30 September, 2012

Aeon Cup 2012

Aeon Cup 2012 helped me to decide to come back Japan soon. As a big fan of rhythmic gymnastics and in a sense as the finale of RG specialised year, this particular competition is absolutely suitable. Of course, I was longing for watching this.

 
 

The general rule A, taking pictures and filming are strictly banned.
I went several countries to watch rhythmic gymnastics competitions and found exactly the same rule at the every venues. However, the common fact is that the securities don't care about these actually. So spectators are able to photograph and video the performances all the time vertically. Of course I could see lots of security staff but they were just on the floor.

In the case of AEON Cup, the rule is absolutely applicable. Therefore fans definitely keep the rule and then the securities always monitor outlaws. Once they find somebody who break the rule, they indicate and interrupt both photographing and filming so quickly.

The general rule B, don't try to touch gymnasts.
Again, due to too much security, fans are not allowed to communicate with gymnasts. Although this is actually a normal rule at the each competitions, fans are keen to do this for example getting autographs or having a picture taken with gymnasts or whatever. So the picture of Luba above is an exception. She does this as she is absolutely lovely and she loves fans of hers.
After the competition, me and my friends were waiting at the back door to see the gymnasts before getting on buses to hotels. Some gymnasts such as Belarusians came to us and we were able to give them some gifts and have picture taken. But unfortunately, most of the gymnasts got on the buses quickly and never came out. Therefore we tried to communicate with them and give them some souvenirs from outside of the buses. And then again, the securities prevented us from doing this.
Quite fortunately, some attempts were successful but most of some others were not really.

On the final day, Daria Dmitrieva came out separately and she was about to get on a ban instead of the buses. And then before she getting on it, we got an opportunity to communicate with her. As you can imagine, the fucking security disturb us again and then the most impressive thing has happened. Daria did frown at the security when she was trying to reach us. Her expression was literally saying that 'what the hell are you doing?' Which means the securities are enemies for both gymnasts and us obviously. I understand this sort of diligence of Japanese people, but in this case, doesn't make sense.

By the way, I could found some good things and bad ones during this competition. Let's have a look.

a. Cancellation by some gymnasts
This was one of disappointing things. Evgenia Kanaeva, Alina Maksymenko, and Son Yeon Jae were not on the AEON Cup. According to some articles, Zhenya is in a bad condition and has got fatigue fracture. And Alina didn't come as she has implied at Minsk when I talked with her, and Yeon Jae, she perhaps was preparing for an exhibition show which is mean to takes place after a week later (otherwise this is obviously a politics since the relationship between Japan and Korea is not good at the moment). Anyway, the big stars were not on. Zhenya came to Japan late and she had an opportunity to bring her message to Japanese fans at the venue after all the competition. And then what I found was that she clearly got fat. Her official excuses were like I wrote however in reality, she has just got fat. I appreciate what she has done at the last Olympics but on the other hand, Daria and Luba have prepared for their performance here in Japan and then performed quite well as if they were the Olympic Game. If she really deserves to be called 'Queen', she should have managed to train.

b. Transition of the generation
As I'm a big fan of Luba, I was paying attention her and also her teammates. Luba's performance at the preliminary round was definitely brilliant. She did few mistakes and that's why her score was superb. She went through the qualification at the second place. At the final round, I am never be able to imagine the reason though, her performance has been braked suddenly. She made lots of mistakes of what she always can execute. Eventually she lost the podium.
Meanwhile, at the final round Melitina Staniouta has done her routines superbly and got her silver medal at the individual competition. In fact, she was so down after finishing the second day because she made massive incredible errors in her routines. And she was scolded by her coach and was training even after the competition which was impressive for me.
And one more amazing fact for me was a junior gymnast of Beralus whose name is Ekaterina Galkina. Literally she is so talented and promising. Her performance resembles that of Luba's and I thought that she might imitate Luba's movements. As far as I watched her performance, she is quite stable and skilled. Consequently she got a gold. She would be next top gymnast in Belarus.


Bits and bobs
Japanese fans are so quiet and silent. What I experienced in Europe is that the way people cheer the gymnasts. They usually shout just like 'Woo!!' when the gymnasts some risky tricks during their performance. And I replicated on my own at the AEON Cup venue. But basically nobody did the same. They sometimes just applaud. The good thing about this is everybody can concentrate on the performances on the other hand, the bad thing is that the atmosphere of the floor was extremely odd compared with in Europe. So presumably under this situation, the gymnasts cannot get on the rhythm and then carry out what they have to do in full. To be honest, I got tired by doing this solely.

