July 2007
High heeled sneakers? (20070701)
I have never seen sneakers with high heels in any other
country. Here they are everywhere.
Short pants and related culture (20070701)
I saw some more "carry around something heavy with a jumping boy
while wearing only a loincloth and a jacket" today.
Trying to blend in (20070701)
From time to time you see the Gothic Lolita fashion in Sapporo
(only among young people). This is a foreigner, which is very rare in
this kind of clothing in Sapporo. I need to get more (well, any)
friends that dress like this.
Mormons (20070701)
If you stand still for too long in central Sapporo, Mormons
approach you and ask if you want to hear a wonderful message from
God. My experience is that if you say no they tell you anyway. I ones
go them to laugh when they asked me "have you ever met missionaries
like us before?" and I said "oh yes" with feeling.
Back with a vengeance (20070701)
Today I went back to Monty Python, wearing my nice jacket (though
the button blew away during a winter storm bicycle ride). They let me
in and I had some very delicious food. The amount of food is very
small though. But very very good.
Kaaahhhnn! (20070703)
We had a "jinpa" with our lab today. Since "jinpa" is considered
an English loan word, perhaps explanation is unnecessary. It of course
stands for "Jingis Khan Party" (obviously, at least if you are
Japanese), which in reality means just barbecue (Jingis Khan implies
lamb). A sad lack of "crush your enemies, see them driven before you and
hear the lamentations of their women" but you can't get everything. I
like the chair that is brought every time and every time turns out to
be way too low (since we use the same grills every time too). Most
fascinating food: chicken throats. Fairly good, compared to what one
might expect. There was also the usual assortment of intestines and
other less delicious but chewy things.
Susukino Festival (20070705)
There is a festival in Susukino now. You can have your head
bitten by a dragon, which seemed very popular. Why, I have no idea.
Susukino Festival Again (20070706)
Today people were performing karaoke and other things in front of
drunk visitors to Susukino. Mainly to get a chance to mention the
shady place they work at. There was also blindfolded "guess the brand
of the fourth beer" competitions for volunteers. And a t-shirt that
read "Snoopy I like sleeping outside".
Next Job? (20070706)
The yellow sign reads "misutaa madamu", i.e. Mr. Madam. There are
many such places, and for some reason many of the old women who teach
Japanese in a class I sometimes attend keep suggesting I should go
work in such a place. Evidently I make a strong impression in high
heels, dress, apron and make-up.
Forbidden to walk (20070706)
When parking my bicycle where the signs says it is forbidden to
do so, I noticed that the sign also says that point three of forbidden
things is "smoking and walking".
Too Strong (20070706)
I am too strong, or possibly Japanese bicycles are not made to
withstand any more muscle power than possessed by tiny Japanese. I
managed to bend the handle of my bicycle out of shape when trying to
get some power for acceleration (I have powerful legs and OK arms). So
now this handle too is busted, the metal has gone soft and wobbly.
Flower festivals (20070707)
Today I passed the flower festival, where people, just like me, photograph flowers.
Susukino festival again (20070707)
Today I saw a Japanese rockabilly band with huge Elvis style
haircuts playing in the middle of the street. People were excited and
danced appropriately in the streets too.
Inappropriate signs (20070707)
Who in their right mind names their store "Skank"? The answer
seems to be "Japanese people". Also, their is a new drink available at
Starbucks (or Sutaba as people normally call it here): "affogato
coffee". Presumably it is a mix of avocado and coffee (which sounds
bad). Somehow, "swirkle" is also involved.
