I'm in New York!

Hey guys! Just wanted to let you know that I'm safe and that I don't have any jetlag, probably to early to say something like that I know, but the trip went very well. Haven't seen anything of the city yet, except for some buildings and people while getting from the airport to Shane's place. We went to a local sports bar, had a few beers, then got to a diner before taking a nap. Theoretically, I would be a mess right now since I only slept for two and a half hours the night before the trip and didn't sleep much at all on the plane but I feel great. Catch you later!

One of the millions 'One Way' signs in New York.

From Tokyo to New York and Okinawa

Only one more day to go in school and then there are three weeks of natsuyasumi/夏休み(なつやすみ)/summer break/sommarlov/whatever you want to call it. Hanna will enjoy two of those weeks in Okinawa and there learning how to scuba-diving among Nemo and his friends while I will be visiting Shane and Judy in New York during the whole summer break; in other words, expect funny posts/updates from two different spots of the world. Apart from that we will also study Japanese, there will probably be a big test a few weeks after the summer break ends and it's always good to be prepared. Anyways, I'll heading towards NYC tomorrow and Hanna to Okinawa a few days later so 'til next post, have a great weekend guys!

PS. Thanks all of you people who congratulated me during my birthday, you are all fantastic and I got really surprised by all the snail mail and presents you sent to me, thank you very much! A birthday in Tokyo couldn't had been better.

Thanks!

Even when I had a birthday I had to go to school so I did, there was a funny lesson today, after class Hanna, Max, Camilla and Hanna B joined me for lunch at an Indian restaurant Hanna and Max knew of. I also got a present from those four cuties, a great guide of New York, will be very handy in a few days. ^^ After that we splitted up and Camilla and I moved on to the Yoyogi Park for studying and to drink beer, we stayed there for almost six hours and then moved on to a nice bar/restaurant to eat dinner. The time in Yoyogi felt magical, like we were actually enjoying a sunny summer day in Sweden ... for those of you who've never experienced something like that, go to Sweden ... when it is sunny that is.

Thanks all of you people who congratulated me during my birthday, you are all fantastic and I got really surprised by all the snail mail and presents you sent to me, thank you very much! A birthday in Tokyo couldn't had been better.

Beautiful feet resting in Yoyogi Park.

Beautiful people resting in Yoyogi Park.

Beautiful stadium showing that Japanese architecture is daaa schiiiiiT!

I wouldn't mind living at this place, this is Yoyogi Park during the evening.

One of the nicest number combination there is ... July 24th, good date definiately!

Congratulations honey!

Yeah ... this is kind of cheesy isn't it? Write about your own birthday but I got so happy opening this red present from someone anonymous ... the secret admirer turned out to be Isa! Thank you so much bice! I'll always keep my yellow bear close to me and get reminded of you in that yelloy bunny suite! haha And grandma, your birthday card almost made me start crying, you are the best! Time for bed and then celebrate more later on, take care cuties!

Thanks bice baby!!!

Big update x 5

Hanna and I are sorry that we haven't posted for a while but instead of making some bad excuses (we have a lot of them though) you get a lot of updates, scroll down and read the five latest posts. Hot, hot, hot!

Love,
Hanna and Patrik

ps. Also ... congratulations Candace!

There is something about Tokyo

Went to Roppongi today with Yuki to eat dinner at a Swedish restaurant called 'Lilla Dalarna'. I've been passing this place several times earlier but I never went inside but today was the day. Just by standing outside I couldn't imagine what I actually saw, a typical small Swedish summer cottage was built between some modern buildings; as I opened the door to the restaurant I were close to drop my jaw. From being in the high tech city of all cities to step back into old Sweden felt very bizarre but fun, I looked at every little detail and got more happy the more details I found. We sat down, ordered a Swedish dinner set for around 3000 yen/25 American dollars/knappt 180 ynka svenska spänn and got a nice plate of herring and stuff as appertizers. Then Yuki got meatballs (now that's original) and I got a breaded fillet of meat and blue cheese (now would any Swede please give a comment if this is a typical Swedish dish or not, I just think about Germany as soon as I think breaded fillets or schhhhhhhnitzels), anyway, the food was great and the coffee tasted like real coffee without any sugar or sweetener in it, yay! Before we moved on to Mori Tower to see the city view I had to see Lilla Dalarna's toilet, OMG!

Välkommen till Lilla Dalarna!

For you who haven't been in Sweden, this is what the interior looks like in every house and apartment of Sweden, scary isn't it?

Our three Swedish friends. Dalahästen (the small red horse every Swede is talking about, you're only aloud to take a riding tour on these ones when you're a small kid), Snöbollslyktan (a lantern made out of ice, we usually keep it in the freezer so it won't melt), and Midsommarstången (the big Midsummer penis symbol that Swedes likes to go crazy about, yes, this is the thing Swedes connects to the frog dance).

A typical Swedish toilet, this is one of the latest releases.

