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.