Lunch at Aveda Cafe

Umeda's Nomikai

Friday evening we went to a Chinese resturant to celebrate Umeda'san (to the right in the photo below) that is leaving the company. I tried several new dishes, discovered that Kanji-box app is fun for Japanese too, got requested and did show my back (before started drinking even) and also the stranges thing, got informed that the daughter of one of my collegues is suspected to be evil. There were photos shown as evidence, I did not see it, and asked for a translation to English just to be sure. It turned out that even the Japanese did not understand the logic behind why this little girl was evil. Good thing though, he thinks it is getting better now, but to start with she was 悪魔 (akuma, I learned a new word too, that was good). 

Lotus in Ueno

A little bit of rain drizzling down, no sun and lovely temperature, perfect for a Shibi-Ueno walk. 

Did not bring the good camera so there was one or two of those "almost falling into the pond" experiences. Lotus flowers and that experience were actually what finally provoked me to get the camera back in 2004. (2004?!? surely I would be allowed to get a new one, now... 6 years later?)

Seems like weather was very much like it was today, that day. Here are 3 pictures from the archives. 

Sweet baby sister was visiting, here walking next to Magnus.

Slightly over exposed, my little canon did not have a zoom.  Emma on the ground reaching out as far as she could, baby sister holding on to my legs to prevent a close-to-pond experience. 

Same thing, different year. 

The greenery seem to enjoy the climate too. And there is something with the little island that just make you think you're inside a Zelda game.

Did not find any diamonds, but did not look under the sculptures either, so there might very well be a few of them hiding. 

Speaking of underneath the sculptures, this is the La Porte de l'Enfer - Gates of Hell by Rodin and today I learned that it sits on top of a earthquake safety solution that lets it move a bit and still keep it standing; you really don't want to have a 6m x 4m x 1m bronze sculpture falling over.... especially if it was one out of 3 made from the original cast in 1917.

Walked along Tokyo University campus and then came across this pretty wall, or should I say walls. A beautifully aged red brick wall on top of one made out of stone. 

No Nuclear Poo!

Summer Sonic 2011

It was extremely sold out, but we made it in at the end to see 2 bands. First one was X-Japan, Japanese heavy metal from the 80's. I was not overly impressed, very strange mix of slow and quick songs, and very long piano parts. They are apparently really big and stuff. 

Speaking of really big, but a smaller Japanese version (platform shoes and all, Ace still have to sand on his toes to be seen behind me), were hanging out next to the arena.  

And then finally Red Hot was on the stage. Must say it is very nice being able to stand in the middle of the arena and have space around you and no one is jumping into you, or trying to push ahead. Yes, it was sold out but people behave. 

And then, in the end there were a short hanabi.  

And then in the was lots of waiting to get home. Show ended 21.30 and it took us 1.5 hour just to get on the train and I were back in shibi at 00.45ish. 

Before the Show

Lu, Diana and me, went to Chiba to try and see Red Hot Chili Peppers (and possibly some other bands too). Uninterested in paying radically expensive tickets from the "tickets, tickets, need tickets?" crew, we ended up at a bar (and then another one) to wait for price to go down and the show to start. 

Mint beer is not as bad as one might think (it is exactly as green as one might think though). I was not as brave and went for the cranberry vodka safe card instead. 

Lu posing for Diana while waiting for her food. 

And then, since my two dear friends are into fortune telling I decided to try too for the first time. The lady was super nice, and even ran after us in the end saying that she forgot to tell me that I'm very lucky in business. I was kind of expecting her little book to spontaneous combust when she started to calculate and prepare answers. I learned  a new Japanese word today 運命 (destiny), the paper did not catch fire, but Lu got excited since it was first time she heard a fortune teller being that direct; "It is destiny".  And maybe it is so, but is that always a good thing? 

Pint of 'bow

Sweating with Hellstrom at Irish pub.

Karaoke

Devi

Rövtski outlet

Why have I not seen this before? And also surly there is a spelling mistake, the t should be at the end, right?

Pretty Little Things

And then finally, we have the remaining photos from my Sweden trip. Aron is at Willy's in Helsingborg doing grocery shopping before his camping holiday at Mön in Denmark. The green cardigan he got from me in February is fitting perfect now, and is nice to nibble on too, it seems like. 

