1 Month

Well, starting from yesterday, ther is only 1 month left,... time sure runs fast.

I have booked my Hotel for the first 2 weeks now, its called the Newkoyo and it is in Ueno a Citypart of Tokyo. I should be able to get there cheap and easy by train. I choose this Hotel because it was one of the cheapest, if not the cheapest over all in Tokyo (25U$ for a single room without bath).
Gabrielle ( know here through my Aunt) wnt to the Embassy in Munich on Friday and got my Visa for me (thanks again). She send it per Post to me and it arrived yesterday, so i have the most important things done now and could actually leave.

Today was a good and exciting day. I got a mail fro Jiran from Korea, that my package with the chocolate arrived. I even got lucky, because the package arrive 1 day after her Birthday (I didnt know her Birthday). She was really happy and promised to help me one im in Korea. One thing would be that she would show me a place were a Korean Drama( The first shop off Coffee Prince) i recently watched was filmed. I really enjoyed that Drama and it would be fun to go to the actuall place where it was filmed and i would defenetly be difficult to find it without knowing Korean and knowing Seoul (because it is not THAT famous).

Well the second thing wich made this day so exciting was that (that might sound a little funny) i picked up 2 Japanese Girls in the local Supermarket and spend the afternoon with them.

Well, i went to the Supermarket around 16 o`clock to buy some Softdrinks and i heared 2 girl talk japanese. Because i regreted not talking to a woman i heared speaking japanese just recently, i decided to just start talking to them. So, they were really from Japan, one girl was studying Piano in Karlsruheand spoke quite good german and the other girl was on a Working Holiday Visa in Dortmund as Aupair. She has only been in Germany since one month and mainly talked Japanese to here Hostfamily, so her german was a little bit less than from the first girl.
After a short talk we seperated, but i met them again at the checkout. There i asked them why they were in Weil. They were in Basel(switzerland) as tourist for some days and came to Weil to watch the Chairs. Because i was on my way to the "City Center" i offered them a lift. I left them at the Lokal Bank at a big chair and went to get some new glasses. On my way back i saw them standing around with their map, kinda lost. Because i was driving towards the old part of Town and i knew they also wanted to go there, i picked them up again and decided on the was there to spend my free aftenoon (i had nightshift) as a Tourguide. So i drove home to put my shopping in the freezer and than drove to the new BIG chair in the LGS-Park (you can climb on that chair). On the way to there we saw a smaller Chair, that looked alot bigger in their prospekt. Afterwards we finally went to the Chair they wanted to see. The name of the Chair was Nagasaki (thats also a Japanese City), but i dont know why it was named like that. Because that Chair was in Friedlingen, close to the Rheincenter (a big shopping center) i decided to walk to France with them (there is a quite new bridge over the River (Rhein) where you can walk over to France, there is no Bordercontrol). Afterwards we went to get something to eat at a "Dönerbude) and i brought them to a Busstop so they could get back to Kleinhüningne (part of Basel).

It seemed that overall they liked the afternoon, i really enjoyed to play a Tourguide one more time before i leave.
I wish them a good time on their trip and the time in Germany.

Dennis

My current Plan + state of preparations

Well, also i know that i will most probably change the plan many times during my travel, i will give you an outline now.

Arriving on the 25 June in Tokyo. I will take around 2 weeks to really arrive and get some things done. These are bassicly: Alien Registration, opening a bank account, registering with Wwoof and JAWHM and everything else wich should be done. I also plan to meet Ichigo (a guy i meet in Broome), the family Hideo (whom i met on a boattrip in Cairns) and maybe some members from the Japanforum during this 2 weeks. After that i will go in a homestay (06.07) for 4 weeks and attend a Japanese Conversation class (20 hours / week) to get started. I plan to move to Hokkaido quite quickly in the beginning of August. I will meet my first travelmate from Australia again, Yukari (i'm really looking forward to that). My plan is to buy a car in Sapporo and start travelling around Hokkaido first. I still don't know if that will work out, so thats the most difficult point to tell now. I would than stay around Hokkaido till end September (maybe do some wwoofing in between) and with the beginning of winter start to slowly move back to Tokyo. I want to stay in Tokyo the whole winter (November-March) and work. After that i want to travel southern Japan (also with the car) and finally end my Trip in Japan on the Iland's of Okinawa in June 2009. I will then move on to South Korea and China for some more travelling (how long ist still open, guess around 3 months each).
During all this time i hope to meet some people again, whom i met in Australia. Jiran my third travelmate from Korea, Tammy also from Korea, Ichigo, Yukari and Hideo's (as explained above) and maybe one or 2 more.

