Posted on

Tentative Japan itinerary

Only a bit more than a month until I leave. Slowly I'm getting a better idea of where to go in the four weeks I'll be in Japan. I have to decide some things before I leave, because things like the Japan RailPass and air passes have to be purchased before entering the country.

One thing is clear: It will be insanely expensive, but I just don't want to miss anything. After all, who knows when/if I'll be back.

Tentative itinerary:
Zurich – Singapore – Osaka – Okinawa – Fukuoka – Kumamoto – Hiroshima (Miyajima) – Himeiji – Nara – Ise – Kyoto – Hiraizumi – Tono – Kakunodate – Hakodate – Noboribetsu (Poroto Kotan) – Nibutani – Sounkyo Onsen – Sapporo – Tokyo – Nikko – Fuji – Tokyo – Zurich

I might have to skip some of these destinations for time reasons, but this is what I have in mind so far.

Random useful notes:
Currency conversion: 1000 JPY = ~12 CHF
Time: Sept 10 – Oct 17 (Singapore: Sept 11 – Sept 16)
Railpass 21 days: 57 700 JPY (650 CHF)
Star Alliance Japan Airpass: 11 550 JPY/flight (130 CHF)
Flights: Osaka – Okinawa; Okinawa – Fukuoka; Sapporo – Tokyo
People to visit: (Kitakyushu city), (Kumamoto)

Posted on

Feasgair math duibh, dhaoin uaisle.

Guess who's back from Scotland again (although she'd have liked to stayed longer – maybe forever)? šŸ˜€

Regina and I had an absolutely fantastic time, in Glasgow, Edinburgh and a small village on the Firth of Clyde called Inellan. More about all of this some time later, as it's been a looong day, considering that we left the hostel this morning around 9am. Although luckily, the hours spent waiting at airports by myself (since Regina took a train down to a friend in Brighton) were made much more bearable by the good books I bought… We all knew that I wouldn't be able to resist, didn't we? *g*

But all of this are stories for another day… When I've caught up with everything. G'night!

Crossposted to the blog and travel log.

Posted on

Scotland here I come again!

Just got off the phone with Regina – weā€™re leaving for a week in Scotland (mostly Glasgow, but also a bit of traveling) on Friday. Yay, Iā€™m slowly getting all excited! I canā€™t really afford it, but I just love Scotland and couldnā€™t say no when Regina asked meā€¦

Glasgow is great (I finally want to see the Charles Rennie Mackintosh museum), and I hope weā€™ll get the chance to catch a bit of the nightlife, since sheā€™s got a friend there who plays in a band and is therefore bound to know the good places for live music. Weā€™ll also visit Edinburgh, because thatā€™s just a must for any Scotland trip, and might go see a bit of the countryside, too. Itā€™s all very much not planned – weā€™ve got a twin room at a hostel for the first two nights, after that itā€™s all openā€¦ The weather will probably be even a bit warmer than it is here – we had some lovely snow again today.

Posted on

Japan trip – points of interest

Currently I'm completely enthralled by my new Rough Guide for Japan. I'm planning on going there this October, maybe with my brother (who's a big Japan fan), but definitely at least part of the time alone.

My dream would be to spend four weeks traveling the country and one week or so on a stop-over somewhere else in Asia, maybe Bangkok or Singapur. The problem is money – according to XE.com, 1000 yen are a bit over 11 Swiss francs at the moment, which would make it very expensive. I'm not sure yet I can afford it, actually, since even the cheapest youth hostel is about 3000JPY/night. We'll see, I guess.

But I thought I'd keep track of my 'must-see' destinations here, just so I get an idea how much time is realistic… This will be edited/updated as I learn more.

Attractions are listed from North to South, as you can see on the Lonely Planet map:

Japan

Hokkaido
– Sapporo
– Historical Village of Hokkaido
– Nibutani (Ainu village)
– Daisetsu-zan National Park (Sounkyo)

Northern Honshu
– Kakunodate (samurai town)
– Tono valley
– Hiraizumi (Motsu-ji temple)

Tokyo area
– Nikko
– Kawagoe
– Mitaka (Ghibli museum)
– Mount Fuji

Tokyo

Posted on

Note to shirasade's LJ friends

Apparently, the MadCow cluster that is on will be down until tonight at 10PM PST (is that Monday morning my time? no idea). šŸ™ So that explains the lack of updates – but I thought that at least some of you will see this post.

My voice has been pretty much gone since Friday night, but I had a lovely birthday party anyway. I've got some great people as friends and we had a lot of fun – ate, drank and talkedtalkedtalked about everything and nothing. It just was a bit quieter than normal… *smile* Totally worth all the work that went into preparing!

