March 2008
Raw pig, cooked pig, pig's feet (20080301)
Today's dinner, pig sushi. So raw pig, on a bed of rice. We also
ordered cooked pig, in the form of pig's feet. Trying once is OK, but
not something I will go out of my way to try to find again.
New stylish accessories (20080302)
My old strap for my cell phone broke a while ago, so I bought a
new one that looks like a katsu-don dish.
Almost bread (20080302)
Today I flew to Tokyo. This is the airport food, which
surprisingly enough looks a lot like bread. Tasted almost like bread
too.
Working (20080303)
In Tokyo I was mainly working. All my friends in Tokyo claimed to
be suddenly out of the country when I revealed I was in Tokyo. At the
conference I was attending, there was a girl form Finland, two guys
from Norway and Iceland, and me from Sweden. I searched around for
someone from Denmark to complete the set, but could not find
anyone. It was a rather boring conference, since most people where
from Tokyo Tech (the place the conference was held) and thus just went
home after the day's presentations where over. Which left me all alone
to watch exciting things like people removing plastic form the floors
of the party room.
Fancy hotels (20080303)
My hotel for the conference. Next conference I am booked at a
five star hotel, though.
Free gifts to foreigners (20080304)
I got an English language newspaper today when I had my
breakfast. From some random stranger.
Not the same as in Sapporo (20080304)
We have meters of snow in Sapporo, but in Tokyo the trees are
already showing flowers.
The azz club (20080304)
Tokyo tech evidently has an azz club. They seem to mainly play
jazz, but still I like the name.
Cool but small (20080304)
I found a pair of embroidered pants for guys, that looked pretty
cool and where very cheap. And three sizes too small.
Sweden (20080304)
The ice cream store "Sweden" (a chain of stores) sell nothing
that looks like Swedish ice cream to me.
Tokyo (20080304)
Tokyo, lots of people, lots of rain, lots of umbrellas, lots of
high houses.
Other people having fun (20080304)
People were having a lot of fun looking at and listening to the
taping of a comedy show or something like that. Quick paced Japanese
linguistic humor is still beyond me.
Cheap food (20080304)
As much Indian food as you can cram down for 1000 yen. Very
cheap, but not that good either.
A literal apple pie (20080305)
The funniest apple pie I have tried so far. It has a whole apple
inside and a thing layer of crust around it.
Akihabara (20080305)
Akihabara used to be famous for high tech stuff, and there is
still some left. The main thing now are "maids". So there are endless
rows of maid cafes, maid bars, maid restaurants, maid relaxation
places, maid massage places, and who knows what. And huge numbers of
girls in maid outfits handing out fliers about that.
Omiyage plus batsu-game (20080305)
In Japan you have to buy presents for everyone you know whenever
you travel. Here are the souvenir cakes of Akihabara, maid
cookies. They are also a form of batsu-game, which means one in ten is
filled with something disgusting and you don't know which one.
Stylish (20080305)
I want a jacket like this, but not at the price they were selling them.
The international airport express (20080305)
The international airport express to the international airport
also has some information about the "goulmet" opportunities here.
Omiyage (20080306)
I spent 3500 yen on omiyage, buying only the best. Which is Tokyo
banana.
Perhaps my favorite Japanese word, first seen in action (20080306)
When I first studied a little bit of Japanese back in Sweden I
was fascinated with the fact that there was a dictionary entry for
"Chinese jumping vampire" or something like that. Which is "kyonshi"
in Japanese. And now I have seen it used in Japan, stuck to the face
of one of the robots in our lab so he will stay quiet and not jump
around and attack people.
All you can drink, times 2, party with the lab (20080306)
We once again had a four hours of all you can drink (and quite a
bit to eat) party with our lab. Revelation of this time: our new
secretary is also about to flee the country (but to France, not
U.S. like the last one). Everyone blames me, since this never happened
before I got here. Correlation is not causation!
Even more omiyage (20080307)
Someone else also brought souvenir gifts, this time with playing
card theme.
All you can eat, health food plus chocolate fountain... (20080307)
Today I went to the somewhat strange combination of "all you can
eat", "health food" (as in hand made and no industrial pesticides
etc.), and "chocolate fountain". Good, cheap, and too much. Best part
was perhaps the grey-black thing that looked the same as the bowl it
was served in.
