After three and a half weeks together with Emma the sad day when I had to return finally came. It is especially hard because we will have to be apart for a longer time than ever before since I don't have any vacations longer than a few days in autumn. We probably won't see each other before my Christmas vacation. Anyway, after some delicious curry together with Emma's family, and then some farewells to her parents, Emma took me to the ferry that would take me to Osaka. I got three big onigiri (rice balls, sometimes with fillings) that she made that day and after some waving after I boarded, the ferry took off. I had expected a gigantic ferry like the ones in Sweden, but this ferry was pretty small in comparison. But it wasn't inconvenient in any way, and anyhow it left the harbour at 20:00 and arrived in Osaka next morning 08:00, so I mainly slept. And there is the biggest difference with the Swedish and Japanese ferries. Just as in the little ferry I took from the Kagoshima mainland to the little island where Petri lives in March, this ferry featured roomy resting/sleeping places. I got my spot in a corner and cuddled up with the book Röde Orm which I got as a Christmas present from my brother last Christmas. It is a novel about the viking Röde Orm (translating as Red Snake, but Orm is his birth name so I guess it shouldn't be translated) and his many adventures. It is by far the best viking novel I have ever read (even though I haven't finished it yet) and it is a classic in Swedish literature. I thought it would be suiting to read it on a ship.

When I arrived at the ferry terminal in Osaka the next day I took a subway to the Osaka train station and was about to continue my train ride to the ferry terminal in the little town Maizuru on the Japanese Sea coast (Osaka is on the Pacific Ocean coast), but since that ride takes about three hours and the ferry was scheduled to leave at 23:30 I had some time to kill and I figured there would be more things to do in central Osaka than in the little town of Maizuru. I found a coin-locker big enough to fit my huge heavy full packed backpack and put it there for the time being, taking only the shoulder bag and the laptop in the computer bag with me. Ater eating the last of the onigiris I got from Emma I first I went to a bookstore and looked through numerous books about Sen to Chihiro no Kamikakushi. I had already gone through all but one of them in different bookstores with Emma, but there is so much to read and watch. For example, there is a big thick expensive book (2800 yen or something I think) with art from the movie printed on glossy paper; another book features explanations about exactly everything that takes place in the movie and why and how, with a lot of pictures; another one tells the entire story with pictures from the movie (there is also a version coming up where images from the film is put in a montage like a manga with speech bubbles); another book just features a lot of postcards from the film - I guess you just pull them out when you want to send them... Anyway, I stood there going through them without hurry, and when I got bored I went for a walk to see if I could find a game centre where I could kill some time. I didn't find any, but I found the same spots near the station where Tsuyoshi and his friends took me when I visited in March, and I went up in the same high building I went up in then, to watch the view. When I was in Osaka in March it was grey and foggy and there wasn't much view to look at, but this day the weather was perfect and I could see all the way to the mountains beyond the city in both directions. When I felt satisfied, I went down and into a record store to listen to some of the newest cds. I found two favourites instantly: Okuda Tamio - The STANDARD (single), and a remix album with DENKI GROOVE. I first heard about Okuda Tamio from Emma and if the rest of his songs are anything like The STANDARD (it is spelled upside-down on the single for some reason) I think he will become one of my favourites too. When I felt that there was little more I could do I went and bought a ticket to Maizuru and continued through the gates. I didn't know which train to get on though, and when I asked a stressed station man he told me to go the platform with trains bound for Kyoto, after a quick glance at my ticket. I went there, but when checking just where on the train line Maizuru was I couldn't find it and got confused. Because of train delays the platform was packed with people and station people where nowhere to be seen. Thinking that the man I spoke to earlier must have been right anyhow I was just about to get on the train when I realized something. My backpack! I hurried down and explained to the station man at a gate and he let me out without letting me finish my sentence. I hurried to the coin-lockers and got out my backpack and strapped it on. They let me back in through the gates in the same careless fashion and my search for the train to Maizuru could continue. After studying my ticket carefully I realized I should not get on the train to Kyoto but which train I should actually get on was less clear. After some tiresome running to different platforms I finally got hold of two station men who after careful consideration told me my platform was in the other end of the station and after some more walking and some waiting I was finally on my train.

