today I was hoping for sun and shine, park, a blanket and some hours of geekness together with the grand magazine: wired. but the weather situation when I woke up was everything but sun and shine...freezing cold and rain. and I realised I`ve read wired from cover to cover. the fridge is empty and so is my shelf. I`m really hungry, but I don`t want to go outside, I rather stay hungry. hilde left for norway this morning, it`s almost an echo in my 7,5 sq.m room without her and her huge suitcase. it actually feels like a sad monday, not a merry saturday. but on the other hand, I rarely know what day it is, unemployment do that to you. I hope I never suffer from unemployment again. (do not quote me on that..) ..eeh, atleast not for more than two weeks...back on save ground. my plan B, when plan A died a brutal death, was to draw, but guess what, I have no paper...and guess what again, the store you buy paper, tokyu hands, is further away than both the supermarket and the bookstore where they sell wired. I`m fried, big time. happy times in tokyo this afternoon. I just post some pictures from last week.
it`s not as bad as it might sound, I`m exaggerating un petit peu. my computer is 100%, and so are itunes. feel good music saves all days, including this one. I`ve made a list of stuff that makes you love tokyo+japan:
1. accsessible sushi..convini sushi, but still..sushi
2."free" skyscrapers, the opposite of empire state building where you have to stand in line until you drop dead
3. food in general
4. my beloved vending machines
5. the metro/jr system, always on time
6. the fact that you just buy a new umbrella everytime it rains
7. shinkansen
8. polite people and their queue system
9. clean country, very nice..except tsukuba..haha
10. beautiful but loco boys (not everyone are beautiful, but everyone are loco)
11. some birds that says: heia heia heia ( it`s a cheering word in norwegian)
12. the taxidoors that opens and closes without any effort from human beings...eh, skip the button part
13. the billboard next to the runway at narita airport that says "down with narita" instead of "welcome to narita"
14. the fact that I lost my bike key for one month, and when I found it, it was in the lock on my bike, outside the building where I live in central tokyo...lovelovelove it.
15. and you may park your bike unlocked outside the store when you go shopping, and when you return, it`s still there!
16. shopping
17. the hand in hand of crowded and deserted places
18. drunk old salarymen, rolling around on sidewalks laughing or puking
19. the view of shinjuku and shibuya by night
20. the view from my room every minute of the day, regardless weather
21. great people watch possibilities
22. take trips on jr-lines until the signs only shows japanese characters
23. hunt down architecture
probably more
24. oh yeah, the rice boiler
25. ka ra o ke
26. the atmosphere
27. the elevated highways/layered roads
lørdag 31. mai 2008
mandag 26. mai 2008
hilde!
my friend hilde has arrived! my plan to meet her at the platform didn`t work out so well. we sat one hour waiting for each other, hilde on platform 2, nora on platform 1..finally she went upstairs and called me. clever girl. the last couple of days, we`ve been shopping, eating, drinking, singing, walking and sleeping. today we went to the park to relax and play badminton as real japanese do. then we went to park hyatt hotel (lost in translation) for a drink, in the elevator we met two norwegian girls from trondheim, they joined us. the drinks at park hyatt is amazing. tastes like perfect drinks..good. then we got a taxi to shinjuku to drink more drinks to regular prices, but rikke and ida had to leave before we found a suitable bar. so hilde and I went karaoke. karaoke is my new addiction. the list goes like this;
vending machines
parks
ginger ale
yamanote line
skyscrapers
dumplings
karaoke
karaoke is so much fun and so exhausting!
today we had dressed up in high heals and skirts (because of park hyatt really..), singing songs we neither knew the lyrics or tunes. it works anyway. "one way ticket" by the darkness or "the seeds" by the roots, will never be the same again. I think I`m going to persuade my parents to refurnish the sauna in the basement to "the karaoke crib" when I get home. if you`re really enthusiastic the "karaoke crib" will work in the same way as a sauna, you get warm and you sweat, and imagine coming home from a hard run or skiing turn and end the business with some heavy singing. I like the idea.
