Grbavica

A film from the former Yugoslavia is going to be released at a small cinema on this weekend. The title is "Grbavica: Ema's secret". I have found it on an advertisement on a magazine by chance recently. Since I travelled the former Yugoslavian region last year, I have developed an interest in the region. As Sarajevo had been so impressive, I found immediately that Grbavica might be a part of it. Shortly after I watched the official Japanese website of the film. According to the website, the film is about a single mother and her daughter in the current Sarajevo. The mother is a victim of the systematic humiliation during the Yugoslav war in the 1990s, but she cannot talk to her daughter about it. Although the film is so serious, it is described with non violent scenes. This film won the golden bear of the Berlin film festival in 2006. I do not know how good the film is, but I really want to watch it. One more thing I found on the website is that there was the special comment of Ivica Osim, the coach of the Japanese national football team and he is unconscious because of a stroke at the present time. I remembered that he was born in Sarajevo. He commented that they never forgot that they used to live together there and must not hush up the tragedy. He is also one of the victims of the war. His comment was so serious and meaningful. I was deeply impressed. The date of his signature was 13 November 2007, which was 3 days before he was struck by a stroke. I hope he will recover from the illness.

travelling Lviv, Ukraine

Last month I travelled in Eastern Europe to visit Ukraine. Though Ukraine is geographically closer than other European cities from Japan, my journey with an unreliable China airline whose aircraft had burnt in Okinawa was so long. My destination was Lviv which is located in western Ukraine near the Polish boarder. I went to the city from Vienna by train. It took 15 hours from Budapest to Lviv because all the trains have to change rail gauge at the boarder. While the gauge was being changed for 2 hours, passengers are locked in a coach and are not allowed to use the toilet. When I entered a compartment, no one was there. Train crews did not understand any English words except for MONEY, they took me to crew's compartment and spoke furiously in Ukrainian to me. I could understand that they were tring to cheat me of my money. Fortunately, in my coach there were many English speakers who came from Canada and their local relatives. I asked a young Hungarian boy what the train crews were saying. He explained to me that I should pay double of the ticket price if I use my compartment alone. I told them that I did not mind to share a compartment. Then the crews said reluctantly O.K. I thanked the boy for his kindness and had conversation with him for a while. His relatives came from Canada and they were visiting their other relatives in Ukraine. They could be Jews because he lived in Israel for years. Finally I shared a compartment with a man who is a mathematician at a Hungarian university. He was going to Lviv to attend a conference. He helped me at immigration. We talked a lot about Ukraine and Japan until we got off the train at Lviv. According to him the coach had been made in 1960s in East Germany, but I spent one night in the compartment very comfortably. I think in general European trains have more space than Japanese trains. This makes me feel comfortable. The train arrived at the beautiful Lviv station at 9:00 on time. I said thank you and good bye to the mathematician. I withdrew Ukrainian hryvnia from a cash machine. The old town is a few KM away from the station. I usually go to the city centre on foot to feel the size of the city. Of course I did on foot, but I was disorientated. I had found loads of Yulia Tymoshenko's pictures and managed to arrived at the old town. As several conferences were being held in Lviv, all the hotels in the old town were full. I went to the tourist information to ask for accommodation. Thanks for my wrong guide book, it took an hour to find the tourist information. To make matters worse, the staff of the tourist information was out of the office. There was a woman but she was not a staff. I had to wait for the staff. However she called hotels and found a vacant hotel which is located on the outskirts of the city. Finally the officer returned. He arranged a private hostel which is located in the city centre for me. I decided to stay at the hostel. The hostel was very clean and well equipped. All the staff spoke English well. They gave me some advice to walk around the old town. After eating cheap lunch with a tasty beer, I walked around the old town. I visited museums, main square, and Cathedrals(catholic, orthodox, and Armenian). There were no English or German explanations. However I fortunately met the mathematician who shared a compartment with me again. He guided me all around the old town. As he was born in Lviv, his explanation was thoughtful and interesting. When we were walking down the main street, we came across a demonstration of right wing