Masaki and I met up at Kanazawa Hakkei Station at about 19h, then we went for a quick dinner at a nearby ramen-place and then off…somewhere! It was night, dark, and I had no idea where I was! (well, somewhere around Yokohama?) We got on another train, got off 15-20 minutes later then a walk for a few minutes to the hotel. Nice room (though it smelled cigarette, eww), where we spent a nice night, and then in the morning off to the train again…somewhere…

From the train I eventually saw this tiny island that looked like fun (it had a big rollercoaster and some interesting buildings), and we got off at the station next to it. Then we started walking towards the funny island and it turned out to be Hakkeijima Sea Paradise! My cutie Masaki had listened when I had said – so many times – that I wanted to go to a big aquarium, where you could walk in a sort of tunnel with water all around you and look at dolphins etc – and that’s exactly the kind of place he took me to! We spent all day there, walking around and looking at everything. There were some shows with dolphins, seals etc, and we even got to pet them! I also touched a starfish for the first time, interesting. I thought they would be…softer?

Besides the aquarium etc, there was also a place with trick-art, very fun to walk around in!

Late afternoon, after having seen everything (but not ridden the oh so fun-looking rollercoaster, since Masaki is afraid of them…), we took off and went to the next hotel. This time I knew that we would go to Kamakura the next day, so the hotel was not far from there. We checked in early, took a walk around the area, dinner at an izakaya, and then an early night. Up early in the morning to get to Kamakura, where we avoided the places we’ve been to before (like the giant Buddha – I’ve been there 3 times already!), and went to some new temples. Or so Masaki thought. Well, they were new to him at least, I realized that I’ve been there before with my host-sister. Didn’t matter though, they were beautiful places that I’d gladly visit again. I forgot the names though…but here’s some pictures.

And then came the evening and we had to split up… Masaki had to go back to the base and I back home… But it was a lovely, lovely weekend that my man had planned for us! Now I’m happily waiting for the next secret trip! On December 25th we’re travelling to the Oita prefecture down south, where we’ll be bathing in the onsens (host springs) of Beppu and then…I have no idea! Masaki is already planning where to take me and keeping it secret! Exciting! Can’t wait!

The second drama is Kaseifu no MIta (家政婦のミタ) – a drama that I started watching “by accident” by having it on as “company” since I’m always alone nowadays. This is about a big family – mom, dad and 4 kids. Dad cheats on mom with a colleague, so mom commits suicide. Dad knows about the suicide and reason, but decides to tell everyone that it was an accident. Since he’s working as a normal Japanese business man (= too  much), he hires a maid – Mita-san. Mita-san acts very robotic and will do anything – anything – that you ask her to do. Including murder… For more info, look here. It’s airing on Wednesday nights at 22:00, also on NTV.

Or you can stream these dramas (and many others – with and without subtitles – here!)

Besides these two drama, I’ve become very fond of the little actor playing Bero in Yokai ningen Bem, little Fuku Suzuki and his colleague (same age) Mana Ashida (they played together in the drama Marumo no Okite that I haven’t seen yet). They’re so incredibly cute, and have been a lot on different TV-shows recently, thanks to their dramas, but a great deal because of the song that they’ve made together – Maru maru mori mori (the ending song of their drama, apparently).

Maru maru mori mori–Kaoru to Tomoki

Cutie Mana-chan has also made a new song, which is very popular here at the moment! She’s constantly on different TV-shows performing this song and the one above. Tonight I was watching a show with various big artist performing on a BIG stage – and there was little cutie Mana-chan singing and dancing in front of thousands of people, as if it was nothing! Her new song is ステキな日曜日 (Lovely Sunday).

Mana-chan　–　ステキな日曜日

Can you do anything other than smile like an idiot when you see these two cuties, really? I totally understand why the whole of Japan are crazy for them now! Oh and by the way, most people (adults too) can do the “maru maru”-dance…

Do I need to mention that I’m excited? My boyfriend is the bestest! <3

The Japanese are quite funny, they think that Japan is the only country with four seasons, and are often very surprised then they hear that other countries also have four seasons. Well, to be more exact, Japan has more than four seasons. Or as Matt, the coordinator for us exchange-students back at the JSP program said; Japan has four seasons: too hot, to cold, too windy and too rainy. Yes, Japan also has a typhoon season with loads of wind (and rain). I’m pretty sure there’s some more seasons stuck in between there, but let’s leave that for now.