tomorrow we`re going for electric town and more.
guess hilde is going to check her mail, she is so much in love, and writes about 10 mails a day to her beloved.
sweet, so sweet. sugar written all over.
if you stand up singing karaoke, the dancemoves adds a new layer to the experience.
just a tip.
onsdag 21. mai 2008
wakeywake
and today I woke up with a frightened feeling, in a half conscious state I heard an unfamiliar sound in the hallway, first I thought it to be some kind of beast (still in the grey zone between awake and asleep...), but then I realized it couldn`t be. but the noise was so loud and brutal, and I didn`t dare to open my door to investigate the situation. I was afraid that it might be some vicious trick to get defenceless girls to open their doors, so that this thing in the hallway would have the opportunety to get inside and steal all my money..I actually thought this, but remember folks, the clock was somewhere around 0530 am, and my brainfunction is not yet up and running. then I heard that my neighbours, two small italian girls, opened their door so I dared to do the same.
on the floor in the hallway a guy lay on his back with his hands neatly on his chest, the intimidating sound was him snoring..I`ve never heard anything like it. my first thought when I saw him was; isak? but from my 1 1/2 months of camping in isak`s dutch residence, I`ve learned that isak is a silent sleeper, it was impossible that this could be him.
my next thought; I need a photo of this guy! so I got my camera and took a shot. unfortunately the picture wasn`t straight, so I had to try one more time, but the second time the unindentified guy moved and looked around, so my chances were gone.
the following morning I met one of the italians, and she told me that the hallway monster was stu, from downstairs. she thought he had been seriously drunk or on drugs, I suggested that he might also be a sleepwalker. the italian girl didn`t buy this possibility, but then I told her that I`ve seen and heard a great deal of weird sleeping behaviour during my long life and handed out a long list of examples, but still she thought him to be drunk or drugged up.
stu had been lying in the hallway for an hour before I heard the noise, she could tell me, and the reason why he woke up, was because she poured water on him. we have no idea how stu got back into his room, cause it wasn`t like he had a key in his briefs...
oh yeah, I photoshoped the picture.
tirsdag 20. mai 2008
just a day among the others
today I woke up to heavy rain, in my bed.
it was the result of a brisk wind (as a nearly professional weather girl, I would claim it was a storm), rain and my open window. I decided to dedicate this particular morning to a feel good movie and a huge breakfast.
when the movie reached its end, the weather had changed to the better.
I walked the short walk up to yoyogi station where the yamanote line arrived the same second as me,
the next 30 minutes I spent sitting down reading a book. my mission this afternoon was to investigate if it`s possible to get all the way down to the narita express platform without buying a ticket. it is. this is great news.
now I know how to catch hilde before she wanders off into the big maze of buildings, cars and people, also known as tokyo.
when that was all settled, I went for lunch and tokyo international forum. ate my sushi on a bench surrounded by half-sleeping salary men, beneath greenery, with the view of the forum straight ahead. I must say, an urban deluxe lunch.
the forum I didn`t like much, but took some pictures just to prove that I have been there.
then I went approximately 200 meters south, to ginza. ginza got a lot of shopping possibilities and architecture, in both categories, good and bad...my subjective perception. saw some famous buildings, one: the mikimoto by ito, a building I thought to be white, turned out to be pink..it looked like a cartoon. and the name enhancer the opinion. aslo got a glimps of the nakagin capsule tower by kurokawa. I really liked the example capsule on the sidewalk. couldn`t see a kitchen in there, but it had a stereo. guess it`s a good thing the "apartment" doesn`t have a kitchen when you`re supposed to live on just 8 sq.m. including bathroom, you need to be as thin as possible.
my abilities to find the buildings I`m searching for is increasing.
tried to do some shopping, but I couldn`t find anything. don`t know how it`s possible.
my visa was cold in my wallet, desperate for attention and light. but no, sorry mr. visa, maybe next time.
it was the result of a brisk wind (as a nearly professional weather girl, I would claim it was a storm), rain and my open window. I decided to dedicate this particular morning to a feel good movie and a huge breakfast.
when the movie reached its end, the weather had changed to the better.
