Tokyo - Day 0 and 1 (17-18 july 2013)

We started our trip 6 am in Katrineholm. We took the train to Arlanda, checked in our bags and started waiting. Around 12.20 the boarding began and M was really excited, he have not travel much. We changed plane in Helsinki, Finland. Of course I realized on the airport that I somewhere along the way lost my wallet. I had to phone back to Sweden and my mom and ask her to help me. I could transfer my money to M's account, so I still could use my money in Japan, while she helped me contact the bank and such.

After this, our first crisis, we finally could take the flight to Tokyo. We spent about 10 hours on the plane and beside the dinner we got after take-off and the breakfast before landing I spent my time trying to sleep beside M. It was never hard to fall asleep, I was so tired, but M couldn't sleep and woke me up all the time when he started to move.

When we finally arrived at Narita Airport I had gotten some sleep and could concentrate again. M was going strong on pure energy. We was a bit late to find our luggage (after toilet breaks right after landing) but a nice guard helped us find them where someone put them after picking them of the luggage conveyor belt. Something I have never seen in Sweden, here they just leave your luggage on the conveyor belt until you pick it up.

 After that we went trough security and out in the main area of Narita airport. we took the stairs down and bought a Suica & Nex-pass, a combination pack with a Suica card (for the subway trains) and a Narita Express ticket (Nex). The next place we had to find was the Narita Express train, but this wasen't hard, the Airport had a lot of good signs and personal that really helped us along the way. On of the strongest memories from this part of the trip was the older man waiting at the ticket gate for the Nex platform. He was really nice and welcomed us to Japan in broken English and then he showed us how to use the ticket in the machine.

The train was also nice, clean and comfy, even if we didn't really understand how the security lock for the bags worked ^_^''' When the train started to move I found it hard to stay awake once again. But at the same time I didn't wast my time on sleeping when I got the first glimpses of Japan trough the window. I couldn't really believe that I really was here!

After an hour or so we arrived at Tokyo central and here we had to switch to subway. I am not going to bore you so I will only say that yes, the japanese subway system is really confusing at first but we were in luck and had found instructions on the hostels homepage beforehand and didn't meet so much trouble besides the change from the JR train to the ordinary subway. We also walked a bit around the neighbourhood before finding the hostel but after we found it we realized that it was so easy and close to the subway.

We got the key to our room an could leave our luggage there and then we went out again to explore our neighbourhood. We lived really close to the Asakusa shrine and we spent the rest of the day there. The shopping street right beside the shrine was a wonder and we couldn't really comprehend all the things that we was seeing. Yukatas and food and trees and temples and... All the things was so wonderful!

When it started to get late and we were to exhausted we went back to the hostel and bought bentos in 7eleven to eat before falling in bed.Oh, I forgot! I found one of my new favorites to drink: fanta melon!

two days left!

Today I woke up early and the first thought in my head was: It's only 2 days left! In two days we really starts our trip to Japan. We will be leaving 6 am on Wednesday to travel to Arlanda (the airport). Take-off is then planned 12.55. Then we will spend the following 13 hours flying and changing flights before landing in Narita. It will then be 8.55 in the morning japanese time (1.55 am in Sweden) and I hope that we at that point had the time to sleep on the plane ^_^''' 

I also hope that my finacé still will be as happy as he can be. He sometimes have trouble to be still, and doing nothing for such a long time on the plane can make him really cranky (yes, like a baby!). I think we both have to try to sleep a lot on the plane, so that the times flies so to speak.

Today we are going to wash the last clothes we want to pack and tomorrow the luggage will be filled and ready. We also needs to clean and stuff here at home, like emptying the fridge and so on and hopefully I don't have to do it all on my own. Maybe I will also have time to meet upp with some of my friends and say goodbye to them. 

I think I am going to miss Quinn the most when we are away. That cat is like my baby and splendid two weeks on the other side of the earth is going to make me miss her. She will be staying with M's mother and Quinzel's cat-brother. She is going to have a great time, getting fat on all the nice food and have somebody to play with all the time.  Hopefully her brother wont teach her stupid things so that she will miss-behave when she comes back home to us ^_^

Japanese sweets I would like to try

a couple of days ago I made a blog post about some of the Japanese food I want to try during my trip in the summer. Now it is time for the sweets and snack-version of the list. Here goes:

Daifuku - I feel you have to try traditional japanese sweets in Japan

Dango

Kakigori, shaved ice. This looks wonderful, especially in the summertime

Taiyaki

Melonpan

Koala's March. I have tried the strawberry ones but chocolate is interesting

Umaibō

Pocky!
I have tried a lot of different kinds of Pocky in my life but I will try a
lot more! Like the panda and some dessert pocky I haven't had earlier...

Hi-chew
I have heard that these are popular. And I really like all the different flavors!

Yan yan

Green tea ice cream

Japanese crepes.
Crepes isn't Japanese but I have heard that they are wonderful! 

Bubble tea.
I have had bubble tea before as well so my main focus is getting my BF to try it ^__^ 

Japanese kit kat.
In Sweden there is just one flavor so I have been longing to try some of the stranger ones in  Japan. 