Anyway, one of the reasons that the Japanese think that they are the only ones with fours seasons, is that the change in the seasons in Japan is very obvious. In spring, we have the wonderful sakura (cherry blossoms), summer is hot and humid, autumn we can enjoy the beautiful colours of particularly the momiji (a kind of Japanese oak) and winter is cold as hell! (uhm, that is, if hell was cold, it’d be freezing wouldn’t it?) Of course for me, being a Swede, a winter with no snow is no winter.

Enjoying the sakura in Ueno Park, April 2011.

Anyway, autumn finally came, and the travel agencies are offering wonderful weekend-trips to go enjoy the 紅葉 – こうよう – kouyou = the autumn colours. This means going to a place famous for having a park/forest filled with the momiji in particular, where you can enjoy the amazing red and yellow leaves. I have to agree that this sure is something different, and even though we have wonderful nature in Sweden as well, it really can’t compete with either the sakura or momiji!

Wonderful momiji in Mt.Narita Park, November 2010.

As for us, Masaki and I are going to Kamakura at the end of November to enjoy the autumn colours! He also has a secret trip planned the day before Kamakura which he won’t tell me about. I’m excited!!!

Talking about Masaki, well he’s off to JSDF school by Yokohama, about 3 hours from home. Which means that he only comes home in the weekends. Which means that I’m lonely as hell and complaining about it all the time! it’s no fun at all to be alone all the time! He comes home late on Friday nights and has to leave again on Sunday at about 14h…so barely 24 hours together… At least it’s only until December… Please let it be December soon!

Masaki and I have been together for 1 year! ONE YEAR! Wow, time sure flies…

One happy year together, and I’ve never felt so loved, so appreciated, so wonderful as when I’m with him! And I love him to bits, my crazy Japanese man, my handsome samurai!

One year together, and I hope there will be many, many more to come. No matter what people around us say, that it’s hard to be together with a foreigner, someone from outside your culture etc. Oh yes, my parents keep saying that, based from their experience. So what? I grew up with two cultures, it’s the only life I know! Yes, but Masaki didn’t said my dad. So? He’s the most un-Japanese guy I’ve met! Even his own family says that he must have been European in his past life, since he doesn’t act or think Japanese at all! Why be so pessimistic? Just because we’re not from the same country? What does that have to do with anything anyway? We’re happy together and intend to continue being that, together!

To Masaki: I love you more than I can explain! My Japanese vocabulary isn’t enough, to tell you all that I want to say, all that I want you to know. And your English is far from enough… But it’s ok. I can see it in your eyes when you look at me, that you’re just as crazy about me. It’s the first time that I’ve ever felt so sure about someone’s feelings.

ずっと、ずっと、ずっと、ずっと、一緒にいよう！

This one’s for you:

Anyway.

The summer’s been damn hot and humid. Too hot and humid. Anyone who’s considering going to Japan during summer, here’s the best piece of advice you’ll ever get: DON’T! It’s hotter than hell and even more humid. You can sit still in the shade all day long and still be soaking wet by the end of the day. Sucks. If you still do decide to come anyway, be prepared to shower 2 times a day – at least – and to be constant tired, irritated, annoyed, grumpy, sweaty etc…the heat does that do you.

