Europe tour Interail 2006 : Stockholm, capital of Sweden

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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

Europe tour Interail 2006 : Göteborg, first day of rain

En français
We waited five hours in København's train station before taking the train to Göteborg I already told you in the previous Interail trip how much I hate København train station. When we arrived in Göteborg it was raining that was our first day with rain that was kind of sad as the color of the city would have looked a lot better with sunshine, but we had to use our funny rain poncho and that's fun. The temperature drop of about 20 degrees was a big change too. We walked in Gustav Adolfs Torg (Gustav Adolfs' square) with a statue of king Gustavus Adolphus of Sweden, the founding father of Göteborg. There is also a Gustav Adolfs Torg in Stockholm. Later we went to the harbour at the border of the Göta älv river. This river drains lake Vänern, the largest lake of Sweden into Kattegatt a part of the Northern Sea between Denmark and Sweden. We went back to the city center and walk in pedestrian streets and in Kungsportsavenyen the main avenue of the city considered as the Swedish Champs-Elysées. We walked to the fortification and Skansen Kronan. Göteborg has also the largest university of all Nordic countries. We then took the train to Oslo and Bergen. It is considered as the most exciting and beautiful train ride in the world, 496 kilometers and the highest mainline railway line in Northern countries. We unfortunately ride it at night so we didn't really see that much of it.
Europe tour Interail 2006 : Introduction 
Travel table of content

Europe tour Interail 2006 : End of the first part

En français
We took the train to Gdynia and arrive there a bit late. The plan was to get a train for Berlin to be able to start the second part of our travel. After looking at the time tables, we realized that we need to go to Warszawa first and to change there for Berlin. The train for Warszawa was at 12pm leaving us the morning only to visit Gdynia. We walked in the main street and decided to go to see the sea but we just arrive in the harbor. No luck, we should have prepared the itinerary in the city a bit better. We walked back to the train station and like the night before, we had to wait for the train reminding me a bit of Italy but without major incident this time.  We arrive in Warszawa and see the Palac Kultury i Nauki (Palace of Culture and Science). As the city center is quite far we prefer to stay near the train station and see the modern part of the city than to go to the old town. We took our train for Berlin and arrive there at midnight. Fortunately we are greeted again by my German family and we spend the next day with then before taking the next train to the North and the second part of this Europe tour.
Europe tour Interail 2006 : Introduction 
Travel table of content

花より男子 returns

En français

花より男子 returns is the sequel of 花より男子 released in 2007.

Tsukasa has now been in New-York for a year and Tsukushi didn't get any news from him. When Sakurako comes to visit her and tell her that she had met Tsukasa is New-York, Tsukushi starts doubting his feeling for her. Hanasawa Rui advises her to go to New-York to meet him. Her father winning a week-end in New-York at his work lottery gives her the opportunity. However in New-York she meets a totally different Tsukasa. Not happy to see that her son still have relations with Tsukushi, Tsukasa's mother decide to take him back to Japan for his birthday and to introduce his new fiancee, Okawahara Shigeru the daughter of a rich oil company president.



For one the second is as good as the first. I really like the music in this part of the story. Shigeru is also a very funny character and a great add to the story.
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