春が来ましたよ！

Spring is here! And what a beautiful season it is, in Japan.

Within the vicinity of the sakura cherry trees in full bloom, even a metropolis as grand as Tokyo seems to be overshadowed by white and pink 'fluffiness'. The sakura bloom in Japan is a big deal for the japanese people, as it only blooms for a very short time (20 days) and then dies, only to be ressurected again the following year. Because of its immense beauty and tragically short lifespan, it is used as a symbol for life itself, and it has deep roots in the japanese society.

During this short period of the bloom the japanese people do Hanami ("Flower Viewing") which is much more fun than it sounds. Families and friends gather together and go to parks, company workers eat and drink under the blossom and couples sit under the trees drinking wine.

Yesterday I went with my japanese friends to such a "Hanami party" and it blew away all my expectations! It was such a great time. The ambiance was great, food was superb and the japanese rice wine was delicious. It's almost a blend between a Swedish summer-evening BBQ and a music festival. Fuse those two together and you are on your way to a hanami-atmosphere.












As we all know by now, Tokyo isn't famous for its vast wildlife... so when you go to the nearest park to have the hanami-party, you're not alone. Definately *not* alone. This is where the "music festival" feeling treads in; There are always folks around you laughing, shouting and doing their business so while the concept of "Hanami" is a peaceful experience, it does tend to lean towards the "party" feeling a bit because of the surroundings. Although I'm not complaining -- This hanami party is something that I will painfully miss when I'm in Sweden again. And all my friends here.... arrghh, I don't even want to think about it right now.


I also thought I might add some stuff that me and Sayam did before he went to Kyoto (which was planned for me too, but the Swedish economy failed me so I stayed here...) so here goes: Since Ueno and Asakusa are more of the "Old towns" of Tokyo, we decided to stroll around there since the Sakura was blooming and we found some interesting places there before. Our first stop was Ueno Doubutsuen (Ueno Zoo). Prior to entering the gates of the zoo, Sayam bought a mysterious piece of chocolate-banana-candy-stick-thing which apparently transformed him into a child! Let's just view the pictures and let them speak for themselves.


Next was Asakusa, once again. This time we were early, and could spend hours just walking around the old streets and popping into virtually every shop we could find. This place is Heaven
for anyone who likes japanese culture, as the shop here sell almost exclusively japanese items such as chopsticks, tea sets, sake cups, charms, Samurai swords, etc etc... This will probably be my main destination when the time comes when I'll have to buy souveniers . We ended the evening by going into a small, local ramen-ya (A noodle restaurant) where we enjoyed udon-ramen, unagi, steamed rice, tempura fried fish and that warm, soothing rice wine.

Sayam: Hoowhoou... I are great Samurais!
Background Ninja: I'll kill you with my index finger...

Hmm... what else. Ah, today after I finished work me and Shiori took a walk through a park in Shinjuku, which also transformed us into children. Riding swings, climbing the play-nets and just generally jumping around looking like two mentally-impaired adults, which was fun!

Shiori-chan on a horse

Mata ne -- I'll continue writing sometime next week or the week after that, when Sayam has made his return back to the Eastern Capital!

Me, myself & Thai

Sorry for the lack of posts, I simply haven't had time to just sit down and write and stuff! As some of you already figured out by the title, Sayam has finally reached the restrictive shores of Japan and we're now spreading destruction upon Tokyo together.

Since I'm in the middle of spring break now, we don't have to mind the hour (and we really don't) when we're out. I think our current record is somewhere around 14-hours of just walking around, exploring, and going to various izakaya and other interesting places. I think it reached its pinnacle when my girlfriend started to get a bit jealous because I was spending so much time with Sayam. She had been talking a lot about going to Odaiba (Kind of a romantic dating-friendly island off Tokyo's coast) together and I promised to go, but haven't yet done so... Anyway, I went with Sayam instead, haha. I think we lost around 30-40 man points by walking around there among all "the other couples", but we rightfully reclaimed them when we went to an izakaya and drank "drinks" out of brutal beer glasses that were larger than an average-sized Japanese person.

