Cup cake upside down

Apple cinnamon cream cheese cup cakes. First try in my combined microwave and oven.

Inga konstigheter.

Counterproductivity

In many cases, Japanese people are very good att keeping their things immaculate and durable. Sometimes it comes as a great shock when you run across something from a different lifetime and it hasn't even got a single scratch to it. But as I was walking home from work today I burst out laughing as I looked into a lorry driving past. The seats were still covered in plastic from the factory, as expected, but to my surprise the driver was sitting there on his spotless outpost puffing on a cigarett... Tell me, what's the point with that?

On top of the mountain

So, I like living in Atsugi because the scenery with the big mountains and rice fields is beautiful. But Atsugi doesn’t have all that much to offer, so on the weekends I open my wings (or rather, take out my train-card for a round) to see something else.

Two weekends ago I climbed the nearby Mount Oyama- big mountain – together with some colleagues. A cable car took us up the first bit of the mountain, up to a shrine. Close to this shrine is an old hiding place, where the locals took their children to keep them safe during the war. The hike to the top wasn’t all that hard as the invitation had pointed it out to be (“please warm up sufficiently if you are not sure of your stamina”) and after about 1.5 hours we had reached the summit at 1,252 meters. Unfortunately it was hazy at the top, so we couldn’t see the long wished-for view of the ocean and the surrounding landscape. But it was compensated of the glimpse we got of Mount Fuji as the clouds dispersed. I really enjoyed being on an outdoor adventure for a change. And I have to admit my legs were aching the day after.

I’ve also participated in another company activity, namely a tree cutting day. Yep, it’s exactly what it sounds like; we went into the bush and cut down a cedar tree, by hand, and then rounded off the day with a BBQ and some beers. The whole tree-cutting thing was meant to preserve the old technique of cutting down tress by hand. A pretty fun and chill day!

The past Saturday I went to Kamakura, a touristy beachside “town” (population 170,000) only one hour by train from Atsugi. Kamakura was the capital of Japan from 1185 to 1333 and is said to be a “ Little Kyoto”, with an enormous number of Buddhist temples and Shinto shrines. Kamakura is also home to Japan’s second-largest Buddha image, 11.3 m in height, cast in bronze and completed in 1252. The town had a nice quiet feeling to it, even though it was weekend and the streets where full with people, and I really liked seeing a bit of the cultural Japan. As I walked down to the beach it turned out to be a Hawaiian inspired surfers spot. Still in the beginning of November, the water was filled with surfers waiting for the right wave to come. Next time, I’ll rent a surfboard (and wetsuit) and join them.

I’ve also visited Yokohama, the second largest city in Japan with 3.5 million inhabitants. It was less chaotic than Tokyo and had a nice Chinatown, which made you feel like you were somewhere else in Asia. And of course I’ve spent quite some time exploring the different parts of Tokyo: the shopping and entertainment districts Shinjuku and Shibuya – the latter famous for the huge zebra crossing, which is entirely covered by a horde of humans crossing as the light switch to green; Ginza – Tokyo’s 5^th avenue; Harajuku – expensive and trendy shopping streets with architectonic highlights; Akihabara – heaven for technique freaks; Kichijõji – centred on a big park and home to many small, new and trendy shops (one sold Swedish retro chinaware like Rörstrand and Gustavsberg, and even Bliw handsoap for ¥ 1000 a bottle, which is around 80 SEK (!). Maybe a future business?); Shimo-Kitazawa – described as “free spirited”, with small alleys filled with bars and cafés, and one second hand shop after another.

Do you want to see some pictures from my weekend activities? You will find them in my photo album!

My top 5 favourite Japanese sounds

1. Number one is unbeatable and hard to miss. It comes in as many varieties as there are Japanese. What I’m talking about is the [ääääääh]-sound, a conversation filler like [uhmm, aha] and the like. It’s at its best when exclaimed after someone has said something surprising and especially when it comes from a girl – then the [ääääääh] can be very high pitched. (To continue my course in Swedish sounds for you English speakers, ä sounds like the vocals in hair. Or at least it was the best I could come up with right know, anyone who has a better suggestion?)

2. The sound lorries make when they reverse and turn. It’s the voice of a girl and I guess she’s saying something like “sorry for being in the way and please watch out”, together with an extremely silly beeping sound. Ambulances also have the same type of sound, saying they’re sorry that they’re in the way. Maybe it’s inappropriate to say it’s hilarious, but it really is. Hearing this sound always puts a smile on my face.