I walked the short walk up to yoyogi station where the yamanote line arrived the same second as me,
the next 30 minutes I spent sitting down reading a book. my mission this afternoon was to investigate if it`s possible to get all the way down to the narita express platform without buying a ticket. it is. this is great news.
now I know how to catch hilde before she wanders off into the big maze of buildings, cars and people, also known as tokyo.
when that was all settled, I went for lunch and tokyo international forum. ate my sushi on a bench surrounded by half-sleeping salary men, beneath greenery, with the view of the forum straight ahead. I must say, an urban deluxe lunch.
the forum I didn`t like much, but took some pictures just to prove that I have been there.
then I went approximately 200 meters south, to ginza. ginza got a lot of shopping possibilities and architecture, in both categories, good and bad...my subjective perception. saw some famous buildings, one: the mikimoto by ito, a building I thought to be white, turned out to be pink..it looked like a cartoon. and the name enhancer the opinion. aslo got a glimps of the nakagin capsule tower by kurokawa. I really liked the example capsule on the sidewalk. couldn`t see a kitchen in there, but it had a stereo. guess it`s a good thing the "apartment" doesn`t have a kitchen when you`re supposed to live on just 8 sq.m. including bathroom, you need to be as thin as possible.
my abilities to find the buildings I`m searching for is increasing.
tried to do some shopping, but I couldn`t find anything. don`t know how it`s possible.
my visa was cold in my wallet, desperate for attention and light. but no, sorry mr. visa, maybe next time.
søndag 18. mai 2008
17th of may
17th of may is norway`s favourite day. this is the day we eat as much icecream and hotdogs as we possibly can and drink champagne for breakfast, dress up in traditional costumes and march for hours to the tunes of mediocre band music, regardless weather. it might not seem as much fun, but it`s one of those things you have to experience to understand, I guess.
this year I celebrated 17th of may (we got our constitution 17th of may 1814) in tokyo. the embassy arranged a party, and according to my fathers stories from the parties at the embassy in vienna during the 1960`s, it would be a party to remember. when I got there, it turned out that tokyo style a la 2008 is different from vienna 1960`s, the present crowd were mostly small kids and their respectable parents. I couldn`t see a single glass of champagne, not even cava. at my arrival the ambassador of norway, a guy named åge, was close to preaching about the greatness of norway. after a while it became obvious that åge was a member of PWLTOV; people who love their own voice. finally, when the majority of the present audience were sleeping, åge came to an end and those of us still awake sang; ja, vi elsker. (ehh..yes, we love..haha, the national anthem). I was already heading for the buffet table, but it turned out that ragnhild also wanted to say a few words, and we had to sing several songs before we got access to the food and joy.
as mentioned, those present, were not my age. I would say the agerange were between 0,4-10 and 32-60 years.
even though you would think the conversation among all norwegians would be smooth and stimulating compared to norwegian-japanese, think again. the first 1,5 hours I was attending this "party" alone, alex and inga were running late from tsukuba, so I had to survive all by myself. I made some attempts starting a few conversations, but since I don`t have a miniature person to show for, the mutual interests were few. I soon realised that the bar would probably be the most entertaining area at the party, plan B; no talk, only drink. but finally I found some young guys beneath a small tree in the end of the garden, they all studied japanese and two out of three came from bergen. they let me join the mid twenties club, and squeezed together so I could sit down and eat my hotdogs with lompe, bread, ketchup, mustard and onion..and drink my beer..mmhmh.
alex and inga arrived, and according to the schedule we were supposed to gather up and walk around the swiss embassy, it`s the most painless "barnetog" I`ve ever participated, and the mediocre band music was none existent.
