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Asap to Sapporo

keep cool!

As promised in my last post I`m delivering some photos of Sapporo‘s Yuki Matsuri (Snow Festival). As the 1.9 million inhabited city of Sapporo is comparatively young, constructions of Sapporo village only began in 1866 – whereas settlements in Kyoto or Nara date back to the 6th and 7th century – it can’t attract tourist with none existing historic temples or shrines. In winter 1950 a group of Students crafted sculptures of snow at Ōdōri-Park. This became an annual event and in 1955 Japan Self-Defense Forces joined and since then it evolved to a steadily growing event which was also discovered by the city to attracted tourists. Today Yuki Matsuri is one of the biggest international festivals of it’s kind and attracts 2 million tourists every year.
When getting to Sapporo from Tokyo (this time not via bicycle but by plane) someone at Sapporo Central Station shouts at me: “Simon, Simon!! Is it really you?” Gaku, my host from the 200 km away City Hakodate is also here. I seem to provoke such situations as a similar situation also happened to me twice in Tokyo when I visited the city for just one day both times. Gaku and I agree to meet the next day to explore the festival together.

Sapporo’s TV tower

We went out of bricks let’s use ice

There are two big boulevards. One exhibiting ice sculptures (Susukino) the other one coming up with huge snow- and ice buildings (Ōdōri-Park) re-sampling crystal clear castles, historic houses and statues or sculptures made out of snow. Round up by a vast alignment of merchandise-, food-, and souvenir booths.

Jump scene! Keep your skies crossed for me!

bottom ice

Yuki Matsuri is both during day time and at night well worth exploring. To get a good overview of all the attractions I recommend exploring the fair grounds during day time. But Sapporo’s night life and especially the colour changing lit snow- and ice buildings are breathtaking. During the whole day there are events going on everywhere in town. A giant ramp with jumps covered with snow is set up on the city’s biggest boulevard where ski- and snowboard artists perform neck breaking jumps. At night the ramp is also used as a projection surface. Bands play in front of a lit ice castle, the front wall of a snow house is being used as a giant screen to project an animated film on it, music students of the Sapporo University take part in a music contest and perform their very own compositions to the light play of an ice castle …
Sapporo is sister city with Munich among others. Despite a huge Maibaum (maypole) which was financed by Sapporo’s sister city, I discovered promotion posters of the Olympic summer games of 1972 which were held in Munich and Sapporo hosted the Olympic winter games the same year. Back then the summer and winter games still took place in the same year. The Olympic committee changed this rule in 1992. Since 1994 the Olympic Summer- and Winter games take turns in a two year term. Sapporo and Munich also have another thing in common: Beer. As Munich is famous for their local brands like Paulaner, Hacker-Pschorr, Augustiener, Hofbräu, Löwenbräu or Spaten, Sappo has Sapporo. Found in 1876 by Seibei Nakagawa, a master brewer trained at Tivoli-Brauerei in Berlin.

Wow! What a cool car! lazy eyes

Fish eyes

All the sites of Yuki Matsuri don’t charge an entrance fee. Even the huge slides made of snow are free. However attractions like snow rafting or photo shoots charge a fee of course.

The best place to warm up after such cold days is either to go to an Onsen (hot spring spa which can be found nearly everywhere around Japan) or to have a tasty yaki niku (Korean barbecue). For those who can’t imagine how it works I posted some pics too.

Yaki Niku restaurant

I head to Furano – Hokkaido’s largest winter sports area where you won’t find a single snow canon! The snow is amazing! The area offers a huge variety of slopes. Decent powder-, perfectly prepared-, tricky bumpy-slopes, narrow picturesque forest tracks, and also wide and easy slopes – epic! Still compared to French, Swiss, Austrian or Italian standards the size of the whole skiing area is tiny. However I’d say it’s one skiing area with the best snow I’ve ever had in my life so far. (Probably) due to demographic development in Japan there are no long queues/lines at the lifts. Only on Sundays you might have to wait for five to maximum ten minutes at certain lifts. This situation is transferable to almost every skiing area in Japan. No matter if it’s the ski resorts around Nagano or in Niseko or Furano.

