Incidentally, there are few traffic lights in Cairo city. There are actually some in the important spots but policemen also stand there all the time as nobody is willing to comply with the lights only. Besides, they were in only a few points and most of cars just go forward following the traffic. What’s more, this rule applies to the pedestrians too. When a person wants to cross a main road, he has to, with his little courage, make his step in to the heavy traffic and run through the road. Otherwise, a lot of cars just charge him with noisy horns. I'm not joking here. However, I noticed many local people just crossed the road as if they didn’t have any problems despite the shocking condition. I tried to observe them and finally found out a trick they are using.

The key point was finding slow cars. On the heavy traffic, there are some really junk like old cars and way too heavily laden buses. They are apparently slower than the others and we have to make use of the difference. Once we find the slow vehicles, we must dash out without hesitation and we can make it. I guess there was an old video game something like this. Though I finally got used to this situation, I'm now afraid of myself if I do the same in the other developed countries afterwards.

Too much traffic means too much air pollution. This was the first time for me, who had stayed in the middle of Tokyo for years, to feel "I can't stand it!" with the air. After walking around Cairo city for about 2 hours, my throat began to feel sore and even I found myself dizzy too. What’s more, there were shockingly no bubbles when I used shampoo. This is all because of the vehicles belching black exhaust all around the city. For the global environment, I'd like to suggest developed countries invest in countries like Egypt to reduce the dirty exhausts rather than squeezing themselves to cut their own already minimized emissions. This might be bit difficult due to the diplomatic interests though.

Another problem in Cairo was in fact people there. There is a Japanese travellers saying that there are three worst annoying countries in the world; India, Morocco, and Egypt. Although Cairo is regarded as rather mild as it's a sort of urbanised city, many people tried to stop me, saying "Hey my friend, what are you looking for. I'm your friend and I can take you anywhere you want." Oh, we can be friends with a single eye contact in your country? Besides, there is a person saying to me, "Are you Egyptian? I thought you are a local person. What are you doing here?" Well, I think I heard this phrase before.

There are also too many demands of tipping too. They simply said "Don't you give me any tip?" with smile but their eyes seemed very serious too. Even though I did give a humble amount of tip to the driver of the taxi organised by my accommodation from the airport, he furiously complained like "The tip is too small! Even the petrol I used costs more than this!" I have never been complained about the amount of the tip before. Anyway the cost of petrol should have been covered with the regular fare from the accommodation.

I must say that not all Egyptians are as annoying as them. Most of local people are in fact quite nice. However, regarding the people who are in the tourist industry, it is indeed their job to rip the tourist off as much as they can. Therefore, it is very natural to them to present shockingly expensive price for the first time and demand some tip after the deals. Common sense, good sense varies from the places you are brought up, fundamentally. Well, I realised that I'd come to a very tough area.

I arrived at the normal terminal as I used the train to go to the airport and anyway checked in there. At the counter, the staff gave me a pass to the first class "lounge" but I asked her about the terminal with very indirect speaking like "Well, I heard you have a nice terminal for the first class passengers." And she assured me I can use the terminal if I don't mind going there on foot for 10 minutes. I don't mind it at all of course. Without the luggage, 10 minutes waking is the same as nothing.

It was bit difficult to find the building though, finally I arrived there. In front of the building I couldn’t find anyone around but a person in charge came to me immediately after using the intercom. According to her, they didn’t really think about people who walked from the main terminal as the visitors usually use their own cars or taxis. Well, the reason is so plausible that I couldn't blame their assumption.

In order to enter the building, I had to pass the departure procedure as it was a terminal of a sort. Nevertheless, once the personal assistant took my passport, what I had to do was only passing the security gate. Although there was only one gate available, basically there are few visitors there and no queues. After that, the assistant offered me a guided tour around the terminal and I decided to go with her.

Incredibly, the shower room had a decent bath tub. What's more, the shower booth and the tub were completely separated and the room was spacious enough as though I can make my living there. In terms of amenities, the sets of Etro's mini bottles looked very luxurious while there are usually big bottles attached to the booth in the other terminals. Besides, you can enjoy the tub with a duck. I couldn't recall when I'd had such a gorgeous bath time before this.

After getting refreshed with the bath, of course it was the time for the meals. Prosciutto, salmon, shrimp cocktail, it seemed like a buffet table at a luxurious hotel. How come there are more than one kind of prosciuttos? I reckon the volume and luxuriousness of this terminal far surpassed the other places I ever stayed before. Although I had no time to order the real course menu, I was quite satisfied with the delicious finger foods and exquisite sweets.

When the boarding time came, I had a chance to use a limousine service as the first class terminal is located far from the normal gate. Though there are many luxurious German cars such as Mercedes S class, surprisingly a Porsche Cayman came to me since presumably I was quite young and they brought a cool sport car. Of course, this was the first time to get into a Porsche. Maybe the car wasn’t customized for sports driving too much and it was quite comfortable in the passenger seat. Though there was only a 5 minute drive it was a very exciting moment indeed.

The aircraft was not really impressive as it was just a middle distance haul but the quality of their service was quite high. Especially, I loved the chocolate after the dinner. As a chocoholic, I had been already captivated by the chocolates in this area. I'm very much looking forward to the next long visit there at this summer. Despite some troubles before this day, all in all I was satisfied with the trip with Lufthansa.

At last, I arrived at Cairo. Though I'd already visited Dubai, as the city was bit special, I should say the trip around Middle East finally began. This 2 month trip from Egypt to Turkey on land would become the most backpacker-like trip in my whole route.

During the presentations, I was also impressed with their method of presentations, as well as the contents themselves. Though they are sort of "geeks" they are really confident in the presentations and talked very smoothly about their interests. Besides, they managed to capture the audiences' attentions with tiny jokes and emphasizing expressions. It was quite different from the most presentations I’d seen in Japan although there are some good speakers in Japan too. I'd like to adapt their style if I have a chance to make presentations in the future.

Because of the work which was absolutely top quality, I seriously came to think about my career after coming back to Japan though this trip is still not yet half way through. Probably, I'm confident in myself that I can easily earn my simple livelihood if I work in this industry. Yet, I couldn’t stop thinking about how to be better, a top creator like them. To put it bluntly, what kind of things do I need to do in order to become a FITC speaker for example?

Nonetheless, I analyse myself as a person who sadly doesn't have that level of madness towards creativity and I must do something different. And speaking so, I suppose versatility is undoubtedly my only weapon. I've been thinking of this for a very long time and in order to make maximum use of it, I need to be an ultimate generalist. Design, program, writing, photography, business, English, music, with doing all these I can stand in the centre of the creative process. At the very least I need to develop those skills until each professional admits me in their field and I can possibly lead them. Though there are too many things to do but I also need madness to get along with mad people.

Well, I'm actually exploring myself as well as the world. This trip gave me a time to make my vision clearer. Yet not only thinking, I have take some actions to achieve the vision.