- P.S. -
Anna Rizatdinova of Ukraine got the third place. Her performances were so clean, stable and stunning as a whole. I was watching her at the Olympic games of course, and her performances at the AEON Cup was much much vivider. What remarkable is that her routines are varied. Which means she practises in a mellow song, a hard rock tune, Micheal Jackson, and something else. I suppose this is not easy to adjust her feelings to each music but actually she can do everything without any problems. So consequently for me she seems to be the most expected gymnast of Ukraine as Alina's absent helps this.

24 September, 2012

Everything is mild


This picture is not mine, I'm afraid.
From Narita airport, I was watching this sort of landscapes, and reconfirmed that I got back to Japan finally. The sky is blue, warm, bright but not glaring, time, air, everything flows slowly. Literally, this was comfort. People are the same. Staffs at the station were so nice to me and passengers on the train were absolutely silent. So we were all peaceful. Cannot help take a nap.

Before I left the UK, I had already decided what to do as first of all. Which is to have a bowl of Gyudon. Gyudon is one of typical Japanese fast foods (junkie though) which is composed of rice and soy sauce flavoured beef.


Although I have got a favourite Gyudon chain shops, there were no shops of those at Nippori station, where is a gate for Narita international airpot. And then I dropped by another chain shop, in fact this was a compromise. Because this shop tends to serve too much salty ones. Yet, more than one year has past since last time I had these in Japan so, I felt rice was tremendously tasty. Quite soft and sweet which are the characteristics of Japanese rice. I was able to enjoy this Gyudon partially.

And then I got on trains and eventually arrived at home. The smell in the house was quite different. It smelt just a little bit of Asian food shop in Brighton. And somehow everything seemed to me smaller and lower than when I was in the fucking flat. And the biggest different was water. Soft water from the tap was much much nicer than that of in England. When I wash my hands, and take a shower, it touched me quite naturally.
My arrival was on Monday, perhaps because of this, my families were not particularly celebrated. Quite normal and natural. But it was OK, I'm back anyway.

Good-bye Brighton and the UK

I have booked my flight to Japan about two month ago, namely I was longing for today. It was cheap and lucky as well. I've lost a cheap flight once but, it appeared again a few days later with almost the same price and then as soon as I found this, I had no choice to purchase.

- Before leaving -
Washing linens, dishes, clothes, pillow covers, all done. Cleaning kitchen, bathroom, toilet, floors, my room, all done. Have packed and sent the second parcel box, and packing my suitcase done. Now, ready to go.

Flight from London Gatwick at 10:10 which is not easy going for me. I woke up around 6AM in order to keep enough time to do bits and bobs. If you have a break fast, you have to get rid of something for example, containers or packages. So I put them into a bin and then finally threw away the rubbish along with other my stuff. Actually, this was the last job.

No, I had to do one more thing which was returning keys of the flat. On the day, the fucking flatmate was away therefore I was asked to put the keys into a post of flat number 76. To be honest, this is not secure way at all. In order to this, I was forced to make sure if the flat number was correct or not beforehand as the flatmate notified me by just saying the number. Not emailing or writing down a note, which was obviously dangerous and unkind. As I mentioned the other day, the flatmate has been an idiot until the end (perhaps she still is).

Unfortunately, as weather report was indicating, it was raining slightly in the morning and seemed to be getting harder when I was walking from the flat to the station. And also my suitcase was absolutely heavy, particularly when I went up stairs on the way to the station. Since I was keeping some extra time, I awaited a bit long time at the station until a train to Gatwick departs. And then got on the train, arrived at the airport safely.

- Killing my time -
I love airports all the time because it is interesting. Mostly, people at the airport are accidentally assembled there and the situation happens only once. Obviously, I don't go to the airport quite often and you don't neither unless you are an employee of an airport or a flight company. So every incident at the airport while I am there is in a sense precious.

I dropped by a electronics shop and had a look at a latest Nikon camera D600. My impression was its weight is light obviously but slightly weak as a photographic machine. In other words, D600 is full frame D7000. As a reality, D700 which is a predecessor of D600 still has got some advantages in terms of specification.
And also I went to a souvenir shop of Harrods. And then bought two mugs for my grand parents who are big big sponsors for my study abroad. One is Queen's diamond jubilee designed mug and the other is lovely ivy designed one. As to design, the letter one is superior to former one but the prices is the reverse order. Quite expensive anyway.

