Whistles Autumn/Winter 2011 from WHISTLES on Vimeo.

Look at all the pretty clothes! If I would have had money left over, I would have bought several pieces from this collection, but I am trying a pretty hard-core saving strategy for this fall, so I have to settle for watching these beautiful videos instead.

Life at the moment is super-busy, and the combo of rain rain rain and a lot of classes have made it near impossible to bring my camera with me anywhere in the past week. In one of my classes this week I had to translate a text about sport in Japan, and it made me think about the pictures I took at the sumo turnament in Tokyo in 2010. I especially find it funny with the McDonald’s commercial boards walking around.

But in some ways, the most significant choices one makes in life are done for reasons that are not all that dramatic, not earth-shaking at all; often enough, the choices we make are, for better or for worse, made by default.

// Marya Hornbacher

// Whenever I miss someone, I like to look up at the sky, or maybe even the sun, and then I think that it is the same sun that glows on the other side of the planet. Same sky, same planet. Things feel closer that way. Small comforting things.

I just found this song again, after having forgotten about it for a long time. Rimi Natsukawa is from Okinawa, and she has a beautiful voice. I heard about her from one of my best friends (hi Kristin!), and I have loved her voice ever since.

I have already fallen in love with both Hipstamatic and Instagram, but I think I have found another camera for the iPhone to fall in love with. Plastic Bullet is very simple, in fact, the results you get are totally random, just like with a real toy camera. Above is a couple of random test shots. It was absolute worth the price. Not sure how much it is in USD or NOK, but it was just a couple of hundred yen from the Apple store. (Funny thing – my iPhone is set to Japanese, and all text in the app also showed up in Japanese. Really cute. I think it shows up in English if you have your phone set to English, though!)

Sometimes I forget that the people who read this blog can not read my mind, and I just assume that I everybody know what I am doing and thinking. I realize this is not the case, sorry for not including personal tidbits! I got a couple of questions about where I am right now and if I am leaving Japan and etc, and the answer is that right now I am in Norway (anybody else in Bergen atm?), not sure how long I am staying in total, but right now I am thinking until mid-December. I already have my return ticket bought and stored safely, so I will be back in Japan in a couple of months. It isn’t the easiest thing in the world to be so far away from the city you love and your friends, not to mention that one very special person in your life, but if it is one thing Japan has taught me – it is the virtue of doing what you are suppose to do, take pride in what you are doing, and to do whatever you are doing excellent. Which is what I am planning to do. (1. This sounded really snotty. It wasn’t meant snotty. 2. Now I want to insert bad jokes about how I am not returning to B-sia, I am returning to A-sia. I realize this is not very funny.) And I know that if I fill my days with all the things I am suppose to do, time will pass a lot faster than sitting around moping wishing I was somewhere else already.

I forgot to post these! They have been stored on my phone. Thank you instagram. Anyhow; top four, cemetery near my hairdresser in Gaienmae, Tokyo, two bottom pictures, my last meal in Japan (this time around), and my first and only meal in Russia. I want to make silly Russian jokes about food and fat content, like “In Soviet Russia, food eats you”, but I can not think of anything remotely funny.

♥ lots of free wireless networks in the city center ♥ THE COFFEE! ♥ I can totally listen in on other people’s conversations and actually get what they are talking about ♥ it is blueberry season! (technically, bilberry season, since Norwegian blueberries are bilberries, not blueberries, but I have already covered this in a previous post) ♥ I bought a whole block of Norvegia cheese just because I could ♥ the internet connection in this apartment is fast and smooth ♥ I can throw out my trash any day of the week, I don’t have to keep it inside my apartment until trash day ♥ LOTS of birds in the park ♥ my iPhone has internet and I can do Japanese quizzes on the bus, not a wasted moment ♥ I could read every single field on the form I filled out when I went to change my address (I was so excited I actually went around the office there and started reading random other forms as well, just because I could!) ♥

Everything was beautiful and nice and sparkly and bright, and then all of a sudden…

These guys showed up…

And the ground started looking like this…

:/ I am still trying to soak in the last remains of summer. I actually do not mind fall in Japan, but this fall I am in Norway, and fall is Norway is not my thing. I started my week with getting soaked in the rain (thank you Bergen for a very wet welcome), and now I am trying to find my way around the university website. More about that later, I have a whole house to clean up and five books to read. Have a wonderful day!

P.S. if you know who is responsible for the so-called four seasons in Norway, kick that somebody in the ass and tell him/her that mid-August really should NOT be the time to wear a down jacket every evening.