Good evening Singapore and welcome to another episode of Sleepless in Singapore. I think it's episode 15. Today is Sunday 28th of April 2024. And if all went well and if I was right, I probably am in Bhutan right now. So why do I always say probably I will be or probably I am? Because obviously I'm pre-recording the podcast and I usually do that just a couple of days, like three or four days before I put it online. So every time on a Tuesday I say, oh, on the weekend I will be here and there. and I will be here and there. It's not 100% certain and this time it's particularly uncertain because the next trip we are going to do, I technically don't know where it is to. It was a birthday present from Natalie. It's my birthday trip. My birthday is coming up next week. And she organized a whole trip without much of my knowledge. But also she's so excited about it that she gave away a couple of hints and I did a little bit of, you know, checking on flights and stuff like that. And I think I figured out that it's Bhutan. And when you're listening to this, we should have left for Bhutan on the same day in the morning. So right now I probably should be up some mountain or some monastery or I don't know somewhere there I'm very excited about it and I promise I'll record a podcast episode about that country whatever it turns out to be very soon.

Okay so let's skip Bhutan for now and move on with the big trip taking the ferry over to Japan. Please make yourself comfortable, sit down, lie down, and let my voice be your guide to a restful night. I still remember the day leaving Korea because mostly because we had some interesting kind of kimchi pastry which I realize is maybe not even the most typical Korean thing but that morning we had this looked like a bread roll but it was filled with kimchi and it was quite nice and then also because i don't know if i mentioned that before but philip and i had this we tried to establish that tradition to have a burger to do some research and then find the nicest burger in that city we are right now. And we haven't found a particularly nice burger in Busan yet. So on the day we were leaving, in the morning, quite a bit before lunchtime, we decided to find a burger place. And we found a very good burger place. Not too far from Hände Beach. And we had our burger breakfast there and then we moved out with the taxi to the port. Taxis in Busan are interesting. I mean the taxis are just regular taxis, but the taxi drivers, they have a very binary driving style. They only know gas or no gas. There's nothing, you know, in between. So we made it to the port because we were taking a ferry to Fukuoka, Japan.

And on the way, I'm just looking at this one picture, we saw this. We saw a couple of times in Korea, we saw these shelves. I don't know how to call this. It looks like a wardrobe with a glass front with glass doors. And these wardrobes in the MRT, in the subway, they contain all kinds of emergency rescue stuff like oxygen masks and drinking water. It's like all kind of supplies for the case of an emergency. I think in Seoul it probably has to do something with North Korea being quite close in Busan maybe too but I think also for tsunamis or something, natural disasters. It's very interesting, they are sealed but you can break the seal and you can see in there all the masks, water, bandages, all kind of stuff. It's like in there in case you need it in an emergency. Yeah, that was at the harbor where the ferry to Fukuoka was leaving, but we saw that in many places. Anyway, so we took this ferry to Fukuoka. It was called the Beetle. It was relatively easy to buy tickets and to board the ferry. it was very comfortable. Not like these ferries we sometimes have here in Southeast Asia, not like the ferry from, you know, the ferry to Tioman or something, where it's very hot and very stuffy and so many people. No, it was like a big ferry. There was a carpet and there were very comfortable seats. It was very Japanese already, I guess. It was relatively empty, relatively quiet. It wasn't super cheap.

I was quite fast I think. It took us about four hours and most of that at least I was sleeping. And then we arrived in Japan and we had a decent immigration and then we left the ferry port and then I immediately realized how different it was from what I imagined Japan to be and from what my friends told me how Japan is. And from what my friends told me how Japan is. It was our first time, both Philipp and I, very first time in Japan. And unlike Korea, where last week I told you sadly we haven't heard a lot about Korea, so we came there with basically no expectations. And then we were extremely positively surprised. In Japan, it's not the other way around. We were still very positive there. But you hear a lot about Japan and you see a lot on TV and I think Japan, I don't know for what reason, but Japan on Western media at least like eight years back or whenever that was, Japan is way more impressions way more a way bigger imagination about Japan than we ever had about Korea so we arrived in Japan and we were expecting this bustling high-tech colorful place and in Fukuoka we left the ferry and we left the ferry port and then we were in the streets and we were pretty much alone there weren't many people there was no real public transport or at least we couldn't figure out how to take the public transport So we decided to just walk to our hostel, which part of Fukuoka and many parts of Japan are. There was not a single piece of paper anywhere on the streets. Everything was very organized. very organized, everything was very, I don't know, straight, clean, basic in a way. Almost a little bit German, just much, much cleaner.

