Ett färgsprakande farväl till året i Sendai (Sista ordinarie inlägg)

Välkommen till mitt avskedsinlägg och sista ordinarie inlägg om mitt utbytesår vid Tohoku universitet i Sendai. För nu är jag tillbaka till Sverige igen, på gott och ont. 31 augusti lämnade jag Japan för fjärde gången via Narita flygplats. Efter byte i Moskva landade jag på Arlanda på kvällen samma dag och åkte hem till min bostad i Uppsala.

Under min korta tid kvar i Japan efter förra inlägget reste jag först som nämnt till Akita för dels lite allmän sightseeing, dels besökande av Japans största fyrverkeritillställning. Det finns en liten ort som heter 大曲 Oomagari som ligger på Akitas landsbygd, ungefär tre timmars bilfärd från Sendai. Orten är känd för en sak, och det är den årliga nationella fyrverkeritävlingen där företag inom fyrverkeribranchen tävlar med varandra med korta nogrannt komposerade uppvisningar. Resan i allmänhet och fyrverkerierna i synnerhet var riktigt bra och det blev en härlig avslutning av mitt uppdrag att besöka Tohoku-regionens samtliga 6 län.

Efter Akitaresan blev det väldigt stressigt med att hinna packa och göra sig av med alla prylar jag samlat på mig under året. Sålde en del grejer, gav bort mycket under sista kvällen och slängde mest av allt... Jag tror det blev åtta stycken fulla medelstora sopsäckar med skräp och prylar som jag inte lyckades bli av med på annat sätt. Under omständigheterna tycker jag hur som helst att jag kunde ta farväl till Sendai och mina nära vänner på ett värdigt sätt, och jag hade en stor trevlig fest i min korridor sista kvällen.

På morgonen 30 augusti lämnade jag mitt boende och åkte buss till Tokyo. Tre av mina bästa vänner Misato, Miku och Ayumi följde med och var med mig min sista dag i Japan, fantastiskt snällt av dem. På kvällen den 30 mötte jag upp med fyra till kompisar i Tokyo: Taizo och Shota som var i Uppsala förut, Ryu, min kinesiska kompis som gick i min klass under mitt gymnasieutbytesår i Chiba samt Reno, min taiwanesiska kompis i Sendai som varit i Tokyo sedan skolan slutade. Vi åt monjayaki, en rätt speciell i grunden pizzaliknande rätt som är Tokyos mest kända lokala specialitet, och gick på karaoke.

Miku, Ayumi och jag bodde tillsammans på vandrarhem samma natt, sedan på morgonen 31 augusti mötte vi upp med Misato och åkte allihopa hela vägen till Narita flygplats (80 minuter bort med pendeltåg). De gjorde mig sällskap ända tills jag var tvungen att gå igenom säkerhetskontrollen. Och till slut så var det på riktigt dags att lämna Japan för ett tag.

Resan gick utomordentligt smidigt, och jag var på Arlanda helt i tid. Med härligt sommarväder (30 grader) sista dagen i Tokyo var jag rädd det skulle kännas extra tungt att landa i Sverige om det skulle ösregna eller vara riktigt höstkallt men tack och lov var det fint väder när jag kom fram. Min bror har hyrt mitt studentrum i andra hand hela året jag varit borta och då han inte hittat eget nytt boende än bor vi tillsammans tills vidare. På 13 kvadratmeter med badrum som delas i korridoren är det ganska olyxigt. Men alltså träffade jag honom samma dag hemma i vår lägenhet, och efter att ha gått på föreläsningar 1 och 2 september åkte jag till Falun över helgen för att träffa familj och vänner där. Jetlaggen har väl i stort avtagit nu och jag har börjat återställa mig till tanken på att studera i Uppsala igen.

Sammanfattningsvis så har jag, som ni säkerligen förstått om ni läst mina inlägg, haft ett fantastiskt och även minst sagt spännande år i Sendai. Jag hoppas verkligen att mina planer går i uppfyllelse om att kunna börja läsa masterprogram någonstans i Japan med start april 2013. Längre än tills dess klarar jag nog inte av att vara borta hemifrån.

