This may very well be my last entry…

- that is unless I for some strange reason get acces to some kind of wifi, which I honestly doubt.

Tomorrow, on my birthday, I’ll be heading towards my second host family. I'll be co-homestaying with a girl from Taiwan, and from the other Taiwanese I’ve met, it doesn’t sound too bad! Don’t know her age or for how long she’ll be staying, but I’ll find out soon enough, as we will ride the same bus tomorrow.

One hour to my birthday… doesn’t feel like my birthday at all, probably because I don’t have my mum around asking me what menu I want, and who I want invited ^^

Anyways… I don’t have much to report about. I’m too tired and lazy to post any pictures right now, but I do have some awesome ones of huuuuge crabs. They’re scary!
I’m having the last chat with my mum (at least online; left is cell phone communication, which is faaaairly pricy).

I’m really looking forward to my stay with the family. I saw some new pictures from there, and it just looks so nice and cozy! Think it’ll be good to finally have some place where I’m staying for more than a few days; also, not have to worry about too many things. I’m also looking forward to hanging out with the children; the boys seem energetic and cheerful! Think I’ll be able to play some good games, and have some good laughs with them and their parents!

I’ll have to wait until tomorrow and see…
- Hey, it’s my birthday in about 45 minutes! Approaching my 20th year!

Random thoughts…

So yeah, there’s not THAT much to look at in Sapporo, and I feel really lousy today, probably from all the traveling and lack of sleep, so I’ve decided to take a day indoor, doing as little as absolutely possible! Unfortunately, there’s no couch at this hostel; if there had been, I’d have occupied it for sure!

Well, since I’m not doing anything in particular, I decided that today should be the day I posted about all the things I find peculiar or plain dumb!

First thing: I don’t know what the unemployment is like in Japan, but I sure as XXX hope it’s damn low! There are sooooo many people dressed in uniform doing ABSOLUTELY NOTHING; and I’m not joking.
Like, what the H are these guys doing?

- Let me tell you. There is a hole in the road (road work), and it takes 8 guys standing and looking into that hole to do whatever needs done. However, most of them were, as you see, STANDING AND LOOKING. They didn’t DO anything!
The guys closest to the camera, wearing the fancy yellow vest thingy, makes sure that pedestrians don’t walk into the barrier. What freakishly SICK and BORING job is that?! Oh, let me mention that on the other side of the hole, there was a guy assigned to do the exact same thing.

Also, in Denmark you can feel like a good humanbeing for helping an elderly woman cross the street; in Japan they have people HIRED to do that.
At entrances and exits of parking spaces, they have at least one man standing, guiding the car out safely or keeping pedestrians and cyklists back. They have a nice, red, flashing stick, a helmet, uniform and a reflex vest, and when you pass by, they make you-may-safely-go gestures, waving the stupid stick. If there’s a car coming, they will stand in front of it, stretching out their arms and do the waving at you. I have to record it some day.
At intersections, one guy sometimes has a whistle, and whenever cars (or maybe it’s pedestrians; I’m not sure) are allowed to go, they blow it repeatedly, waving, gesturing. For God’s sake… I could go on. These people are everywhere.

People with the job of standing on the street, calling in customers, must hate it too. “Ikaga desshouka?” is something you’ll hear ooover and over again, meaning “how about…”. I’ve even seen a guy holding a big sign, not even saying anything; just standing.
Another time, I saw a man standing at the road side with a sign around his neck. I have no idea of what the signs said, but think about telling about yourself: “oh yeah, my job is to stand at the road side with a sign around my neck for God knows how many hours”. Jeez…

This is something I found in a vending machine in… I think it was perhaps Hiroshima. Some hot banana drink. “Banana oore”. Didn’t try it.

This is just a FAIL!

I’d like to explain WHY this misspelling. In Japanese, they don’t distinguis between “R” and “L”, and if they’re not very confident in English, they easily make the mistake of mixing the use of the two letters up. In katakana, one of the phonetic Japanese alphabets, they would write “italian” as “イタリアン”, which in roman letters would be “itarian”, because the ラ、リ、ル、レ、ロ (ra, ri, ru, re, ro) is usually written with the roman R. I don’t know if it makes sense to you… in short, they just don’t distinguish between roman R and L, and don’t always know when to use what.

The funniest I’ve seen was a beauty shop with big letters saying “perm eye rashes”… you get it? I bet it should have been “lashes”, meaning they would give your eyelashes a permanent curl. Epic!

