My moms cousin suggested that I should visit Nikko while I was in Tokyo. I asked Chika and Dave to join me on the two hour train ride north east. We had a great time, mostly laughing, eating and enjoying the amazing surroundings of Nikko. The camera seemed to love these adorable two and I ended up with 200 pictures. Mainly of them!

Tomorrow I’ll be leaving for Narita and spend the last night there. I’ll be heading home on Thursday morning. My time in Tokyo and Okinawa has been memorable and filled with fun and joy. Thanks to all of you who contributed to that.

Roppongi is known as Tokyos entertainment area with many foreigners. The amount of embassies and foreign corporate businesses in the area are said to be a contribution to this. Whether you like it or not Roppongi has it’s sides. Like the Mori tower with Tokyo City View and brand new just finished Sky deck, a helicopter platform in the roof from which you can stand outside to enjoy a complete 360 degr. view of the entire Tokyo area. On sunny days you can see Mount Fuji. We didn’t, but it was still a great view. A nice way to end an even nicer weekend with my favorite girls.

After an all nighter in Shibuya here’s what was left. What seems to be TONS of energy! At 6.30 am. How?!

Harajuku is a very special place. A part of Tokyo that lacks tall buildings but has plenty of narrow little shopping streets with everything from Gothic Lolita stores to teriyaki crepes. It also has a nice park with all kinds of…creatures. And I say creatures because I’m not only referring to human beings. But all kinds of beings. It was a nice lazy Sunday in Harajuku.

I’m a very lucky girl. Not only do I have great friends, they even come visit while I’M visiting Tokyo. Our Taipei representatives Charlotte and Tove flew in from Taiwan the other day and we’ve been busy busy busy. Outings, nightings, partying, karaoke, dining, shopping, and exploring has been on our schedule for this intense weekend. Tomorrow monologuers dear friends will fly back. Here’s a small pick of things we’ve been up to.

I slept until noon. Went shopping in Shibuya during the day. Came back to Asakusa, took a shower and went to Shibuya again to meet my friend Jonas, previously seen on the blog on various nights out in Göteborg. He moved to Tokyo and yesterday we met for dinner and play. The subways don’t really have night trains so you either have to catch the last train or the first morning train. It became the latter for us.

So last night we did a karaoke session from 3 am to 5 am. Before that at a bar enjoying a (five) cuba libre with some live painting. And before that an izakaya dinner with salty beans and ice cold draft beer.

In an hour my two dear friends Charlotte and Tove are coming to spend the weekend. I flew them in from Taipei. There will be outings, more karaoke (these girls are PROS), nice food, drinks, sights and tons of photos. Be sure not to miss out. Keep an eye on monologuer.

A five star first day. All thanks to my moms cousin that took me out for sights. After a tall americano at Starbucks we headed for Asakusa temple which was completely crowded. Regretfully I missed the cherry blossoms this year, but I found some late bloomers here and there along the way.

After Asakusa we took a boat ride to Odaiba, the artificial island created for sole business and pleasure. Sun was out, 21 C and a light breeze. We stopped for cake with a skyline view at Odaiba before heading back downtown to the royal palace park.

I was told that all the greens (see below) were completely white and pink a couple weeks ago (yeah, just rub it in already) from cherry flowers. But I caught a few late bloomers (different kind of cherry tree) here as well. And there are worse places to be a homeless cat than the palace park.

Ended the day on the 36th floor in Marunouchi having the best sashimi ever. I really appreciate the Japanese attitude towards food. Small but many and various dishes to slowly make you full. Especially if it’s an 8 course dinner it’s kinda impossible to scoop food into your mouth. This place made dinner look like art. And taste like heaven.

You know that song by U2? They’re singing about Tokyo. If you ever were in doubt. Locating a hotel on a map with only chinese characters and feeling disoriented from the darkness of the metro doesn’t relly help. Sure, being on my own in Tokyo is exiting, no doubt. The feeling of being completely lost vanishes after a nap in my hotel room in Asakusa. The nameless streets of Tokyo waits for me. Time to explore!

Tomorrow morning I’ll head north for Tokyo. Getting out of Okinawa mode will be hard. I became quite used to stroll around in my havaianas, not really doing anything but enjoy the weather, company or food.

Yesterday night Hiroshi, the mariner, took me for kaitenzushi (sushi on conveyor belt). I hardly ever eat sushi when I visit Japan as there are so many other nice things to try that you can’t have elsewhere. But kaitenzushi is always fun.

Today a young engineering student showed me around campus and then took me to Tropical beach. You’ll hear more from Tokyo. Sayonara, Okinawa.

Left: Campus. Right: Tropical Beach

View from the campus cafeteria.

Cutest blow fish in town.

A sneak peak on life under the sea here in Okinawa. Our mariner Hiroshi and his two equally marine friends took us snorkeling and all of them, being marine biologists of course, can name all living things in the ocean. Hiroshi will even fetch things for you. Like a blow fish. Or a sea star. What a gentleman.