This is just a sign of that Swedes are strange people, except from just connecting big green Midsummer penises and frog dances we also connect pooping to a way of thinking about life. This text goes something like "Here is a place for your own business and thoughts, if someone knocks on the door, get the hell out of there".

When we got to Mori Tower it turned out that they had an exhibition called 'the Sky Aquarium' at the same floor as where you could enjoy the city view so we bought some tickets and went and saw a lot of fishes too. I weren't aloud to take pictures there though but, as you can see, I had the opportunity to have a seat in one of the aquariums to get a nice chat with Nero and his friends.

On our way to the Mori Tower we saw these white numbers. As time goes by the numbers change to new numbers, guess this is one of those ultra modern high tech things of Tokyo I don't get what it is ... but I like it, I like it a lot.

Two words: Mori Tower.

Did someone mention 'Blade Runner'?

Did I mention that I'm starring in 'Room with a View - the 2007 version'?

Entrance to the 'Sky Aquarium' exhibition where I found out that ...

... my camera liked to take pictures in the colour of blue. Bad camera, bad!

Oh wait, my camera liked the colour of yellow too.

We're on the radio(?)

We're starting to get used to morning classes now (yeah right!). Today, Camilla and I went to Yoyogi Park to study some ... suprise, surprise ... Japanese. It went pretty well ... kind of ... not. We were both tired so we took a nap while getting a nice tan and woke up to the ugly sound of several crows who wanted to snatch our food, first time I felt that birds are scary. After some studying we noticed a guy walking towards us and finally stops at our spot telling us that he is from a Japanese radio station called FM Fuji, and that he wants to interview us just because we're foreigners. As a reply I hear myself saying "Sure, no problem" and then we start to talk about what I was supposed to do. The FM Fuji guy, also known as Daigo, gave me a paper in Japanese with a story telling something about "walking on the street, meeting a stranger" and something about "embarrassing" ... I just felt like I didn't knew any Japanese at all. While I had that thought in my head I had a big microphone one inch from my face, and I were also about to tell the listeners (in Japanese!) about a story; so I told them about the celebration of Midsummer's Eve in Yoyogi Park and that dance thing I wrote about in an earlier post. I also asked the host of this show, オクイシュージ - Okuishuuji, why Japanese people just stands there looking at the DJs playing good music instead of dancing to the music. Afterwards I found out that I was suppose to have talked about something embarrassing but I didn't, haven't listened to the show yet and to be honest I'm not sure if I want to, I just have a bad feeling about this. It's probably a show about making fool out of foreigners, which seems to be one of the funniest things to do as a Japanese. Will, eventually, try to get an mp3 of the show. Time to go to bed, take care honeybuns!

Daiko doing the traditional 'V for Victory' sign and I doing the traditional 'V for Vendetta' sign.

Daiko on his way back to FM FUji.

All good things come in three

Three people made my day today. Just when we finished class today a guy from the office came into the class room and asked for "Patrik Juntestal" (misspelled last name, what can I say, it happens all the time in Sweden so no wonder it happens here as well). Anyway, I got a package and opened it and look what I found inside! A birthday gift from an anonymous ... ehrm, admirer(?). ^^

A cute gift from an anonymous admirer with a note saying that I may not open it before my birthday. ... and no, I haven't open it yet ... but I want to.

The second person who made my day was Kristoffer who just got to our school to study Japanese (I hope you're doing fine there in your class). He brought two packages of Swedish oat meal, one for Hanna and one for me. I got a big smile on my face like if I met an old friend I hadn't met for ten years, guess you can tell that I'm addicted to Swedish oat meal ... and then I got an even greater smile when Hanna told me that I could get her oat meal as well.

Heaven sent these two beautiful oat meal packages to Tokyo.

Thanks Kristoffer, Hanna and the anonymous one, you are all angels! Oh yes, you are!

Dead zombie

Earlier we used to have classes during the afternoon but we've just changed to morning classes. Unfortunately, each night I continue with this tradition that I've been doing since I were a kid, to stay up late every night even if that means that I, when I wake up in the early morning, have to feel and look like a living dead. A great thing though is that we now end the classes 01:40PM leaving us a lot of free time to do whatever we want (except for studying that is).

This is what I'm daydreaming about on my way to school. Pillow sweet pillow!

Pictures of Y-O

Hey people! I just wanted to show you some random pictures of what happens in and around the house where Hanna, Max and I stays. Enjoy!

Two months ago, Hanna and I went from Shinjuku to Yukigaya-Otsuka by bike, we went on the bikes for like three hours but had a great time and saw a lot of new places of Tokyo. This was shot during a break when Hanna wanted to look at the stars.

The Yukigaya-Otsuka silhouette.

Grey is the new black.

Black is the new black.

Apart from drinking and having a nice time up on the roof you can also jump rope (yes, I can't afford a gym card, send money!).

How to eat a lemon - 1. Before. 2. During. 3. After.

Candance and I discovered that life as a geisha is pretty easy.

Miss you baby! In two months there will be more プリ ・ クラ.