Which is one of the reasons that I spent all of August in Sweden! Yeay! One month in chilly Sweden, which had already decided that it was time for autumn to come. It was great to be back, and I have to be honest and say that I wasn’t particularly happy about going back to Japan… Since I started working and living here for real, you know, not being an exchange student, but really living and working here, paying tax, getting a salary etc, all that, I’ve realized that Japan has a really bad life quality! Really! They work like what, 12 hours a day or more, say nothing when their bosses tell them to move to Poland for 2 years without their family (yes, it happened to my host brother…) and think it’s normal!!! Poor, poor Japanese… So yes, Masaki and I aren’t very happy about spending the rest of our lives here, so we’re hoping to be able to move to Europe soon… Unfortunately, it’ll most likely take a year more before we can do it…we need to save money and he needs to learn more English…

So, Sweden. Yes, a month back at my parents’ place, eating mom and dad’s food, chilling, visiting friends in Malmö and Stockholm aaaand guiding around Masaki for a week when he came for a visit the last week I was there. So yes, he met my family and saw my country and he liked it all! He said that Stockholm was a nice village, small enough, calm, quiet, fresh air, not so much people, perfect! (Ahh yes, once you’ve been to Tokyo, you’ll understand…)

Breaktime at Skeppsholmen, Stockholm

It was great to see everyone again, not only my family, but my dear, dear wonderful friends as well! I spent a few days (too few!) in Malmö, first one night in Helsingborg, visiting Emma & Yousef and their son Noah and dog Asima. Then off to Malmö to see my wonderful Nat, that I’ve missed so much! I also accidently bumped in to Jesper and Anna while walking in Malmö. Sweden is so tiny! Also, I got the chance to meet my dear cousin Andrej too!

WIth my best Nat in Malmö

Over in Stockholm I met up with Pouya, Christoffer, Malin, Siavash, Peyman, Mikael and Sofia! Great Hofors-meeting! (We all grew up together and I’ve known most of them since I was 6 – except Malin, who is Christoffer’s awesome girlfriend) We go tipsy on 3 bottles of Cristal champagne, Cosmo’s and Appletinis at Stureplan (which Siavash paid for) and had an awesome time together!

Reunion in Stockholm <3

Well, then there was the great week with Masaki in Sweden, showing him as much as possible, letting  him try Swedish food (ooohhh the idiot even tried surströmming – basically rotten fish that smells worse than hell! Luckily he did not like it…). Obviously there were language-issues there, since he only speaks Japanese and some, well, not too impressive English, and my parents speak Swedish, Spanish or English (in my father’s case). My dad prefers not to speak English however, so I had to translate all the time, which made me cranky…and I think Masaki understood the importance of him learning English as well… But, it was wonderful to have him there, in my country!

A month goes by really fast, and so the 30th of August we were on the plane together, going back to Japan. Change in China and then finally on the 31st we were back in our apartment. Two weeks later, my friend Maria and her Fredrik came for about a week’s visit! We had some bank holidays that week, so they came on a Friday evening, and I had the following Monday and Friday off (and had to take Wednesday off due to the typhoon blowing over the country – no way that I could get to and back from work!). We showed them most of Tokyo and went all the way to Enoshima and Kamakura as well, busy busy! Great time, but I’m ashamed to admit that spending that much time together with Maria brought up the old child in me, making me behave and say things the way I used to talk to her when I got annoyed (which isn’t very nice at all). It wasn’t all me though, she was unfortunately sick while she was here, and that can make anyone cranky and grumpy. But all in all, we all had a great time and it was nice to spend time together, despite the grumpiness involved. Maria, if you read this, I’m really sorry, but you know I love you anyway!

Maria got quite fond of purikura while visiting us here

Well, and now it’s been a week since they left and a month since we came back from Sweden. Time flies, and it really does feel like it’s been longer than only a month… Strange… I really don’t want time to go slowly now, I want it to fly by fast, fast, fast, at least until December! The reason being that my Masaki has gone off today to Yokohama, to the JSDS school over there (since he got promoted in May, he has to go to school for a few months). Yes, I know I should be happy that it’s at least Yokohama, and not Kyoto or so, because at least he can come home in the weekends. Maybe… But that’s just the thing, maybe he can come, maybe not… He shares a room with like 6 other guys or so, and if only one of them does something stupid, that means that none of them will be allowed to go home for the weekend! And mobile phones are only allowed on certain hours in certain places, if at all… So, almost no contact at all until December! I’m already damn lonely as it is over here, since I have no friends here in Kashiwa (other than the Starbucks-gang, but I only meet them in Starbucks on Tuesday nights…). Gaah! Now I really want Doreamon’s dokodemodoa (literally “anywhere-door”)! And yes, it would be very awesome to have it to visit my friends and family all over the world, not only Masaki n Yokohama. (^-^)v

So, what happened was that Masaki and I got the great idea to climb Fuji-san a few weeks ago. He searched the net for some tours and found a good one. Last Sunday we got up early and headed off to Shinjuku to catch the tour-bus. After about 2-3 hours (the highway was pretty congested) we finally arrived to the 5th level on Fuji. There’s 10 levels. If you’re hard-core, you’ll start at the 1st. But then again, why the heck do that when you can take the bus to the 5th?

