Autumn colours

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!

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

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!

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

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

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

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!