On the train an elderly couple got seated opposite me and they soon started speaking to me. I showed them pictures from Sweden and we talked about this and that and I found out that they were from Kokura, the city where Emma works! They told me that the little islands between Honshu (The main island of Japan) and Shikoku (Just to the east of Kyushu, right underneath Honshu) are beautiful and that I should go there sometime; they told me that the maple trees in Kyoto is amazingly beautiful in autumn; and they told me about an onsen by a waterfall on Hokkaido where I ought to go. They also told me that I was lucky that I was going on this ferry ride during summer while the Japanese Sea is calm and quiet. Apparently there are big waves and rough weather making the ferry ride horrible during winter.

After switching trains once I finally arrived in Maizuru and could breathe out. It was about 16:40 and I felt a bit hungry, so I thought I would stuff the backpack in a locker and walk around the little town for a while before returning and taking a taxi (since there are no buses) to the ferry terminal, but there was no locker big enough. After seeing a map where it said it is only 2.1 km from the station to the ferry terminal, I decided to walk instead of taking a taxi and eat something on the way. I had some katsudon (fried cutlets with rice) at a little friendly restaurant and then found a game centre where I wasted 400 yen on the new fighting game Tekken 4. Although I have played its predecessors and been pretty successful in the past I have forgotten most of it and didn't even get to the final boss once. But I got to play 4 different characters and that was fun. I continued walking towards the ferry terminal and it was really hot in the bright sunlight from the clear sky. I later learned that it was close to 40° C - add the heat of the direct sunlight to that. When exercising I like the feeling of sweating in the sun, but when I am carrying a heavy backpack and two shoulder bags it is not quite as comfortable. Especially when there is not a cold shower awaiting when I reach my destination. When I finally got to the ferry terminal I filled out a piece of paper about where I live and why I take this ferry (always necessary when taking a ferry in Japan it seems). No matter how I wiped my face and arms I could not keep some sweat to soak parts of the paper and I was really embarrassed to turn it over to get my ticket. After this I went to the men's room and took off my sweaty t-shirt and washed myself off as well as I could at the sinks before switching to a new t-shirt. When I went outside again I noticed some incredible clouds, one of which was eerily similar to the mushroom cloud of an atom bomb, reminding me of what I saw in Hiroshima, and especially a comment from one of the survivors written on a wall somewhere in the museum, about the cloud formations caused by the bomb and the sunlight that pierced through at places - "It was astoundingly beautiful and at the same time incredibly horrifying". 

After some waiting in a waiting hall I finally boarded the ship and got settled in a resting/sleeping room a lot smaller than the previous ones. The room consists of 32 sleeping places in 4 rows divided by storing boxes in the middle. On the other side of those storing boxes was a bunch of drunk people making noise and drinking and smoking although it is a non-smoking area. The cabin crew told them to stop and that there is a special smoking room they could go to but they didn't care about that. They continued talking loudly and shouting at each other until quite late and they woke pretty early starting the noise again. I don't know what picture you paint of these people in your mind but it might change when I tell you their age. I don't think there is one among them below 60. 

This morning I walked around the ship and was disappointed to find that there were chains for the doors so that I couldn't get out on deck to take some good pictures of the sea and the clouds, but I was pleased to find a place with comfy chairs facing large windows where you can sit and enjoy the view of the sea. And there is a place to plug my computer in so that I can use it for longer than the batteries last. I have a lot to write so I guess time will pass quickly. I was a bit worried this day would be long and boring. Also, another worry has been put to rest. Emma told me that the food aboard probably would be very expensive, so I bought a couple of onigiri in Osaka and four bottles of tea in Maizuru to bring with me. Unfortunately I didn't find any convenience store in Maizuru where I could buy more food, so I had to settle with some Marie crackers that I bought at the ferry terminal. At the terminal I saw posters about lunch aboard for 3000 yen, and dinner for 5000 yen and I would rather starve a day than pay those prices. But when I boarded the ship I saw that there is different food for around 500 yen! Yahoo! 

