Not Really Normal Yet

I've been home from my business trip for a week now,
but I'm still being f*cked up by jetlag. I wake up
several times at night and at 6 o'clock I'm totally
done with sleeping.

I have to study Mandarin! There is a strategy for that.
I think I can make it by spending 2 hours per day on it
until January 10 when the exam is held. That requires a lot
of discipline with all the people around me watching TV,
playing Wii and with the karaoke machines at home waiting
for me to push the ON button. :)

I have begun to stitch together all the panorama photos from
earlier vacations. Here are a few from Tokyo.

Vitamin Everyday

The Swedish version of Vitamin Water. It's called Vitamin Everyday.

Earthquake In Southern Sweden!

Half an hour ago the building I live in shaked
aggressively for a few seconds. Cool! It was an
earthquake. I wonder if I brought the phenomenon
with me back from Tokyo.

I got a text message from my brother in Helsingborg
immediately. He felt it too.

According to this it was:

Earthquake Details
Magnitude 4.2
Date-Time Tuesday, December 16, 2008 at 05:20:00 UTC
Tuesday, December 16, 2008 at 06:20:00 AM at epicenter
Time of Earthquake in other Time Zones

Location 55.583°N, 13.534°E
Depth 10 km (6.2 miles) set by location program
Region SWEDEN
Distances 35 km (20 miles) E of Malmo, Sweden
60 km (40 miles) E of COPENHAGEN, Denmark
190 km (115 miles) NNE of Rostock, Germany
500 km (310 miles) SW of STOCKHOLM, Sweden

Location Uncertainty horizontal +/- 7.9 km (4.9 miles);
depth fixed by location program
Parameters NST= 36, Nph= 36, Dmin=116.3 km, Rmss=1.47 sec, Gp= 58°,
M-type=regional moment magnitude (Mw), Version=T
Source USGS NEIC (WDCS-D)

Event ID us2008araj

Some Photos

Shinagawa station. It was like this every morning.




More Shinjuku Gyoen National Park.






Tokyo Metropolitan Government building, where you
can get a good view of Tokyo and Mount Fuji from 45th floor.




I met Jeanette one evening and we had dinner in Ebisu.
It was a very nice restaurant.




Shopping in Shinjuku.




Thanks Emma for the photo. Nice picture, nice colors and all. :)




Hanging out at Zest with colleagues the last day.




Karaoke with the team. Mathias singing with all his
heart and all his voice. They were really good in
singing actually.

Good-bye Shinagawa! Good-bye Tokyo!

I'm back home in Sweden again. :(

I didn't want to leave, but I guess
all good things eventually come to an
end. And we are left with what is considered
every day life.

I fell in love with Tokyo, the people,
their politeness, their mind of service and
quality in food and clothes.

The last few days have mostly been work,
restaurants, and some shopping in the evenings.

I've spent some time in Akihabara, more visits
to Shinjuku and Harajuku...

Last night we went out for dinner in Ebisu -
Mathias, Emma, Hares, Kawasaki-san, Seth, David,
and I. We went to a karaoke bar afterwards for
a 30 minutes session. It was very fun. We parted
after that and I hope I will be able to see my
new friends soon again.

Photos are coming soon...

The Last Few Days

The last few days have been quite intense.
I’ll try to keep it short.

4/12 – Evisu Jeans
We went to an Evisu Jeans shop in Ebisu and
Daniel bought some clothes there. We were shown
to their fifth floor and the personell kept the
shop opened just for Daniel and I because it
took Daniel 2 hours to try out his clothes and
it was way after their working hours.

It's important to have enough snacks in the room. ;)




5/12 – ”Earth Shake”
The office swayed a few times this day. It is
still unknown whether it was because of the
strong wind and rain that caused the swaying or
if it actually was a tiny little earthquake. If
it was an earthquake, it should have been called
an earth shake because of its tinyness. ;)

More vending machines.