Bilder:

 

 

 Me, Rikard, Mizuho and Umemura went by rental car to 秋田 Akita, and first to Japan's deepest lake 田沢湖 Tazawa lake, which surprised us by being extremely clear and beautiful, to an extent I had never seen in lakes before. We stayed the same night in 秋田市 Akita city (Akita is mainly a prefecture) at a small hotel.

Next day we went straight to the fireworks festival area and even though we arrived 6 hours before start we had difficulties finding places in the main area, even though it was really huge. But we chose a narrow spot that ended up having been a really good choice with great view of the fireworks. Because it was a clear sunny day we took cover under umbrellas eating lots of icecream and drinking juice.

 This is a video clip of maybe a third of one of the teams' contribution. It gives a basic image of the quality of the show. Watch the full clip.

 

 Me and Andreas visited the Shinkansen (bullet train) train carriage center where we could learn a lot of the world's most frequently used high speed rail system.

 

 

 Last party in my corridor/unit! I had a great time and I'm really thankful to everybody for being such great friends! I wish I could have gathered all my other friends as well... In the second and third pictures I'm sitting in a strange space 4 meters up in the air close to the ceiling I had wanted to climb up to during my whole year!

Farewell to Mizuho and Umemura at Sendai station, while Misato and I took the bus together to Tokyo! I owe so much to Mizuho and Umemura with family for taking care of me when I first arrived in Sendai, during a few visits this summer and for helping me getting rid of stuff from home, thanks a lot!!

 

 Me, Miku, Ayumi, Misato, Sendai exchange student friend Reno, Chiba exchange year old friend Ryu and former Uppsala exchange students Taizo and Shota eat monjayaki and go to karaoke during my last night in Japan! Thanks for coming!! I wish I could have met the rest of my friends in Tokyo who couldn't make it this time...

 

 Painful last good-bye at Narita airport to where Misato, Miku and Ayumi came along to see me off. Thanks so much for joining me in Tokyo and seeing me off, I was really happy about it!! Also Ossi, my Finnish corridor mate was there since he was taking the same flight as me. He had traveled around Japan during the summer holidays and I knew we had the same flights.

The person I sat next to on the flight was a half-Japanese, half-Swiss who I spoke with a lot, which made the flight much more interesting.

Back in Sweden, here in front of my campus in Uppsala, Ångström laboratory.

Of course I soon also visited Falun, and met among others Jan who stayed with me in Sendai for more than one month, Andreas who studied in Tokyo for 9 months 2009, Ziyi - Andreas' girlfriend, Rieko – my former Japanese teacher who have studied in Tokyo for two years until this summer, Yukio who have lived in Falun for a long time and Yoko who teaches at Dalarna University. Then my family of course and some relatives – I've missed you all a lot!

Har man tid att sova har man inte tillräckligt roligt (Sista Japaninlägget)

Hej!! Nu är det inte långt kvar av mitt händelserika utbytesår. Jag lämnar min nuvarande vistelseort om bara fyra dagar och lämnar mitt nuvarande hemland om ytterligare en dag. Jag är på svensk mark igen vid sextiden på kvällen lokal tid sista dagen i månaden. Därefter bär det hem den korta biten till lilla Uppsala där jag går på föreläsningar i två dagar innan jag tar mig upp till Dalarna för lite hempåhälsning.

Det har hänt mycket sen förra inlägget, men det har långt ifrån lugnat ner sig och jag har inte tid att göra ett ordentligt inlägg nu heller. Skolan tog slut 12 augusti, samma vecka var det fullt upp med avskedsträffar för de kompisar som hade bråttom hem, och efter skolavslutningen har jag varit och flängt igen till alla möjliga ställen, som väl kan förväntas. Har börjat förbereda hemfärd men är inte redo än. I och med att jag träffade fullt med kompisar även sista veckorna innan skolavslutningen, vilket inte kunde hjälpas så det ofta var sista chansen att umgås med de personerna i Sendai, hade jag inte jättemycket tid att tentaplugga. Resultatet blev inte heller som jag hoppades, även om jag inte fått reda på några slutgiltiga poäng eller betyg. Förmodligen har jag klarat corporate finance, elektromagnetism 2, informationsvetenskap, infrastrukturplanering och japanska grammatikkursen, och sumpat resten.

