Anton's place

What's in a name?

2010-05-15T15:27:00.002+09:00

This entry contains adult language and bitter rants. You have been warned. :)

During recent years sushi has seen a huge increase in popularity in Sweden. I do like sushi and naturally this trend makes me happy. But I’ve run into some awkward names for sushi restaurants in Stockholm. Check this out.

Sushi restaurant #1

Esa sushi.

According to my Japanese dictionary, the word “esa” is written 餌 and means fodder or animal feed, something you give your pet or to a bird in a pond. “Esa” would not be used when talking about human food. Weird name for a restaurant, isn’t it?

Why did they choose this name? It can’t be on purpose, right? No restaurant owner would regard their customers as animals. I guess ignorance is the only explanation, but the name Fodder sushi is just so ironic.

Sushi restaurant #2Ashima sushi.

Ashima doesn’t really mean anything in Japanese. However, “ashi” could be 足 or 脚, which means leg or foot. And “ma” could be 間, which has many meanings, one of them being space between. So with just a little bit of imagination this restaurant would therefore be called Sushi between legs.

In the window of Ashima sushi there is a bunch of Japanese signs written, as decoration. These are indeed real signs but half of them are either backwards or rotated 90 degrees and they have almost no meaning. I say almost, because to two big ones in the middle (the rotated ア and the ホ) is read “aho”. That is very close to “ahou”, which means fool or idiot. Ok…

Sushi restaurant #3Sushi bar ting ting.

The sound “ti” is in Japanese equivalent to “chi”. In a similar way are the sounds “ng” and “n” pretty much the same. “Ting ting” would therefore sound like “chin chin”, which is willy or dick in Japanese. I have actually asked the owners of Sushi bar ting ting why they chose this name. It turns out that “ting ting” means something you can do every day, in Chinese. I guess the intentions were good.

There is a rather entertaining homepage called engrish.com that publishes photos of mistakes in English made by (for the most part) Japanese people. To me, these restaurant names are just as funny. And it seems there are still some great opportunities for translators to make a difference.

Maybe I should change career? I could be working with hilarious stuff like this every day. Wouldn’t that be something?

Ok, that’s it.
Take care!

Animals

2010-05-03T05:44:00.006+09:00

This entry is only about cute things. You have been warned. :)

When living in Tokyo I could become sad when hearing recorded birdsong from a loudspeaker, for example in the subway. So hearing all this chirping from real birds in Svedmyra has been really pleasant.

The birds look tiny here in the blog but clicking the pictures will give you larger versions.

A robin on a branch.

A blue tit peaking out of its nest.

A treecreeper carrying stuff for its nest.

A woodpecker pecking at the treecreeper's nest. The treecreeper was so upset.

Another thing that indeed is nice is to have animals coming up close to the house.

Roe deer.

Rabbits.

A mouse, in a flowerpot...

Our trusty mouse hunters just keep on bringing their toys into the house. Not good...

Alice...

....and Maja.

Ok, that's it.

And it must have been the sweetest thing I've ever written... I think I'll be more vicious next time.

Take care!

Epilog

2010-04-04T16:21:00.004+09:00

I can't believe that this is the first post I write this year... That's way too late, I know, but there were so many things going on and I found it rather difficult to write about them before now.

First of all, Natsuko and I got married!

We registered our marriage at the ward office in Tokyo on the 2nd of January. That is 2010-01-02. Pretty neat date, isn’t it?

In March we spent a few days on Ishigakijima (a Japanese island outside of Taiwan) with our families. That’s where we had our wedding ceremony. Ishigakijima is a wonderful place. I really miss it.

The 23rd of March was my last day in the lab. Things went quite smooth in the end and I managed to finish most of what I wanted. I have a lot of work to do in Sweden now, but that should be fine as long as I can keep motivated.

On the 24th I went for a final interview at Kanebo Cosmetics in Tokyo. They called me the day after and gave me a job offer.

I spent the last week in Tokyo meeting with friends, Natsuko’s family and packing 2½ years of life in a bag and a few boxes.

I came back home to Sweden on the 31st of March.

A busy schedule but many things turned out for the best. I guess I’m lucky.

Now I’m living in my parents’ house in Svedmyra, Stockholm.

Things I will enjoy in Sweden are:

Being with my family.
Managing my time, myself.
Sailing.

Things I will miss from Japan are:

My wife.
Warmth.
Japanese food (though bread in Sweden is delicious).

This entry is named epilog but that might not be a true title, because I intend to keep on writing and posting pictures. So feel free to check in from time to time in the future as well.

Ok, that’s it.
Take care!

On eavesdropping

2009-12-10T22:27:00.006+09:00

Of all the good ideas in the world, I think half are thought up while we are commuting by public transportations. That little time-space, away from both work and home, it can be so nice for having thoughts just come and go as they want. (The other half of all the good ideas might come from time spent in the bathroom, I don’t know.)

I’m curious by nature and will listen in on people talking in public. Especially if they don’t know that I understand their language. (Yes, it’s not nice but...) I don’t know if it’s just me, but it seems my curiosity increases when I only have access to part of the conversation... such as when overhearing someone talking on their cell phone. I will strain my ears to hear the person on the other end of the line. My mind will get all busy trying to imagine who he or she might be and what they are saying. In fact, my curiosity can become so overwhelming that I can’t restrain it. I can’t shut the conversation out. I have to listen even if don’t want to. I turn into an involuntary spy...

... which is why I’ve lately started to appreciate the Japanese ban on using cell phones in trains. And the fact that Japanese public manner is so good that almost everyone here actually obeys it. It's so nice and quiet.

Am I turning into a geezer?

I’ve been putting a bunch of pictures on flickr. Here are some examples:

Mt Fuji from Odakyu line.

At the Izu-Mito Sea Paradise.

Dolphin chasing a ball.

The pacific ocean.

More in the stream.

Ok, that's it.
Take care!

Flickr

2009-11-14T23:18:00.003+09:00

I've been playing a lot with my Nikon for a few months now. It's so much fun. Someone asked me to show more of my pictures. So I thought I would change the way I upload what I take.

Until now I've written something here about everything I put up on Flickr. But I won't do that anymore. I'll just upload stuff there at a higher rate and continue to write here about as often as I've done before.

There's a problem though. Flickr limits the number of uploaded photos to 200 (for cheapskates like me) so my old pictures will disappear. But that's just the way it is.

Here are some of the latest pictures I've taken. There are a lot more in the stream. Take a look! :)

Ok, that's it.
Take care!

Disneyland for grannies

2009-10-24T16:48:00.006+09:00

As I’ve said before, we live in a part of Tokyo called Sugamo.

Sugamo is known as “Harajuku (or Disneyland) for the old ladies”. Why? Well, not far from us there is a temple (Togenuki – jizou) that is dedicated to healing of physical suffering. The grannies come here in herds to get rid of pains in their backs, knees and whatever.

