml
0.2 euro-pet bottle of 500ml
0.4 euro- pet bottle of 1.5l

The machine classifies those bottles following barcode which has attached of each package made of Finland. So, when I want to use that machine I need to pick up only bottle which has that barcode. Otherwise, I cannot any money back from the store even if the shape is quite same. For example, on the way from Tampere to Pori, I tried to pick it up but I didn't know how it works at a store. So, I picked it all the bottle which I found on the road. Then, I get to the store but almost half of the cans and bottles which I picked didn't work because those cans are from Estonia. If I were careful, I might find out the signe of EEK, that means Estonia Krone, probable.

After I started of this recycling journey with cycling, I have a lot of time to stop on the road. But my leg is still doesn't work well. That is not bad for slow cycling and good for the earth.

That's why I picked it up for 2.7 Euro in yesterday. Anyway, there was a lot of bottle on the ground. However, only thing that I am conserning is that what will I do the bottle which I don't need such as EEK. I normally left it away as it was. But. I feel like a little bit guilty. So, I finally decided to classify with my eyes if the bottle is that I need or not. That's feel better!

Yuji @ Pietasaari, SUOMI

at Vaasa

This is the last day to stay at Vaasa. In these two days, I stayed with Reeta and her friends who are from Sweden. They had really good relationship with each other, it won't be happen any wars between them, anyway. Different from the relationship of Baltic language between Lithuanian and Latovian, they couldn't communicate with their mother tongue, that means, they use in English when they communicate with each other, they speak in English very well even if they just graduated from high school. My English level is still lower than those student as I felt in Eastern Europe. I don't have a lot of time to improve it, but I should be hunger to speak English more and more... to be able to speak it fluently.

In these two days, I have tried to take some rest to be able to cure my legs completely. As a result of rest for two days, my legs seems to be better than before and I have no pain at the moment. Still, it might be start to pain again and I an going to keep 50km per day. To be able to reduce and cure my leg, I planned to ask for a doctor in Vaasa but the day when I came here was on Saturday and there was no working private doctor until on Monday, today. But, I got some information about to cure my leg. Firstly, I took a Magunesium tablet for it just once a day and I am going to keep throw it until the pain disapper. And after that, I bought a supporter from a sports shop to try to reduce the impact from the riding. I hope it will work well. If the pain starts again I will ask for a doctor at Oulu, that is the last city before Lapland. Still, it is located about 300km away from here, Vaasa.

One thing that I want to write was that I bought a brake for my bike as well as supporter from the shop, but that break didn't work of my bike even if I confirmed it if it works for my bike or not to a shopkeeper. Then, the next day, today I asked if they can refund me of the money or change of my brake which is fit to my bike. Unfortunately, they didn't have any brake except for it, but they finally cash me back to buy another brake even if I had already opened that package and tried to check to my bike if it works or not. If it is in Japan, it might be refund if I have a recipt but I was wondering because I didn't pay for it as a cash but it should be done.

It was remineded me when I worked at MacDonal's.

In those days, I was a in a service counter at my MacDonald's, and I had a claim if they refund it just because the seat of the MacD was occupied because of the lunch time. Then I asked manager if it could be possible to cash them back and another option was that we can put those food in a bag to be able to eat at home or somewhere as a take away. The manager told me that, "it was not usual to do it, but now we are really busy to take care of it. So, you should do it. " Then, I cash it back to them and throw those humbergers even if it is edible, what's more, they bought two or three set, that's why it was one of unforgattable experience at there. In Japan, at MacD. the life of tried french fries is only 7 minutes and beef was 15 minute respectively. If we couldn't sell it to the customer, we should put it into garbage. We made a lot of waste to be able to serve for fresh food.

Through this journey, I felt how important to choose from the shop and to eat to live. Sometimes we, the people in developed countries, make an mistake and lose how important to eat food and sometimes eat too much just because we have a money to pay for it. Trying to think about what is the sustainable eating for global scale, that is really important to live long enough for human being and I have been felt it through this journey. To be able to notice what is happing in the world or what is correct or not would may be one of the reason why I like traveling not only developed countries but also developing countries.

