Konnichiwa, Nihon!

Day 53
I finally arrived, 07:18 was the touchdown. Immigration was surprised about how long I was planning to stay in Japan. She asked me for details about where I would go and what I would do. As soon as I told her she smiled and I was officially granted entry into Japan.

Just after immigration I started my first mission, get money. It didn't take long before I encountered my first overly happy Japanese culture shock moment. The atm´s play songs for you and make little sounds that makes it feel like I fired up my old Gameboy! After you

pick up the money, the machine proceeds to thank you and wish you a "wonderful day full of joy and experience". The information center helped me get to the subway and take the correct line to Hakata wing. I am very happy I pre-downloaded the map of Fukuoka before going here because it is hard to navigate. The broken Japanese I speak is already very helpful though. Upon arriving at the hostel called "The Gate", was told that cleaning is in progress and check in will be available at 15:00. I left my bag and headed out to the nearest temple.

Kushida Shrine is everything I hoped it to be. It isn't even one of the biggest and most famous ones, yet it looks so insanely good. The structure and detail of Japanese architecture makes the west look pale in comparison. Every day the people who work at the temple go out and wipe of the entire building to make sure it looks new. They proceed to look after all of the plants and rake the dirt until there isn't

a single grain of sand out of place. What the actual fuck. I haven't seen a single, not ONE single cigarette butt. The vending machines around every corner sell beer, coffee, and heated tea for about 100 yen and even if it is a busy city, the streets on the side of the main roads are completely silent. I already like it here...

At night, I met two people from Finland, since we are the only three westerners in the hostel, we started hanging out as soon as we saw each other. We got a tip from one of the hostel workers, Mayuko, to go to a place next door and get okonomiyaki. Upon arrival, the chef looked at my translation card and discussed it with his wife, this was his first time meeting someone with celiac disease. They told me that it was impossible in japan to find food like this, but after thinking a while he made kind of an egg pancake, filled with bean sprouts and vegetables, on top we put chili powder, mayo and a special type of

pickles. It was so insanely good, and that was despite not knowing what he was doing. After finishing the food, he didn't want me to pay for the food, I asked him the japanese equivalent of "are you fucking kidding me???", smiled, and bowed as deeply as the small restaurant would allow. I confirmed it three more times, thanked him again and left to have a drinking party with Mayuko and some other guests in the common area.

Day 54
Breakfast was at 10:00, after that I met up with Joho and Jannika, to travel to Hiroshima together. The walk to Hakata station took about 20 minutes we saw a bunch of cool buildings on the way. Upon arrival it became clear, very fast that the local trains are the best, "Shinkansen" is more expensive than flying and local trains are up to the Japanese standard anyway. I heard about the efficiency before but seeing it for my own is mind blowing. 500 people per train casually doing a one minute transfer because of how reliable the system is. Back home the trains are not even on time if everything is working the way its intended. We should learn something from the Japanese people in this area.

Anyway, I arrived at Hiroshima around 18:00 and set out for some dinner. An old woman made food for me and we talked about my journey, we spoke in Japanese and English and after the food I thanked

her and met my first roommate in Hiroshima. He gave me a beer and invited me to go with him to check out the nightlife. It was loads of fun and we met many natives, at some point more than five Japanese people where standing around us and asked about our home countries. There are many pretty girls here as well. Very very pretty, Apparently the southwestern region is known to have the prettiest girls in all of Japan. I haven't compared yet but I can imagine that it's true. I ended up shambling back to the hostel at 02:00 and went to sleep the second my head hit the pillow!