not even an unsteady trompet. the day ended with a draw, you could win tripp trapp chairs, salmon, blankets, aquavit and salmon caps, bags, knives and pens. typical children stuff. I didn`t win anything, the stupid kids only picked blue notes, mine were yellow. not that I was dying for any of the prizes, but it`s always fun to win something. and those salmon caps were not bad, not bad at all.
at 4 pm we were allowed to leave, we headed for harajuku, shopping and dinner. later that night as I dressed to go out, I fell asleep and woke up rather late..no anti-embassy party for me. 17th of may still have great impact on the energy level.
weather report; sunny and warm..no snow in sight.
fredag 16. mai 2008
parents
my mom and dad came to visit me this week.they adapted incredibly fast to the local way of spending time on public transportation.
we also saw some architecture, one building was hana midori cultural center. atelier bow-wow design. a big hit.
onsdag 14. mai 2008
a little laugh
this picture always make me laugh.
she was a poledancer at a club called "warehouse", during an ipod battle.
doing polegymnastics on a stage, dressed in smallsmall panties.
and for those of you that wants more partypictures, visit sanna`s; thevagabondset.com
just for the record; I don`t smoke.
lørdag 10. mai 2008
imaginary conversation
scenario:
construction worker calls the contractor about a small problem one afternoon in osaka.
"moshimosh, mister hou s. ton speaking"
"hello, mister hou s. ton san, we have a problem..."
"what!?"
"well...you know the elevated road we`re building in osaka..?"
"yes, of course, what about it?"
"there is a building ahead"
"what? not good, not good..is it a big building?"
"I would say 20 stories"
"damn...so we can`t go above it...hmm..tricky business. is it residential or offices?"
"it`s offices, sir"
"what`s the marketprice for offices nowadays?"
"do I look like a real estate agent?"
"I don`t know, we`re talking on the phone..anyway, how many stories do we need, I mean where are we most likely going to penetrate the building?"
"my guess is between the 5th and 8th storey"
"buy them"
"but what if they don`t want to sell?"
"make them an offer they can`t refuse"
fredag 9. mai 2008
trippin`
shinkansen! I love you!
a few norwegian men with important jobs should definitely take a little trip to japan (paid by tax money of course), to experience how the big trainguys do it. shinkansen is pure train happiness. it`s fast, it`s on schedule, it`s quiet...on the inside and all that stretch-your-legs-space feels like heaven...and, it looks like million dollars.
the 700 series with the round nose is my favourite, unfortunately I took a ride in the 300 series..damn, but still I`m satisfied. for more info and pictures, google: shinkansen wiki. enjoy!
I left tokyo (on schedule) sunday morning, heading for kyoto.
when I got there I realised that sunday, monday and tuesday were part of the golden week, the japanese spring vacation. so, in other words; kyoto was overcrowded by japanese tourist, dressed in hats, sunglasses, white gloves and umberellas. even if they travel in their own country, they travel in groups..big groups, and with a guide, obviously.
the whole city felt like one huge queue, I felt the panic sneaking up on me. I decided to take it easy, walk the japanese pace, follow flows and try to erase the image of all the people from my mind. good plan, but it didn`t work.
after two hours I found myself in the royal garden under a tree reading a book. there are no tempels open for visitors in the garden, so I was basically alone there. the rest of the day I spent walking about in the city, with no actual plan in mind. next day was a rainy one, so I went to a theater and watched geishas dance and play, I didn`t understand much, but I`m pretty sure geishas don`t make good actresses. they have incredible high pitched voices, sometimes it was so extreme that I almost laughed.
next: kanazawa.
I like this place. I love the SANAA museum, but one disappointing detail; the vacuum sticking hooks on the windows. ron mueck`s work is great. and the pool is, as they say in denmark; top dollar. I had a nice lunch on the lawn surrounding the museum. in the afternoon I headed for osaka, I had to stand up in the train for 2 1/2 hours, all the reserved tickets were gone. end of the golden week.
osaka is a big city. I arrived in the evening, and after leaving my stuff at the hostel I went for a walk.