I saw this sign for a “relaxation place”, but for some reason, I don’t like how “foot oil” sounds… (although I get what they mean).

So, now I’ve made a very random post… what should I do now?
I’m actually seriously thinking of taking a nap… I could also write some more post cards. Last time I wanted to write some, I realized my pen didn’t work, so in the end I didn’t write any. My aunt is waiting for some stamps…

Well, I think I’ll chill a little with some old game reviews from James, the Angry Video Game Nerd – he’s hilarious, and I could use that right now!

Toodles!

This year’s birthday…

- will be my first day with my second host family; I did hope I’d have stayed with them at least for a few days before my birthday, but they prefered that I arrived that day instead, and I don’t wanna cause any problems, so… that’s how it is; I’ll probably be spending my birthday without anything special happening. In fact, I’ll be spending most of it on a bus. Great…

Ok, that’s today’s whining! I arrived in Sapporo today, after 5-6 hours by train from Aomori. After arriving at the new family, I may also not be able to update my blog… that’s roughly 1½ months, but I don’t think I will be able to use the internet, and especially not on my own pc. They live pretty far out in the countryside, so I’m not even sure I can use my mobile phone!

ANYWAYS, I don’t have THAT much to tell… It’s getting colder; it’s been about 11 degrees (celcius) today, so I’ve finally had to use my warm jacket!
I left for Sendai after Tokyo, spent a day there without really seeing anything as it was raining. The day after, I took off for Aomori where I didn’t really see anything either. I ate their meibutsu (famous item) though: apples! I think they’re pretty much just apples, but then of course I didn’t eat one of them for 6000 yen… and probs never would (unless I was offered to, for free).

I’ll have to find out what to see around Sapporo, so I won’t just be hanging around. I might go to an onsen, if I can find a good one!

Oh yes, something actually DID happen today! I had gone to a shop to look around for something to drink, and as I had to put it in my backpack, I had to take off my little bag (with my camera and purse). I just forgot to put it back on! Then I went to a supermarket to buy something to eat, and when I was about to pay, I realised the great horror! Luckily though, the two places weren’t far apart, and the personnel had it. PHEW!

Last breakkie with Junko-san. From the left: The dark stuff is nori (dried seaweed – I love it!), bottom left is rice topped with nattou, top left is salad, the little bowl is pickled eggplant, the bowl at the bottom is miso soup and the big rectangular plate is dried shrimp, seasoned mini-fish (don’t remember what it’s called), and also seasoned small fish+walnuts. Don’t recall what the white stuff is. There are also sweet, dried kuri behind the miso bowl. I actually have a video of this! 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RC4fKCIRR_c

Arriving in Sendai – rainy weather… and indoor day! A pretty boring day to be honest.

HEST on the train headed for Aomori.

Aomori apple! 100 yen.

A bridge in Aomori. Btw, they have a veeeery strange (hard to understand) dialect in Aomori. Haven’t heard it spoken to me, but I heard it in a podcast.

Today’s accomodation. My first time at a ryokan (Japanese-style inn) although it wasn’t a fancy one with meals and stuff. I liked the lady who served me; she was very sweet!

And that’s just about the pictures from Aomori. I didn’t really take any in Sapporo yet, plus I’m beat and too lazy to write any more :b

Seeya!

3 days just ain’t enough

- to see all of Tokyo. I didn’t go to Asakusa and I didn’t walk down Takeshita-dori in Harajuku. There were a lot of things I didn’t do nor see, both because I didn’t have it planned porperly, and because I simply didn’t have enough time! I’ve made a deal with Junko-san (not the Junko-mama from Oita!) that I’ll come back again ^^ I had a really nice time staying with her, and I think she thought it was kinda nice as well.

Anyways, I’ll just throw in some pics and explain… or try to.

Random intersection in Akihabara; the town of electricity!

Shops…

A fancy building.

Yes, I am pretty sure this guy was fortunate enough to have the thrilling and indeed-not-at-all-monotone-or-BORING task of cleaning the windows. Holy cr*p!
 

I’ve seen many canned drinks in the vending machines, but I’d never seen this: oden, ramen, udon and what not.They’re all kinds of soup, and some of them with noodles. I didn’t try it though, which I kinda regret now…

Going to Odaiba for the Sasuke court. This is from the Yurikamome-line; a train line built on pillars!

DECKS, housing the SEGA theme park (which I didn’t go to) and the Muscle Park (in which I tried the Sasuke track).

In front of a Mac D, I found this. A place for trading Pokémon… awesome!

