Picture time!

I'm not kidding when I say I don't do anything at all. I mean, obviously I do things like maybe watch the TV, read a magazine or something similar, but in reality I live a very isolated life in this village. Going grocery shopping or to the doctor is starting to feel as you know, winning a million at the lottery or something, haha. Ohgodi'msobored.

But I take pictures!

So this post will have some of that.

I actually watch my plants grow. Yeah.

I take pictures of the cats. You don't even wanna look into my phone, it's 95% pictures of the cats. This is Sixten.

I find stuff! Like this Swimmer watch that I had almost forgotten completely.

I tie bows on wedding invitations.

I photograph the shelf above my bed. The picture isn't crooked, my room is slanting. Yeah.

I take pictures of my things.

And I sit quietly for half an hour staring at does.

Fought for parcel

Uhh, one of the things I dislike the most about my current place of living, is that due to it being in the middle of nowhere, parcels and stuff takes much longer to arrive. If the shop says 2-3days, it usually arrives within 5-10.. Even EMS, which I was really pissed about, I mean, I pay extra for speedy shipping, and then it takes almost a week longer than it's supposed to? And it isn't even delivered, we have to drive for half an hour to pick it up :(

Uhh, okay, enough ranting! Reason for the rant? I ordered from H&M!

As usual, the kitty&photo rule applies, if you try to take a picture of your cat, it runs away, if you try to take a picture of something else, suddenly: CAT!! (The cat in the picture is named Pentax, and it's because she loooves photobombing)

Nothing over the top whootiwhoot, but man! I'm so happy anyway!

The reason I ordered this (and the yumetenbo order, tho it was partly my birthday present to myself), is as a reward. For what? Weight loss. 
When I moved to Japan and started living with my roomie, he introduce me to his decadent eating habits, which of course resulted in a considerable weight gain for me, since I don't have the metabolism of a young man :( And all that white rice. Every day, white rice galore.
That's pretty much the reason why I suddenly stopped wearing light colors, and opted for dark shades. I just felt like the michelin man, and since I moved to Sweden I just didn't feel like dressing up at all, because everything was unflattering and impossible and after a while I just stopped trying.

So, in about January I decided to stop moping around being unhappy about myself, and just do it. Since then, I've lost almost 10kgs! I've actually only lost 9, but I hurried the reward for this time to combine it as a reward for doing two essays and being a total boss on two math tests, haha.
So, I get myself a reward for every lost 5kgs, just something, not running out buying a car or anything.

There's still quite a bit to go till I'm around my desired weight, and I can't really say I see any difference in the mirror(that's why progress pics are a godsend!), I still feel like dressing up more often. Of course I tend to ragequit in the midst of dressing because of reasons, but I still manage to put something together, put on some god damn full make up with lashes n all, style my hair and go out. Allthough my outfits are a mess right now, I'm torned between light colors and dark colors, and those parts of my wardrobe doesn't really match.. Oh well, I'll figure it out! 


Long entry about uninteresting things, but.. well.

Shirokuma madness

Just went out and bought a bucket load of one of my favorite beauty products! Shirokuma eye plasters! But the majority isn't for me. My mom told her friend about these and how much I raved about them, and asked me to buy her a bunch!


I'll do a review about them, or well, post before and after pictures! I haven't used them for a few weeks to let my dark circles come back in order to properly show the effect..

Keeping my mood up... with kittens!

The departure date is getting closer everyday, and with it comes mixed feelings. I love Japan, this is where I want to be. Naturally, that means I'm plenty upset about leaving. And while I dislike Sweden in so many ways, there'll be good things about it too. Both Japan and Sweden have their pros and cons, so I guess it'll all be good in the end.
I'm trying my best to keep my spirits high about leaving, by thinking about all the bad things about Japan(cockroaches! humidity!), and things in Sweden I look forward to.

So here's a small list of what I'm longing for about Sweden!


1 Food
Of course, swedish food is something I've been craving ever since I left. While teriyaki, sushi, onigiri and ramen is all very delicious, there's just something about the food you've eaten since you were a child, right?  I'm preparing mentally for a weight gain of about 5-10kgs when I come to sweden.. (No, not really! Haha)

2 Friends and family
Allthough my friends are sparse but amazing, and my family small and complex, I miss them all, and it will be one of the best things about returning! Being the "runaway" on my "special adventure"(i.e omg I lived in Tokyo!), homesickness haven't been a top priority of mine, but I know how much my mother and father have missed me, so being able to see them again is going to be fantastic!