Cool shirt (20070707)
Today I wore my home made (embroidery by yours truly) shirt which
says "Still single" in Japanese. It is a huge hit with my volunteer
teachers who think I am insane and good at embroidery (as well as
writing Japanese). When returning home by bicycle, no less than three
times people commented that it was "very cool". Once I had my picture
taken by a Japanese guy. Once it was two young girls on the phone with
a third one that reported to the third that "there is a crazy man with
a still single shirt standing next to us waiting for something". I
asked if they were trying to tell me they wanted to help me out of my
troublesome loneliness, The one on the phone seemed vaguely interested
so I said that though I don't look the part I am very rich too. They
thought it was funny at least. They were also very impressed by the
fact that I happen to attend Hokkaido University. As my brother once
said: "It is hard to convince people that you don't have to be a
genius to do this, when it is so obvious that in your own case it
happens to be true anyway". This picture was taken by another
foreigner from my volunteer class who I ran into last week when
returning home. Same shirt, different pants.
First hotel (20070708)
I spent three nights in Italy (and one night in a plane). The
first night was in this room, which was cheap and very nice. The owner
was also very nice. She asked me what Japan was like, and I said it is
very efficient, trains are always on time etc. She said "Oh, the
complete opposite of here then!". Indeed. Breakfast was also very
good, but crowded since everyone had woken up at the same
time. Italian breakfast consists of espresso and cookies. For
foreigners, there is also fruits and yogurt available.
Italian pizza (20070708)
Right below the window of my hotel room there was a pizzeria. I
bought a pizza (cheaper and larger than in Japan, though not by much),
but it was not very good. Not bad, but since Italy is famous for pizza
I was again disappointed (last time in Italy was the same). They tell
me northern Italy has bad pizza and you have to to the south to find
the good ones.
Italian culture (20070709)
I spent an hour taking pictures in Genova (I had to promise to
take many photos in Italy when I spend Japanese tax money on such
un-business like trips). There are many old looking houses etc.
Spam (20070709)
As expected, you cannot get away from spam even by leaving your
computer on another continent.
Gardens (20070709)
In Genova, a harbour city, they even have gardens in the sea.
Pirates! (20070709)
My second place favorite thing in Genova is the ship from the
movie "Pirates!" by Polanski. Number one is shopping for cool t-shirts
in the slum/dangerous part of town.
Sweden! (20070709)
A Swedish flag strategically placed in a place for drinking
alcohol. The number one activity of Swedes abroad.
Italian design (20070709)
A friend had jokingly asked me to buy nice Italian shoes for
her. Though after some thought it was withdrawn, since my taste in
clothes cannot be trusted. I would have bought these, and apparently
they would have been considered cool. Perhaps not wearable, but cool.
Difference between Italy and Japan (20070709)
When it rains in Japan everyone brings out tiny umbrellas that
barely cover your head. In Italy they bring out umbrellas that could
cover three people comfortably. Also, in Japan they are efficiently
and quietly sold by convenience stores (and everyone else when it
starts to rain), while in Italy they are very aggressively marketed by
poor people following you around in the streets.
Trying to work (20070709)
I took a train to the tiny village of Camogli, which is an
expensive jet-setter vacation spot. I was supposed to give a research
presentation there. The description of how to get to the conference
hotel was somewhat brief, and it also turned out to be very optimistic
on the time necessary for the different parts of the trip. There was
of course no information other than "take train to Camogli" given, but
since on person on the train thought that my train would "probably"
stop there, I was satisfied despite the train leaving on a completely
different time than the one announced for trains to Camogli (Italian
trains are rarely on time, it seems). Of course, since it cost about a
tenth of the price of the previous days 2 hour trip, I expected a
short trip and was worried that we had missed my stop after an
hour. We had not, it was just a super slow train.
The hotel (20070709)
For normal people, the cheap rooms in this hotel cost 250 Euro
(aka "a lot"). For conference people like me, it was a little bit
cheaper. The cheapest food available was also not very cheap, nothing
below 20 Euro. If I had stayed all three nights here, it would have
cost as much as the airplane tickets, which it did not seem to be
worth. But if you asked the staff how long it takes to get down to the
beach from the hotel, they always told you "15 minutes". Evidently
everyone is assuming you will be going by motorcycle and be
speeding. But who needs to go there anyway, when they have their own
soccer field for the hotel? Italians...