Fantastic Furano

Even in the warmer time of the year Furano is well worth a visit. There is a thriving flower- and plant growing economy in this region. Furano is especially know for it’s vast lavender fields hence the souvenir shops offer a large range of lavender products. Starting with pure dried lavender herbs over lavender soaps, shampoos, lotions, etc. Another famous Hokkaido brand is Royce’ chocolate. Even Furano offers a shop with chocolate of the luxury brand. Expensive but tasty. Give it a try.

Chocolate Museum Sapporo

Beer Museum Sapporo

Furano forest

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Special thanks to: Heide Engelstädter, Kyle Steward (text revision), Hubertus Neidhart from Webspace Provider Network for excellent web page hosting services; Lilith Pendzich

Continue reading »]]> “Welcome to Hokkaido” greets me Gaku my host a 21 year young environmental science student. He waited extra for my arrival in the cold to pick me up. It’s a pity I have no time to explore Hakodate as it is a special town regarding history. I don’t even find time to take some photos of the historic church because already for early afternoon strong rain showers are forecast. My early departure was the right decision. Only one hour later this photos from the Onuma National Park would only have been half as beautiful and spoiled by rain.

Onuma Quasi National Park

Furthermore I’m having my second puncture on this trip. And I manage the change tire/tyre change just before it starts to rain. Now the last tube for my trailer tires is gone. If I should buy a spare one so short before reaching my final destination? My trailer tires/tyres already over a trip from Hamburg to Rome, South Korea and three quarters of Japan after all. But I chance it and don’t buy another tube.

From Mori to Toyoura I’m cycling alongside alongside the bay of the Oshima peninsula. The bay’s diameter is a bit more than 50 km but the leg I have to do is about 100 km. It’s kind of funny as you can see your destination on the other side of the bay and almost for the whole time while making your way to the other side.

Alongside the coast to the north

As my host in Oshamanbe obviously has forgotten about me Michitaka, my host in Toyoura offers me to host me a day earlier. Even though he’s already hosting two guys from France!

There is a good trick to reach people who agreed to host someone but then seem to forget about it and haven’t logged in for four weeks until the requested day and not yet sent me their address or phone number. In that case check if they are friends with other on the Couchsurfing platform or check their references. Write to those contacts who logged in recently, asking them if they have also other contact details of your host and if they could remind your host to check his mail. Most of the time hosts and guests also stay friends via other social networks or other media they use more frequently. However in this case my host is a complete newbie without any friends or references which is why this trick does not work this time.

Maiko (l.) ich und Michitaka

Michitaka and Maiko my hosts are a Japanese couple and work for the Waldorf school. Every day they cook for me. The first day I am being offered deer: “At the moment we have too many deers here on Hokkaido so the hunters are pretty busy now. One of my friends is a hunter and I received the meat for free!” When talking about my trip I mention that I timed almost everything pretty well on my trip, I saw the lantern festival in Seoul, was at the right time in Kyoto to see the Gion Matsuri festival, saw Matsumoto bon bon, now I’m here when the foliage of Hokkaido’s forests are changing their colours, I only missed the firework season this year. I only missed the firework season this year.

“You don’t know it?”, Michitaka wonders.

“Don’t know what?”, I’d like to know.

“Lake Toya is well known for its fireworks which take place every day from the end of April until end of October from 8:45 pm until 9:05.” explains Michitaka.

“Come on it’s 8:20 pm now and October the 31^st if we hurry we can make it in 20 minutes to Toyako!”

And indeed we make it. Well, obviously once again timed pretty well thanks to my marvellous organizing skills ;)

Firework at Lake Toya

The journey from Toyoura via Toyako to Kutchan shall be my last one on my trip with clear skies. The autumn/fall atmosphere here in Hokkaido is even more amazing compared to what I’ve seen in Aomori. Gold brown rice fields steppe tree-lined by red, green, yellow and orange dappled autumn/fall woods and lush field landscape. The scent of chestnuts, foliage and farmer fires fills the air. Even though it’s mainly flat after making it over the edge of the Toyako caldera it takes me about five more hours to cycle from there around Mt. Yotei, a 1,898 meter (6,227 ft) high strato volcano. For two hours I cycle below night skies and it’s awesome! As it is already comparably cold here in Hokkaido the air is pretty dry and a crystal clear starlit sky completed by a full moon makes my trip a very special experience. The black contrasts of volcanic mountains at the horizon against this bright night sky are amazing! It’s that bright that you can even see the whole landscape.

