Home is where all of my makeup is

みんなさん、こんにちは！Hey, everyone!

Right now I'm sitting in a super fancy internet joint where you get your own private booth (so you can jerk off to the bukkake your watching), free drinks, and a comfy chair with a leg rest. Despite all of this fancy-ness I've spent the last hour swearing and sighing because I can't find the right button on the God damn keyboard and I can't do anything on this God damn computer and everything is in God damn Japanese. I even managed to accidentally publish this blog waaay before it was done when I was trying to find out how to cut a God damn image. So I wound up deleting the whole thing after spending ages uploading all of this pictures. So you better enjoy it. Aaaaargh! I'll still be a couple of weeks until I get a wireless connection in my apartment.

Phew.. Anyway. This is my second day in Japan. I arrived at 10.30 a.m local time yesterday, which meant 03.30 a.m in Norway. After spending in total 12 hours on a plane I was pretty beat. Luckily I had two seats to myself on the plane, so you can imagine I got to demonstrate quite a few interesting seating positions during the flight. I should write a book. "1001 imaginative positions in an airplane seat (will require two seats or good flexibility)". It might be a suggestive title, though.

Look! My mom just came back from her father's funeral in Thailand, and she even bought herself some Japanese grammar books in Thai, so she's trying to learn Japanese too, yay!

The day before I left I spent moving out of Kringsjaa and bringing all of my junk to my mother's house, to keep it there while I'm in Japan. Mom worked until late, so it was just me and my 12-year-old cat, Snowball.

Goodbye, mr. Grumpy Pants!


Mom took me to the airport


My inspiration (when it comes to imaginative positions in uncomfortable seats)


Ready to go!


Bella - one of my awesome collegues who I ran into at the airport. Beautiful belly!

When I started getting wierd looks from the Japanese on the plane, I admitted to myself that I maybe was a little bit too heavy on the picture-taking.


When I arrived at Narita I was tired and my whole body felt like one giant muscle knot. Fortunately I'd slapped on a face and managed to look somewhat presentable. A nice guy from the university picked me up and we drove the 40-minute drive to Togane city, where all of the action is happening. He took me to the university where I got the key to my apartment and signed a few papers, which we seem to do a lot here, not knowing exactly what we're signing most of the time, as they are in 日本語. Oh, well. So far I don't think that I've sold my soul to the ｄｅｖｉｌ. Yet.

This is where approximately half of the Norwegian exchange students are living.

My crib! There's a kitchen with a fridge, microwave, washingmachine etc., a bathroom with a shower and a tub, and seperate room with a toilet.

This is the nicest I've lived in the fives years I've been out of the nest. But I guess I don't hold very high standards either, considering I've lived in both Communist Russia (also commonly referred to as Kringsjaa Student Village, in Oslo) and slept several months on a bed in someone's messy office.

The humble view from the balcony.

This is where I had my very first meal in Japan. Jetlagged and alone, in some cheap food court in a mall. I spent what felt like several minutes trying to find someting I could actually read, reading syllable by syllable to myself, feeling like an illiterate moron. The lady behind the counter must have been thinking that I was sure taking my sweet time on deciding what to eat. In time I've also figured that pointing or asking "what is good here?" is also an pretty decent alternative.

Wee! Highly syntetic "melon"-flavoured Fanta! Right up my alley!

The Japanese people, as you would imagine, is very kind and helpful, and I'm able to get what I want across, most of the time, despite them not speaking English, at all, and my Japanese being.. weeell, I certainly won't get any job as an interpreter any time soon.

But being open minded and willing to communicate, combined with having a healthy amount of self irony and great miming skills, I can say anything I wan't to say. It might not be so academically, but hey, you get my point.

I really should be writing another blog entry about today, but it's late (22.51 p.m) and I don't have the patience. Tomorrow I'll be going to Tokyo! Stay tuned.

(Is there anyone out there?)

- Kine