Together with our friend Tokutaro, we had a trip to Lake Biwa, the biggest lake of Japan. Tokutaro has a car, so he showed us places we didn’t go before, and it was a lot of fun! One place in particular was fascinating, a mountain with a large temple build on to it. When we got upstairs I lost count of how many stairs there were, but it was truly worth the climb. The temple looked as if it walked straight of of a Ghibli movie. The setting sun also provided an impressive view on Japan below.

We had a delicious dinner at Tokutaro’s parents. Also, his father had a Ukiyo-e print that was hundreds years old about Dutch traders! You can tell they are Dutch by their skin color and big noses, but also on top is a small dictionary that translates Japanese words into Dutch. For instance “Akai” (Japanese for red) translates to “Rooto” (Dutch red is rood). Luckily he made a print for us!