The snorkling crew of the day consist of three Japanese, a Swiss guy and me. All pro snorklers at the least, all of them scuba dive but they lowered themselves for me and mom today. Such nice people.


Clown fish a la Nemo.

We make such a nice couple I think, blow fish and I.
Todays pictures are courtesy of Hiroshi Inoue.

Our marine biologist chills.

Not as late and long as it sounds really. Visiting the american version of Okinawa was interesting though. Very stereotypical and selected of course. Our guide, 23-year old marine biologist Hiroshi and his friend Yuka, took us for some pizza and then a tour of Chatan, American Village in Okinawa. You probably already know that there are several American military bases on Okinawa since WW2. I didn’t know there was so much activity going on there still.

Left: Signs says Sunset Beach. Obviously! Right: Signs says that there are a lot of skateboarding American kids. And they DON’T respect the common property!

Weather report says 25C, clear and sunny. For me, 25 is the most ideal temperature of them all. You can still wear jeans, a tee, your comfy sneakers and you can do almost anything in 25 C. Swim, shop, most outings (not skiing, but who cares!) and lifes just comfortable.

Also, life in Okinawa is at much slower pace than the rest of Japan. Very laid-back, manana manana JP-style.

Todays outing went to Shuri castle. I brought my little handy vacation camera as you can see. ;)

After a good and smooth flight, except dometic ones, I’m in Okinawa. I’m crashing in moms little dorm room and there are more laptops here than people. Mom’s sooo high tech.
I had a very nice and simple japanese meal, a hot bath and to bed I go.

Pick and mix Japan style. Right: Allergy-unfriendly airport Okinawa.

Jag fann ingen bättre beskrivning på det osannolika möte jag hade ombord på flight NH209 från Tokyo till Frankfurt. En smockfyllt plan, med tyskar och japaner gav mig ETT ledigt säte att välja på vid incheckningen. 50B, precis samma säte som jag kunde välja på flygresan DIT. Oddsen? För de som inte har obskyrt märklig koll på sätesfördelningen på ett Boeing 747-400 innebär det en mittplats, vid fönstersidan av planet. Även känd som “den sämsta platsen av dem alla”. Mittplatsen av tre alltså.

Flygresan tar 12 timmar non-stop till Frankfurt. Eftersom jag flyger tillbaka i tiden bör jag lämpligen vara vaken så att jag är trött när jag kommer fram lagom till läggdags. Min granne, en tysk man 35 + på 50A, resonerade inte så och sov 11/12 timmar. Han var så trött att han somnade direkt efter maten och jag fick försiktigt plocka bort hans bricka efter varje servering. När en timme återstod sträckte han lojt på sig och yttrade de första orden mellan oss:
- Now it’s only one hour left! varpå jag svarade:
- Yeah, and you must be fresh from sleeping 11 hours out of 12!
- Yes, I slept so bad in Tokyo so…

Hitills ingen spännande läsning, jag vet. Men för att göra en därifrån intensiv timmes konversation kort visar sig killen inte bara vara:
1. DJ utan 2. Proffesionell DJ 3. Som haft en spelning i Tokyo 4. och vart musikinriktning är elektroniskt musik, närmare bestämt: 5. Techno, minimal och 6. ligger på en mycket känd label som även samarbetar med
7. Kompakt-labeln (Jürgen Paape, Superpitcher, Extrawelt etc.)
8. och spelar naturligtvis årligen på en av världens mest kända klubbar, Amnesia, Ibiza.

Dessutom är han väldigt trevlig och tycker jag ska träna hårt med mixandet så att jag hinner ikapp min pojkvän som ligger minst 2,5 veckor före. Han har givetvis helt rätt. Jag ska träna hårt, men även se till att provlyssna hans musik och provmixa den!

En sista hälsning från Tokyo, Hilton Narita (där man har mage att ta betalt för mig att blogga, men vad gör man inte?). Gårdagen var sista dagen i min nya favoritstad Taipei med världens bästa värdinnor Lotta och Tove. Min sista dag i Taipei roade jag mig med att
1. springa en kort runda i Daan-parken
2. äta thailunch med Lotta, Mathias och Knut
3. omfördela 6 kilos övervikt till tillåtna maxvikt och
4. avnjuta en god taiwanesisk middag följt av hemlig utflykt till bergen som omger staden. Utflykten gick med vinglig taxi på små vägar till ett litet område med massa tehus! Och därtill utsikt över “grytan” som Taipei ligger i, omgiven av berg. Det avnjöts färsk, handplockad oolongte, omsorgsfullt hanterad av Lotta!

Sedan blev det en bekväm flygtur tillbaka till Tokyo och nu sitter jag alltså här, något vemodig, inför hemresan imorgon förmiddag. Druckit min sista kopp grönt te och kastat in en KitKat i gommen.

Förutom söndagsbrunch har Carnegie roliga trappor. T.h. Söndagscosmos på LA Cafe.

Finns det människor som INTE använder vakumpåsar vid resa? Hur gjorde JAG innan det fanns vakumpåsar? T.h. Tehus, servitören visar hur teet ska dra!