the norwegian party

"the partygirls"/norwegian crew, alex and inga arranged a norwegian party in tsukuba the other day.
they had been shopping norwegian groceries in hiroo and cooked several dishes, including;
fish soup from lofoten, mashed potatoes, meatballs only with fish instead of meat, vegetables and dip, "bløtkake"/layer cake and kornmo biscuit with brown cheese. me, I brought some seriously pink japanese jello, tasting synthetic...nora; the chef.

the party was a huge hit.
and they all surprisingly loved the taste of brown cheese.
after eating outside for several hours, and all the natives had blue lips we went for karaoke.
the place was called: party party karaoke! and looked like a motel, without cars...so more like tel..or katel.
anyway, karaoke is tough both for blood pressure and vocal chords, after a few songs the skandinavian heads were all red. screaming into a microphone for one hour has probably the same effect as one hour with aerobics. so actually if you combine the two, you would have the ultimate exercise.

I slept in casa da alex, a cosy cell with yellow walls and concrete floor.
the shower reminded me of some kind of space shuttle, with lots of buttons and red lights.
the kitchen is in the same room as the toilets, but it`s not as bad as the stories they have told me.

tsukuba is a quiet area, with a lot of possibilities for recreation. students biking on the pedestrian streets and guys fishing in a lake. I found a vintage vending machine, the machine itself was up to date, but the drinks looked veteran.
I had to try one of course, and decided for an apple tea. forgot to check the expiring date, but it tasted ok.
before heading back to the city, we ate lunch in the school cafeteria. a prosedure that reminds me much of århus, only you pay your meal in...a vending machine. love it!