Perfectly normal Japanese food (20080308)
What I am told is perfectly normal Japanese food looks like
rather disgusting snails to me. They are not snails, they are the same
as any other shellfish, I have been scolded.
Not Viking but Pirate food! (20080309)
Today's restaurant was a lot of fun. The interior was pirate
themed, with parts of pirate ships etc. stuck everywhere. And saddles
for horse riding, for some reason. The staff was dressed in clown
outfits, and the food was roast beef. They also had a pizza made from
nan-bread, and "nan" means "what kind" in Japanese, so it was called
"What kind of pizza is this?" or "Nan-pizza". The pun was too good to
resist, and the pizza was good too.
Almost work, but instead pizza (20080310)
Today I was preparing to do work with my two small robots, but we
were thwarted by the fact that the coop does not sell chocolate after
6 during the spring holiday (March). So we went out for expensive and
nice pizza instead. And ordered way way too much salad.
Experiment (20080311)
Today the experiment could finally start, so I spent the whole
day shouting "Won't someone please do a five minute robot experiment!
I will give you chocolate in return!". Since it is the spring holiday
now, not that many people showed up. Those that did could then read
some weak puns, hear robots tell some other weak puns, and then even
hear robots laughing at other robots doing so (or booing). Research,
making the world a better place step by step.
"Jonas is more nuts than me"-party (20080311)
Photo of another design of apple pie, almost devoid of apples. I
was invited to the final session of a farewell party for my closes
friend in Sapporo (not to the main party though...). Mainly, she has
been telling everyone at work wild stories about how crazy this
Swedish guy that she knows is. So as to appear less crazy herself
(which seems to not have worked that well, they still correctly regard
her as nutty). So her colleagues were very interested in meeting me
and seeing how strange I could be if I was even stranger than my
friend. So I was ordered to attend wearing my strangest t-shirt
etc. It was pretty much a success, I am told.
Computer science (20080312)
For some reason, in our computer science lab we have props like
stuffed sheep toys smelling of lavender.
White day (20080314)
White day, the day when you have to return chocolate to all the
girls that gave you chocolate on Valentine's day. With a grand total
of 0 of those, I was not very busy. I spent the day doing more
experiments with my robots, but perhaps since people had already
received too much chocolate, today was a slow day.
Moving (20080315)
I was present and on standby if anything needed to be done when
my friend moved today. They had hired movers, so there were five pros
doing whatever needed to be done, so I had a pretty soft day. In the
end I helped flip over a few tables and carried some cartons of
kitchen utensils around for awhile. Most exciting was when the movers
were hauling bookshelves out the window on the third floor and stood
balancing on a rain wet and slipper platform that was shaking its was
down whilst holding the bookshelves in place so they would not fall
down and hit pedestrians passing by...
Parking (20080315)
To save space, parking lots come in several floors.
Gifts (20080315)
When moving in Japan you have to give gifts to all your new
neighbors. Traditionally towels, for some reason. The only use you
seem to have of these towels if you get some is to pass them on the
next time you move yourself. Some people also recommend handing over
soba noodles, with the explanation that this is the true
tradition. And that "soba" can also mean "nextdoor". When I moved, not
even one of my neighbors dared to open the door (though I could hear
them move up and check who was ringing the doorbell), so I had to eat
most of my gifts myself. My friends had similar problems tonight,
trying to hand out cakes. And they look much less scary than a
foreigner, since they lug around a half year old kid too.
Sweden (20080315)
Speaking of lugging around babies, they do it with a Swedish made
contraption.
Meat (20080315)
As thanks for standing around and being available, I was treated
to meat barbecue. Which is good. Normally my Japanese friends order
mostly weird stuff (guts, bird throats, who knows what), but this time
we actually ate mostly actual meat.
More straps (20080316)
Since you are completely out of style if you have only one strap
on your cell phone (even if it is a likeness of katsu-don), I bought
one more today. Looks like a cookie.
