The next flight was going to Lisbon via Frankfurt by Lufthansa, leaving on the early Saturday morning. The reason why I chose the transit at Frankfurt was of course the first class lounge (it's not the terminal this time), but I'll save this story for the next entry. The issue here is the flight time, Saturday morning. In fact I hadn't realised this until arriving at Jerusalem though due to the Jewish weekends, all public transportation in Israel is almost paralysed on Friday and Saturday. According to the timetable, it looked like I had to leave there early Friday morning otherwise the next bus would be on Sunday.

Since I didn't want to waste a whole day at the airport (and worry about oversleeping), I asked to the hostel's owner for other solutions and he answered "No worries. We are Muslims and don't care about Jewish weekends. We can organise a shuttle bus on Friday. What time do you want to leave?" Oh fantastic! I told him "the latest one" and it was leaving at 20:00. Well, late enough. Although I missed the peak of the Friday gathering in front of the Western Wall, which is very famous for its divine atmosphere, anyway I could observe people start chanting. I hope to watch the whole process if I have a chance to visit here again.

After picking up the passengers, the bus made its headway to the Tel Aviv airport. The bus driver was quite typical of this trip, a speed demon. Though I couldn't see the meter, he was driving recklessly on the passing line and overtaking a number of vehicles. Besides, in case of being overtaken, he automatically tried to defeat the rival again. In general, independent bus drivers are always aggressive.

Thanks to the hard effort of the driver, the bus arrived at the airport just after 21:00. Considering the time spent for picking up the other passengers, it took no less than an hour, even though it had taken more than an hour from the bus terminal to the other when I'd come from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. Nevertheless, my flight time wouldn't become earlier no matter how early I arrived at the airport. I had to wait until 3 a.m. for the check in. Well, I'm actually quite good at spending time; providing a decent bench and electricity I could turn on my laptop and 6 hours wouldn't be too long to edit my blog and photos, except for being casually questioned by the guard.

The departure gate was milder than the arrival gate. When I submitted my passport, the officer asked me "Why you don't have the stamp?" "I didn't mind getting the stamp but the other officer sent me to a different room and gave me the paper for the stamp!" replied I half angrily. The officer didn't respond at all, saying "uhhh, O.K." he let me through the gate. No departure stamps. I just assume that if I'd answered him "because I want to go to the other Middle East countries", he would've given me the stamp with a big smile. There are no records of entering Israel on my passport and quite a few people envy me for it. But I have very hazy feeling about it.

Anyway, this was the last day of my Middle East trip. Since I visited Dubai in the middle of February (despite sidetracking to Europe) those 90 days were full of new experience, notice, and meetings. Despite the international political reports, this area was absolutely safe and welcoming. Avoiding the real conflicting area, such as Iraq at this moment, I'd like to recommend world travellers to visit here. I can assure you that you can find a lot of new aspects of values.

Well, next is a train trip in Europe!

Just in front of the accommodation, stands the Damascus gate which is one of the main entrances of the old town and going through the gate I could find the Muslim area of the Jerusalem old town. Fresh vegetables and fruits, colourful spices, bizarre electric appliances, even though the size of the cities were bit different, this scenery reminded me the other Arabic cities I'd passed such as Amman and Damascus and I somehow felt a kind of nostalgia.

Walking for a while, a strict security gate guarded by armed soldiers appeared on my eye sight. As if it had been at the airport, I had to go through the x-ray security check and it was a large Square after the gate. Wearing pure white shirts and deep black suites, having long moustaches, putting top hats, exactly the typical looking Jews were praying against a gigantic wall. This is the famous "Western Wall".

The Western Wall is the only remaining part of the Jerusalem Temple which was the foremost holly place for Jews built by the King David before the Common Era. The prosperity of the old Israel Kingdom had been destroyed by the Roman invasion and since then the broken Jews around the world have been wailing for this tragedy and praying for the rebuilding of the kingdom. Being surrounded by tourists, many Jews were earnestly praying towards the wall. There was a special corner for foreigners and travellers were allowed to imitate praying but this dignified atmosphere hindered me doing so.

Looking up the wall, the Dome of the Rock, the oldest Muslim building is standing behind it. As well as Jews, Jerusalem is one of the holiest places for Muslims. It is said Mohamed, the founder of Islam, had a holy experience flying to Jerusalem from Mecca for one night. Unfortunately, the area itself was restricted for the non Muslim visitors but I could see the golden dome very well from the hill.

Continuing the walking further, I arrived at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, which is believed to have been built on Golgotha. Well, I might have learnt about the Crusades when I was sleeping on the desk. On the day, I heard Christian tourists singing choirs under the sound of bells.

It took only 2 hours to walk around this course. It would've taken less than 1 hour without any halt and within this tiny area the three big religions called "Abrahamic religions" have their most holy places. I could see the tense atmosphere -Jerusalem is the most contentious city place of the world- from the soldiers everywhere carrying heavy machine guns. However, I felt absolutely safe there too ironically due to the soldiers. Nobody would commit mugging or whatever in front of the machine guns.

Well anyway, religions are so difficult. Since when I stayed in Australia, I've been thinking that humans tend to congregate according to their similarities. Family blood, nationality, gender, school, race, favourite musicians etc., if somebody has the same attribute, we recognise this person is a friend and develop intimacy. On the other hand, if the person has the opposite attribute, we are prone to be exclusive. Religions are the epitome of this story; if they share the same doctrine they can be fellows even beyond nationalities yet they could be brutal to the others if they believe in their god as the only true religion

And Jerusalem has three religions believing their own god is the only one and claiming "this city is ours". Well, it's understandable that this is the most disputed area of the world for ages. I'd like to grumble, "Dear God, how many of you are here and who is real?"

On the other hand, our Japanese view of religions is completely opposite to this. An average Japanese celebrated their childhood at a Shinto shrine, wedding at a Christian church, and funeral at a Buddhist temple. What's more, we have a very busy year ends starting from Christmas(Christianity), end of the year bell(Buddism), and new year visit to Shrine(Shintoism). However, we don't really believe in those seriously, I know quite a few Japanese got confused at abroad when they were asked "Do you believe in the God?"

Speaking about myself, I used to suffer from this but for now I'm actually proud of not relying on anything too much. I suppose, for this reason I can make judgments based on my own value. Therefore if I had to state, I believe in myself and social morality. For instance, speaking about a support to the others, I do it because I want to see their smile not because I was told by God "You can go to the heaven if you do so".

Oh, I've sidetracked from the heavy story. But I don't want to conclude this entry with a cheap phrase like "May the peace arrive soon." as I was forced to ponder over something deep for the human's sin and karma. Mutual concessions, forgiveness, and acceptance, I assume all of us were taught these things in our childhood but a lot of adults all over the world can't follow them. Well, maybe because it's even difficult for adults, we teach them to the children. I wonder when everyone will become capable of these principles..