3 Fresh air and amazing tap water
When I lived in Uppsala(Swedens 4th biggest city), I complained a bit about the air, that was rather dirty compared to my hometowns. After living in Tokyo for 2 years, I'm thinking my lungs will burst by the clean air! Also, I hardly ever drink tap water in Japan(omg the chlorine taste!!), so being able to drink the tap water at my mums house, that goes from a spring in a neighbouring mountain(yes it's THAT village-y!), will be like drinking tears of angels, I believe.

4 Kitties
Cats are my favorite animal, hands down. I haven't had a cat for 4 years now! And although Japan is filled with cats, they are all very scared, and unlike japanese people, doesn't approach you for a snuggle. And the cats at the cat cafés I've visited are rather .. uninterested in humans.  My mom got a cat lady right after I left for Japan, and this spring she got kittens! Although I didn't get to actually be there, my mom uploaded pictures everyday for me to see their growth! Kittiekittie!

These are the two I'll get! I'll either take them both, or just one.. Or none, depending on what kind of apartment I get..

I might make a list of what I wont miss with Japan, for my own sake. It could be good looking at it when it feels too hard.

Fika at Madam Blå

A couple of times when we've gone on day trips to places like Disney or Aquariums, we've transfered at Tokyo station. Almost everytime we walk past this little café called "Madam Blå", but we never had time to find out what it really was, and why it had a swedish-sounding name.

When we went to Disney last week, for once we had time to go get some coffee there!
Turned out it was a Danish/Scandinavian café, with some classic Scandinavian meals!
We didn't have time to actually eat there, but saw in the menu that they had crisp bread, different scandinavian salmon dishes etc. And the coffee they used was Swedish!
On the pricey side though, so I guess I'll resist swedish food until I go back.

Scandinavian kitchen vibes.

Hallelulejah, blogger works again!

The guests left early this morning, and well, during their stay we watched 3 seasons of Friends. But we also went to Disney Sea, which is always awesome! No pictures from that since well, I've posted a bunch of that already since previous visists.


Instead, here's a few things I've bought recently.

Oh man I love these shoes. Shimamuras Sorridere shoes is the BEST. SO comfortable!

Corduroy shorts I've been oogling lately.

Although it's shorts, it's actually autumn shopping. I'm trying to buy some bits and pieces before my return to Sweden since I anticipate winter clothes to be in the stores when I get back. And also because it's easier to find good stuff here, haha.

Kind of messed up with the shorts though, just grabbed the corduroy shorts in what I thought was my ordinary size, but tried on the red ones and realised, I'm a size smaller than before! Of course I forgot to change the corduroy ones for a smaller size..  I like the baggier look on the corduroy ones, tho. 
Was really surprised, seeing how I haven't been dieting or anything. I guess it's because I'm not harrassing my psyche with the scale and the constant "I can't eat this! There's stuff in it!"


Showing just a little bit is my awesome Harry Potter t-shirt, that is awesome enough to get much more space on it's own, in a later post.

Virus, travels and velvet pumps.

 So.. I've been quiet for a while. Biggest reason is the humongous virus my computer got that ate everything. Thankfully I managed to back everything up.. But still, stings a bit.
And the lesser one is that I'm going to South Korea tomorrow, but honestly that have nothing to do with me not blogging, since I haven't really started doing anything yet. I've written a list though! (If you got advice on what to do during a 4day trip to S Korea, please do tell).

Annyway, omg, shoes! Were looking at snaps the other day and this girl was wearing velvet platform pumps and my mind went "WANT!". And wouldn't you know, I found a pair just yesterday! 1890yen from Shimamura, I LOVE THEM.

Cravings from the motherland

It's raining, the kind of super wet rain that soaks you from just looking at it, and a typhoon is seemingly on it's way. Because of that I don't really have anything to do but think about...
Candy!

Some things all swedes, when moving abroad, misses the most is probably Marabou Chocolate, crisp bread and pick & mix candy. I miss all of them, alot. However, both chocolate and crisp bread is available at IKEA, and it's rather easy for family/friends to send.
What I really really miss is the candy. Even though I sometime get some sent to me, it's just not the same, you know? It's the whole feeling about it, mixing your own bag, to fit just the kind of candy cravings you have right then. And it's cheap, too. Last time I checked it's about 1000yen for a KILO of candy.

However, I have indeed encountered pick & mix candy here in Japan though. But, well, not the same really. You can choose from a whopping 5 different candies(!), all hard candies, and you can put them into a tiny teeny little bag, and then it costs 160yen.

Well, better than nothing I guess.