Now, clever entrepreneurs have seized the opportunity to make some money on the oldies. The whole street up to the temple (and beyond!) is full of stores and stands, offering stuff that any old lady would want. Like tea, pickles, granny clothes, hats or wigs, bright red underwear (I’ll explain another time), fortune-telling and so on. It’s Disneyland, see?

Sundays are the best/worst. It gets packed. Moreover, there is a special festival on everyday that contains a 4 (that is 4th, 14th and 24th in any month)..... And when that coincides with a Sunday it turns into this:

This is 30 meters from our door...

Last Sunday we made a little trip to the area around Asakusa in northern Tokyo. There’s a new tower under construction there called Tokyo Sky Tree. It’s gonna be the highest building in Japan (North East Asia?) with a height of about 630 meters. Not as high as Burj Dubai but still pretty impressive considering the earthquakes we have here. Also, we have special interest because it’s Natsuko’s colleges at Nikken Sekkei that designed it.

There are almost no buildings this size around it. It's gonna look huge! See the link to Nikken Sekkei above for images.

Ok, that’s it.
Take care!

IKEA Japan

2009-09-26T21:48:00.005+09:00

To Swedes living abroad, IKEA is where you go when you want Swedish food, candy and (in rare cases) furniture.

The weird thing is that I've only been back in Japan for a little more than a week and I have already paid a visit to the Tokyo store. It's strange because I just spent 6 whole weeks enjoying Sweden and I shouldn't need this yet. Am I perhaps a little homesick? Hmm...

Meatballs (Swedish?), potato chips, and marshmallow cars (Ahlgrens bilar).

We spent almost 2 hours looking at how we could furnish our apartment (if we stayed at the same place for more than 12 months). And we found the best thing IKEA has to offer just at the end, in the food store close to the exit. Swedish "Wästgöta kloster" cheese! We used to eat this all the time when Natsuko was an exchange student at KTH.

Natsuko's reaction when finding this golden treasure.

Someone has told me that one slice of cheese contains the same amount of fat as 2 pork chops... So these days I'm having the equivalent of 4 steaks, every morning. Yum yum!

Ok, that's it.
Take care!

Bye bye Sweden

2009-09-17T04:34:00.003+09:00

These last 6 weeks were great, I've had the chance to see so many people and the summer in Stockholm has been wonderful. Thank you all for meeting up! It really means a lot to me.

I'm going home/back to Tokyo tomorrow morning. This was the last trip before my Japanese scholarship ends, which means I won't be back here until April next year.

The plan after that is to stay in Sweden for a year, finish my PhD, and then return to Japan in April 2011 for work. Not sure about what kind of job that would be or for how long... Oh well. Any ideas/comments/bashes are more than welcome!

Ok, that's it.
Take care!

Stockholm, I love you

2009-08-31T01:13:00.002+09:00

I've been home for almost a month now and it's been wonderful. Stockholm is best in August, with the sun and the warmth. And I'm not the only one here who enjoys those things... The people of Stockholm (and all of Sweden?) likes to get tanned and always has a habit of getting pretty much naked as soon as the weather allows for it.

This guy is not embarrassed to show some skin.

Another thing that's the same is the subway. How can it be so crappy? Last week I had to walk half the way to work (Slussen-Teknis, for those who know where that is). Not a completely bad thing, because it was a beautiful morning. But still. And the price for a monthly pass just keeps on getting more expensive for every time I return home...

Can't get on this train.

Something that's new though is tattoos. Big ones. Visible on arms and necks and faces. Every third person I see on the street has one. Or two or five. After spending two years in Japan this looks scary.

Girl my age with stuff on her arms.

Obviously I asked before taking the picture. Totally screwed up the aperture and ISO settings and it got blurry. But you see my point, right? Big tattoos for everyone to see.

The best thing about Stockholm is sailing in the archipelago. I had one weekend this year and got so lucky with the weather. Perfect wind and not a lot a waves.

Pure happiness.

I've been taking pictures like crazy but I'm running out of (free) space on flickr so I might wait with posting there for a while. Gotta get things sorted out first.

Ok, that's it.

Take care!

Pakistan mangos in Stockholm

2009-08-07T03:37:00.003+09:00

I'm back home! It's been a year since last time... Too long, I missed Stockholm.

I had a good flight. Spent most of the time talking to my neighbour, Thomas, from Germany. He was in the middle of a divorce from his Japanese wife and was now taking his two sons, 7 and 12 years old, to Hamburg for vacation. The boys had spent 5 years in Japan (separated from their dad) and the youngest one only spoke Japanese. So there we were, 4 Europeans, chatting away in our common language: Japanese.

Today I met for a lunch with my friend, Annika, and as we were digging in to our pasta salads a truck stopped next to us full of Pakistan mangos! I love Pakistan mangos!

So many boxes!

Naturally, the drivers of the truck started laughing at me for taking pictures of their load. Sure, I may have looked like an idiot, but they were amused and gave us samples!

Annika with our gifts.

I've been taking a lot of pictures lately and put some of them on my flickr page. Here are some, just click them to see more on in the photo stream.

Shinjuku - the gray city.

Shinjuku - where kids sleep on the street.

A fennec puppy. Cute, huh?

There are a lot more in the stream, so feel free to take a look!

That's it.

Take care!

12 meals

2009-07-19T14:23:00.019+09:00

I've been taking pictures of what I eat. At first it was more like a project just for myself. 10 years from now I want to look at these photos and remember what places I used to go to for lunch and dinner.

But then I thought that it could be a nice thing for the blog. So here it is. In no particular order.

1

Maguro Ichiba or "The Sashimi Place". Raw fish on rice!

Maguro Ichiba: Bakudan Don. Tuna, squid, egg and natto. Yes, I can eat natto!

Keisuke or "The Black Ramen Place"

Keisuke: Black Ramen. Extra large bowl and rice on the side for free!

Oishiiya or "The Chinese Place"

Oishiiya: Jaajaa-men. Miso sauce on cold noodles. I never eat the egg soup in the back....

Morikawa. This is my favorite. Fried or simmered fishes. :P

Morikawa: Today's fried fish. Probably red snapper (tai) but I don't know.

Pig. Steaks and hamburgers!

Pig: Sirloin steak with butter on top!

FamilyMart or other convenience stores (konbini)

The Konbini Triple: Sandwich, onigiri and juice.

Kamira or "The Cabbage Rolls Place" (though I almost never have the cabbage rolls)

Kamira: Tonight's (bangohan). 2nd favorite after Morikawa.

Mumbai or "The Indian Place"

Mumbai: Chicken curry, naan and mango lassi.

Toogarashi or "The Korean Place" or "Bibimba"

Toogarashi: Bibimba, and this is the only thing I order here. So good, so cheap.

Yaa-yaa-ya or "The Other Ramen Place"

Yaa-yaa-ya: Ramen with an egg.

Kodawariya or "The Chicken Place" or "Kara-age"

Kodawariya: Grilled chicken breast (Amiyaki suteeki).

