Wednesday, March 28, 2007

Spring is in the air

Today I tried to upload some new photos but it didn’t work! I hate when there is trouble with technical things because I’m so lousy at fixing them! Maybe it will work tomorrow because I have tons of photos just waiting to be seen by you.
Yesterday I saw a friend of mine, Akira, and he took me out for a wonderful day together. We meet up in Otemachi where we walked around talking about everything in the incredible spring weather. He took me to ’Beams’ which is a store with thing that are so expensive that I can’t imagine who might buy them. He also treated me a great lunch at a famous sandwich restaurant and which’s name I have forgotten. I ate a fruit salad and fruit sandwiches. I’ve never had a fruit sandwich before but it tastes like cake actually. After lunch we continued to the only tram left in Tokyo. He told me that until the 1970’s there where many trams in Tokyo but that now they have been replaced by regular trains and the subway. We took the tram to Asukaya Kouen (a park) that’s famous for it’s Sakura trees. The trees where still not blooming but it was beautiful anyways. I’ve always seen it as a mystery where all the children in Tokyo are because I never see any kids. I even looked for children’s cloth stores once but I didn’t find any. I know that the birthrate is 1,2 per woman in Japan, that means even lower than Sweden, but there should be at least some kids somewhere in Tokyo. That day with Akira I found out where they all were: in Asukaya kouen! They were everywhere but I’m found of children so it didn’t bother me…that much! After the park Akira took me to a typical Japanese graveyard. It was interesting because there where things written in Sanskrit (because of Buddhism) and some of the letters where very similar to hindi so I could read them. After that we parted because I had an appointment with Fumi and her sister Ayumi that took me to eat curry in a part of Shinjuku that I didn’t know since before.
Today I was invited to Izumi’s house for lunch. We were totally ten people at her house and everyone had brought something to eat, I had made a pasta salad. It was fun and I got to meet some new and some old friends! Though I was very tired (I can’t sleep well because of my jet lag) I enjoyed the party and stayed until quite late. I had to hurry back to my dorm where the preparations for the new students that arrived today were being held. They were mostly Koreans and Chinese but I also saw some of the people in the dorm that I hadn’t seen for a very long time. Now I’m a bit tired and I think I should go to bed because tomorrow I have to attend the course registration.

Sunday, March 25, 2007

Homesick

Hisashiburi!
Now I’m back from my two weeks of traveling!
Usually I don’t have much problems with jet lag but this time it’s crazy. I fall asleep around 5 am and wake up at 3 pm. CRAZY!
I haven’t done anything special since I came back, just meeting some of my students. My friends have asked me to go out but I’ve been exhausted and feeling a little homesick. But today is the last day of exhaustion, tomorrow I’m going to see the Sakura tree’s with a friend and then I’m having dinner with some friends.
Soon I’ll update my photo album too.
My bother and my cousin had a great time here, they really liked Tokyo. Aron is even thinking of going here himself after graduating! I was very impressed by Sasse’s Japanese, he knew quite a lot I think. At least compared to me that didn’t know anything when I came!
Spring is in the air in Tokyo, I feel alive!