separatists. He gave a wry look and explained the political problems in Ukraine to me. When I exchanged email adress with him and said good bye, it had already become dark. It was very dark. The beautiful buildings were not lit up in this city, not like Prague and Krakow. I had a tasty dinner in a restaurant. I ordered soup, meat, beer, cake and coffee. It cost just about 600 yen. After buying some food and drinks, I returned to the hostel. I had a conversation with a staff about Ukraine at the night. It was so interesting that she had had completely different opinion from my western European friends. I felt she is not only different from western people, but also Russian people. This might be the complex and difficulty of the country. She was very proud of Lviv that was origin of Orange revolution in 2004. I should respect and thank the revolution. It allowed me to visit Ukraine without a Visa. However, as she was worried about the division of Ukraine that divides western Lviv and eastern Kiev, I hope they remain united peacefully and create their identity. When I woke up, Colin who is a friend of my English teacher and his friend were sleeping in the opposite beds. I had a surprising conversation with him. I had walked around the old city again until a bus to Poland left at the late afternoon. I did not climb up Lviv High Castle hill which overlook the old town. I should have done. When I bought a bus ticket to Poland at a ticket office, I was very lucky. Though my order was a little complicated, I could buy smoothly without waiting. Of course the ticket officer did not understand foreign languages, a girl sitting in front of me who spoke German helped me. The price was just 600 yen. Entering Ukraine cost 20 times as much as leaving Ukraine. The main bus terminal of Lviv is about 8 Km away. I went to there by bus. It just cost 12 yen. The bus station was gloomy and a typical communist style building. My next destination was a beautiful polish city: Zamość which is about 80 Km away from Lviv. When I saw a timetable of the bus, I was wondering why it took 6 hours for just 80 Km distance. In fact the answer was easy. The bus stopped for 3 hours at the boarder because it was crowded, custom and immigration officers were lazy. One interesting thing I witnessed happened in the bus. A group of women with a lot of cigarettes rushed into the bus at the outskirt of Lviv. They started re-packing cigarettes with black vinyl chloride and hiding them inside the bus. A slim woman had made a cigarette belt, then wore it on her waist. She was still slim. When the bus reached the boarder, lots of cigarettes had been disappeared. All the passenger got off the bus at the polish custom and stood in a row with their all belongings. Then a custom officer checked all the belongings. On the other hand, another young officer having a torch got on the bus and searched carefully for cigarettes. He could find a few packets of cigarettes, but the most of them were not detected. This means smuggler's victory. When the bus was entering Poland, the women withdrew cigarettes they had hidden in a hurry and got off the bus. There were surprise inspections at near the boarder in Poland, the smuggling women had already got off the bus. Each individual is allowed to bring one carton (200 cigarettes) to EU territory. However the women brought 10-20 cartons to Poland. A packet of cigarettes costs 25 yen in Ukraine, on the other side it costs 150 yen in Poland. That is why they smuggle cigarettes to Poland. I think their trick was so professional, they could be a kind of mafia. Then my trip to Ukraine was over.
I did not feel so scared during my entire journey of Ukraine as it is notorious for the safety on travel guides. I can summarise that I had very good time in Ukraine. I am satisfied with meeting people, good and cheap food, the beautiful old town, and rich history. I can understand that the city had deserved to be the UNESCO world heritage. The only one thing I regret is the length of my stay. It was too short. As Colin advised me, I should have stayed more longer. The next time I will stay more longer and visit other eastern and southern Ukrainian cities.

The Commonwealth of Independent States

I have watched recently a documentary programme about the collapse of the Soviet Union and establishment of the CIS. As the programme had mentioned plenty about Ukraine, it was very interesting for me.

What is the CIS?
the Commonwealth of Independent States is a loose confederation which consists of former Soviet republics except the Baltic states.

How did the CIS start?
The CIS was founded in 1991, in the process of dissolution of the Soviet Union. The original members were Russia, Ukraine and Beralus, later all the former Soviet Republics except the Baltic states joined. The CIS was described as "dangerous and illegal" by the Soviet president Gorbachev, but the Soviet had not had enough power to stop them establishing the CIS. As the collapse of the Soviet Union had been obvious, it was urgent to decide how nuclear weapons were to be dealt with.