Yamaneko or "The New Place"

Yamaneko: Anchivy and olive pizza. Yes, there is good(!) pizza in Japan... and it will make your stomach full and wallet empty.

Ok, that's it.

Take care!

Say hello to my little friend!

2009-07-03T23:20:00.002+09:00

I got a DSLR!

It's a Nikon D70s, which means that it's an old camera. 5 years, or almost ancient when it comes to DSLRs. I didn't really choose it though. Long story. Let's just say that it sort of fell into my hands.

Anyways, I'm having a lot of fun with it! Especially together with my new lens, a Nikkor 50mm f1.4. With it I can take pictures with very narrow depth of field. See below!

Natsuko playing the guitar.

The focus is only on her left hand. Actually, only on her index finger. A little bit too narrow perhaps? Gotta be careful.

But still, photography isn't about equipment, right? It's about seeing something funny.

Tomo showing his strength.

How can he do that?

Ok, short one today.

Take care!

Fear and Japanese Pickles

2009-05-31T16:21:00.009+09:00

Cute bear, right? It's an alarm. Pull the string at the bottom and it goes wiiiiwiiiiwiiii! A woman got stabbed the other week by an unknown guy about 500 m from our apartment and now I carry this little guy for protection... Sort of takes away that feeling of complete safety in Japan, doesn't it? Maybe I was naive to believe in that?

I'm making tsukemono (Japanese pickles) these days! It's the easy version, where you just put vegetables in salty water and press them under a heavy glass weight for a day.

Cucumber. Looks a bit slimy but it turned out pretty good.

Komatsuna (Japanese mustard spinach). This became way too salty! Got to rethink the recipe...

Went rafting in Gunma-ken with Tomo, Matt and a bunch of other people last weekend. Good times! It's so good to get out in the nature. I wish every weekend was like this.

Wetsuit crew! Believe me when I tell you that they were needed. See below to know why.

Gunma-ken is up in the mountains and there was still snow left on them, melting in the summer sun. Naturally the rivers were freezing.

BBQ in the evening and Go-san is warming his hands over the fire after a long day in the water.

We're trying to grow some vegetables on our balcony now. Here's an aubergine.

And some tomatoes. Still green though.... Maybe another week or two and they might look more tasty?

I've posted a lot of old pictures on Flickr. Here's a link to my Japan set.

That's it.
Take care!

Hakone and Ghibli Museum revisited

2009-04-19T11:33:00.006+09:00

We spent last weekend going sightseeing with our friends Christine and Adrien. Ch has been here for an internship and Ad came for holiday.

It's been a while since I went to Hakone. The area is very nice and well worth a visit if you're in Tokyo but want a day away from the concrete.

Got the Hakone Free Pass; return ticket, free rides in the area, maps and guides.

Three companions.

Hakone Open-air Museum. A walking flower and Man & Pegasus by Milles.

Hand.

Adrien on Lake Ashi.

The day after we went to Ghibli Museum. It contains a lot of art related to the movies by Miyazaki Hayao, and also exhibits that explain how to tell a story through animation. If you're a fan of Miyazaki then you should try to go there. I say try, because it's a bit tricky to get tickets. Can't take any photos in the museum... The following snaps are from the Inokashira park were we had lunch afterwards.

Ad & Ch under a tree.

This what I look like nowadays.

That's it.

Take care!

Hello Sugamo

2009-04-05T14:33:00.014+09:00

Cohabit, according to the free dictionary by farlex.
Co·hab·it co·hab·it·ed, co·hab·it·ing, co·hab·its
1. To live together in a sexual relationship, especially when not legally married.
2. To coexist, as animals of different species.

None of these two meanings sound very nice, but that's what I am, a cohabiter, and I fell very, very good about it. This time the distance relationship lasted for 1½ year (Osaka/Tokyo) and I can't say that it was easy. We met perhaps 20 times during 18 months... Bygones!

I love it in Sugamo! The atmosphere of the area is great, it's close to both our jobs (every sunny morning I walk to the lab, 45 minutes) and it's close to downtown Tokyo. And the apartment feels so big. I have to wear glasses when watching TV...

Close by we have an old Japanese garden, Rikugien, and on Saturday it was crowded with people watching the cherry trees.

I wonder how many people fall of this bridge in a year...

Someone taking photos of a tree with the cell phone. A very common scene...

I have to admit that I find it beautiful.

Still taking pictures of the Japanese carp (koi).

We've only lived here for a week but already had a bunch of people visiting. This is from the other day when Tomo and Sachi came by for some drinks.

Tomo, the salary man, straight from a wedding party.

Sachi. Note the ring. That's a pretty big diamond! ^^

My cohabiter.

Ok, that's it.

Take care!

Good bye Komaba

2009-03-22T18:15:00.002+09:00

This is my last Sunday in the Komaba dorm and I'm having mixed feelings. It's gonna be so good to leave this small hole and move in together with N. At the same time, this 1½ year is for me a new record in staying at one place (since I moved out of my parents' house). So more than anywhere else, this has become my home.

I heard that even in Sweden spring is on the way. Well, here in Tokyo the magnolia is blossoming. Really amazing.

Magnolia

Flies. I wonder why they dance around in a pillar like that...

A pigeon. First time in my life that I found one of these birds beautiful.

Today I went to the wedding party of Nishimura, one of the assistant professors in the lab.

Cutting the cake.

The happy couple.

A very nice party. Motivating....

Ok, that's it. Next time I'll be writing from Sugamo.

Take care!

Springtime

2009-02-08T14:49:00.003+09:00

Today was a such a nice day so I went walking for a while, randomly, just enjoying the weather. Clear blue sky, the only thing possibly covering it would be this...

It seems that winter is over already. The plum trees have even begun blossoming.

Well, I guess they are plum trees. I'm not a big fan of cold (unless I'm on a snowboard) and I like this mild season a lot.

A cat, hiding from me. Not connected to the above. Just like it.

Ok, that's it.
Take care.

I'm moving out!

2009-01-25T13:56:00.005+09:00

Well, not right now... Actually, it's not 100% settled and it's not gonna happen until the end of March... But I'm so excited about it that I have to tell you anyway. ^^

The apartment is in Sugamo so I'll still be living close to the central parts of Tokyo. And it's much closer to the lab compared to where I live now so I might start biking instead of taking the jam-packed trains. I'm gonna have 2-3 times more space, even though that doesn't really mean that it's gonna be roomy. Here, in my dorm it's... cramped. Anyway, it's gonna be nice.

Yesterday I went to Funabashi (which is really, really close to Tokyo) to hang out with Matt. We saw the latest Bond movie, had some good yakiniku and went to the local onsen. Yes, a real onsen and it even had a salt sauna. Good times! Naturally, I couldn't take pictures in the onsen so instead I'm gonna post something I took a couple of weeks ago. Sunset behind Mt Fuji.

Sort of looks like it's on fire at the top, doesn't it?