- Flight to Milano -
I was worrying about the weather. But in fact, the plane took off successfully. Despite I bought a ticket of Alitalia, the flight from Gatwick to Milano was provided by Air One which I never ever heard before. I was expecting a lunch or some snacks however, they didn't give the passengers anything at all. Presumably, the flight was LCC, that's why nothing has been provided. I was literally hungry.
In the meantime, a flight crew has spoken to me because I was grabbing my passport at the boarding time. According to him, he is quite interested in Japan and has been to Japan quite a few times. He has been to northern areas and southern ones of Japan and his experiences is much grater than mine in terms of travelling in Japan. And also he has got some Japanese friends and Italian friends who are into Japan as well. He was quite nice to me and spoke English quite well. Regardless of he is on duty or not, it was very happy for me to be spoken by a crew especially for Japanese topics. He asked me if I get off at Milano and I answered to Tokyo but I explained that I am keen to come back to Italia as it is my interest.

- At Milano -
As I was starving, I decided to have a brief lunch at the airport. The connection time was about one and half hour which was enough to have a lunch. At the same time, what I found was that there were loads of Japanese passengers already. At duty free shops, restaurants, literally everywhere. Basically they were always grouped because they were on tours. I hated to be seen I was one of them. In any case, it was weird for me listening Japanese before arriving at Tokyo National Airport. And then what I ate for my lunch was a panini with tomatoes and mozzarella cheese which was simple but brilliant. Incidentally, I ordered this in Italian.
Before boarding, I was pointed out that I haven't got a boarding pass in my hand. Certainly I haven't because nobody did not say anything about neither check in nor boarding pass. A ground attendant frowned a bit. But I wasn't late for the boarding and then I managed to get on the plane to Tokyo.

- Flight to Tokyo -
I was designated a seat window side since I was the final person who checked in. And then when I was about to have a seat, a Japanese tour conductor spoke to me and saying that 'I have got an extra seat which nobody is going to sit on, so you can take a seat instead if you want'. I was lucky really was. And then I switched the seat to the one which the tour conductor let me know. Actually, the seat was aisle side and nearest to the toilets. Which means I can drink as much as I want to. And I made this. White wine, beer, white wine, beer, read wine... finally got drunk. While I was being drunk, I spoke to some Italian crews and some Japanese passengers because of course, I had nothing to do over more than 12hours.
As a dinner, I wanted to choose an Italian meal not a Japanese one. But unfortunately, the crews ran out Italian ones. Eventually I had no choice but to have a Japanese one. Its main course was rice with Teriyaki chicken. Honestly, it was pretty good. After the dinner, I talked about this with an Italian crew and he was saying that Japanese one is much much better than Italian one. So accidentally I have chosen a good one. However, breakfast was not fascinating. Because it was too little. Breads, fruit, and something, I can't remember. Hence it was not satisfying enough.
During the flight, I slept a few times but inadequately. I was quite busy with drinking, listening to music, watching a film, and whatever. Needed to make the most of this opportunity and also to be honest, I couldn't sleep properly.

- At Narita -
The long flight from Milano has finished. We arrived at Narita peacefully. As soon as I get off the plane to find warmth of local temperature. Compared with the UK, it was absolutely hot and humid. In order to adjust to the temperature in the cabin and it was so cold in the UK, I was wearing a jumper. But it was clearly too warm in Japan at that time. Although I had already heard that the temperature in Japan is getting colder, it was not like that. I was happy to get the humidity there since the air in the UK was basically too dried for me.
After arriving at Narita, what annoyed me was customs declaration. As a rule, everybody who arrived at Narita regardless of its nationality is supposed to fill the declaration form. But I didn't know this because when I came back from New Zealand in 2010, I did nothing. The rule was relatively new. As I have got nothing to declare, I was trying to go through the customs without the form. But an officer stopped me and explained the rule. And then I was obliged to fill the from and to submit this. However, the officer asked me to hand in one more sheet for the declaration since I have sent two parcels separately which are not with me at the airport. Again, I filled the form for two sheets and finally managed to go through the gate of the customs. I didn't imagine these accidents, which were troublesome enough.

