Painting with paper

Sitting in a very Japanese room, on a pillow next to a low table. There are sliding doors made of rice paper, tatami mats covering the floor and a traditional huge pot filled with charcoal is keeping the water warm for the green tea.
On the walls hang beautiful paintings of chigiri-e and calligraphy. In the corner is an extra stable of pillows – or chairs, call them what you like. Torn pieces of coloured Washi (rice paper) cover the table. Five Japanese women are also seated.
The woman of the house, and sensei-san (teacher), is a woman with grey-scaled hair in a tight knot. Her posture is rank and graceful. Her wisdom spreads respect in the room. She practises the ceremonies, and teaches the public how to cook, arrange flowers and how to make chigiri-e.
When she sat down next to the rice door and showed how to open it correctly by never sliding it passed you shoulder, we all gasped aaah. A way of acknowledging her knowledge. Then we all learned how to make the perfect bow while seated.

A Japanese woman had invited Barbara to join her in her Chigiri-e classes once a month and today was the first day. It was a great experience offering so much more than "just" chigiri-e. It was a window into the Japanese culture.
In Japan, the women in many cases stop working as soon as they have given birth. One reason is poor day care possibilities, but other reasons could simply be culture and tradition.
A fact is it, that the Japanese value the art of making beautiful things, and groups like this can probably be found in many scales and variations all over the country, getting together practicing Japanese art craft like Origami, Ikebana, Calligraphy, water color or as here, Chigiri-e.
It was a whole day experience, which was felt in the legs – but stubborn as I am regarding fitting in, I declined the many kind offers to bring me a normal chair. I really enjoyed the time there and valued the many inputs on Japanese culture. The day opened for many conversations about things such as the Japanese masks, the use of kimonos, buying of yukatas, food habits and the amusement of the fact that men actually cook in Europe:-).
The woman that invited Barbara to Chigiri-e speaks fluently English, and she kindly translated as the rest only knew few English words.

The next time sensei-san will be teaching both how to make chigiri-e and how to make nori maki (maki rolls with seaweed). The group seemed to sense Barbaras desperate urge to learn how to cook Japanese.

By the way, - the picture is the result of the Chigiri-e. It pictures the Emperor and the empress because of the upcoming Hinamatusuri.

Chigiri-e is a way of "painting/collaging" with torn pieces of rice paper.

Language challenges

A Monday afternoon at Kalmia, this was handed out to everyone. Time for a song. Eeeeh...anyone wanna take the lead?

The song is a childrens song, used during Hinamatsuri (Doll's festival) - a celebration held on Saturday the 3rd of March.

Temples and Teens

As the two latter days had been all about browsing we wanted to dedicate this day for typical must see places. We started in Asakusa, which used to be the "Yoshiwara" for Tokyo, the red-light district. Some how, this area of Tokyo has succeeded keeping a historical atmosphere intact. For us this place is very different from what we so far have seen in Tokyo.



The most famous tourist attraction in Asakusa, is also the most visited attraction in whole Japan: The Senso-ji Temple.
To reach the temple we walked through three impressive gates. After the first gate, we found our selves at the Nakamise shopping street. Here is full of life from the many little shops and the many visitors on their way to the temple, believers and tourists.
In the many small shops we found endless rows of Asian souvenirs, like decorative fans, various kinds of rice crackers, samurai swords, Hello Kitty mugs, colourful kimonos, miniature ninjas and the 2-5 toed stockings. It was all a bit too overwhelming for someone finding Japanese souvenirs soo kaiwai (cute), but in the end – too much of it all. We enjoyed some freshly made ningyo-yaki (pancake batter cakes with fill of bean paste), and bought a few items before heading to the temple, leaving the rest of the shops, for the next time.

The Senso-ji temple was built to honour the goddess of Mercy, as a small golden statue picturing her, was found in a nearby river a thousand years ago. We forgot to see the statue this time, but due to the size of the temple, it must be very special.

At the temple we used all the options we could find to enhance life.
After watching the native Japanese having their fortune told, we wanted to try for our selves. We rattled a container until a stick fell out and we matched the character written on it, with those on the drawers.



