Backpacking in Tokyo!!!

More than a year has passed since I returned from Japan and is hard to remember the order of how some special events occurred ... And yes, I'm very late with the posts but there's no rush!!! :)

As I remember, some days before and after the last volunteer program in Kesennuma (気仙沼) I decided with the ICYE Japan Staff that I was going to search for places to stay in Tokyo during the final days in Japan. As part of the ICYE program they would find some host families for me, but I decided to make things different... This was very influenced by the experience I had in South Korea where I met some worldwide travelers doing exactly what I needed at that time: Backpacking!

The schedule was very busy for the final days in Tokyo... I was jumping from place to place in one of the most crowded cities of the world, meeting very kind people, sleeping in different neighborhoods and walking around with the Tokyo summer on my back at around 40 degrees Celsius!!! Some of the places where I walked and still remember ...

So, as Joe (an English friend I met in South Korea and with expertise in the backpacking stuff) told me in the hostel back in Seoul, there's a site called CouchSurfing where you can get in contact with people who are willing to share their couch to travelers for some nights. This way one can meet more people, places and there's more real cultural exchange!

Japan will never stop surprising me...

I decided to create an account at CouchSurfing and just a few days later I met some very kind friends in Tokyo! Some people just wanted to talk about everything while having some coffee or tea in one of the thousands of Starbuck's around and some others offered me a place to spend a few nights! :)

Backpacking was a fun and interesting experience... Before starting I followed the advise from Aragorn in The Lord of the Rings (We travel light!) so I packed the big and uncomfortable stuff in a huge and heavy case (most of my stuff were presents) and once again the brotherhood from Ueno saved my day! They allowed me to store the big case in their home! This was very important because traveling around with such a huge weight would have been a real pain in the trains and during the long walks!!!

 

I created a schedule for the places I would visit and where I would stay. Now that I think about all the places I stayed during the trip to Asia, I think I was in a total of 11 or 12!! This was excellent because it allowed me to get in touch with many people and visit some very cool spots but I have to admit that jumping around for so long was also very tiring. I had to move to a new temporary home almost every week and at the end I was exhausted... But it was totally worth the spent energy!!! :D

The very first person who offered me a place to stay was Tina from Taiwan. She was working for some time in Japan! The fun fact about Tina was that for both of us it was the first time to have a CouchSurfing experience! I had the honor to be her first guest and she was my first host! Tina had lived for sometime in Spain and we could talk a little Spanish, Japanese and English!

I stayed at Tina's place around a week before traveling to Kesennuma and even if we had some little time together every night (she had to work and I had to go out to seize the day) we had a very very nice time and I could understand the lifestyle and point of view from another foreigner living and working in Japan...!

The longest I stayed in a single place was at Mari's flat... If my memory is correct I was with Mari for about 10 days!! And again, is so nice when someone you meet for the first time trusts you at 100%! We also had little time together for the same reasons as with Tina. With Mari I could get a clearer picture of what work  in Japan means for a girl of my around age... And believe me, you have to be strong! I forgot some Dragon Ball Z collection cans at Mari's place which are still waiting for my return :D !!!

Yuko was another Couch Surfer who opened the doors to me. Is hard to express with words how kind she was with me and by another strange coincidence of life, Yuko had visited Costa Rica some time ago and she told me that that travel was a key fact in allowing me to stay with her :) When I met Yuko for the first time I also met Mehmet, a very nice guy from Holland who was traveling around Tokyo and South Korea mostly (a place he really loved and in fact, I think he's still around there somewhere!). Mehmet is also an IT guy (the only real Geek I met in Japan besides Seo San) and we had a nice afternoon at a Spanish-Style bar, we talked about many things and the contrasts between Tokyo, Amsterdam and San José...Yuko was an excellent person, she cooked a super delicious dinner for me and I could stay with her around 1 week!! Kindness in a whole new level!!! :D 

 

 

Besides this 3 special friends, I met a lot of kind people because of CouchSurfing and another site which I forgot but if I write about all the experiences and nice people I spend some time with during this backpacking time I would have to write about 20 thousand pages!!!

I could never find the appropriate words to describe how good I felt with so such unique people! You have to understand that in Japan is very complicated to host someone in your place because space is reduced, basic services like water and electricity are very expensive and also, to trust a foreigner is not an easy step to make (because I have to mention that they even gave me the keys to go back home at the time I wanted to!!!). For this and many other reasons you can understand how happy and grateful I am!! I had never experienced this kind of trust and it was something that changed my perspective once again!!!

