Japanese magnolia and the first Cherry blossom of the year

Yesterday was a sunny and crisp day perfect for taking a promenade. Tomoya and I took a walk to Shinjuku along the Kanda river. The Cherry blossoms are to burst out any minute now, and today I actually captured the first one on film. But much more exciting than the Cherry blossoms is for me the Japanese magnolia (That's what they are called in Swedish. In Japanese they are called Kobushi and in English Magnolia Kobus). It's blooming now with gigantic white or slightly purple flowers that look like birds made of paper. And they smell like magnolia as well. Wonderful. These native Japanese trees are definitely more precious than the cherry blossoms in my eyes.

The first cherry blossoms

Japanese Magnolia along Kanda river:

Busy week

This week the boss from the Swedish part of the company is in Tokyo. That means loads of meetings with important people, expensive lunches with important people and of course going out drinking with important people. Of some reason I'm invited to all these events. Maybe I'm needed as a translator, but since most of the high rank people here can speak English, the purpose might rather be to show everyone that my Japanese boss has a private secretary (which I'm not). Anyhow, I'm not going to complain. It's both interesting and fun to meet the CEO's of different big companies, and the most entertaining part is being invited to eat luxurious dinners and see what that kind of social circuits are like as well as enjoying the food. Yesterday we were invited to a very famous and expensive Chinese restaurant and i ate weird dishes such as shark fen soup and shark fen sushi. Furthermore, the boss of the company we were invited by was very fond of wine. We drank several kinds, and all of them cost at least 8000-10000 yen a bottle (up to 90 euro with today's exchange rate). Yesterday's event was a quite formal dinner, and I tried my best to keep my back straight and not to say any too stupid things. The day before yesterday on the other hand, we went to a proper Japanese drinking party with different bosses, vice presidents etc. and mixed wine, sake and japanese beer as never before. I managed the situation quite well though (although my glass was refilled everytime I took a sip), and some of the middle aged men became quite loud and couldn't really walk. So if I accidentally said something weird that night, they would not remember it. And if they would, I could blame my poor Japanese. Actually, I have gotten a lot of positive comments on my Japanese this week, and i think that I'm surprising many of the salary men who only can speak Japanese but still manage to get high positions in various companies. Today, I went with my swedish boss to Asakusa, an area in Tokyo whith some nice temples. The pictures are from there (besides from the ones of food). After taking my boss to some sight seeing, I went to Shinjuku to have lessons with 3 new students. 3 new students means 3 cups of coffee and a lot of patience. In other words, I'm not at my best right now. Anyhow. The first student was a guy called Kenta. I know, that's probably the funniest Japanese name there is. At least for Swedish people, since it sounds like a hillbilly nickname for someone called Kent. So, i was expecting a 40 year old factory worker with worn out jeans, tobacco under the lip, a lumber jack shirt and a straw sticking out from one corner of the mouth. But, Kenta turned out to be a quite funny and kind university student, aged 22. He seems serious about his studies and seemed to enjoy the lesson as well as feeling that he can improve his English. Student number two was a probably around 40 years old and a proper guy who's working as a planner of different design and art exhibitions and events. He showed me photos of some project he had done in Newcastle, and his work seems very interesting. That makes the lessons easier, since we actually have something entertaining to talk about. Student number 3 looked like a Japanese version of Detective inspector Frost, from the British TV series A touch of Frost. He was about 65-70 years old, wearing a little hat, had a moustache that made him look like a catfish, a moss green tweed jacket and he was quite small but round. The only thing that made him different from the typical Frost guys was really the fact that he didn't have a kind face. He lacked the friendly face features of an old English man who enjoys his afternoon tea with scones and clotted cream. Well, who am I to judge, I thought and we went to a cafe to start the lesson. We talked a bit and his English was actually quite good. Back in the days he had been working in USA as a researcher and was actually aiming at getting the Nobel Prize once. But, has he put it, no one could understand the importance of his research so he never got it. The weird part was that after 30 minutes (my lessons are 1 hour long), he suddenly asked how much I take for my lessons. I charge 1000 yen for the trial (first) lesson, but instead he paid me 3000, which is the standard prize, stood up and paid the drinks. When I informed him that we had at least 30 minutes left he just said he had to leave and there was no time for me to finish my tea. When we walked back to the station he asked where I live. When I asked him, he just said northern Tokyo, which is quite vague. Then he kind of raised his hand as if he wanted to say good bye, and left without saying a word. It was all very peculiar and just 1 minute earlier we had been sitting in the cafe talking about the medicine Nobel prize. My other students are often very kind and say good bye properly and use the time they pay for. This guy was weird. But who knows, maybe he actually is a private detective and had a case he had to run to all of a sudden. That makes sense. It will be interesting to see if he is going to contact me for a second lesson. And what is he going to pay for it? Tomorrow I have more meetings to attend, and in the evening more fancy drinks and foods to consume, so now I'd better go to sleep and prepare mentally for another day with business men in expensive suits and translating of their advanced technical Japanese.

Cute cappucino

Expensive fruit pudding

Rain forest friendly chocolate! Finally the eco trend is reaching Japan!

Tasty and pretty rice cakes!

Day trip to Kawaguchiko

Yesterday Tomoya and i took the train for Kawaguchiko. It's a town a couple of hours away and it's known for having nice lakes and nice views over mount Fuji. We were planning on going to a museum in the town as well but misunderstood the bus system and simply enjoyed the change of environment, the mountains and the lakes. We had very nice lunch as well, houtou. It's a kind of soupish dish with udon (thick noodles) in it. It was very tasty and nice. Unfortunately, when we took the rope car up to the view point for Fuji, it was a bit cloudy so we couldn't see the mountain as well as we had hoped for. While walking in the town I found a very loud, soft and sociable cat that wanted to chat with me. It made me a little home sick. He looked sort of abandoned and I wanted to take him home but of obvious reasons Tomoya refused. With the trip yesterday I realised that there are quite a few nice little villages and places not too far away for Tokyo where one can go and explore. Actually, just by riding the train for 40 minutes or so from Tokyo's central parts, you get to the mountains. But then again, Japan is said to be covered in 80% of them.

Plum flowers and a little bird

I adore plum flowers. I like them better than the sakura (cherry blossoms) actually. Maybe because of the fact that in the sakura time, the parks are over crowded and every blooming tree is surrounded by 23596 millons of photographing Japanese and tourists. The plum flowers on the other hand, they are left alone to bloom and be a sign of the soon to arrive spring. Here are som pictures from today. A green little bird is eating nectar from the flowers.