This is what I want to eat right now. This is not what I am eating right now. I bought a pizza, some sparkling water and a six pack of cranberry cider. Alcohol helps this cold weather. Never thought I would actually wear my winter jacket this time of year. It is incredibly hard to get into a good rhythm of blogging in this country, why I don’t know. Norway is good for novelty value, but I have almost been here for a week now, and that novelty value diminishing quicker than I would like it to, to be honest. Enough complaining, the show must go on, and days come and go no matter if I would like them to or not.

I made another little resource pack with Japanese stamps, you can download them by clicking here or on the pictures.

My poor dear neglected blog, not much love has been given to you from me during the past week, but I do have a pretty good excuse. This is what I have been doing:

• Packed most of my life down into a suitcase, and tried to keep it under 20kg.
• Spent a night at a hotel in Narita, watching Japanese game shows about how people lick the wrapping paper around their cake.
• Gave and got lots of real, heartfelt hugs, and kind of cried a little bit even, but not as much as I thought I would do.
• Spent 17 hours overnight at the airport in Moscow, which btw is far better than it’s reputation. They even have free wireless and restaurants open late, so all the reviews I had read on the internet about it being “hell on earth” was not true!
• Had an grumpy old Russian guy take my beloved window seat and refusing to move when I took the plane from Moscow to Oslo. It was only 2.5 hours, so I didn’t bother arguing. But I wish people would‘t take other people’s seats, it creates an awkward mood, no matter if they give the seat back or not.
• Almost got a nosebleed from the excessive use of perfume in Russia, especially on the airplane. Show some consideration in enclosed spaces guys!
• Met my wonderful friends in Oslo again, and currently staying with one of the most wonderful and smartest ones of them all.  Never a dull moment, she (and the people around her) are like walking versions of Wikipedia, and I learn something new every time she opens her mouth. Everyone needs a friend like that, it is good for both the head and the heart 🙂
• Felt cold for the first time in months. Norway is so cold you guys! Of course I knew this, but I had kind of forgotten all about it, with the result that I don’t really have many jackets with me. I am not sure I could ever live in this kind of climate all year around. This Norwegian summer temperature feels like Tokyo in November.
• I have eaten various Norwegian things, like good cheese and a lompe already! Other suggestions? I will get around to Ostepop and Grandiosa at some point 😉
• Spent more money in Norway in 3 days then I do in Tokyo in 30.

In any case, I am in Oslo for most of this week, so if any of you people who live here full time knows about good and cheap places to eat (any ridiculously cheap sushi in this town which is edible?), nice things to see (not the regular tourist traps) or fun things to do, please point me in the right direction!

My friend sent me this link in an email, and I thought it was really cute. Beautiful textures!

I couldn’t find any good resource sets for gemstones, so I made one. 28 transparent .png images, zipped, you can download them here.

(More old pictures from 2005, found the digging through the endless archive. )

I got around to finish the big picture a week or so ago, but I got a bit distracted from blogging after everything that happened in Oslo. However – I have to start posting again eventually, so I thought this was a good place to start. Here are some details:

It is hard. It is hard to start blogging after what happened in Norway. It seems pointless, unimportant almost, to write about my week, what I ate, post pictures from cute neighborhoods and tell you that I drank good drinks with my friends and ate sushi 3 times just because I could. At the same time, I realize that the world can not stop forever, but right now I am not sure when it will feel ok to blog about regular, mundane, every day things again. I am sure there are many people in Norway (and the rest of the world) that feels some kind of confusion or guilt right now. Am I reacting the right way? Should I cry about this even though nobody I knew was directly involved in this? Am I a bad person if I don’t cry? Can I laugh and smile and drink wine with my friends, and yet feel bad about what happened? I do believe that the answer to this is: yes. Yes you can. However you react right now, and what feelings might stir up inside you, it is the right feeling. (It doesn’t mean you should necessarily act on those feelings if they are destructive, but feeling them is not wrong.) It is what you are suppose to feel. No matter if it is anger, bitterness, sadness, numbness, chattiness or silence, happiness over everything you have or sadness over those who lost someone near to them, this is what you are suppose to feel right now. Don’t feel embarrassed about feeling too much or not feeling enough. We all react differently, and it is ok. This is what I have been doing this weekend to try to make things better, take my mind of things:

• I had a wonderful side-walk date. It is a little tradition we have. We buy a bottle of the worst cheap sparkling wine there is, and we sit down next to an intersection or a busy area and watch all the people passing while we talk about life and the future and small birds and other things that makes us happy.
• We took the train to a whole new part of the city where I have never been before, and just walked around looking at all the strange shops and finding new little restaurants.
• I found a mall in Nakano which can best be described as being a very particular mall for the specially interested. 4 floors filled with otaku-collectors-stuff, everything from Lolita fashion to cosplay and figurines and doll shops. It was strange, it felt like an instant holiday, 6 minutes away by train. The whole place felt like China, and walking around there, studying all the little tidbits made me completely forget the rest of the world for a little while.
• I ate what I like the best. Sushi, sushi and more sushi. If you can, eat something which will really cheer you up. Some people have chocolate and macaroons. For me it is eating sushi, lovely salmon that melts in your mouth.
• Hugs. Lots of them. Laying next to someone, smell their skin, be quiet together and listen to hearts beating in unison.
• Stayed busy, held a lecture, working on some illustrations I have to get done in a couple of days. Drawing and messing around with watercolor paint while the music is on full blast from the speakers. I tried to avoid the most melancholic tunes and put on Billie Holiday and Röyksopp. It worked.

Obviously, what we do to deal with this should not be about avoiding the horrible truth and ignoring the awful things that happened, but it is about taking care of ourselves in the middle of all this, and be grateful for all the beautiful things which are still here, both around us and in us. ♥

I have no words for what has happened. My thoughts go to those who are affected by this situation. It is so completely unreal to me, I am so far away at the moment, and it hurts to see little, beautiful Norway in a state like this. I wish I was articulate enough to say something useful right now, but I can not find any words. I am extremely proud of Norway’s prime minister: “We will retaliate with more democracy.”

I thought it was about time for another outfit post, just for fun. Have a lovely Friday everyone!