Barbaras fortune was not very good, so she tied it to a rack, so that the wind would neutralize it.
We also wrote a wish on a wooden stick. We were told that the priest would burn it during his prayers the following morning. Lets see, where it takes us.
Finally we purified our selves, first with smoke and then with water, and entered the temple.

We bought a shuin-cho, which is a pilgrimage book. On the front is written our last name (the small characters on the left). Inside the book, a calligrapher wrote the name of the temple. In every temple and shrine we visit from now on, we can have the place’s name written with calligraphy. Beautiful. Isn’t it? (Our Japanese teacher cant read it – so we doubt we ever can too)

Next to the temple is the Asakusa Jinja Shrine. It is quite small compared to the temple, but turned out interesting as a couple was getting married.

Afterwards we were up for something completely different, so we went to Harajuku bridge. It is not the bridge itself that makes the Harajuku bridge a must see. It is the people standing on it. Teens and young women dressed up in gothic Lolita looks or like manga figures. Why? Hmmmm. Let us know if you have the answer.
We had a rather ambiguous feeling, watching all these girls. Even though there were other tourists, we felt like the odd ones being watched…

We completed the day with an o bento hunt on the Tokyo train station…. It's a hunt, because so many places sells o bentos, and they are all different, so you want to find the best one, to enjoy on the train ride back to Koriyama.

Getting old in Shibuya

What a day to wake up: A sunny spring like Saturday in Tokyo.
In Denmark you have a saying "If the weather is great on your birthday, it meant you have been a good girl" :-)
The day we dedicated to shopping and browsing. We never made it to half the places we wanted to go to. Tokyo is way too big. We did made it to Tokyu Hands, where we stumbled over things like CD holders that blink according to the sound in the room and tea-kettles in the shape of giraffes among the largest selection of handyman stuff we have ever seen.
For lunch, we went to Paris, as we passed a good French place. How to tell it was good? Well, there was quite a line in front of it. In Japan it seems perfectly normal, that you have to wait an hour or so to get a table at a well reputedly place.
It was all worth it. The restaurant was located on the first floor of a patisserie and decorated like a classic brasserie. For a couple of French food lovers like us, we indulged our selves in foie gras, lamb and red wine while we enjoyed the jazz-tones that filled up the room.
Celebrating your birthday in Tokyo, but feeling like in Paris is kind of neat!

After lunch we went people watching you never get tired of that in Tokyo. Just to give you an idea of the diversity of the Tokyo citizens, the guidebook lists 13 different kinds of types to look for. All types you don't seem to find any where else.

The nights restaurant hunt, resulted in a great place in the Shibuya district. We were seated in the bar with perfect view to the action of the sushi chefs. Someone ordered Fresh slices of mackerel. The chef grabbed a fishnet and went for the fish tank. Back he came with a twirling mackerel.
The mackerels friends were staring from the fish tank as the chef quickly filleted the fish. While the chef arranged the fresh sashimi, the fish was still twirling even though it was naked right to the bone, literary spoken. Now, that is fresh mackerel!
We went for something less alive, accompanied with something as great as six different kinds of Sake!

Afterwards, we took a stare at one of the karaoke palaces and said hmmm...next time...

We know it was not much of a birthday in the traditional way of gifts and cake and family get together - but that is one of the many prices you pay for living abroad, - and a little adventure in the big city is an ok drug to cover up the fact that we miss being with you all.

A Friday in Tokyo

Very conveniently Henrik had some meetings in Tokyo Friday morning, leaving us no excuse for not celebrating Barbaras birthday with a Tokyo getaway.
We have been to Tokyo briefly during our pre-visit but due to its 12 million people, these to be found in many curious categories, there is so much to see here – with out even looking at the sight and museum lists.
Tokyo can seem as quite a big mouthful, especially for someone who should be wearing glasses but isn’t, who could get lost in Copenhagen after having lived there for 10 years and who easily get distracted by fun little details. It took Barbara less than 15 minutes to get lost…in the rain…. And less than 5 minutes more to find a Starbucks, where she thought she could get a grip of the situation.
From there, she pretty fast found her way to the Ginza area, which is the glitzy glamorous shopping district of Tokyo and where you find the Worlds top designers represented. But to find a specific shop in Ginza was more of a challenge.
Looking at the map, looking in the guidebook, trying to find landmarks, readable signs. All while it was raining. No success.
Eventually a helpful man, Mr. Makoto came to her rescue. He invited her for a cup of coffee and a sandwich at a nearby coffee place, showed her where to buy a cheap umbrella and walked her all the way to the lost shop. If that is not sign of the Japanese’s kindness. What is?