Eating Tenpura, squid & Karage at a small izakaya in Shinjuku

It's been really cool seeing an old friend again after about eight months. So far we've strolled the high-rise in Shinjuku, window-shopped the craziness that is Harajuku, dodged Yakuza members in Kabukicho, gotten lost in the old Edo-streets of Asakusa, and re-enacted Metal Gear-style sneaking in a ridiculusly luxurious hotel in Daiba. Oh, and Sayam drank a tea-spoon sized coffee for over three dollars.

"Thank you for using Ginza Line. Please set your cellphone to silent mode and refrain from talking on the phone. The next station is, Silent Hill. The doors on the left side will open."

We're planning on visiting the Museum of Science & Art in Ueno this week, as well as spending a great amount of time in Asakusa. We found a truly cool place there with almost exclusively japanese-styled shops and restaurants, close to the temples. A pair of ninja shoes caught Sayam's eyes, while a Yukata for under 3000 Yen caught mine.

I'll write about our adventures to come when we reach the old capital of Japan; Kyoto!


続く ~

Random J-bird

Reunion

These past two weeks have been complete opposites of one and other. I spent the first one camped in my room, as I was down with the flu. This is by the way the first time I've been sick since I came to Japan. Anyway, I spent about 6 days doing absolutely nothing but sleeping, watching movies on my laptop and basically being an infant. The following week however, I didn't even have enough time to go home some days. Since school here is super-intense and fast-paced (compared to our western equivalents) I had to spend a lot of time catching up lost chapters, as well as trying to hang on to the current ones. To add to that, I've gotten two new students, so my teaching schedule has gotten more active too. Also, as I mentioned in my previous entry my sister was coming to visit, as well as two friends from Sweden.

Sooo... I went to Sunroute Hotel in Shinjuku where my sister and her husband Peter were waiting for me. As I got there I received my long-awaited supplies from the motherland -- a huge quantity of LÖSGODIS which will last until my departure. We then went to touristy places like the Metropolitan towers to take pictures of Tokyo from a high altitude. Not surprisingly, my sister was more interested in taking pictures of various 'cute' stuff around the city.

Tourist? I think so!

Older brothers and sister usually have some kind of leverage over the younger ones in the family, but she has done enough awkward things here for me to have a good reserve of counter-arguments when we're back home. She'll always be the person who put green tea powder into a saucer of soy in a sushi restaurant.

The following day I met Magnus who had recently arrived. He actually got my old room in the Matsudo guesthouse which I lived in for more than half-a-year. He'll be here for two months, just the right amount of time to explore Tokyo. I went to Matsudo to pick him up (He was too frightened to leave the place alone ;) Anyway, long time since I've been to Matsudo... it's a really nice, quiet place and I like it a lot, but it's just too damn far away from everything.


On the same day we went together with my sister and Peter to an izakaya in Kabukichou to eat various dishes and have some cool drinks. Since izakyas usually have an endless amount of drinks for very reasonable prices, we decided to pay the 1500Yen/2h bill to get access their drink-as-much-as-you-can menu, and we basically went through the list from top to bottom.

Peter with his masculine beverage

Being northen european, we of course over-ordered everything and when the staff came to our table to tell us we had to leave in a minute (our time was up) we were still surrounded by 8 huge drinks (we were four people). When we drank them all up, the waitor cleaned up the table and quietly said "Sugee.." (Wow...) to himself.

This guy didn't believe we could finish off a huge batch of drinks enough to sink the Titanic

On my sister's last day in Tokyo, we went to Odaiba. It's a man-made island just off Tokyo Bay and is accessible with the monorail which 'flies' over the bay. While there, I was pretending not to know my sister since she suddenly evolved into some kind of ultra-mega tourist snapping pictures of everything like there was no tomorrow.

