Lately I flew to Canada, visiting Vancouver and Toronto.

Vancouver is full of Asian people, only 50 percent of the population is Canandian, around 30 percent are Chinese, and then there are many Japanese, Korean, Indian people etc. It´s a real melting pot and you can see and hear it on the streets.

So when I arrived in Vancouver, I was sure to find a warm Ramen noodle soup I craved!

During another trip I saw a Ramen restaurant and I wanted to go there. I remembered the restaurant being near Robson Street, the main shopping street in Downtown. I walked down the street ant lucky as I was I found the restaurant, called `Kintaro Ramen` (have a look at this blog http://www.ramenramenramen.net/2010/02/22/ramen-rating-kintaro-ramen-vancouver-bc/, quite interesting).

There was a little queue, thus I had to wait a little bit.

But as soon as I had taken a seat at the bar I felt like beeing back in Japan. The restaurant was quite small, but filled with Asian people, the guests as well as the cooks and waiters.

The kitchen was behind the bar, therefore I could watch the chefs at work. There where biiiiig pots, 4 at the same time, with broth and other things I don´t know in it. It was really interesting to watch, even if I couldn´t finally say, how to make a soup a, because the cook used so many different ingredients...

The soup was delicious, warm and tasty!!! I was happy.

Domo arigato!

Let´s move on to Toronto

Toronto is the biggest city in Canada, with 2.6 million inhabitants and is situated on the Great Lakes (the Lake Ontario is the one at Toronto).

The first thing I wanted to do in Toronto was to visit Niagara Falls. We did this on the first evening we arrived. So we saw the falls during the night, which was quite...icky! (?)

I prefer the natural feeling of a big nature spectacle like this, but didn´t get the feeling because of `little Las Vegas` around the falls and the colorful illumination of the falls. But anyways it was nice to see them (next time during day time), and I made some great pictures.

The next day I went to see St. Lawrence Market, a wonderful huge market, with more than 120 retailers. You´ll get everything there from seafood to coffee, from butcheries to wonderful bakeries. I hardly could decide what to eat, so I went there twice, for breakfast and lunch.

The original market was built back in 1803, and was made entirely out of wood. After a long phase of neglect it got redeveloped between the 1970s and 1990s. I really enjoyed walking around and looking at all the different things on display, trying some food, and absorbing the atmosphere. 

Have a look on the market´s site:

http://www.stlawrencemarket.com/

By the way, another great market, this one is in Vancouver, is the Granville Island market. I love it!
Take a Salmon Bagel at the Bagel bakery, it´s the best :)

http://granvilleisland.com/granville-island-farmers-market

The ascent of the Fujiyama

Mountains, I really love mountains. Since I was a child I´m going hiking in the Bavarian and Austrian alps.
Some years ago I decided to climb every year the highest mountain of a country (because I love to travel, it´s a great combination).
My first highest mountain of a country was the Fujiyama in Japan (well actually it was the Zugspitze in Germany, but that was years ago).

So I will tell you about my adventurous climb of the Fuji-San (the Holy Mountain).

First some informations about the mountain:

The Fuji is located on the island Honshu, south of Tokyo (it takes around two hours with the bus or car from Tokyo).
The mountain is a volcano, but not active anymore, the last eruption was in 1707. The Fujiyama has the very typical volcanic form, being round like a cone. It`s said that the Fuji is one of the most beautiful mountains in the world and since 2013 the Fuji is actually part of the UNESCO world cultural heritage.
With 3776,24 m it´s the highest mountain of Japan.

Most Japanese are shintoists and buddhists, to have two religions at the same time is just fine. For them the Fuji is a holy place. The shintoism comes from animism, which is the belief that natural places have special powers and are sacred. For this reason you will find shrines at magnificent places in nature, such as mountains, lakes etc. That´s why you´ll find a shrine (with a ´torii´ in front of the temple, that´s a huge gate) on top of the mountain.
And since the Fuji is a holy place, every Japanese person should climb it at least once in their lifetime.

But not only Japanese people climb the Fuji, also lots of tourists from all over the world (during the summer around 3000 people per day!!). You can imagine how crowded it is!
Many people climb the mountain during the night to see the sunrise in the morning, which is exactly what I did.
On a evening in mid-August (the main climbing time is July until September) I took a bus from Shinjuku Station in Tokyo to the Fuji. The bus arrived at around 10 in the evening at the seventh station.  
There are three possible tracks to climb the Fuji. Since I did not have that much time, I took the shortest, the Fuji Subaru Line. The Subaru Line 5th Station is 2300 m above sea level, so you only have to climb the last 1400 meters. 

The walk is quite monotonous, as it´s night and you naturally don´t see that much, you just walk. In between there are many huts, where you can eat or drink something, or if you want to, even sleep. They are very expensive, however.

The higher I got, the colder it became. I was really well equipped, with a warm jacket, gloves, cap and climbing boots, but nevertheless I was freezing a lot. I felt even colder, when I saw other people only in shorts and t-shirts.
I also brought a headlamp, but I didn´t really need it. There were that many people, that you always had enough light.
This was also the first time that I actually came into a traffic jam on a mountain. :)

After seven hours of walking, including some breaks, I finally reached the summit. What a feeling, really nice!

But as I was freezing as hell, I needed something warm. There was a little restaurant on top of the mountain and there I had the greatest Miso Ramen soup in the world, fantastic!
And then the sunrise: Unfortunately it was a bit cloudy, so you could not see the sun that well, but still there was a great atmosphere. 

I then met some Bavarian guys and we clinked glasses with Japanese beer at only 7
o´clock in the morning!
I surrounded the crater, and walked down again, which felt like ages as the path looked the same all the time. But I still had a great view and eventually got warm again.
Finally I arrived at the station, half dead of fatigue. But I was not the only one, as you can see in the picture bellow:

I got into the bus, and slept, then into the subway, and slept, somehow I managed to go shopping in the supermarket and to eat some tempura, but as soon I was in the hotel, I fell into the bed, and slept for 12 hours straight


...and dreamt of the Fuji!