Later we met up in the local Illums. We stocked up on our Danish cutlery that have been taken of the Danish market and went to the Shibuya area. Shibuya has its contrasts. One part of it is the embassy neighbourhood filled with French restaurants etc. Another part of it is the hip youngsters paradise. The energy is bustling with the centre being a huge crossroad, where thousands of people cross every few minutes with their super cool hair, high heel boots, glitzy mobiles, trendy bags, miniskirts, funky suits and well dressed dogs. All the buildings are plastered with huge plasma screens, and the neighbourhood counts several Karaoke palaces, noisy Pachinko places, mobile phones sale stores, gothic jewels and clothes stores, huge music shops and endless many cafes, bars and restaurants.
Whenever we went for a stroll there, we completely lost our breath and stopped talking to each other. The environment had us enchanted.

We found a hotel, and went restaurant hunting. As you might have noticed earlier, finding a restaurant and figure out how to order can be quite a challenge.
Somehow we ended up at a really cool place and somehow we managed to let the waiter know, that he could decide what we should eat. He brought us Teriyaki Chicken, Eggs and Daikon (Japanese radish) boiled in some sort of black thing and he brought us beer and Sake.
Normally you get a small cup, or as we have tried in Denmark and Brazil, we get a square cup made of lacquer ware and you know you should drink of it. This time the waiter first put a lacquer ware cup on the table. Then he put a glass inside it. He poured in the Sake in the glass, eventually it worked as a fountain and filled up the lacquer ware as well.
Two glasses in one. Had never seen that one before!

We ended the nice evening at the 40th. floor of the Cerulean Tower. We had a couple of cocktails and a snack (turned out to be little dried whole fish) while staring out the huge windows giving a perfect night view over Tokyo’s endless skyline.

Welcome Dinner

One of the things that make us feel very far away from home is the unfamiliarity of everything and everyone. As tiny an issue it might seem, it does make a difference to know what kind of environment your partner takes part of – and with who.
Though Barbara did have some brief encounters with Henriks colleagues during our pre-visit in December, it was really appreciated that Sato-san, Henriks manager, had arranged a welcome dinner for us. It gave us both a chance to get to know Henriks closest colleagues better.
The evening took place in a traditional Japanese restaurant and turned out to be a really good – and exciting evening.

A traditional Japanese dinner usually includes between 5-15 different small dishes. They mainly consist of fish, but made with such creativity that the menu seems very varied. Amongst the dishes we enjoyed this evening was jelly cubes filled with flowers and blowfish.
Some people call eating a blowfish the gourmet version of playing Russian roulette. Parts of the blowfish contain an extremely strong paralyzing poison, which is about a thousand times deadlier that cyanide. Due to very strict rules in Japan, blowfish can only be prepared by specialized cooks, therefore the chance of being poisoned is very small, but yet it is with a pinch of excitement you take the bite. Eating blowfish is actually considered too dangerous for the Emperor, to whom it is not allowed to serve blowfish, and one blowfish is said to have enough poison to kill 30 persons.

Blowfish or not, the cubes were delicious, though the flavor of the blowfish is not really strong, but then again, they say it is because of the texture and not the taste, that Blowfish is regarded as a delicacy. You would feel the poison within minutes, so we know we made it this time – and we are....most likely... up for tasting it again if we get the chance.

The evening was pleasant and very relaxed, and everybody was talkative and friendly. We had interesting conversations about Sakura (cherry blossoms), safety in South America, blowfish (!) and wedding traditions.
Henrik also got a nice surprise as he found out almost everybody spoke English, which had not been revealed at work.

P.S.
There is a saying going on here. ”Those who eat fugu soup are stupid. But those who don't eat fugu soup are also stupid.”. Fugu means Blowfish in Japanese…

The Japanese waste handling system

The Japanese have a highly controlled and organized waste handling system. We have received a big poster explaining what we have to do with our waste and we finally got a hang of it­ but it is very time consuming!