The 5th level where most people start climbing from.

We chilled for about and hour and got changed, then our group gathered (together with like a zillion other groups) and started the climb. Sorry, I mean hike. To start with it’s not so much climbing as it is hiking. Once you pass the 7th level you’ll start sort of climbing at some parts. Or rather, it’s like walking up a very steep set of stairs. With irregular steps. Slippery ones too.

It was a hot day, you know, typical damn Japanese summer. Humid. Eww. Even before going, I had checked several websites on hiking up Mt.Fuji, just to be prepared. All of them wrote something like “getting altitude sickness is common, and the only way to cure it is to climb down again”. “F*ck, I’m sure I’ll get that” I thought, but what the heck, let’s do this. And sure enough, already on the 5th level, as we arrived on the bus, I could feel a beginning headache. Great.

Anyhoo, the hike started and it went alright up to the 6th level, which took about 2 hours I think. Fuji-san is a volcano, so we were walking on lots and lots of volcanic stone, old lava you know. Tiny round little things that made it hard to walk and easy to fall. Loads of people hiked, in our group only we were about 30. Then add the other zillion groups to that and you can understand why the hiking went sloooow! In one way it was a good thing, getting the body used to the height, but at the same time we had to walk much slower than what we could have, which tired us more (and took much longer time).

This is what you walk on…

As we climbed, my headache got worse and worse. Thank god we had bought the walking-sticks! Even Masaki, who had been reluctant to buy one at first, agreed that it was a good buy and that we would have been more exhausted if we didn’t have them.

Masaki and our new best friends.

6th and 7th level reached and passed and we were all beginning to wonder if it really would take those 8 hours to climb, as our tour-leader had said. We started to climb ad 13h, and would reach the 8.5th level at about 21h…really? 8 hours? My headache was horrible and I was already exhausted. 4 more hours to go…really? Please say you’re joking!

We were far above the clouds, really cool to see them from above, without being in an airplane. I kept seeing (and hearing) people using these little oxygen-bottles, and I wondered if I should have bought one myself. As we climbed and got the to mountain-huts and rest-houses on the 6th and 7th levels, not only the water, but everything else also got disgustingly expensive. If a normal 500ml water bottle costs 110 yen normally, it cost 200 yen at the 5th level…and kept getting more expensive…

It felt like we’d never arrive. Nightfall came and we could see the light of the towns far below starting to pop out like stars. And the  moon, by the horizon, was scaringly red. Is it always that red before getting higher?

Very bad picture, but that’s supposed to be a very red moon above the city (but under us)

We took out our headlights and cheered every time our guide said that we could stop and rest. And moaned every time he said it was time to go again, way too soon. But finally, finally we made it to the 8.5th level, our stop for the night! My headache was killing me and I felt nauseous…oh god… Masaki kept asking me if we should stop and climb down again, but I was hesitant and wanted to reach the top. It would probably be our only climb up!

There’s a Japanese saying “if you don’t climb up Mt.Fuji at least once, then you’re stupid. If you climb it more than once, you’re also stupid”. As we climbed, I recalled these words and thought to myself “oh sooo true! I totally understand! Who in the world ,in their right mind, would go through this more than once!?!?!”. Even our second tour-leader, who walked at the end of the line, got sick and had to climb back down. To the man’s defense, I have to say that he had climbed up the day before as well…