Anyway, so we went to our hostel, which was a very basic hostel. It wasn't in a mall, but in Japan they often have these covered walkways or covered roads where there are a lot of shops and restaurants and all that. I've seen that in Osaka, I've seen that in Fukuoka, I've seen something like that in Sapporo. It seems to be quite common. It's basically a street which technically is outside but then between the two rows next to the on the side of the street they just put a big some kind of like glass roof or something you can walk there without getting wet or I guess too hot. And in that street with that kind of cover we also had a little hostel. And we checked in and there was fast Wi-Fi. And I think one of the best things about Japan are the toilets. Because first time for us also we had these toilets with a lid opening automatically when you wave at it and then you sit down and there is a heated seat. It's like very nice. And then you have all these like kind of water fountain thingies for the front and the back and pulsating and warm and cold and moving. And then they had a dryer, which is like a hair dryer, something like warm air surrounding your private parts when you sit on the toilet. And then there is a noise button. I did not know about that one. But there is a button that just produces noises, like out of a speaker. Sorry, like out of a speaker it's producing noise so that people who are potentially outside the bathroom hear that noise and not the noise you might make. And then also they have a little washing like a bowl to wash your hands on top of the toilet. So you can wash your hands first and then the water is going to the tank where the water is in to the tank where the water is in that you use when you flush the toilet. Very efficient. I'm not 100% sure but I think that place was called the Hokorobi. At least that was the Wi-Fi name that I still have the picture of here. First thing we did there in Japan after checking in was getting some food and we had a basic but absolutely delicious ramen and an Asahi beer. And the way you buy that at these basic restaurants is, in the entrance of the restaurant, there is like a machine, a vending machine. Not a vending machine. It looks like a vending machine. And there are pictures of all the different kinds of ramen. Sometimes if you're not so lucky there are no pictures, they're just Japanese writing which is complicated. And then you push that button and you put in your money. Almost everything in Japan is cash based by the way. You put in their money and then you get a little ticket and then you hand that little ticket to the chef or to the waiter behind the bar and then they know what to prepare and then, well, they prepare it and give it to you. So we had this little ramen. It was relatively cheap, like 8 euros or something for a big bowl. I think including the beer. And it was absolutely delicious. The next day, of course, we tried to find a sushi place and we found a sushi place and I think we spent a bit more than we actually usually were spending for a meal but we also maybe for the first time both of us had the most amazing proper local original sushi. Fukuoka is directly by the sea so they have the freshest seafood and the freshest fish. And then we went to not a crazy expensive omakase place or something. We just went to a local sushi stall. And I don't know, we spent like $30 or something for a plate of sushi. And that was very very good and then honestly I think we sadly didn't too much in Fukuoka because we already had a train ticket right on the next day and also for the first time we took the Shinkansen which is the Japanese bullet train we took a JR500 and I have many pictures here because it looks so futuristic it's very it's extremely like like pointy and i don't know it just looks so much cooler than german trains and it's also extremely comfortable even even though we we just took second class and everything it's extremely comfortable it was extremely fast it's going on that stretch it's extremely comfortable it was extremely fast it's going on that stretch it's going like 300 kilometers an hour and the Japanese train system works a little differently than the German train system the Shinkansen the high-speed train got its own track to be be fair, I think it is easier to have very good train service in a country that basically only goes from north to south, and you more or less have one train track from all the way at the bottom to all the way to top. And that is the only train tracks for the high-speed trains. They are dedicated to the high speed trains. So, while in Germany So, while in Germany the tracks are, I think in many countries, the tracks are used by all kind of trains, and then you have like slow cargo traffic, and then you have fast passenger traffic, and then also it's not only going one direction south to north, it's also going like left and right and top and bottom and all of that. That makes it more difficult to have an organized train system. But nevertheless, Japan's trains and the timings and the train stations and everything around it is just super impressive. It's super fast, it's super comfortable, it's super organized, it's extremely punctual. When it says the Japanese train will leave at 4 p.m., it will leave at 4 p.m. and not at 4.01. Very impressive. Anyway, so from Fukuoka, we took one of these trains to Hiroshima.

