I was supposed to leave Taiwan on 8th November at 1am, but the flight was delayed and we left around 3:30am. I arrived in Manila at 6am and I took a taxi to my host's flat. It was already 7am when I got there and we were going to the Taal volcano that day so I had no time to sleep. I slept only around 3 hours that night and although I didn't really feel tired while we were visitng the Taal volcano I was falling asleep very quickly in the car. We got to the Taal lake around noon, we had a drink in a restaurant and then we sailed to the island. We had to ride a horse to the top of the mountain, the road was very steep. When we got to the top we took many photos and we admired the amazing view. It would have been possible to go down to the lake and swim in a sulphur water but it would take much time so we decided not to go there.

On the way down it was windy and the road was very dusty. I had to lean back so much that I was almost lying on the horse. There was a traffic jam on the way to Manila and we got there around 7pm. I was supposed to meet my old friend who studied with me at the Wageningen university and we met at the Bacolod Chicken Inasal at Glorietta Mall. The dinner was good, I ordered a fried chicken. Then we went to a bar and my host showed me a food speciality from Manila, it was an unborn chicken which was cooked inside an egg. It looked disgusting because it felt inappropriate to cook a chicken which was already developing, but I tried it and it tasted like egg.
My host was busy on Sunday and I visited Intramuros, I took a metro and then I hired a rikshaw, I paid 200 pesos per half an hour. I went to a cathedral and also the Fort Santiago and afterwards I went to a park to see the Rizal monument. Then I returned to my host and he cooked spaghetti bolognese for me and in the evening he took me to the airport because I had to catch my flight to Brunei. I spent a good time in Philippines and the Taal volcano was a wondeful place.

Taipei is only 600 km far from Okinawa and the flight took around one hour. I set up a meeting with a girl from CS at the Taipei main station at 11am, but I managed to get a bus from the airport very quickly and I arrived there too early. While riding the bus I saw mountains and also old houses which looked quite poor. I waited at the train station for 45 minutes until Theresa and her sister arrived. I put my suitcase in a left-luggage office and we took a metro to the Tamsui district. The weather in Taipei was quite the same as in Okinawa, around 23-24°C, partly sunny, partly cloudy. When we got to Tamsui we bought a milk bubble tea which was very popular in Taipei. Tea was good but I didn't really like the starch balls. Afterwards we went for a lunch in some local restaurant and then we walked to the Fort San Domingo.

My camera was running out of battery because the plugs in Taiwan are different from the ones in Europe and I didn't have an adapter so I could take only a few photos. After visiting the fort we walked on the Tamsui river shore and we went to a shopping district. I tasted an egg which was hard boiled in a black tea. Then we visited a shop with sweets, there was free tasting so I tried many cakes, some of them were delicious while the others I didn't like. Then we returned to the Taipei main station. I found a host on CS and we were supposed to meet at the Ximen station at 7pm and then I scheduled a meeting for my friends in the Modern Toilet restaurant. I waited at the Ximen station for half an hour but my host didn't come. Later I found out that he mistook the date of my arrival, he thought I was going to arrive on 7th November instead of 6th. I tried to call him many times from the public phone but he didn't answer. I left the Ximen station at 7.30pm, but by the time I reached the Modern Toilet restaurant my friends had already left. I wasn't particularly angry that my host didn't arrive but I was very upset about not being able to meet my friends. Then I tried to figure out what to do, I was walking in Taipei and tried to find an internet cafe, it was very difficult because there were not many of them and I had to pull my suitcase. I was passing some hostels on my way, but I decided not to go there before I talk to my host and my friends. Finally I found an internet cafe and my old friend who studied with me at the Wageningen university in Netherlands invited me to stay at her home for one night. I took a taxi to the Neihu district, I reached her home around 10pm. Her husband bought for me a chicken and rice and we had a talk until midnight and then we went to sleep.
In the morning I met Theresa again and we walked in a city, we took a photo of Taipei 101 skyscraper and we went to a Hong Kong restaurant. I ate ice cream with red beans.

Early in the afternoon we travelled to a district with restaurants which offerred turtle and snake meat. We bought a snake soup with ginger flavour. I was surprised that the snake meat tasted like fish and it had also many bones. Then we ate turtle soup but I didn't like the taste because it was dark meat and similar to beef. Afterwards Theresa had to leave and I went to the Beitou hot springs. The entrance was very cheap and the place was crowded, there were mostly local people. They were friendly and I talked to some of them. There were several pools with thermal water, one pool was with a cold water, the other one had around 35-38°C and the last one 42-45°C which was terribly hot, I couldn't stay inside the water. I just sat down and I had to go out immediately. I spent there only one hour, then I had to go to Ximen to meet the guy who was supposed to host me. We went to the Modern Toilet restaurant, I ordered pasta and ice cream, but the food was average. Then we walked to the Main station and I took a bus to the airport to take a flight to Manila. 