Now I have most certainly missed some really awesome things and I am sure that I will try even more while I am there. Hopefully I can take a lot of pictures during my trip and then post them here afterwords. Maybe I can write a little about my reaction trying them as well.

As you can see a lot of my money this summer is going to get spent on stuff in Tokyo, mostly on things you can eat and drink. Oh, yes! i haven't told you about stuff to drink (except the bubble tea) and the main reason is that I am not really sure what to try. Any suggestions  I know that they have different kinds of flavor on Fanta and stuff so I am going to try that. I also want to try some Japanese drinks... We have to see what I find! ʕ´•ᴥ•`ʔ

A Weekend in Stockholm

I spend this past weekend with J-chan in Stockholm and had a great ti me! I arrived at Friday around 6PM and started with spending a lot of money to buy the access-card for the metro and buses and then we went to J-chans apartment. Or room really, she is living in a kind of dorm, where she shares the kitchen with other people. We left my bag at her place and went back. We got some taco to eat and then it was time for movie night. We saw Breaking Dawn 2, I will write about the movie in a separate post. After the movie we took the train back and spend a lot of time just talking in her room before we finally fell asleep.

The Saturday was spend shopping. Found myself some clothes and also got a hold of some Christmas gifts for my fiancé. Wanted a lot of things in SF bookstore but only bought a manga there, I was happy to be able to say no to myself. But unfortunately it was the only time this weekend, I spend a lot of money >__< but all the things I bought I can use so nothing unnecessary... I tries to tell myself at least. We finish the day with some thaifood befor going back to watch some tv and then sleep.

The sunday we got back downtown a bit to early so we walked aroud for almost two hours. Happily they had a fleemarket on hötorget and we spend some time to look at all the things. we also bought some hot chokolate. When everything was open we went to panduro and I wanted to buy everything! Spent my last money there. afterwards we went to SF once again befor goning back home to fetch my bag and got ready for going back home to Katrineholm.

It was nice when I finally got home to be welcomed by Quinn and my fiancé and hot food <3 It was a really nice weekend!

My trip to Falun

Yes, these past few days I have been busy with traveling to Falun. I started out this Wednesday at about 07.00 by train. Met up with some of my classmates and ate some lunch before the seriousness began. We started up with the dreadful (don't know the correct word in English) oppositions (opponeringar), a way for us to give our classmates feedback on there reports and take feedback from the others. The whole thing is also graded by the teacher. It went better than I thought but it took a lot of energy (we sat there from almost 4,5 hours and didn't have so much time for breaks).

After that I met up with the girls I was going to share a cottage with and we went shopping for some food. Made an easy dinner and just went straight to bed afterward. So tired >___< I also slept really bad because the cottage was so cold and it didn't matter how much we tried to turn up the heat.

Day two started up with an introduction for the next part of the examination. Here it became worse! we have had time to work with a group assignment about the school system in another contry, our group choose Finland, but in the introduction one of the teacher wanted us to make the presentation an figuration beyond the usual presentation. She explained this with a dramatization. I think a lot of us became unsure how we could deliver both the information we gathered and the figuration at the same time. Luckily we got two hours to come up with something.

Our group did a little bit of change in the Power Point that we prepared and made a little play around it, a way to present the facts to each other in a dialog with each other rather than just reading it from the screen. After lunch it was finally time to make the presentations. Some of the groups was really really good and made a lot of different things. Some did almost like our idea, an little play, some other just used some props to symbolize what they were talking about. One group had also made a song that presented who was going to speak and what they were going to say and played it for us (one of them had a guitar) in between the sections of information.

Somehow we all succeeded really well, I myself wasn't even nervous, and the feeling in the room was really great even when it was an important part of our examination. I think it from here on became a much happier experience because we all started to feel a different connection to each other and really started to talk without much problems at all.

after the presentations finish around 16.00, we had to move to another location where we would watch a movie. We watched Les Choristes (the Chorus) and it was also a new experience for me. The film was lovely and I could relate to it and maybe the best part of the whole trip.

Afterwards we went back to our cottage. Some of our classmates really wanted us to go out and party because this was officially the end of the course, but we all was so tired that it was enough to sit in the cottage, eat the leftovers from the day before and just talk with each other. And this is the second best part of the trip (or maybe the first) because I really think we got closer living together these few days and it something i treasure.

unfortunately I could not go to sleep this night so i probably only slept for five hours before it was time to wake up and start cleaning the cottage. In school it was time for an evaluation of the course and the beginning of the new one. I was so tired and nothing felt really relevant to me at the moment. I just waited for the time it would end and I could take the train home again.

I am finally home and the cat is also in place and now I thing it is time for bed. Nighty night!

Hemma igen

Igår var det alltså åter dags att resa, och liksom många andra av mina dagar var denna dag innehållsrik. Det började med att man vaknade i panik och kommit ihåg att man glömt att ställa klocka. Det visade sig inte vara några problem då jag vaknade en timme innan den avsadda tiden. Morgonen spenderades med att äta och göra sig klar inför resan. Främst att lyckas packa väskan så bra som möjligt. Jag fick i alla fall en full IKEA-kasse över med saker jag inte hade plats med, så den står fortfarande säker hemma hos mina föräldrar inför nästa resa eller besök.