Finally in the mountain hut, the last one before the top! I collapsed and had a hard time getting off my shoes and then getting to the table to get dinner. Hamburgers (not the American kind with bread and all, just the meat and some rice). I felt my nausea getting worse. I took two bites, then grabbed on to Masaki’s arm and whispered “I really don’t feel well…”. His eyes got big “should we go outside, to the bathroom?”. “Yes…”. We got up from the table and started walking…too slow! Luckily one of the staff from the hut saw that I was about to vomit on the tatami-flooring, so he ran up with a plastic bag for me and the moment I got my face down in it, everything in my stomach came out. We managed to get to the bathroom, where I went to the ladies’ room to see if my stomach had something else to say, while poor Masaki took the bag and went to the gents’ to empty it. After a while, we went back and I managed to eat the rest of my hamburger and a bit of rice. Masaki also got me a small oxygen bottle, which I clung to for the rest of the time. (It cost us 2000 yen up there…I wonder what it costs normally?)

The hut at the 8.5th level.

At 21.30, we finally went to bed, squeezed together in hard, wide bunk-beds where they jammed in as many people as possible. Luckily we were only supposed to sleep until 1.30, when we had to get up and start the climb again. Masaki asked again if we should go down instead, but I figured that we were so close to the top, that what the heck.

1.30, get up, get more clothes on, cause it was freezing cold (and of course I didn’t have a good coat…). Start the climb again at 2, then climb for 2 hours to the top. I puked again on the way up, and our tour-leader kept checking on me and several others in the groups who didn’t feel well. Many people had given up and climbed down again. I didn’t want to be one of them. I didn’t want to have to climb up the damn thing again!

So, 2 hours later, at 4, we finally reached the top! We got in to a bigger hut, where they had food, and rested there for an hour. Apparently the sun came out, at least that’s what the pink clouds told us. Yes, on our first and ONLY climb up Mt.Fuji, it was cloudy at the damn top! All we could see were pink clouds! And people taking pictures of the pink clouds.

Sunrise at the top of Mt.Fuji.

There’s this extra tour, to get to the real top (not far up), which takes you around the crater and from where, on a nice day, you can see the view all around Mt.Fuji. This was closed due to bad weather. Just our luck… Apparently there’s a bunch of shrines and temples at the top, built out of stone! Stone!!! Who the heck brought up all that stone and material to make, not only one, but several shrines, temples and other huts/shops all the way up there??? I had problems just getting myself up there! The Japanese truly are amazing… We even found vending machines up there! And guess what the water cost? 500 yen!!!

Vending machine at the top of Mt.Fuji.

After one hour, at 5, it was time for out tour to go down. 10 hours in total to get all the way up! Guess how many hours it took us to go down? 3! THREE!!! But, it was not so much walking/hiking as it was sliding/falling. Our tour-leader told us that we could walk freely after passing the 8th level, and so we did. It got hotter and hotter and we kept stopping to take off clothes, rest and get oxygen (well, me at least). Funnily enough, my headache got better while at the top of Fuji, but once we started going down again, it got worse. Strange…

Going down was actually harder than going up, because of the steep slopes and tiny round lava-stones. Both of us (and tons of people around us) kept falling backwards when going down, it looked kind of funny. But finally, when we got to the 6th level it got easier to walk. At about that time we also thought that it we were almost there, soon done, but apparently it was longer than we thought. Still, we arrived at about 8.

The lake that we kept seeing. I wonder what lake it is…

Finally down, we went to the huge tatami-room which is used as a changing-room and chill-room for all the climbers. We were the second couple to get in there and got a good spot. We washed our faces, ate some then fell down like dead and slept for about 2 hours. When we woke up, the room was full of climbers, just as tired as us and sleeping. We ate some in the restaurant, walked around for a bit and then it was time to gather with the tour again, to go to an onsen – hot spring – to go wash ourselves.

I can tell you this – onsen has never felt so good, ever! Hot water, washing my body clean from all the dust and dirt, pure heaven! On the way back to Shinjuku, both of us fell asleep in the bus, exhausted.