Next weekend I'm going snowboarding with a bunch of people. Looking forward to that, sure do. And if anyone is worried about my safety, then let me assure you that I'm pro-active.

Helmet!

Ok, that's it.

Take care!

Happy New Year!

2009-01-04T15:45:00.006+09:00

あけましておめでとうございます！

Akemashite Omedetou Gozaimasu!

Already 2009?! I can't really understand that we're at the end of the -00's. What was the style of this decade? Did it have a flavor? I haven't got it yet, it all went so fast. On the other hand, I'm still watching old episodes of Seinfeld so I guess I'll be stuck in the -90's forever...

Anyways.

I spent the whole winter vacation with Natsuko's family (Thank you so much!). Wonderful food, a little bit of activity but mostly just taking it easy... Exactly what I needed. I am very much ready for the new year! I do hope that I'll be able to take some nice pictures.

Natsuko and her mother.

手巻き寿司(Te-maki-zushi), Hand-Rolled Sushi is so delicious. And every dinner was a feast like this!

Gate to Chinatown in Yokohama.

Crowds in Chinatown.

Being in Chinatown kind of felt like being abroad... So where am I now?

Chestnut salesman.

Outside Yokohama Museum of Art. We saw an exhibition with paintings by Paul Cézanne. One of them was called "Effect of water reflection". I got inspired/copied it. ^^

Taiko drummers at train station in Yokohama. I really would like to try this someday.

Playing pool in Shibuya. I lost... again.

The moon. Can you see the craters?

That's it.

Take care!

Winter

2008-12-14T20:24:00.003+09:00

I guess that's the season we have here in Tokyo now, even though the temperature was up at just below 20C last week. Not bad at all, I like it when it's warm and sunny!

This huge ginkgo tree on our campus turned all yellow last month. Very beautiful. But the leaves fell off so quickly!

I've been traveling a bit last weeks. I went twice to Nagoya; first time to meet up with Natsuko and her sister with husband and then one more time for a conference. Nagoya is growing on me. It's not too crowded and not so messy (like Tokyo or Osaka).

This building looks like a spaceship, doesn't it? Starship enterprise? Nagoya TV Tower in the background.

Some of us made cinnamon rolls...

... while others were playing videogames.

Nooo, just kidding! We all worked hard on those rolls and they turned out pretty nice. Gotta love homemade pastry!

And Mt Fuji came out of the clouds this autumn aswell. I see it every other morning as I go out from my apartment. Not a bad way to start you day!

That's it.

Take care!

Autumn colours

2008-11-16T14:15:00.009+09:00

Last weekend me and Matt went to an Okinawan restaurant called Aiai to have some good food and a couple of Awamori drinks. He asked me how my "take at least one photo per week that I like - project" was going. The idea I had with that was to take pictures more continuously. I have to admit that I'm not very successful. But autumn seems to be the active season here in Japan and I got motivated by the colours.

Ginko trees, just about to turn yellow.

A woman painting.

People painting in a park.

Being inspected.

Fishermen.

Aoyama cemetery.

Cats in Aoyama cemetery.

I have also been taking pictures of Koi (japanese carp) for a while now and I made a slide show of some of them. Click the picture below to get there.

Ok, that's it.

Take care!

Long time!

2008-11-04T22:44:00.006+09:00

Too long time! Haven't written anything here for more than two months. And that's really bad, because I've been doing a lot that I wanna write about.

Travel! Travel, travel, travel. Lately it feels like I'm going through life with a bag in my hand. My home is wherever I lay my hat. And I have had a lot of chances to take pictures. Very happy about that.

A weekend in the beginning of September I went to Izu peninsula with Matt, Tomo and Tsubo for an onsen trip. Our main target was Tsuribashi-so, a ryokan (Japanese inn) deep in the mountains with many waterfalls close by and offering variety of baths. Among them a green-tea hot tub! We spent most of the time soaking and because of that the number of pictures that I can publish is rather limited... But here are a few!

A sacred rock in one of the waterfalls.

Four guys in another (very cold) waterfall. I lost my balance just as the picture was taken...

Tomo enjoying a view of the pacific ocean, from an onsen high up on a cliff.

After that weekend I went to Osaka for a conference, met some friends from my time at Osaka University and had a few days of doing nothing in my apartment.

Then, my parents came over from Sweden! They spent a bit more than two weeks in Japan, but didn't seem to be the least impressed by Tokyo. Instead, they headed for the mountains almost immediately after getting here and I tagged along. First stop; Takayama in the middle of Honshu. For anyone staying a long time in the big cities of Japan this is a very good place to escape for a while. Fresh air, delicious beef and a nice small town feeling.

Mamma and pappa (trying Japanese sweets, dango)

Some red leaves (kouhyou) and pointy roofs made of grass.

A praying mantis.

After spending the weekend with my parents in Takayama I had to take the shinkansen back to Tokyo. But the next weekend I was on the train again, this time to meet up with them and Natsuko and Sayaka in Kanazawa. My third time there, and the city is really growing on me. Very liveable.

Natsuko and mamma inspecting fish at the local market.

Mamma and pappa enjoying green-tea ice cream.

I returned to Tokyo, and then my parents came here for their last weekend in Japan. We did some sightseeing and had dinner with Natsuko's parents. It was more sad than usual to say good-bye, because this time I really don't know when I'll be coming back to Sweden again.... wait, that's not true. I will be back in April 2010. But that's very long from now.

Gotta look ahead. Or rather enjoy now. Last weekend I went back to Osaka, and became a farmer... for an hour. I joined Natsuko's "Gardening Group" and went picking sweet potatoes.

As you can see, we got quite a lot. Naturally we made a big sweet potato party afterwards and I guess we ate about half of what you can see in the picture. Sweet potato soup, sweet potato stir-fry, sweet potatos boiled with rice and sweet potato cakes. A lot of potatoes...

Ok, that's it for this time. I'll try to write more often from now again.

Take care!

Swedish summer

2008-09-02T21:15:00.009+09:00

I had an absolutely fantastically great month in Sweden. All of August in Stockholm! I spent a lot of time with my family and I saw a bunch of friends.

Thank you all for meeting up! Being far away like this makes it easy to become isolated and for all of you to gather together like that really meant a lot to me.

Can't write about all of it, but I would like to show some pictures from the last weekend. It was so good! I went with my family to Blidö and stayed at the summer house of Ulla, Peter and Henrik (friends of the family). There I borrowed a Laser (dinghy... a small boat) and spent most of the weekend racing. The weather was wonderful, with lost of sun and good wind. A big thanks to the photographers, Peter and Henrik Werner, for taking all the pictures of me fooling around in the water!

Just got to get back to sailing again! ^^

That's it.

Take care!

Camp!

2008-07-28T22:56:00.004+09:00

Hej hej!

I spent last weekend camping in the mountains of Kanagawa-ken, a prefecture just south of Tokyo, with

Tomo (the grill master)

Matt (the settler and finder of hidden waterfalls)

and a bunch of friends.
From the left: Satoshi, Yoko, Aoi (happy guy in the back), me (green guy in the front), Chakko (standing in the middle), Sachi, Tomo and Matt.

