Back in Sweden

Conversation overheard in the local grocery shop:
"Does rice ever go off?"
"No, I don't think so. But you can get insects in it if you keep it too long."

The annual consumption of rice in Japan is around 70 kg per person. Just one of those every day differences between Sweden and Japan.

Daytrippin' to Nara

After one day in Kyoto I went for a daytrip to Nara, a "small" city an hour away from Kyoto. Nara was Japan's first capital and is home to many temples and shrines. One of the most famous attractions is the Tōdai-ji temple with its Daibutsu-den Hall, shown in the picture above. This is the biggest wooden building in the world and I can tell you it's really gigantic. However, the version of the buidling seen today is from the beginning of the 18th century and is only two thirds as big as the original buiclfing. I think the Daibutsu-den Hall is one of the most beautiful places I've ever been to, its difficult to explain why but it felt like there was something magic about the whole place. The Daibutsu-den Hall is home to Japan's largest Daibutsu, a Buddha scultpture made in bronz and measuring 16 meters in height. There is also a famous hole in one of the pillars inside the building which is the same size as the nostrils of the Buddha sculpture. it is said that if you can squeeze throught this hole you will be blessed with enlightenment in your next life. I never tried because I had the feeling that I would get stuck there and someone had to get the chain saw out...

I also visited many other temples and shrines in Nara and went to a museum with wood carved sculptures. All in all I had a great day in Nara. To check out the pictures from Nara, take a look here.

Trains in Japan can be delayed

I decided to catch the local trains from Atsugi to Kyoto. There were several reasons. First its cheaper than going by shinkansen (and I don't have the Japan Rail Pass, which is the best deal for tourists, as I am a resident of Japan) and right now its school holiday period sp you can purchase a ticket with unlimited travel for 1 day, which makes it ridiculously cheap. Second, going on local trains would give me the chance to get a close-up view of Mount Fuji and small towns along the way. It would also give me a good chance for some people watching.

From my station to Kyoto it would take 9 hours and I had to change trains 5 times. This is how it was: it is so easy to travel by train in Japan, there are signs in English in every single station, even the small ones, and it was never difficult changing trains, as most of the connections departed from the same platform as the incoming train. Okay, from the beggining I was a little bit nervous, since my second train was 55 min delayed (!) and I though I was going to miss all the rest of my connections. I never understood why, as I always looked away when they displayed the message in English (every 10th minute) on the information board. But it all went by very smooth and I came to Kyoto when had planned.

The nagative side was that it was raining all day, so the nice views of the surroundings and Mount Fuji I was looking forward to could not be seen. But I got to see some costline, which was beautiful. And now I can also tell you that I saw houses and buildings and small patches of rice field outside the train widow for nice hours. One city or town is connected to the other all along the way. No wonder it is popular with bath salts with names like Finland bath and scents of pine trees or birchwood.

And so the adventure begins

Friday was my last day at work. Six months have passed since I came to Japan. Feels like yesterday, but at the same time I've experienced and seen a lot along the way. However, I didn't feel satisfied so I decided to stay a little bit longer to have the chance to travel further away from Tokyo area.

At the moment I am in Kyoto, experiencing the cultural and historical Japan. It really is different here. It even smells different. At first when I came to Kyoto I said to myself it smells like I am out of the country (a smell Sara descirbed as a mix of pollution and deep-frying fat, "because they deep-fry a lot of food when you go overseas"). The pace here is different and I have never seen as many toursits as I have the last two days (maybe it's because I am a tourist myself). People are very friendly, not to say that they aren't friendly in Tokyo or Atsugi, but yesterday an old lady shared a bag of caramels with me as we were waiting fot green light at a crossing.

The pictures I've taken so far can be seen here and there are more to come as the adventure continues.

Parking rule

As I walked to the shodo (calligraphy) class today I noticed something I haven't noticed before. All cars in the carparks I passed by were parked with their fronts in the same direction. Coincidence? Or just another proof of tidiness?

Snow in Tokyo!

