A danish is not called danish here.

Over thirty hours of involuntarily rocking and swaying on a 36,000 ton ferry, we arrive Hirshals port located at the northern tip of Denmark. Awkwardly with our backpack strapped to our bodies we reach for the passpot in the pocket hoping to get it stamped for once, but following the sign "nothing to declare" lead us to an immediate exit. Again, trying to get a proof of  visiting a new country was not successful, and will likely to remain that way until we leave Europe.

The first impression of the country, viewed from the train window, is that the land is very flat with what appears to be farm fields, compared to previously visited countries. With a few train transfers we arrive Århus, the second largest city after København. The claimed center of the Danish culture, Århus is located in the middle of Jutland, the peninsula connected to Germany. After spending the afternoon walking around and visiting a museum, we got back on the train and headed to the capital city three hours away. The image I have of Danish people, hard-working and being precise can be seen in places such as how streets are kept clean, trains run on time, bricks on buildings stacked up to perfection, and color of the cityscape well-schemed. As all education and public welfare are paid for by the government, it seem to me that the country appears to be very supportive of it's people, however, a local resident told us that people who does not take advantage of these possibilities are often viewed as failures of the society. I can certainly see similarities in between Danmark and Japan with such behavior of intolerance to those that are considered below average.

Next day we were fortunate to borrow over-sized bikes from a local guy we met (well, it's like a couple of hobbits borrowing swords from men), and wandered around. It is amazing how, we are from two of the busiest, stressful cities in the world; Tokyo and New York, and yet feel overwhelmed by people, bikers, and cars all moving rapidly in all directions because we have been away from it for four weeks. We were amazed about how the city is built around bicycles, with not only special bike lanes and stop lights, but also with passing lanes and rules. Paying attention to traffic and pedaling giant bikes we were exhausted by the time we got to the center, but certainly was a nice way to experience and view the city.