Now here I am, with these strange weeks behind me and looking forward to a great Haruyasumi (Spring break) which will begin next week. The only thing I have to worry about now is the final exam...

Also, I seem to be lacking a certain Thai. He got stopped before he was able to board his flight to Narita, and so by that bureaucracy has won yet another battle against sanity. Hopefully he'll get here next week!

Say Hello to my Little Friend

Today is a good day. To begin with, it seems like Spring is finally about to arrive. Walking home from school, I enjoyed a beautiful blue sky with about 18c in the air! I can't wait until April when the Sakura trees will begin their blooming.

The second reason is that I finally got a perfect score on a kanji test in school. Memorizing them is truly a pain in the rear for a poor little European kinpatsu otokonoko like me, especially when we get 6 new ones each day... and considering they all have at least two pronunciations depending on which word they are used in, it becomes somewhat of a hassle to learn them!

The third, and most obvious reason for this day being counted as a good one is: My best friend from back home has finally left the evil clutches of the Jante-society that most people call Sweden, and is in this typing moment on his way to Asia. You can all follow his journey HERE.

My new tin can

So after two painful days of packing, cleaning and signing papers (sounds easy enough, but then again you haven't been subjected to Japanese beaurocracy) I've finally made it to my new place. This place is situated right beside the Kanda River (which actually flows a few metres away from my window!) in Nakano Sakaue, a district near Nishi-Shinjuku. It's about 20.000 Yen more expensive than my old place in Matsudo, but this place has the invaluable location: 10 minutes to Shinjuku Station, by foot! Some people would trade both of their legs to be able to walk to Shinjuku station! I really like this place. (Videos available at the end of this post)

The immediate neighbourhood is has that classic japanese feeling with low-level buildings packed together, forming small narrow streets in between. Add the aforementioned river, and wait for ｓpring to bring the Sakura into bloom and you have your ideal living place. However, craziness is only 10 minutes east from here. The Shinjuku centre!

When living in Matsudo I spent about 90 minutes on the train every day, counting both coming-and-going from school. Now I have the luxary of being able to walk to school! It takes about 25 minutes, depending on how many Japanese people are getting in my way.

The company which owns this building is Sakura House, probably one of the largest guesthouse companies in Japan. They, as the rest of the companies in Japan, are a big fan of paperwork. I think I spent two hours filling out information at their office before they gave me my keys. Then I got this funny little Japanese dude talking to me about the furniture in the room, and if I were to break anything I'd have to pay for it: Then I, being a fan of sarcasm, said something in the lines of "So if I take the chair and throw it through the window and down to the street I have to pay for it?" with a smile, the poor guy got all nervous and said "Yes... well, no... please call and inform us before you do that" and that's when I remembered that sarcasm is one of two "Japanese cryptonites", the other one being liquorice. (I told you about that before, didn't I?).

Anyway, I love my new tin can! I live right next to the kitchen/living room too! And wheras my view in Matsudo brought forth mental imagery of post-war Berlin, my current view is downtown Shinjuku!

Beats Matsudo

A big difference with this place is that it's crowded with Brits and Americans. Of course, there's plenty of Korean and Chinese people as well, although the Americans are by far the most prominent. Not because they are *that* many, but they do have the tendency to be utterly loud. And as we all know, God is an American so that's just their way of being. They're cool people though, and I'm not one to be bothered by noise. Oh! And today I found out that there's a Lawson 100 right next to the guesthouse! Lawson 100 is a supermarket where every item costs only 100 Yen (One dollar/9SEK approximately). Awesome!


What else what else... ah, going to Roppongi again today! We had the best time last weekend so we decided to go there again. We've found a very good formula to party there for a very cheap price (Roppongi actually has a reputation of being extremely expensive, which it actually is to the average tourist). I mean, most clubs have an entrance fee of 3000-5000 Yen (About 300-500 SEK) and that will only get you *inside* the club, which is usually extremely packed with people to the limit where you can't move. Add to that ridiculously overpriced alcohol and you have Roppongi in a nutshell =) Then you have the hostess clubs (also known as "Gentlemens' clubs". These places are usually frequented by tourists with thick wallets and a strong scent of desperation.