From the airport, I got on a train to central Tokyo, this is exactly the opposite way of going journey last year. I quite enjoyed landscapes from the windows and started to feel, recall Japanese atmosphere.

21 September, 2012

Paul Walsh

It was an invigilation day for me all day, which was unfair completely. Most of my course mates do this at most twice half day but in my case (only me), three times. This was unhappy for me because I have to do packing, cleaning up, and so on in order to leave the flat and the UK.

 
The second half of the day, I was with Paul Walsh who is one of my part time course mates. He is literally a nice guy. According to him, he used to do painting. However, it takes long time compared with photography, therefore he convert from paintings to photography. And also his preference is to walk around, which is his photographing style as well. He showed his images from this series. My favourite is a image which shows a runner on a passage.

The style of photographs of my course mates are absolutely diverse. Abstraction, black and white, studio work, super large prints, whatever. But the thing is all their bodies of work are not necessarily brilliant, not always acceptable since you have got your favour.


In that situation, his photographic style gets on me. I really love his photographs and his style. Because his bodies of work are quite simple but exquisite and meaningful. With regard to his walking style, I used to do when I was in Japan and have been doing the same way when I get on a journey. In other words, walking photography is a basic. Some eminent photographers take pictures from an airplane or a helicopter, or in the sea. These viewpoints are in a way unusual. You cannot see this world from these aspects and that's why it makes us fascinated. However, the point is paradox I suppose. It can be said that the picturesque photos from abnormal angles are attractive as its beauty, rareness and to be moved by these images is quite normal reaction. Contrary to this, it should be much wicked when you find a unusual moment in a ordinary standpoint. This is what he is doing and I am trying to do as well.
Despite we are photographers, we rarely have a picture taken for ourselves. Yet because I like him as both a photographer and a man, I asked him to be photographed with me. Yes, this is a commemoration.

20 September, 2012

Preparation

My photographic course is finally coming to the end. Which means my departure is coming as well. So I am preparing for the moment step by step.


I was trying to reduce my personal belongings as many as possible because obviously my course in only for one year and it is far too unpractical to retain every thing I need. If you purchase something, it implies taking away or throwing away after wards. This is what study abroad is.

Of course, tried not to shed all the stuff I don't use after leaving. So I decided to sell these freshers. I advertised on a community space of the university and facebook as well. The printer, one of the images above was sold successfully by £15 which I used this less than one year.

However, it was one and only success. The lamp and the rod were not sold unfortunately. It might be tricky for people in terms of usage of the rod. And I believed that the lamp is cheap and practical but it was unpopular.
Elsewhere, I have just donated my stuff to a charity store for example, a cereal bowl, a dinner plate, a yoga mat and hungers because it was clear that nobody will buy them. Meanwhile, as to a sauce pan which I used lots of times, I made up my mind to take away along with other stuff in a parcel as it was not cheap thing and is very useful.

Other pictures show piles of train tickets and receipts. I am apt to not get rid of these paper after using but keep them in order to make sure that how much I spent money for. The height of these piles are for one year. Not too high, perhaps.

As a first parcel, I have sent a box to my home Japan. A few days later I noticed a letter saying that I was away when a post officer came to my home on Friday. The letter was from a company of my parcel so I was a contingency and it was right. Next week, a parcel I have sent has been returned to my home, which was annoying enough as it contained some sprays which are not allowed to be shipping. Therefore I removed the sprays and put alternative things instead and then sent it again. It should be alight but, still quite suspicious.

19 September, 2012

Impression about Russia


I thought something about Russia.

a. Prices
Prices in Russia are not cheap. Fares for Metro is quite reasonable, which is good. On the other hand, food price is not really. Of course it depends on what you buy but, as long as I saw the prices at supermarkets, these were almost as well as those of Tokyo or slightly cheaper.

b. Smoky
Russian people smoke a lot. Absolutely a lot. I was able to see people smoking on the street everywhere I was walking. Needless to say, both men and women. So as a non-smoker, it was disgusting when I pass them by.

c. Safe
Before visiting Russia, I have read about bad rumors of Russia. For example, police officers randomly inspect foreigners on the street. Local people tend to try to rob something you have. In fact, I was not investigated by any police offers and no fear to be robbed by thieves.

d. Impolite
During living in the UK, people always say 'thank you' or equivalent phrases every time. But, in Russia people don't say spaciva which means thank you in Russian. When I enter a restaurant, there were two ladies coming out from the restaurant and then I hold the door of the restaurant and gave my way to them. In the case of the UK, normally people say thank you or thanks but, the ladies at the restaurant, left without saying any words. I found the same tendencies elsewhere.

e. Blacky
Males in Russia are apt to wear black jackets made from leather. On the metro, on the street, at restaurants, I could find many people with black jackets on. Even if the jackets are not leather, they were wearing black jackets made from alternative materials.

