(16. November – 24. November 2018)
When I live at Kentas house, Astrid nearly visited us every evening. Beside some trips to the famous temple near by and a library, I have made a bike tour from NIshinomia to Osaka city.
The way to Osaka took me about 1.5 h with stops and I visited the park of the Osaka castle. After the park I searched a library where I could study but unfortunately it was either closed or did not have books to study Japanese. It got late and I decided to returning home. At this moment I recognized that my smartphone battery was running empty. That fact that it was getting dark and I needed somehow to get home before my offline map ceased to exist, made me biking with a speed and motivation I would have never dreamt I would posses. Due to the hurry I even drove on the highways with my bike 😉 (in Japan it is a bit more safe on the streets than in Germany). When I finally made it to NIshinomia my battery was at 3 % and my legs felt like they were burning. For the next 2 days I felt like a 90 year old lady ^.^
One evening Kenta, Astrid and me went to a hill close to Nishinomia. We went into a forest, up some stairs and after climbing some rocks we could see whole Osaka and Kobe, as well as the island Shikoku. It was evening so the sun was beginning to set and the stars started to light up the sky…
On one of my last days we altogether went to visit my first host in Sasayama. We ate together at a restaurant and went to a cafe. There Astrid gave a spontaneous concert. It was incredible how many songs she can remember. Then we had been invited to eat free and freshly caught wild boar! (I am a vegetarian so I just enjoyed the discussions). After that we chilled in his pizza restaurant and went to Onsen. That day I received the first packet from my family!
The days passed and we were cooking together nearly every evening. Except one evening when the kind japanese family of Kenta invited us to join them in a sushi restaurant. It was my first real sushi experience, and it was very delicious!
Also a very impressing experience was when Astrid took me into her rehearsal building. I did not hear her practice but instead I had the chance to see ballet masters train for their audition. It looked incredibly harmonic and nice.
My impressions: I met a lot nice and inspiring people! Nishinomia was and is a great place!
The next part of my journey will be a temple stay for 6 days.