Bilderna får berätta om det icke-studierelaterade jag varit med om, även om urvalet denna gång är väldigt strikt (har ofantligt många bilder), kanske lägger upp fler senare.

Nu måste jag sova då det om 7 timmar bär av mot Akita, det sista resmålet förutom Tokyo denna gång, och även den sista prefekturen i Tohoku-regionen att besöka för mig.

Bilder:

 Field trip to Nissan's factory in Tochigi with other exchange students. Very throughful guiding which was quite interesting!

 After the factory we left for 鬼怒川 Kinugawa, an onsen (hot spring) village nearby where we stayed one night luxuriously.

 

 The next day we visited 東照宮 Toshogu, the famous world heritage registered temple and shrine complex, and then 華厳の滝 Kegon falls, a big beautiful waterfall.

 

 

 In the end of July me and six physics studying friends Shota, Moeto, Taku, Heita, Ryohei and Shinjiro from school went on a trip to the hometown of one of them, Shinjiro. The town is 鶴岡 Tsuruoka in northern 山形 Yamagata and it's a rural calm town being really beautiful by the sea. We stayed at Shinjiro's family's house for the two nights being served with exceptionally tasty rice and vegetables as the family are farmers growing their own. We swam in the sea, visited a small onsen, climbed a mountain 羽黒山 Mt. Haguro etc. We watched the starry sky (first time in a long time for me) and drove around between the rice paddys and hills for some nature refreshing. An amazingly fun trip! Pictures are taken by [Shinjiro]. Thanks a lot Shinjiro with family for letting us stay there!!

 

In the beginning of August there was a festival in Sendai. 七夕 Tanabata is the prefecture's most famous festival and it's well known in the whole country. It's a bit different to many other festivals though, because there's no parade or similar, the main attraction being thousands of traditional paper decorations hanging along the shopping streets of central town. Pretty plain, but still really nice, the decorations do look cool!

 

 

 Farewell party for my Taiwanese friends Reno and Yu-Wei. Though I'll meet Reno once more in Tokyo on my last day in Japan! Second picture farewell party for myself, and a Ph.D. student in my lab in school. Third picture just me and Shota, Moeto and Taku after having been to Karaoke, on our last meeting before I'll have a last party on my last night in Sendai. On the same day me, Rikard, Max and Fumiyo went on a soccer game in Sendai. Unfortunately Sendai lost against Kashiwa 0-1.

 

 

A few days later me, Misato, Mizuho and Umemura went on a trip to Misato's hometown 金沢 Kanazawa in 石川 Ishikawa. On the way we visited a world hertiage site 五箇山 in 富山 Toyama. In Kanazawa we visited 兼六園 Kenrokuen, a famous and beautiful Japanese garden, together with 金沢城, Kanazawa castle. We checked out central town around station, ate sashimi (raw fish), took a bath in a local onsen and then stayed at a hostel. Next day we ate sashimi breakfast at a marketplace, drove to 千里浜なぎさドライブウェイ Chirihama beach driveway which is the only public road in Japan which is located on a sand beach. It means that you actually drive on the beach with people swimming right beside you, really cool! After that Misato went home to her house while us remainders drove back to Sendai. Thanks Misato for the opportunity to go and the guiding!!

 On the next day I met Ayami, one of the students from Hokkaido who came to Falun for two months in spring 2008. We visited Matsushima, for my fifth time, which gave me a good chance to say goodbye to the most famous tourist attraction in the area.

 

Two days later me, Mizuho, Umemura and Umemura's friend Kimura went to Kansai, Osaka region. This was not planned at all – one day before I was asked if I wanted to join their suddenly decided trip, and I wanted to. Osaka is very far away from Sendai – 12 hours by car one way, and me, Umemura and Kimura took turns driving. Starting 9 p.m. and arriving 9 a.m. we where quite tired when we had arrived. We visited Wakayama, a small city south of Osaka, and stayed at Umemura's grandmother's house. During the day we swam in the sea, and in the next morning we drove to a ”Melody road”, a short strech of the road where a melody is heard through vibrations between the wheels and the carved road surface.