Just to give you an idea of it: Everything made of plastic, you need to rinse (!) and then put in the waste bin for plastic products. If it is a plastic bottle, then you only add the rinsed plastic lid to that waste bin, as the bottle goes in a separate waste bin for plastic bottles (you rinse and squeeze the bottle before you throw it out). Is there a plastic item you cannot rinse (like a bag of soy) you put it in the waste bin for burnable products. Newspapers you need to separate from magazines, which again you separate from other kinds of paper. You bundle everything neatly. Even the Tetra Packs, which you should not squeeze but cut open according to a drawing on the poster, then you rinse them and bundle them with the special string you have bought for bundling garbage. Aluminium and steel cans of cause have their own waste bin and you should rinse them, but NOT squeeze them. You find similar rules for glass bottles, gas sprays, batteries and everything else you can think of.

We have bought five waste bins, where we organize the garbage after we have rinsed it, as well as we have three piles of different paper products stacked up in different bags -and we constantly have 2-4 full bags on the balcony waiting for the right day for it to be carried down at the right time. Some types of garbage we must place in front of the building at eight o'clock, other first at nine o'clock.
Did you loose your breath yet?

P.S. We do feel lucky though... Had we been living in Kamikatsu, we would have had 44 different waste categories.

Globalization

So, what do we do when we miss Denmark?
We go shopping! Here in Koriyama, we can buy plaids from Royal Copenhagen, shoes at the local Ecco store and 12 different kinds of Danish cheese at the local supermarket.
We can also get English breakfast tea, Haribo gummy bears, Indian Madras Curry, American Chocolate Cake Mix, French goat cheese, Canadian marble syrup, get a good cup of coffee at the local Starbucks or visit our local Harrods mini store if we are missing known western products.
The world definitely seems closer to Koriyama, than it did to Montes Claros. However, we sure do miss picanha and feijão tropeiro.

Our view from the balcony. If you double click it, it looks much nicer, because you can see the snowcapped mountains in the background.

Weekend in Aizu-Wakamatsu

The 11th of February was the day the very first Japanese emperor was crowned; therefore this date is named the National Foundation Day (Kenkoku Kinenbi) and has become one of many national holidays derived from a prior emperor.


Since this day falls on a Monday this year, it meant a long weekend for us, so we packed the car and went to a onsen hotel in a city called Aizu-Wakamatsu. Spending time in an onsen is THE most popular way to spend your vacation here in Japan, and everybody does it several times per year.
So, what is an onsen? An onsen is a hot spring, which there by the way is many of here, due to the volcanoes. The onsens are either public or privately owned by a hotel like the one we went to.
The most important thing is that you go to the onsen to relax. It is pure pleasure – and it is said that the water, depending of its contents of minerals have healing effects on you. The baths are often separated gender wise - and the clever ones enjoy an ice-cold beer or cold sake as they soak them selves in the often unbelievable hot water.
This sounds super nice. There is just one tiny catch. You have to skinny-dip! Bathing clothes (often also tattoos) are strictly forbidden. For a shy, tall, Scandinavian girl – it can be a challenging limit to cross, to share these baths nude with several tiny Japanese women.
Anyway, this time, we paid us out of it. I mean, you need to start somewhere! We arranged a hotel room (well helped by Henriks Japanese interpreter) where we had our own private bath. Now we are talking! Not only did we have the privacy, and the benefit of sharing the bath instead of being separated in man and women baths – we also had none stop access for 24 hours to the most gorgeous steaming hot pool with a view to the mountains! If that isn’t what life is all about, what is?

Well actually we must admit, that this is not something we could just jump in to. We did try though, but jumped out of the pool even quicker than we got in. Damn it is hot! You can feel you skin reacting to the hot water, your nails tickles as if they are ready to jump off and after few minutes in the water, you prefer to sit next to the open balcony door, even though it must have been freezing cold as it snowed out side...
During the day we could gradually extend the time we spent in the bath pr time, but we honestly never got really familiar with the hot water. Anyway, we are sure, this will be an appreciated luxury way of spending many of our weekends here in Japan.

