Robins Japan

So I was in Vienna recently and it was a really nice trip. Vienna has many things to offer for tourists like castles, churches, driving horse buggies, a good train connection and food. Every time in Germany I am a little bit disappointed about trains here, just cause I know how good it can be in Japan. In Vienna they have that nice airport train called the City Airport Train (CAT). The CAT drives within 15 min from the Airport to the City and its clean and convenient . But the best feature was the city check-in which some airlines offer.So you can check in your luggage before even arrive the airport! So the train feels a little bit like Japanese service. What else feels like japan? Some restaurants! For some reasons in Vienna are Japanese restaurants who over more than just sushi. In Germany are of course also some restaurants in Düsseldorf where you can get more than sushi but still its sometimes quite limited. In Vienna we tried some restaurants and where surpri...

So today i was in the yamanote line while rush hour. That reminded me why i prefer a Japanese rush hour full train over a German full one. I say rush hour full because i think most Germans can't know how full a train in Japan can be. It's if never experienced hard to imagine. So here are my two short descriptions of German full and Japanese rush hour full trains. Germany : In Germany a full train is no fun. People are stressed. And they are not used to full which makes them expose their stress to the outside. Then u have the loud people who doesn't help at all in that situation. On the top of that if you want to go out, no one moves. So if possible long before your station comes you have to push yourself to the exit. Ah and by the way if you are to nice, the chance is high that people will ignore you and you are stuck. So sometimes even if you are friendly you have to be harsh then. Otherwise next station, next chance. Its not your station? Bad luck. If you made it...

I don't know how i survived so long without trying an onsen. It is one of the things that is recommended to most tourists. Probably it has something to do that i don't like to be naked in public so much. But finally i did it. We were in an onsen which was combined with a pool. So there where three main areas. One for men, one for women and the pool area which was mixed and where you had to wear swimming clothes. But lets start from the beginning. Before reaching the cashier we already had to put off our shoes and put them in an locker. At the counter we got informed about the rules, like no tattoos are allowed at that place. We got two towels (one big, one small) and a simple yukata. Then we separated. My wife to the woman area and i to the mens for changing. First i had trouble to find my locker. I got a wrist band with a number and the locker with that number i could open then. I was surprised that there were only a public change room. But apparently it seems to be no...

Finally im back in Japan. This time the waiting seemed to be pretty long. On the other hand the time moves very fast. It's complicated. This time my travel involves a little challenge, couse my stomach is no good. So my usual enjoyment like tasting funny food doesn't make it this trip. Also this time we flew not directly but with a connection flight over Helsinki. It worked pretty smoothly. I hope on the way home it will be also like this. Luckily we just arrived at the Sakura Season (cherry blossom) in Tokyo. Here it is a big thing. There are daily news about where is the Sakura and when. When the blossom starts there are many festivals and people gathering in the parks for picnicking at taking pictures. Besides that there are many special products for that season like Sakura chocolate etc. So its a very nice season to come to Japan. The weather is also neither hot nor cold and i can enjoy it without the need to eat :D  

A late happy new year for you all or 明けましておめでとう(akemashite omedetou)!  The new year has started and i decided to change the name of my blog. Since "idontfindafreename" is not so easy to remember and it says actually nothing about the content.  So now i welcome you to "Robins Japan".   The last post is already a while ago and sadly the next, probably, will also take some time. But around eastern you can look forwoard to some brand new japan related stuff! In the meantime if you feel bored, i have a special gift for all my german readers. You can play my Tokyo Story Text Adventure game about a fiction travel in japan. Due to time and that its only made by me, it runs only on android systems. If i find time and motivation im thinking about making an english translation as well. So long, またね!

The holiday is nearly done, we are busy with meeting many people and still im learning new things. For example Hoppy (ホッピー ) . We were at Yakiniku with old colleagues of my wife where I discovered that little bit unusual drink for me. It turned out to be some kind of light beer and you mix it in a glass with shochu(Japanese snaps). So I had half a glass shochu and mixed it with my hoppy and still much hoppy was left so I needed more shochu which then reminded me that I lately don't drink so much alcohol, so I got a little drunk. Funny drink. Also we could do a game for 500yen, where one of us could catch as much meat as possible with one hand to put it on the Yakiniku grill. I won the "who has the biggest hand challenge" on the table and was forced to do my best. がんばれ！(ganbare ) I managed around 300 gramm. Maybe not so much but also not bad. Anyway it was fun so thanks for forcing me :D The next day my wife was shopping in shinjuku and I was suddenly in akihabara in ...

These days in Tokyo its much about meeting my wife's friends and my father in law and sister in law. It's fun but also a hard schedule. Yesterday we were still in Tokyo but also far away from the inner city Tokyo life. First in a more suburban area around Akishima city where I learned a traditional game called Kendama. It's a dexterity game where you try to catch a ball on a string at the plates or the stick of the "ken" with which you hold the Kendama. It's hard to explain but if you're interested you can ask my friend Google. He also told me that in the edo area some geishas used that kind of game as a secret weapon if it was necessary. We basically just had a big laugh in trying it out :D Later that day we were still in Tokyo prefecture but the looking was more like the area of my father in law in tokushima. Much forests and mountains. The village is called hinoharamura. We were there to met friends and there was also a local festival with a lighti...