6/12 – Shopping in Harajuku and Shibuya
Today was our shopping day. We had brunch with
Mathias in Ebisu in the morning. After that he
showed us how to get to Harajuku and Shibuya
before he went to work. I couldn’t find anything
I liked in Harajuku and Shibuya. The Tokyo fashion
style is quite extreme with a lot of details and
a lot of extreme colors. Not my cup of tea. :(
The winter jackets are very beautiful though,
but I can’t use them at home in Sweden since their
winter jackets are more like our fall jackets.

Everything is quite expensive in Tokyo because
the yen is very expensive now. 100 yen is
approximately 10 sek.

The famous Shibuya crossing where people cross
the streets in all imaginable directions.



We had Ochazuke for lunch.






7/12 – Shinjuku and Mount Fuji
Mattias and I went to Shinjuku this morning. Our
original plan was to shop, but we ended up in
Shinjuku Gyoen National Park instead. It was a
very beautiful park in the middle of the city. The
trees sparkled in yellow and red and a lot of Japanese
people had their system cameras and tripods out photographing.
And these were often old people – both men and women and
over 60 – 70 years old. It is quite impressive.







After lunch we looked for the Hyatt hotel where parts
of the movie Lost In Translation were shot. We found
another Hyatt hotel instead, but this one had only 28
floors. The Lost In Translation one had more than 56
floors and one can go up there to have a look over Tokyo.
We went to the Tokyo Metropolitan Government for some
information but it appeared that they have an observation
deck at 45th floor as well, so we went up there. It was
free. :) The view over Tokyo was very impressive. There was
no end to the number of houses that was Tokyo! Since the
sky was clear blue today we could see Mount Fuji far away
in the distant.





We went to Harajuku to see the famous Harajuku girls
and rockabillies. We were late for their gathering so
there were only a few left.









We went to the Meiji Jingu shrine in Harajuku and
fortunately there was a wedding ceremony ongoing.

Ceremonial cleaning before entering the shrine.





How many branches are there of this famous restaurant?




Some food I have eaten the latest days:

Sushi


Yakiniku

Ginza

The day before yesterday we went to Ginza
for a couple of hours after work. There were
a lot of department stores and boutiques – most
of them of the more expensive brands. Ginza felt
a little bit like New York’s 5th Avenue. We went
into a couple of shops and bought some clothes,
but nothing spectacular. We didn’t have time to
explore the area more since the shops closed at 20.

Yesterday was Wednesday. It’s a new tradition
that they are not allowed to work overtime on
Wednesdays, so the office became half-full a little
bit after 19 when a Japanese message from the speakers
asked the people to leave. At first I thought it was
an emergency situation since there began to be a bit
stirring in the office, but then came the English
version of the message, and then I realized it was
Wednesday. There were still a lot of people left though
and I don’t know how many of them who left were just out
for dinner. Anyway, we left a little bit after that.
We were supposed to go bar/restaurant-hopping in Ebisu.
Emma, our guide for the night, knew a good French
restaurang and a cool Fixed Gear bar in that area.

Oh, yesterday at lunch, Mathias took us to a great
restaurant that served Korean BBQ - Yakiniku. It was
very good! A mini BBQ grill was on the table and you
got to order the meat you wanted. The restaurant was
only a couple of minutes from the office, but in order
to come to this place, you had to walk through a couple
of alleys of different narrowness. The last alley was so
narrow that one could hardly walk through it without touching
the walls of the houses on both sides of it. These alleys
were very clean though. I have not seen any dirty alleys
yet. I guess they have to keep them clean as there often
are restaurants and shops in the alleys. The people here
say ”There are no dark and dangerous alleys in Tokyo. There
are only dark alleys.” Maybe they’re right.

I Love You Too

OK, I've been criticized for just showing my fantastic
toilet seat at the hotel, so here comes som fun pictures.
Yesterday was just work, nothing special.

Tokyo has already started to decorate for Christmas.
See how beautiful it looks like around our hotel.


This is one of the strangest bun I have ever seen this
far. It is a hot dog bun with noodles inside. How practical!


Typical Japanese vending machines. The streets are full of them…


Are we in the US or in Japan?


