Dinner with work

Today Tomoya took one of those TOEFL tests again. He has been coming home after 11 every night this week (as usual) and today he had to go up at 6 to go to the test place. So now he's sleeping, although it's 7 o'clock in the night. I hate wasting weekends. Really. Well well, not much I can do about that I suppose. This thursday I had dinner with work. We went to a really nice fish restaurant in Tsukiji. Tsukiji is known for its fish market that tourists usually go to at 5 o'clock in the morning to watch the fascinating commerce and hundreds of people selling fish. The restaurant was in the middle of this market, although there was no business at that time of the day of course. Anyhow, the location of the restaurant results in that all the fish is extremely fresh and hasn't been refrigerated or transported anywhere. We had a lot of wonderful dishes and I ate too much. My boss later asked me if I ate too much, and when I said yes he also answered if I'm gaining weight, or if I'm getting fat (hard to translate into English from Japanese). The conversation died right there and luckily we soon went home. I'm very sick and tired of this dieting culture. Every time I say that I'm a vegetarian people ask me if it's because I want to loose weight. I know that I'm not as small as those little Japanese girls, but do everybody have to point it out? Today I went shopping with Michiko. We found a nice import shop and I bought chocolate. Am I gaining weight? Yes. But I don't care. I think I'd better comfort eat that chocolate now in lack of other entertainment, and hope for a nice weekend next week. And nicer weather as well. Yesterday it was snowing, brr.... The poor plum flowers are not too happy.

New Students

Another working week has come to its end. Work is nice, somewhat stimulating and relaxed. I have plenty of time do some extra work in the evenings as well. Yesterday I had a new student, one who wanted to study Swedish. He was an exchange student at Lund University some 10 years ago and he can speak Norwegian, Swedish, Danish, German, French and English. Oh, I forgot to mention, old Icelandic as well. He's a linguist with focus on European languages, but is now working in a security company. That's what Japan is like, whatever you study at University, you won't use in your work. Anyhow, he was funny and explained the origins of many Swedish words and such. I however, taught him colloquial Swedish, such as the very useful expression "Hugget som stucket" and what the difference is between "Jag tänker åka tillbaka till Sverige" and "Jag funderar på att åka tillbaka till Sverige". We were using a mix of Japanese, English and Swedish (his Swedish was suprisingly good, considering the fact that he hasn't been in Sweden, or been exposed to Swedish for over 10 years) and it was nice and fun. Sadly he can't have lessons more than 2 or 3 times a month though. I only have him and one more student so far. I get some offers from time to time, but since Tomoya forbids me to have any kinds of students who seem suspicious, it's hard to find good ones. For example, lawyers, dentists or doctors are totally unacceptable. Why? Well, because they have (more than) enough money to pay for a proper language school in case they really want to learn English. I can kind of see his point. Other weird guys, like one who wanted my phone number, are also out of the question. If they ask for my phone number, I just send an email back informing that I have the policy to not give my phone number to students (this because my Swiss friend Andrea got called once every 10th minute when she accidentally gave her number to a couple of students). When I did that this week, I got an answer saying that the student wanted to cancel the lesson, and was very busy this weekend although he had stated earlier that he could meet up any time on Saturday or Sunday. Well, I'm not complaining, the sooner you get rid of the weirdoes the better. Other than my student hunting and work, not much has been going on this week. Stina and Ida have booked their tickets for coming here in April, which we are looking forward to very much though. It will coincide with the cherry blossom blooming and we will have to throw a cherry blossom party, that's for sure. Until then, we will just have to be happy with the plum flowers, who I personally think are almost as beautiful.