When I had written this far I was approached by an English guy, who sat down in the chair next to me, and we kept talking until the evening, when we had to get some sleep before the arrival early in the morning the next day - so I never got to finish writing until I got to Sapporo. But although this encounter broke my plans, it was of course not a bad thing at all. The thing I regret most (except not getting his e-mail address) is that I never wrote down his name. I am really bad at remembering names. Was it Andrew? Damn. (If you read this please mail me.) It is difficult to write about someone without using a name, so I'll use "Andrew" for now. Sorry if it's wrong. Anyway he is a really nice guy who teaches English in a little town in Hyogo prefecture, near Osaka and Kyoto. Apparently he was going to visit friends in Sapporo. We had a lot to talk about, and we sat there and talked for hours. After a while we started talking about cameras, and I showed him mine, and he showed me his tiny digital camera and big camera. The sky and sea outside the window was beautiful, so we took a lot of photos. However, the window was dirty, so the pictures weren't that good. He asked me if I wanted to go outside to get better pictures, but I didn't think you could do that because of the chains for the doors I had seen earlier. Apparently, though, you could go outside through some other doors. The wind was quite severe, but apparently it had been even more severe earlier on. 

The sea was unbelievably calm, like a lake, and it was a strange feeling watching the endless lake-like calm ocean around the ship. After walking around and taking pictures of the sea for a while we headed to the back of the ship. There was a beer-garden and a pool. You could buy yakisoba, takoyaki, yakiniku and other food to go with your beer. At this time the sun was setting, and it was a beautiful sunset. We were not the only two photographers though, and people lined up with all kinds of cameras to capture it. After chatting with some Japanese guys Andrew had befriended the evening before, we bought some yakisoba and beer. Unfortunately, you could tell that we were getting closer to our final destination, Otaru, by the weather getting colder, and it was a bit chilly. However, we stayed out there drinking beer and chatting until the sun had set completely and the sky and the sea were pitch black. Because of the cloudy weather there weren't even any stars to light up the sky. There was no way to tell where the sea ended and the sky began; it felt like we could just as well be travelling through space (except the lack of stars...). Andrew had a lot of interesting stories to tell, like the story about how he went to Japan to work as an English teacher as the result of a coin toss, and we chatted for hours. When it started getting too cold we went inside again and when it started getting late we decided to go to our rooms and get some sleep before we arrived at approximately 4 o' clock in the morning. For some reason the air conditioners was still cooling the rooms down, even though it was already naturally chilly as we were outside Hokkaido. It was freezing. Also, the brick-shaped "pillow" was unusually large and hard, so I couldn't use it without getting a pain in the neck.

When I woke up to the sound of people getting their things together and getting ready to get off the ferry, I felt like I was starting to catch a cold. When we finally arrived we all went into the ferry terminal and I bumped into Andrew again and we said our final good-byes. On the way to the exit there was a sign telling us that the Otaru train station would not open until 05:00 (or was it 06:00?). But I couldn't do much about that so I figured I'd walk to the station and wait there until they opened. However, on my way to the station, Andrew showed up again and wondered if I needed a ride. The sister of the friend he had come to visit had come to pick him up, and there was room for me too, so they gave me a lift to Sapporo. Unfortunately, she didn't know where Kotoni (the area where I live) is, so it took a while to get here. I am sorry for the trouble they went through for me, and I am very grateful. After unloading my bags and saying good-bye again, I headed for my dormitory. It was still around 05:00 and the auto lock on the dormitory doors don't open until 06:00, so I went to the nearest convenience store and strolled around, doing some slow shopping. When I got to the dormitory it was still too early, but for some reason the doors opened, and I could finally get inside and to my room. After putting down my bags I just threw myself on the bed. Home at last!