The next day, Tuesday (Monday was a holiday), Masaki had the day off from work, lucky bastard. But I had to go to work… So, alarm set at 6.45, time to get up. Or so I thought. Even changing positions in bed hurt like h*ll! I tried to stand up but my legs screamed in pain. Or was that me? I called my boss, head banging, legs screaming. Don’t remember what I said other than that I had climbed Mt.Fuji and couldn’t walk. Then back to bed, knocked out and slept until 14.30. When we woke up, all dizzy and tired, Masaki started teasing me and calling me “my penguin”, since I couldn’t walk properly. I couldn’t even stand up without using my arms to mush myself up with. What horrible pain!

And now, a week later, my calves still hurt… At least I can walk properly though, but it’s been painful. Anyway, since Mt.Fuji was cloudy at the top, does that mean that we have to climb up again? As Masaki said, “If we could be 200% sure that the weather would be nice, so we could see the view and walk around the crater, then I’d go up again. If not – no way!”

But hey, at least we’re not idiots anymore, right?

Fuji-san, seen from Hakone (taken in October 2009)

I wish I could remember my dreams…

The problem is… When I wake up, I can’t remember them! They’re just…vague memories… Whispers… Transparent images… And I can’t grasp them…

I wish someone could invent a dream-recorder… I’d love to see those dreams again! They’re still in there, inside my mind, my memory, imagination, somewhere…

Just you guys wait…

I don’t really have much to tell. Really. I work, come home, eat, watch anime, study some Japanese (maybe. Mostly not), chill out with Masaki, watch TV, go to bed. In the weekends, we usually try to do something, get out somewhere. Last weekend we went to La La Port in Minami-Funabashi and watched Pirates of the Caribbean – On Stranger Tides. It was ok, good movie, but the first 3 were better. Obviously.

Good news 1: Masaki passed his air traffic controller-exam, so now he’ll get the license. Well for the JSDF (Japan Self Defense Force) at least.

Good news 2: We’ve booked and paid tickets to Sweden this summer! I’ll be going for sure on July 31st to August 31st, and Masaki miiiiight come with me until August 9th – IF he gets those 10 days off that is. Keep your fingers crossed that he does.

So, work. Well, it’s same old same old. Cute kids. Smart. But man, can they be loud!

Hmm, what else do I have to say…? I bought a new mini-laptop! An HP Pavilion dm1-somethingsomething. Tiny thing for work. Good thing I bought it, cause my old one is starting to die on me again, damn thing.

Oh right, and so the title of this post. Yeah, it’s my birthday tomorrow. 29. Eww… I remember when I turned 19, I freaked out about turning 20 the year after. One year in advance. I’m trying not to do so now. Just forget about it. I don’t feel like 29. 29 year old people are married, have kids, proper jobs, maybe a house etc. I don’t. I feel like…23? Not that I want to go back to being 23. It was a good time, back then yes, but I’ve been there, done that, got the T-shirt. Hmm, maybe I am 29 after all… But not yet, one day left! Not even that really, only about 17 hours left or so, if we’re gonna be precise about it. I was born at 4.16 in the morning, Swedish time. Which makes it at either 11.16 or 12.16 in the morning/afternoon, Japanese time. So by lunchtime (Japanese time) tomorrow, I’m 29 for sure. So let me enjoy my last hours of being 28. All alone, since Masaki’s out drinking with his colleagues to celebrate that he passed the exam. Oh, and he’s got the nigh-shift tomorrow too, so there’s no b’day celebration for me this year. Boo… I’ll be going to Starbucks to meet up with the “Starbucks-gang” there tomorrow night, as they do on Tuesday nights. They don’t know it’s my b’day though, but whatever. I’ll celebrate for myself, buying the sakura-cake for once, that  they have there together with my tea. That’s my b’day cake this year. Feels kind of sucky. At times like these, I really wish I had the “dokodemo-doa” (“anywhere-door”), that Doreamon has. Just open it up, and you’ll be where you want to go. I’d be going home to mom and dad for sure. Then off to party with my friends in Europe! I hate spending my birthday alone! When I turned 25, I rented the top floor of the nightclup I was working in and had a pajama-party with karaoke together with my 140 closest friends on campus… Man that was a good night!

My 25th birthday was awesome!

Well, tata for now. Next time I update, I’ll be older and more bitter.