Well, thats the plan, i will see how it will work out, but after this year in Australia i know it won't work as planned, but it will work out somehow (maybe better ;)

Well there are only 43 days left till the take off, so thats very soon.....

My agreement with the company i currently work runs till the 13 of June, just 9 days before the flight. I think thats actually ok and i will probably work till the last days. Aside of that i'm still visiting my Japanese class once a week (on Tuesday) and am learning a little bit in my free time (to less :(...)

As it look now, my Visa has been aproved and i could go to Munich tomorrow to get it. I won't do that, but i will send a letter to a friend in Munich, so he can pick it up for me and send it to me per Post (the embassy won't send it!)
My new credit card is here (with this one i can get cash on every ATM around the world and won't have to pay for the service!)
My insurance for that time is covered
My new Laptop ( Dual 1.66Ghz, 2Gb Ram, 120 gb HD) is here and i installed the most important things
My new external HD (2,5 zoll 250Gb) is also here and is waiting to be filled
My 4 weeks school in Tokyo is booked from 06.07 till 02.08 with homestay.
I actually wanted to also stay in the homestay from the 25.05-06.07 but the didn't have space because its high season, so i will just get the homestay during my course. So i'm still searching for accomodation for the first 2 weeks. At the moment i send some messages to my friends in Tokyo and let them check if they can find something, if not i will see for myself.

Next to that there is only one really improtant thing open now and thats my international driving license, wich isn't hard to get.
Well apart from that, i got the domain www.teglas.asia now, so you can remember that adress. You can also reach this site through www.itravelasia.com. As you see here, i also started blogging on my english part and i am curious whos gonna read here.
Well what else is there? Ah, yes, Yukari wrote me a mail with pictures of here 1 month old son and invited me and told me that she will help me if possible.
Well, there are still alot of other things to do, but the most important things are done. Now i still have to clean up my room, get the first 2 weeks accomodation in Tokyo, go on learning Japanese, buy some stuff (clothes, translator,...), cut a movie out of my Australien travelpics (uh, nearly forgot that again) and so on......
You see, there are still some things to do and so the remainging 43 days will pass by very fast. Hm, soon its going abroad again. I'm really looking forward to it, but i'm also getting excited and think about if all that will work out.... but its gonna do somehow
well then

Mata ne (see you)
Dennis

Resume + how to go on

This is just the Translation from the German Blog. Its a reflection of my time in Australia and also about my future travel-plans. I have been writing this around dezember last year, so some things might not be up to date.
Anyway, enjoy


Plan:
Of course not everything workes acording to the plan, but that was actually good in the end. My first plan was to fly directly from Brisbane to Darwin, and then see how to go on.
This plan was thrown over Board quickly and so i thought:
I will drive from Brisbane up to Cairns, than some way back down and into the middle (Red Centre) to Alice Springs and than back to Brisbane. This time going south from Brisbane, all the way to Sydney and the travelling the Southcoast to Perth. From Perth heading back home.
As i arrived in Cairns, i already decided to go to Darwin. So i headed to Darwin after visiting Alice Springs and after arriving there i decided to travel down the Westcoast.
This 2 decisions where probably the best 2 i did during my Travels.
Because the Westcoast is now together with the Top End (Darwin,...) my personal favourite!
After that i traveled the whole Southcoast to Sydney and flew out from there heading home with a 2 weeks Stopover in Bangkok.
Luckily i sticked to my plan with buying a car, and so in the first weeks in Brisbane bought a Toyota Landcruiser (wich was actually my age).
Here the Post with the first car-pics klick