Fireworks!

An intense game of Jenga.

Swimming in a river.

It was so good to be in the nature for a change. Green mountains, sunshine, a cool river and BBQ.

Not to say that Tokyo completely lacks greenery. The lotus flowers of Ueno koen are blossoming now! I passed there this morning, just by coincidence, and took these pictures.

Nice, huh?

That's it!

Take care.

Night lights

2008-07-13T22:41:00.002+09:00

Hej hej!

Last weekend was way too busy and I didn't get a chance to take pictures or update the blog. This week was better, though we had a lab meeting yesterday that lasted 6 hours. Can't describe how much I dislike spending my whole Saturday at work... But in the evening I joined a very nice birthday party of a friend of a friend, eating and drinking at an izakaya (a Japanese bar) in Shibuya. Good good!

I've been lazy lately, taking most of the photos from my balcony. :)

This view is rather boring in the daytime. Just grey buildings. But in the night I found so many more colours. Like that.

I thought it looked so cool with the blue light around Roppongi (bottom left part).

The bears of the Medicom Toy building. I pass them every morning and every night.

That's it. Short one today.

Take care!

Kanazawa

2008-07-01T00:11:00.003+09:00

I spent this weekend in Kanazawa, a small town on the northern side of Honshu. I've actually been there before. Natsuko and I went there in the end of February 2005 on our first trip together. There are some interesting spots that shouldn't be missed out on; the Kenroku-en garden, the Ninja temple, the 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art and a small but nice fish market. The last thing (raw fish) is probably the best part of Kanazawa. It's absolutely delicious and I had a lot of it this time! :D

I took the overnight train from Tokyo on Friday night, an all together horrible experience that ended up in me only sleeping for 2 (non-consecutive) hours that night... Natsuko arrived already on Friday evening and stayed with Sayaka-chan, a friend from Osaka University who is now living and working in Kanazawa. She took care of us the whole time, driving us around to different parts of the town in her car. There is an old part of Kanazawa that resembles Kyoto in many ways, which was really nice, with several temples and calm streets.

I'm making a habit of playing around with my camera. Here's the result of that.

Me pretending to sleep in the train.

Kaisendon - sashimi on a bowl of rice.

Natsuko and Sayaka-chan sightseeing.

A meeting.

Taking a break.

Magurodon - different kinds of raw tuna on rice.
Too much, too good!

Ok, that's it.

Take care!

Ume Kayo

2008-06-22T20:49:00.003+09:00

This..
... is the weather of Tokyo today. Not very nice. We're in the rainy season...

I didn't really feel like taking a long walk in the rain. Instead I took the subway to Harajuku and went to a gallery called Little More Chika (Japanese hompage) where there is an exhibition with a Japanese photographer called Ume Kayo. I saw her in a TV-show called Top Runner the other week and got interested in her work. She's very skilled at getting close to people and by that she's able to capture everyday moments, things that I would like to be better at. And also, she was really funny in the TV-show.

The exhibition at Little More Chika is called Jiichan-sama (Mr Grandpa) and features photos that she's been taking of her grandfather for ~7 years. I think I can summarize it as being a warm and friendly event. I also bought...

.. Ume-me (The eyes of Ume), which was her first photo book released in 2006. It has sold more than 100 000 copies and made her something of a celebrity in Japan. I have just flipped through it once today, but I must say that I find it really nice.

And lastly...

.. a shop that I found close to my train station. I guess, to some, it doesn't make much sense, but the name of the place is "The Little House" in Swedish! It turns out that the owner (a middle-aged woman) was working for a Swedish company (Tetra Pak) and visited friends in Sweden (Eslöv) for many years. She quit her job and now owns this little store in Yoyogi-Uehara. There are actually not many things from Sweden sold in her store. It's more the atmosphere of the place that's... Scandinavian, I guess.

That's it.

Take care!

Another walkabout

2008-06-15T22:14:00.003+09:00

Hejhej!

As some of you might already know we had a rather big earthquake in Japan on Saturday morning. The epicenter was quite far away from Tokyo but it shook a lot here as well. Enough to wake me up from my sleep. I can tell you that an earthquake is not my favorite way of starting the day...

But everything is fine now, all you can do is forget about it. I spent Saturday evening with Matt at Ai Ai, an Okinavan restaurant not far away from Harajuku, eating a lot of garlic and drinking a great deal of Awamori (Okinawan sake).

Today I took my camera for another long walk around Tokyo. Here are a couple of pictures from that. Click for larger versions.

A narrow house.

Another view. Note the car parked under the house.

There's not much air between the roof of the car and the building! It's as if they first measured the height of the parking space and then chose what car model to get based on that...

I felt rather exhausted after today's walk and decided to go to the local sento for a bath. This is what it looks like.

The sento is the red building to the right. To the left is a coin laundry. This laundry/sento combination seems to be common in Japan.

The sign to look for when you are tired.

That's it.

Take care!

Sunday Walkabout in Tokyo

2008-06-08T20:43:00.004+09:00

Hej!

First I should say that I didn't go to Akihabara today and by that I luckily avoided the knife-wielding lunatic that went berserk on the main street of that area around noon killing and injuring several people. The whole thing is very sad and scary!

I took a walk with my camera to a rather posh district called Daikanyama, situated between Shibuya and Ebisu. On my way over there I saw a space ship that had crashed into to the roof of a small supermarket.

No-one else seemed to pay much attention to it.

As I got closer I realized that it wasn't a space ship, but a gigantic robo-grasshopper!

It was stuck there on top of the building, entangled in the phone-wires and couldn't budge.

A view of the head of the beast.

Pretty cool thing, but I'm sure that I would have a lot of nightmares if I was 10 and had this monster as my neighbour...

That's it!

Take care!

Osaka Jazz Weekend

2008-06-03T00:36:00.005+09:00

I made another short trip to Kansai this weekend. Took the shinkansen (bullet train) down on Friday evening and the night bus back home to Tokyo yesterday night. For having made no plans at all we did a lot. The highlight was the jazz club on Saturday night; Suntory 5 in Umeda. The band, New Orleans Rascals, is a bunch of old guys playing Dixieland jazz and they are so good at it that they've received the honorary citizenship of New Orleans. They started playing in 1961 and I wouldn't be surprised if we actually saw some of the original members this weekend

Apart from that we sang karaoke, watched a movie, cooked and played/listened to piano. Pictures!

Experimenting with macro.

Biker girl.

Back alley of N's apartment.

New Orleans Rascals at Suntory 5, Osaka.

Guess the drink!

That's it.

Take care!

Return to photo

2008-05-26T23:35:00.004+09:00

After the photo exhibition last weekend I decided to take more pictures. At least one per week that I like. Last Friday I was playing around with my reflex in the balcony door. This is the result.

