Back to the city

Out fishing on the peer in Wakasa. We didn't bring home any catch for the dinner but still in was a nice and relaxing time. Unfortunately the sea was not calm enough to allow us to go out with the boat to do net fishing but still we enjoyed very much to be by the sea in Wakasa. At least we could go for a short trip with the boat yesterday when we caught the octopuss.

Today we left Wakasa and now we are in Hakone. We stopped by here on the way back to Tokyo to go to one of my favorite onsen, Tenzan. It's an old building made of wood with three outdoor hot springs on a terrasse with view over the mountain side and the river in the valley. Try it if you have a chance!

Happy anniversary!

Yesterday we celebrated mom and dad's 39th wedding day, way to go! Maki's aunt and uncle had prepared an amazing dinner. We had blowfish (sashimi and cooked), fresh octopuss that we caught the same day, sashimi, nabe and much more. To drink we had their home made plum wine (umeshu). In all it was a well memorable dinner thanks to our friendly hosts!

Yes we can!

Out jogging in Wakasa where we have spent the weekend visiting Maki's relatives, who run a ryokan - japanese style hotel - here. We were surprised to see that we all of a sudden passed the border to Obama City. Didn't know that the small Japanese city that was all over international press during american election period a couple of months ago was located here. There you see where jogging can take you, no wonder Forest became hooked up!


First cherry blossoms

Spending the day with mom and dad in the old capital Kamakura looking at Buddhas and Temples. Nice day with sunshine but fairly low temperature still. However the cherry trees tells us that the spring is coming, many trees has started blooming now and within a week or so they should be in full bloom. Best time of the year!

Finished

A little bit of rain, a little bit of strong wind and 42 easy(?) kilometer through Tokyo city.

Start!

Carbo loading

Still the sun is with us and right now we are enjoying a pasta lunch in the Meguro park. Hunting those carbo hydrates...

Tokyo Marathon

The big race is getting closer now. Yesterday we went to pick up the start numbers and the race starts tomorrow 09.10. Unfortenately the warm weather that has spoiled us during the week seems to be replaced by cool air and possibly rain. Anyhow it will be a great experience with 30.000+ runners joining.

Ulf brought yellow and blue swedish national fotball team tshirts for us to run in so please cheer us on if you see us along the way!

Latest fashion

Without knowing Ulf had been travelling across the pacific with a Batman sticker on the bottom. Was it grand son Lucas who thought granddad needed a fashion update?

Stockholm

Few places are as beautiful as Stockholm at springtime. I was very lucky with the timing of my business trip to Sweden and got a fantastic late winter/spring day in Stockholm. This is the view from västerbron during my morning jogging.

Man's best friend

There was a time when dogs worked hard to be called man's best friend - helping out with hunting, searching for mines, helping blind people, bringing cognac to people lost in the snow etc. Nowadays in Tokyo dogs do not only get expensve hair cuts, they also get to be driven around the city in small wagons. Who is who's best friend now?

A Japanese 4

A nice surprise was waiting when we got back from the mountains. The result from the Japanese Language Proficiency test had come and I passed! It's only level 4 and doesn't mean I can make myself understood in many other situations than when ordering a beer but it's still fun. Maybe it can also add some motivation to study for level 3 this year...

Sunny Nagano

The first, and quite possible the only, ski trip this year is almost over. We've been in Nagano, Togari onsen, this weekend and are now after the traditional Soba (japanese nodel) stop back on a busy highway and slowly approaching Tokyo. It's been a lot warmer than expected for mid february, just like skiing in april in sweden. Nice with the sun but it's been so warm that the snow is almost gone. 3 years ago when we were here the same time of the year they had 3 meter snow in the valley.

Koppun-kap Thailand!

It's time to go. We've had a fantastic late honeymoon - sun, swimming, snorkling&diving, thai massage, motorcycle picnic, really good food and relaxing evenings. Picture above from the favorite coffee shop where we almost (Maki actually did) fell asleep both nights in Railay.