What are the principles behind the CIS?
The CIS was declared with collapse of the Soviet Union, but the organisation had the tendency of allowing Russia to maintain its influence over the members. The CIS stated that all the nuclear weapons belong to Russia though Ukraine had wanted to possess them and most of the special privileges still remain Russian. The organisation is headquartered in Minsk, Beralus. Russia and Beralus formed the Union of Russia and Belarus, which is a union like the Soviet Union itself. All of the secretary generals of the CIS were elected from Russia and Beralus. These are the principles of the CIS which is almost controlled by Russia.

What are the benefits of being a member?
A dominant benefit have not been found in my research, because the English website of the CIS was almost empty. However it was supposed that there had been some benefits. At first a member was able to keep good relations with Russia, that is to say, it had been provided with natural resources at an affordable price. Secondly the rulers of a member were able to keep their Soviet style dictatorship. The leaders of the CIS did not change for decades. However, the circumstances have been changed since the Orange revolution in Ukraine. The CIS might not be expected to develop, or President Putin might re-establish the Soviet Union with natural resources. This might be one of the big reasons why I am interesterd in eastern Europe and I am going to Ukraine next week.

The Metamorphosis

I have finished reading a book recently. The title is "The Metamorphosis" written by Franz Kafka. I tried to read it in English. it was a little difficult for me. I managed to follow the story, but did not understand descriptions in detail as if I was reading sentences lacking adjectives, adverbs and lots of prepositions. As I am lacking of sense of reading, I'd not have understood the story fully if I had read it even in Japanese.

The brief story is following.
As Gregor Samsa awoke from uneasy dreams one morning, he found himself in his bed transformed into a gigantic insect. He was a travelling salesman and had to go to work that morning. However he could not get up and go out from his room. His boss came to his house in order to take him to the office. The boss, his mother and sister were standing in front of a door of his room and opened the door. As they had seen his ugly transformation, the boss left the house immediately and his mother was shocked. However his father was not interested in him. As transformed Gregor had not worked since then, the family, especially his sister, had to take care of him. To make matters worse, nobody earned in the family, so they had to rent their room. It was too much of a burden for the sister and family to take care of the gigantic insect. One day three lodgers had found Gregor and they told the father that they would leave the house. So the family quarrelled over Gregor. They could no longer take care of him. The sister insisted that Gregor was no longer human. That night Gregor passed away. His death resulted in the greatest improvement of the family's situation. They had changed their house, their future seemed to be brilliant.

There is no explanations why Gregor transformed and What insect he was like. I can guess the insect could be a cockroach which is hated by many people. I think the author wanted to describe an ugly insect as a metaphor for a person who had depression, became mentally disabled or needed special care. Sad to say, an insect is no longer human, it does not have any contact point with society. The last hope is only his family. If the insect were not expected to recover in spite of his family's devoted care, the family could be exhausted physically and mentally. Finally they might abandon the insect. This is a very ugly aspect of humanity, which the author wanted to express in the story. One more thing I noticed is that Gregor and his father was somehow apart in the entire story. If Gregor had got along with his father, he would not have died or transformed.

My grandfather

This month my grandfather passed away at the age of 88. I would like to think of him.
He was born in Hiroshima in 1919. He was 2 year younger than President Kennedy. He had been good at Classical Chinese when he was student. He wanted to be a high school teacher of Classical Chinese. However, he couldn't. World war Ⅱ and tuberculosis forced him to give up his career as a teacher. He spent his 20s in China as a soldier. He used to tell me about the war and how the Japanese army was ridiculous. When he was talking to me, he often said, "You can do anything you want because there are no longer wars in Japan." He emphasised that a war destroys future of young people. I think he'd have been a good teacher if the war had not happened. After the war he returned to Hiroshima, but he could not find a job. He often said, "A soldier never gets a proper job in time of peace, he can just murder." Finally he decided to leave Hiroshima and went to Tokyo in order to find a job. He worked at a factory until he was 50. At the age of 50 he suddenly quit his job
though his sons were still teens. However he had enough money to feed them. He had got a lot of money, but his life was absolutely frugal.
For the rest of his life he engaged in ploughing a field for vegetables. He had been going to his 20 Km remote field by bicycle every weekdays and grew vegetables for more than 30 years. I can remember that I had plenty of organic vegetables he grew such as tomatoes, cucumbers, corn, broad bean, white radishes and so on. Thanks for his vegetables, I hardly ever ate junk food in my childhood when first food companies had been landing in Japan from the U.S. For last few years he had got a small allotment nearby his house and he was ploughing it until this month.
He read books for his entire life. He not only read books in Japanese and Classical Chinese books, but also he has subscribed to an English magazine Newsweek for more than 10 years. I think he could not speak and listening English, but he could read it better than me. We found his very worn-out 3 English dictionaries when we were preparing for his funeral. At his funeral my father put the latest Newsweek and one of his dictionary into his coffin. I got the other dictionaries as a memento of him. He had been studying until he passed away. I learned from him that I have to continue studying and even getting older. I am proud of him and I would like to live as well as him.