 

 

Next day I went to Kobe to join a tour of 明石海峡大橋 Akashi Strait Bridge, actually the longest suspension bridge in the world (longer than Golden Gate bridge, for example). It was really interesting and an amazing view from the top of the 300 meters high pillars (this is the actually the highest point of a man-made structure that an ordinary person can reach in Japan, until next spring when the Tokyo Sky Tree tower is opened). I also visited Kobe university campus, the last picture is from a kind of secret viewing point I found at campus with view of Kobe city and the sea.

 Sweden is the name of a soft ice cream shop inside Osaka station, quite interesting... The ice cream did indeed taste good, but I don't see the connection with Sweden.

On the third day we went to Universal studious amusement park in Osaka and rode lots of attractions. Expensive (4800 yen, about 400 kr) but huge and really fun!

 

 

 On the last day we did some sightseeing in Kobe together, visiting European houses and Chinatown which the city is known for. Then we began our 11 hour ride back to Sendai... Thanks everybody for a really fun trip and a chance for me to see Kobe which I had already given up!

 On my last meeting with Free school, the language exchange club I've visited most weeks during my year in Sendai, I received a plackard with messages from my Free school friends, thanks so much!!

This was probably my last update before leaving for Sweden! But I'm planning to do at least one more update with more pictures and probably a little more thoughts and looking back on my exchange year not too long after arriving in Sweden.

Med och utan pappa på talrika uflykter

Hej där hemma! 

Det har gått en månad sedan sist men jag har ändå inte tid att göra ett ordentligt inlägg då jag är ordentligt upptagen med allt möjligt. En våg av inlämningsuppgifter är på väg att lösa av den faktiska tentaperioden då jag måste kompensera för all tid jag inte studerat hemma under terminens gång. Första tentan är på måndag 1 augusti, och sista på fredagen veckan därpå 12 augusti, och totalt ska 9 tentor skrivas under dessa två veckor (borträknat de två kurser jag hoppat av under terminen). 

Men som vanligt så är jag inte upptagen enbart med plugg utan med en massa andra saker också. Min far var här en vecka tills för två veckor sedan, vi firade svensk midsommar med pompa och ståt helgen efter han åkt hem, jag jobbar ju fortfarande och träffar kompisar nästan lika mycket som vanligt. Har speciellt åkt runt mycket sista månaden: hunnit med att åka på sightseeing till Hiraizumi 10 mil bort och Aizu 17 mil bort, körsbärsplockning i Sagae 8 mil bort, en vända till Tokyo (35 mil bort), till en varm källa i Naruko 8 mil bort och på äventyrsbad i Morioka 19 mil bort. Ska imorgon till Nikko 26 mil bort på bussutflykt med skolan och i helgen hälsa på en kompis familj i Tsuruoka i Yamagata 16 mil bort. Sen stannar jag absolut i Sendai tills skolan slutar... Under mitt sommarlov som i år bara blir 2½ vecka långt ska jag dels hinna med att säga ordentligt farväl till Sendai och alla mina vänner här men även resa till minst två ställen långt bort. Ännu mycket osäkert var jag åker men följande platser ligger på önskelistan (ej i ordning): Akita, Nagano, Shizuoka, Kanazawa och Kobe. Jag skulle också vilja om möjligt hälsa på Chiba-värdfamiljen igen på 神津島 Kouzushima, ön utanför Tokyobukten. 

Jag låter bilderna berätta resten, har inte tid att skriva mer den här gången! Måste packa nu för Nikko, vi ses! 

Bilder:

 

I went to Hiraizumi on a free tour for foreigners living in Sendai. Hiraizumi has tried to be recognised as a World Heritage for a while now, and by an incredible coincidence it got it's approval during the night before we went there. Therefore some of us were interviewed by newspapers and television, I was by both... The weather however was really bad.

I went on my first and presumably last baseball game in Sendai. Sendai's team ”Rakuten Eagles” is among the weakest pro teams in Japan and in this game they lost against the Fukuoka team ”Softbank Hawks”

 

With three friends I actually went bungy jumping. It's a small tower (about 20 meters) that is an all-year attraction at one of Sendai's amusement park. The amusement park is located very unconveniently 25 km outside the city up in the mountains and it had very few visitors even on a Saturday with good weather but the landscape view even from the bungy jump tower was incredible.