3. The drunken, mumbly sound bus drivers make once in a while. It sound like: [Hasch, hasch… maschimasch… haschi, haschi… maschi]. I don’t have a clue what it means, but I sure like it.

4. A Japanese conversation, and especially when someone is explaining something to someone else. I like the rhythm of the language. I just wish I could understand it.

5. The ear-piercing sound you hear when entering a pachinko parlour (a pachinko resembles an upright pinball game and the parlours are filled with rows of them, and usually they also have a wide variety of video games). The sound is unbelievable, it’s loud and it’s chaotic and I can’t believe people spend hours in there. I wonder if there are any studies of the risk of developing tinnitus in a pachinko parlour?

The boss’s new gadgets

At work it feels a bit like the three of us “interns” are considered to be the company’s latest investment. We are the gadgets that the boss likes to show off with. But I’m not the one complaining, being one of the exotic Swedes I got to shake hands with a Noble price winner!

Dr. Shirakawa won the Noble price in chemistry in year 2000 for his discovery and development of conducting polymers. Last week he was visiting the company for a demonstration of their solar cells. He had been involved in developing one part of it. We were asked to join, and the explanation I was given was that he wanted to see us (or maybe, just maybe, it was the way I interpreted it). When the demonstration was finished we were presented as “our new interns from Sweden, who really wanted to meet you”. We bowed and said our [Hadjememachtee] (a polite way of saying hello) and then photos were taken and hands shaken and I was smiling big times. It was fun. He looked like such a sweet old man and he said it was an honour to meet us. Not too bad, ehh?

We’ve also had lunch with the boss himself, who is the holder of the Guinness world record of number of patents, and the chairman of the board. Nice, but formal occasions.

But there are also downsides of being the ones that everyone has to see. Once a month they have an in house conference and on the last occasion we were asked, 5 min prior, to stand in front of everybody in the conference room and present ourselves. Inside was all employees including all the members of the board, all in all between 600 and 700 people! I was so nervous I thought I was going to faint and I couldn’t hold the microphone fixed in front of me because my hands were shaking too much. But luckily it was a quick presentation. The backwash of the hole thing was that lunch was straight afterwards and I can assure you that it’s completely impossible to eat with chopsticks when your hands are still shaking from the adrenalin chock.

This week they had us listening to a lecture about electron spin resonance for 3.5 hours – all in Japanese! I couldn’t see the importance of that one. And just a 10 min break, without any fika (Swedish cake and coffee brake)! Well ok, I learnt one thing. With this analysis method they have concluded that as the price of tea (of course green) and instant coffee increase, the amount of free radicals decrease, thus expensive tea is more healthy than cheap. Very valuable knowledge.

I’ve finally uploaded some photos. As soon as I have some new photos I will upload them, so you just have to check out the photoalbum once in a while if you don’t want to miss out.

A day by the riverside

Sunday was a beautiful warm and sunny day, a typical Swedish summers day. We were invited to barbecue with the tennis team by the river. We weren’t the only ones doing this, many others had set up their barbecues and laid out their plastic mats and chairs and were enjoying it as much as we were. Some people were in the water fishing for their dinner.

The tennis team had done the grocery shopping, and they were packing up one thing after the other. We started cutting everything in nice little pieces and as the coal was warn enough we started barbecuing and then eating with the chopsticks straight from the grill. A very smart way to do it as everything will stay warm. We kept on eating for nearly 3 hours! Just small munches at a time, but it felt like the food supply was endless. The strangest thing they barbecued was something they called hormones, I think it was some sort of glands from pigs, yuck!

As I though we had finished it all, they started doing veggie yaki-soba, fried noodles:

All in all, I had a very nice and filling day in the sun!

About being an alien

Yes, I do feel like an alien sometimes. Like when it takes me 20 minutes to figure out which bottle is fabric softener and which is liquid washing powder in the shop. Or when I thought one of the guys in the football team wanted to shake hands with me and present himself, as he came crouching towards me with one hand reached out in front of himself. But in fact, he was only showing in a very Japanese way that he wanted to get through to pick up his water bottle, without bothering anybody on the way. And there I was, with a stupid hand reached out in mid air. Or when I time after other step over the slippers in random doorways that I think belong to someone else and hear voices behind me saying “no, no, wait, stop”, and as I turn around I realise I’ve missed yet another pair of slippers I’m supposed to wear to the toilet, or wherever I’m heading to.

But it’s okey. At least I have the certificate now, being registered as an alien: