National Lampoon's Christmas Holiday...

...made me happy I don't have a huge family xmas to look forward to, miss my dysfunctional, scattered and wonderful family, wish I would get a big xmas bonus and wonder how much time it would really take to get all those lights up!

Trying to get into the xmas spirit!

Went to the hyaku-en-shop (where everything is about 10kr) and got a bunch of xmas decorations today. Figured I might feel all xmassy and cosy if I surround myself with xmas. Have also decided to watch one episode of "Sunes jul" a day, a bit of nostalgia might help!
In addition to that, I have invited my friends over for Lucia on the 13th, and might even try to make some saffron buns. Freddan has sent a box of glögg, I'm keeping my fingers crossed it will get here before Lucia. Nothing gets you into the xmas spirit as fast as glögg does!

"Jinglebells, bjällerklang!"

Sweet old man!

Yesterday I went to Minowa to celebrate a friend's birthday. We all went out for dinner (and then karaoke of course ;) ), and while we were sitting around the table talking and eating and all that, this older man comes up to the table and gives us 1000 yen. Just like that. Then he said we should have some more drinks on him, and then he left.
That has never happened to me before, and we were all a bit surprised hehe =)

November so far!

November has been pretty good so far. Last weekend I had a couchsurfer here for a few nights, which was awesome. Love meeting new people, and when they have lots of cool travel tales it's even better. Took him to a rum party in Minowa that a friend of mine organised. Turned out to be me and 6 guys. Interesting...=) Always fun when guys forget there is a girl in the room, and you can just sit and listen and be as quiet as possible so they don't remember you're there ;)
Started watching Californication, kinda like it so far. I really like Hank Moody =)

Had dinner with some workmates on Wednesday night, love going out to dinner in the middle of the week. =)

Was supposed to have a couchsurfer here this weekend too, and had a bunch of things planned, but alas, I have been confined to my apartment all weekend for fear of swineflu. Had to go to the doctor on Friday, but wasn't allowed on the premises, so had to get an examination and have my tests taken in an oooooold ambulance. That was actually pretty cool, although I couldn't fully appreciate it due to a splitting headache (which was finally gone this morning when I woke up, yay!).
The test came out negative, which I was really happy about, until the doctor told me it was most likely a false negative (apparently 30% of people who test negative actually do have the flu) as my bloodtest and symptoms were apparently very flu like. Wasn't too happy about that! So, have now been cooped up at home popping pills and watching sad movies during my few concious hours.

Won't be going to work tomorrow, so any good sad movie tips?

One thing that keeps happening a lot, and which I find adorable, is Japanese kids thinking how amazing it is that we use Japanese words in English. Words like T-shirt, pants, game, orange and bye-bye. They get all excited when they realize the words are the same, and feel quite proud that other people obviously like Japanese so much that we want to use their words. Of course, there are words in English that are originally Japanese (samurai, kamikaze, sushi etc), but for some reason the kids never get excited about them...I never have the heart to tell them who's borrowing from whom... =)

Kodomo Expo

Was asked by my boss a while back to help out at the Shimosuwa Kodomo (kids) Expo by creating a Swedish booth. I had no idea what to do though, but I got the advice to contact the Swedish embassy for help. They were really nice and sent me a bunch of brochures, a dalahäst, a Swedish outfit and organized for the tourism bureau to send me some posters. In addition to that, I had my brother send me a bunch of bags of salty licorice, and my friends and I painted this thing to stick your head through for a photo. Here are some pics from the event:

The licorice wasn't a hit, as expected, we got a lot of hilarious facial expressions when they realized it was salty =) I had a great time, and the party afterwards was great as well! ;)

Cowgirl!

Went horseback riding with my friend Sonoko today. Check it out! =)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QNpVfflfzaQ

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QUCENb4Gv3M




We had so much fun!