Actually I have been doing this before (see my avatar on msn or facebook). I took something similar in Osaka when I was there with Daniel and Karin last month. It's Osaka as seen from Umeda Sky Bluilding.

That's it for this week!

Take care!

Kamakura

2008-05-18T22:32:00.018+09:00

Hej! Just got back from my Sunday sento after a day walking the streets of Shibuya, Harajuku and Shinjuku. I happened to run into an open-air photo exhibition and that made me realize that I haven't been taking many pictures lately. Very sad! So I promised myself that I will do that, and also that I will put them here. Enjoy. ;D

I went to Kamakura this weekend with a Swedish friend. Kamakura is a tiny city south of Tokyo famous for its temples and that it once was the capital of Japan (from 1185 to 1333).

This is probably the most famous temple of Kamakura, the Kotokuin with the Daibutsu (big buddha).

A beautiful "noren" of a temple called Kenchoji.

Momiji (red leaves) on the Daibutsu hiking course.

A family enjoying a beach called Yuigahama.

A cosy house seen from the Gion-san hiking course.

Less text more pictures! Full size versions are available at my Photobucket.

Take care.

Back in Tokyo

2008-04-24T22:43:00.009+09:00

It's been a while since I wrote here... 2 months! Wow, time flies and all that...

I went back to Stockholm for about 3 weeks in March. It was soooo good to see my family and friends again! A little bit of change of environment was just what I needed. I spent my Easter vacation at my grand mother's summer house in the inner part of Stockholm archipelago and ate a lot of Swedish food (herring, salmon, a mutton steak and potatoes) and had a bunch of Easter beers from small breweries in Sweden and Norway. :P

I managed to get some work done as well, but I won’t bore you with that. ;)

Not many days after coming back to Tokyo (the 2nd of April) I got some distinguished guest; my friends Daniel and Karin. They spent two weeks roaming Japan by train and I did my best to show them around the places I know; streets of Shibuya, bands in Harajuku, sakura in Shinjuku and Ueno, bars in Ikebukuro, electric.... stuff... in Akihabara. I hope I didn't wear you out with all that walking! :D And thank you for taking me to the sky bar of Tokyo Tower Hotel. Very, very Tokyo-esque!

A week passed after D&K left and then I met up with Jacob and Elisabeth from Denmark and Matt from USA. We had a weekend of art/culture with visits at the National Art Center Tokyo, NTT InterCommunication Center and a club in Roppongi called SuperDeluxe. Now this place was the definite highlight for me. We had been told that there would be noise music (what's that? you wonder, then check this video from another event at the same place http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eMOR3Fzi2Ck) but I don't think anyone of us four was prepared for how experimental it would be. Seven (7!) hours of... noise. Guitars, computers, mix tables, record players, a fluorescent lamp, a girl screaming (almost) ultrasonic and a cello, strapped to table and disciplined with a brush and a stick... Absolutely crazy and maybe the best introduction to this genre that anyone could ask for. The weekend was wound up at a restaurant where we, thanks to Matt's unbeatable ordering skills, had the chance to try raw horse meat and small squids (also raw?) in soy sauce.

I'll try to put up some pictures from SuperDeluxe later and maybe a video on YouTube (if I figure out how to do that).

Until then, take care!

And now I'm 26...

Going home

2008-02-24T10:52:00.002+09:00

I've been here for more than 4 months now, and it's time for my first trip home. Actually, I feel rather good about that, looking forward to get a break from everything going on here for a while. I have to admit that I'm a bit bored with being able to do absolutely nothing besides being in school during the weekdays...

To not loose all of my integrity I've been fighting for my weekends, and made sure to keep busy enjoying my free time. Two weeks ago we had another national holiday and I took the chance to go to Osaka for two days. Natsuko was rather busy so I spent my time meeting up with friends from the OUSSEP and visiting old familiar places; like the sento “Oyuba”, a public bathhouse on the way from my old dorm to Osaka University. To take a bath there and then walk the road up to school where I went soooo many times on my bicycle was very, very nostalgic.

Last weekend I hung out with Tomo and Sachi most of the time. We went downtown for some udon (thick, white noodles) for lunch, played some ping pong and sang karaoke. Tomo kicked my butt in the first games of ping pong, but then I remembered how to play (after all, I spent hours and hours in the Osaka dorm practising) and in the end I was making him run and sweat. ;D In the afternoon Tomo and I went to a sento in south Tokyo and after that we went playing basketball with some friends. Busy day, huh? The next day we took a rental car to Hakone (close to Mt Fuji, where I went with Natsuko in November), did some shopping in a huge outlet and then took a bath in one of the numerous onsens (hot springs) around there. Note that I went soaking 3 times in 8 days, which must be a personal record. This bathing is an addiction!

This weekend I'm just staying at home, getting ready to move out of the apartment and go home to Sweden. I'll be back the 11th of March and stay for almost a month. I hope it will not be too cold in Stockholm...

Now I've gotta take care of my laundry. Can't hang it on my balcony because the air of Tokyo is full of sand! There are some pretty strong winds blowing and I've been told that this dust has come flying all the way from some China desert...

Take care!

Akemashite Omedetou Gozaimasu...

2008-01-19T17:04:00.000+09:00

... and a good continuation of the New Year!

Plenty of stuff has happened since last time I wrote. I went to Osaka over Christmas to be with Natsuko and we celebrated just the two of us; eating good, singing karaoke and watching movies. She got me a Nintendo DS v(^_^) and I got her a piano, with help from my family. Since coming back to Tokyo I've been listening to her playing through the phone.

I went back to school for a couple of days after that, cleaning the lab and finishing some stuff, and then it was winter holidays for more than a week. Yes! We went to Natsuko's parents over New Year (Oshou gatsu) and her sister and brother with families came during the first days of 2008. We were mostly just taking it easy, eating traditional Japanese food and playing games together. Oshou gatsu is the (only?) time of the year when Japanese mothers take a break from cooking. They make a lot of different dishes in advance, and all of the food is made so that you can keep it for a long time without it going bad. This is called Osechi and we had it from the 31st to the 3rd, but even though we had the same style of food for almost 4 days I didn't get bored with it, because there were so many different kinds to try. Small (pickled?) fishes and shrimps, smashed chestnuts, beans and so on. Some of the dishes have meanings, like, they will give you happiness or good fortune for the coming year.

After that we went to Nagoya with Natsuko's sister and her husband. The highlight of that trip was the aquarium, where I saw a killer whale for the first time in my life. The dolphin show was also very cool. I didn't know that you can train a dolphin to catch a frisbee! Just imagine how hard it is to judge the position of a flying object when you are swimming at ~20km/h and look up at it from under the water surface!

I've been back at the lab for about 2 weeks now and things are moving forward. I've managed to make two different molecules to bring home and I've thought of my own design for a third one. This week I was trying to invent a strategy to synthesize it and looking up chemicals for that. It seems I have it under control now and I will start with the synthesis next week. I am pretty sure that something unexpected will happen that will force me to rethink most of my plans, but you know... that's how it goes. As Prof Peter Stilbs keeps reminding me in his emails:
"If we knew what we were doing, it wouldn't be research!"

