Merry Christmas!

In this holy hour, when Kalle Anka is just about to start, we send our christmas greeting. Hope everyone get a nice christmas eve with family and friends. Merry christmas from Tokyo!

Xmas tennis

Here in Japan the day before christmas eve is a holiday, but not christmas itself. We started the free day with playing a game of morning tennis. Even though this mornin was 10 degrees colder than yesterday it was still very nice. Rest of the day will be spent preparing for tomorrow, buying the last presents and cooking the christmas ham. Tomorrow we'll take the day off from work and Maki's parents are coming over for christmas dinner.

Visiting Ingvar

First time to visit ikea just outside Tokyo to see if we can get some sill and glögg for the christmas dinner tomorrow. After all that has been said about how crowded it's supposed to be I'm surprised to see it's not that many people here on a saturday. Just finished a dinner with marinated salmon, meatballs and coffee and saffran bread and now going to head off to the store. We took the bike here so if we end up buying as much as usual at ikea it will be an interesting trip back.

Kawaguchiko marathon

A few pictures from the Kawaguchiko trip we did almost two weeks ago

My free ride pass from Fujikyu amusement park

Picture from Dodompa, worlds (or only Japan's) fastest rollercoaster. The word has it that it goes from 0 to 170Kmph in 3 seconds!

The start of the marathon, 7.30 in the morning, 2 degrees air temperature and after a breakfast of 2 onigiri (rice balls)

Fantastic view of Fujisan along most parts of the race

Even if running slow a marathon can be very painful, here glad to be back after spending some 4h15min in the cold but beautiful environment around Kawaguchiko Lake. Next marathon will now be Tokyo marathon in March, but Ulf and me got tickets to full marathon and Maki got a ticket to 10Km race. With 7,5 number of applicants to available tickets in the lottery we are quite fortunate to get a chance to start in the marathon, will be cool to run in the center of Tokyo with more than 30.000 runners.

Last picture in fron of the lake before going home.

mc dreaming

Photo from a nice afternoon by Sayamako lake west of Tokyo last weekend. We took the bike there and considering the time of year it might have been the last tour for the season. The bike really turned out a great investment, such a freedom to go for spontaneous trips around and out of the city. Already looking forward to take it out for new trips next spring. This weekend we are going on the traditional marathon trip to the surroundings of Fuji mountain with friends of Maki, not with the bike though. Today we will get on the highest and fastest rollercoaster in Japan, tonight we will have a party and early tomorrow morning run a full marathon. Gambatte kudasai!

Dinner for two

In Japan Mumin are very fameous. In this café named after the cartoon in Tokyo dome anyone can get company by the table.

Winter decorations

Winter has come to Tokyo and together with winter comes the light decorations. Many places around the city get lit up in beautiful patterns. This photo is from the amusement area around Tokyo dome where we were the other night.

Black

Today we went on our first motorcycle trip. We took "the black" and drove to hakone and did some easy hiking in the mountains. Here we are eating black eggs that had been cooked in the natural hot springs. Tomorrow we'll drive back along the coast to Tokyo.

Test

Testing new phone!

I got wheels...

So finally, 2 months after getting the driving license for 400CC motorcycle, I bought a bike yesterday. I went to Ueno motorcycle town determined to not go home without a bike. I ended up buying a used ("around 5 years old", the salesperson wasn't sure) Honda CB400SS, the most bike for the money that I could find in the class I was looking for (which I would describe as "clean 70s retro style"). Many times I think it seems like used bikes are not so well kept in Japan, often a lot of rust and damages. But this one I was very happy with the condition.

Technically I still had to go home without a bike. I was informed that the bike needs to go through certification tests (like swedish "besiktning") and also I need to get some paperwork from the city office in order to do some regsitration work. I just need to get the papers and the shop wil fix everything else but it will cost me roughly 50.000yen. Hopefully I can get the bike next Saturday.

Hanabi season

It's currently firework season in Tokyo. Good time to get to see some really nice pyrotechnical art, like this one in Tokyo bay last week - 1,5 hours constantly impressing fireworks.

Lots of people love fireworks in Japan and the streets are crowded with people in the areas of Tokyo that has a firework festival. Streets get blocked by all the people and it seems quite ok to bring picnic food and can beers and enjoy it in the middle of the streets or in a back alley, wherever you can find a spot with free sight to the sky.

A "planet" and a smiley, unfortenately up side down.

Just a cool firework

A heart, also up side down

Another smiley, up side down

Uma

A friendly horse we met on the bicycle tour.

Saromako

Today we continued to the beautiful area around Saroma lake (Saromako). Despite the not so good weather we rent bicycles and went on a tour along the lake in the nice green nature. The weather has now gone from not so good to rain and storm and we are spending the afternoon inside the tent (it was quite an adventure to rise it).