I will end this special post with some of the pictures I took during that time...!!! Includes the zoo photos with  the ultra lazy panda that was always sleeping!!! 

 

 

 

I have to decide about to write next: Mount Fuji or Fuji-Q Highland... I'll keep you posted so have a nice day and be happy :D

 

The program was over… 気仙沼(Kesennuma)!!!

So… After a long and tiring but very important trip from Yamada Machi I got off the last train and just moments later I met 2 very special friends from the Konkokyo organization which represents a religion that was totally new to me and with a very interesting point of view about god and other related stuff. I liked the ideas this people talked to me about and it was somehow refreshing after all the crazy and senseless things I heard about religion and god through practically all my life…

Masafumi Kimoto was my guide during the last 10 days I worked as a volunteer in Japan which casually, ended with one the most special experiences among all I lived in Asia. The day I arrived at Kesennuma, Masafumi was on the Van and from that time I started to met a lot of very interesting people in Kesennuma. After a few personal stories and some of his motivations in life I started to call him Masa Sensei, a sign of respect and admiration for someone who really deserved it…

The 10-15 minute ride from the last train station to the camp where we stayed (behind the Konkokyo main church) was enough to notice that the damage here was way bigger than I thought with all the images I had seen until that day. Kesennuma was destroyed by the Tsunami and some places were hit by a 20 + meter high mass of water.

I had already spent some days at Yamada Machi which was also destroyed, but nothing could prepare me for the landscape of this place…

 

 

I could never imagine how exactly a ship that size could have been washed away so much distance inland. No words… I took those pictures at the first place where we were assigned as part of the volunteer program, a hotel destroyed from the first to the fourth floor. Shimizu San gave us work orders and he was as energetic and motivating as the rest of us. He was also a great friend with a great spirit and a living example of dedication.

The task of removing debris was heavy and dangerous. One of the rules was to cover the entire body with protective cloth, boots with metal insoles, gloves, dusk masks, helmet and all this with a 30-35 Celsius-degree temperature. Everything was 100% necessary because cuts and wounds were something common and I remember that the helmet saved me a couple of times from some heavy metal pieces falling from the ceiling. Some other scenery around…

 

 

I met Wriston in Kesennuma. I thought he was a normal guy, until he offered me a ride in his Van from the workplace to the camp…

 

 

Then I realized that Wriston was also someone out the ordinary.  He came from New York to Japan with the only goal of helping with volunteer work, no tourism or nice trips. He arrived at Japan with just a few dollars (not even enough for spending a week in Tokyo) and a very unique dedication to work. I don’t remember exactly how he got to Kesennuma, I can only tell that he spent a night in the streets of Tokyo and some days later he vas driving the “Operation Thunderstick Van” which was a gift from another group of volunteers I believe.

Kesennuma was a mixture of opposite emotions in many aspects. I have to confess that it was not easy to walk around the ruins of the city. After working everyday for around 6 hours the only thing I wanted to do was take a bath, eat, sleep, be grateful and stay positive for the next day which was easier after a short walk around the city listening to music and thinking about many things. The landscape was devastating and heart touching and it was impossible to avoid thinking what could have happened to all the people here, but the Japanese people that I met (not only here but since I arrived) had taught me to look everything from a positive point of view, anytime and without thinking how heavy of difficult the situation was.

At late afternoon, after a Japanese-style bath, we volunteers, the refugees in the temple and the people from Konkokyo ate together. As you can see here, this was a place with no luxuries but everyone helped as they could and the food prepared for us by the hand of Shachou-san (the guy from the middle in the second photo) tasted great always! Some pictures from the camp and it’s people…

 

Each passing day volunteers left and came mostly from Tokyo and among them I could met Akira, Tatsunori, Yuki and Fuki. They were very energetic at work and we became friends!

The workplace shown in the next photos was the first where almost everybody worked together, Masa Sensei, Shimizu San, the guys from Tokyo, Wriston and the friends from Konkokyo. Removing 10-kilo sand bags from the house assigned to us during 2 days left a curious injure in my back that I often remember while training Karate, but the satisfaction of working was such that I forgot about the pain and at the end the house was mostly clean! Smiles for everyone!!!

