November 2007

Tokyo (20071101)

photo
I arrived in Tokyo late in the evening, and did not have time to see much of interest before it seemed prudent to try to find a hotel. I did see this guy in his excellent clothes though. And I did find a hotel fairly quickly, checking in at slightly past midnight.

Signs (20071102)

photo photo
I was supposed to meat my brother out in some suburb but he was late as usual. So I photographed some signs. I like the cafe called "Ask a giraffe". Kobeya is also nice, since they "wish all the time to be able to provide you fresh bread and to propose you a joy of eating life with bread". And "Especially, we want to be a host at dinner of your kitchen."

School festival (20071102)

photo photo
My brother finally showed up, and we walked around the street festival and school festival that was the special event of the day. People were dragging around dogs in baby-carts. Normally, these festival consist of people selling chocolate dipped bananas or grilled squids etc. Here, they also sold refrigerators and cars. Perhaps not what I would spontaneously buy off the street and lug home.

Always 27th? (20071102)

photo photo
The tennis club all had jackets with the slogan "Always 27th". I have no idea what it means, but it sounded strange to me, so I took a picture. They saw me (indicated by shouts of "crazy foreigner taking picture!") and I had to take one more when they were posing, but sadly the slogan was no longer visible.

"Pro" wrestling (20071102)

photo photo
My absolute favorite of the festival was the guys doing "pro" wrestling. It was hysterical. They were perhaps not really that much of "pro"s, but... And the first guy had no opponent, so he just smacked around some invisible person in the air, and got beaten badly by the same too...

Waiting (20071102)

photo
We later passed a very very long line of people waiting in Shinjuku. What they were waiting for was unclear, since the people who were first in line did not seem to be standing in line at all, and there was nothing there to wait for. But probably they were queueing for donuts, it turned out.

Weird signs (20071102)

photo
My hotel for the night was in Shinjuku's Kabukicho, the weird entertainment area. I still find it strange that they have huge signs advertising this kind of thing. The things in Japanese are weird too, advertising fetish costume porn with young girls, and erotic pictures of very young girls.

Birthday present! (20071102)

photo
I got a birthday present today. Chocolate. My brother also gave me presents, a tube of toothpaste and a bottle of cheap deodorant.

Sparkling (20071103)

photo
I went window shopping in Shibuya. There you can buy such classy things as a bicycle covered in glass beads showing Hello Kitty.

Crowded (20071103)

photo photo
Every time I pass this intersection, it always amazes me that there are so many people crossing. Every day, every time the light turns green, the whole place just fills up with people. And every single time it looks like there are more people there than in the whole city of Stockholm.

Shibuya festival (20071103)

photo
There was a festival similar to the one yesterday, but in another place. This huge doll of a dog looked interesting, but too big to lug around for a week in Tokyo.

Avoiding crowds (20071103)

photo
Takeshita street in Harajuku is also very crowded, but this girl had found a small place to squeeze into and read a book.

Not my style (20071103)

photo photo photo
Being out of things to do, I decided to give a call to a person who had contacted me out of the blue on Facebook (web thingy for people with too much spare time). She was guiding around some other foreigners and I was invited to meet up with them at their hotel. This hotel cost 29000 yen per night, while my hotel cost me 3000 yen per night. Their hotel was slightly classier. I got lost trying to find the lobby, and had to walk for several kilometers in padded hallways. While my hotel sold fresh underwear in a vending machine, their hotel sold huge chunks of gold studded with diamonds. I asked the guard if I could take a picture. He said he was just guarding the stuff, so he did not know, but he went and asked one of the staff. She came out and asked what I wanted. So I said I wondered if I could take a photo. She said she did not know, she would have to ask her boss, and quickly disappeared inside. After a rather lengthy process involving many people, it was determined that, yes I could take a picture, but I was under no circumstances to enter the actual store... Evidently, I did not look like a promising customer to them (well, in a t-shirt with a huge wolf on, maybe I too agree).