The view (20070709-10)
The view from my room and from my breakfast table was very
nice.
Killing time (20070709)
Tonight there was a conference dinner. Since I did not really
want to spend four more hours climbing up and down the mountain, I
took the hotel shuttle bus to the dinner place (another super
expensive hotel). It turned out to leave us there an hour and a half
before the dinner started, so I walked around "downtown" Camogli with
another researcher. He was also called "Jonas", but in Greek
("Janus"), since he was from Greece.
Stuck? (20070709)
I passed this cat two times, with about an hour in between. It
was in the exact same position both times, looking very pissed. It was
gone later in the night though.
Missing (20070709)
Speaking of gone, the head of this statue seemed less than
perfect.
Also a nice hotel (20070709)
The dinner was in this hotel, which had a window between the
restaurant and the pool. They had also named their conference rooms
after star systems, such as the ones from Star Wars. Which is cool.
The dinner (20070709)
The dinner was excellent. Which it had better be, since I will
not be refunded money for food by my university and it thus cost me 65
Euros. There was raw fish, pasta, not raw fish and dessert. The other
Jonas guy said, when asked by the funny waiter, that he did not need
any refill of pasta. He mainly did it because he thought it was the
polite thing to do in expensive places. Everyone else then rushed the
waiter with "OK, but I want more!", so finally Jonas too gave in and
asked for more pasta anyway. Luckily, another waiter was then
arriving, so it worked out in the end.
The dinner view (20070709)
The view was very nice from this hotel too. A Mexican guy working
in Denmark was sitting with his back to the window and kept turning
around to look at the view. Finally a woman from Turkey working in the
U.S. said "Why not move over here, there is room for you and you will
see the view". He said he did not want to cause a disturbance by
having to move all the forks etc. from his place to over there. There
was some discussions back and forth, so I finally said "Think of like
this: if you move, there will be more of this excellent view for all
of us, since you are blocking it. Be kind to us and just move
it". Everyone laughed at this, but said I was very cruel. I said I was
just saying what everyone was thinking, but they claimed that was
completely not the reason they had suggested it in the first place. He
did move after my entering the debate though. Which was nice for my
view.
More Italian breakfast (20070710)
Same as everywhere else, cookies, fruits and espresso. But the
view was great, so no one sat inside.
Work (20070710)
This is what it looks like when I work.
Lunch (20070710)
For 10 Euro the conference offered you lunch. It turned out to be
Italian fried bread with vegetables on (foccacia or however they might
spell it). Served cold. And normal bread, also cold.
Leaving (20070710)
After my own presentation, I left the conference, since it was
not related to my own work and the hotel was expensive. I went to the
railway. By bus, which I only had to wait 30 minutes for and luckily
caught the last one of the day; evidently communication is not a high
priority in Camogli. Everyone seems to have either a scooter or a
BMW/Porsche instead. At the station I found a note that said "tickets
are sold one floor up", so I went there and found a closed shop (well,
who could expect people to work after six anyway?). I finally found
another living being at the station and asked her if there was any way
at all to buy tickets. There was, some automatic machine on the first
floor. Which was right next to the note saying that tickets were sold
somewhere else. And broken. There was one more around the corner
though. Everything was of course in Italian, not my language of
choice. It also asked about 10 questions after the expected "from
where" and "to where". I have no idea what it was, but seemed to get
through. It told me I'd have to pay 2.1 Euro, which seemed reassuring,
since that was what I had paid to get there. Of course, inserting
coins into the machine only resulted in it spitting them back out
again. Finally I inserted a 5 Euro bill, and it printed my ticket for
me. Of course, it could no longer spit out coins, so I got a 2.9 Euro
gift voucher for buying other train tickets (not usable in these
machines though). Great. I am sure that will come in handy in
Japan. The train turned out to be 45 minutes late, so I got on the
train after that one instead, since it arrived earlier (being only 35
minutes late).
