There goes Christmas

I haven't been blogging in a while, I admit. But my activities the last weeks haven't been that thrilling at all actually. I've been celebrating Christmas, that's the main event I suppose. This year there was no snow, depressing. But still, quite nice anyway. My two sisters, Stina and Sofia came home and it's been a jolly week indeed of gluttony. Because yes, that's what we've been doing; eating and drinking alot. Herring (our version of sushi, raw herring in weird sauce), meat balls, ham, turkey, whiskey, hot chocolate with rum, julmust, port wine, fruit cake, red wine, white wine, Jansson's (potato gratin with fish in it), chocolate, toffee, some more chocolate, sausage, porridge and all those other things that make you gain like 623 kilos in one week. At lunch at Christmas eve we eat the traditional "Christmas table" which really contains only meat and potatoes. When the evening comes though, it's time for the rice porridge, eaten with milk and sirup. To compensate (which we failed at) for all this food we have been taking nice walks around the neighbourhood. It's been cold but refreshing. After a cold promenade, we usually feel that we are worthy a cup of nice coffee, and some more sweets. Yay... Well, otherwise it's fine here in Sweden. We have a very nice Christmas tree, two little kittens and also my sister Stina's cat Pellerin was here. He is a very large (fat, actually) cute cat who's quite friendly. He didn't like the kittens though, and they didn't like him either. They are growing bigger and bigger, and they are getting messier and messier. Soon they will tear down the house. My older brother didn't come home this year, since he and his wife are home with their child. I try to study some Japanese now while I'm having a lot of free time. But it's slow, and the stuff I have to learn for the work I am going to do this spring is mainly vocabulary that concern computer things. And I know nothing about that. I don't even know what the Swedish words mean. Shit. Well, my employer has read my CV and he didn't complain, so hopefully they're not assuming that I know too much about the subject already. I'm intending to go to Japan in the end of January, which feels like an eternity. I miss Tomoya bigtime and one month more will be hard...Now I'm going to watch some Monty Python with my sister.

Back in snowy Sweden

I came home to Sweden yesterday, and damn, it was cold. On the way from the airport to my house it started snowing and when I got up this morning everything was white.I have, as usual, a lot of culture shocks. The first one struck me in Paris when I changed flights. On guy in the passport control was about as eccentric as the "computer says no"-dude in Little Britain. He took my passport, opened a random page, whitout looking at it, and gave it back to me without a word. Nice. Many people at the airport were rude (or rather, not extremely polite) and I started missing Japan immediately. The positive thing about that though, is that when people are very kind and polite here, they actually mean it. The cabin attendant at the flight from Japan (she was French) spent like 5 minutes explaining about Charles de Gaulle and how to find the terminal for my connecting flight, even though I didn't really ask. She didn't look bothered at all, but actually said something like "Come over her, lets look at the map!" with a happy voice. I like her. I mean, whenever Japanese people are polite it's just a part of their culture or profession, and they might hate you more than everything, but will treat you as a god anyway. Who knows, maybe my Japanese boyfriend is dating me just because it would be rude to break up. Over to Sweden. It's cold outside and the air is extremely fresh and nice. The smell of winter and snow is one that I had long forgotten and I couldn't contain my mirth when I stepped out of the car into our garden to fill my lungs with cold winter air. The air inside the house is also special. Since I didn't spend christmas at home last year, I had totally forgotten about the smell from hyacinths and also the wonderful shine from the advent stars and candle sticks in the windows. Today I have been taking a little walk in the snow and realised that it's impossible to get any farther away from Tokyo than this. When I got back in I started making christmas cookies and listen to Swedish radio, elements I have been missing. But then what? I have been busy all day doing swedish christmasy things, but after this there's not much more to do. My sister is coming home this weekend, which is something to look forward to. Until then I just have to play with the kittens, the two new family members. They are 4 weeks old and the cutest little things in the world. Still, they are a little too afraid to run around and be crazy in the house, and are basically eating, sleeping or wrestling with their mother, Putti Putti. But I think that in one week or so, they will be all around the house, climbing everything and everyone around them. One thing I know for sure is that this year, we will have to put the ornaments in the christmas tree a little bit higher up than usual.