Until next time!

Merry Christmas and a Yoi Otoshi wo!

2007-12-16T20:33:00.000+09:00

Hej again!

Winter is here, even though it is more like autumn to me. The leaves that became red and yellow last month have now begun to fall from the trees and I feel a sting in my cheeks from the cold when I go out in the mornings. The stores are decorated for the holidays with fake snow and small lights in blue, green and red. I'm not expecting any snow for Christmas Eve but I think I will get into the mood until then. Especially because I got a big box of things from my parents two days ago. Thank you!! Actually I already opened it, haha. I couldn't restrain myself...

I'm going to Natsuko next weekend. There is a seminar at school on Saturday and I'm getting on the Shinkansen right after that. Monday is a National Holiday so I'm gonna stay in Osaka for 3 nights and head back to Tokyo with the first train on Tuesday morning. School finishes the 28th and I'm gonna be at Natsuko's parents' place over New Year (Oshougatsu). We plan to go to Nagoya as well, since the holiday will last until the 7th. Pretty nice!

Haven't been traveling much lately. I think I mentioned it before, that this period would mean a lot of work for me. I've been to school in the weekends for seminars and meetings, and haven't had time to go anywhere far. But the work has paid off. I have made a molecule that shows a liquid crystalline phase (columnar) and that I will probably be able to bring back home to Stockholm to do some diffusion measurements on. It's not perfectly pure yet so I might need to work on that, but at least it seems like I will have something to bring back home next year. Feels good.

A couple of weeks ago I helped Natsuko's dad prepare some persimmon fruit (kaki) for drying. This is called Hoshigaki - 'hanging persimmon'. What you do is to peel them, heat them shortly in boiling water and then dip them in strong sake (shouchu). I ended up getting 6 of them to bring home to my apartment to dry myself, and I have tried to document the drying process with my Lumix. Check it out in my Photobucket!
http://s221.photobucket.com/albums/dd137/antonfrise/
There you can also see a night view from a skyscraper in Shinjuku, where I went today. Slideshows 'Shinjuku Government Buildings' and 'Hoshigaki in the autumn' are new!

God Jul!

Onsen, museums and the usual stuff

2007-11-28T23:25:00.000+09:00

My life goes on here in Tokyo. The work is progressing slowly, I'm still struggling with the organic reactions and almost everyday I discover new ways to fail in getting a pure product. It's a bit of a mess but I still learn a million things per week so I guess it's good for me, huh?

It's getting colder here, the temperature has fallen down to 10-15C. It's not that bad compared to Stockholm in November, but as the insulation of Japanese houses is a joke the indoor temperature is not that much higher. So I've bought myself a nice fleece sweater and a real futon (bed cover) to battle the cold. Another way to keep warm is to go to an onsen (natural hot spring). Two weekends ago I went with Tomo, Shin-chan and Ma-chan to Tochigi prefecture, two hours north of Tokyo by train. We spent a night at Kita Onsen, an old traditional hot spring in the mountains. Very remote and isolated. The minshuku (Japanese inn) was an old house that reminded me of Sen to Chihiro no Kamikakushi (Spirited Away, Miyazaki Hayao) and there were several different baths to soak in, both indoors and outdoors. At night they turned of the lights and we enjoyed the hot water with beautiful stars above us. I had brought a package of Absolute Five (five flavours of vodka) and we tried all of them many times and compared the Swedish alcohol with Hakkaizan (wonderful Japanese sake) and beer. The next day, despite the hangover that was just slightly cured by a morning bath, we climbed one of the peaks close by and experienced the first snowfall of this winter.

Last weekend Natsuko came here for 4 days. We spent one night at her parents place, again enjoying her mothers wonderful cooking. Then we took the buss to Sengokuhara in Hakone, a mountain resort two hours west of Tokyo and thus close to Mt Fuji. The main goal was the Pola Museum, were they are now showing Monet and other impressionists in a special exhibition. Both I and Natsuko have since our stay in Paris this summer begun to like paintings by Monet, Pissarro, Cézanne and so on, and the visit to Pola Museum was great. Another sweet thing was the private onsen of the hostel we stayed at. You could book it for half an hour at a time and have it all by yourself! We also visited the Venetian Glass Museum and a museum for Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, the writer of The little Prince (Le Petit prince).

Back in Tokyo we went to one last museum for the weekend. This time it was an exhibition by Philadelphia Museum of Arts with more impressionist art, but also surrealism and cubism with works by Dalí, Picasso and Duchamp.

As you can see I spend all my time working in the weekdays and all my time playing in the weekends. From now that might change a little, they have scheduled some "Laboratory Seminars" during the following Saturdays so I won't be able to go on any long trips. Too bad...

Check out the pictures in my Photobucket!
http://s221.photobucket.com/albums/dd137/antonfrise/
My trips to Kita Onsen and Hakone and the view of Mt Fuji from the door of my apartment.

Take care!

Now with pictures

2007-11-11T22:11:00.000+09:00

I made a Photobucket account to show you some pictures! Follow the link below, you will find some slideshows a bit down on the page. You can also watch the pictures from the albums, links are on the left side of the main page.

http://s221.photobucket.com/albums/dd137/antonfrise/

Enjoy!

My first month

2007-11-10T18:54:00.000+09:00

It's almost 4 weeks since I came to Tokyo and I've manage to create something that could be called an everyday-life.

I wake up around 8.30am in morning and have some bread with walnuts and bottled milk tea for breakfast. I call Natsuko on the cell phone and we talk while I get ready to leave for school. The phones have loudspeakers so I can get dressed and brush my teeth while talking.

The walk from my apartment to the subway station (Yoyogi-Uehara on the Chioda Line) takes about 15 minutes. I always get on the 9.17 train, the ride is 14 stations and takes about half an hour. I pass by many of the big central places, like Hibiya and Omotesando and every morning I see all the classics images of Tokyo subway: jam-packed trains full of office-workers playing portable videogames, reading books and sleeping. I get of at Nezu station and walk another 10 minutes to get to the university and my lab.

We start everyday at 10am. This is an important time and it's bad to be late. My project has just begun so I've been reading articles and books most of the time to get some basic knowledge. Last week I started doing experiments but my background is not organic synthesis so I need quite a lot of help. The work is interrupted by sporadic(?) lectures and seminars.

I finish somewhere between 10 and 11pm (and this is no exaggeration). The days are very, very long. Everyone else is also working late so that helps motivating me. I kind of see it as a competition.. if they can do it, so can I. But more important is that my project is very, very cool and I learn an incredible amount of new stuff all the time. So I don't feel a strong desire to go home early... yet.

I take the subway home and pick up some bread for the next day's breakfast at the local FamilyMart or 7Eleven. I usually make it home before 11.30pm. I watch some TV, read and talk to Natsuko again. Most nights I get more than 7 hours sleep.