Okay, I'll catch up with yous when is up again – just know that I'm thinking of you and hoping y'all are doing good. I can't help but worrying – it's so strange not to be able to go and check how things are… *hugs tight*

Posted on

Happy New Year!

Just a quick pimping of the fanlisting for beautiful Taranaki (where I spent most of my time in New Zealand) – in the extras section there you can find a number of my photos. Maybe one of these days I'll even get around to posting some here… Who knows. *g*

This year I don't have any big trips planned, for the first time since graduating from highschool, mostly because I have to find an internship for this summer break. But there definitely will be a number of shorter trips – to Andalusia with my family this spring, for example, and with my friend Märrie to Scotland in summer.

So I won't get bored, I'm sure… šŸ™‚

Wishing everyone a very good year 2004! *hugs*

Also: a new icon, thanks to .

Posted on

Back home

Got back in one piece – but let me tell you, Australia really is pretty far away… There are definitely more fun things than spending almost 30 hours on planes and in airports! *g*

Another thing to remember is NOT TO PLAY WITH YOUR DIGITAL CAMERA WHEN TIRED!!! Because if you do that, you might just delete every single pictures you've taken in two months… šŸ™ Luckily I have all my New Zealand pictures backed up in New Plymouth, and Denise and Ross are going to burn them on a CD and send them to me – but the pics I took in two weeks Australia are. All. Gone. Which sucks. But luckily you can't erase memories, no matter how much you play with your digital camera… *g*

Now I'm trying to get settled in again. Got my uni schedule sorted (uni starts again on October 20), organized all emails I got (turns out the forwarding didn't work with shirasade@just-in-dreams.com), watched the extra material on “The Two Towers” (how much do I love Lord of the Rings?), and got some updating done on my websites. I'm almost ready to start normal life again – although I'd prefer to do that in a warmer climate… *g* I've been traveling through all four seasons in two months – summer in Switzerland, winter in New Zealand, spring and summer in Australia, and back to fall in Switzerland (cold and grey).

I'll be sure to share pics with you asap – I've already bought additional webspace on chocolate dream… Thanks to my own stupidity you'll have to wait a while, though. My apologies.

Thanks to all of you who wrote me emails or comments, or just thought of me – I'm looking forward to catching up with all of you! *hugs*

Posted on

Almost gone…

Thought before Michi and I head to the train station for the airport I'd quickly share my itinerary… The next two days don't look like fun at all. Have I ever mentioned that I don't really like flying? And airports aren't that interesting either.

Anyway, here's the thing – always using local time ( just to make it more difficult to figure out how long I'll actually be in the air *g*):
Monday, Aug 11:
3.45pm dep Zurich
11.50pm arr Dubai
Tuesday, Aug 12:
8.15am dep Dubai (yep, 8 hours… yay!)
7.35pm arr Singapore (stop-over)
8.45pm dep Singapore
Wednesday, Aug 13:
6.05am arr Sidney
9.30am dep Sidney
2.30pm arr Auckland
Friday, Aug 15:
12.30pm bus dep Auckland
6.45pm bus arr New Plymouth

Wednesday, Sept 10:
1pm dep Auckland
2.30 arr Sidney

Tuesday, Oct 7:
8.20pm dep Sidney
Wednesday, Oct 8:
2.15am arr Singapore (stop-over)
3.25am dep Singapore
6.25am arr Dubai
8.40am dep Dubai
1.20pm arr Zurich

This really makes me realize how far away I go… It's hardly possible to go further! I'm very glad I decided not to take the bus right the next day, that way I can chill a bit and maybe see something of the city…

I'll try and let you know when I've arrived in Auckland! *hugs*

Posted on

NZ/Australia update

Thought it was time to let you know what's happening at the moment…

First of all – you can now follow this on my personal domain, chocolate dream, where I've created a much nicer looking mirror of this travel log.

Now to my big trip of this year. My plans to go to New Zealand for the required field trip exercise for my major Cultural Anthropology have been shaping up nicely. Those interested in the study stuff – I've created a study journal, though mainly for my own benefits.

I'll be leaving on August 11, arriving in Auckland on Aug 13. I'll stay in NZ's biggest city for two nights, and then catch a bus southwards, to New Plymouth. My friend Denise, who I've met almost four years ago in California, has been helping me a lot, and I'm lucky enough to be able to stay with her and her family for the month I'll be in New Zealand. This means that I'll be based in New Plymouth, from where I'll do my study about Maori knowledge and hopefully see a bit of the country, too.

I'll stay in NZ until September 10, when I'll head over to Sidney for a month of traveling up the East coast, until I head back to Switzerland on October 7. I hope to be able to meet up with Adam and Willa, who I met in Washington, DC, last fall, but mainly I want to see bit of Australia and catch a bit of sun – after all, it's winter down there…