Mt. Yotei

Seiko, a 30 year young Urologist doctor lives in Kutchan and hosts me for two days. I’m calling her to let her know I might arrive two hours later. “I thought you were coming yesterday!”, she confuses me. Did I really confuse the arrival day? I did and she waited for two hours for my arrival. (Japanese mobile networks don’t sell SIMcards without phones and not having a gaijin card (Japanese green card) makes it even more complicated buying a cell phone.) In short: she could not call me. “Simon, I’m working at the hospital now doing a night shift so you have to come here to pick up the key!” Wow, after all this she still hosts me…

Seiko und ihr Freund im Yaki Niku grill restaurant

The next day she treats me for dinner at a yaki niku bbq restaurant, and takes me to another dinner with her friends. One of them even speaks a bit of German. Another one is a potato farmer. Even though rice is the big thing here in Japan this region called Niseko is known well for two things: potatoes and a winter sports. Niseko features the best powder snow in all Japan. Talking about snow… Once again there have been reports about snow on the Nakayama (Toge) pass. And when looking toward Mt. Yotei the next morning the mountain peak is covered in snow too. It reminds me of my first big bicycle trip when I passed the Brenner pass. That was also in November and they also already had snow there. Nakayama Toge is only 800 m high but Seiko warns me that there is a lot of traffic. Seiko and Nozomi (who I met on my ride from Fukushima to Sendai) recommend me to change my route. And I think it’s good advice. So instead of taking the Nakayama (Toge) pass I take route 5 which mainly runs in valleys, and from Yoichi, alongside the sea to Sapporo.

Seiko’s friends

In Otaru, 20 km before my final destination Sapporo, my rear break refuses to work. Does it really have to go on strike on my last travelling day? Well, regarding my none existing spare tire I didn’t worry and so far I was lucky and had no puncture. But when it comes to breaks it would be irresponsible to go on with only one break. So I get it fixed. Still I’m content with my breaks. On my first trip from Hamburg to Rome I had a skid break. Especially after mountain passes I had to change the skids constantly which I found pretty annoying. But it’s obvious that they fret pretty quickly especially when they have to break not only for my body weight but also a bicycle trailer packet with 40 kg. My disk brake however practically lasted for the whole trip, more than 3,000 km. Pretty cool hm?

The shore on the way to Sapporo

This is how I reach Sapporo my final destination. “As it is quite a young city – at least from a historical point of view – there is not a lot to explore”, tells me my host Bob, 60, from the U.S.A. who teaches English here and has lived in Sapporo for over 20 years already. One should try soup curry, a local speciality. Sapporo is mainly known best for food and the annual snow festival Yuki Matsuri which takes place here in February. They build whole temples or other buildings from snow then. No worries, it’s quite likely that I will return to Sapporo in February to present you pictures from the city and this festival. But now I’m busy with getting my flights and bicycle transport organised.

My bicycle and me on my host’s roof and Sapporo’s ski-jump in the background

And this is how my bicycle trip ends. But still I will go on with fund-raising for my projects. More info about that on this web page or my social network profiles. I’ll go on further trips which will be shown here and on my facebook page.

I’d like to thank all who helped me making this trip such a wonderful experience! So a big thank you to all my hosts – especially to to those who also helped me with the text revision for this blog! Thanks to all who donated for the aid projects. Thanks to all who commented on my blog for the nice notes or thoughtful questions! I’d like to thank SwissEye and Weber products for the support. Also a big thank you to my little sister Lilith who assisted me with my web page in Germany. Hubertus Neidhart my web page hoster, Daniel Göhr my programmer, Christoph Flosssman for minor graphic design and advice for the graphics programme, Gimp. Also Sumire Harayama and Fumi Ono who helped me with administrative work and PR for Japan and of course to you, the reader!

My next big travels in 2013/14 will take place in two countries south from here. If you’d like to know more you simply have to stay tuned :)

Thank you for accompanying me.

Until the next trip!

