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| Gilly with my Finnish friend Tua, at Temple of Heaven |
That said, I haven't been writing a lot in the last few days. It is because my proxy wouldn't let me blog. I could only post short stuff when I was lucky.
The end of my trip in Beijing was interesting. I met a lot of people who I got along with really well. Fate made me meet with Aurelien and Marion, a French couple, for three consecutive days, without any appointment, in three different cities. Who said China was huge?
While visiting, smog and grey skies stole the show until rain brought the dust down. Because dust and pollution, God knows we breath a lot of them in the chinese capital.
I won't miss my very hard bed in the hostel, on which I spent nine nights with hurting bones. It was only a plank of wood with sheets. I won't miss the «Take a looke... Very goode... Good price for you my friend». Neither those people who gumble all the time and spit in the streets... or on the floor in the restaurants. I won't miss being pushed around in the metro, being scamed in the markets, trying to explain to the waiter that I want to pay the bill, being honked at even if there is room to go around me.
Yes, I liked my time in China, which made me see a different world. We can get used to being a nomad, to see new stuff every day. To the point it is scary to think we can loose the capacity to be amazed in front of the unknown. Even the discomfort brought by the difficulties to make ourselves understood become easy to manage.
But there is nothing better than changing countries to get an electric shock. To loose all marks.
I left Beijing this morning for Osaka. Beijing airport is impressive and complicated. I was sent from desk to desk to check-in. First, thanks to the Chinese who put in the metro a list of all the airlines with the terminal you should step down at... only in mandarin.
My flight was stopping in Yantai, China. Choice # 1 : international terminal or the domestic one? Trying the domestic one. There, I could find the sign for the flight to Yantai with the accurate number. But error! You need to check-in at the international terminal... and then take the plane at the domestic terminal... Why make it simple? You can add one hour of delay before take off to make it more fun...
At the stopover, the plane was emptied for everybody to get a stamp on their passport. And we got back in the same plane a couple of minutes later.
In Osaka, I needed to get my rail pass, valid for two weeks, which will allow me to use all JR transportation in Japan. Without the precious help of Japenese, I wouldn't have made it to my hostel. First because the train system looks very complicated to a foreigner who only slept for four hours the night before. And because the signs are not all as clear as I wished.
A woman who waited for the metro on a different line from mine decided to leave her platform to help me get where I needed to go. She even boarded the carriage with me to make sure I was reading the map correctly while she was counting the stations for me.
Even if I've seen only a beam of 100 metres around my hostel in Osaka, near the Momodani metro station, I can say I like Japan. For its intelligent cash registers. For its toilets with an integrated faucet, which reuse the water we washed our hands with. For its bins for liquids, in the fast-food restaurants, where you put what's left of your soft drink or the ice left in the glass. Smart!
And my sweet tooth, who found nothing in China, is getting back in shape.
* A theory might change the way I was seeing expired food in China. I was told the date we find on products might be the date where the food was made instead of when it expires. The client would then need to know for how long that type of food is good. I still have my doubts, but it makes sense.
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