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Tokyo-Osaka-Shanghai-Beijing-Irkutsk-Moscow-Tallinn

Day 1
17. March 23:30 Tokyo
Night bus from Shinjuku to Osaka. Despite my great effort during 1 year time I haven't mastered the Japanese skills to sleep wherever whenever - the night in the bus was crap and I had caught cold the previous day/evening in Yoyogi which made it even worse.

Day 2
07:30 Osaka
There's not much to do at that time of the day. I found a McDonalds on the corner, drank some coffee and red LP Shanghai which I borrowed from Kaspar. I think the banks opened around 9 a.m but "the currency exchange department" opened at 10 and the only accepted currency was USD or Japanese yens so my last hope was the ferry terminal:
Yeah and the last hope was gone as well. There are lots of things you have to do before leaving Japan. One of them is your health insurance card - sized like a usual credit card but made out of paper holding your name and something else. No magnetic stripes or anything. So the deal is that you get an envelope from city hall and before leaving the country you have to send it back. Yea, the same piece of paper. Don't ask why - the country of techmology after all :) At least I could leave this envelope to the lady at the encounter.

Boarding time was at 12 and I got my berth in a cabin for 8 persons (western style). For non-western style the price is the same but the room is for 16. We were 5 people in the cabin 2 Chinese and Reimond (a guy from Germany but was born in Brasil and lived there for the first 15 years) and then JP a pure Japanese fella. We had a ping-pong tournament, of course a small Chinese boy beat us all. My cold was getting even worse so I decided to beat it with as much tea as I could possibly drink - fortunately it was for free. Later I discovered that I had forgotten my scratchpad to Tokyo and also some of my laundry to the washing machine at the dorm. But maybe it was good - can't say I had much room in my backbag. The bad thing was that I had Rong-Rongs contacts in that notebook. As I didn't feel good I went bed early.

Day 3
The wake-up call was 7 a.m and breakfast 7:30. Crazy. I got up 5 minutes before 9 to get a new load of tea. A guy from the crew told me to go grab some breakfast as it's served until 9. To be honest I had no idea that the breakfast is included. I like porridge, specially rice one but this tasteless rice jelly didn't agree to end up in my stomach.

The ship was really small and swaying quite heavily. I think it wasn't bigger than Vana-Tallinn (a ship between Paldiski and Kapellskär):

JP and Reimond had met Georgia a girl from UK. And there we sat and tried to save the world. Ah and the Chinese dishes in the restaurant - delicious.
In the evening there was a karaoke in the bar. A Chinese old man was singing and it sounded exactly like a women was singing. But when a Chinese old lady was singing in Japanese it didn't make any difference - the sound and the pronunciation was the same as in Chinese I quess. Interesting. Anyway I couldn't "enjoy" it too long as I still hadn't recovered and I was off to bed.

Day 4

The water had changed it's color:
Yeah I've reached the 3rd longest river in the world - Yangtze which means I'll get to Shanghai in no time. There was unbelievable traffic on the river - any kind of boats, ships war-cruisers or whatever possible. Even a huge LCD-screen mounted on a small ship cruising around the river and showing Nissan commercials.

The air was a bit foggy and the second thing you'll notice after the traffic is the construction work. Everything is being built even the terminal was under construction.

Even though there were 3 Europeans the customs went really smooth no-one seemed to care about us. We took a taxi to the downtown. When talking about taxis I think I'll always remember my mate in Tokyo, Nikola who said that one of the things he really missed from Bulgaria was a ride in a taxi. Yea - can't make it in Tokyo unless you're one of the salary mans who doesn't fit into the capsule hotel. Fortunately the taxi fare was really cheap so there wasn't even a discuss of sharing it - good for me as I still didn't have any Chinese money. I stepped in to the first bank and my cash problems were solved - damned I thought Japan was more open minded but apparently I was wrong. So we bid farewell with Reimond and JP who found themselves a hotel.

As I wrote in the previous part I found myself housing from the almighty internets. China is at the same level with Europe which meant I could use my old cellphone here. So I called my host Lea. She was still working so I decided to hang around a bit. I accompany Georgy to her hotel which was just next to a massive big multistore fancy hotel. It didn't look any good from the outside but inside was a whole other world. Really cool interior and the rooms were nice as well. I'd never stay in the big fancy one when I'd have a small and comfy just near by. She left her baggage and we were off to find some food. We chose a place which had the most people inside. The menu offcourse was in Chinese and we ordered somethig to eat - drink part was easy - everybody knows Coca-Cola and it was the safest pick at that time.

After the meal I called Lea again, she was still working but her cleaning lady could let me in. Even though I had some address the taxi driver couldn't find the place and I wasn't the best one to communicate with him. After some phone calls I finally arrived somewhere. I'd never met Lea neither the lady. And I wasn't sure I was in the right place. The flat was really nice the lady turned on the TV for me but I prefered to read. She was nice. At some point Lea came home and I finally met her in real life. I can tell you she was even nicer than the cleaning lady :) And I'm telling you - she's the living lexicon of Shanghai and China. Later in the evening we were off to a night club called Shelter, which was a really cool place. Even DJ Kentaro from Japan was going to play there next week. I had seen that guy in the Rising Sun Rock Festival in Japan Hokkaido. Sad I couldn't see him in Shanghai. The next place we were going was called Logo. Damned she knew some places. Both of the places were really small and cozy. The funniest thing in Logo was a guy in joggers behind the encounter. The bar man took your order, made you a drink and took your cash which he gave to the guy in joggers who gave him the change back which he gave to me. Later on I found out he was the owner of the place :) And I love the food you can buy from the streets - just in front of Logo:

BBQ - meat, vegetables whatever - sooo goooood.

Day 5 - 7 Shanghai

I was wondering around in the city. Later on Lea joined me for a dinner. Where after we went to People's 7 I think that's how it was called. I really like Shanghai because it's full of contrasts. In one place you can have a beer for almost nothing and in the next place you pay the same money as in top places in Europe or Japan.

The next day it's raining cats and dogs. Lea had cough cold and was quite sic. Even though it weren't a best weather to explore the city I was going out. Another thing I like about China is that you can just aimlessly go around in a city and at some point when you decide it's enough you can just take a taxi back home. The definite highlight of that day was:

Every time I get home late at night I wish I found a Yoshinoya on my way home :(
And the old town was also really nice :)

And a magic DVD shop. For a second I thought I was in a transformers movie after I asked if they had some Japanese anime. Shelves turned over some hidden doors came up and you could have anything you wished :)

I had decided to go to Beijing by train and not the night one so I could see a bit of the country side as well. So I went to the station to get my tickets. Fortunately it was a really nice day. After that I was out for Pudong the home for Shanghais skyscrapers.

I think I'll continue in next post and fortunately I don't remember the trip much in detail anymore, so hopefully you'll get shorter posts.