A pretty standard swedish pick&mix candy aisle.
(taken from google)

Japanese pick&mix. (it's about 10cmx5cm)

Alpaca Family Photo

Seeing how they just released a new series of alpacas(neon colors!), my alpaca love has been booming the last few days!

Tried to take a family photo of them, but as always when trying to take one of those, some just wont cooperate, so there's a couple of them missing.




The big one is extra special, his name is Charles and I got him in Fukuoka, kinda troublesome carrying him with me back to Tokyo..

New dress + woot woot!

Managed to fix gimp into english (my computer is in japanese so many programs installs themself with japanese language setting, wich can be quite frustrating, especially with programs I know nothing about.)

Anyway, it's fixed, here's a terribly edited picture of the new dress + shirt set I bought today(1870yen at Shimamura!)




This also means I'm going to try and put togheter a header and make something out of this blog, at last. First I need to try and understand the damn program, tho.

Strange things happen

You know, you think you have things figured out, that you have a grip on how things work, but alas, you learn something new!

Since Saturday I've had like a strange itching and redness, and no idea what was going on at all, not experienced it before. So today I finally went to the hospital, and voila, it's an allergic reaction. Not so strange, right, seems right. The strange thing is that I don't have any allergies. But according to the doctor it's quite common that people without allergies get allergy symptoms from time to time.

So in true japanese fashion I got a bunch of meds and got told to that if it didn't clear in two weeks I should come back.


The antihistamins are making me sleepy so I just wanna crawl into bed and watch X-files.

Here, have some dancing FBI agents!

Holy crap

Went over to Shinjuku today, to Video Market.
It seems like THE place to go to if you want live bootlegs of western bands, porn, and *drumroll* horror & Sci-fi.
My roomie is a horror junkie, I'ma Sci-Fi junkie, so alas.

Holy Freaking CRAP.

Jumped back and almost got a heart attack when getting off the elevator, and was greeted by a 2m tall freaking Alien! Scared the jeebus out of me.
The picture doesn't do it justice though, it's freaking scary.
(Kinda like the time in Ebisu when I saw Darth Vader standing in a window)


Unfortunatly the store had a meek selection of Sci-Fi, and they were kinda expensive since they were imported. I'll probably go back sometime though.
They had both "Let the right one in" and the remake "Let Me In" though, that was nice to see!
I don't at all see the reason of the obsession of america making remakes of foreign movies though, is it really that hard to read subtitles?

Seijin Shiki pt.2 (pictures)

And here comes all the pictures!

A bunch of lovely American girls we met on our way to Meiji Jingu!

A dad asked us if we could take a picture with his daughter
Haha, she was so cute *-*

Seijin Shiki pt.1

In September/October, I got an envelope in the mail.
I was surprised since it was from within Japan, and because I live with a man, all the bills and other mail is adressed in his name, but this one had my name on it!
Upon opening it I saw that I had been invited to participate in the Coming of Age Ceremony of January 2011 (Seijin Shiki)!

In November/December, I found out a friend of mine had just received her invitation, and we decided to go all out in the kimono madness that is Seijin Shiki!

It's a costly experience, depending how you do it.
It is possible to buy Second Hand Furisode(the special type of Kimono), but usually they are quite outdated, and sometimes have faults. We went for the renting option.

Renting a furisode

We found a pop-up shop in Marui City Ikebukuro, during the Furisode season a kimono rental shop had opened a pop up shop to fulfill the needs of everyone who needed a Furisode for the upcoming festivities.
They charged 50 000yen for a piece set. It included the furisode, obi, obi accessories, under-kimono, tabi socks, zouri shoes, bag, and a buckload of different small goods that you need in order to assemble a kimono.
The staff was awesome, and we got to pick out all the kimonos we liked, and then try them on to see wich one was the best.


Making the arrangements

Putting on a kimono is a special thing.
Unless you have someone in your vicinity that is a 60something old japanese woman (or someone else who just happened to have the interest in learning), you'll need to go pro.
Around December/January you'll see many saloons sporting fliers/posters about special Seijin Shiki deals.
They usually include hair, makeup and the dressing(kitsuke). It too, is costly. Most places charges around 20 000 and up, but we managed to find a really nice place in Koenji who charged us 13 000yen.
Keep in mind that even though they say one price, it will be a bit more, adding in early morning charges, since most saloons open at 10ish and you'll probably wind up being there around 7, as we did.
I recommend checking out Hot Pepper for scoring out sweet deals.
At this point, please remember to buy a matching kamikazari(not to be confused with kamikaze), i.e the hair flowers/stuff you want to have in your hair.