A cute little cat belonging to my parents neighbor. Climbed up the tree and posed for a well composed photo.

A purple passion fruit flower, (or are they just called passion flower ?) in my parents greenhouse.

Saturday Continues

And then we went up to grandma's place. And the basket of the rollator was fun fun fun. 

It was almost as fun as sealing across the floor and checking out grandma's wheels. 

We got nice fika, with coffee, sandwiches and stuff. And I was offered bed linen too, but they were too small for my 140 bed, but very pretty and hand decorated by grandma herself. Maybe one could cut and paste those embroideries onto something that I actually can use.  

Then and epic encounter - Mint meets Aron the poser...  he was sceptic too, that day 5 years ago when he met Aron for the first time, so I guess if we would give them a few days, all would be good. 

Saturday with Family 1

There are more photos to come, but the internet connection here at my flat in Lund in nothing short of appalling. How am I supposed to live at this speed? Anyways, I went to Billeberga (aka B-town) then together with Sara-Aron-Johan-Melvin-Oban-Viggen to Kattarp. The pond is not only beautiful it is also very fun to splash its water around.

Have to be careful, there by the edge.

Aron trying to catch the fishes in the bucket. 

And then sitting in grand-dad's lap, with a 30's inspired hair do... according to the stylist (aka grand-dad). 

Let's see tomorrow if the wlan can manage to upload the photos from grand-ma's place and when Mint meets the new Aron for the first time. That and yes, a very cute cat in a tree and Aron at Willy's in Helsingborg. 

Thursday - More Rain but Fun Company

And here is the photo from lunch - Susanne-chan and Ayumi-chan. Two lovely ladies and good lunch company. The later have been in Sweden as long as I've been in Japan and speaks way better Swedish than I do Japanese... Susanne has adapted, no longer getting upset by appalling service, did not even get upset when she couldn't cancel the order after 2 min.... too late it was..  but coffee should have been included... 

And then, it started raining. Some of us had to go back to the office, others (Emma) to Lund. Then went to Malmö again, and the rain had started, as you can see. 

Sapla the Indian restaurant with all the hits of the 80s. For a while there I suspected a hijacking of me iPod.

Then went for a second beer at a local brewery (either in or close to chokladfabriken). 

Linnea-chan!

The we started talk about the exhibition I went to the day before. Our contribution a neon horse. 

Retail Therapy

After a nice lunch at lilla Torg with Susanne and Ayumi, I went to check out what FilippaK had to sell to me. Found one shirt and one cardigan. Then a quick stop at VeroModa where shorts, summer dress and black little top came with. Yes, and then accidentally went through the book shop and picked up a Jonas Gardell book... worst things have happend. 

Now waiting for the bus so I can go to Malmö again and meet up with Lajnea. 

Lousiana

After getting my hair fixed I went to Louisana. The boat and the train were packed with mostly Swedes. Judging from yesterday's experience the Danes were probably on the boat toward Helsingborg instead. I had a nice smoked salmon sandwich for lunch. 

The Me Draw on iPad, exhibition was small but kind of interesting still. Replay that allowed you to see how the drawing had been done.  

The Architecture exhibition okay, but there were too many people... especially the kind that believes themselves to be transparent - bad manner people. 

Then  I decided to walk back to Helsingor along Strandvej, to enjoy the lovely weather. 

Tuesday - Almost no Rain day

Slow started the day, but around noon I went up to Helsingborg to meet Johanna. Before going to Annorledes I took a walk on town. 1. All stores have moved to new locations. 2. Half of all people are Danish 3. Helsingborg is kind of pretty when the sun shines. 

A little dragon near Kärnan. If you got even closer to Kärnan and slottsparken you could here a live band playing "Änglahund", I tried to avoid getting closer and went down to the cafe. 

Johanna had chicken pie and I had the feta-spinach one - staying old school. There were a million things to talk about, before we took the train towards Lund/CPH and guess signaling error between Malmö and Lund and surprise changes of platforms for the new train after a surprise end-stationing of our train. 

She claims she is happy living in Lund, but I will take this photo as proof that it bores here. "I made a conscious choice to leave civilization,  guess that is why I'm already use to living here"...or something like that was the quote. 

And after that, ran into the 3 PLD musketeers, but of that there are no pictures.