Another difference between Japan and Italy (20070710)
Apart from everything being late in Italy and on time in Japan,
and the size of umbrellas, another thing I noticed was that in Japan
everything is very clean. In Italy everything is very dirty. There are
signs like this one ("we don't want your dog's shit here") but it
seems to have very little effect. Another difference is that in Japan
you usually get very good service everywhere, with staff being super
polite to customers. In Italy they seem to think of customers as a
nuisance, and treat them quite rudely.
The third hotel (20070710)
The third hotel was nice, though I had to pay for two (still much
cheaper than the previous night), since the only room available was
for two. It had a stylish clock (though impossible to tell time with)
and a beautiful stairway (no elevator, though, so more climbing was
required).
Train again (20070711)
Wise from previous train experiences, I decided to leave early
for Milan, where my plane was waiting for me. Already when buying the
ticket, the sign said 15 minutes late. As usual in Italy, this time
estimate was very optimistic. We left 25 minutes late and arrived 45
minutes late.
Wii (20070711)
Wii was demoed in the Milan station. It is cool, but somewhat
old here in Japan.
Milan (20070711)
Having arrived earlier than expected, I spent some time walking
around the Milan station and taking pictures. A large contributing
factor was the stupid jet lag you get from Japan. I kept waking up at
5 in the morning despite being dead tired. Of course, now that I am
back in Japan, I cannot wake up before one in the afternoon
anyway.
Souvenirs (20070711)
I have a friend who is crazy about Ferraris, despite being a
girl. There was a whole store devoted to Ferrari at the airport. There
was also a store with Swedish vodka.
Flying (20070711-12)
Flying from Milan to Osaka takes about 12 hours. Flying to Italy
was boring, because everyone around me was on their honeymoon (so the
got special food, better than mine, and were not the least interested
in talking to me). One old Japanese man asked me if he could speak to
me, so I happily said yes. He then asked me in Italian if I was
Italian, but when I said I was not, he lost interest and stopped
talking to me. Flying back was also boring, since the plane was
empty and there was no one around me to talk to me. Also, for some
strange reason the planes both ways managed to find turbulence the
whole 12 hours! So you were not allowed to move away to try to find
someone else to bother (or use the bathroom; though most people
ignored that because if someone keeps feeding you drinks for 12 hours
you might just want to go despite the signs and speaker saying "please
don't, it is dangerous"). Trust an Italian airline to find a route
with turbulence the whole way. Of course, we arrived late too, but not
so late as to miss my connecting flight. In fact, I had so much time
over that I signed up for a JAL mileage card to have something to
do. At least it involved speaking to someone. Having a girl ask you
how much money you earn per year is cool when the answer is "almost
five million". Sadly, five million of Japanese yen, which have more
zeroes than Monopoly money. But still.
Almost Italian food (20070712)
Back in Japan, I bought a "spaghetti and omelet sandwich", since
it seemed strangely appropriate when coming back from Italy. It was
better than the "deep fried chicken and weird cheese sandwich". Both
quite Japanese though.
English (20070714)
OK, so "ladi's" is not that bad, but when you have an official
sign at the largest shopping complex in town spelled "nouth exit"? And
what is a "straight burger"?
Moss (20070716)
Isn't this just the cleanest desk and most exciting literature
you could imagine?
The Sea day (20070716)
Today was the holiday "Sea day". So we went to the sea. There you
could see people paraglidesurfing, taking pictures of birds, or me in
the sea. We arrived late, so there were not many other people there,
and almost no one in the water. Japanese beach customs are said to be
more like barbecue than swimming in any case, but if you arrive at 11
instead of 16.30, at least there are many more people there.
Swimwear (20070716)
Japanese swimwear looks more like an evening dress back home.