Hiroshima. And in Hiroshima there is not that much to see, but it's still a very interesting place because there is a lot of history and you get to go to that museum about the bomb that dropped on Hiroshima. And it's a quite sad place because you see what the bomb did. And you see how the you know I remember there was a picture of a wall and in front of the wall there was a person standing and then the bomb was exploding and then you can see the shadow of that person standing in front of the wall, on the wall, even with the person long gone. Because around the person everything is burned in to the wall and the person with the body with a lot of water in it is like a shield for that part of the wall. So you see the contour of the people against these walls. And you also see the clothes and there are a lot of pictures. There is the dome, that building that's there until today where you can only see like a skeleton basically. So we spent quite some time in there and it was very interesting. I can only recommend going there at least once. And then we walked along the river for a bit, getting a feeling for Japanese cities. And we saw the castle. There's a very nice castle. I think like many Japanese cities they have these old Japanese castles. I'm sure you know Osaka castle, where we also went later and they have something similar in Hiroshima too. And we went to this temple and I'm looking at a picture here I like a lot where Philip is trying to figure out what to do with these small fountains where the water is coming out. And then you have these cups on a stick that you dip into the water and then fill your... and use to wash your hands so you don't dirty the water. And then I think same day or next day, after the rather sad part of the day we spent at the Hiroshima in the museum, We added something very positive, which was Nara. We took a boat, like a little ferry, to that island. And they have wild deer there. They have all kind of little markets. They have all kind of little markets and there is this shrine in the water and there's another temple like a big temple. It's just super beautiful and the deer is not shy at all. I remember putting my camera on a wall or on a piece of wood or something to stabilize the camera and the deer was basically coming there and licking the camera. And the feeling there is just so different. It's very hard to explain It's very hard to explain, but somehow Japan has this kind of serenity. Even though it's often so bustling, even though later on when we went to Tokyo, it's like the craziest city ever and there is so much going on. But even there, in some evenings or some roads and you have these lanterns and you have all these japanese signs and everything looks a bit old but still very nice you have this feeling of i have this feeling of peace and kind of that the world is okay.

Our next stop was Kobe, which I guess most Westerners know because they know Kobe beef, which is supposed to be the best beef in the world, which I mostly agree with. It is very amazing beef. And Kobe as a city is also quite nice. I remember walking along the harbor and it has a very, again, peaceful but interesting like vibes going on there and then of course the best thing about Kobe was that I got to meet my old friend Daniel and his wife Sachi and they took us out and they showed us around and they took us to a teppanyaki, which was also a first. I think I might have had teppanyaki before, but it definitely was the first time proper teppanyaki in Japan and especially in Kobe. And what can I say? One of the highlights of the trip, even though it was just like a bite of food, one of the highlights of the trip for both Philipp and me, we watched that guy. Teppanyaki often is like a big show too, so he was like juggling with eggs and breaking the egg in the air and you know stuff like that and for dessert there was vanilla ice cream caramelized on the teppanyaki teppanyaki is like this table grill, this big piece of hot metal in the table where the chef is preparing all the food on. Right in front of you, you basically sit at the hot plate. So we were sitting there and when he was serving the Kobe beef and the first time we had Kobe beef and it's like biting on a piece of butter but with a perfect beef taste and hot of course. It's a great feeling i i get very excited about things like that and it also looks beautiful the japanese beef korean too by the way but again not as famous as the japanese one japanese beef is marbled very consistently like all throughout the meat it's marbled beautifully and sometimes there are different degrees of marbling and the higher ones there is sometimes more white than there is red, which basically means there is more fat than there is meat, which to our western ears sounds bad at first, but it's not. It's a very flavorful meat, very flavorful fat, and b when you grill it it's like the fat is melting the meat part is staying and that gives you a beautiful texture and a beautiful taste and a beautiful look and just overall an amazing mouthfeel. Sadly, that is also all relatively expensive, so you cannot just have Kobe beef every day. But I guess that's a good thing, because otherwise you probably also get bored by it. otherwise you probably also get bored by it. The evening we spent at the Kobe Harbor again and we had another beer there and then I remember Philipp and I at the hostel downstairs there was a bar like a very typical Japanese izakaya kind of bar. And we were sitting together with a bunch of Japanese people and he was making us try different sake. There was a very fun evening where we actually felt very integrated also into Japanese local culture which was very nice.

And then the next day we were traveling even more like local Japanese because Daniel and Sachi being Japanese they know how to do it. So we went to the train station and we got a bento box. A bento box is a box with mixed foods, usually some kind of protein, a lot of like cabbage stuff and maybe a miso soup. And we got this bento box, I think, at the train station. Which again, to our Western ears, sounds fun, because our train stations, if I try to recall Mannheim station, If I try to recall Mannheim station, then I see filthy McDonald's and a subway that looks disgusting and probably some Doner Kebab places. And a lot of questionable people all around there. And even just talking about it, I have this whiff of urine everywhere. That is not at all how it is in Japan. For whatever reason the Japanese decided that train stations are huge food temples, there are shops and restaurants, at least in the bigger cities there are shops and restaurants, and there are actually really good restaurants to the point that oftentimes the Japanese friends we made, they went to the train station not even to go anywhere, just to eat there. So that's what we did too with our bento box and then we took a train and then we went to Koyasan.

