Monthly Archives: December 2006

Raiders Monopoly

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Rain, rain, rain… nothing but rain today. All day long. I went to meet Chie for lunch and then we took the train back to Naka-Meguro (中目黒). There we had a coffee and a hot chocolate before having a massage.

When we came out from the massage it was still raining. So we went back home with the bus.

At home we played a game of Monopoly. Raiders Monopoly. It is just as an ordinary Monopoly except that the streets has been replaced by names of important players and trainers. Of course I won big time… NOT! (If you did not watch Borat the movie then watch it first and read again… Hopefully it will be more fun the second time, but maybe not).

Of course Chie won. As always. The best thing about playing with her is that if I do not win, she will. It’s kind of a win-win situation.

Lilla Dalarna

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Went with Chie to her office in the morning. I was helping her out with some research about Swedish IT-policy. Some of the information was only in Swedish which is quite a difficult language.

After lunch I went on my own to Ginza. It was fun to be back and to visit all the usual places like Bic Camera, Mitsukoshi department store, and of course the Apple store.

By 5:30 pm I was back at the subway station at Chie’s office to meet her for dinner with Club Leo. We stopped at Roppongi (六本木) Hills and went window shopping. Then we met Non and Ryo and walked together to Lilla Dalarna. A Swedish restaruant owned by a Japanese that spent some time in Dalarna.

We had two starters including a plate of raw spiced salmon (gravlax) and assorted pickled herring. For main course we had reindeer with Kantarell-sauce and grilled beef. To that we had Jansansson’s temptation. And for dessert we had Ris a’la Malta (round corned rice boiled in milk and mixed with whipped cream) and fruit sauce. Yummy.

Lilla Dalarna Non and Ryo

We Will Rock You & Shabu-shabu

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Woke up just before 10 am. Just in time to watch the kickoff of the Raiders game. The last game home for this season. To make the pain short… They lost again. Since they were in the Super Bowl they played so bad. And for each season we always said “At least it can only go up from here”. Still, when the next season ended it was just to look at the standings to see that actually it could.

But this year it must be so… It cannot get any worse than this. Only two wins and last in the whole NFL. Defense plays well but offense have swept all the NFL records away… Most turnovers, worst in the red zone, only 17 TDs. Today NBC compared the number of TDs to that of singel individuals in some other teams… The worst part… Raiders lost this too. Any single thing you can think of in the offense, Raiders is the worst team. So this year it must be safe to say that at least it can only go up from here.

At 2 pm we had a much better experience. We were seated in front of a big scene in Shinjuku to watch the We Will Rock You show. This was the last show in Tokyo for this time. It was a great show. And it was fun to see that almost everyone had a magic light which they swung to the beat of the music. Of course, almost everyone includes Chie and me.

Then we took a train home and had shabu-shabu for dinner. It was very tasty and I had too much to eat. It is quite hard to stop eating when it tastes so good.

Shabu-shabu meat Shabu-shabu

Christmas in Japan

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Yesterday at 11:10 am my flight departed from Stockholm to Copenhagen. I then had 3 hours at the airport in Copenhagen before I continued to Narita and Japan. I had a grilled salmon with rice for lunch, did some shopping, and waited.

At the gate I asked to be upgraded to business class by using my SAS milage. It was OK so I got a window seat in business class. That was a saver since I could sleep for a few hours. Actually 4 to 6 hours.

At Narita I was one of the first to pass immigration but one of the last to get my baggage. So much for hurrying.

Passing customs and out into the arrival hall… Chie! What a great feeling. It’s been a long time since last met and still it feels like no time has passed at all.
On our way to Tokyo we stopped at IKEA in Funabashi. Billy bookshelfs look the same in Japan as does the IKEA store. The only thing that does not look exactly the same is the customers. There are more of them and they are shorter.

In the evening we went to Ebisu for sushi. Finally I could eat some real sushi again. It was worth all the waiting in the world.

Ebisu

Before going to bed we cheated a little bit and opened the mountain of Christmas gifts that we had. Because tomorrow will be a busy day without time for a relaxed Christmas gift opening.

Christmas tree in Ebisu Christmas gifts