Happy birthday to me…whohoo…

Hanami with the Starbucks-gang

On April 11th, my new job started – finally! I’ve been sooo bored it’s ridiculous! The first week we had training at the Board of Education, and the following week we started at our schools. Unfortunately I didn’t get any of my old schools – BOOO!!! I really miss my schools and colleagues! And this year I’ve got double the amount of schools – 4 instead of 2! 3 Elementary Schools and 1 Junior High School! I’ll be running between them in a complicated schedule. Mostly I’ll be at the ELSs, since they have no English teachers of their own. The schools seem ok, hard to tell yet since it’s only been a week. The staff are all nice, as always, and hopefully I’ll be able to make some friends. 3 of my schools are very close to home, but the last one is a 6 mins trainride + 30 mins busride + 10 mins walk away… NOT fun! Especially not since I have very heavy luggage to carry, and if it’s raining… Luckily I’ll only be going there once a week. Anyway, it’s fun to be working again, even though I’m not used to it anymore, since I’ve been free for a month and a half. Which means that I’m as good as dead when I get home in the afternoon, not having the energy to even cook! Not to mention how much my stiff shoulders hurt… Oh and the bad shoes I wear at work make my feet and back hurt a lot! I’m 28, but with the body of an old lady… I really need to do something about it. First up is getting a pair of good shoes! Got a pair of Nike Free Run recommended, will be getting those as soon as my salary comes in…

Talking about shopping, I also bought (or well, my parents bought me, as an early b’day present) a 12 inch computer! Will be getting it shipped here from Sweden after it arrives at my parents’ home around May 20th. So hopefully I’ll have it by the beginning of June! Will be easier to do my job with it (we’re getting a portable wifi-thingie too. Masaki will be able to use it on the base to talk with me while I’m in Sweden this summer). The computer I got was an ASUS Eee PC 1215B – a real monster, stronger and faster than my “big” laptop! I’m excited!

Talking about shopping, I’ve been spending (and will spend) a lot recently! First up: new camera! Got it yesterday since I’ve been disappointed with my Canon IXY 930IS since I bought it in November 2009. Bad zoom, bad picture quality…eww! Now I got the Fujifilm Finepix F300 EXR, which seems really good! Will be trying it out for real this weekend, when Masaki and I go to Kumamoto for the weekend, and then off to his parents’ place in Fukuoka until Mat 6th! Golden Week, here we come! However, that means spending more money, so you can see where my salary will be going, as soon as it gets into my account next week – straight into Masaki’s pocket (since he’s paid for the trip and all in advance). Anyway, we’re both very excited to get away, see something new and see his family. It’s not as scary as it was at New year’s, but I’m still nervous…

Ok, so trips – I haven’t said that we might be going to Sweden this summer! I’ve booked the tickets preliminary – we’ve got to decide in May – but for the moment we’ll both be going in July 31st! Masaki can only take about 10 days off or so, so he’d be going back home on August 9th, while I’d be staying until the 31st (it’s good to be a teacher with loooong holidays!). Unfortunately he won’t know for sure if he gets the week off he requested or not, until about 2 weeks – a month in advance. Which is why we’ll be booking the tickets with a cancellation security thingie. So keep your fingers crossed that he gets the days off so I can introduce him to my family!!!

Hum what else do I have to tell you…? Hum, well my childhood friend Maria and her Fredrik will be visiting us in September! Awesome news! I’ll be getting home on the 31st of August,  and they’d be getting here on September 16th! It’ll be Silver Week over here, so I’ll be free for 3 days, work 3 then free 3 more days. Hopefully Masaki will have one day off while I’m at work, so he can show them around. If not, I have an extra mobile phone, which they can take…

News nr 2: Masaki’s got his big-ass exam on May 25th, to get his Air Traffic Controller license!!! So all he does is study study study. Will be good once it’s over, so he can concentrate on studying English. He’s taking the TOEIC on May 29th, just to see what level he’s at. Then it’ll be all English… But for now, 100% concentration on the air traffic exam!

Ok, that’s it for my update this time! Hopefully I won’t be so slow with the next, but I can’t promise… Time for bed over here, so nighty nighty!