Chiune Sugihara

Letzten Monat habe ich eine Nachricht gelesen, dass der japanische Kaiser in Litauen ein Monument von einem Japaner besucht hat. Die Nachricht hat mich an meinen Reise im Jahr 2004 erinnert. 2004 in den Weihnachtsferien bin ich durch das Baltikum gereist. Da habe ich in Litauen einen Japaner kennen gelernt. Hier stelle ich ihn vor.

Er kam am 1.Januar 1900 in der Präfektur Gifu zur Welt. Sein Vater wollte von ihm , dass er Arzt wird. Trotzdem trat er nach dem Abgang von der Schule in die Waseda Universität ein, um Englisch zu studieren. Nach einem Jahr, 1919, schied er aus der Uni aus, weil er anfing, beim Außenministerium in China als Diplomat zu arbeiten.
1935 verheiratete er sich mit Sachiko. 1937 arbeitete er in Helsinki, Finnland und 1939 wurde er Vizekonsul des japanischen Konsulates in Kaunas, Litauen.
Im Sommer 1940 suchten viele Juden aus Polen bei ihm Hilfe, um Ausreisevisa zu bekommen. Die Japanische Regierung gab Juden Visa öffentlich nicht. Trotzdem gab er ihnen vom 25. Juli bis 5.September mehr als 2139 Visa. Am 5. September 1940 verließ er Kaunas und zog nach Berlin, weil Litauen schon Teil der Sowjetunion wurde. Schließlich rettete er mehr als 6000 Juden vor den Nationalsozialisten. Sie konnten in die USA oder nach Palästina gehen.
Nach dem zweiten Weltkrieg wurde er in Haft genommen. 1947 konnte er nach Japan zurückkommen und wohnte in der Präfektur Kanagawa. Aber das Außenministerium entließ ihm wegen der Aktionen in Litauen.
Danach musste er bei Privatfirmen arbeiten, wo er seine sprachlichen Begabung nutzte.
Im Jahr 1985 gab Israel ihm den Yad-Vashem-Preis und er wurde „Gerechten unter den Völkern“. Er konnte nicht nach Israel fliegen, weil er krank war. Also flogen seine Frau und Tochter und empfingen den Preis an seiner statt.
Er wurde zum einzige Japaner, der disen Preis erhielt.
Am 31. Juli 1986 starb er an einer Herzkrankheit.

Er hieß Chiune Sugihara. Er wurde als „Japanischer Oskar Schindler“ bekannt.

French Open

Heute(Am 11.Juni) war ich sehr müde, weil ich gestern in die Nacht das Endspiel der French Open ferngesehen habe. Das Endspiel war Roger Federer gegen Rafael Nadal. Federer ist Schweizer und ist die Nummer eins der aktuellen Tennis-Weltrangliste. Anderseits ist Nadal Spanier und hat einen Hattrick versucht, die French Open dreimal in Folge zu gewinnen. Bisher konnte Federer keinen Sieger der French Open werden. Er wollte unbedingt siegen. Aber er hatte schwierig mit Spiele auf Sand gegen Nadal. Letztes Jahr wurde er gegen Nadal im Endspiel der French Open besiegt. Ich bin Federers Fan aber habe geglaubt, dass er gegen Nadal wieder nicht gewinnen kann. Das Ergebnis war Nadals Hattrick nach 3 Stunde mit 6:3, 4:6, 6:3 und 6:4. Es ging Federer nicht. Er konnte nur ein Mal in seinen 17 break point Chancen bekommen. Hattrick-Sieger ist nicht nur Nadal, sondern auch Jusutine Henin, die aus Belgien kommt. Sie hat ihren vierten Sieg geschafft. Ich glaube, dass ihre Ehescheidung ihr gemacht hat, Tennisspiele zu konzentrieren. In der French Open 2007 sind die beide Sieger gleich von letztem Jahr, aber der tiefe Eindruck von drei Serben bleibt mir, die sehr gute Ergebnisse geschafft haben. Ich freue mich, die Wimbledon Championships zu fernsehen. Meine schlaflose Nächte werden vom Ende dieses Monates wieder folgen.

