Flea market

Got a new computer ordered for me at work two days ago. Hopefully I'll get it on Monday. I estimate a 30%-50% creativity and productivity boost from not having to fight a 6-year-old overburdened zombie computer any more. :-)

Risbro Church flea market

Helped my parents at the Risbro Church flea market today. They hold one twice a year and since I happened to be in town I had offered to help where needed. I was put in charge of the "10-crowns table", mostly populated with cups, candle holders, weird wodden boxes and flower pots. Doesn't sound very exciting, but we actually sold for a couple of hundreds' worth at that table.

I found some things for myself at the market as well, but mainly I was inspired to donate most of the stuff in Linköping that's been under my bed ever since I moved in, or has even stayed in the boxes since I moved the time before that. Maybe bring it to Fagersta, or just donate it to Myrorna in Linköping. Ah, and the ever-planned project of getting rid of old clothes, of course.

Still busy

Uppsala Walpurgis

Came home two weeks ago, but still haven't gone through all my pictures and recounted the events of Sendai and HK/Macau/GZ, because I've been busy working and (still!) traveling.

Went to Stockholm and Uppsala this weekend to visit my friends excds and daddyfool, spend Walpurgis Night with thousands of other students and finally to visit my sister, whose birthday is on Thursday.

Muddling along at work. Now it seems I'm actually going to get a new computer, which will remove many daily frustrations. Tomorrow we are having a meeting regarding a major project I will be doing this summer. Feels good to be there for long enough to actually finish something, for a change.

Will come to Linköping on Tuesday. No later, because I'm participating in an exchange studies promotion thing at the uni Wednesday night. No earlier, because my brother and sister-in-law are moving into their house on Tuesday.

Getting back on track

Had a real Swedish breakfast again, with cereals and fruit and jam and sourmilk. I've missed it. Got started with my Seco work. Checked my mailbox -- my tickets for Fagersta on Sunday have arrived. Will meet Boozon at the train station tomorrow and get my own keys to the apartment back. Life is step by step going back to normal. Still haven't unpacked my bags. Probably should do that before I go to sleep. Goodnight!

New haircut

Home sweet home

Asia, the epilogue

Finally home again!

As we stepped out of the train at Linköping Travel Centre we were met by the most wonderful Swedish spring afternoon. A cool but not cold breeze and a bright but not burning sun. On Arlanda I had exchanged 10 euros and 300 Czech crowns that happened to be in my purse for enough money to refill my supplies in Ryd for the next few days. Tomorrow I start working, on Wednesday comes my salary for this month's vacation and I can start living a normal life again. :-)

Let's see how long it takes to get the body clock set to an acceptable schedule. I'll start by trying to sleep now, at 22. The plan is to wake up 9h later. See you on the other side.

Wow, time flies...

Haven't had much time to update the blog since 070404, but at least I've uploaded the albums now, with some sketchy captions. I'll get round to sorting them and recounting the events of the last week once I get home. :-)

We are going for a stroll around the Peak in a short while, and tonight we are going to fly back home. I'm going to miss all the places we've been to, and of course my girlfriend, and I'm planning on going back to HK again in October.

Electric Town

Akihabara

Or plan today was to find a nice park, buy some beer and just take it easy and enjoy the surroundings. But the weather was horrible, so the plans changed.

We did our laundry, and while waiting watched Heroes. Excellent series, will have to see more of it. On WY's suggestion we then went to Electric Town in Akihabara.

We were expecting something enormous and really cool, but it wasn't really big and much of it was actually vacuum cleaners, iPod accessories, simple pocket calculators and fax machines. The Japanese electronics market is really fascinating. It's a mix of state-of-the-art gadgets and leftovers from the 80's that people still buy for some reason. Some cool stuff, though: The PS3 costs much less here than in Sweden, and it's available off the shelf. And the sound equipment was impressive, but neither of us needs an upgrade right now, and you can't really bring it on the plane.

I wound up buying some small things I've been putting off for a while – a USB hub and an SDHC (etc.) card reader. We also found a Bollywood corner, where I finally bought my first ever Bollywood movie! I went with Kal Ho Naa Ho, because I really like the most famous song from it, Mahi Ve. Couldn't find it in Sweden before (I've been looking), but here it was available for 1000 yen (€6).

We went home after a few hours and just hung around in the hostel, watching some more of Heroes and surfing.

Tomorrow after checking in at our next hostel we'll split up: Erik will go to Iwama to see a famous aikidō dōjō and I will go to the airport to meet WY.

Tokyo via Nara

Nara and arriving in Tokyo

A calm night yesterday, but we still overslept and missed breakfast. Finally arrived in Nara shortly after twelve. Locked our bags up (not an easy task in those small lockers!) and tried to find someplace to eat. Being a vegetarian in Japan is not easy, but I'm getting used to the routine. I've actually cheated some and accepted meat sauce in some cases, but this time I could get a nice noddle/vegetable soup without any compromises.

We found the Tōdaiji (Eastern Great Temple) without mishaps. It's really impressive, and also surrounded by wonderful sakura blossoms.

The Nara Park, which contains most of the sights of the city, including the Tōdaiji, is populated by lots and lots of deer. They are really tame and their main food seems to be the 'deer biscuits' that tourists buy from street merchants. The deer can easily smell if you are carrying biscuits or not, so they left us alone, but chased some of the other tourists.

The park and other parts of the city are full of sights, but we also had to catch our train to Tōkyō. We arrived without problems and returned to our previously located ATM to get the money for the hostel. We even got to the correct subway station without any significant glitches. But then we needed to find the hostel.

We tried to take a cab, because we couldn't really establish our location. But apparently our destination was out of his district, so he told us to go to the other side of the station. Then we tried to walk. And we walked and walked. Finally we ended up almost where we started and found the correct sub-town, block and building. We asked some people about the hostel, but they had no idea what we were talking about. Turns out we were in the wrong ward (town/sub-city), on the wrong side of the river. We turned the map around 180 degrees and tried again. Suddenly the roads fit the map excellently and we found the place in 15 mins.

Time to sleep.