Foreigners in Roppongi (20071103)

photo photo photo photo photo photo photo
After finding the lobby and waiting for the jet lagged Americans to wake up (they had gone to the Tsukiji fish market at five in the morning, only to find that it was closed because today was Culture Day) we went to dinner. Since no one except me spoke Japanese, the restaurant was one in Roppongi. There, there are more foreigners than Japanese. Most Japanese people in Roppongi can speak English to some extent too. The food was good, but I should have ordered more expensive things, since someone else paid the whole thing. Some drunk young men at the table behind ours kept speaking Swedish and Danish, which I have not heard much of for a long time.

Hello-ween Kitty (20071103)

photo
After dinner, a long tour of many different bars in Roppongi started. One American woman received a Halloween Kitty from a bartender in one of them. I met 20 Swedes in another. The two funniest events were me being groped by some foreign guy in a club, him touching my chest for quite a while and saying "Wow, you have really big tits!". Indeed, my chest muscles beat the chest size of most Japanese, regardless of gender. It was weird, though, and my companions thought it was hilarious. The second story was when we found a house with a bar on second floor, a bar on fourth floor, something shady on seventh floor, and a tiny elevator. "OK, let's try the one on fourth floor". So we go there, get out of the elevator and pretty much straight into the "bar". They shout very happy greetings to the first three (girls) who went inside, but then ask if we have member cards. No. Then we cannot go in. So back into the elevator, where now some other foreigner also is. He says "you know, that is a gay bar, so that is why you cannot go in" at the same time as the elevator says "overloaded, please someone exit the elevator". So the British guy and the American guy get out and we agree to meet on second floor. But they never show. After fifteen minutes, I am sent to look for them, but cannot see them anywhere. There show up shortly after that, though. They were panicked by some weird looking thing being about to transpire in the gay club when they were waiting there, and quickly jumped into the elevator when it showed up, and closed the door. Then they get off and walk into a place where four or five young girls in bikinis are standing on a stage, a customer in only his underwear is passed out in a chair and the owner warmly says "come in come in". We are nowhere in sight, so they go "Well, we are looking for our friends". "You have many friends here!". So they talk to this owner in broken English for awhile trying to figure out why we are not there waiting for them, and why this place is so strange. Finally they ask, "by the way, which floor is this?". The owner replies "seventh", but his English is not so great, so they still hear "second". When they finally realize their mistake, they see a sign on the way out stating "30 minutes of drinking, 30,000 yen". In Sapporo you can get 60 minutes of drinking for 315 yen, so likely some form of special service (probably requiring only you in your underwear) was included.

Marines (20071103)

photo photo
The last stop was a bar where we got to sit in the VIP sofa corner for free (normal charge: 3000 yen per person). There were more Americans there, who turned out to be marines. Some of the were passed out, lying on the dance floor. Perhaps not the best place to be lying, as people may tread on you when dancing. Their clever friends had decided that instead of picking their friends up from the floor (perhaps to go home, send them home, move them to a more comfortable place, or just move them out of direct harm), they would just come and stand guard over their friends whenever someone started dancing... The military way of thinking at its finest. The British woman in our group finally had enough of this and said "pick up your friends, you cannot have unconscious friends sleeping on the floor", to which they replied "we are marines, we are used to sleeping on the floor". OK, what an excellent valid point... Then they proceeded to put one more passed out marine right next to the two previous ones.

Sleeping (20071104)

photo photo
As there turned out to be no hotels in Roppongi, I walked to Shibuya in the middle of the night. I saw the locals sleeping in weird ways, such as on card board under the overpasses. When I stumbled out from my hotel in the early noon, I also found shoppers waiting for the stores to open sleeping at the table in Cafe Denmark.

Other people too (20071104)

photo
I was supposed to meet my brother in Shibuya, near the crowded intersection. He was late again, so I had time to note that this girl was using a more fancy camera than me, but photographing the same things. Maybe. She was doing it for about an hour (then I left).

More signs (20071104)

photo photo
Toa means toilet in Swedish, but is very common on signs in Japan. I also like the store "Nude Rump antiques". They sell weird used clothes.

Jeans (20071104)

photo
My brother's girlfriend wanted to buy jeans. So we went into this jeans store. Why they feel books with naked breasts is appropriate paraphernalia for selling jeans, I do not know. It seems to be fairly common in Japan though. I was the only one who noticed it at all.