Spring

I think that spring has come to Tokyo. It started with me cutting my hair short yesterday, and continued with a warm day with about 20 degrees and sun. Yes, now my hair is short. Finally. It's something that I've been wanting to o for a while, and when even my hair dresser thought that it would be a good idea, I just went for it. He suggested something French looking, and that can't be bad, so I agreed.
Furthermore, the plum blossoms have started to bloom a little here and there, and there are two cute bushes by the
river just beside our apartment.Yesterday I went with some friends to the Hub, and English pub, in Shibuya. There I saw a foreign guy who I of some reason recognized. It took some time to realise where I knew him from, but then I remembered. I had offered him and his friends the chairs next to me at Starbucks once in December, when it was really crowded and they couldn't find a seat. I asked him if he remembered me, and sure he did. His friends (including the one from Starbucks) were there as well and we sat down and talked for an hour or so. Really nice and an interesting coincidence. He is from Croatia btw. and his friend from Cyprus. I didn't think that I would see them ever again in a city of 27 million people. I bought more flowers today again. I suppose it's because of the spring feeling. It could also be due to the fact that it's Valentine's day. All the Japanese are crazy and decorating too much as usual, giving tons of chocolate to eachother (including their bosses) and go to romantic dates. Tomoya and I don't have too much money at the moment though, so we are just going out with a bunch of friends.

National holiday

Yesterday was a national holiday so Tomoya and I went to check out an exhibition called Light in Sight. It was actually really nice and one could watch and try out a lot of optical and audible machines and stuff. For example, one could take a picture of the left eye and see what it looks like inside. They uploaded the pictures on a website, and here is mine. Quite nice, I have to say. Afterwards we walked around in the city and took it easy. Today at work everything was as usual. I'm slowly getting used to the office and my co-workers. Today I had lunch with Oota, the young guy at the office. He is always wearing jeans and his hair looks like a bird's nest, so I always end up accidentally talking to him in casual Japanese. Of some reason, my brain is used to talking in polite Japanese to older people or people in a suit, not someone who looks like a guy out partying on a Friday night. Confusing. I don't think he bothers though. I'm happy that I'm not working at the office that's opposite our little group of desks. They sound and look extremely boring. To begin with, there's a guy who's over comb always falls back, giving him long, thin hair on his left side only. But that's not the point. In that little group, a Chinese man is working (it's impossible to be mistaken when it comes to Japanese with Chinese dialect) and his boss always points out his mistakes and sounds very rude. I don't think he is mean actually, but he just sounds patronizing in a way that I would never put up with. I admire the Chinese guy, and I'm happy to have such kind co-workers. Otherwise everything is fine. Especially since I thoroughly cleaned the apartment this Tuesday. I even bought flowers, Sweet peas.

The office

Today I took some pictures of the place where I work, Shinagawa Seaside. My office is on the second floor in a high house, that stands among a lot of skyscrapers. That area is called Shinagawa Seaside Forest, although it consists of dozens of skyscrapers and around 5 trees.

Forest?


I work here...


A couple of salary men out at lunch for some air

Oh, and today's funny thing. My dear friend Haruka has got a new boyfriend. His name is Haruki! And this is just some weeks after I found out that Jonathan's new girlfriend's name is Tomoyo. I'm confused. Well, I suppose it's not much more weird than Johan and Joanna. Or Maria and Kim.

Back in Japan, again!

I returned to Japan last Friday and started working today. The office where I'm working is located in a big building made from glass and steel, and the inside is as cold and sterile as the outside. Men in costumes are walking around everywhere , and the office landscapes are stretching over what feels like kilometres. It's typical Japanese, and exactly what I'm here for. My co-workers are nice and I have flexible working hours, so I wont complain. Until now I've had time to do some of the usual stuff I do when I'm here. I've been to the cosy cafe in Koenji to have the towns best cappuccino (and maybe the cutest as well?), been to an izakaya with everyone I know and gone singing karaoke. This time, I didn't have such a big culture shock though. It feels like I haven't been home in Sweden at all actually and I'm adjusting to the Japanese climate, people and habits faster than ever. Everything is as it was when I left it. Tomoya is still working later than 10 every night and people still stare at me on the train. Well, I must admit that if feels quite nice to be back, but that I also miss my family at home. Hopefully my cousin and sister will come and visit in April though, that I'm looking forward to alot.