Some Picture Updates

About one week ago in Lund, Sweden.



In Tokyo Shinjuku Gyoen National Garden. I love this garden.



Santa Claus has come to Harajuku by bike.



In Harajuku. Yes, it's a man.



Karaoke with Håkan and Jeanette.



Having dinner in Otsuka. From the right: Jeanette, Aiko, Håkan, Christian, and me.



At Shurijo Mae in Naha, Okinawa. World heritage.



At Shikinaen Royal Garden, Naha, Okinawa. World heritage.



Great swimmer, bad user of fins and snorkel. :-D



Snorkeling at Zamami island, Okinawa. Me on the left and Candela on the right.



Look at the water! Look at the color!



Sailing with Henry-san. He was so nice!



Sunset over Aka island, Okinawa.



Sleeping at a Ryokan in Aka, Okinawa.



At Okinawa Churaumi Aquarium. The world's second largest aquarium. One of very few aquariums that keep whale sharks in captivity.



The world's largest acrylic glass panel, measuring 8.2 metres by 22.5 metres with a thickness of 60 centimetres. They had three whale sharks!!!



A manta ray.



Nemo and his friends.



Mini nemos.



Beautiful pink little fishies...

Okinawa

Been to Okinawa a couple of days now. Temperature is around 20 degrees. Okinawa feels like Hawaii Lite. Some people look like Hawaiian people.

We went to two small islands located 1 hour from Naha by ferry. Number of inhabitants in each island is around 300-400 people. We went there for swimming and snorkeling. People thought we should rent wet suit since the water temperature is only around 23 degrees. We said no and they thought we were crazy.

Since it is low season we were the only ones on the beaches. Great. The first beach we went to was on Zamami. Great snorkeling they said. We found nothing. Maybe we went to the wrong side of the beach?

Anyway, we met Candela, an Argentinian girl, on the way to the beach and we joined her to another island - Aka. And guess what. At an information desk a man - Henry san - overheard us wanting to go to Aka. He offered us a free ride on his own sailing boat. He told us his story on our way to Aka. He dropped us at the island and he followed us around helping us looking for somewhere to stay for the night.

After we had gone to the beach snorkeling, we checked in at a traditional Japanese Ryokan - sleeping on a matress on the floor.

We bought some cup noodles and snacks and returned to Henry san's boat to have dinner. He was so nice. He added meat to our noodles and we spent the evening with him, talking about everything. He showed us the pika pika - plancton that lights up when stirring the water. He offered us to follow him to another island, but we chose to stay in Aka instead for some more snorkeling. People were so nice on the island - offering us rides to the beach etc.

The other morning Christian and I went to the beach again although it was raining hard but it stopped raining shortly after we went in the water. The water was so clear and there were so many different tropical fishes swimming around the corals. And the best thing is you don't even have to swim far out if you don't want to - only a few metres was enough.

We went back to Naha yesterday and celebrated Christmas with a yakiniku buffet. Yummy! Afterwards we went out with Candela to a reggae club. It was funny because we were the only ones dancing the whole night. There were a lot of American mariners and some Japanese as well, but the Americans were only drinking and acting rudely while the Japanese people were only dancing on the side of the dance floor to themselves.

Anyway, it is raining today and we are going to a world class aquarium two hours from Naha with Candela. We really hope the weather is better there because the rain is really pouring down.

Have a very merry Christmas and a very happy new year!

From Japan with love!

Shinjuku Gyoen National Garden

Ah! How nice. Got our first sushi a few hours ago. Now we're getting lazy in the middle of Shinjuku Gyoen National Garden. Temperature? 28 degrees Celsius... somewhere else in the world. We saw Mount Fuji earlier today. Magnifico!

Delays And Cancellations

Yesterday was all about delays and cancellations.

We had to catch another train. The first train came
eventually, but 18 minutes late.
Reason: snow!

And then our second train stopped at Malmö Svågertorp
and refused to continue to Kastrup.
Reason: Snow! There was something with the switches on the
Danish side and there were already five trains waiting in
front of us.

Everybody just rushed out of the train with their bags.
At the taxi platform it was total chaos when irritated and
angry people tried to catch the first available cab to Kastrup.

Luckily for us I had the number to Klimat Taxi on my phone
so I called them on our way to the taxi platform. And luckily
their only cab in Malmö this early morning was in the neigborhood
so we only had to wait a couple of minutes. And when the cab
came to the platform, everybody else was trying to catch it, but
it was ordered by me. :) We split the cab with to other passengers.

Our first flight got delayed one hour.
Reason: Snow! First they couldn't do the final flight checks and
then they had to de-ice the vehicle and after that, we missed our
original time slot and had to wait for an available one while we
had to let all the other planes go first.

But anyway, that is all forgotten now because I'm in Tokyo!

Konichiwa, Kombawa, Yamaha, Toyota.... :-D

Surprised Anybody?

5 o'clock in the morning. The train is late! Surprised?