Every 4th of July I end up with this kind of eeire feeling that half of the summer is gone already, and I think this song by Aimee Mann describes my mood. I have so many thing to fix in the next couple of weeks it is almost making me dizzy. And excited. And a bit nauseous, all at once.

I had a wonderful weekend, we went down to an Onsen in Izu / Shimoda (pictures to follow!) , had an amazing Japanese-style traditional dinner, (really gorgeous food, but a bit freaky when they put things that are still alive on the grill), and not to mention the private onsen on the balcony! I basically spent Saturday evening in the little pool on our balcony after dinner, and the water makes your skin silky smooth! I got up really early yesterday morning, took another dip in the onsen, before I had to head back to Tokyo (about 4 hours away) to take my JLPT test. I have no idea how the test went, parts of it went wonderful and other parts were well, not so wonderful. I am just glad it is done.

Now I am well planted at home again, I’ve caught a cold, and I am trying to shake it of so I can update my blog and do all the housework which is waiting for me. Hope you all had a wonderful weekend.

• I just started using TeuxDeux, and oh-my-god it is all I ever wanted in a to-do-list, and nothing more.
• Staying busy. I want to write something about the Norwegian saying “lediggang er roten til alt ondt” – is there an English saying with the same meaning? Something like “Idle hands are the devil’s workshop”? Seriously though, staying busy is good, my creative juices are always flowing when I don’t have enough time to execute any of the ideas. I need to get myself one of these High Expectations Asian Father to keep myself in check and start producing.
• Patterns, patterns, patterns! I can not believe I did not figure this out sooner. A super-awesome-simple-wonderful guide about how to make repetative patters! This has been on my mind for years, and now all of a sudden I felt it was a mixture between a duh-moment and an aha-moment. In any case, I went to bed smarter then I woke up after reading this.
• “I have no talent” I thought this article was worth a read – it is about how it is tons of practice that counts, not talent. I belong in that category as well. I do not have much talent, but I work hard. This article brought back memories from senior high – when classmates would comment that “you will always be alright, you always do well on the tests” – what they didn’t realize is the amount of hours I spent studying. I am pretty sure if they put down the same time I did they would have gotten at least as good results as I did, and quite possibly better results than I did. When I was younger I used to wish I had a special talent, but now I realize that the only talent I have is working on something long enough to get better at it. And I am actually quite pleased with that. It makes me think that quite a few people in the world can reach their goals, as long as you work hard enough.
• I know I am years after everyone else here – but Dexter! I started watching it from season 1 recently, and I am now on season 4, and I absolutely love how the characters does not fit the usual hero/villain theme. I do think that sometimes the female characters are a bit hysteric and flat (just like any other Hollywood show out there), but all in all I love it! I always make time for smoke breaks just when Dexter is doing the massive killing, even though I love it I am an absolute pussy when it comes to watching heavy violence on screen.

I am done with my classes! It feels strange and wonderful and sad and weird all at once. I did the best interview-test I have ever done (the one with the keigo-interview, I got 97.5%, wowzers!), and I passed all my main tests as well. Wonderful. I sure will miss my little class and all the amazing teachers. The classes got done just in time as well, I was just about to write a couple of days ago that Japan isn’t as hot and humid this year as previously, but two days ago the temperature went *poof* and it is so hot and humid it hurts to wear dark clothes because the sun heats them up too much. Now I am of to write an incredibly long to-do-list for all the things that have been neglected in the past couple of weeks. I think I need to sign up for High Expectations Asian Father to keep myself in check 😉

First, this is what it looks like when we have been eating all-you-can-eat-chinese-buffet. Om nom nom. It was absolutely delicious!

Second, I need some inspiration for recipes! I don’t care if they are vegetarian or vegan or packed full of meat or fish, I just need some serious help getting the cooking going. The thing is – I absolutely love food, eat it, look at it, take pictures of it, discovering new food I haven’t tasted before… however, I can not cook. It is not that I am so terribly bad at cooking (well, not anymore!), it is just that no matter how hard I try, I can not find enjoyment in cooking. The more I cook, the more I dislike it. I enjoy making salads and things that does not involve boiling or frying or any kind of heat, but the moment heat is involved I don’t like it. But, a girl has to eat, so I need some suggestions! All I am asking is that they are simple enough so I can possibly pull them of without hurting myself or others in the process. Another thing is that I need to be able to find the ingredients in Japan, and cook them in Japan, which means no big turkey to put in the oven I do not have. Please share any recipes you might have which are easy, fun and taste decent. Thank you very much! ♥

Hello my dear neglected blog! I have good news for you, I am done with my tests for now! Which means I can update you more. Looking forward to interacting with you again.

The test today consisted of writing an essay about the IT-generation (is indirect communication a good or a bad thing?), 3 pages of vocabulary, around 30 new grammar points and the latest 200 kanji I have learned. (In total I am suppose to know about 1000 in total right now. Suppose is a keyword here). Last week I had a reading test (trying to decipher Japanese newspaper articles sure is fun), I had to conduct and interview in keigo (that is the very very polite Japanese that everyone keeps on hating), give a short oral resume about the extencive over-packaging culture in Japan, write up two conversations (one of them in keigo, one of them in good old fashioned friendly Japanese), two other interview-conversation-tests (one of them in keigo again), write an essay about Norway’s English education, and last, but not least, I had a wonderful listening test where the talking is deliberatly set up in order for you to pick the wrong option, I am sure of it. And all of this without using a dictionary. They sure like exams at my school. I should be used to this by now, this happens every third month.