The office was not too far from our hotel so we walk over there.
It's a nice 5 minutes walk. You get to cross a big road with
a thousand other people walking towards you like a wall.
The Japanese people come to work at around 10.00 – 10.30.
A lot of people work late and they have to commute a long
way every day so it's not strange at all that they come in late.

Our colleagues took us to a sushi restaurant near the office
and in the evening they took us to a ramen restaurant. I must say
that I’m not impressed by the sushi yet. Not impressed by the ramen
yet either. It was just OK.

Back at the hotel we took the elevator to the bar at the top of
the hotel. We drank our drinks and looked out over Tokyo. I can’t
stop being amazed about how we two days ago still were in cold,
boring, and little Lund and now were in the metropole of Tokyo,
sitting in a bar at the top floor of a hotel building looking out
over Tokyo. Isn’t this a small world and doesn’t it feel a little
bit like a jetset life?

I Love Tokyo

Landed safely around 10 o'clock in Tokyo earlier today. Too tired of doing anything we just spent the afternoon wandering around the area near Shinagawa Prince Hotel. Check out their website. What a fantastic hotel! It feels like I'm at a Vegas hotel.

The room is small but nice and clean.

The people here is nice and polite. I really think I'm beginning to love Tokyo.

About the picture above... I think I better figure out how the toilet works or else it won't be any poo poo the next two weeks. ;-)

New Meiko Video

Meiko - "Boys With Girlfriends"



Check out Meiko's MySpace.


Rihannas cover of Madonna's "Vogue", live At Fashion Rocks 2008.

Jason Mraz & Ingrid Michaelson Revisited

This is the best moment of the Olympen concert.
"You And I" with Ingrid Michaelson and Jason Mraz.


Clip made available by Stefan. Thanks! :)

Don’t you worry, there my honey
We might not have any money
But, we’ve got our love to pay the bills

Baby, I think you’re cute and funny
Maybe I wanna do what bunnies do with you
If you know what I mean

Oh, well let’s get rich and buy our parents
Home in the south of France
Let’s get rich and give everybody nice sweaters
And teach them how to dance
Let’s get rich and build a house on a mountain
Makin’ everybody look like ants
From way up there
You and I
You and I

Well, you might be a bit confused
And you might be a little bit bruised
But, baby, how we spoon like no one else
So I will help you read those books
If you will soothe my worried looks
And we will put the lonesome on the shelf

So let’s get rich and buy our parents
Home in the south of France
Let’s get rich and give everybody nice sweaters
And teach them how to dance
Let’s get rich and build a house on a mountain
Makin’ everybody look like ants
From way up there
You and I
You and I

Oh, let’s get rich and buy our parents
Home in the south of France
Let’s get rich and give everybody nice sweaters
And teach them how to dance
Let’s get rich and build a house on a mountain
Makin’ everybody look like ants
From way up there
You and I
You and I

Fall Is Here

Jason & Ingrid

Jason and Ingrid performing "Lucky" from Jason's
latest album "We Sing, We Dance, We Steal Things".

Jason Mraz

Well Jason, the concert was OK. You have a great voice
and big lungs, and you are a great singer, but you have
toooooo many slow songs on your repertoire. The concert
lost momentum every time you performed the slow jazzy,
bluesy songs. Where are all those good pop songs on
your first album?

Best:
* The Remedy. Good introduction to the concert.
* You & I Both
* I'm Yours

Ingrid Michaelson Live @ Olympen, Lund

Half-Swedish Ingrid is supporting act for Jason Mraz
on the European leg of his tour.

Best:
* "The Way I Am" from One Tree Hill and Grey's Anatomy
* "Breakable" from Grey's Anatomy
* "Corner Of Your Heart" from Grey's Anatomy
* "You & I", the duet she and Jason sang

Check out her MySpace.

She has a new album coming out soon. It's called "Be OK".

Chinatown

We went to Chinatown yesterday. We ordered a lot of food at a restaurant. We didn't know every entrée was for two or three persons so we ordered one each. After two entrées the waiter already layed down the piece of paper where he'd written down our order, but we asked him to continue with two more entrées and one salad. No wonder he looked strangely at us and no wonder that everybody who walked by our table looked at us. Some of them even smiled. We had to ask for some doggy bags.

