After a good night’s sleep I showered and checked out from the hostel. I went to the nearby post office to put the postcards in the mailbox. It had a slot for domestic mail and postcards, and one for international mail, but where to put international postcards? I put them into the former, and apparently they arrived. I met a group of three girls in kimonos and asked them for a picture. They told me that they hear this question often, but they agreed, if they could also take one with me.
At the train station I bought a special ticket to the airport. I got two tickets, and would take three trains, run by three companies. (One train changed the line during the trip.) I payed about 12€ for a 100km trip. If I transfer this to Paris, the ticket to the airport should cost less than 4€ instead of 10€. I ate some fruits and onigiri (rice triangles) on the way. The airport scheduled the flight 10 minutes earlier. I still had time to buy some sweets from the leftover money.
I arrived in Shanghai, and took the Maglev (magnetic leviation) train. It took me a while to find the metro from there, as the arrows on the floor gave contradicting instructions. But finally I arrived at the apartment of my old flat mate from Munich, and his girlfriend. We went down to eat some grilled vegetables and noodles from a street vendor. After these three weeks in the well-organized Japan, I got a small culture shock by the chaos and messiness of Shanghai.