Speaking of Pokémon; Pallet Town! Oh wait, no…

Yup, this is indoors! I don’t know why they had the mediterrenian theme though…

- but of course the had a fountain!

… and a church plaza!

And a historical garage

Odaiba is a pretty neat place!

… and here, the Japanese know no limits!

I’m beat right now… barely slept last night, and didn’t sleep well the night before, so I’ll call it the day and go to bed EARLY. Moving on to Sapporo tomorrow; my final destination before I join my second host family. I’m actually looking forward to some structure and a place I know I’ll be for other than just a few days.

Staying in Tokyo

- is awesome! I’m staying with Reiko-san’s friend from university, and in her block there’s this flat that the residents are free to book (I believe); and guess what – I’m staying in just that! I practically have my own flat equipped with a shower, toilet, tv-room and kitchen. I don’t really use the kitchen (and the fridge is broken). Haven’t tried using the gas cooker, but I usually eat with Junko-san and her husband anyways ^^ She makes me delicious traditional Japanese food with lots of small dishes. Hope I’ll be able to do that when I get home… there’s something nice about it ^^

Anyways, enough about that; let’s talk about the last few days in Tokyo!
I arrived yesterday, and Junko-san is, as all the other people I’ve met, extremely nice! We talk quite a lot about this and that – at least when I’m there.

Today I spent most of the day exploring Ikebukuro. Went to Sunshine City where they have the famous ICE CREAM LAND. They have bizarre types of ice cream there… really. I wanted to try different really strange ones, but they were preeeetty expensive, so I thought it would be a waste of money. Unfortunately, the one I chose wasn’t as bad as I thought (lol). Let me name a few of the flavours:
Squid, octopus, squid ink, shark fin noodles, fried noodles, garlic, garlic + mint, natto, viper, curry, cheese risotto, eel, chicken wings, ox tongue, salt, corn, rice, white and black sesame, miso soup, seaweed, deep sea water (I really should have gone with that…). And that’s not even all! -Of course there were more regular ones like fruits, caramel, chocolate etc.

After that, I went out and walked the streets. As you’ve seen, my shoes are worn out, so I ended up buying a pair of new ones. A nice pair of Nike sneakers for 7000yen (466kr), so that really wasn’t bad. I like them; they look and feel good, have a soft sole and are very light!

That’s pretty much what I did today… Today went by fast! I’ll have to visit two places tomorrow, or I’ll never make it to see everything!
Think I’ll take Harajuku and Shibuya tomorrow, cos those two are pretty close.
I also have to pay Odaiba, Shinjuku and Akihabara a visit too… at the least!

I’d probably better go to bed soon, but I’ll throw in a few pictures first.

Today’s brekkie. From left, miso soup with tofu and agedofu, a salad, nattou with spring onion and nori (seaweed), in the back, oden (fish cakes and konnyaku boiled in a broth; something Tokyo’s famous for. Had it for the first time, and it’s pretty good) and lastly, cooked rice. I think I’ll have to make a video on natto some time, just to let you see what it’s like.

Finished it off with pear and ocha (hot green tea, which I’ve come to actually like!)

Arrived at Sunshine City; a city within Ikebukuro. It’s huge! Think Herning Centret times… 7 or 8, I’m not sure…

I mean, they have a friggin planetarium!

Namja Town! Housing a gyoza town (chinese dumplings), ice cream land, ghost city, gaming archade and a whole lot of other things! Spent about two hours there.

Went to a music shop to look for prices on trumpets for my sis. In the music shops I’ve been to, none of them have sold trumpets; it’s usually just drums annd guitars. This is just a small corner of their guitar selection.

The Japanese really do like Neon Genesis Evangelion. I found the Evangelion 2.2 (You Can Not Advance) on Blu-ray, and was close to buying it for a friend, but he hasn’t seen the prequels yet, so I didn’t. Anyways, I’m gonna search for something in Akihabara, THE place for electrical stuff!

My new shoes! Nice and discrete, and not least: comfy!

Tomorrow’s plans are as follows:
Get up for brekkie at 8, leave around 9. Destination: From Ikebukuro going to Ueno, from there taking the Asakusa line to Akihabara to see what they have, move on to Shimbashi from where I’ll go to Yurikamome and Odaiba. We’ll see if I make it! I’m leaving Tokyo on the 16th, so I have to cram everything!

Well, that’s it! Going to bed; meeting up with the English guy some time tomorrow, so I have to hurry and find some place to check my mail so I know when and where to meet him.