The hunt for Moby Dick

Yesterday, on the third day of our five day trip driving in Hokkaido, we went out on whale watching. Unfortenately we couldn't see any whales, only the back of a few dolphins (for some reason they didn't do all those tricks jumping around as the dolphins do in the movies). The nature and the climate in Hokkaido is very similar to Sweden and we enjoy to drive around here and stay in tent at different campings. As all part of Japan Hokkaido have their speciality when it comes to cooking and here potato is very common. And now I'm just about to try waffles made on potatoes, "raggmunksvåffla"?

MC

Trying out the bike I would like to buy, Kawasaki W400.

http://www.kawasaki-motors.com/model/w400/index.jsp

Last week I got the driving license for 400CC motorcycle in Japan. Since I already had converted my driving license for car it only took 17h driving lessons and a driving test at the school. This was a package for taking the test at a authorised driving school, if you don't go to a authorised driving school then you need to take the government driving test which is much harder to pass.

In Japan they changed the law a couple of years ago and now it is not allowed to take driving license for full size motorcycle directly, you first need a driving license for small motorcycle (125CC) or the intermediate level (400CC).

The only problem now is that I need to find a parking for the bike before I can buy one. And this turned out to be much harder than expected. That is, I thought I could just put it in our bicycle room in the building but that was of course forbidden. All other parkings cost a fortune but I'm looking around and hopefully I can find something soon.

Miyako diving photos

The scuba diving leader for the diving tour we attended last sunday has posted some photos from our dive on his blog. We hope we can post some of our own photos from our analogue one time disposal camera later but until then you can have a look on the link below.

http://blue.ap.teacup.com/applet/yabiji/20080622/archive

Easy life

It's been two relaxing days at Tokyu resort hotel at the south side of Miyako. Playing (park) golf, sleeping by the pool side, swimming in the sea and reading books on the beach. The toughest event was an one hour tennis game in thirty degrees heat yesterday. Sad enough we are now at the airport on our way to Tokyo, but we have already started to plan for the next vacation :-)

Deep blue

Lunch break on the diving boat. Yesterday we did two dives from a boat at a famous coral location outside the north part of Miyako. After the first dive I was almost disappointed that it was not even better but for the second dive we moved location just a few hundred meters and it made a difference. It was a little bit deeper and more fish and beautiful corals. It was simply a fantastic diving location. The water was around 26 degrees warm and clear blue color with perfect sight. We got to see a big octopuss and many different fish. This morning we returned our old rental car in the same condition as when we got it i.e. no accidents despite driving on the wrong side of the road. We will also change our simple and cosy hotel for a more commercial one by the beach. Think they have a golf course as well so we might get a chance to try and hit a few golf balls.

A darker shade of red

Early yesterday morning we left a rainy Tokyo and arrived at a sunny and hot Miyako island. Unfortenately our bags arrived at Ishigaki island about the same time. While waiting for the bags to arrive we went to the beach. Since our sun block was in the bag that took the detour it didn't take long for me to get completely sun burned under the mid-day hot sun. Even though this happens more or less every time I go to a warm resort at least this time I can blame my dark red skin on JAL for loosing our bags. Fortunate enough we planned to go scuba diving this second day of our visit to Miyako so it should be easy to avoid the sun.

Glad midsommar!.

Trevlig midsommar! Hoppas alla har en rolig midsommarafton. Vi lyckades bli bjudna till en surströmmingsskiva i Tokyo med riktigt tunnbröd. Sjukt gott!

Driving Ms Daisy

Today I became a happy owner of a japanese driving license. I had been expecting the worst and was both relieved and surprised when I after only 3h of bouncing between different stations in the office building could exchange a receipt for my license. Now I just look forward to renting a car when we go to Okinawa on vacation next weekend :-)

Car free

In Ginza they block the main roads from car traffic on sundays to let pedestrians and temporary tables and chairs occupy all the space. This makes it a lot more peaceful to walk around the area. A really nice idea that Stockholm should try (e.g. Hamngatan, Götgatan).

Fuzzball

The crowded bar where we watched the game last nigt. All the swedish fans made it feel just like if we were in a bar in Stockholm. Good party atmosphere - up until the last minute of the game.

Miyama onsen

Entrance to what could be one of Japan's best hot springs, miyama onsen. Nice wood building surrounded by trees and clear view of the river in the bottom of the valley to the left of the photo. The entrance fee of 300 yen (18 skr) doesn't make you want to turn back either.

Gone fishing

Finally I got to try my new (but already two years old) fly fishing rod for the first time. I've been with Moritoshi-san to a river close to Nikko for one day fishing. It's been a fantastic day despite the fishes lack of interest in my flies (Mori-san got one though). And the rod worked like a charm. Anyway, the sun is shining, we are gonna pass by my favourite onsen on the way home and tonight we're gonna watch the fotball with a crowd of swedish people in a bar in ebisu.