I got a urge to talk to someone back home, so I went to a convini for an international telephonecard, hunted down a booth and followed the instructions on the card. it didn`t work, and I was all disppointed. I went to a bar to eat and drown my sorrows, it`s no fun to drown sorrows all alone, with a nonenglishspeaking bartender. but the waiter did make an effort to communicate. I`m not 100% sure what he wanted to express, I guess he spoke of a place I ought to visit. suddenly he bent over and pointed between his legs...so, yeah. exactly what that move was supposed to mean, only he knows. next day I went down to the bay and the aquarium, I`ve heard they had a shark! turned out that it was a whale shark, no maneater. I was really hoping for a beast with a whole lot of teeth. the place was both fascinating and sad, the animals didn`t look overjoyed. the penguins were cool, I think they had a meeting when I arrived. probably discussing all the stupid morons on the other side of the glass..like:
"hey guys, look at that fellow..brown belt and black shoes?? that`s soo not fashion dude...go get a tuxedo!"
"yeah! he doesn`t deserve a good picture, turn your backs to the window! do it, do it now!"
"aah, I could die for a martini right now...stirred, not shaken"
"oh don`t talk, bro.."
"anyone for a swim?"
"sorry, just ate"
the watertank is made by 30 cm thick plexiglass, and the biggest piece weighs 10 tons!
the suntory museum is located right next to the aquarium, tadao ando designed the building. I didn`t like it much.
ate lunch in the shadow of a ferris wheel. then I took the subway back in to town. on the top of a skyscraper I had fun taking pictures through binocluars, and the elevator shaft is a detached transparent sturcture, nice ride up to the 40th floor. spent the evening in osaka`s harajuku, peoplewatching and shopping. shopping is a great thing to do if you`re on your own, even though the anorexic creditcard is organizing a riot in my purse.
thursday I decided to go back to tokyo.
I`m getting old and this intense train and dormitory life is not for me anymore. sad fact, but true.
enjoyed three hours in a 300 series edition.
one thing I`ve forgotten to tell you about is a toilet visit in yoyogi park, it happened a few weeks ago.
sanna and I were meeting there to do nothing, I arrived and had to pee, so I went over to the public toilet. the women toilets were all taken, so I occupied the handicapped toilet. after peeing I do as I always do, (hahaha...what a story!) I flush. I chose the button with a finger pointed to it, this button turned out to be an alarm!
the only exit from this toilet is facing a square with lots of people drinking coffee and eating icecream...first I tried to unalarm the alarm, but it didn`t work...soo..I had no choise but to perform the ultimate humiliation..exit the handicapped toilet with a waving hand and a smile. not to my surprise all heads were turned towards the screaming building and the door to the toilet. (hello people, it`s only me! where`s the hole in the ground when you need it?) a guy came running and turned the siren off. then I had no idea what to do, so I walked over to a vending machine and bought a bottle of water..I guess my audience thought: "liquid? bad idea woman, bad idea"
well...I survived.
a few norwegian men with important jobs should definitely take a little trip to japan (paid by tax money of course), to experience how the big trainguys do it. shinkansen is pure train happiness. it`s fast, it`s on schedule, it`s quiet...on the inside and all that stretch-your-legs-space feels like heaven...and, it looks like million dollars.
the 700 series with the round nose is my favourite, unfortunately I took a ride in the 300 series..damn, but still I`m satisfied. for more info and pictures, google: shinkansen wiki. enjoy!