My flight to Okinawa departed at 9am from the Narita airport on November 3rd. Soon after we took off I saw the Mount Fuji on the right side of the plane. There was an American woman sitting next to me who worked for military and she has been living in Okinawa 34 years. She told me many interesting things about Okinawa and she showed me photos on her phone. Our flight lasted 3 hours and when we landed I ate noodles at the airport. I don't remember the exact price but it was around 700 yen. I had a contact with a guy from CS who was from the Czech Republic and he has been living in Okinawa since 2005. He does research at the university and he married a Japanese woman. He invited me to a party in a hotel at Makishi with a buffet and free liquor tasting. We had a drink firstly in a cafe nearby and I ordered a milk tea. I drank a lot of milk tea in Japan and I liked it although I am not used to drinking it here in Prague. Then we went to a party and his wife sang there. In the evening I had to return to the airport because my hosts just returned from the trip in Tokyo. I was hosted in Okinawa by an American couple. I had only 2 days to visit Okinawa but I had a good time. On Tuesday my host took me to the aquarium in the north of the island where I watched a dolphin show and I saw many sea animals including whale sharks. It was around 24°C in Okinawa, when it was sunny it was hot, but when it was cloudy and windy it was cold and I had to wear a sweater.

After visiting the aquarium I found out that the public transportation in Okinawa was scarce and I couldn't find any bus which would take me to the south of the island. I had no choice but to hitchhike. It took around 20 minutes until a car stopped. The driver was around 70 years old guy and there was also a young woman with him, she could be around 25-30. They asked me where I wanted to go and I said hotel Moonbeach. They took me there, but the guy spoke only a little English and the girl didn't speak English at all. There was a nice beach at the hotel with white sand, water was warm, around 25°C, I spent one hour in the sea. There were many Japanese people swimming but all of them wore neoprene. My host came to pick me up and we watched the sunset. Afterwards we had dinner in a restaurant, I had a soup with egg and noodles, fried shrimps and rice. In the evening we watched a horror movie Saint Ange.
The following day I wanted to go to a beach on the Pacific coast. My host told me that the beaches on the East China coast were much more beautiful and that was certainly true, but I wanted to see the Pacific ocean. My host took me to a beach in the south of the island. The beach was completely empty. I swam in the sea but the water was colder than the day before and I spent only 10 minutes in the water. Then I wanted to go to Naha but there was no bus around and I had to hitchhike again. It took around half an hour until a guy picked me up. He was around 50 and he spoke English well. He took me to Makishi where I walked in a market and I then I had a lunch in a restaurant. I ate cuttlefish noodles and a mango pudding. Then I took train to the Shuri castle. It was already late afternoon when I got there, I walked in a garden next to the castle and I watched a sunset.

Then I returned to Makishi where I met my hosts and we went to restaurant for dinner. We ordered tacos with chips. Afterwards we bought some Japanese sweets in a supermarket. Most Japanese sweets were made of rice and red beans. Then we watched the horror movie The taking of Deborah Logan. I left Okinawa on 6th November early in the morning when I took a flight to Taipei.

When my boss approved 3 weeks holiday in November for me I immediately knew that I would travel to Asia again. There were cheap flight tickets available to many Asian countries and I decided to buy a flight ticket to Tokyo because the return ticket costed only 500 Eur. I left Prague on 30th October in the evening, I changed a plane in Paris and then I flew to Tokyo with Air France. The flight was good, I managed to sleep for some hours, I watched the movie Changeling with Angelina Jolie and I had a talk with a Japanese guy who was sitting next to me. We got a meal twice during our flight, firstly potatoes with chicken and then potatoes with spinach. I stayed in Tokyo with a Japanese guy who I hosted in Slovakia in June 2012. I arrived in Tokyo on 31st October around 7pm and my host picked me up from the airport. We travelled to his home in Asakusa. His room was very small, there was only a space for a mattress and a table. The following day it was raining a lot. We went to the Sensoji temple which was close to his home. We got free green tea and I was lucky to see a ceremony which occurs only once a year. There were many children wearing kimono and I took pictures with them.

Afterwards we visited Shibuya where we saw Provenance of the Bourgogne Wine for Consecration at Meiji Jingu. Then my host took me to manga quarter called Akihabara with shops where people played gaming machines. In the evening we went to a Tokyo tower but it was still rainy and we didn't go up.

On Sunday the weather was much better. It was warm enough to wear summer clothes all day. In the morning we went to the gardens next to the Imperial palace. 

Afterwards we visited a market, war museum and in the evening we had sushi for dinner. I left Tokyo on Monday morning when I took a flight to Okinawa.