Yakatabune is a small boat cruise you can go on, we went on one in the Tokyo bay this summer. It is not terribly expensive, around 4000 – 5000 yen per person, and that includes both tabehodai and nomihodai (as much food and as many alcoholic drinks as you wish). It is popular among salarymen and groups of friends. The one we went on you cook your own food, and we cooked a variety of okonomiyaki and monjayaki. Okonomiyaki is probably easier to like for most westerners, the monja have been said to look like… well… vomit. It doesn’t taste like it though, promise!

Monjayaki with mentaiko!

Okonomiyaki ga dekita!!

Since we were in such a good mood after the boat cruise, we ended the evening with a couple of more drinks (ok, a lot more drinks), and ended the evening with an early morning breakfast in a small place in Shinjuku, looking at the people in the bar around us that had finally fallen asleep.

I took a walk in our neighborhood quite a while back to clear up my mind, process the year so far and relax. In the midst of a pretty heated board meeting in my head debating if my recent sushi consumption could actually harm my health and put me at risk for mercury poisoning from the, well, quite healthy amounts of maguro I had consumed recently,  I turned a corner… and what did I see?! A huge whale with obvious super-powers, protruding through the concrete and cement pavement, ready to make a leap to freedom. The thing was taller than me.

I ran away scared. Nah. just kidding. But I did continue my walk. I have been in Japan for a couple of years, and it is easy to forget all the little things that makes this city awesome. Like overgrown greens in residentiary neighborhoods and the mandatory collection of bicycles parked outside every single house. And the clutter. Omg, the clutter. If you have ever read design books about clean and minimalistic Japanese design, I can tell you – they are lying through their teeth. There is a lot of clutter around here.

I discovered an abandoned park. The clock was still working. So were the mosquitos. They were working overtime. I left the park with less blood in my body and five, fancy new huge mosquito-bites on my legs. I have unsuccessfully tried to start a new trend here half the summer with the slogan “mosquito-bites are the new black”. I wonder why that never caught on. They are both inexpensive and readily available to anyone who wants one. Or fifteen. And a lot of people are sporting them here.

No space for a garden, you say? No problem. Just build a vertical one on your wall. Problem solved. Since this is Japan, nobody will steal your potted plants anyway. I ended my walk with the mandatory girl-takes-pictures-of-their-feet-image. I then decided to down-vote the board’s decision about possibly lowering the abnormally large sushi consumption, and headed straight for the kaiten sushi.

// I have a huuuuge backlog of a couple of hundred pictures from the last weeks. A lot of them random. I want to post them so I can remember them.

I’ve always thought there is something strong and handsome, looking at the hands on the steering wheel from the passenger seat. Someone else takes control, and I end up just where I am suppose to go.

I haven’t driven a car in years. I would like to partly say it is because there is no opportunity in Tokyo to drive a car (public transportation and taxis FTW!), but the other half of the truth is that I have gotten a bit scared of driving. Visiting Canada I eventually tried driving a car for the first time in 5 years. And it wasn’t half bad. It was my first time driving automatic, and it was like driving a go-cart. I felt a strange sense of freedom after I realized I could, in theory, drive wherever I wanted, if I wanted. …but I’m just frozen here on the same old spot.

“To be vulnerable, taking risks, doing what you love and greeting each day with gratitude is to move through life as who you are and were meant to be. This is where joy ultimately resides.”

-Brene Brown