I left tokyo (on schedule) sunday morning, heading for kyoto.
when I got there I realised that sunday, monday and tuesday were part of the golden week, the japanese spring vacation. so, in other words; kyoto was overcrowded by japanese tourist, dressed in hats, sunglasses, white gloves and umberellas. even if they travel in their own country, they travel in groups..big groups, and with a guide, obviously.
the whole city felt like one huge queue, I felt the panic sneaking up on me. I decided to take it easy, walk the japanese pace, follow flows and try to erase the image of all the people from my mind. good plan, but it didn`t work.
after two hours I found myself in the royal garden under a tree reading a book. there are no tempels open for visitors in the garden, so I was basically alone there. the rest of the day I spent walking about in the city, with no actual plan in mind. next day was a rainy one, so I went to a theater and watched geishas dance and play, I didn`t understand much, but I`m pretty sure geishas don`t make good actresses. they have incredible high pitched voices, sometimes it was so extreme that I almost laughed.
next: kanazawa.
I like this place. I love the SANAA museum, but one disappointing detail; the vacuum sticking hooks on the windows. ron mueck`s work is great. and the pool is, as they say in denmark; top dollar. I had a nice lunch on the lawn surrounding the museum. in the afternoon I headed for osaka, I had to stand up in the train for 2 1/2 hours, all the reserved tickets were gone. end of the golden week.
osaka is a big city. I arrived in the evening, and after leaving my stuff at the hostel I went for a walk.
I got a urge to talk to someone back home, so I went to a convini for an international telephonecard, hunted down a booth and followed the instructions on the card. it didn`t work, and I was all disppointed. I went to a bar to eat and drown my sorrows, it`s no fun to drown sorrows all alone, with a nonenglishspeaking bartender. but the waiter did make an effort to communicate. I`m not 100% sure what he wanted to express, I guess he spoke of a place I ought to visit. suddenly he bent over and pointed between his legs...so, yeah. exactly what that move was supposed to mean, only he knows. next day I went down to the bay and the aquarium, I`ve heard they had a shark! turned out that it was a whale shark, no maneater. I was really hoping for a beast with a whole lot of teeth. the place was both fascinating and sad, the animals didn`t look overjoyed. the penguins were cool, I think they had a meeting when I arrived. probably discussing all the stupid morons on the other side of the glass..like:
"hey guys, look at that fellow..brown belt and black shoes?? that`s soo not fashion dude...go get a tuxedo!"
"yeah! he doesn`t deserve a good picture, turn your backs to the window! do it, do it now!"
"aah, I could die for a martini right now...stirred, not shaken"
"oh don`t talk, bro.."
"anyone for a swim?"
"sorry, just ate"
the watertank is made by 30 cm thick plexiglass, and the biggest piece weighs 10 tons!
the suntory museum is located right next to the aquarium, tadao ando designed the building. I didn`t like it much.
ate lunch in the shadow of a ferris wheel. then I took the subway back in to town. on the top of a skyscraper I had fun taking pictures through binocluars, and the elevator shaft is a detached transparent sturcture, nice ride up to the 40th floor. spent the evening in osaka`s harajuku, peoplewatching and shopping. shopping is a great thing to do if you`re on your own, even though the anorexic creditcard is organizing a riot in my purse.
thursday I decided to go back to tokyo.
I`m getting old and this intense train and dormitory life is not for me anymore. sad fact, but true.
enjoyed three hours in a 300 series edition.
one thing I`ve forgotten to tell you about is a toilet visit in yoyogi park, it happened a few weeks ago.
sanna and I were meeting there to do nothing, I arrived and had to pee, so I went over to the public toilet. the women toilets were all taken, so I occupied the handicapped toilet. after peeing I do as I always do, (hahaha...what a story!) I flush. I chose the button with a finger pointed to it, this button turned out to be an alarm!
the only exit from this toilet is facing a square with lots of people drinking coffee and eating icecream...first I tried to unalarm the alarm, but it didn`t work...soo..I had no choise but to perform the ultimate humiliation..exit the handicapped toilet with a waving hand and a smile. not to my surprise all heads were turned towards the screaming building and the door to the toilet. (hello people, it`s only me! where`s the hole in the ground when you need it?) a guy came running and turned the siren off. then I had no idea what to do, so I walked over to a vending machine and bought a bottle of water..I guess my audience thought: "liquid? bad idea woman, bad idea"
well...I survived.
torsdag 8. mai 2008
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