Yours truly Simon

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The castle of Hirosaki

I go on to Hirosaki, Japan’s apple capital. Already more than three weeks ago my mum sent a package from Germany to my hosts here. Medical supplies, my new credit card, most important however are German sweets/candy which I need urgently. On arriving at my host’s the package still hasn’t arrived. Yet I have three more days in Hirosaki before going on to Aomori, my last city located on Japan’s main island, Honshu. My hosts Tori and Kyle are U.S. Americans, both teach English. After spending three days in Hirosaki the package still hasn’t arrived. I can’t help it. I have to go on without the package as there already have been some first reports about snow in Hokkaido. So I don’t have a lot of time left to end my tour safely. But this really becomes an issue for me as I can’t survive log without the package. On one hand I have to reach Hokkaido before onset of winter. But that’s almost impossible – without German candy. I simply can’t do that!

On a warm sunny autumn/fall day I set forth for the harbour town, Aomori. The autumn foliage is true eye candy which eases my hunger for real candy – at least for a day.

On my way to Aomori

Ted in Aomori is my first host who speaks Mandarin and Japanese as second languages but comes from the U.S.A. He had lived for some years in China. Of course he’s an English teacher here. He takes me to a small restaurant, introduces me to his friends: “He comes from Otsuchi.” “Otsuchi?”, I’m asking, “that Otsuchi located on the east cost in the Tsunami area?” “You know it? Yes!”, the man responds surprised. I tell him that I raise donations for the Midori Kindergarten there and it turns out that my conversation partner and the kindergarten manager were classmates. A Japanese couple eavesdrops our conversation becomes curious and asks questions. Just before they set off they thrust a donation for the kindergarten into my hands.

Aomori Prefecture Tourist Center and Aomori bay bridge

Poster in the ferry to Hokkaido

It is my last day in Aomori and tomorrow my journey goes on via ferry to Hakodate, Hokkaido’s southern most port town. Even though I will travel over 100 km on the sea I could also take the train. Honshu and Hokkaido are connected by the world’s longest operating train tunnel, the 53 km long Seikan Tunnel. However this tunnel will have lost it’s status in 2017 as the longest to the 57 km long Gotthard Base Tunnel in Switzerland. And will be placed on rank three when the 55 km long Brenner Base Tunnel will be completed around 2025 connecting Austria and Italy.

A mail from Tori reaches me – the package has arrived. Four hours to departure of the ferry. Now I could take the train back to Hirosaki only 50 km away from here. But I learn the package is no longer in Hirosaki. As Tori’s husband Kyle teaches here in Aomori he already took the package with him and I pick it up at his school near the docks. Extremely exhausted, already trembling and using the last of my strength I reach Kyle, rip the package out of his hands, rupture it and insert the candy into my mouth. Rescued! Thank you mum you saved my life!

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Special thanks to: Bob Gettings (text revision), Tori & Kyle Sharpe, Ted Lackman, all Japan; (all U.S.A.) Hubertus Neidhart from Webspace Provider Network for excellent web page hosting services; Lilith Pendzich

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Only one more city until I’m safe, until I will finally leave this region behind me and will be with a host again! I’m not in the mood for anything as I reach Kuji. At least I have no problems finding a hotel today, book a room that’s it!

Last day of the Tsunami region. Yes, I can’t wait to reach my next host in Misawa. Even though it’s 80 km it’s mainly flat and I cycle for the whole day. Shortly before Hachinohe I spot a very weird Garden. But have a look for yourself!

Cat bond

And an accident shortly thereafter in which a cyclist is involved and lying on the street warns me about being cautious. Do I really have to see something like this after what I have already gone through during the last few days?

accident

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Special thanks to: Mattew Hahn, Travis Haby (text revision), Ted Lackman (all U.S.A.) Hubertus Neidhart from Webspace Provider Network for excellent web page hosting services; Lilith Pendzich

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Pagoda at Nikko

The leg from Mt. Shirane to Nakanojo (52 km/32 miles) is almost a constant downhill track which is of course a lot of fun. I’m pausing in Utsonomiya for three days as I’d like to see the tomb in Nikko which is about 40 km away from my host in Utsunomiya. There is only one Couchsurfing host in Nikko and as the mausoleum of Nikko is an UNESCO World heritage he receives up to 20 requests a day during the main season. Even though it’s autumn/fall and I sent my request more than a month in advance I wasn’t lucky and he was already booked out. My host says” this is perfect, as I haven’t had any ideas what to do with you. We can go there with my car!” I don’t have anything against it as Nikko is not directly on my route and I’d have lost at least two days. On top of it it saves me a night in a hostel.

