The Japanese and Germans who came and left

So, two weeks of hosting Japanese and Germans have passed. It’s been intense, fun and interesting. Tomoya was here the first week. He arrived at Saturday and spent about a week in a rainy and cold Sweden. The weather was awful, but somehow he seemed to like it here. We went to Stockholm, our summer house, Gothenburg and other places. About the same thing I did with the Germans, that is. And Kotomi. It’s been interesting, but tiresome, to show all the visitors the same places all the time. The tiresome part must be quite obvious, I’ve been going to the same places, over and over again, to the same museums and city parts more than twice in less than a couple of weeks. The interesting part has been that I’ve been put in a situation where I had to find good parts about every place we went to; “Here’s the canal, it’s quite nice in the summer” or “The old parts of Mariestad are beautiful, the houses are cute and old” instead of “I hate when I miss the train because of those friggin’ boats” or “There’s nothing but raggare in this doomed, forsaken town in the middle of nowhere”. Somehow I’ve managed to find nice things in a landscape that I didn’t find too interesting before. Anyhow, it’s hard to summarize and show pictures of everything we have been doing these two weeks. Obviousely, it was most exciting when Tomoya came. Japan is so different compared to Sweden, and he pointed, eyes wide open, at the fields with hay balls wrapped in plastic, exclaiming: “What are those marshmallow-looking balls?! “. After getting used to the countryside we took off to Stockholm to walk around the city, do some shopping and meet up with Tomoya’s friend Gianfranco. We also visited Skansen and Vasa and Skansen with its neat houses and funny-looking animals was much better than expected. We stayed at my sisters place until next morning and woke up a little now and then during the night by Sparris messing around in the livingroom. More nice than annoying. When the Germans came we had a big party at Toves place. I introduced all my old friends to my new ones and everybody seemed to enjoy their time. With the Germans I also went hiking in Tividen. The weather was good, luckily, and the Swedish nature impressed on our southern neighbours. The Germans were supposed to go home at Friday, which all of them did, except for Matthias who had accidentally booked his flight to Saturday. He was somewhat disappointed and confused when he realised it Friday afternoon. Well, another day in Sweden wasn’t too bad and he could enjoy some fish cakes at my cousins’ instead. No they are all gone, the visitors. I’m soon going back to being a visitor myself , since I’m returning to Japan at Wednesday. I don’t feel particularly nervous, happy or sad. I’m just happy to see Tomoya. And yes, the main purpose for my trip there again is to be with that Japanese guy, for whom I seem to be willing to travel the world. Well, I must admit that I’m also looking forward to doing this internship. I think though, that my Japanese might be a little too insufficient and that my total inexperience of this type of work will make me seem and feel like a total retard. But then again, they should have thought about that before I got hired. I think it will be OK. And I will always have Sweden to return to, whenever I want. Today Sweden was beautiful. Autumn has come and the trees are golden and reddish. When I was out biking along the canal today the air was crisp and the sky free from clouds. The best time in Sweden is early autumn, at those days when it’s sunny and a little chilly. Today was one of those days, and the late afternoon today was magnificent. I don’t know why, but the Swedish autumn light is special. It might be because of the clear air, or the golden reflecting fields, but today, the little road along the canal was more beautiful than ever and seemed to be cast in gold. The air smelled of apples, horse and smoke. When I came home the garden smelled of roasted coffee beans from the kitchen and the sun was about to set. I will miss Sweden a little, but at least I know that there’s something nice to return to.