I'm still in Asia, but not in Japan. Blowing that whistle somehow got me into Hong Kong. I know, as the kanji I saw was significantly different from what I saw in Japan, and everyone laughed when I said "konichi wa", which is not Cantonese. It also took a while before someone actually told me why that was funny (and thereby told me where I was). So anyway, when I realized that I was brought this far, I wondered if that whistle could take me back home. But when that thought crossed my mind, I realized the whistle was gone, as though it could be used only once.
My stay here hasn't been all that uninteresting, however. Much like those car-chases and/or killers in the States, or the monsters in Japan, this particular area seemed to be constantly have people using their martial arts against each other. It looks to me that every country has their own... special things (I don't know how else to call it). I wonder what it is that makes my home-country special.
Anyway, after some long walk, I ran into this street, where some guy, about the same age as me, was demonstrating some of his own martial artistic moves to some people passing by, and sometimes even fight with them. By the way, is it me or do all those people look very much alike? Anyway, after watching that guy beating the crap out of them, I asked what it was he did exactly. Unfortunately, he didn't speak any language I know, and some of the time a language nobody else knew either. Still, with however little the nearest person could translate for me, it turned out he was doing something called "jyuken", or "beastfist" in English. Never heard of it, but it seemed interesting. Wonder if there are beastfist-masters in Europe as well, particularly in my own country.
It's funny, I mean from what I heard about this area, the so-called Republic of Greater East Asia, they have this grudge against the western world, particularly America, and yet more people seem know English, not to mention that they are very nice to me, a westerner. Perhaps, much like I am with my own government, these people aren't too pleased with their own leaders. Out of curiosity, I asked them about this, and they acknowledged that their leaders indeed tell them that we, westerners, are enemies, but by meeting people like me, they choose to believe otherwise. Additionally, I told them, by means of example, that I've been in Japan, which got some of them to look a little spooked. They told me that I'm lucky that this... Kira, I think they called him, didn't get to me. I don't know all the details, but this Kira character could cause people to have heart-attacks, without even doing anything to them, or even being anywhere near his victims. And I thought that those monsters were dangerous.
Thursday, August 14th 2008:
Tamara, Marco, that whistle, now somebody that calls himself a "jumper". All of the aforementioned are people or things that have transported me to other places, faster than you can say "it".
But I'm running ahead of things. After walking through Hong Kong a little more, I ran in on this guy, who did something... I'm not sure what it is, but suddenly I was in Egypt, on top of the Sphinx, only to be transported to a flowery area. Whoever this guy was, why he went to Egypt before ending up here, or how he did all this, I don't know. All he told me is that he's running from people who hate jumpers. I can only guess that, as he somehow transports himself from one place to another, or "jumps" from one place to another, he is what he calls a jumper.
I must say, that this area alone does have some serene air about it, so it doesn't surprise me that this jumper would come here every so often. These flowers I mentioned, I'm no botanist, but I believe they're called amaranth, otherwisely known as the flower that never withers. I don't know why, but it got me to think. It's a fact that women want their men to give her flowers, but they die a little too easily. If giving flowers to your beloved is supposed to show your love for her, it symbolically would mean that your love would die soon. But giving some of these amaranth ones... I think I may know a way to surprise Erica, next time I see her.
Okay, I couldn't wait that long, I just made a picture and send it to her. It made me wonder why I didn't bother to take a camera with me before I left. If it wasn't for Magiel, I wouldn't even have a camera with me. But then, if it wasn't for my curiosity, I wouldn't even have died once, or for that matter I wouldn't even have started this journey.
It took me a while, but I eventually figured out that I'm in Finland. This close to home. After everything I've been through, I feel that I've had enough, so I wanted to take the plane that would take me back. Unfortunately, the next flight would be within days from now. I might as well walk there on foot. So that's why I'm on a boat now, headed to Denmark. Even when headed home, it looks like my journey is far from over.