pizza Bismarck

Last week I found a good italian restaurant nearby Tokyo Dome. There are loads of italian restaurants and trattorias round my office. However they serve only spaghetti in lunch time. I really wanted to eat a pizza or other pasta such as penne. Finally I found the restaurant which serves a good pizza. The speciality is pizza Bismarck. The feature is an egg at the centre of the pizza. It was very tasty and I had a question, why is the pizza called Bismarck. Later I checked it on the internet. I could find a page written about it. According to the page the first German chancellor Bismarck used to like eating eggs. However I could not find the relation to pizza. It seems that a pizza and the german name do not have any relations. I think pizza Bismarck is not so popular in Japan. How is it in other countries? The origin of the neme is my big concern for the time being.

my life in Shiga

After leaving my school I studied in an university. The university was located in Shiga prefecture and was so far from Tokyo. I had to live there to lend a flat. I lived near the university beside the lake Biwako. It was very convenient to take only 5 minutes to the university on foot. However the nearest supermarket and the train station lay more than 2 km from my flat. All supermarkets in the city were closed at 8 oclock. This was unimaginable for me. The most supermarkets in Tokyo is opened 9 to 12 oclock in evening. I could not go often supermarket before 8 oclock because I had class or played tennis. Then I had to go to 24 hours open shop (It is called convenience store in Japan). It was bery expensive.
The culture in Shiga was different from in Tokyo. My Japanese and the Japanese in Shiga was different. Of cause I could make myself understood there. I was astonished at these difference, especially the expressions of adjectives and verbs. I could not learn Kansai dialect, nevertheless I had lived there for 4 years. My friends teased me about my dialect.
At first it was difficult for me to get used to live. I could get used to do all the things except the dialect.

Going to Sarajevo via Osijek 3

The train journey to Sarajevo was about 6 hours. The sun was set an hour later I got on the train. Then the train reached the boarder of Samac. Entering Bosnia and Herzegovina, I got strict custom check. a custom officer requested me for opening my luggage. I placed all my belongings side by side. He was interested in my stylish glass case and my japanese travel book.

Custom, immigration and ticket inspector, they all did not speak English. In some case, I had difficulty in communicating with them. In this case, it was fare adjustment. I got a ticket from Osijek to the boarder, but I did not get a ticket from the boarder to Sarajevo. In addition, I did not have enough Konvertibilna Marka (BAM). I had to pay 25.6 Marka. The officer accepted croatian Kuna. We had to calculate the exchange rate. 1 Marka was about 4 Kuna, so the fare was 102.4 Kuna. I had only 100 banknotes of Kuna. We had difficulty in the change. However the officer made an effort to give me the change with Kuna and Marka. It took about 30 minutes to pay the adjustment fare.

The journey to Sarajevo was boring except talking with an Croatian man. I did not remember his name! He was going to meet his girl friend living in Bosnia and Herzegovina. He spoke English, He had studied English in the USA, San Jose. San Jose is only place I have ever been. We had talked about fishing and our salary for 1 hour. I learnt croatian word Rieka meant River.

Going to Sarajevo via Osijek 2

Osijek
I arrived at Osijek bus station at 13:30. There was train station next to the bus station. The sky was gray and were few people. Shops were almost closed. I realised today was Christmas!. Christmas is Bank holiday in Croatia and Croatia is Catholic country. I had forgotten it. I gave up going to city centre. If I have gone there, shops and museums would have been closed.
I checked the timetable at the bus station, there was no bus to Sarajevo. I had to go by tarin. I knew there was one train to Sarajevo in a day because I had checked it in advance. the train leaves at 15:00. I could not buy a direct ticket to Sarajevo at Osijek station but could bought to the boarder between Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina. The boarder name is Slavonski Samac and it cost 40 Kuna. I decided to wait for the train at a bar in the station. I drank a beer. A barman at the bar spoke german and English. He spoke to me in german at first. I talked about football and jobs with my poor german. I realised he also spoke English in the middle of the talking, but it seemed to me that he could speak german better than English. His name was Tomislav. When I asked his name, he taught me his name coming from a great croatian king. He was a nice guy and very friendly. We talked about a half hour. Then I got on the train.