Koyasan was very interesting, eh? Because the trip to Koyasan was amazing. We took first a regular train and then we took a kind of a funicular or something to get up the mountain. And then we were sleeping at a monastery. Koyasan is the spiritual capital of Japan. It's where all the monks live. It's beautiful nature. And it was quite the magical experience. We stayed at that monastery. Daniel took us there. We had, there is an onsen, the Japanese hot springs. So we went to the onsen. We had a nice vegetarian traditional monastery meal and we got to wear very traditional Japanese clothes including the wooden shoes and there are pictures of me and Philip and Daniel where we walk outside in the garden after the onsen, I guess. We walk outside in the garden. And aside from the fact that I'm pretty ginger and have a big beard, which is not the most typical Japanese thing, as you can imagine, we looked quite Japanese. imagine we looked quite Japanese. The next morning we got up at the oms from the monks which after a while puts you in kind of a trance it's very peaceful and relaxing not too comfortable though to sit i gotta admit Not too comfortable though to sit, I gotta admit. And then we walked around there in Koyasan for a bit. There is a giant graveyard. Very, very interesting graves. There is some kind of engineer who died, so they built him a grave that looks like a rocket ship and yeah stuff like that hiking was very nice too they have beautiful nature there and there's more temples of course then we stopped for a lunch which was a uddon Curry, which is like a noodle curry soup, Japanese curry. Absolutely delicious. I can see here we went for more sushi. We went for onigiri. and then I think it was already time to say goodbye to Daniel again and Philip and I went to Kyoto where we spent time in the park and sadly I don't remember that much of Kyoto I do remember tons about Kyoto from my later travels, but I think together with Philip we didn't do that much in Kyoto. We did Kyoto, we skipped Osaka that time. And I remember that Philip really wanted to go for a hike, but it was raining and I really didn't want to go and I didn't feel 100% all right. So basically Philip and I decided to split up for a day or for two and he was doing his nature things in Kyoto area. And I went ahead and I took the Shinkansen to Tokyo.

In Japan they have this thing called the rail pass. It's only for tourists. It exists for 7, 14 or 21 days. And you can get it second class or first class. you to take basically every train except for the one super fast one between Kyoto and Tokyo but every other train also the regular fast ones you can take with that ticket which makes it an amazing value for price thing. I got that almost every time I was in Japan. So I had that ticket and I went ahead to Tokyo and I found this little hostel in Tokyo, which was called the Tsarbuton. I don't think it exists anymore. But I've stayed there at least four or five times, and they always remembered me when I came back. I don't know why I like it so much. It's a basic hostel but very very friendly owners. Maybe also just for the memories. I got like nostalgic about it. So while waiting for Philipp in Tokyo I went for a couchsurfing meetup where I met like 10 different fun people. And then we did all the crazy Tokyo stuff. Karaoke, being dressed up as maids and animals and I don't know what. We went to these like four stores, a sex shop with toys and magazines and things you cannot even imagine. We again looked for the best burger place. We again looked for the best burger place. And then finally Philip arrived and one of the first things we did was a very great thing, was the old fish market. Sadly, it doesn't exist anymore in the way it existed back then. But you get the freshest fish from all over Japan, like giant crabs and fish and lots of uni, the sea urchin I like a lot. We saw tuna, like giant tunas. And we were contemplating for a bit if we should go some do some mario kart thing in tokyo which is something you can do they have karts you know like the ones we know from the karting racetrack maybe not as fast they have these carts and you get to dress up as super mario a luigi and then you get to ride them on tokyo streets which is a lot of fun then philip and i of course wanted to try one of these maid cafes, like a maid cafe in Japan is the waiters, the waitresses, they dress up as these like French maids and they talk in funny voices and it's a whole culture thing around that. So we went there, we had some ice cream. And remember when I told you many episodes ago to keep that guy Juan, who we met in Russia, in your mind? So we're sitting there, and on the next table there are three not-Japanese Japanese guys and they are talking. So we kind of get to talk to them and we ask them where they are from and they're like, oh yeah, we're from Mexico. And I say, oh, that's so fun because a couple of weeks back we met the greatest guy, Juan. He's also from Mexico. A couple of weeks back we met the greatest guy, Juan. He's also from Mexico. And one of the Mexican guys at that maid cafe, he's like, oh yeah, is it Juan? He went to blah, blah, blah university. I know the guy. And of course we're laughing because we're like, that's impossible to meet someone in Japan. In Mexico there are a lot of people. It's quite impossible to meet someone in Japan. In Mexico there are a lot of people. It's quite impossible to meet someone in Japan who by accident just knows the one guy we met. So we tried to laugh it off and he's like, no, no, no, I'm serious. And he's getting out his phone and he's showing us a picture and it's the same guy. It's Juan from Mexico from the University of the guy who we met at the random mate cafe in Japan what else did we do there we ate green matcha KitKat we tried to find another burger place. We had a couple Asahi's and Sapporo's in front of the hostel at this little table I will never forget. I think 11 days in Japan. Sadly, Tokyo had to be our last stop for that trip at least. And we took a plane to Taiwan. And I will tell you about Taiwan in the next episode.