８月座間味という沖縄にある島に行って、とてもきれいだった。毎日泳いだり、たくさん熱帯魚を見たり、ウミガメも見た！毎日海で遊んだので、写真はあまり撮れなかった。// In August we went to a small group of beautiful islands in Okinawa called Zamami. We went swimming every day, saw lots of tropical fish, and I even saw a sea turtle! Because I was mostly playing around in the water, I didn’t take many pictures.

色々な夏に携帯で撮った写真。// Various pictures taken during the summer with the mobile phone.

那覇に行った時、首里城も訪ねた。あの日は晴れていたけど、急に雨が降った。沖縄や琉球の文化を少し習った。やはり、建物の形は一般的な日本のビルの形と違うと思う。// When we went to Naha, we also visited Shuri Castle. It was a sunny day, but all of a sudden it started raining. I learned a thing or two about the culture of Okinawa and Ryukyu. The shape and style of the buildings seem different than mainland Japan.

沖縄の写真を見つけた！更新しようと思っている。那覇のモノレールに乗っている撮った写真だ。// I found the pictures from Okinawa. Time to update! These pictures are taken while riding the monorail around Naha.

かわいいカニちゃんでしょう？// Mr.Crab is cute, isn’t he?

I don’t splurge often. I am pretty good at not spending money, but before I left Tokyo in August, I had decided to buy myself a small mac (an 11″ air which I have named “Happy Meal”) so I wouldn’t ruin my shoulders carrying the bigger one (called “Big Mac”) to classes every day. When I got to the Apple store, this handbag from Michael Kors caught my eye. It was love at first sight. I don’t buy a lot of brand stuff just because it is brand stuff, but this bag just screamed out to me. I justified it for myself by thinking that well… it IS a laptop-bag, because it DOES have a laptop compartment inside of it. And hey, since I already was in such a great splurging mode, I bought myself a little treat in the white bag to make my day complete. ♥

And then I went home, and opened up the box. The smell of a new mac…. aaaahhh! One of my favorite things in this world.

Not much love from me to this poor blog over the past few months, so here is a couple of random cakes from Japan. Everything is fine and dandy, I have simply chosen to not prioritize to update the blog until I have gotten a majority of the work for this semester at uni done. I am slowly getting better at prioritizing. I used to feel guilty when I couldn’t do ALL the things ALL the time, but then I realized (little by little) – good girls sometimes create a lot of stress in their own life, stress that is not necessary. Nobody dies if I don’t update the blog for a couple of weeks. Nobody gets hurt if I put down the camera for a couple of days, and choose to do other things. All that aside, I remember the quote I wrote in my Moleskine a couple of years ago “I make things because I get sad if I don’t”. With that in mind I returned to my blog here today, and felt like updating. Hope you are all having a great fall!

Quick post to show the awesome paper I bought before flying out of Japan. It is halfway see-through, and I can not wait to fold all of the sheets up into pretty little shapes.

I am back in Norway. I don’t blog. I walk a lot. I fill out page after page of homework. I drink cheap wine on the weekends and lots of expensive coffee during the week. It never takes long for Tokyo to feel like a lifetime away, but it takes time to settle in in Norway. I have never been able to describe what this country does to my head; but it leaves me strangely empty. Not in a sad, nor depressed way, just that there is a lack of something that was previously there. I feel like like an amnesia patient, I know something is missing, slightly off, but I am unable to describe it accurately. Maybe I am homesick. In that case, I feel grateful, that I have been one of the people that actually do have a place in the world I love, and that I can return to once I have finished up what I have to do this fall. I am ok. I am doing what I am suppose to do, and I am getting all my work done. Sometimes a couple of months on auto-pilot is not the worst thing in the world. Especially when I can fold origami cranes and I just found both mirin, udon and Korean nori at the local shop. ♥ (And I will be back in Tokyo soon enough!)

Quick question – what movie am I imitating?

Hi. Just remembered I have a blog. Here are some small things I have enjoyed over the summer.