I just stayed in Croatia on Christmas day for one hour and half. However the talking with Tomislav made my croatian impression good.

Going to Sarajevo via Osijek

Belgrade
I checked out Hotel Belgrade at 8:30. Breakfast was a few pieces of bread, cheese and coffee. Though the coffee tasted so bad, I bought an orange juice cost 100 CSD. Expensive!!

I took pictures of the train station on the way to the bus station. Policemen cautioned me for taking pictures at the train station. I felt I was standing on a communism country with deep emotion in a way. When I was child, my dad taught me that communism countries such as Soviet and eastern Europe did not allow to take pictures at stations. However I was not cautioned for taking pictures at the train station in Poland, Czech, Hungary and Baltic countries.

I bought a ticket to Osijek at the international ticket counter. The woman I met yesterday sold me the ticket. 1000 CSD was left, I exchanged 1000 CDS for Bosnian Konvertibilna Marka (BAM). I thought I could not withdraw Marka from ATM.

I got on the bus to Osijek with mineral water and potato chips. It took about 3 and half hours to Osijek. The bus crossed the boarder at Šid. Serbian custom and immigration officers were very polite. Both officers were young and spoke English. However Croatian officer were very rude at Tovarnik, he made me out of the bus and kept me waiting for about 10 minutes at cold air.

walking around rainy Belgrade

Belgrade
I was going to Kalemegdan Park through Terazije and Knez Mihailova street, there are a lot of cafes and shops. I found Goethe Institut Belgrade on Knez Mihailova street. It started drizzling, but I did not use my folding umbrella.
Kalemegdan park has nice view of the rivers. The city is located at the confluence of the Danube and Sava rivers. Though there are few people and bad weather, it seemed lonely to me.
I went to a cafe at Knez Mihailova street to make my body warm. I had a cup of cofee and a chocolate croissant. It was very tasty.

Going out the cafe, I returned to the station. I checked in Hotel Belgrade. The equipment of the hotel was old, but prise was affordable and receptionists were so kind.
After taking a rest in the room, I went to Terazije again. It stopped raining.

I found a lot of homeless people and street children. They were begging money from people.

I walked around the city about 3 or 4 hours.

On the evening I tried to buy a bus ticket to Osijek (Croatia). However it was hard work for me to find international ticket counter. People did not understand English, I had to go back to my hotel asking of the ticket counter a few times. When I managed to find the international ticket counter, the counter had already closed. A woman spoke to me in English, and she explained that the bus to Osijek leaves at 10:00, it cost 1165 CSD and I could buy a ticket tomorrow morning.
I had to give up to get a ticket on the day.

I had Pljeskavica and went to bed.

destroyed buildings in Belgrade

Belgrade
When I woke up at 6:30, my train had not arrived on Belgrade. Scheduled time was at 5:30. Thank you for the delaying, I could sleep well and I felt well.
I got to Belgrade at 7:00. I withdrew 3000 serbian dinar from a cash machine at the station. As I was thirsty, I drank coca-cola at a cafe. A waiter spoke to me in german. When I was walk around outside the station, it was getting light. There was bus station next to the train station, the same as Sofia. I found that the yellow buses donated by japanese ODA were running around the city. I thought despite our ODA of bad reputation, It seemed it's not so bad.

On the way to old town, I found destroyed buildings which bombed by NATO in 1999. The buildings have not been reconstructed. It was pitiful a scene for me.

Cyrillic world 2

Sofia
After visiting the largest Eastern Orthodox church, I walked around the city for 2 hours. Many people were walking streets and market were crowded. I entered a restaurant to eat late lunch, and I had Bulgarian cuisine: Tarator and baked tomatoes and cheese. It tasted sour, I liked this. However Tarator was a Yoghurt based cold soup. Outside temperature was about 0 degree, the soup made my body cold. This evening I felt catch a cold. feeling cold and sniffing, I thought I must not be worse my condition. I stayed in warm places until the train to Belgrade at 22:00. I went to cinema located on underground of the National Palace of Culture. I watched "Happy Feet". Watching movie is convenient to kill time. Safe, warm, fun...
When I went to the train station at 21:30, coaches had already waited at the track. I getting on the coach, a train clue checked my ticket and lent me blankets. He spoke german and looked like Ivica Osim. I fell asleep soon so that my bed was very comfortable.