On the leg from Koriyama to Fukushima a quite young Japanese cyclist overtakes me on his quite antique seeming bicycle. Nothing too special but an elephantine rucksack on his back makes me perplexed. After he read the sign on my trailer he asks me doubtfully if I was really on my way from Fukuoka to Sapporo with my bicycle. I answer – as I always do – with a simple: „yes“. „With that?“ he asks pointing to my trailer. Once again I’m answering with a simple: „yes“. And the usual Sugooooi (wow / unbelievable / awesome) is his answer. I ask where he’s going. He answers: „Aomori“ (in the north of Japans main island Honshu over 400 km away from here). Now I’m the one who’s looking incredulously at him: “with that?“, pointing on his bicycle. My question is answered with a simple: „yes“. I saved a lot of money when I bought my bicycle but there are obviously people who have even less demands than me.

respect for this guy with this bicycle!

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Special thanks to: Mattew Hahn, U.S.A. (text revision); Katsutoshi Horie, Japan; Chris DeHaan, Canada; Hubertus Neidhart from Webspace Provider Network for excellent web page hosting services; Lilith Pendzich

Continue reading »]]> Who resumes a bicycle trip with an 80 km long leg after a one month long lasting recovering break will be punished. Which is the case with me. But it’s my own body which punishes me.

After the first pass coming from Matsumoto

From Matsumoto I’m making my way via two smaller mountain pass to Nagano. However with one pass you wouldn’t want to mess with. After the tour I’m so exhausted that I’m simply too weak for the next two days to have a look at the city. For those who were hoping to see some photos of the former winter Olympics city may be becalmed. After the end of the cyclonara tour I will pay my friends in Manza (nearby Nagano) a visit again and there might be some time to see the city as well.

My host Alex, 24, from New Zealand teaches English in Nagano. As a topping on the ice cake of my two day recover phase I’d like to indulge my body a very special Onsen. I heard from an Onsen (hot spring) in which also Monkeys have a bath. Alex have heard from it too and so we take his car to get to the Onsen about 40 km north of Nagano (City). As we know this Onsen is one of Nagano’s (prefecture) main tourist attractions we are surprised by the low entrance fee. Only 500 Yen!

And there are really Monkeys jumping towards us after entering the Onsen area. But lockers are nowhere to be found. When approaching the Onsen we quickly realize that it’s an Onsen exclusively for Monkeys. And well… contrary to my expectations these monkeys are not trained and also use the Onsen as a toilet. Intelligible that it’s of little interest for the hygiene-conscious Japanese people to share this Onsen with the monkeys. But since Alex and I skipped the shower this morning we are – at least regarding the smell – in good company.

Snowmonkeys

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Special thanks to: Henry Ngai, U.S.A (text revision), Alex Laing, New Zealand, Toru Momose, Japan; the whole Manza team, Hubertus Neidhart from Webspace Provider Network for excellent web page hosting services; Lilith Pendzich

Continue reading »]]> Another post from August which was overdue: Right in time for a special Festival once again. This time in Matsumoto. The Matsumoto bon bon festival which attracts up to 25.000 dancers every year. Everybody can participate on the dances on the streets. Football teams, volleyball, tennis or karate clubs… Or just come with a bunch of friends. And as it’s a good promotion for businesses company employees are also participating and are promoting their company this way.

Matsumoto bon bon von Daaaaaaaaaaaax

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Special thanks to: Alex Laing, New Zealand (text revision), Toru Momose, Japan; Sato Kozo, Japan; the whole Manza team, Hubertus Neidhart from Webspace Provider Network for excellent web page hosting services; Lilith Pendzich

Continue reading »]]> I know, the last posts were a little long in the making. I guess I exaggerated it a little with the Torii Pass – the route which won the first vote. Because after passing the pass :) my right foot caused me some problems and swelling. I thought I’d have to abort the trip. Luckily Matsumoto is nearby Manza – where last year, I used to work – and I could stay at my friends for a month to convalesce again.