Clean Japan (20070719)
Today I practiced English with a Japanese, which was nice. Japan
is super clean everywhere, has been my impression so far, but the
restaurant next door to the one we went to made me wonder... For the
first time so far I also got to see pictures of someone I know here as
a kid! Very nice contrast to my own pictures, that people tend to
drool over as super cute. Probably because my hair was not black. It
still isn't but it seems that that is no longer enough, sadly.
T-shirts with kanji (20070720)
Ever since I made a t-shirt that said "Dr. Pigeon" written in
Japanese, I have had many complaints along the lines of "You cannot
wear a t-shirt with Japanese text, no one does that, since people will
understand what is written". Instead, I should wear something with
vulgar or broken (or both) English text. But today, as I have long
thought, I found a Japanese store selling t-shirts with Japanese
text. They say "Hokkaido University", "Ambition" and "Martial
Arts".
Police (20070720)
Today was Sapporo Culture Night, so I visited the police station,
where you could listen to burglar alarms, ride police motorcycles and
watch their well trained dogs.
TV (20070720)
Next stop was a TV station, where you could watch yourself using
green-screen technology with exciting backgrounds. And get free
candy.
City Hall (20070720)
Third stop was a tour of city hall, that has a huge fossil
skeleton and a weird wall in the lobby. They also have a very nice
observation deck on the roof of the 19th floor.
Flowering fire (20070720)
There was also a big fireworks party in Sapporo today. Fireworks
are called fire flowers or perhaps rather flower fires in
Japanese. They started when we were just leaving the observation deck,
so getting the curious tourists to stick to the schedule and go
downstairs turned out to be hard. Nicest of the things I saw before we
were herded downstairs was the heart shaped things.
Nice flooring (20070720)
Evidently they have very nice floors in the city hall!
The mayor of Sapporo (20070720)
This is the mayor of Sapporo, at least according to the
sign. Younger than I would have guessed.
More Fire flowers (200070720)
When in the mayors office, which has a very nice view, we watched
fireworks again.
Asian socks (20070720)
I have never seen such socks in Sweden, but probably I have just
not been paying attention. Taking this picture turned out to be
somewhat controversial.
Good deal (20070721)
Today's story of strange behaviour in Japan: This guy was
browsing around in some stores in Sapporo. In one of them a cute girl
shop attendant came up to him and started asking him about what he
wanted to buy. He was so captivated by her looks that he could not
stop talking to her for a long while and after about 20 minutes of
conversation he felt he had to buy something. So he ended up buying
the bracelet in the picture for 6000 yen (expensive).
Hosts (20070721)
Passing this spot in Sapporo you see lots of young men in stylish
clothes hanging around. They seem to be mostly hosts from a nearby
host bar, trying to get women to come to the club and talk to them for
lots of money. Some are instead from hostess bars, carrying with them
pictures of the girls you can talk to there. No one ever approaches
me, which I guess is good.
Adventures in home cooking (20070721)
Today I was invited to some home made Japanese food party. It
turned out to be more of "you do the dishes that has piled up for the
last few weeks, and the everyone together do the Billy boot-camp
exercise video thing (some new all the rage thing in Japan)". There
was however food too. Funniest was probably the water melon, since it
turned out that one of the guests is super allergic to water melon and
has once passed out just by breathing in the smell of water melon! So
the water melon had to be eaten really really fast, while one person
waited in the bathroom. Since there was still the smell to deal with,
the next hour was spent with tissue stuffed through the nose, which
looked funny.
I still rule (20070721)
I was once again challenged to a game of Scrabble, which ended in
the usual way.
Baseball (20070721)
I tried to ride a bicycle uphill in searing heat today. The whole
experience was made worse by everyone else cramming cars and people
everywhere in my way, since there was some kind of baseball game going
on too.
