Last day before midterms is here, and I have just finished writing up 5 A4 pages of grammar points (30 of them) I am suppose to know for tomorrow. On top of that I have to memorize 4 essays, 2 opinions, 176 kanji (where I have to write 63 of them). They manage to cram a lot of things into 5.5 weeks of studying. Japanese are diligent people. Now, back to the books. & happy 17th of May, everyone! I will celebrate once these tests are over and done with.

& I haven’t studied enough for today’s interview test. I guess I have to write up three things really fast now, and cross my fingers. We get the strangest topics to talk about. Today, I will either be asked if I am for or against alcohol and tobacco in vending machines (自動販売機の撤廃に賛成/反対ですか。), if I believe that dinosaurs could roar or not (since reptiles can not really roar) (恐竜は吼えたか。), or what I think about standing to one side in the escalator (エスカレーターの片道を開けて置くについて。). The truth is that I am not sure what to answer, even in English or Norwegian, so trying to have an opinion about these things in Japanese is ridiculously hard. I always feel like I just have to fake having an opinion when I am asked about such things during a test.

My weekend have been absolutely perfect when it comes to being social and actually having a life, which means that Japanese study + blogging had to put a little bit in the background. I know a lot of people hate Eurovision, so if you are one of them, feel free to skip the rest of this entry. but I love the yearly party. It is all in good fun. It is actually quite ok with the whole Eurovision circus if you can just get into it. I have been avoiding absolutely all news including facebook all of Sunday until I had watched the Eurovision finals. Before I knew who would win I liked Azerbaijan a lot. Good chorus! Also, kudos to France for actually daring to send that type of song to the final. Sending an Opera to Eurovision! Almost as good as two years ago when France sent Patrica Kaas. I love how dead serious France has been the latest years about Eurovision, it is actually quite a refreshing thing to see something like that in Eurovision it sets France apart from the average Eurobeats. Finland was cute, but not a very good voice. Also, I don’t really like songs with a political message about how we ruin the environment, but the melody was cute nonetheless. UK and the man-band was 10 years too late and can please go home. Lituania needs vocal lessons. Surprised Spain did not get more points, and surprised Sweden got as many as they did though. Blablabla. Next year – Asiavision! (Since the winning country isn’t even in Europe. Not the first time that happened though.) Happy with the result, it was a worthy winner.

We went for a great little walk around the neighborhood a couple of days ago. The sun was shining and it was getting hot outside, so we figured it would be a waste to just sit indoors and do homework and work. I love that about Tokyo, you can go right outside your door, and you will always find someplace new and interesting to explore.

I think the house above is actually lived in. I tried to find the entrance, but it wasn’t that easy because of all the greens.

I think that those stairs must lead to the entrance of the house.

People have small and strange things on display in tiny windows.

I love how people actually put small and cute things in their potted gardens.

We found this really strange and almost abandoned street. It must have been bustling in earlier days, but now half of the shops were closed up.

Still, the usual street decorations were up. I almost want to get something like this to decorate the house with. I know it is flashy, but I figure, if I had a big white room this would liven it up. Yay? Nay?

& I am always interested in typography, and I love the font they used for Toyland in the picture above. Unfortunatly, Toyland seems to have closed down, but I need to figure out the name of this font, or if it is specially made for the shop.

English conversation school in shoddy back street.

I am not sure what this display is about, but around the entire house there were small displays of cans and bottles.

There was also lots of shoddy stray cats.

And if you shop is too small to fit all of your goods, you can always get some extra storage space by opening up the back of your car.

It was dark by the time we went back home.

Forgot to post these, but the other day when we were out for a walk, we stopped for some Okinawan food. The food wasn’t the greatest I had tasted in my life at this particular restaurant, but it tasted home-cooked, which is always a big plus in my book. And it was really satisfying 🙂 We had some kind of noodles, a stir fry with a very bitter green vegetable, and some taco-balls. When I write taco-balls, I do not mean the regular Japanese taco-balls with squid and batter, but actual western taco, minced meat with Mexican influences and tabasco. Those were actually very yummy.

1. I wish I was rich so I could take a taxi home from school instead of walking for 30 minutes in the rain.
2. I wish that I had two extra hours that I could waste on the internet.
3. I get amazed with all of you creative wonderful people out there. God, you guys produce so many wonderful things.
4. I can not find any nice shorts. I have looked both in stores and online, but I don’t like most of the styles that are in this year. Do you guys know of any decent place, hopefully which has an actual store in Japan that sells cute shorts and pants?
5. I crave avocado and tobiko and ham and cheese and sushi and pizza and and and… I just want to eat my way into tomorrow.

The sky the other day looked like something taken right out of the Sistine Chapel. Isn’t it absolutely gorgeous? I feel so small and so grateful at dusk, just when the city is colored blue and purple and everything turns just… a little more quiet.

In other news; Busy busy busy. That is what I always write, right? Too many ideas and too many things I want to do, too little time to get it all done. I suppose it is a luxury problem, I never get bored. I prefer to keep myself busy, it keeps the head in check imho. I have no idea how it all of a sudden went from Saturday to Wednesday without me updating. I guess real life took over, classes started again after a really nice golden-week-vacation, and I am really going to try to make an effort with the schoolwork for this semester.

Hope you all had a nice weekend.

One of my friends will be in the semifinal in Norske Talenter, so you have to vote for Reel Rhythm! I am not in Norway, so I can not vote myself, but they are super-talented, and deserve to win this thing! So vote vote vote! GO HANNE!

Aren’t these cameras beautiful? I found them walking in Shinjuku the other day. Ever since I found out that Jan Saudek used a Rolleiflex I have been lusting for one, but I have never shot with one and I am not sure I understand how they work.

I should be studying, but I find it so much more fun to sit around and edit pictures, edit html and css, and drink coffee. If things are looking a little bit weird here at the moment it is because I have made some minor updates to the design. I removed the sidebar on the pages, and I added another menu-line at the top for galleries. Hopefully I can gather photographs and illustrations and make two new galleries soon. Does it look ok? If anything looks odd please let me know.

… it was 2006. I took pictures of Madeleine for fun.

… and was highly fascinated with the grain in magazines, snapping pictures of pictures.

… I loved lace and sparkly shoes. It is painful to look at outfit photos from this time. Glad to have grown up since then.

… The sun was actually shining a lot in May.

I must have eaten sushi at least one time.

And I must have had apple juice at a cafe which no longer exist.

And I was organsing huge piles of cheap photo prints to use as reference, now I think about how I could better have spent my money.

I spent a lot of time in coffee shops, drinking sparkling water and writing down random notes in notebooks.

… I lived dirt-cheap, but ate at expensive restaurants.

I also had grand meals at home.

I think this is the first time in my life I have actually started to look through the bottomless pit of photos in my archive. It is funny just how much is completely forgotten, maybe it is mostly for the best. Most of these pictures were taken with an old compact camera, it was my dear baby for several years, if I ever come across the same camera again, I would buy it in a second, despite it’s 3mpx and slow reaction time.