i was circling the planet in 1987. my first trip ever out of europe. starting in new york city, two weeks with → louise lecavalier in a cosy apartment and 2 cats in → greenwich village. i then headed off to hongkong, where i stayed in → chung king mansions, the no 1 place for backpackers at that time. junkies and cockroaches falling from the ceiling onto the bed.

then i flew to shanghai, with a visa. there i met (while on a bike with no working brakes in the snow) → huang song and on a ride on the very rare taxis mr. ju zong yong. i stayed in the → peace hotel, with european jazz in the evenings. after a week i took a ferry back to hongkong where taiwanese tourists urged me to participate in a karaoke session. on the upper deck, during the night, i listened to the → BBC world service on shortwave. from hongkong i flew to seoul. park yun seo introduced me to the korean → go community, to horse racing (i won, he lost) and to a brothel (i left). from there i flew to tokyo and stayed in the → greenpeace house in → kaminakazoto. the host of that mini hostel was an eldery man who served → sake all evening, preferably to young female tourists from europe. i left japan earlier than planned, flew back to korea and after the three months were over, via hongkong, bangkok back to frankfurt. i revisited japan once and korea twice and new york many times. what a year that was!