16 September, 2012

A Sunday roast


My friends in the UK have been recommending me to have a Sunday roast since I came here last year. However, I had no opportunities to carry out this. And finally I got a chance my last relaxing Sunday.

Before going out, I googled in order to find out a good pub which serves good Sunday roasts. And its answer was many and then I found a pub which is quite near from my home. Then I went there as a firstly. With huge expectations, I got there and saw a sign saying that 'Sunday roasts being served' (as far as I am concerned). And then I entered to the pub and asked a staff to have me a Sunday roast. However, they have already ran out it. My expectations has turned into disappointment.

Then I decided to go another choice which is a bit far from the first pub. After about 15mins walk, I reached to the second choice. Seemingly the pub looked old and unclear if it was opening. Actually it was opened and I decided to order a Sunday roast. The pub has got several tastes. Meat for pork, beef, lam, chicken and flavours red wine and cider. The pub's recommendation was pork cider flavoured and then I ordered this. The cuisine is the picture above. Some ingredients on a plate, which is probably very British.

The taste itself was brilliant. The recommendation was absolutely true and my decision making was right. Pork was soft enough, Yorkshire pudding was nice, and in particular grinded apple was lovely. My friends used to say that Sunday roasts are definitely filling but for me was not really. Perhaps the Sunday roast which I had was not too much. Anyway, that was a good experience.

14 September, 2012

The exhibition has begun

The controversial exhibition has begun. My images for the final project are being shown at the university with my name. On the 13th of September, a private show has taken place. So, people who were invited to come to this show get together at once and enjoy the show and mainly drinking. 
I returned from Russia in order to attend to this opportunity however, as I have been imaging this was absolutely boring. Basically, people are not particularly interested in the images, but are keen to have a chat with friends, which is a typical excuse.


These are the fucking catalogues which are supposed to be distributed people coming to this show free of charge. Some of course mates including me put our energy to assemble insert sheets which describe our profiles and statements into covers quite long time without any income. Especially, I fetched these covers and inserts and so on from a course mate's office to university more than 6 or 7 times by using fucking a trolley on my own, literally manpower which was enough exhausting and ridiculous.
Seemingly, the catalogues look fine however, they have a lot of mistakes in inserts, for example email address, titles, colour of images, and resolutions. And top of all is its cover. Because the catalogue is closed by a sticker which is orange one as the image indicates. And when you open this catalogue, you can tear up the sticker according to its dotted line which is obviously easy to carry out. But in fact, the problem is that once you opened this, you cant undo as it is a sticker. Before compiling these catalogues, I was imaging that it has a sort of self-closing function, like a box of teabags. Reality is not, which is still disappointing honestly. In addition, look at the colour of the sticker. Why orange? It clearly doesn't get on the cover. And too conspicuous. It should have been transparent or grey or deep green or some other colours. Orange was considerably wrong decision.
The quality of the inserts are not very good. Some of sheets have unexpected dots and dirt as well. And the paper for the inserts is a bit thin for me. This might be a reasons why the catalouges has been given away.


The pictures should talk themselves in my opinion. But it's difficult for the viewers to understand the meanings of them without any descriptions as viewers are not familiar with photographic theory and the background and intention of the images. Since the course is too much academic, I've been feeling some sort gap between a general viewpoint and a theoretical one until the end of the course this time of academic year.

13 September, 2012

More about Saint Petersburg

Day2, I had enough time to walk around the city compared with Day1. Weather was very good.
First of all, I aimed at the Hermitage museum. But before that, a problem occurred. According to some website, purchasing tickets of the museum online is much cheaper and quicker than buying at the box office. And then I was trying to do this at the hotel however, there are no printers to issue the copy of ticket in spite of the hotel is for business usage. I asked many times at reception and looked for actual printers since a staff was saying that printers should be in business centre. But eventually, there were no printers available anyway. I wasted time for this about an hour.