Food and fame (20071104)

photo photo photo
The goal of today was to go see robots do stupid things. While waiting for this, we ate some "Italian" food (banana pie and spicy rice). Next to us, someone famous from TV sat down. People asked for his autograph. I never watch TV so I had no idea he was famous.

Bakarobo (20071104)

photo
The robot thing was late, and taking pictures was forbidden. Other than that, it was superb. It was a competition where the stupidest/funniest robot wins half a million yen. Highly entertaining. Of course, of the 200 or so in the audience, there were about 5 foreigners, including me and my brother. When the host on stage said "Now we have to kill some time because they are not ready yet backstage. Oh, we have visitors from far away!", everyone else ducked down under their seats. So me and my brother got interviewed, which was rather embarrassing. All the funny answers popped forth 5 minutes too late...

Hotels (20071104)

photo
I spent pretty much every night in a new hotel, always going to the closest capsule hotel I could find. You get a small tube to climb into (these are stacked two or three on top of each other, often hundreds on each floor) and sleep in. Cheap and for me rather exotic. If you sleep lightly, you will probably be disturbed by snoring, coughing, TV, etc. from other nearby capsules, since you are separated only by a curtain or a thin sheet of plastic.

Sweden (20071105)

photo
These pants are from Sweden and have some Swedish written on them.

Fitting desserts (20071105)

photo photo
This cafe had as its specialty "star sign parfait". You can order the parfait of any star sign, but supposedly you will like the one for you own sign best. This was mine.

Tokyo (20071105)

photo
Today I met up with a friend from Sapporo who now lives in Tokyo. He works near Tokyo station (this picture), so we went out to eat in that area. A surprising number of people speak English around there.

First meal: Thai food (20071105)

photo photo photo photo photo
First off we ate Thai food for about 7,000 yen (I normally spend about 1,000 yen on a dinner in Japan). It was good, but not that filling.

Second meal: German food (20071105)

photo photo photo photo photo
Next we went to a restaurant with German food. Blood sausage, herring buried in salt and set on fire, Swedish vodka, and many other things were available. About another 7,000 yen.

Akihabara: Electronics (20071106)

photo
Akihabara is still called "Electronics Town" on the signs in the station, and there are still some weird forms of electronic stores there. Like these stores selling cables and resistors by the kilo. There is very much less such stuff now than before. Instead there are...

Akihabara: Maids (20071106)

photo photo photo
Akihabara is now full of Maid Cafe, Maid Relaxation (massage of feet and hands, maybe more), Maid Bars, Maid all kinds of weird things. This is fairly new, but now this is the most thriving business in Akihabara. It came soon after the electronics of Akihabara were overrun by...

Akihabara: Anime and Manga (20071106)

photo photo
Akihabara is still full of anime and manga (animated cartoons and comic books, respectively). Here you can photograph yourself as one of the girls (though most customers are men) in Evangelion or buy clothes from the Final Fantasy series.

Akihabara: Dolls (20071106)

photo photo
In Japan you can buy dolls. Very expensive dolls. They are very lifelike (though small). You can also buy clothes of all kinds for your dolls. More expensive than buying the same for yourself. These pictures is from a huge department store that sells only doll related things. So presumably there is a large market.

Akihabara: Porn (20071106)

photo photo photo
There is a lot of porn in Akihabara too. As in huge stores with five to six floors filled with nothing but porn. Of very weird types too.

Akihabara: Weird things (20071106)

photo photo
There are also stores selling things that are just strange. Like Batman throwing stars, or shirts with descriptions of different techniques for going to the bathroom.

Akihabara: English (20071106)

photo photo
In Akihabara, like most places in Japan, even shops run by foreigners tend to have "English" that is not very good. I think that the laddies curry was more for women than for young men, for instance.