Travelmates:
I meet my first travelmate Yukair (30) from Japan in my 2 weeks Englishcourse in Brisbane and somehow happend to Travel with her (klick and klick).
Sadly i just traveled 1 month with Yukari. We went from Brisbane to Fraser Iland (the biggest Sand-Iland in the world) and then headed to a small town named Gayndah quite quickly to work there a little bit.
After that i traveled alone up to Townsville (or close to it) where i met my next Travelmate while working
Saki (20) also from Japan (klick). I than traveled together with Saki up the coast, finally ariving in Cairns. We had a fight there (rather she with me,.... i still dont know why) so we went different way after that.
Over a small note i placed in a Japanese Travelagencie i came to my next Travelmate Jiran (21) from Korea (klick). I traveled a quite long time together with Jiran and even spend my Birthday with here. From Cairns we were heading back down the coast to Townsville and went Inlad heading to Alice Springs. From there we took on the longe Journey to Darwin. After some days in Darwin we knew that Jiran wants to travel the Westcoast quickly and i didn't know at this time. So we seperated.
Again through a note in a Hostel i found my first Travelmate, who could speak better egnlish than me: Suzie (26) from England (klick). Together with here i traveled to the Westcoast to Bromme (in 10 days). In Broome Suzie went to do some Volunteer work in a Birdwatching staion and i also started working again.
I found my next Travemaltes through reisebineforum.de (a german page for working holidayers in Australia). I have been writing down my plans there, and after a short time Marcus from Germany wrote me a message. He and his roomate Eric, also from Gemany, should become my next Travelmates. First we traveled down to Port Headland where Marcus wanted to jump of to work. As me and Eric planned our next parts of the trip, Marcus saw how beatifull the landscape was and decide to join as and search for work later. So we headed to the Karijini National Park and than to Karratha together. We all wanted to work there and got lucky in getting one of the bestpaid backpackerjobs in Australia.
After some time working i headed to Perth alone, because the other wanted to work some days longer. After Christmas and New year i flew back up to Karatha to work a little bit longer and after that time our ways finally seperated.
I traveled most of the way to Sydney by myself. Only going to Kangooro Iland for 3 days i picked up Judith and Danilea from Germany (klick).
For the Final end i met Yukari again in Bangkok who was on a 2 day Stopover there.

So i had all different kinds of Travelmates, Yukari who always was friendly and wathcing after me, Saki who seems to hate me (why ever), Jiran who watched every cent, liked to do a little bit dangerous or frobidden things and liked to get photographed everywhere (with her own camera), Suzie the Vegan lady who liked to say funny things, Marcus who always had to do something, never sitting still, Eric who took ages to a hold of his belongings and the 2 funny girls Judith and Daniela.
I would have really liked to travel a longer time with Yukari, because the contact wit her was the best. I have had a little fight here and there with Jiran, especially when shopping, but overall i wouldve liked to travel a longer time with here. The 10 days with Suzie were really short, but we could't travel longer.
So my overall experiences are positiv, and i can only tell everyone plannig this or other travels with the car to also maybe take people they don't know.
Off course i have met many other people and i would like to write about them here, but i would be a neverending Story. The really important people got a writedown in my german blog somewhere.
I'm still in contact with Yukarie, Markus and sometimes Suzie. I have been writing Jiran shortly, and she answered. I will definetly see Yukari in Sapporo and probalby meet Jiran somewhere (she might be travelling Japan this summer).


Overall:
This Year in Australia was definetly very good, as you can see at my german Blog. I'm happy that i got over the issue of starting to travel alone and didn't miss this great Year. It was also a very good decision to buy a 4 Wheel Drive, as i would have missed many beatifull places without it. Off course i changed int this year in Australia (wich i thought i will) and i think its very positive. I'm not so shy anymore, to just to people and start talking, i'm standing more on my own feet, i can speak better english than before and i'm a little bit more spontanious.
I learned to have trust in peole and to trust that everything will work out somehow not matter how bad it is going at the moment and i also got to trust myself and my skills a little bit more.
I also don't have to plan everything before going somewhere, every day and Stopp, as i would have been doing before Australia, now i can just leave and go a little bit with the flow.
Even if that might sound funny, i don't save up so much money as before, i enjoy my everydaylive more. The urge to go travelling or "Ichy feet" didn't vanish with this Journey, it even got stronger, so i'm gonna be on my again soon.
The Decision to got to Australi was one of the best ones i've ever made, and i hope you enjoyed following my journey (to all the german readers).