As we had one of the better rooms at the hotel it meant we had our own private garden instead of a hall! The garden had gravel to symbolize water, and bigger stones as sort of a bridge. In this context the bridge symbolized a change of mindset. You walk from your stressful normal life outside the room, and arrive at a place where it is all about finding peace and harmony in your thoughts. So neat!
The room we entered was spacious and in typical Japanese style with tatami mats at the floor, flower arrangements, green tea and legless chairs, meaning you practically sit on the floor. And then there was a really nice surprise: a super advanced electric massage chair! Did we fight over it, or what?
There were also yukatas for us, with is a kind of cotton kimonos, which is the proper dress to wear at a place like that...also at the restaurant...!

There was no place to sleep though…strange! Giving it no further thought, we went to the restaurant area for dinner. Once more, we were impressed by the creativity in the Japanese kitchen. Several dishes were lined up for us in our private booth, inclusive a fruit cocktail, we thought. The cherry turned out to be a tomato, and there were raw octopuses mixed with the fresh pineapple pieces. We also had a big bowl of boiling soymilk, to fry our chicken and shitake mushrooms in, and we had a hot stone, where we could fry scrimps and pieces of an octopussy. This was all new to us. We also had a little of the more common things for us like sashimi (raw fish), tiny whole squids and of cause we ordered beers and a bottle of sake. Campai!

When we returned to the room, the low table had been removed and our futons had been made up! A futon is basically a semi hard thin madras put directly on the floor…and it is no cliché that you need to be costumed to sleep on a futon, before you can really enjoy it. We are still in the process :o)

Aizu-Wakamatsu is not all about onsens. During the Edo period it was home to a Samurai clan, and there are several traces left behind to tell the (hi)story, like a five-floor castle, that used to be the headquarters of the clan, the mountain where a group of samurais committed suicide, and Saigo Tanomos villa named Aizu Bukeyashiki.
We went to the latter as it was on the way from our onsen to the center of Aizu.
Saigo Tanomo was a master of martial arts and a skilled military strategist. He was the retainer of the Clans chief and his Yashiki (villa) is quite impressive with 38 rooms and tons of stuff dating back to the Edo period. We passed the many different drawing rooms, the room where Tanomos wife and children committed suicide, and the lavatory secured against ninjas.
We passed samurai armors and spears, drawers and kimonos and Henrik almost bought a Samurai sword while Barbara figured out what some of Dads things really are for, like the inros for carrying medicine. The place had quite many signs in English, so we did pick up a few details about the Edo-period, but we both feel like reading up on the subject, probably starting with Shogun.
We could easily have spent much more time there than we did, but it was freezing, and as you should take of your shoes as you enter the un-heated villa, you kind of hurry through the place. We are pretty sure though, that we will take another look at the place during the summer, as well as we would love to see the other sights in Aizu...as soon as it gets warmer.

We also spent some time in the center of Aizu, where we tried a couple of restaurants and went shopping for lacquer ware.

One place we ate at was Takino. It was a very traditional place, where you have to sit on the floor to eat. This place did not have a hole under the table to stick your long legs into, as we have had all the other ‘traditional’ places we visited… nope – this was just a pillow on the floor! After trying to sit in the formal position for few minutes, we gave up and tried to sit in other positions…kept changing them, could not find a position that really worked for us – reckon we need to practice the floor sitting thing.
At Takino we had a local dish called Wappa meshi, which is steamed fish over rice, cooked and served in a round container made of tree bark. It tasted really good and special, as the food takes taste of the bark. We also got a couple of surprise side dishes... - One was horse meat! That was a new one for us.

Another restaurant we went to was Mitsutaya. We really wanted to go there, but we couldn’t find it and it was freezing cold. To get warmer, we went into a shop for browsing, and who would have imagined that we would find the restaurant in the back of the shop! We guessed that the sign outside probably told us that, but if you cant read the signs, what good does it?
We were happy that we stumbled into the place by coincidence. The restaurant was set up in a former bean-paste mill. Bean paste is very popular in Japan, as it is one of their key seasonings called Miso.
The line for the place was huge, but Henrik had us added to the waiting list anyway and we found a place to sit and wait for a table. We thought about shopping some of the many delicacies at the shop, but dropped the idea knowing we would have no clue what to do with them. A man approached us on his way out, handing us a brochure – in English, explaining all about Miso. Nice guy!
A little hour later, we got a table at the ‘bar’ and ordered the set menu, consisting of 7 different kind of Dengaku, which are bamboo skewers with grilled tofu, fish or veggies. Great taste!