It's quite a nice life. I get a lot of stuff done at work. I walk 50 minutes every day and do 50 push-ups every evening. I can listen to almost a full album of music on the subway and I'm reading my second book since I came here.

The week-ends have been busy. Natsuko has been here once and we met with her parents and brother. I went to her place in Osaka 10 days ago and we visited the royal palace in Kyoto together with her sister. This weekend all the people from the lab went on a school-trip to the mountains for a sleep-over in a ryoukan. We had some excellent food and I had a bath in an onsen for the first time since coming here. Next weekend I will go with Tomo and some friends to another onsen. I'll write about that next time!

Take care

A thought

2007-10-18T22:19:00.000+09:00

In Tokyo people don't look at me so much, at least not compared to when I was in Osaka. Here they never stare at me. Sometimes I notice a glance, but they always divert their eyes quickly.

I had dinner with Tomo and Sachi yesterday. Yakiniku at Shibuya. A really good moment. I hadn't met Tomo for about half a year and Sachi for more than 2 years and it was really, really good to see them again. Both seem to have gotten used to Tokyo, which is nice since they thought that the big crowds of Tokyo seemed like a crazy festival in the begining. Tomo's opinion is that people here are more cold, more closed. Maybe this explains why I don't feel stared at. That, together with the fact that there are a lot of foreigners here. I guess poeple here are used to all kinds of faces. After the dinner I took the night-train home to the dorm. A classic packed subway. I didn't really need to hold on to anything, I couldn't fall over anyway. And when I arrived to my station I realized that I was on the wrong side of the wagon and just barely made it out to the platform before the doors closed.

Yesterday was the first day in the lab. Everyone is nice and kind to me. And Professor Kato seems like a very good supervisor. Things are moving on very, very fast. I used some of their equipment (polarized optical microscopy, they call it "pomu") to look at Ichikawa's liquid crystals (LC) the first day. And today I began some experiments to synthesize my own LCs. Note that this is the second day in school...

Tomorrow Natsuko is coming here.

Good night!

I've arrived

2007-10-16T19:46:00.000+09:00

So I'm back in Japan. Took the train from Narita Airport to Ueno Stn, the Skyliner express. It takes something like 1 hour. Most of what I saw at first was rice fields, small houses and shrines. Then more houses. The city getting more and more dense. Office workers in suits, school children in their uniforms, housewives in soft trousers and square-shaped jackets on bicylces. After 30 minutes this all felt normal again. No problem adapting. Another half an hour and I was in culture chock. Tokyo isn't Osaka. It's more. More intense, more chaotic, more of a mess. I had to look hard to find a straight angle. Subway trains shot out of tunnels under me. I could have touched the buildings we passed with the train, if only the windows were possible to open. The city doesn't look as if it's built, it's more like an organism. Growing, moving and puffing.

Still, maybe this is only true for Ueno. Tokyo is a huge city. 10 million people live here. The number of places to visit is overwhelming.

Me and Ichikawasan (my tutor here) went around a lot (7-8 train rides in one afternoon) to register me at a number of places, get me an insurance and so on. He's a really nice guy! I'll meet with Prof Kato tomorrow. That's gonna be cool.

My aparment is small and cosy. 13 m2. It doesn't feel that cramped. Dark wooden floors and a balcony facing down-town Tokyo helps keeping the atmosphere up. And it's cheap! 10 000 Yen / month. There are some very japanese solution for the lack of space. 1) I have a shower unit. This is a toilet, a place for washing my face and a shower, everything crowded on 1 m2! It features many movable parts and a high risk for flooding! 2) My bed is foldable and becomes a shelf when I don't use it. 3) My desk unfolds like a transformer... Ok, that last was a bit of an exaggeration ;)

So everything is fine. But I'm tired and jetlagged.

Take care.

Last morning in Sweden

2007-10-15T15:37:00.000+09:00

Ok, I'm leaving.

See you!

Getting emotional

2007-10-06T05:07:00.000+09:00

So it’s 10 days left until I leave and I am, maybe not surprisingly, having mixed feelings about this. After two years in Sweden I kind of got used to living here … again. It was just yesterday that I walked up through campus to my lab and got the feeling that this was really normal, you know, as it should be. I had found my everyday life. And then I realized that, in two weeks this will have changed, my life will change, again, and I couldn’t help feeling a bit sad about it. I like what I’m doing now, and I like the people that I do it with. The safest way to play would have been to stay with this.

But, as some might now, I always want safe, but I never choose it. Luckily, I’m not walking out on the thinnest of ice. I've done this before in a way. And I’ve heard a lot about the place where I’m going and it seems very all right.

And really, there’s nothing else I want to do. This is it. I got lucky.

To leave my family and friends here will of course be hard. I'm not getting used to that, eventhough this isn't the first time. I am truly grateful for all the support. I will miss you.

So, take care.

Genkidene.

元気でね

The Plan

2007-09-08T17:35:00.000+09:00

Dates:

Leave from Stockholm Monday 15th of October, 1pm. Arrive to Narita (Tokyo) 16th of October, 9am. Note that the time difference between Sweden and Japan is 7 hours (8 in wintertime).

Home in Stockholm again in the middle of March 2008. Apply for a new VISA. Back to Tokyo in the begining of April.

Return to Stockholm in April 2010.

Note that this might change depending on what will happen with my Monbusho (文部科学省) scholarship.

Things to do before leaving:

Wrap things up at work
Meet with people
Buy gifts (おみやげ), all ideas are welcome!
Study kanji (漢字)

Hej!

2007-09-08T14:49:00.000+09:00

This page is for me to ventilate my impressions and feelings about my life in Tokyo, the place where I will be living for the next few years. How I ended up going to Japan? It's a long story. Let's say it started with Judo and continued with Japanese language studies, though always as a hobby. My interest in Japan got a boost from staying in Osaka as an exchange student for one year. And I've had this idea about going back to Japan for some time now.

What about the name in the URL? Well, Carl Peter Thunberg was a Swedish botanic and student of Carl von Linné, who you might know of. In 1770 he went out on a journey that took him from Uppsala in Sweden to South Africa and then all the way to Nagasaki in Japan. The journey lasted for 9 years and during this time he collected and catalogued a huge number of plants. He wrote a book based on what he had found, Flora Japonica, and this work became the first scientific exchange between Sweden and Japan. That was 240 years ago.

I am a graduate student at the Royal Institute of Technology (KTH) in Sweden and I will do a part of my research at the University of Tokyo. Though I hold no dreams of having the same impact on science as Thunberg had, I am happy to continue this long history of scientific exchange. Hopefully it will continue for another 240 years!

I plan to write often and short. Quantity instead of quality..erhm? We'll see how it goes. Since my situation will be that of a normal Japanese college student I guess I won't spend much time outside of the lab, eat all my meals in the school canteen and use my 13m2 room for nothing but sleeping.

Believe it or not, I'm actually looking forward to this a lot!