Jag hade megatur att J-chan kunna skjutsa mig till tåget eftersom att det innebar att jag och mamma inte behövde lösa något med bil och bilnycklar som antagligen skulle krångla på ett eller annat sätt :/ Hon var helt i tid vilket gjorde mig väldigt glad då jag har en tendens att stress så fort jag ska förlita mig på någon annan. Sorry J-chan men det gäller inte bara dig! <3

I vilket fall bar det snart iväg med tåg eftersom både vi och det var i tid ^__^ väl på tåget möttes jag dock av kaos. Väskor stod i alla gångar och på alla hyllor och framför alla lediga stolar. Tydligen hade en man dessutom tagit min plats och sa att jag inte skulle få sitta där då allt krånglade för alla. Det visade sig att han ljög något och det var bara hans platsbiljett som hade krånglat då det blivit någon form av dubbelbokning. Efter ett litet samtal med "konduktörskan" så fick jag min sittplats med tillhörande eluttag så jag kunna ta fram datorn och plugga lite.

Tyvärr hamnade jag nog bredvid den pratigaste mannen på hela tåget, vi satt och pratade om lite allt möjligt ända ner till Uppsala där han skulle kliva av. Bland annat fick jag höra lite historier från det att han var militär. Han berättade också att hans dotter jobbade som lärare och vi samtalade lite om vilka problemelever det finns nu för tiden.Blev alltså inte så mycket plugg som jag hoppats på >____<

Det gick i alla fall i övrigt bra, inga förseningar för tåget i Stockholm, inga elaka människor och inget krångel med packningen. Däremot såg jag ett par sj-tjänstemän (eller vad man nu ska kalla dem) som stog på centralen och bara verkade fungera som hjälp för de som inte hittar, inte kan läsa svenska skyltar m.m. Det är nog ett jobb jag skulle gilla att ha. Att bara stå där hela dagarna och känna mig lite viktig och snäll genom att stå till tjänst för alla dessa olika människor. Jag skulle lätt fixa det, ett litet leende här, en liten beskrivning där och så kanske något litet "lycka till" så har jag tjänat ihop mina egna pengar samtidigt som jag underlättat dagen för någon annan. Verkar ju toppen ^__^

I vilket fall, resan från Centralen var händelselös och smidig. Satt bredvid en annan tjej i min ålder som verkade väldigt ointresserad av att prata, så då gjorde jag inte det. Höll på att somna precis när jag skulle av men av kom jag xD Sen fick jag ont i armen av att dra väskan från stationen, det var så skönt att komma hem.

Det blev en sväng in i duschen och ett försök till att packa upp och sen ringde telefonen. Det var en telemarketing-kille som praktiskt taget satt och ljög för mig. innan jag visste ordet av spelade jag in ett avtalsmanus. Jag har ju lite förkunskaper om sådan så insåg ganska snabbt mitt misstag men då var det försent. Det blev helt enkelt till att ringa Tele2 och begära att de skrev tydlig kommentar i systemet att jag ej vela genomföra någon förändring. Förhoppningsvis så fungerar det men jag vet ju hur det fungerar på de där ställena. Telefonköerna kostade mig också sammanlagt ca 40 kr, känns lite jobbigt bara det...

Men efter det kom äntligen M över till mig och gjorde dagen lite bättre. Så efter att jag klängt runt hans hals i massa minuter kokade jag soppa och sen kollade vi på Angel resten av kvällen. Var skönt att bara sitta bredvid honom även om det var tydligt att han var väldigt trött efter en dag på jobbet. Vi gick och lade oss tidigt och jag sov som en stock min vana trogen. Jag har saknat att sova bredvid honom mest av allt!

Resan fortsätter

Visst hade jag rätt! 30 minuters försening i Stockholm och jag var lagom bitter och åksjuk tills för ca tio minuter sedan. Då ringde M bara ändå för att höra hur det var med mig, detta trots att vi umgicks igår och att han precis slutat jobbet. Jag blir så glad av sådana enkla handlingar, det visar att jag för 5,5 år sedan valde rätt kille. Det känns så underbart att det idag fortfarande (trots alla problem och motgångar vi haft) känns så rätt <3 så jag lutar mig tillbaka i sätet, sväljer det växande illamåendet och planerar att le löjligt för mig själv de sista 20 minutrarna av resan ^___^

Iskall resa

Nu har jag inlett resan hem till söderhamn, dagen började inte särskilt bra. Trött och ont i ryggen efter att sovit hela natten på soffan (något som inte var planerat). Stress med att läsa seminarietexterna och sen hålla seminariet. Det gick inte jättebra, kände mig massa nervös igen när jag skulle prata. Sen hinna ge Itzumi min bok (som hon är snäll och lånar om) innan det var dags att ta med sig jätteväskan och bege sig mot tågstationen. Svinkallt är det ute och självfallet så glömde jag halsduken samt tog fel vantar i ren panik. Nu står jag på stationen medan isvindar smeker mina händer och ben. Jag förutser tågproblem T___T