I simply didn’t want to post a note about a possible cancellation of the tour. It wouldn’t have been necessary after all.

Now I can go on with the posts from early August of the historic Nakasendo from Nagoya to Matsumoto that are over due:

Ceramics Museum in Tajimi

My route takes me from Nagoya to Tajimi, known for ceramic fine arts. There is one of the best – if not maybe the best – ceramics schools in the whole of Japan and even a ceramics museum. As luck would have it my host is a ceramics artist. I would like to take photos of her works, however they are packed for an exhibition at the museum and we will take them there the next day. However I have the fortune of accompanying her to the museum the next day and can present you photos of the building. A very appealing piece of architecture I think. Designed by Arata Isozaki.

For the next two days I can’t find a host for the first time on my trip through Japan. It’s hardly surprising as it is a very rural site of Japan. Still I’m lucky to find a very cheap but very new Youth hostel in Nakatsugawa and as cheap Onsen hotel nearby Kiso. The landscape is very hilly, however until Kiso I’m cycling in a valley alongside the Kiso river which is why the incline is very moderate. And finally it’s getting colder – at least a bit. From 36°C in Nagoya to 32°C in Nakatsugawa and ‘only” about 30°C in Kiso.

On the way to Kiso

This is where my first vote between a road fork happens and the Torii pass is the winner. But before reaching the pass I will meet these nice young folks in my lunch break.

Well I know the end of the video was a bit abrupt. I am so exhausted that I am not in mood to do the good bye moderation. However I make it to Matsumoto the same day (yes, before midnight).

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Special thanks to: Alex Laing, New Zealand (text revision), Seika Takahashi, Japan; Toru Momose, Japan; the whole Manza team, Hubertus Neidhart from Webspace Provider Network for excellent web page hosting services; Lilith Pendzich

Continue reading »]]> The heat won’t stop. Once again I have to cycle for a whole day at 36°C. It’s one of those days on which one can drink six litres of liquid by going only once to the toilet. As if the heat wouldn’t already be enough it gets even hotter at a certain spot of my route. But this is because of a house fire on which fortunately, as far as I can tell, no one was injured. As you can see on the video the Japanese fire brigade is at least as well equipped and organised as we know it as well.

Hausbrand von Daaaaaaaaaaaax

Nagoya, inhabited by 2.27 million people (8.74 million in city centre and metropolitan area) is mainly an industrial and harbour city. The headquarters of Toyota‘s luxury brand Lexus are located here, as well as Mitsubishi‘s Research and Development Department. Plenty of national or international automotive suppliers maintain their headquarters or subsidiaries here: The automotive supplier and QR-Code inventor DENSO (a fully owned subsidiary of Toyota), the Austrian-Canadian automotive supplier MAGNA which was once fancied as an acquisition candidate for the German General Motors Brand Opel…

Like Tokyo, Nagoya was also severely damaged in World War II. Thus the city offers little for tourists. Nagoya has a castle, however it’s a replica. Not that I wouldn’t honour it with a visit but I’ve seen quite a few castles on my journey – and even originals. They are all very beautiful, but in terms of architecture and style they seem kind of similar.

My host is a Mexican who has lived in Japan for years. He owns a second hand bookstore for English books. Which makes him fluent in Spanish, Japanese and English. But the digital age does also not spare his business of course. So him and his employees also offer Web 2.0 services which works much better compared to paper books.

Nagoya’s city centre is more famous for a huge shopping arcade. Not to be compared with the luxury shopping area of Ginza in Tokyo, but more for ordinary mortals, and suits me perfectly. Countless clothing boutiques, plenty of sports gear shops, various restaurants, creative art dealers, and even well equipped HiFi-, IT- and video game shops can be found here. Today I drop culture and enjoy strolling. Although, this also is a culture, a shopping culture! :)

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Special thanks to: Akira Yasuda (Japan/Canada), text revision; Sonya Bleakley (U.S.A.) Jose Escobar (Mexico), Hubertus Neidhart from Webspace Provider Network for excellent web page hosting services; Lilith Pendzich