My train crossed the boarder between Bulgaria and Serbia. I did not remember clearly, but passport control and custom check was done without any problem.

Cyrillic world

SOFIA.
I woke up at about 8:00. After having breakfast, I went out my hotel to get a train ticket to Belgrade.
It takes 30 minutes to the station on foot. I do not use buses and trams usually, because only by walking, I can feel the size of the city I visit. Anyway, streets were so wide, words are written in Cyrillic alphabet. I felt I was walking ex-communism country. Main streets were paved with Viennese yellow cobblestones and there were many yellow buildings.
There was the bus station of Sofia next to the train station. The train station was darker and more gloomy than the bus station.
At the train station I stood motionless in front of big timetable. All the destinations were written in Cyrillic alphabet. I just understood "P" to "R", "C" to "S", "H" to "N", reverse "N" to "I", etc...
I could understand "Beograd", but could not find "Bucharest". If there was a night train to Bucharest, I wanted to go there.
A woman on the international ticket counter of Rira understood English, I got a ticket to Belgrade of sleeping car. It cost 46 Lev.

On the way to the hotel from the station, Policemen asked me of showing my passport. I was first time to be asked by police abroad. I showed a copy of my passport, they said O.K immediately. However they did not understand English.

I checked out the hotel, it cost 35 Euro.
I went to Alexander Nevsky Cathedral. It is the largest Eastern Orthodox churches in the world.

Going to Sofia

My flight was delayed.
I arrived at Narita airport at 11:00. SU 576 was on schedule on the flight information board, but I knew that the aircraft I am boarding was not arriving at the airport. When I woke up in the morning, I had watched flight schedule on the internet.
However I could check in without noticing delaying. After I got a memo pad at a book shop, I went to the boarding gate.
It was boarding time, but the aircraft did not come on time.
Finally the aircraft took off one hour later.

It takes about 10 hours from Tokyo to Moscow.
Aeroflot started charging alcoholic drinks, and in flight service was being worse. I was satisfied with Aeroflot's in flight service, especially the flight meals, but now that the meal was not good. I was disappointed.

The aircraft landed on Moscow Sheremetyevo airport at about 18:30 (GMT+3). There is a time difference of 6 hours between Tokyo and Moscow. I did not suffer from jet lag.

The airport was changing. It was getting light. Duty free shops were brightening, but transit counter was dark as before.
I had to wait for the next flight to Sofia for 3 hours because the flight was scheduled to depart at 20:05, but it delayed 1 hour.
The operator was Bulgarian air, the aircraft was a used one of Lufthansa. During 3 hours flight, a baby sitting in front of me was crying, It was so uncomfortable flight.

The aircraft landing on Sofia(GMT+2), the time I passed the immigration was 0:00. I tried to withdraw my money from a cash machine at arrival hall, but It did not work. I looked for a cash machine around the airport. Afterall I did it at departure hall.
There was no public transport to downtown. I had to take a taxi. It cost 8 Lev to Slavyanska Beseda Hotel.

travelling yugoslavia!

From last December to this January, I travelled around ex-Yogoslavia.
I am uploading my diary and pictures from today.

22.12.2006 NRT-SVO-SOF
23.12.2006 Sofia
24.12.2006 Beograd
25.12.2006 Beograd, Osijek, Sarajevo
26.12.2006 Saravevo
27.12.2006 Saravevo, Mostar, Split
28.12.2006 Split, Trogir, Sibenik, Split
29.12.2006 Split, Dubrovnik
30.12.2006 Dubrovnik
31.12.2006 Dubrovnik, Kotor, Dubrovnik
01.01.2007 Dubrovnik
02.01.2007 Zagreb
03.01.2007 Zagreb, Villach
04.01.2007 Villach, Ljubljana
05.01.2007 Ljubljana
06.01.2007 Ljubljana, Bled, Ljubljana
07.01.2007 LJU-SVO-NRT +1