Now is also the time to choose your venue. Wich Seijin Shiki will you attend?
My friend Ylva lives in Nakano-ku, I live in Toshima-ku. We're both warm about our "hometowns" but in order to not make anyone feel bad about it we decided to go to Shinjuku-kus, since we both attend school there. It is possible, but please remember to check the towns website about details, some towns don't accept people who don't live there. You also must register on the towns website.


The day

Getting ready
So the day has arrived, the day of the kimono frenzy!
Woo!
.. No. Or well, yes. I had to wake up at six, heading right out in the cold with only sunglasses to cover my unfixed face, and get to the saloon.
Well there they hectically started fixing me up, make up, hair and so on. The details was decided a couple of days earlier when we went for counseling. The hair/makeup part isn't the most interesting one since it's something one could do on any other day.
The kitsuke part though. Oh man! I walk into a draped area where a tiny girl is, and alas, she's the one to dress me.
So it's just to undress into my highly unflattering underwear(tanktop without bra, and tigh long leggings), and the funky stuff begins.
This small girl, a head shorter than myself, and probably half my weight, proves to contain some serious strenght, as she in a series of hugs, chokes and twists starts assembling the kimono.
First comes a strange hospital-robe-ish top, and an apron, some bands and some cotton and some gauze, then comes the under kimono, some more bands, towels, gauze etc. Finally, the furisode itself, more gauze, more bands.
Then the really evil part. The obi. oh. It's violent I tell ya.
Not really being used to being dressed, nor kimonos for that matter it came as a complete shock when she started to violently tug away at the bands and strands and effectivly push all air out from me.
After the rather strange experience I get to see myself, and not to sound boasting, but I looked amazing! Kimono + professional make and hair makes wonders, haha!


Out and about

Well out, we quickly realize that the day isn't the best. It's really windy and despite what you might think, kimonos are COLD. So so so cold. And they have openings under your arms and at your elbows so the wind just goes right through!
Usually Seijin no Hi is a day were old schoolmates meet again and get drunk in kimonos, but seeing that we aren't natives, we couldn't just bash a reunion like that, haha.
So instead we made our own version. We did go to Meiji Jingu in Harajuku to toss some coins, pray a bit, and get wildly photographed. (Foreigner in kimono = the old people just go crrazy, be prepared, people WILL want to take pictures, and they mostly wont ask first.). Afterwards we did some housecalls (going to people we wanted to show off for, haha), and then Izakaya. But, being as handicapped as we were by the blistering feet (Zouri is painful), unableness to breath, the cold and the general fatigue, we ended the day early and got home.
Believe me, taking of a kimono is one of the best things in the world. You feel 10kgs lighter!


Final
Most rental stores wants you to send it back the next day, atleast did ours.
So after waking up, it was just to try and fold the kimono neatly (you got a picture guide!) and then send it back. It cost 1400yen, and had to be done at Family Mart.
When reading the return-guide I found out I got to keep some of the stuff, like the tabi socks, the bands, some strange obi-pillow etc.



More questions?
Feel free to ask them!

Cutest furry little drink EVARR

Japan is a complete overload of cute things, as you all know, but today I struck gold!

Honey Apple juice, with the cutest tetra I've seen so far!






Polarbear!


Picture quality have improved thanks to my Father, who gave me money to buy a new camera for christmas! (Canon IXY 200F)

Testing something new

I've gotten some questions lately, and I thought that this might be a good way to answer them?
The current comment layout doesn't really enable true replying, so most of the time I think the questions would be left unanswered..

So let's try this!

A: My favorite is actually kakao, the one pictured, but maple is awesome too!
I should go on the lookout for the other flavors, at my konbini they only have the one's I've listed :(

It's 90kcal per individual cookie, 179kcal per packet. The ones I buy come with two bags with a total of 4 cookies :o They're great for snacking *-*






.. Please tell me if this is just silly or if it's a good idea?

Absolutely Necessary

I probably have the most awesome wallpaper in the world.
For those yet unknowing, it's Robert Carlyle, actor.
Played everything from Zombie to Hitler and everything in between.
Did I mention he's from Scotland?

Desert

Insane, it's so, so, so, warm right now. I'm not used to this kind of heat, ever.
I mean in Sweden, a really warm summerday is 25degrees celsius. And now it's May, not even close to the hottest time, and 30degrees!

Couldn't survive it without always carrying one of these with me:

Sunfeather-frenzy!

Closeup
Left: 100yen shop's 2010 collection
Right: Closet Child
Bottom: Harrrrooo Kittayy