I am not good at watching movies, unless the movies have an interesting opening scene so they catch my attention. Magnolia has a gorgeous opening scene imho, it could be a short film on its own.

Today we went to Shinjuku Gyoen. It seems like people still have their new year decorations up, and I still seem to think they are pretty and take pictures of them whenever I see them.

The little neighbourhood around the park had many cute spots, and lots of little flower pots.

I saw this tree and wanted to take a picture, and all of a sudden I saw a woman in a yukata running in the background.

Happy park-face. My mom in the background, looking at the trees.

There were some traditional Japanese gardens which we went to see. The park was very quiet, not at all like hanami-season.

The crows around here are incredibly big – I caught a picture of this one before it spread its wings and flew away.

4th of January – and one tree was already in bloom!

After walking in the park – we went to La Bohème Cafe- a small cafe/restaurant next to the park. The food was good, the ceiling was high, and the music was loud. I had Gorgonzola pizza with honey, mom had pizza with shrimps, mushrooms, bell pepper and ham. It was really nice.

Yesterday we went to Yokohama. It is so close, and yet I have only been there one time before.

My day started like this: We do not have a TV. I was awoken by TV-sounds. I was confused. Turns out that there is a special tournament on TV, and someone wanted to watch it – so she got a TV from a friend – borrowed a TV, and I was actually kind of happy hearing the TV sounds in the morning. Mjuk start på dagen.

Yokohama always seems very European to me – lots of strange European-looking buildings right in between all the Japanese ones.

Yes sir, if I had anything to say to you.

There is a lot of land around the Yokohama bay that is just… …empty? A very strange sight to me.

This is the observation tower (横浜ランドマークタワー,). 69 floors tall, and with an elevator that takes you from ground level to 69th floor in 40 seconds, and goes 45.0 km/h.

Yokohama looks like yet another toy city. I love to look at all the tiny buildings from above. I like pretend that I am flying, floating, so I learn towards the glass of whatever observatory I am in, and pretend that there is no ground below me.

I was in this Ferris wheel last summer!

This is the cutest heart in Yokohama. Lovers can write their little note on a small sheet, and attach it to this big heart in the observatory. When I was here in July, the big heart was almost empty, and now – it is completely covered in little love notes. There are a lot of happy couples in Japan 🙂

I admit it – the only reason why I took the above pictures was to test my new camera. I love it. It captures tones and shadows in a really great way, so simply to entertain myself I included these two pictures in my post.

On the left: We walked through a car dealership – and right in the middle of all the modern fancy cars – this poor guy was parked. I felt bad for him, so I took his picture to make him feel better. On the right: Yokohama at night.

The picture above reminds me of something out of a sci-fi movie, with lots of light-strobes and special effects.

I still get amazed – Yokohama is supposed to be small – but there were lights all over the horizon.

We went to dinner at a super-nice Italian restaurant after we had been to the observatory tower. This was on the fifth floor of the shopping mall connecting the observatory tower and the shopping mall at the bottom. I had no expectations, but the food was really good, the service was excellent, and it was a really nice dinner experience. It was still early in the day so we just had mango juice and coke.

Look, real cutlery! (Yes, I get happy about these kinds of things.)

For dessert we shared gelato. Well, the menu said it was gelato, but it was actually sorbetto. It was really nice sorbetto though. The tastes were grapefruit, strawberry, kiwi and lemon. I almost never eat desserts, and this one was about as much as I could handle. Besides – it looked really pretty ♥

My mom wanted me to take a picture of the Hard Rock Cafe guitar. I have only been to one Hard Rock cafe – in Niagara, and I was not very impressed, but their sign still looks good.

We went to Ueno Koen a couple of days ago. It wasn’t that cold, and the weather was clear and beautiful.

1000 cranes.

The flame for Hiroshima and Nagasaki next to one of the temples in Ueno Koen.

There were lots of wild cats around the park. They seemed really well fed and happy though.

I still find all the signs around the smokers area really cute. I wonder if they make them funny on purpose or not.

2010 was the first year I got into singing karaoke (like a good gaijin is suppose to do), and this was the first Japanese song I sang. I think this was my number one theme song for 2010.

A couple of days ago – we went to Nekobukuro. The concept: You pay 600 yen to enter into a room where you can pet cats for as long as you like. (Or take their picture.) I am more fond of birds than cats, but it was still a nice experience. They have lots of different cats, Siamese, Persian, Norwegian Forest cats and many other types. If you find yourself in the Ikebukuro area and like petting kitties, you should absolutely go. (They also have cat-bars and cat-cafes scattered all over town, but I have have never gone.)

A couple of days ago, we went to the Mori Arts Center – one of my favorite places in the world. It has a wonderful 360 degree view of Tokyo, a nice contemporary art museum and a planetarium.

We ate geltato.

My iPhone is still going strong!

The pictures below are from the exhibition “Phantom limb” which is currently showing. The art was gorgeous and I love the white spacious rooms it is showed in as well.

Photo courtesy of: Mori Art Museum

Photo courtesy of: Mori Art Museum

Photo courtesy of: Mori Art Museum

Photo courtesy of: Mori Art Museum

And we finished of by eating sushi for dinner. Perfect day!

MINI PLANNERS from Moleskine ® on Vimeo.

My birthday is in the middle of December, so I decided to take pictures of all the nice things I got both for my birthday and christmas. I have always loved ballerina flats, so when I got a pair which sparkles against the pavement, I was ecstatic.

I was taken out for a wonderful (wine and) champagne tasting in the beginning of December as a pre-birthday gift. The tasting was at Aquavit in Tokyo, a Scandinavian style restaurant. It was a lot of fun to see all the homely Scandinavian food made into fancy canape-style. It felt both very right and a bit strange to eat Swedish Surströmming and Meatballs on a toothpick.

I got a new perfume, since mine was almost empty.

And macaroons!

And lots of pretty wrapping.

And pretty shoes. I love that there is no snow here, you can actually wear pretty shoes without ruining them in Tokyo, even midwinter.

My friend knew I liked budgies – so she got me a build-it-yourself-budgie. I love it, it was such a thoughtful gift.

A game which will help both my Japanese and my geography skills. Both are much needed.

A Blythe book, filled with gorgeous photos of gorgeous dolls.

I used to love spirographs, and I used to have a vintage Kenner Spirograph kit, but I left it when I moved to Japan. I got a new, modern one this time, and I can not wait to try it out.

A pink controller for the wii + oldstyle controller for the wii, because…

I got old-style Mario games. I have spent a few days of christmas reminiscing my childhood. ♥

Supplies from the mother-land! I find it almost silly. I love cheese and champagne and decent restaurants – and when I move half-way around the world – what do I miss? The junk. Thankfully I have a sweet mom who understands my needs, and brought with her reinforcements. What is even more funny is that I hardly eat sweets at all, so I bet the chocolate is going to last me for the entire year. The cheez-doodles, on the other hand, will probably be gone before I even know I ate them.

Bling-card.

New Samantha Vega purse.

And a small hat which I had to wear for three days straight. The best gift of all isn’t pictured at all though, because that gift is what took most of these pictures. I got a new camera, just in time for my old one to go into coma. I am so incredibly grateful for all the amazing things I got.