None of that! The magic word is... "Don Quiote!" ;) When you guys get to Tokyo we'll show you how to have a long, great and surprisingly cheap Roppongi experience! (Batteries not included)

Video 1 (Room)
Video 2 (Also room...)

And I just couldn't resist posting this video of "Suteki da ne?". There are not many people in this world with the voice of Rikki!

Level-Up

So I'm officially old now.

Even though I went to school completely without my birthday in mind, apparently my classmates found out about and decided to embarrass me throughout the day ;)

First the Swedish people gathered around my desk and sang Happy Birthday (The Swedish version) and moments later, the koreans started singing the korean version. Jack had bought me some strange Pokémon-themed candy, as well as some other stuff. Halfway through the day two korean girls gave me a strawberry cake and a chocolate pudding-like thing.

My classmates had also planned to go out to a korean restaurant during the day to celebrate with some good food and drinks, but my damn stupidity prevented me from joining. You see, about three weeks ago, I found a new place in Shinjuku which I immediately booked. Little did I know that the moving-in date was February 3rd, my birthday. So as it turns out, I must clean my current room: Floors, ceilings, the air-conditioner, the windows, everything... as well as move all my stuff to Shinjuku. Normally I'd postpone it for one day, but if I do that I have to pay rent for ANOTHER MONTH (which is about 56.000Yen, or 5.400SEK) so I'd rather skip my birthday.
Anyway, I'm glad I have such great friends who wanted to make my birthday a big deal ^_^

Some of my presents! The corn-like candy is actually reserved for February 3rd here in Japan. It is an old japanese tradition to throw them on people wearing a certain demonic mask. I don't know that much about the tradition, but it sure was fun to see the teacher throw a bunch of corn at Markus, who was the victim and had to wear the mask throughout the whole class.

Also there have been quite a lot of earthquakes recently; One of which caused a volcano north of Tokyo to erupt, spreading its ashes all the way down here. Now everyone's kind of waiting for a similar earthquake to piss Mt. Fuji off, triggering an eruption and thus ending her 300-year-long slumber.

Japan's volcanoes. As you can see, there's quite a lot of them. And nearly all of these bastards are alive and kicking.

I'm just glad that I'm moving out of this house, which has clearly been built with wet cardboard and ductape. Now that I'll be living in my new Shinjuku place, I might actually even survive 'The Big One' when it inevitabily comes knocking.

Alrighty then... I'm already behind schedule so I can't afford to spend more time on this post; I have to get this room good and clean so that I'll get back my 20.000Yen deposit tomorrow when I turn in the lobby keycard and room keys.

Filler post

Hey folks. Once again a filler post, sorry! Just to keep things fresh and updated!

So yesterday when I was waiting for the train to get back home from school, some japanese fella' decided it would be appropriate to jump in front of that very train, effectively ending his life in the fraction of a second. Therefore, they suspended the line to clean up all the body parts and blood, so I walked to Shinjuku instead and did some brief shopping and general strolling-around. I got really frustrated since I found this great clothing store with an awesome collection, but about 90% of it was too small for me to wear! I mean, their "L" sizes would barely fit my nephue (Who, by the way, sent me an awesome embroidery as well as a Melvin-themed mousepad)

Anyway, I'm very much looking forward to this weekend! The whole class, along with all of our teachers, are going out to a Shinjuku izakaya on Friday! It's been a while, so that'll be fun for sure. Also, me and a crazy french guy are thinking of going to Roppongi on Saturday night. I haven't been to Roppongi for about four months, so I'm looking forward to that as well. I'll try to get many pictures as possible and post them here later.

Until then.