Geisha dinner (20071106)

photo photo photo photo photo photo photo photo photo photo photo photo photo
I had asked my friend who has moved to Tokyo to work to find me an expensive and fancy restaurant. Once I would like to go to such a place, just to see what it is like. And in Tokyo there must surely be some. Sure enough, he found one. When booking a table, he called me and asked "the lowest price is 30,000 yen, how much are you OK with paying?" I said no more than 100,000 yen, unless it is really spectacular. So he booked us for two people at 40,000 per person. It was the first time he went to such a place too (and according to the staff, the first time anyone under 30 visited them at all). It is mostly frequented by the higher ups in the government and people like that. Showing up in a pink t-shirt like I did is rare. We had a huge room to ourselves, were served excellent traditional Japanese food selected to be fitting for the time of year, had unlimited access to whisky, beer, sake, other types of drinks (of rather fancy quality I think), and the place was very very fancy looking. Also, during the whole three hour meal, we had two geishas sitting in with us and talking (in Japanese) about all kinds of things. I was very impressed. I have never really met anyone that is super good at conversation I guess, but I had never imagined that you could be that much better than average people. These people were unbelievably good. Much better than I had ever imagined it was possible to be. And I still probably missed out on over half the conversation because I am not very good at Japanese, so for native speakers it must be extraordinary. They also seemed knowledgeable in pretty much all areas. When hearing that I was from Sweden, one told me about how she find IKEA to be a great help in buying nice furniture cheaply and one told me that she had heard about "surstroemming" (though her pronunciation was not perfect, I was impressed that she even knew the Swedish word!). They could also sing parts of hard rock songs, talk about the intricacies of ice floats in the spring and much more.

IKEA (20071107)

photo photo photo photo photo photo
With my brother once again being too lazy to come in to Tokyo from the suburbs, I set out alone to visit IKEA. IKEA has only been open in Japan for about one year, and there are not that many stores. Other than that, it is much like back in Sweden. Full of families with children.

Swedish food (20071107)

photo
IKEA also has a restaurant serving "Swedish" food. Most of it looks and tastes like you would expect a similar restaurant at an IKEA in Sweden to taste. Which is not that great, but at least very Swedish. I ordered the top selling dish, Swedish meat balls with jam.

Jonas (20071107)

photo
IKEA has names on all their products, and most of them are normal Swedish personal names. So I asked the staff if they had anything named Jonas (earlier, they sold a knife for buttering bread called Jonas). They asked if I was looking for furniture, cutlery, toys? I said anything called Jonas would be fine. They only had furniture. A desk, drawer, cupboard series of things are now called Jonas. Lugging anything like that back to Sapporo would not be practical, so I never bought any.

Licorice! (20071107)

photo
Not only does IKEA have a restaurant, they also have a small store selling Swedish food. Like cookies and raw fish. They also sold Swedish salty licorice. Which is rather surprising, since Japanese people (and many other non-Northern Europeans) find this to be so disgusting that they cannot even put it in their mouth. Swedes like it a lot though.

Swedish coffee bread (20071107)

photo
At IKEA Japan they give you one plate and you get to eat whatever you manage to squeeze onto that plate for a fixed plate. But you can only put things on the plate once. They had many types of fairly Swedish cakes. Especially the (in Sweden) famous "Princess cake", though in Japan it is called "Princess Tart". And it is the size of a tennis ball (the green thing) instead of a football (which you would cut into pieces and split with other people in Sweden).

Magic (20071107)

photo photo photo
Several times I ran into the same street magician. He was very nice, very good, quite funny, and spoke excellent English. We talked about magic a little, and one of his beginner magician friends forced me to do a card trick for him. It seems doing magic in the streets in Tokyo can pull in a lot of money (and "free sushi" tickets), but also requires you to pay parts of the proceeds to shady looking people always in a new place.

The downside of capsule hotels (20071107)

photo
On account of walking non stop for one week, always carrying my one weeks worth of luggage (plus my shopping finds), my feet hurt. Staying at a hotel where you can actually leave your luggage may be a plan for next time.

Toyota (20071108)

photo photo photo
Toyota has a big house showing off their cars. They also have a strange attraction where you can sit in and feel the effects of their new seat belt technology when hitting things with your car. And they have a humanoid robot and a cyber looking wheel chair.

Trying to get home (20071108)

photo
Right when I needed to get to the airport to fly home, someone managed to stop the busiest train line in Tokyo (by dying in front of the train). So I had to take various roundabout tours on less useful train lines, but got there on time anyway.