We arrived back in Koriyama Monday afternoon after three nice days in Aizu, feeling we have learned quite a bit more about the magnificent place called Japan…we still have a long way to go though. Luckily!

Integrating in Koriyama - KALMIA

In Denmark, we had our family and friends. In Brazil, we received several invitations every week from an open festive society and in that way got to know the Brazilians pretty fast and because of that, - gained some really good friends.
In Japan, so we are told, it is a lot more like Denmark. People tend to be more reserved.
For us, this sounds like the biggest challenge for our stay. Integrating and getting to know the culture is the fun part of living abroad, - and to do so, you need to be close to the local people, so what to do?
We try to be more progressive! A thing we never considered in Brazil, we did right away here: We joined KALMIA, a local international cultural exchange association.

Not really knowing what to expect on our way down to the signup meeting, we had mixed feelings. Would this be all about other western expatriates getting together for American coffee and danish or would we actually get a chance to get to know Japanese living here in Koriyama?
Our first reaction of what we found in the room of the sign up meeting was something like "no way could this be it!" 10 to 15 persons met us, but not a single western face in the international association. Hmmm... (!?)
Immediately the group greeted us friendly and welcomingly. They guessed we were from Denmark, as the former three couples expatriated from NN also used to be members of the association, and we found out, that the association mainly has members from China, Korea and Thailand which explained why we were the only western looking persons.

As we filled in the sign-up form, they asked what our talents are. What can we contribute with to the association?
Apparently, the members take turns in making small courses or lessons for the other members. This could be in dance, art, cooking etc. It is their way of getting to know each other’s cultures.
So... Our talent!? - We stared at each other. What talents do WE have? :o)
We did not write samba, as she proposed when she heard we have been living in Brazil, neither Danish folk dance!
What we wrote will be our secret for now. We are still trying to come up with something better...

Apart from the culture-sharing classes, the association gives free Japanese lessons twice a week, and arranges trips around the region to hot springs, the mountains or the neighbouring cities.
We are looking forward to get closer to the people there and learn more about the activities in the association.

The picture is a detail from our local shrine.

Setsubun

How odd it did sound in our ears, knowing that February is the coldest month of the year (at least in Koriyama), the 3rd of February is known as the first day of spring according to the traditional Japanese calendar.
It is also thought off as a kind of a new beginning of the year, so the Japanese use the day to make a fresh start, by cleaning out any evilness of the former year, by throwing soy beans either out the door or at someone wearing an Oni mask, while they shout Oni wa soto! Fuku wa uchi! ('Devils out'! 'Fortune in!')

We met one of these Oni’s (devils) jumping around in front of the supermarket wearing a red cat suit, looking more cute than frightening, but inspired by him, we bought a devils mask and a bunch of roasted soy beans, so he might just have had the effect the supermarket wanted.
Instead of throwing the beans at the devil though, we decided to use them on the other ritual done the same day: By eating 1 soy bean pr. year of our age, we have secured our luck for the year to come. :-)

We also passed by the local shrine hoping something festive would take part there. A stand was put up, but we did not have the guts to visit it. A few women rang the bell in front of the shrine, to tell the Gods that there were visitors. We reckon they visited the shrine, not because of the date, but because of their mindset that day.

This gate is the symbol of a Shrine (a Shinto shrine). It is called a Torii and it represents the division between the everyday world and the divine world. The tall red building in the backround is Lion's Mansion Shimizudai - you'll find our apartment on the 12th floor.

Next year we will try to get closer to the rituals of the spring Setsubun. We will check the schedules at the local temples and/or shrines and hopefully get hit by a soy bean or two thrown out the door by a woman as we pass by…

The first days at work

My first days at work have been filled with numerous new experiences and challenges, both professionally, practically and socially.

Just to mention a few:
- My new colleagues, all with names that could sound alike for the untrained ear.
- The new car I had to pick up at the parking lot after the first day at work, with a navigator in English, but with all addresses and maps in Japanese!
- The new procedure for changing clothes, which include taking off the shoes, BEFORE entering the locker room.
- How to register what you want to eat the following week and how to register that you actually eat what you chose - with a hanko-stamp.
- The electronic melody, several times a day, at the start and end of every break.
- Saying ohayō gozaimasu instead of bom dia, good morning or godmorgen.
- Receiving several emails a day in Japanese.
- Eating with chopsticks at lunch and always accompanied with a bowl of rice.