Shaky

TV picture from the broadcasting after the earthquake that woke us up half an hour ago. Magnitude 6.7 with epicentra outside of Japan just north of Tokyo. We live somewhere between the 3s and 4s in the middle-low part of the image.

Sand hot spring

Today, on the last day of our mini vacation, we left Yakushima and went back to Kyushu. We took the train from Kagoshima to Ibusuki, as far down south as you can go on Kyushu. Here we spent another half day by the sea but instead of going swimming in the ocean we tried the local speciality sunaburo, sand hot spring. They basically bury you in sand that is heated by the underground hot springs. After thirty minutes I promise you are all done. Because of the weight from the sand you can feel the blood pumping through your warm body. Maybe something like getting a light beating in a sauna. Very relaxing indeed!

No hike

This morning the sun was shining and our backs were aching. After a not very long discussion we decided to skip the third day of hiking and just relax. We've been stralling around Anbo (a small place by the sea on Yakushima), sleeping on the cliffs in the sun and even taken the first swim for the year. Tonight we're having a BBQ dinner on the porch of our hotel. The owner of the hotel was by the way sure she had seen me on TV, but the only TV I've been on is SkellefteTV watching a baseball game in Skelleftea I think she was mistaken me for someone else. Tom Cruise?

Big trees

This is what's left of one really big tree and it's called wilson's stump. We have been hiking for two days, yesterday in perfect weather and this morning in pouring rain, and all the time in wonderful nature with some huge trees. We are now on the way from the mountains to the youth hostel where we will stay tonight. We will try to find an onsen by the sea and then we will eat a steady dinner!

Arrived Yakushima

After a flight to Kagoshima, down south on Kyushu, and a 2h jet ferry trip we have now arrived Yakushima, an Island famous for beautiful nature with a few thousand year old trees. We will stay here for 3 days and mostly do hiking in the mountains. Tonight the plan is to stay over in a cabin in the mountain and we are now waiting for the bus that will take us to the starting point for the hiking. It feels nice to have left the big city for the nature. The only thing that makes me nervous is that my backpack is so much more heavy than Maki's!

Street art

It is not often you see wall pintings in Tokyo. The other day we happend to walk through an area in Shibuya where there is a design school located and around there we could spot a few. Most of them are quite manga inspired.

And some of them more classic style.

Peace boat

Today I've taken the day off from work so we went down to Yokohama harbour to say hi to the boat that Maki was cruising around the world with. After 17 journeys around the globe the old steam boat will be replaced by a more environment friendly one so many people came to say good bye.

Tokyo original

We met up Nils and Tahmine who's stopping by Japan on their around the world trip in Yoyogi park to relax for a while. Few things are so amusing as to see Tokyo rockabilly club perform in yoyogi on sundays, a must if you're in Tokyo for a weekend.

Training day

Today we got a short lesson in a fisherman's life. First the ride with the village professional fishermen at a time when people should really still be a sleep. Then out with Maki's uncle's boat to pick his net. And now the lazy days were over, I was told how to drive the boat and how to pull the net out of the water. Maybe not the best fisherman there has been in Wakabe but it was fun for sure.

Fisherman's friend

It's just after five o'clock in the morning and about to leave with the fishing boat.

A day by the sea

Today has truly been a day by the sea. As soon as we arrived this morning we had some breakfast and then we went out with the boat to pick up the fishing nets. Makis uncle is a professional fisher who gets up four o'clock every morning to go out with the village fishing boats. And then he does his own net fishing to provide the fish for their japanese guesthouse that they run. Besides fishing and catching octopuss we have enjoyed the nature and eaten a fantastic dinner with crab and sashimi made from today's catch. Now it's almost midnight and less than five ours until we are going to follow the fishing boat out in the early morning. unfortenately my mobile phone camera did not respond too well to the amount of water it had to face today so right now it's not working at all. Hopefully it will get better till tomorrow so that I can post some more photos.

On the bus

This will be my view for the next 7 hours. After more than 12 hours in the office and just a quick stop at home to eat we are now on the highway bus that will take us to Makis relatives on the west coast. It's now midnight and we will arrive 7am, I have two beers and a book for killing time. Envious? I'm not. But once we get there it will be great. Looking forward to seeing the country side at the coast and to get on one of those fishing boats that Maki has told me about.

Happy birthday farmor!

Grattis på födelsedagen farmor! Vi hade gärna velat fira med dig i Bygdsiljum men detta året blir det såklart svårt. Vi tänker på dig och firar dig nu ikväll tillsammans med kompisar från Sverige. Många grattiskramar från oss båda, hoppas du får en härlig dag!