Yuji @ Vassa

P.S Now I bought a new brake! And, I might be going to be an Vegitalian through this journey. Moreover, I have been not the person who prefer to eat meats since I was in a child except for chicken.

Graduate School

My teacher, Kazumi Goto, he will open to his graduate school at Hosei University, that is the school which I had been to before this April. After the break of this year, I am going back to study the final year to get the bachelors degree. And then...

To be able to work at United Nations, at least I need to get a masters degree somewhere in a university in the world. I am still thinking about it anyway....

What he said in his introduction of his school was that he recongnize that a lot of Japanese people should work in the international, moreover, global environment, as his experience. People in Japan normally they have 3S, that is smile, to be able not to try argument but to make a good situation, silent, they don't want to talk with a people because they are shy or don't have enough skills to speak with the people in English and, sleep, they have no power to talk or less attention to the others. And what he said in his opinion, instead of that 3S, we Japanese people should put on other 3S, which means, Smart, to be intelligent and originallity, Speak, to speak with a people to be able to make a new idea and Speed, to make a right decision earlier.

What I figured out when I saw his opinion today was that it is not valueable for me to master English if I forget those three things, as it were, try to lost Japanese identity to be able to adapt in the global society. I have tried to do it through this journey as much as I can, but I felt that it is still not enough to do it. I might be satisfied with some of the level that I am not hard to live in Europe because I am just traveling by bike. I thought that to be able to speak in English fluently is the most important thing of this journey. Actually, that is not true, morover only if I want to master in English I don't need to come to here to spend lot of money and time.

Once, when I was in Japan before started of this journey, my friend told me that "What is the theme of your journey ?" Still, I couldn't find out the decent answer of this question. Moreover, it might be hard to describe of one word or phrase. But, if I try to say it now in just one phrase, the theme is " to live in the international enviroment". For some people, in particular, if you are living in Europe, the sound like nothing especially. But for me living in an Far East Asian island more than 20 years, it is really special to live in that environment, which means living outside of Japan. I am hard to understand it if I only live in Japan. On that point, this journey, I have already passed 10 countries since in Turkey and I will visit few more countriesr would good to learn what is global society.To learn how hard to live in that environment as a Japanese, that would be my theme of this journey even if we have other continents such as Africa, North & South America, even in Asia.

I am not sure if I go to the graduate school of my teacher's one but his opinion is still shining even if I traveled or lived in Europe more than 3 months. I really respect him.

Keep doing my best at this moment,

Yuji @ Vaasa, SUOMI(FIN)

West Coast

West coast of Finland, there are spreading the gulf of Bothnia between Sweden. In some city on the west coast, there are Swedish people are living in and they speak Swedish. Even if both Finnish and Swedish are regarded as official language, it seems like still have a problem to live toghther for Finnish people as far as I heard it from them.

I am still keep slowly heading for Vaasa, the city which is located almost half of the coast line of Finland. The country is quite huge compared to those country which I have already passed. In addition of the country size, I spend for about one week of my holiday and my leg is still not working well. I am keep moving almost 50km per day. That's why, I feel like that Finland is really big country! But surprisingly, it is a bit smaller than Japan!
Yesterday, I slept in a forest with fire to eat some potates for dinner. For these several days, it has been nice weather and easy to barn those trees. I picked some brenches from the forest and then I easily to make an stable fire. But at the same time, it might be burn to the other glass or trees if I lost attention to the fire. It was really natural and wild area. Birds, squwarrals are jumping from one tree to another. I cannot hear nothing except for that dance.
Because of the expensive beer, I finally decided to buy wisky after I got to Finland. The price of beer, for example, a can of beer of 500ml costs 2 and half euro. (For example in Slovakia, it was less than 1 euro to buy the same one)Interestingly, when I try to buy a can of beer which is smaller than 500, it was 335ml or so , that cost only for 1 and half euro or less. Different from Japan, we need more and more money when we try to buy a lot of beer per litter in Finland, that means, it is quite strict rule for drinking alcohole as well as for teenagers only for over 18 from the government in Finland. We cannot buy any alcohole from the shop after 9 pm. Anyway, I finally decided to buy wisky, which costs 8-10 euro for one small bottle of wisky(335ml or less), but I can survive for 1 week or more to drink it. But I need to show my passport, oh I am 21 years old!

