New Year’s Eve

Today is the day when 2009 becomes 2010 or maybe 2009++ would be be the correct way of expressing it in C++ (a programming language). Anyway, the weather was again great, though a bit chilly in the wind.

Coco and I spent part of the day in a long walk in the sunshine. And the rest of the day we spent resting together with the rest of the family. And preparing the New Year’s dinner. In order to prepare the dinner Chie and I also went to buy groceries. To get the kani (crab) and shells and some other fishy 😉 things we went to the fish market.

As always on a New Year’s eve the fish market was chaos. People are so afraid they will not get the things they want for dinner so the fight their way around. I walked around as normal, while Chie was fighting 😉

As you may have guessed, we had kani (crab), grilled scallops, and hand rolled sushi for New Year’s dinner.

After dinner Coco was tired and fell asleep at once. While the rest of us was able to stay up for the new year.



Taking Coco for a Walk on the Wild Side

Went to Tokorozawa for the New Year today. Once we arrived in Tokorozawa I took Coco for a long walk (on the wild side). When I take Coco for a walk I let him do almost anything a dog wants to do, which I think he is a bit unused to since his mother is a bit protecting.



Back home again Coco and I had a rest before Coco helped Chie prepare dinner. Tonight was shabu-shabu, think sliced meat that is dipped in hot bouillon together with a lot of vegetables. Delicious 😛



After dinner we all relaxed some more before it was time to go to bed. The time to go to bed in Tokorozawa is much earlier than in Tokyo… For some unknown reason 😉

Christmas Evening

An ordinary Christmas Eve. Wakeup 6:30 am to go to the office. Work as normal until 5:30 pm. Then hurry home to have dinner with Chie.

Chie had prepared a delicious Jansson’s Temptation. And we had chicken club and white asparagus too. Not what you have on a Swedish Christmas dining table. But better and no risk of overeating a lot of unnecessary food.



After dinner it was the traditional Christmas gifts opening time. Santa Claus had visited us even here in Japan 😯 I got a pair of pants to chill out in, and a matching sweater, some ginger bread cookies, a Rubick’s cube, and some table cloths. Chie got handmade slippers, coffee, some table cloths, and an Apple TV.



We love Santa! 😀 Thank you all Santas in Sweden (yeah, sorry all you from Finland out there but Santa is from Sweden 😉

Ricky’s & Raider Image

Second day in the San Francisco area. We slept in a bit this morning. But once we started we went from zero to full speed in no time.

First stop of the day was Ricky’s sports bar for lunch and College Football. When we arrived at Ricky’s we found a new shop that sold Raiders t-shirts among other Raiders things, JV’s Locker Room.

It turned out that JV stands for John Vella and won a Super Bowl ring with the Raiders in Super Bowl XI back in 1977.

Mash-san mentioned that his all time favorite NFL player was Ken Stabler, who happened to be the QB when John Vella won his ring. That seemed to make a bond between them and Mash-san could borrow John’s ring… For a while.


Mash-san & Russel Shimura-san, Mash-san & John Vella

Afterwards we visited Ricky’s to have lunch and watch College Football. We watched Stanford @ USC (Pac-10) while eating typical American sports bar food. The game was a great upset since Stanford won. We gave Ricky a #1 t-shirt and some cookies, and we all got a gift from Ricky (I got a Bobbing Head Touchdown).


Shimura-san & Mash-san at Ricky's Mash-san in front of his framed Raider Nation fan of the week printout Chie & Ricky (with our #1 t-shirt)

Then it was time for our yearly visit to the Raider Image. Usually after we leave the Raider Image they need to refill their storage rooms. This year was no difference. We had our hands full of bags once we exited the shop.


Chie, Johan, Mash-san, Shimura-san, Kikue-san at Raider Image

On our way home the sun set while we drove across the San Francisco bay. When we got back home it was dark. And we spent the rest of the evening preparing the tail gate party tomorrow, eating dinner, and talking.


Sunset in California

Leaving Tokyo for San Francisco

Finally the week is over, at least the work week. Chie and I still got up as early as we usually do. Breakfast and then on our way to Narita for our yearly Raiders’ trip to San Francisco.

But first we stopped at the Swedish Embassy to get my new driving license. Then in Ginza to buy some gifts and then Nippori for a local train to Narita Airport.


Chie at Nippori - note the two heads on her shoulder

At Narita we met Mash-san and had a lunch with him before we passed security. I exchanged some US Dollar and went to the Delta lounge to relax. Chie joined me after a while but Mash-san had to stay outside since he is not a Gold Medallion member.


Lunch with Mash-san at Narita Chie at the Delta lounge

The flight was loooooooooong and uneventful. Slept some directly before and during takeoff. But once I woke up I could not go back to sleep. So I watched some movies and read my 1000 pages and some Ayn Rand pocket book.

Finally we landed in San Francisco. Got our bags. Sneaked out through immigration. Got our rental car. Drove to Residence Inn in San Mateo. Checked in. Boom. I fell asleep while Chie, Mash-san together with Shimura-san and Kikue-san went grocery shopping.

When they got back I woke up and Shimura-san drove us all to the Stanford shopping mall for some serious shopping. But first a lunch at Max’s. So so, but we had a fun time.


Shimura-san driving Shimura-san & Mash-san at Max's for lunch

On our way back we stopped to shop some books at Borders as well. To my surprise they had my favorite training wear shop there, Lululemon Athletica. I bought a t-shirt.

Back at “home” we talked, prepared dinner, had dinner and talked again. About what happened since we met the last time, football in general and Raiders in particular. We had a fun time and the food was delicious when Chie is the chef.


Johan & Chie preparing dinner Shimura-san & Mash-san drinking beer... The Japanese way
Kikue-san serving pasta Fun time at dinner