Now we have completed the short parts of our journey home - longtail from hotel, bus to Krabi city and 3h mini van to Phuket airport. Soon time to board the flight to Bangkok and there we'll get on the Tokyo flight.

Bye for now Thailand, wouldn't be surprised if we come back soon again!

Deep blue

Last day in Thailand was a relaxind day. We started with going out on a half day diving trip with a longtail boat, Maki snorkling and I scuba diving. It was two fun dives with nice environment like caves, tunnels and corals and a lot of fish and also sea horses (first time for me to see).

Rest of the day we spent on the beach and in the evening finished off at the same bamboo café built over the water were we ended up yesterday evening. Now sleep and tomorrow morning start the journey back home. It will be something like 20 hours in total and we'll be home just before work starts monday morning.

Phi phi islands

We made a 30 hour stop at phi phi islands from yesterday morning to mid day today. It was a big difference to Laanta island with lots of more people and more focus on bars and night life. We had a good day though starting with some easy hiking to se some nice view of the islands. In the afternoon we got on a 4h sunset cruise to do snorkling and kayaking around phi phi - monkey beach (no sight of monkeys though) and maya beach ("The beach"). The sunset we could enjoy wathing from the yacht while having a cold brew. Not bad at all. The evening we enjoyed walking around the shops and restaurangs close to the pier and we happend to come across this fireshow on the beach.

Today we did a bit of shopping and swimming before getting on the boat to Railay, small area around two beaches south of Krabi on the mainland. This is the last stop on our trip and we'll stay here two nights before we start heading back to Tokyo on Sunday around noon. So far we have only been walking around with our bags for 2 hours before we could find a place to stay but from now on should be fine. Right now enjoying an evening coffee at a nice beach bar, tomorrow morning scuba diving for the first time this trip.

Jump

We went to a deserted beach this morning before returning the bike. Kind of fun to have the whole beach to yourself to play around with.

Tonite we will try to make plans for tomorrow and the rest of the trip until Sunday. Railay is an alternative that has come up while we have stayed here.

Welcome to the djungle

Yesterday we spent the day cruising around on a very small motorcycle that everyone around here use. One stop was the well known waterfall in Laanta island. It took a 30 min hike along a small river in djungle like nature before we came to the fall that reminded more about a shower than a waterfall. Even if the fall wasn't that impressive the nature and scenery made it well worth the walk. Besides meeting a group of Swedish people coming along the trail singing the theme to "djungelboken" out loud (to scare away animals as they claimed) we were pretty much alone out there and got nice time by the fall.

Honeymoon

View from our balcony at the www.baanlaanta.com resort in Koh Lanta. Yesterday when we got here after a 4 hour nice boat trip from phuket we noticed that they had given us a free upgrade to a bigger room with sea view - much appreciated for our delayed honeymoon trip. We spent today with going on a longtail boat trip to four different islands to do snorkling and swimming and exploring a nice cave. The plan was that we would get on another boat tomorrow and move to a different hotel on one of the smaller islands in the archipelago, but we felt we had done enoug boat travelling for a couple of days so when we got a good deal at keeping our free upgrade bungalow for two more nights we couldn't resist. The balcony was too nice.

Now we don't have to make any new plans until thursday, and if we are not too lazy and can leave the view from the balcony we will try to go to Phi Phi island then. We'll see.

Sweden abroad

Finally arrived Phuket around 3 hours ago. Booked hotel at the airport with a strong feeling that it was far from a good deal. But we got a package with 1h transfer taxi, the hotel for tonight and ferry to koh lanta tomorrow morning including pick up at the hotel. The alternative of fixing all that ourselves just didn't seem appealing at the time.

Just had a quick walk in the area close to kata beach in Phuket before sleep and I hope that the islands we are going to tomorrow is a little bit less busy. Maybe even less swedish flags and snus signs in swedish.