French (20080316)
Today I was invited as a special guest to a party for a guy from
Switzerland and all the students that learn French from him. I
understood a surprising amount of French, but since I have not touched
French with a stick in 15 years, I was mostly unable to say things in
French. The food was possibly French, and consisted of among other
things small fishes with large eyes and cheese fondue. Which in
Japanese style (and Swiss, I was told) you eat by taking the cheese
with a spoon and chewing down. Dipping bread and stuff in the cheese
is optional. Strangely enough, people never confuse Sweden with
Switzerland, despite most people confusing Switzerland with Sweden
when speaking to me.
Twin (20080316)
This Japanese girl looks very much like my friend in Kobe, enough
to be her twin. She is actually a twin, but to someone else, I am
told. My Kobe friend and she both take the same pose when confronted
with a camera, too, which is why it is so hard to convince other
people that the look alike.
New things to buy (20080316)
Downstairs below the restaurant, people were window shopping, or
something.
Me (20080316)
When eating too much salad and pizza (the day before the robot
experiments) other guests kept talking about European aubergines, or
"younasu" in Japanese. Which is exactly how Japanese people pronounce
my name, so I kept wanting to go "yes?". Today, we ended up in a cafe
where they serve juice from European pears, "younashi" which is
another variant of pronouncing Jonas here. I tried to order that but
the waitress claimed they did not serve that today.
Parting gifts (20080317)
A friend who is soon to move back to Taiwan (there are lots of
those) gave me gift today. It is a stamp with basically my
name. "Lake" + "Mountain" + "Dove", hand carved by some old and
knowledgeable pro. Hard to read, but much cooler than the
"lake"+"mountain" 100 yen stamp my brother has.
Drunk people (20080319)
March 20 is a holiday (spring equinox) so people were out as late
as I was today. I had my dinner at 23.30, and some drunk people were
kind enough to speak to me. One guy I had met once before and he
remembered me for an impressive card trick, evidently. I did two more
today and he was very very impressed. Mainly because he kept imagining
things happened that actually did not, but who was I to correct such
favorable impressions. He also had two your girls (sisters) that he
knew there. They claimed to think I was "very cool", which is probably
a first. As one of my kind friends later said "they must have been
reeeeally drunk". The bartender at that place is also very nice, and
he helped a lot in telling me what the other drunk people where
talking about, which I sometimes had trouble keeping up with (and
hearing). He also knows a lot of magic, which is why we have playing
cards in the photo that everyone thought we had to have taken for
us. He also claimed to have taught me everything cool I said and every
magic trick I did, which I affirmed in good spirits.
Thanks (20080320)
Someone has a Mexican hamburger place called Tack, which is
Swedish for thank you.
Lest (20080320)
In Japan there are many hotels that offer rooms for "stay" and
"rest" (only an hour or a few hours). This hotel however offer rooms
for "lest".
Parting party (20080320)
Today I was to be present at another parting party for my friend
who tries to convince people she is not nuts by showing them me as a
distraction. It was a "bring food yourself" party, and I was ordered
to bring cake. I tried to bring "relaxing bear" new honey flavored
chocolates and cheap banana cakes from the convenience store as a
joke, and was almost killed. Note to self, ironic jokes do not work. I
did bring real cake too, which was all that saved me. The food was
good.
Strange things (20080320)
Stuff my neighbors are throwing away. Which I can understand. But
why did they have them in the first place?
Tax returns (20080322)
Japanese people often complain that they don't believe they are
getting their money's worth from the hard earned tax money that is
given to me. They think my research is pointless and that I am not
doing very much of it anyway (and they are very direct in telling me
about it; so much for any face saving non-confrontational cultural
images one might have of this country). So I sometimes offer to pay
for dinner for them if they want to tag along. Today we had a full
course Italian dinner, at a place that has one a pizza design contest
three years in a row. Even the desserts were good, which is not that
common in Japan.
Me again (20080322)
After dinner we ended up in the same cafe as the French speaking
people, and today it was possible to order the "younashi" juice. And
cappuccino.
Valentine (20080324)
Today I got Valentine's chocolate (only 40 days late), a card
with an H.R. Giger illustration (!) and a t-shirt that says "I love
Kobe". Excellent! The chocolate was bought in Sweden.