Addon:
Ok, i've decided to add a little bit more Information here than in my german blog, because you can't read all the Posts from Australia.
Note: All about money will be in Australien Dollars. 1 A$ is around 1 US$, 1 Sfr, 0.60€ and 100 Yen.
I have been travelling around +-30000km with my car in Australia, and it went pretty well. I paid from 1.20 to 1.75$ for 1 Liter of Diesel, Petrol was normaly cheaper.
I spend around 15-20 $ a day on food and hope to run around the same in Japan (should be possbile if i cook myself like in Australia).
I can only guess my Average spending for a night Accomodation, because i have been camping alot and sleeping in the car doesn't cost anything sometimes. So i guess around 8-13$ a night. This figure will most probably be higher in Japan, i guess double 20-30 or more.
Well, Transportion was mostly covered by car, so 100km's cost around 18$ and a 1 week bus-ticket in Syndey was around 32$.
Jobs:
I have been 2 weeks Mandarine packing in Gayndah wich paid a little more than 16$ a hour and we could work around 7 hours each day. Accomodation was possible at a camp site fore just 25$ A WEEK! (well, was a shity place after all)
Later i have been Picking Chillis wich paid 4$ per Kilo. I run the record of the farm now with 44 Kilo's in a day (wich only paid 150$ after Tax). Accomodation was 70$ per Week on a Campsite form a Hostel, wich also provided the farmwork (was quite crowded, but met awesome people!).
My first job in a kitchen was some time later in Broome. I worked at a Hotel as Kitchehand (bassicly washing dishes), it paid 17$ a hour and 20$ at weekends. I could work 5-9hours a day, depending on the shift and the weekdays. Accomodation was on a local Campground for i think 10$ a night. I got to choose 1 meal a day and got free drinks provided.
My last and best Job was in the Pilbara, around 100km from Karratha. I was working as Field Assistant on a Iron ore drilling site outside in the dessert. I got 20$ a hour and got paid for 12 hours a day, so thats 250 every day. The actual work was between 10-12 hours during the day, and later 7-11 during nights. Accomodation, drinks and food was all paid for, you couldn't sleep anywhere else around there, because it was a camp far outside the city and only reachable by 4 wheel drive. It was 2 weeks work and than 1 week off. 1 time i flew up to there from Perth and back and it (off course) was also paid. That was the best what could happen!

About Jobs in Japan:

Most Working Holiday Workers are working as English teachers in school and earn 20+$, but first i'm not a native speaker and second i don't want to work in a envoirenment where i will tend to speak english all the time. Other Jobs then teaching are very bad paid, considered what they paid in Australia. I guess i will be earning around 1000 Yen (10$) a hour as Kitchenhand, waiter,..... so nearly half than i got in Australia. I will have to look around when im in Tokyo during the winter, what jobs are possible (its also gonna be a lot harder than in Australia because my Japanese is not so good). There is also the JAWHM (Japan Association for Working Holiday Makers) wich is a Government run Base to help WHV'lers. They charge 10$ registration fee and help you with finding a Job and accomodation. Also they bassicly help you find work for teaching jobs, i will register there, and maybe i'm lucky and they got something else.

Travelling in Australia, i also learned about Wwoofing (Willing workers on organic farms). ou bassicly work on a farm, a private run Hotel,..... for some hours a day (3-5, maybe 6) and get your accomodation and food for free. I never considered to do this in Australia because i was not so interested in Australian farmlive and living in an Australian family and it always was easy to find some cheap accomodation. Because its gonna be more difficult to find something cheap in Japan and i would love to live some weeks in a Japanese family, with homemade farm-food or else, i'm definetly considering it this time. Here the page to Wwoofing in Japan.
I will also try to sleep some night in Japanese homes with Couchsurfing or Hospitalityclub (bassicly people invite you to their house, also there are not so many around Japan/Asia as there are in Germany/Europe).

