Category Archives: Summer

COOP

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Biggest thing today was our visit to COOP Konsum in Bergvik. We were environmental friendly. Recycling PET bottles. This is something we can not enjoy in Japan, getting money for recycling the PET bottles.


Chie recycling Shopping at COOP Konsum

After recycling we did some grocery shopping. Some Cactus Ramlösa water. And coleslaw for the BBQ lunch that my mother had prepared.


Ulf BBQing BBQ

In the late afternoon we packed the car and drove back to Gävle. Robert joined us in the car and we talked while cruising along the E4an.


Lunch

Chie and I wanted to stay at a hotel in Gävle but we had no reservation and no idea where to stay. So before getting into downtown Gävle we headed out to Engeltofta. But there they only had a restaurant and a pension, with shared toilettes and showers. It was a beautiful place but not for us this time.

We drove back to my mother’s place to drop Robert off. And used the opportunity to check Internet for hotels. The best option we could find was the newly renovated Scandic CH in the central of Gävle. Once we got there we found out it was quite a nice hotel.

It turned out Robert forgot his watch in the car so we had to go back to my mother’s place to return it to him. Impulsive decision… Instead of Robert waiting at home for his friends to meet him, he joined us for dinner. At Cinque. An Italian restaurant. OK food, but nothing special. But Chie found a great grappa (Grappa di Amarone Riserva) 😛

Fallet

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About 30 minutes drive from grandmother and John’s summer house my mother and Ulf have their summer house. We went from Eh to Fallet.

When we arrived my mother, Ulf and Robert (my brother) was there to greet us.

In the afternoon we did not do so much. Just talking. Stayed outside in the garden. Though the weather was not so good. Watch Robert use the summer house as his weight training place.


Leg training Shoulder training with pipe Abs training

We also had time to take a walk. Stopping at the lake. Watching some lambs again. And Ulf had time to talk with some of the locals.


Same lake as at grandmother's summer house Chie seeing something in the lake
Lambs Dinner time

In the evening we went to Moheds camping to stay for the night. Mother had rented a cabin for me and Chie and one for Robert. The cabins were not so nice but OK to just spend the night in. And the showers, which was the main reason we went to the camping (the summer house’s well had been flooded in the summer rains so the water was bad) was… Terrible.

We had a bunch of Ukrainian people in the cabins around us. But entering the showers and bathrooms it felt not like the Ukrainians had come to Sweden but that we had gone to Ukraine.

The Ukrainians were true to our image of them… Drinking heavily. I guess picking blueberries and/or kantareller (kind of yellow mushroom) is not fun enough without the alcohol in the evening. It was not so bad though, and I kind of feel sorry for them.

Obviously the life in Ukraine is worse than getting into a old car driving half (at least a quarter) across the world to a foreign country. To slave all day and pick blueberries that will give you a mere 20 SEK a liter in the beginning of the season and only around 8 SEK later on.

Robert felt the Ukrainian was quite scary so he took his skateboard and left in the middle of the night. Riding around in the middle of Hälsingland (= nowhere) until he found his way back to mother’s summer house. While Chie and I slept soundly in our beds next door to drunk Ukrainians.

Eh

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Waking up at a hotel at Arlanda airport was a new experience. And it made us hungry.

After breakfast we got our rental car and speed away towards my grandmother’s summer house in Eh outside Kilafors. It took us 3 hours including a stop in Gävle to buy some groceries at ICA Maxi and some wine at Systembolaget.

The most amazing thing at Chie discovered at ICA Maxi. A wall full of scanners for customers to pick up and do self scanning of their groceries. So that paying at the cashier will be quicker and easier.

When we arrived at my grandmother’s summer house my father and his wife Eva and John was there as well. Big welcome committee.


Nielsen family

We talked and talked. And then we had dinner before my father and Eva went home to Gävle.


John & grandmother Eva, father & Chie

Then we talked some more before Chie and I dropped dead in the bed.

Leaving Japan for Sweden

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Sony holiday and no workday today. Chie and I used it to go to Sweden. Our flight left Narita airport 11:15 am so we left home around 7 am and had breakfast on the Narita Express.


Chie at Shinagawa station

The flight were on time and we spent most of the time to Amsterdam watching movies and eating food.

In Amsterdam we spent 5 hours waiting on our flight to Stockholm doing shopping. Some YSL M7 to a friend in Tokyo. Some Toblerone. Some cosmetics. And so on, including dinner… A few times.


Chie at Amsterdam airport

Then a 2 hours ride to Stockholm. Picking up the bags and checking in at the SAS Radison hotel at the airport. We got the room farthest away on the 5th floor. When we finally reached the door at around midnight the key did not work.

So I had to go back to the reception. Get a new room. And then finally we could go to sleep.