Europe tour Interail 2006 : Turku, Tampere

En français 
We arrived in Turku at 7.30 am but this time we knew about the time difference. We decided to go to the railway station looking for the train to our next destination and we also walked  to Turku's Castle. I think I will remember Turku as the city of the ladybirds, they are all over the place. We find out that we will take a train then change for a bus from Kemi to Boden in Sweden. We decide to go further north first and leave at noon for Tampere. We walked in Tampere seeing the Orthodox church, the lake Näsijärvi and the attraction park. Finland is a country full of lake, where ever we went we saw some, we learned later after some research that there are more than 180000 of them over the country. We took our train for Kemi in the evening.
Europe tour Interail 2006 : Introduction 
Travel table of content

戀愛地圖 / アバウト・ラブ / 関於愛 (about love)

En français

戀愛地圖 / アバウト・ラブ / 関於愛 is a Taiwanese and Japanese movie from 2005 in three parts, telling three different love stories.
The first story takes place in Tokyo. The road of a Taiwanese student crossed the road of a Japanese painter, he decides to let drawings on her window.
The second story takes place in Taipei. A Taiwanese girl is building a bookshelves in the middle of the night, she call a Japanese guy she met at a bar to her her make it stand up.
The third story takes place in Shanghai. A Japanese student arrives to live with a Chinese shop owner and her daughter. He is waiting for a letter from his girl friend. The girl is trying to understand Japanese.



This movie describes with simplicity the relationship between people avoiding the cultural barrier between people from different country to only care about the individual for who they are. Another dimension is added by the fact that the characters are trying to understand each other even though they don't speak perfectly the other language.  In each case one of the character is broken hearted front the previous relationship. This movie shows how people can come back to see the blue sky.

Casting :

陳柏霖 as Yao
范曉萱 as A-Su
伊東 美咲 as Michiko
加瀬 亮 as Tecchan
李小璐 as Yun
塚本高史 as Shuhei
市川 由衣 as Yuka

Cinema, Manga, Animation Content

Europe tour Interail 2006 : Stockholm, capital of Sweden

En français
When we arrived in Stockholm, we started to figure out a way to go to Narvik in the north of Norway. The first plan was to take the train and cross all Sweden from south to north to get there. However, the only train that go there was not included in the interail pass. We found the alternative to cross to Finland with a boat and to go up Finland instead, taking the boat half price with the interail pass was much cheaper than to pay full price for the train.
We then walked in Drottninggatan, a famous shopping street leading to  Gamla Stan (the old town). Having stand hours working on a Swedish textbook where the action was taking place in Gamla Stan I felt a bit home when we get there. We saw the parliament and the Royal palace Kungliga Slottet, in Yttre Borggården, we watch the change of the guard under the rain. The guards were on horses back and playing music, that was more impressive than in Oslo. We then start looking for the rune stones, I knew they were some from the textbook. I still think we were lucky to find it. We walked south to Södermalm and the big avenue Stadsgårdsleden near the water to go to Vikingterminalen to take the ferry. From the boat we can see the other islands and the Gröna Lunds Tivoli park. We will spend an other day in Stockholm when coming back from Finland.
Europe tour Interail 2006 : Introduction 
Travel table of content

ロミオとジュリエット (Romeo and Juliet)

En français

ロミオとジュリエット is a Japanese adaptation of the well known play by William Shakespeare from 2007. The play as been adapted many time in the cinema, plays, ballet, music, with different ending and the story has been told numerous time in different ways. This adaptation is not different than many other as it threaded of the same impossible love story.

Kihira Juri is a college student, she is studying the Romeo and Juliet play in class. She doesn't really believe in love at first sight and isn't really up for relationship until she meets Morita Hiromichi injured in the park where she always go since she was a kid. She starts to only think about meeting him again. She is the daughter of a policeman in charge of tracking a doctor who is accused to have killed one of his patient. He is the son of the doctor who ran away from his responsibility and family.

One of the particularity of this movie, is that people actually try to sort out everything instead of just confronting each other. That's not the case in most of the adaptation of "Romeo and Juliet" that I have seen so far. There is also an pleasant twist on the relationship between the different characters. Juri also like to ask a question about Ginkgo trees but I'll tell you more about Ginkgo trees in the travel section once I go back to Japan.

滝沢 秀明 as Morita Hiromichi (魔女の条件)
長澤 まさみ as Kihira Juri
田中美佐子 as Morita Tokieda
三浦 友和 as Morita Giichi

Start watching here.
 
Cinema, Manga, Animation Content

Europe tour Interail 2006 : Oslo, capital of Norway

En français
We arrived in Oslo early morning and after the daily routine, we started to visit the city. Oslo is at the border of the fjord Oslofjorden. We walked in the pedestrian street, Karl Johans gate" leading to the royal palace. We arrived in a small park with a lake called Spikersuppa, we walked around seeing the main building of the city, parliament, university... we sat on a bench and watch the changing of the guards. In the afternoon we went to the harbor and saw the Queen Elizabeth II, an ocean liner that was in service from 1969 to 2008 and is now retired. We visited Akershus Fortress and Castle and the museum.
Europe tour Interail 2006 : Introduction 
Travel table of content

Europe tour Interail 2006 : Bergen, the first fjords

En français
We arrived in Bergen early in the morning. Bergen's old quay street, Bryggen, is classified as world heritage by the UNESCO. We first went to the fish market, at the harbor. You can see all kind of fishes that just coming fresh from the sea and people are also preparing them so you can directly get a snack. We tried a salmon sandwich and that was delicious. We then went hiking in the mountains around Bergen. We could have taken the funicular but walking makes you deserve the view you are going to see when you reach the top, exercising is healthy and there are all those little things that you see that you wouldn't have seen speeding to to top. We arrived in Fløyen at 320m of altitude. From the top we could see all Bergen and the fjords Vågen, Puddefjorden, Byfjorden and others. We took a walk in the mountains to a refuge called Åsebu and meet sheep on the road. We then walk back down to the city and walked along Bryggen. We went to see the fortifications and walk around the lake discovering the fountain "Lille Lungegårdsvann" in the middle.
Europe tour Interail 2006 : Introduction 
Travel table of content