 
 

I changed my mind and decided to go to the museum and buy a ticket there. In order to reach to the museum, I had to walk a couple of minutes but I lost my way for a while.
As I found it that the city is so organised meanwhile, sometimes it is confusing to get a certain direction. In other words, which way north, south, west, or east is. After approximately 20 minutes walk, I finally found the way to the Hermitage. As soon as I arrived at the museum, there was a big big space in front of it which is beautiful. And a lady in perhaps a traditional costume spoke to me saying that 'do you want to photograph with me?' Namely, this is her business. I was also asked by her where I am from and answered, Japan. And then a moment later, she spoke in Japanese to suggest photographing. This was absolutely funny.

 
 

The Hermitage is so huge. Egyptian era, Roman, medieval, Russian, and so on. Lots of collections are there. Even though I have been to the British Museum, comparing with the Hermitage, I prefer the latter one. Because the Hermitage is beautiful itself particularly inside and its way to exhibit is relatively tidy. Although I was trying to see impressionism, the exhibition was temporally closed. I walked quite long way to find out a way to the floor for the impressionism until asking a staff but it was completely wasting of time.

 
After the Hermitage, I kept walking around the city. And then got to Peter and Paul Fortress. Unfortunately, it has started to rain at that time and I was obliged to stop walking for a while. As the rain stopped sooner than I expected, I resumed sightseeing dropping by Peter and Paul Cathedral. This was not especially interesting but, there are some tombs inside of the cathedral and seemed to me sacred. In order to understand every thing about here, you need certain knowledge about the Russian history.

 

After my long walking, I had a dinner. I normally go to supermarkets to buy something to eat and save my money and also to see some sort of local things. However, in this case I haven't eaten Russian cuisine over the last 4 days therefore decided to eat a restaurant. Actually, this restaurant was a buffet style which is easy to select what I eat. The impression of the Russian food was not too bad. These tasted quite nice, in particular the read soup upper right corner of the image called 'borscht'. On the other hand, every food are basically oily, not necessarily smooth and light. If you eat these kind of cuisine every day, you might be fat quite easily. And a glass of vodka called Russian Standard after this was definitely superb.


And then finally I came back to the hotel. And I asked again the reception about a Russian confectionery which I have had at a hotel in Moscow which tasted so nice. What confusing for me was that there are three types of the confectionery in the exactly the same shape. What I ate was sweet one. So I asked which one is. And their answer was yellow one and two rabbits on the packages is the best one. And I managed to buy this the next day early in the morning which was extremely dodgy in order to get to the air port in time.


12 September, 2012

Saint Petersburg

On day3, I needed to move from Moscow to Saint Petersburg by a flight. But, due to difficulties of language, I was likely to miss the flight. As I was not sure if I have already paid for accommodation fees so I needed check it. However, it took time. In addition, at the Metro I wanted buy a ticket for a person and a luggage.
I had already prepared for a message saying that 'I need a ticket costs 28 Russian rubles' and showed it. But in fact, it was not enough as my suitcase is quite big. And then a tickets seller checked size and so on and she sold me a 28 rubles ticket. So I was trying to go through the gates but, it closed because the weight of my luggage was too heavy. Another metro staff came to me and said something about the ticket. Yet, I can't understand. Perhaps she was saying that this ticket was not enough. And then she gave up to do it and let me go.

It was still urgent as my flight time was coming. As soon as the Metro arrived at the station which I needed to transfer another train to the airport, I ran. Distance from the Metro station to the train is quite long. And finally, I got on the train just on time with a lot of sweats.

Soon after arriving at the airport, again lots of taxi drivers invited me to get on a taxi. Not like I was in Moscow, it was still after noon, bright enough, and I knew buses and Metros are much cheaper than taxi, I completely refuse these invitation.
Tickets for the Metro in Saint Petersburg is not actual tickets but tokens. When I got changes, I was not able to notice this and a token seller let me know quite easily.
As Saint Petersburg is a popular place for sightseeing, people slightly can understand English which was helpful. And then after check in, I decided to walk around the city for rest of the day.


My first impression about this city is clean, very organised, not too big and flat. These reminded me Hiroshima as there are some canals and many brides. As well as Moscow, roads are quite broad and loads of cars are running throughout the city. And as the second picture shows, I was able to find numbers of tunnels from the pavements. They are entrances to houses. Despite these tunnels are fascinating, they might be a private spaces therefore, I could not take pics lots.
At the end, it seemed to me that Japan is a bit popular in here as the last image shows.