Graduation (20080325)
Today was the day of the graduation ceremony at my university, so
people were dressed up in hakama (skirt like pants) or suits. The boys
mostly wore suits (I saw only one in hakamas) and the girls were about
evenly divided between the two styles. A foreign student in our lab
looked cool in hakamas, but I was strongly forbidden to put any
pictures of that on the Internet. There was also a lot of crying,
since most people will go back to wherever they are originally from
tomorrow. All my friends that are going to Tokyo, Taiwan, or wherever,
talked a lot about how much they were crying when they said goodbye to
some other friends, but of course not even one was crying when they
said goodbye to me...
Goodbye lunch (20080326)
Two friends leaving for Chiba and Taipei respectively wanted to
have lunch at the schools fanciest restaurant today. Despite it being
the high class restaurant of the biggest university in northern Japan,
they spell "meat" with "r" instead of "e" on the menu.
More experiments (20080327)
I discovered a deadline of 2008-03-30, for a very high level
conference. And I had no research to write about for this conference,
so I had to whip up a new system and do new experiments to have
something to write about. I figured five days should be enough. Today
the system was finished and the experiments began. The system
generates stand up comedy performances in Japanese and programs two
robots to perform them. The experiment consists of me trying to bribe
passerbys with chocolate to get them to watch the performances and say
if they are funny or not. Only 11 evaluators showed up today.
Experiments continued (20080328)
I continued the experiments today, and got another 22 evaluators,
which gives a fairly decent total. The results were OK, though not
outstanding. Best part was when a family passed by and the father said
to his 10 year old daughter "Robot experiment! Doesn't that sound
fun?! You go and do the experiment." Of course, the generated stand up
comedy is shockingly full of dirty words, and many university students
wrote comments that they were very surprised by the robots being so
foul mouthed... I just gave the girl some chocolate and said that the
experiment was not for kids. Then the father thought she had a) gotten
too much chocolate, and b) it was unacceptable to get chocolate
without actually doing the experiment. After some discussions, he
ordered his wife to do the experiment instead. She was very
entertained by the dirty jokes, though, so this was very good for my
results.
Midnight food (20080328)
I entered the data into the computer, ran a home made program on
the data that generated all the tables and stuff I needed for a paper
and speed wrote the actual paper. Then I went looking for food and
found some potato salad and garlic pizza at around midnight.
Japanese entertainment (20080329)
I was invited for possibly the first time to go and be the exotic
entertainment/crazy foreigner tonight when a group of people from a
department store had their party night. Japanese entertainment
consists of eating strange food (here wasabi leaves and sliced up
squids), drinking enormous amounts of alcohol, singing karaoke while
drinking more alcohol, and evidently dancing on the tables. It was
fun, but I think they had even more fun, since I did not recognize
even one song, and had no idea if the dance moves meant something or
where just imitations of the original singer or something completely
different.
Made in only (20080330)
Pretty much every day I pass the store "Mad in ONLY".
Warmer (20080330)
It is warmer here now, and a lot of the snow has melted. Some
flowers from the Odori Park ambitious flower shows are starting to
show up.
Questionnaires (20080330)
Japanese people like questionnaires it seems. I went to see a live
performance of a famous comedian (funny, but full of words and
cultural references I did not understand too), which like every other
even I have ever been to included a questionnaire asking you what you
thought about it.
Japanese food (20080330)
While walking around in Susukino talking to my friend who had
invited me to the comedy performance, some of the people trying to
pull drunk people into shady and expensive clubs started talking to
us. They were mainly impressed that I could say hello in Japanese
despite obviously not being a native. In the end they showed is a
small restaurant that they recommended and we ordered salmon. Which
turned out to be only the head. In Japan, many people consider this to
be the best part, while in Sweden I would just throw it away. So for
the first time I ate an eye roughly the size of my own eye. The taste
is OK, but the consistency is disgusting. The back part is very
creamy, and the front part is hard and sharp (and you are actually not
supposed to eat that part someone kindly told me four days
later...). Behind the eye there are some more disgusting cartilage
too. While edible, hardly the best part of the fish in my opinion.