Later on we went to Chinatown Icecream Factory for some tasty ice cream.

Earlier today after we had checked out from our suite we bought some breakfast from a nearby café and went to Central Park to eat it. After that we went to Bloomingdale's before finally taking a cab to leave Manhattan for JFK. The taxi driver was nice so he got some extra tip.

We are at the airport now waiting for boarding. The plane is 40 minutes delayed.

Rain, Bitches, And More Rain

This morning we walked 5th Avenue and then we went to the United Nations. Their garden was closed due to reconstruction so we were only inside a little while.

The rain had been pouring down this afternoon. We chose to spend a few hours at Macy's instead. Luckily there are a lot of people with a lot of bad taste in this world. Who otherwise would have bought all the ugly clothes. People behave like they've found gold just because there's a 'Hugo Boss' or 'Ralph Lauren' printed on the clothes and there's a sign on the rack that says '25 % off'. Crazy! I mean man, you have to be able to walk around wearing those clothes when seeing other people!

If you want to feel in this season, buy a T-shirt with a tree printing on. Every other label has shirts like that. And yes, I'm in, so I own one of these shirts. :-D

Oh, I think I have forgotten to crown NYC the city in the world with the rudiest and bitchiest people in the world! Even worse than Hong Kong. I mean I have always known that but tend to forget that every time. Don't forget to be rude and bitchy back when you're here the next time. On our first day when taking a cab from JFK to Manhattan the driver demanded 15 dollar in tip (33 %!!). I totally refused that and had an argument with him. Today a register bitch first called the customer before us a bitch because the customer didn't want the stuff due to her Visa card not working on the payment terminal. And now imagine all four of us with our hands full of shopping bags after a day of shopping. Imagine we had walked the whole day and it had been raining the whole day. She asked us ('nicely' she said) to push the groceries forwards even if she easily could had pushed the conveyor belt on. After that she asked me 'nicely' to get out of the way so she could help the next customer. I didn't find that funny anymore so I answered in a very bitchy way 'No, I can't'. She thought I was rude and asked me to go home. I should had said 'With pleasure, bitch!' Two days left...

In California - interact with the locals. In NYC - never interact with the locals. Oh, I mean animals, bitches or whatever you choose to call them.

NYC

Yesterday, our first day in NYC, we waited outside Letterman's theatre for Robin Williams, Shannen Doherty, and Duffy. We got some good pictures and See Man got Robin Williams' and Duffy's autograph. On our way back to our hotel we saw Usher playing live. It was a huge NFL kickoff at Columbus Circle with him, Natasha Bedingfield, and Keith Urban.

Earlier today we went up Empire State Building, went to a lot of other sightseeing spots - Flatiron building, Union Square, Washington Square, Statue Of Liberty, New York Stock Exchange, Ground Zero, and South Street Seaport. LG held a free music event there and we saw Gym Class Heroes playing.

At LAX

We have returned our rental car now and have checked in at LAX. We are flying to NYC later tonight at 10 and will be landing 6 in the morning.

Hoover Dam And Lake Mead

Earlier today we went to Hoover Dam and Lake Mead. After that we went to Las Vegas Premium Outlets for some shopping. The outlet was huge with a lot of stuff, most of it I don't want. I'm simply not interested in shopping anymore nowadays. At least not that 'out-of-control' kind of shopping. It is quality before quantity I prefer now.

We are having a buffet at Luxor now as I blog.

Grand Canyon

We left Las Vegas yesterday. After a 5-6 hours ride we came to Grand Canyon. We entered the park at the southern entrance and drove to its eastern entrance. It's about 25 miles with some spectacular vistas. The park was not crowded at all. Maybe the high season is over now. It was quite cold. We were freezing in our room even though the A/C was off.

Anyways, we lost Marcus and See Man at Grandview Point, one of the vistas, when they accidentally went down a bit of the trail thinking See Mei and I did that.

Later in the evening we went to Lipan Point to see the sunset. We sat there completely tucked in our British Airways blankets and sweaters and were freezing the whole time haha.

We are back in Vegas now and staying at Excalibur.