Nighty!

It’s official!

- my parents can live in Japan!
What’s that, all of a sudden? Well, at some train stations, they have these import food stores, and look what I’ve found here and there so far:

This secures my mum’s survival: RUGBRØD! (Rye bread; my mum can’t live without it. This looks German though, meaning it’s possibly pretty dry, but it’s rugbrød nevertheless!)

And look what I ALSO found! Danish skimmelost!

Let’s not forget my dad! Though my dad isn’t too difficult to satisfy culinarily, I’m still pretty sure he’d prefer this over the Japanese kind: Mustard! He won’t eat anything but Dijon! (And preferably Maille)

My parents now have no excuse for not paying Japan a visit!

Other than that, I just arrived in Tokyo a few hours ago after paying Osaka, Nara and Kyoto a visit. Osaka is really mostly shopping; not much cultural stuff to see really. Hung out with a Finnish guy one day, and we paid Osaka castle, some park and HEP 5 (ferris wheel) a visit. Was awfully tired that day though, so that was kind of a bummer.
- In Osaka I slept in a mixed dormitory; I didn’t mind though. When I was about to go to sleep, this English guy who also slept in that room, entered and started speaking to me, a little drunk. We ended up talking for almost 2 hours, and we’re meeting up again here in Tokyo to celebrate his birthday the 13th! Mighty nice guy; should be fun!

This was my room in Osaka. The British guy had the bed to the right, mine was in the lower bunk.

HEP 5

From around the top of the HEP 5

With HEST

Staying family of those in Taketa, in a city bestween Kyoto and Osaka, called Takatsuki. Dinner was homemade Osaka-style okonomiyaki!

I have a video I want you to see, but can’t be put in without internet connection.

8/10: Trip to Nara with Sachie-san (Hidetoshi-san’s wife) and two of her friends.
Forgot its name, but it’s a famous figure of Nara. Like on Miyajima, deers walk around freely.

Deeeeeeersss….!

And a monk. Give him a little money and he’ll bless you!

HEST and a deer

Entrance to the huuuuge Todaiji temple housing a huuuuuge wooden Buddha!

And here’s the temple itself. They were celebrating Nara’s 1300th year or something.

Huuuugeee! Compare with the people standing in the bottom of the picture.

School kids from TAKETA crawling through a pillar which, from what I understood, was connected to the Buddha’s nose? Quite funny to meet peeps from Taketa! One of the girls took a picture with me ^^

Ooooold pagoda!

This tree/bush smells AWESOME! I don’t know its name, but every time I passed a tree, I had to take a few breaths. So sweet!

Also, I saw a very famous mochi-man! I made a video that I’ll post when I can! Mochi is rice pound into a gooey paste, often used as a sweet. These men did it with indredibly speed and accuracy! You’ll see ;)

9/10: Rain pissin’ down. Got wet to the bones and froze like… like I always do when I freeze… erhm.

In Hanshin Department store in Osaka. Who the F wants to pay 5775 yen, almost 400 DKKR, 57 USD for ONE friggin’ PEACH?!?!?!

10/10: Kyoto
Draw an onigiri (rice ball), french fries or some fried noodles in a vending machine.

Nice places in Kyoto. As well as in Nara, they were celebrating something here. I think it was the opening of a shrine or something.

A traditional shinto wedding.

Paid the budo (martial arts) center a visit! There was even a little tournament today! I think it was kyokushinkai though, judging from the way they fought (and the protection gear). Forgot to take any PICTURES though; only made a video.

The dojo is definitely different from the one at home though…

Went into a manga store. I think this is Full Metal Panic! novels. I like that show…

Passed this… FAIL!
 
11/10: The day had to come… the black spot is a hole in the sole.

I THINK these guys were lining up to enter the Pachinko. Not sure though. Maybe there was something special about today. Btw, I was up very early this morning.

Yet another shrine.

A nice little park where I had a nap, hehe.
 

A nice old car that I’m sure my dad could have spent a few minutes examining and telling me about… although my interest in veteran is kinda… non-existant.

Oh yeah, one thing my dad has a hard time living without (mainly if going to work), is havregryn (oats).

Arrived at Junko-san in Tokyo, a friend of Reiko-san’s from university. Dinner was mapo doufu (spicy tofu) and a salad.
 

It was pretty cheap (and yet very good)! 1600 for two people!

That’s it! Still have to decide on where to go tomorrow. There’s soooo much to see in Tokyo, so I MUST make a plan! I’m off to bed ;)