Swedes (20071113)

photo
Back in Sapporo my cold that kept me company in Tokyo became very demanding and I spent a few days just sleeping and catching up on the "watching geeky movies" front. The I was required to partake in a Swedish Lunch, where all (3) Swedes working at my university had lunch together. I lost a bag of the delicious Swedish licorice to the licorice starved crowds.

Birthday (20071114)

photo
I was invited to have Indian curry with some people and it turned out that it was in fact a birthday party. Since they ate too much curry, I ended up eating most of the cake they brought with them to the restaurant.

Snow (20071115)

photo
Heavy winds and heavy snowfall have now begun. Will abate in March.

Free food! (20071116)

photo
A Chinese friend has her mother visiting, and since she does not have that much to do during the days she has been cooking delicious Chinese food in huge amounts. While my friend is worried about having gained a lot of weight (which is of course impossible to tell with Asian women, who seem to gain many kilos and still weigh less than 40 kilos), I got a big bag of food when the refrigerator they have could not hold any more. Very good food, and I got to turn on my own refrigerator to see if it works (it does).

Special food (20071116)

photo photo
At a place I often go to eat there was a new bartender (though I have met him once before, the one who usually talks to me has moved to the bar next doors). He suggested I should try the chilled cheese covered tomato for food, and then gave me a free non-alcoholic cocktail called Cinderella (you have to drink it before 12).

Better than studying (20071117)

photo
For the first time in what feels like forever, I went over to the volunteer course I sometimes visit. It turned out to be a holiday for them today, so I instead decided to give licorice to unsuspecting Asians. One Taiwanese friend had never tried it but wanted to try this very special Swedish thing. She actually managed to eat a tiny piece, but found it to be very disgusting. Next up was another Taiwanese, who touched it to her tongue and then felt ill and gave up. Last contestant was Japanese and also managed to eat a tiny piece but was thinking along the lines of "what is better, impolitely spitting this out in front of everyone or actually eating it...". Then someone said "Does anyone want to eat cake?" and I volunteered to help out. Not so much studying got done, but it was OK anyway.

Good food, bad explanations (20071117)

photo photo photo photo photo photo
Long story: I was scheduled to have dinner with a friend of a friend (and the friend in question too). She was going to cook food at her place and treat us and lives in a very fancy place. My friend (the one not living there) had given me directions stating "City block south 1, west X, roughly". This is nowhere near enough, so I sent an e-mail 30 minutes before I was supposed to arrive, asking for clarifications. Reply: "I already sent you the address yesterday, what is the problem? But the house name is Z-Mansion". Later an e-mail with "Room number 520" also dropped in.

I scoured the whole south 1 west X block without luck, but this is normal for me in Japan. They have possibly the worst address system in the world. So I ask in a convenience store. They have no idea, but pull out a huge detailed map. We check the whole block. No Z-Mansion. There is an Z-Hotel though. We check neighboring blocks too (blocks are by the way huge), but no luck. I say "sorry for being a pest, I will try to ask my friend again". So I call. Angry reply: "Why can't this stupid foreigner understand simple directions?!" but clarifies that it is a "large building" and also gives me the phone number of the person actually living there. "Large building" is no help at all, since pretty much all buildings in these blocks are...

So I call the one who actually lives there and asks what her address is. South 3, west X, it turns out. OK, this is maybe why no one has heard of this place here. So I go to the correct block, but still cannot find "Z-Mansion". There is a huge building called "Z-Towers" though. OK, my friend obviously sucks at giving directions, so I figure there is a good chance this is the place. So I ask the door man if room 520 has a tenant with the name of the girl I am supposed to visit. No, a completely different person lives there. OK, is there some building called Z-Mansion nearby. There is one, but not nearby. OK, I go out and call again. "Hello, I am in the right block, but cannot find the house. I am outside Z-Towers", "Yes, that is the place! Room 1039." Indeed, back in and ask the doorman, room 1039 has the right name, and I get through the door and find the right elevator and am home free.