Last day in Japan

So, tomorrow I will fly to Sweden. I haven't really realised that yet, maybe because I still haven't really realised that I went back to Japan after the summer. So, I'm not nervous at all. I'm starting to get used to all this flying around and I'm not too scared about losing hand luggage, missing my connecting flight or all those other things. Besides, it seems like I will come back to Japan in the end of January, and since I sort of miss my family and am looking forward to spending christmas at home I'm not too depressed. It's a little sad though that Tomoya has been spending a lot of time the last week to plan the company's bounenkai (year end party (or, translated word by word: Forgetting the year - party)). The first year employees have to do some sort of performance on the party, and Tomoya is supposed to do magic or something. He seems to be looking forward to it, so that's fine, but after (and today before) work they have meetings for planning the event. Today he left the apartment at 6.30 and wont be home before 11 in the night. The event is tomorrow night, so of course they are doing the last planning. But, for me it's a little sad since I'm going home tomorrow and wont see him for at least one and a half months, maybe more. Today I went to Shinjuku to buy the last souvenirs. One part of Shinjuku is covered in illuminations. I like these penguins, and unfortunately that's all I have to show this time...
Well, I suppose I'd better go packing. I can't really get myself to do it (I can't get my ass out of the wagon, as we say in Sweden).

Interview and Gingerbreads

It's been an eventful weekend. Besides Tomoya's interesting golfing trip, we have been baking loads of gingerbread and lussekatter. First, Tomoya's golf trip. Well, since he was golfing for the first time in his life, he didn't expect it to go too well, when he was called by his company to join his co-workers for golf this Saturday. But besides from participating, the company wanted something more, which was not announced in the invitation. He was actually tricked into arranging the entire competition next year, just because his score wasn't too good. Of the 40 company members who came to play, only 5 of them were first year people. And none of them knew that when they came to the obligatory golf competition, depending on the score you would get, you might be forced to arrange next year's event. Tomoya is more tired than ever of that stupid company. Well, with some luck he's not there next year.
Over to nicer things. This weekend we had a baking event at the Taniai mansion. We made gingerbread, lussekatter and drank glögg (hot red wine with christmasy spices). But besides from doing a lot of Swedish things, I got some nice Japanese experiences as well. For example, picking mandarins and persimmons in aunt Taniai's garden. I think it's hard to realise for the Japanese, but really, it's extremely exotic to go out and pick your own mandarins for a Swede. Yum yum. All of the Taniais were extremely impressed and delighted with the cookies. I was praised a lot by the 95 year old grandmother who is so happy every time I come to visit them. She often asks me;
- "Is Spain cold?"
- "I don't really know, because I am from Sweden, but yes, now it's even snowing in Sweden".
- "Ah, not Spain, Sweden you say." "Do they have mandarins in Spain?"
- "Yes they have, but in Sweden, where I come from, we can not grow them, only buy them."
Well, I really can't blame her. "Spain" is much easier to say than "Sweden" and besides, I'm used to being taken for a Swiss girl all the time anyway. It's quite cute.Today I had a interview at a small IT venture company. I was expecting something like a small cosy office with sofas and nerds in clothes that were fashionable 10 years ago, since I knew that there only work about 10 people. But when I entered the office I was placed in a hot, sterile conference room without windows. I was to wait, and soon two Japanese salary men entered the room and the interview started. It went much better than I had expected, and they seem really interested and considered my Japanese "paafekuto". I hope that I'm not expecting too much, but maybe I can stay another half a year in Japan, working and learning more. Suddenly, the future came to look a little brighter...

At the subway in Tokyo: Please do your drunken behaviour at home!