1970 - 1971

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Basel Railwaystation: They say good-bye to family and friends. He travels with Urle for one year. Franz joins them. They take the train through Hungary, the Ukraine, Russia, change to the Trans-Siberian Railway in Moscow and keep traveling trough the Ural and Siberia with many stops and stays in Novosibirsk with a trip to Akademgorodok, the scientific city, where he drops in at the university. He walks unattended through the whole building and finds an open door in the library where to his great surprise, the latest album of the Beatles is playing. Moving on to Irkutsk and by boat on lake Baikal. As they return to their hotel in Irkutsk, they run into Urles Uncle Christoph and Tante Emele who happen to be returning from Mongolia for an overnight stay Ain Irkutsk. Traveling along Ussuri river to Chabarowsk where they meet a friendly female guide who makes possible many unothorized visits in the City. After a month traveling through the Eurasian Continent they arrive in Nachodka and leave by ship to Japan. Arranged by Seizo Fujimura, his friend Chikara Morita awaits them in the Port of Osaka. He lives and works for 6 months in Osaka, Inami, Tokyo, Kyoto, Kobe. He lives and works one months in Gotemba, at the foot of the Fujiyama. Meets the sculpturer Norio Imai in Osaka: «Nothing is as present as nothing». Subsequently, goes traveling from temple to temple on the islands of Honshu and Hokkaido. For a period of two months he gets accommodation in families and sleeps at many temple sites while traveling from village to village, making close contact with the private nature of Buddhism.