My friend who sucks at directions is still angry with me for not managing to find this place, and then proceeds to call room 520 with the speaker phone at the door. Some unknown man (who lives there) answers and she thinks "A male voice? Maybe Jonas? No, completely different." So she says sorry, wrong number and calls her friend and asks for the room number. Then she proceeds to take the elevator to floor 12 and goes to room 1239, where some other man lives... "Hi! I am finally here!" "Um, what? Who are you?" After saying she is sorry once again, she does find the right apartment. And then actually told me she was sorry for being angry and sorry for giving the completely wrong directions. Though she would never admit that Z-Towers and Z-Mansion is not at all the same. She thinks this should be obvious that either word would refer to the same thing. Of course, there was an Z-Hotel, and Z-Somethingelse, two Z-Mansions in other parts of the city etc. too, but she figures, still this I can be blamed for not understanding. Giving the completely wrong room number and city block she admitted was not so good though. And she did realize that maybe it was not entirely my fault that I could not find the place at once.

The food was excellent. Smoked ham wrapped around kaki fruits, some French cheese and bread that tastes like bread (not like Japanese "bread"), a broccoli, clams, potatoes mix lightly fried in white wine, a pasta dish, and some other things. And the house was indeed impressive. They had huge chandeliers in the entrance hall (ball room, more like), each room has a balcony larger than my apartment and with a great view, several large rooms, floor heating, very fancy and beautiful lighting, a bathroom which has hot water pumped up from a natural hot spring, and many other nice details.

Oven (20071118)

photo
I got an e-mail saying "Need interpretation regarding cars and tires, when can you come?", and reply "I know nothing about cars or tires, and most likely know no Japanese words relevant to this either, but I will be there in 10 minutes if you think it helps." Of course, it turns out that the person in question has just started baking a huge batch of cinnamon buns. Which means she is busy for about an hour and a half and has no time to go and ask questions about tires... Great. But she did get to brag about her oven. Another Swede who lives with his Japanese wife's family was so impressed when he was shown this oven that he decided they would have to draw new electrical wiring (otherwise they cannot use an oven, it seems). After seeing the creation of some monster mutant cinnamon giant buns, we went and talked to a gas station attendant for about 1 minute. Basically, he said "It is cheap, but come back tomorrow".

Not a geisha (20071118)

photo
My friend from Tokyo was in Sapporo today, so we had dinner together. But not as fancy as in Tokyo. Though we reminisced about that.

Duck (20071119)

photo photo photo photo photo photo photo photo photo
I once mentioned that I had eaten duck the night before when talking to someone in my lab. He said "I want to eat duck too!". We talked about it and since duck is not very special, decided to go for Peking Duck, which is. So we asked a Chinese colleague about where the best Peking Duck in Sapporo could be found. In the end, we had a plan to go all three to a restaurant not that far away from the university. When finalizing the plans, one more student sitting nearby was tempted and decided to join in. The day before going, one more joined in. We got a lot of food, many courses. The Peking Duck was good, but there was not so much of it. But since you only eat the skin, I guess you don't get that much Peking Duck out of a duck. They also served us a free plate of mabou doufu (the Japanese name, it is slightly different in Chinese), possibly because we were crazy foreigners or possibly because we were five people each taking the most expensive dinner course for lunch.

Spring rolls (20071119)

photo
This is a picture of a more Spartan meal. Though the view is very nice.

Italian lunch (20071120)

photo photo photo
Today I overslept and decided to try the relatively affordable lunch offer at the Italian restaurant on the first floor of my house. It was quite good, but not quite as fancy as the portions were small.

Italian dinner (20071120)

photo photo photo photo photo photo photo photo photo
After mentioning the somewhat fancy Italian I had for lunch, the same guy who wanted to eat duck now wanted to eat Italian. And since he had come by car today, we set off to a Southern Italy style restaurant he knew. It was very fancy (and expensive). We took the most expensive course, with the additional add-on of foie gras. Next time, we will try their pizzas.

New lights (20071124)

photo photo
They put out Christmas light like things in the park every year, and every year it looks exactly the same, I though. But I think this blue thing is new.