In any case, my head is pure mush at the moment, so I will take the evening off, and start sorting my lists over everything I am suppose to do from this point forward which have been ridiculously neglected. When I say I am done with my tests for now, it is not entirely true, I still have the JLPT coming up in a couple of weeks, but right now that seems far away and doable. That is, after all, only one test.

& totally unrelated and just for fun: Here is a picture from some dinner I ate a little while ago. The sashimi was niiice. /over and out.

♥ learn at least 3 Japanese karaoke songs by heart just so I can charm the old ladies at the neighborhood bar the next time I go there. ♥ finally write a real letter on paper ♥ paint pictures on big canvases in my underwear while listening to Gene Pitney on repeat ♥ pretend I am a tourist even though I live here and take the train to random places in Tokyo and be amazed ♥ answer all of the absolutely wonderful comments I have gotten here on the blog lately ♥ make a decent dinner for my sweetheart from scratch ♥ drink wine in the morning just because I can ♥ spend lots of time in the bed and thinking about how beautiful people look when they sleep ♥ draw draw draw draw draw ♥ plan amazing photo shoots for the fall (and maybe, just maybe getting a little bit more serious about taking pictures again, who knows) ♥ make a list over what is important in my life, and by that find out all the things which are not important and I can be without ♥ sort all the files on my BFF-Mac and have it in immaculate state ♥ take pictures of all the the-palm-of-my-hand-size-butterflies that are fluttering around in the park down the street ♥

Yesterday I had one of those days where I just wasn’t up to par, and had to spend most of my day nurturing a throbbing headache while watching Dexter. And missing class (which meant missing a test, oh no)! It was time to practice what I preach, so when the bad conscience hit me with thoughts like “I probably could have dragged my ass to class” and “at least I could have done more homework”, I just had to stop myself and think “Some days will not be all you want them to be, but if you relax and accept it, you will be back to business in no time.” So that is what I did. And now I will get ready for today. (And my headache isn’t half as bad as yesterday!) Hope everyone out in the world is well, and if you are not entirely ok, give yourself a break so you can get well faster.

• The fact that I have gotten the opportunity to live in Tokyo, meet amazing people and broaden my horizon.
• Impromptu sushi take-away on rainy evenings.
• Black coffee and time to waste on the internet.
• My mother, who always tried as good as she could. The outcome wasn’t always perfect, but I know she did her best. Thank you mom! ♥
• Making zines!!! I just added a new page here on sushibird.com with a couple of booklets and zines I have made in the past. The page is here: http://sushibird.com/zines/
• Skype calls from my friends! Hi Kristin, Joseph and Madeleine!
• Inspiration from the internet. Lately here, here and here.
• Actually feeling passionate about something half political. This hasn’t happened in forever, but I read this article, and I actually felt annoyed and upset with the content of it. Which is a good thing, at least it managed to stir up something in me. I even wrote a commentary against this article, but I am not sure I would dare to send it to the newspaper after all. I then read this response to the first article, and felt better about the whole thing.
• Small earthquakes because they make my head stop spinning, for a while I am just standing and holding my breath, in complete concentration to see if they get bigger and scarier or not. Earthquakes (the ones that does not escalate) feels like a wonderful exercise in emptying your head for thoughts.
• Shopping for hair-clips and accessories. I don’t do it very often anymore, but I love how you don’t have to stand in a sweaty dressing room to see if a hair-clip looks cute or not.
• Budgies. Budgies budgies budgies. They are small and playful and fluffy and cute, and they bring out my girly side. Other girls might go “aww” when they see a baby, I go “aww” when I see a budgie. I miss having one of them sitting on my pencil and help me with both homework and illustrations.

I made it into the top 20 of the kanji competition! Here is a silly picture of the people in the top 20 who got a diploma. Next to me  in a beige jacket is the principal. If there would have been more time, I would have done even slightly a bit better, but I am actually kind of proud to make it to the top 20 at all! Who would have thought!

♥ discovering music that you had completely forgotten about ♥ waking up in the morning to bright light, even on overcast days ♥ having a full stomach after eating too much sushi ♥ sorting your underwear drawers on a rainy Sunday afternoon ♥ escaping the hangover; waking up after a night of drinking and actually feel completely clear and fresh in the head ♥ realizing that you can actually eavesdrop on other people’s conversations, despite them being in Japanese ♥ the smell of the pavement right after the rain ♥ long slim women in beautiful suits going to work on an overfilled train ♥

♥ smelling her clothes ♥ singing karaoke in front of drunk Japanese women and realizing that you actually do not care as much as before about making a fool out of yourself, because you are having fun ♥ spending several hours talking only Japanese, like a plug that has been pulled and you can finally speak speak speak and make sense ♥ learning new things and actually understanding them and being able to put them into use ♥ spending four hours you do not really have drawing details into mediocre illustrations ♥ discovering that there is actually more coffee left than what you can drink in one morning ♥