So far redarding this point,
and now


How should i go on?
Like stated above, my Ichy feet didn't dissapear, so now the ongoing Story.
Some years ago i saw my first Anime (Japanes Animation) on TV and have been fascinated of Japan and its culture thereafter. Before i went to Australia i got to know that there is a Working Holiday Visa for Japan, the same kind as i used later in Australia. Because i had never travelled for so long by myself, i decided to go to Australia, with the small hope that it would bring me some courage and that i would eventually meet some Japanese who would invite me to their home :).
Now i'm back home and started learning Japanese some Weeks ago (as said above, this post is from the beginning of December!), because my plan is to gon to Japan mid 2008 for 1 year. Because i also met many other Asiens and Bangkok was fascinating for me, i want to travel on through Asia after the year in Japan. Korea, China, HK, Shanghai, Taiwan, Vietnam, Laos and Thailand again (at the moment it looks like it will just be Korea and China). This would be a very long travel, and because anything could happen in between i will just head to Japan first and than see how to go on.
I have reserved the URL itravel.asia (wich i didn't get!) and will probably be blogging in German and English. Now the URL is www.teglas.asia. I want to buy a car in Japan and see as much as possible of the Country. In between i will be jobbing some time to get some money for travelling.
Most people think its not a good idea to gon on such a long travel again, but i really want to and will do it. Finnaly i found something where i can say: Yes, thats what i really wanna do, thats why i saved up money all the years and i wanna spend it on that, and its ok for me to leave some things behind to do this travel. I like to tell myself: You just live once! and i want to see as much as possible off this world and i've got the best Chance to do so NOW. I'm young, saved up some money and got time! I'm not bound to anything and still dont mind sleeping in a cheap hotel room or my car. I'm not already so choosie on food and im still more or less healthy.
Ich open to the world (google translates cosmopolitan) and im eager to experience live in another culture. The Experience i gain during this travels can only help me in my later live. So lets go!
Have a look in this blog here and there, i'm surely going to travel again and you wll still be able to reach this site. I think i will start blogging more in March or April, as the traveldate gets closer. (well i start now :)


So far
Dennis

Welcome

To welcome you all at my english section i will first write a little bit about myself.

My Name is Dennis, im 24 and from Germany. I can speak German, English and i am learning Japanese. I m currently still working in the Chemical Industrie in Basel ( Switzerland) as Chemical Operator, but im living in Germany.
I love travelling and so i have been 1 Year in Australia (April 2006 - April 2007) with a Working Holiday Visa . I started blogging just before i went to Australia, mainly to keep my family and friends up to date. Later i saw that even some people i didn't know were reading my blog with wich i came to the decision to also write an english blog when travelling again. Well, here i start, around 1 and a half month before i will be travelling again.
This time i will go to Japan, also with a Japanese Working Holiday Visa. I plan to stay in Japan for 1 year and i want to do some travels around South Korea and China right afterwards.
I also started this blog because i experienced that some people i meet are interested about the ongoing of my travels and cant read german (you can find all my Travelposts from Australia, Bangkok and some of my Hometown in the German Section) so they can only watch my pictures. Because there are so many blogs about travelling in Australia and the experiences there i didn't think its worth to put up the effort for a english blog, but this time its different.

There are only around 6500 people who are going to Japan on a Working Holiday Visa every year, of wich are 3500 Koreans (only around 250 Germans!) and it can be really hard to find some specific information. I found a good video on How to get a Japanese WHV, and i will try to write about my experiences here to give some help to people planning to do the same.
This section will still most probably contain less information about my travels than the German section, because it will take some time to translate everything, and i'm not sure if i will always find the time and energy to do it, but i will try. You will at least be able to see all the pictures here wich you can see in the German section.

However you found here, the link to my page is www.teglas.asia, but you can reach this section directly by www.itravelasia.blogspot.com. I really love to get comments because the show me that my work is at least read and I even made it possible to post anonymous.
So please, whatever you have to say, or even if you just want to leave a hello, leave some comments from time to time, it makes me happy :) (you can leave comments right under each post, till now i dont have a guestbook but ill try to organise something)
Also im sorry about my not perfect english and my spell-mistakes you will just have to stick with it because its not my native language, but im able to express myself so i put my learning effort into japanese at the moment.

Well, with all that said, i hope you can enjoy my blog and read about my travels.
I will shortly start with a Resume from my Australian travel to not start the blog empty. (it will first be in German here, because i will translate it piece by piece)