Eating other people's food (20071124)

photo
Since I was passing by a friend's house on my way home from breakfast (at 4 P.M.), I thought I would stop by and once again show how to do whatever it was that needed to be done with the computer (that I have shown innumerable times before, which evidently did not stick). Of course, despite nagging incessantly that I should really come by and do this, she is not actually at home. So when I am outside writing an e-mail about "I am here, but you are not", she comes running up the street. And out of a car steps another woman, and everyone is staring at everyone (well, especially at me) looking very surprised. It was her sister from out of town coming to hand over vegetables. She had spotted me and sent an e-mail to her daughters (also in town for the three day weekend) saying "there is a weird foreigner here, perhaps it is that Jonas guy". They said that for sure it must be, so she should get out of the car and talk to me, since I am so funny. She did not dare, though. But she did give me a box of cakes that was originally intended for her daughters to share.

Impressive cooking (20071124)

photo photo photo photo photo photo
My friend had invited me to yet another of her friends who would cook for us. This cooking was very very impressive. I don't think I have met anyone who has made hand made pink leaf wrapped mochi before. Or the jelly covered fish bones dish etc. She even makes her own plum wine. How she being a master cook, diligent worker, cute, and funny still managed to stay unmarried in Japan seems a mystery.

Baby sitting (20071124)

photo photo
The out of town daughters/nieces mentioned earlier wanted to go to a club to dance. They had never been to one, but thought it would be possibly dangerous, so did not dare to go alone (well, only the three of them). Their aunt did not want to go, so I was asked to tag along as protection. Me being known for having nothing to do, and looking very very scary (evidently, Japanese criteria for "scary" are somewhat different from what I am used to). It was a lot of fun, and they seemed happy. It did not seem to be very dangerous at all, though, so I am hereby relieved of my duties and will not be asked along next time...

Better pronunciation needed (20071127)

photo
I tried a new restaurant today. A random American I ran into once had said this restaurant had good food. I tried to order some interesting things, but the waitress would only recommend one thing (a salad, that was good), so I had to decide the rest on my own. I said, "OK, some meat. How about buta kimuchi?" (pork, with kimchi) which for some reason she managed to mishear as "kimuchi nattou" (fermented beans from hell, with kimchi). So they brought out a bowl of slimy, smelly, fermented beans, with some kimchi and a raw egg to top it off. I figured, maybe it is fate? I have been told this is the most delicious way of eating natto beans ever invented, so why not try it. It was probably the best natto I have ever had, but it was still on the disgusting side.

Swedish (20071128)

photo photo
I tagged along to a Swedish conversation practice event, where people were given free home made cinnamon buns. It was a lot of fun, with there being two Swedes who both of them cannot properly pronounce standard Swedish "r" sounds. And both of them were asked to teach pronunciation to the present Japaneses! I and the last Swede, who can actually pronounce this, were laughing a lot. On the minus side, I spent a lot of time being coughed in the face by sick kids, so my cold that had just left me returned with a vengeance. Apparently, the kids were just fine the next day though...

Japanese bureaucracy (20071129)

photo
I need to spend more of my research funds on not travelling. Since I don't need to buy that much stuff for my research, this is sometimes difficult. Before, of course, I needed to buy chocolate (a "not travel" thing) for my research, only to be told that edible things are strictly forbidden... Now I had been to Tokyo to see a show with robots making jokes. This is relevant, since my research is about making robots tell jokes. So I figure I could pay the entrance fee with research funds, to have something to put under non travelling. This was a problem. We had to (as usual) ask every person in the hierarchy until we came to the boss, who could actually decide what goes. Spending money on this is OK, but only when working. OK, fine. And if I am in Tokyo, I cannot be working, since my place of work is Sapporo. Um, what? If I am working in Tokyo, I need to apply for money for going to and from Tokyo too, otherwise it does not count. So they can give me the 2,500 yen back for the ticket, but only if I request 100,000 for plane tickets and hotels too. And make up a reason for spending more than one afternoon in Tokyo on this business trip. Going to Tokyo by yourself and working for only one day is impossible. It cannot be done. If you are there by yourself, you are on vacation. On vacation, you cannot work. And if you don't work, you cannot spend research funds. So as usual, I just paid for the ticket with my private money. It is not like the 2,500 yen would give a huge impression in the non-travel part compared to 100,000 more yens spent on travelling...