Even though many things are new to me, my colleagues at the same time help me to gain a social network and to have normal conversations in English, which is where I found a vent for the life here in Koriyama, which so far only has been characterized by conversations that is limited to bowing and saying I’m sorry and thank you very much, when we have left the apartment.
All in all it has been a very positive experience and challenge to start this new job, and with all the new things I will learn and the things I will be involved in, these three years will be very inspiring.

Just to comment on driving in Japan; the steering wheel is in the right side and you drive in the left side of the road. And the first time I tested myself in the traffic was with immense concentration. Luckily it sounds harder than it is. Actually it is just a matter of paying more attention the first days and making sure that when you turn right, - it is the long turn...

Starting our everyday life in Koriyama

The first day Henrik went to work, a bell rang. Not expecting that, I jumped up the sofa not really sure what to do. I figured it must have been the door-phone. I lifted off the rear and wondered...a guy started to talk in the other end ­- in Japanese of cause. I reply ‘IIe, Nihon-go’, which in no way is Japanese, just the words that means No! and Japanese language. The guy keeps talking and I reckon he wants to be let into the building.
I look at the thing attached to the phone rear: 22 different buttons all with a label in Japanese. Which one is the magic one that will open the door? I try them all from one end to another and when a sound starts as an alarm goes off, I figured it must have been the door that opened or that I had done something really wrong.
The mysterious call turned out to be a messenger. He gave me a package while he bowed several times to me, saying things I did not understand. I tried to follow him, by doing a lot of bows and said several times the only Japanese phrase I can speak so far: Arigatoo Gozaimasu, which means thank you very much. From the look on his face -­ it looked like I had managed to say stuff he did not understand as well.

The above story, is just one of many likewise encounters we have had so far. From the moment we landed on Japanese ground we have either felt lost, ignorant, unsure, misunderstood, confused or more than one of the mentioned feelings in all thinkable situations.

We spend hours in the supermarkets trying to find what we need and some things we have put on stand by, as we after 4 hours gave up finding that specific thing. Instead we have started to buy unidentified things. We have managed to have numerous conversations, were we understood absolutely nothing (though we have figured out that if we continue to smile, they eventually look happy, and stop talking to us) and we are surrounded by things and goods we have never seen nor used before, as the oven in shape of a drawer meant only for fish, the petroleum heaters with a Japanese instruction book and the really advanced rice cooker we at first glance thought was a vacuum cleaner.

The Japanese is not only 2 year-frontrunner on electronics, and have their different food and a difficult language, they also have an ancient culture, unique traditions and customs that we are being challenged to follow, whether it is the correct way to hold a cup, or to accept a gift, or even something as simple as to remember to take of the shoes before we enter a restaurant or even the work place. Luckily we find that part of our stay really fun and siege the challenge with pleasure.
It can be enormously fun to observe the local customs and hopefully, in the near future, it will pay off.

In the end, we find comfort in the universal law that says, whenever you have had an experience – you are that experience richer and feel more confident the next time. :o)

By the way ­ the package, covered with Japanese characters and just one name I could almost understand ‘Henrin Westerlin’ contained something as boring as three phone books.
But! Now that is efficiency. We had the phone connected just the day before!

A day's catch at the supermarket.

Getting settled

Today the Japanese demonstrated how super effective they are!
In half a day the leased furniture was set up in the apartment, a bank account opened and we signed up for our Alien registration card (that’s the official name for ID-cards to foreigners) at the prefecture.

Another observation that made our settling in seem promising is the fact that we can get everything here in Koriyama - even things we never imagined existed! And as soon as we can speak Japanese, we can be sure to get what we want as quickly as possible. If we ask at a shop for something (and they understand what we say), the staff will literally start to run until he or she has found what we asked for. Now, that is service!

Our first day in our new apartment turned out to be a success. We managed to arrange us in the apartment and shop for pretty much all we needed to start our lives here.

The picture shows the worlds highest located Planetarium, which is to find here in Koriyama.