Italian again (20070722)
The whole riding a bicycle uphill forever in searing heat was
meant to take us to an Italian restaurant. The person who had once
been there said that "it is very close to this zoo". Of course, at
that time they had gone by car, so going uphill was less of a
problem. The expected 40 minutes turned out to be 70 minutes, with a
huge detour up some irrelevant mountain. The food was very nice,
though the amounts of food were not that great.
Best choice (20070722)
You could pick what kind of pasta you wanted, and I picked
this. Since I pick food that tastes good, everyone decided to steal my
food (the best choice) from me! This compounded the problem of small
portions.
Doors (20070722)
There was a temple nearby, with many many gates to pass through
to get up to where the actual temple was.
Roses (20070722)
We continued uphill (but had to leave the bicycles finally, since
it was too steep) towards a rose garden. There were roses and other
flowers, rose flavored ice cream, origami style brochures, a great
view of Sapporo and toilets with no privacy. I also met one of my
teachers by chance (very surprised to see me in a rose garden), and
one of the people who practiced Swedish with me the first time I lived
in Sapporo (and who I had not met since then). Also surprised to see
me.
Festival again (20070722)
On the way home, we voted two to one to go some other way with
less uphill roads. Thus we ended up in some street festival instead.
Japanese again (20070722)
The evening was spent browsing for shoes and eating Japanese food
as a contrast to the Italian lunch.
Shopping advice (20070722)
On a recommendation from me (not always a good thing, I have been
told) these gloves were bought. Japanese and Chinese women wear long
sleeved gloves in the summer, so as to avoid the dreaded suntan. Being
pale is the thing. I am of course pale enough to light up a dark room,
so whenever people claim to have a nice pale shade, I just usually
show my computer nerd skin color from for example my
shoulders. Unbeatable around here.
Sapporo by night (20070722)
This is just a picture of Sapporo, in the evening.
Bicycle parking (20070722)
Since you are not allowed to park your bicycle near any of the
places people want to go by bicycle too (the government comes by with
huge trucks and hauls the bicycles they find away to some impound), I
today decided to try this thing. A many layered bicycle parking
garage.
More English (20070724)
"Please your cup"? I'd rather not, at least not in the middle of
the cafeteria.
Furry insects (20070725)
In Japanese this is a "fur insect", at least as far as I know.
Odori Beer Garden (20070725)
The Odori Beer Garden has opened, which is a place were you can
buy rather expensive and unappetizing food and fairly cheap beer. I am
told the beer is not very good though. You can buy enormous cans
though. Since I think beer is disgusting at best, I only walked around
and took a few pictures.
Nice stage (20070725)
Six young boys were singing a capella in front of the station in
the middle of the night. Very capable.
Oops (20070725)
I was asked to water the plants and feed the fish for my friend
who went to Malaysia for 10 days. Since the fish was supposed to have
some kind of long term food thing already, I only needed to go there
twice I was told. It seems I was misinformed as to the health of the
fish, that seemed quite dead when I got there. The plants are still
doing OK though.
Bread? (20070726)
Today I went to buy some fruits, but could not find any that
looked nice. Fruit is also super expensive in Japan. I instead found a
bargain bag of what is tentatively classified as bread.
Dry hard (20070727)
Why not call your breath mints "Dry hard"?
Fireworks festival (20070727)
Today I went to a fireworks festival. There were all kinds of
fireworks, shaped like Miffi-chan, pineapples, all kinds of strange
things. And lots and lots of other people. So we ended up under a
bridge, that blocked the view a little.
Fans (20070727)
I gave a fan (worth 100 yen, also known as "nothing") to a
Chinese friend who wore a matching Chinese dress. It says "Urgently
hiring boyfriend", more or less. We also managed to sneak it into the
bag of another friend without her noticing.
Japanese names (20070727)
Who decided "Japanish bar" was a good name?
Japanese slogans (20070730)
"We Can Present you fayc pite Hair style". Huh? I don't even
understand what they wanted to write.
Movies (20070731)
Someone was making a movie on the university campus. Maybe I saw
some famous people.