Still my right leg is well, hopefully it is getting better. I need a much more time to cure it compeletely!

Yuji @Narpes, FIN

Lazy Going

Because of my difficult situation to go, I have slept in a beach at Pori and stayed there for two nights, but it is still not good for cycling even if the weather is so nice!

The day at beach, yesterday, I was really lazy just because I really wanted to go and boring!
I woak up at 10am after sleeping again for two times because of the pain. After breakfast on the beach, I went to swim in the sea. The water was still cold but enough tempreture to swim. The shore of the Pori continues about 4 km and it is one of a resort for the people who want to swim in the sea. In Finland it has a lot of sea, moreover the country is surrounded by the sea. However, because of the special feature of the land, not all shore can swim. Actually it is not easy to find a place to swim in the sea. It is much more easier to find a place to swim in a lake.
Anyway, after swimming in the sea, I started to go to the crowded area of the sea to see some nice girl in there. However, in this season there is a lot of family more than couple or young generation. Kids are always have energy and I couldn't slept well. Finally, I started to swim again. People in Finlamd, compared to Japan, it has a lot of fat people. I don't know exactly the reason why so many people are fat, it seems like in the States. Fat people indicate to the economic situation each country. Don't you think so?
After coming back to my lying tent, I started to drink some wisky then I started to sleep again. My ears caught some voice of kids, funny light voice and then I woak up with slight headach. I was not felt like good because of the disturbing of my sleeping, finally I jumped into the sea again.
After 10pm, it had getting dark and I ate some bread for my last supper of the day with radio. I was keep listing to the radio for whole days long, there was several nice and memorial song in there. One of the song which I love was chiki-chi-ta, the song from radio was only joy of the day. And yesterday was the second day of nothing to buy, moreover I was staying in the beach all the time.
Regardless of the whole days rest, my right leg has still a bit different feeling than before. But, I finally decided to keep going and ask for a doctor at Vassa if it is still painful.

Yuji @ Merikarvia, FIN

Jump into the Lake and back and force to Sauna

My right leg has started to pain again after riding on my bike for about 70 km.

When I was riding on my bike with no pain, I felt like nothing especially even if it was best condition. But once I have injoured my leg, I couldn't do it as I did before. Well... even if my condition is best except for my right leg.

Yesterday, I went to a Sauna at a lake near Pori with my host and his friends. It was my first time to going to Sauna in Europe. In Finland, traditionally Sauna is a part of their life and they often to enjoy it. Sauna itself it was quite similar that I took in Japan but it had not a automatically heat, that means that we need to make fire to keep the room warm. We were 6 student altogether in Sauna with suimming suits. I forgot it actually and I need to take my underware to hide the symbol. But, my host, for example he was nakid even if there were some girls! They didn't make an attention to it.
After 5-10 minutes in the room, we are getting warmer and warmer! And finally we couldn't bear it and get out of the room, then jumped into the lake. The cottage which we stayed was connected to the lake with road made of woods. We enjoyed warming up in the Sauna as well as swimming in the lake. I am not a good swimmer, even if so, I barely swam in the lake.

By the way, one thing which I amazed in Finland was that all the student after graduate from their high school, they need to go to army service. (We, in Japan, don't have that system after the second world war) Almost all the student of a university who I met in here, they have already experienced army training before entrance in their university. What I want to say is that army training is really important to keep the country safe? One the one hand, we can keep our country safe if we have an army as a self-defence. Because, we can easily make an army when it happens and have a system for fight. On the other hand, we spend a lot of money and energy to make a lot of gum or other equipment for fighting. Historically, there were a lot of invation from Russia and Germany as well as civil war in Finland, that is one of the reason why they, government tries to take a training for everybody, I think.
We normally think that those wars which we, in the world, have experienced in the 19th century will never happens for the future. On that point, we don't need to make a force to fight. Even if it might be true, some country like North Korea, Middle eastern countries as well as African countries, they might be make an key to war as we saw in Afganistan and Irap as well.
This is not a easy to make an conclusion for few time but I hope that the world would shifting for disamament to keep the world safty.

Yuji @ Pori, FIN

Going not to farther is the best way to keep my journey at the moment