 

 

 

I went to Aizu-Wakamatsu in western Fukushima with Misato, Mizuho and her boyfriend Umemura. We visited the Byakkotai graves at Iimoriyama and Tsuruga castle, the two famous spots in the city, and we also ate lunch in Kitakata, a neighbor town famous for its ramen noodles (and they we're great!). In the first picture there is a strange house that's just a long spiral stairs built so that you walk in the same direction from the entrance up to the top then down to the exit, without turning around. [me, Mizuho, me, me]

 

I went on さくらんぼ狩り, cherry picking in Sagae in Yamagata with Mizuho and Umemura. Sooo tasty! We payed 1200 yen (100 kr) and then we could ate as much as we like during a whole hour. After 30 minutes we felt like exploding though... [Mizuho, me]

 

Dad in Sendai! We began by doing sightseeing in Sendai central city. Then we visited Umemura's family in Natori, and were treated with superb cooking and we even stayed the night!

 

Two days later me and my father went to Tokyo by shinkansen and stayed the first night at a capsule hotel. Only second time for me and first for my father of course! I'm sleepy in this picture.

 

 

We visited 浜離宮 Hamarikyuu, a Japanese garden that has been property of the imperial family, so beautiful. In the evening we ate okonomiyaki/monjayaki (Japanese ”pizza pancake”) which is a dish you often make by yourself even in restaurants. The next day we visited the National Science Museum.

In 上野公園 Ueno park where the museum is located we found some kind of ice sculpture competition with 100 sculptures. It was about 34°C this day so it felt kind of awkward.

 

My father then went to Kyoto while I returned to Sendai by bus, and he actually stayed at Mizuho's family's house in Osaka which he apparently enjoyed a lot! Then he came back to Sendai by bullet train and we rented a car to visit 鳴子温泉 Naruko hot spring in northern Miyagi prefecture. The scenery in the town was great and the hot spring water too of course. The hotel was also really nice with luxurious dinner and traditional Japanese rooms and pyjamas (浴衣 yukata).

Close to the hot spring hotel we found a cool place called the 地獄谷 “Valley of hell” which was extremely geologically active with hot water and steam pouring out from the ground like everywhere. And also a small geyser as seen in the picture.

We also visited Matsushima, the famous archipelago close to Sendai and took a boat tour. There are always tons of sea gulls following the sightseeing boat and my father didn't really like them...

When I ate lunch with Reno, Misato, Ayumi and Miku, Ayumi showed a most impressive talent of being able to make small people out of eraser scrap (the tiny rubber pieces that appears when you erase things with an eraser)! I'm still stunned!

 

 

 

No summer without a Swedish style midsummer party! Even though we were three weeks late because of different reasons we were not cancelling such an important event. In the first picture we're preparing the food: meatballs out of 4 kg of minced meat, 2 kg of salmon, around 70 boiled potatoes, a fruit salad out of 25 oranges, 25 apples and 50 bananas and much more! Even though the number of participants was actually a little lower than expected (according to Facebook notifications) I think it was a big success! We gathered more than 40 people in the end! [me, Shinjiro*3]

 

The same weekend there was a big festival in town. Actually the big local festivals of each prefecture in Tohoku region, Aomori, Akita, Iwate, Yamagata, Miyagi and Fukushima, was all held in Sendai during the same weekend in a move to boost the economy in the tsunami devastated areas. It was pretty impressive, but unfortunately the organisers made a huge mistake estimating the number of visitors and the result was that it was extremely crowded, even for Japan. Since I'm tall I could still see something, but most attendees probably didn't see much of the parade.

I also went on a trip to a waterpark けんじワールド Kenji world in 盛岡 Morioka in 岩手 Iwate with Mizuho, Umemura and Misato! It was really fun, the place had lots of sliders and other waterparkish facilities. [Mizuho]

The last picture is from Ayumi's room when we had a small welcome party for Max, one of the Taiwanese students who ended his exchange program in Sendai after the earthquake but is back in town for just two weeks on a kind of a intensive summer course. [Ayumi]