Last night it was snowing here, which from what I've heard rarely happens. Here's the proof:

TEAM 23

The company I work for has many different circles that look after your spare time interests (that is to say for the employees that have any time off from work). These include everything from sport circles like soccer and aikido, to more traditional circles like tea ceremony and shodo (calligraphy). They also have a mystery circle, which is still unknown what they actually do. I have joined the shodo circle, the swimming circle and the snowboarding circle, called TEAM 23. Two weekends ago it was time for the first gathering for the winter for TEAM 23. We started at 3.30 AM (!) and drove all the way to Hakuba and back in one day (four and a half hours one way)! Since I don’t have a drivers licence valid in Japan I could sleep in the car, but I felt sorry for the guys driving, but they seemed to be fine. We had a great day together and Hakuba offered us blue birds and beautiful views the whole day. They were a very fun team to ride with, playing around in the snow and doing all sorts of crazy things (unfortunately including some broken bones, but not mine this time). Most of the team members were complaining that they didn’t speak enough English (as many often do, but most of the time it’s just a lack of courage), and sometimes we had difficulties understanding each other. I was happy to be there without the two other Swedish guys at the company, because then it becomes easier for them to speak Japanese instead, thus excluding me from the conversation. And it seemed like they actually enjoyed practising their English, they were very interested students. In exchange they taught me some Japanese words. My favourite was sarra sarra, which means powder (and also soft). I hope I’ll be able to join them for their next snowboarding adventure.

To see the pictures from the trip, click here!

New Years holiday

I had 10 days holiday over New Years (my first paid holiday ever!) and Sara was here to visit me. We had a great holiday together with 4 days sightseeing in Tokyo and 5 days snowboarding in the Japanese Alps!

We went to karaoke in Shibuya, slept in the sun in Inokashira Park, strolled down the streets in Harajuku and Omotesando to have a close look of the non-official architectonical competition between the fancy fashion houses, took us to the Imperial Palace Gardens just to discover we came on one of the few days of the year when it’s not open, but had a nice walk in the sun on the outside instead. We also spent a day in “Akiba”, tech-town much enjoyed by westerners but detested and referred to as dangerous and awful by my Tokyo-friends. We visited Miyazaki Hayao’s studio Ghibli and wished either that it was crazier museum and had more of his anime or that we had lower expectations on it. We also wished we had kidnapped one of those cute little Japanese kids playing around in the cat bus. Souvenir shopping was done in Kichijoji and Shibuya and Sara looked closely on every shelf of the 6 story shop LoFT, storing everything you can possibly need for your home and office to make sure she didn’t miss a single thing. A night view over Tokyo city was caught from the charming Tokyo tower.

The trip to Hakuba in the Japanese Alps was amazing! It was snowing like crazy, so the visibility was crap but it wasn’t hard to enjoy the hills anyway, the amount of snow that came during our stay was mad. Riding with powder up to our knees was fantastic and I even got stuck with snow up to my chest and had to crawl out! We also enjoyed an outdoor Onsen (hot spring), soaking our exhausted bodies in the boiling hot water while snow was floating down in our faces. Sara said it was the best snowboarding she had ever done and I am absolutely willing to agree.

Check out the pictures of all that fantastic snow and from the rest of the holiday in the photo album!

Different worlds we live in

One of my friends is 8 months pregnant. She gets up at seven every morning to make her husband breakfast. I really hope she is doing it out of love and not because it is expected from her. Maybe it's about time her man learns how to cook.

Workaholics

I stayed until late at work last night, on a friday. When I left work, there was still plenty of people working. I can almost see the end of my project, so for me it's okey to work late. But they will keep on working late hours for the rest of their lives. I cannot get my head around it. Am I lazy? Or are they crazy?

One of my friends told me that when he used to work late, he took a taxi home at his company's behalf. But now with the recession, the company won't pay any taxi bills and the boss it forcing his employees to catch the last train before they stop running at midnight.

The secreasy behind skininess

I wonder if Japanese stay skinny because they eat healty food or because it's so damn cold indoors?