 

In some occasions Wriston offered me a ride around the city (like the one on the video and I must be clear that the song playing was mere coincidence) listening to good metal and rap music and talking about many interesting stories. One day we arrived at a cafeteria and I was surprised! The owner of the place came out to be a Karate Sensei from the same Dojo where I trained in Tokyo! Not only that, but the place also had a unique design and decoration… So after chatting about Karate and the city we continued our ride back home…

 

10 days quickly passed in Kesennuma and with them, the volunteer program in Japan ended… My everyday was: get up, focus on the task at hand, breakfast, work hard, bath, get back to camp, dinner, a short walk around the city and every night we had a small reunion and talked about everything, I drunk beer as I never had and will never have again in my life and at the end of the day, just take some minutes to think and think and think until I was too tired…

I don’t remember who left first or how we said goodbye. What I can tell is that Alejandro arrived by the end of our stay. He was Wriston’s friend, same situation and something particular… He spoke Spanish because his parents are from Colombia. It was a bit weird and fun to speak Spanish fluently after months!!!

Akira was another example, after the volunteer period ended he stayed more time in Kesennuma and even until some months ago he was still helping in the place after along time away from Tokyo…

 

The day we returned we were lucky! There was a music festival and I could listen to the famous Japanese Taiko drums for the first time during the whole journey! So much energy and power from this drums and I felt very happy that this was the final event for a unique experience… Something from that moment…

 

The trip back was long and most of the time I was silent or sleeping. When we arrived Masa Sensei invited us to a very special Ramen restaurant with a unique taste I will never forget! We made a promise to go back sometime…

After everything I saw here it was time to plan my last 15 days in Tokyo and start to focus on my next step… The  journey back to Costa Rica…

Smile… I’ts free and it really helps!!!

From 宮古(Miyako) to 盛岡(Morioka) to 気仙沼(Kesennuma)!!!

Hi everyone! I hope you're doing fine!!

After the 10 day volunteer program in Yamada Machi and a very relaxing day at beautiful Miyako Bay, it was time to continue my journey to my final volunteer work location: Kesennuma!

The trip was divided into 4 main courses from Yamada to Kesennuma. First I took the bus for Miyako with Anita and Nobu , this was a short 20-30 minute ride. From Miyako we took more time until we arrived at Morioka which is a bigger city than the previous ones.

The second part of the journey was silent. Few people were on transit that day and we were tired. I could think about a lot of stuff in the train. I had a mixture of feelings and emotions from long ago... The whole journey in Japan was coming to an end and it was until this moment, on this train that I had some time to think deeply about everything that happened and what was left... Obviously the ride was not enough to think about everything but two feelings were always present during this journey to Kesennuma: happiness and nostalgia.

Some pictures from the second train, as you can see it was practically empty...

 

The destinations were different for each one of us, so once in Morioka I had to say goodbye to Anita and Nobu. At the station I waited a few moments for Tomoko. She was coming to the station to help me with the next trains and to give me some instructions for the next days. When we met we had some free time so I decided to wash some cloth and have a nice special Ramen from this region, it tasted so good! It was sometime with no Ramen and I was starting to miss this kind of food!

I spent half of the second train ride with Tomoko. It was great to travel with her! Most of the maps here were only written in Japanese and sometimes just Kangi with no Hiragana like the one below... So her company was very fun and helpful!

After Tomoko's main instructions, taking a lot of notes and doing a lot of questions about the next train I had to ride for Kesennuma, she left and I was on my own. I was tired but it was impossible to sleep because if I missed the stop I wouldn't be on time for the next and last train for Kesennuma and I would have to find a place to stay in a totally unknown place, the good thing was that I was not stressed at all, I knew everything was going to be nice and fun!

I got off at the right station. This was a relatively big place, I searched for the train I had to take and after checking that everything was in place I got on waited for the little train to depart for the last and long ride. Here's a shot from the moment...

Besides thinking of many things, I had a lot of time for taking some landscape pictures... I felt I was traveling in another time, this place had a very special vibe that I will never forget!!!

 

 

Here some stations from all the journey and some shots from the last course...

 

 

I was very careful... I checked each station's name and grew nervous as I was getting near the final stop. After a very long but awesome journey, a unique experience in Yamada and a lot of expectation about the next and last days in Tohoku we arrived at the station before Kesennuma...

Just minutes after arriving at Kesennuma I realized I bought the wrong ticket for the train! I had to talk to the staff at the station and explained what happened. Everything was fine, I paid the ticket and this was the only small problem I had during the whole trip...

A unique experience and a lot of special people were waiting for me in this new place!!!

Next time I will talk about what happened in Kesennuma!

Be happy!!!