Diary

January 31, 2004 - Saturday

Slept in late this morning. Or later than on an ordinary work day anyway. After breakfast I went to Tokorozawa.

Had dinner at a Japanese restaurant. In a way the restaurant was similar to Yasaka, with a fireplace for BBQ. But they also served sashimi and other dishes that were not BBQ.

January 30, 2004 - Friday

Last day of the week again. But not much else happened today. Except one thing. I found out that my suspicions about a friend in Sweden. I had a strange e-mail from him asking about my snail-mail address. That made me suspicious. Why?

My only answer was that he wanted to send me something that cannot be sent be e-mail. So what can it be? Only reasonable explanation I could come up with was that he is getting married and wanted to send an invitation. And I was right. He is getting married.

January 29, 2004 - Thursday

Today I got to the immigration bureau at Shinagawa. It was not so difficult to find the way. Sings were in English all the way to the bus.

Still I managed to miss the Shinagawa station while on the JR. By two stations. I was too caught up in my book for remembering that I had to get of in Shinagawa. So it was just to get on a train and go back two stations.

Finally at the immigration bureau it took me a terrible amount of time to get the re-entry permit. At least that is what I was told it would take - hours and more. I was done in less than 20 minutes from entering the building. But I was there almost as they opened at 9:00 am.

The re-entry permit allows me to re-enter Japan without applying for a new visa. This I need soon because I am going to Hawaii in the middle of February. Aloha everybody. Surf. Ukulele. Volcanos. Hibiscus. Sun. And a big smile on my face. Soon.

January 28, 2004 - Wednesday

Today my mission was to get a re-entry permit at the Immigration Bureau in Otemachi. Well, that failed. In the papers I got from JSPS the address was in Otemachi. When I got there the building was deserted. I found a poster telling that the bureau had moved to Shinagawa. On the other side of the Tokyo. So I decided to go tomorrow instead.

January 27, 2004 - Tuesday

Work day as usual. After work I went to the gym. First time on my own after the free weight orientation class. Was I going to make it? Well, I did. Phew, what a relief.

January 26, 2004 - Monday

Working on my laptop. It is finally getting up and going now. Soon. Hopefully. The afternoon we had a research meeting again. Most in Japanese. Quite difficult to understand. If not impossible.

January 25, 2004 - Sunday

Sumo day! Woke up, had breakfast, and started to prepare for Sumo. Took the JR from Meguro to Ryogoku. In Ryogoku is the Kokugikan - stadium for Sumo wrestling in Tokyo - located. Outside the Kokugikan was several colorful flags with names of all the competitors and their stables. Inside they had a museum with the history of Sumo. There were also all the things that the winner of the tournament would win, a watch. sake, rice, meat, several cups, and much much more.

Sumo is an ancient Shinto sport. Some say Sumo has been around for at least 2000 years. And Japanese mythology include a tale where the destiny of the islands of Japan was determined by the outcome of a Sumo match between two gods. The Sumo as it is known today has its origin in Shinto rituals. Shiko - the stomping before a match - is meant to drive evil spirits from the dohyo - the ring. Similar to when before a dead member of the family is put up for viewing at home, salt is used for purification of the dohyu before a match. Salt is tossed into the dohyo and as much as 40 kg is thrown out in on tournament day.

There are around 800 rikishi - Sumo wrestlers - in Japan. Only the ones that have reached the sekitori status get a monthly payment, besides the food and accomodation every rikishi is provided at their beya - Sumo wrestling stable. That is the first goal for any newcomer, to reach the sekitori status and, thus, to get payment. The final goal, though, is to become a yokozuna - a grand champion. To become a yokozuna is decided by a committee (Sumo Kyokai). The decision is based on the rikishi's result in the dohyo, but also on his behavior and manner outside the ring. That is, the committee decides whether the rikishi is worthy of becoming yokozuna or not. A title that is unique and only 68 rikishi has become yokozuna during the last 300 years.

When a rikishi finally reaches the status of yokozuna, he salary increases significantly and his life becomes easy. The rikishi's in the lower rank within a beya become the ozeki's or the yokozuna's servants and valets, doing nearly everything for the yokozuna. However, to become yokozuna is rare and only about four rikishi have yokozuna status at a time. The committee also decides when it is time for the yokozuna to retire, which also have a special cermony where the top-knot is removed.

The basic rules of Sumo is that there are no weight classes, the rikishi should stay inside the dohyo only touching its surface with his feet, rikishi from the same beya do not fight. Hence, to win a match a rikishi has to force his opponent to touch the dohyo's surface with anythig but the feet or to set a foot outside. The most dignified way to win - or least dignified way to loose - is to grab the opponenets mawashi - belt - with both hands and lift him outside the dohyo. The gyoji - referee - then declares the match over.

Anyway, it is a fascinating sport with ancient history. At first the wrestlers seem fat, but at a closer look the fat hides a strong and athletic body that has been developed by harsh and tedious exercise work over a long period of time.

Although fascinating, a game day start at 9:00 am by the sound of yose-daiko - calling drums. Then the junior division start fighting, then the lowest status of sekitori, then the makuuchi status at around 4 pm. This was the final day - senshuraku - of the Tokyo tournament so we could see who won all the things at display outside. But before the makuushi status rikishi start fighting they all are introduced as they gather around the dohyo, first the east then the west. Then the yokozuna rikishi are introduced - at this moment there is only one yokozuna. Then the actual fights starts. When - at the final day - they reach the last six rikishi - the six best - only three matches are left. The best rikishi enter the ring and perform shiko, first east then west. Then the last three fights are on. And finally sevaral hours after the start, the champion of the tournament is declared. So, although fascinating, it get kind of boring after a while. Until the last three fights, which also involved quite a lot of money.

The final game with the current yokozuna - who also had won all his fights so far this tournament - had more than 12 million JPY for the winner. The yokozuna - Asasyoryu-san - won the fight and got unbeaten through this tournament. Great for him. And we could finally go home.

On our way home we stopped by in Ebisu to try a Korean/Japanese restaurant. They served nice food in a modern environment. But the food was not extraordinary. Then home and hit the bed.

January 24, 2004 - Saturday

Woke up quite early today. Made some work for the Red Cross in Stockholm. Had to update the homepage at www.folkratt.home.se. But, as usual, I had forgot something. Since I had made a new installation of Windows on my laptop I had moved all information to my desktop. I totally forgot bring the information for the Red Cross FTP-login. But at least I only have to upload the page now.

Then we went to Ginza for massage. It was great. As usual. After the massage we visited Bic Camera again. This time to buy new memory for my laptop - since this is the most likely hardware error I can think of. A new 256 MB memory card to replace an old 128 MB memory card. I hope this is enough and that it was the old 128 MB that was broken and not the old 256 MB. Anyway, it works... So far.

Oooh, and today we also bought tickets for the Sumo wrestling final in Tokyo tomorrow. It's going to be fun to watch it. We got a seat quite far from the ring, or whatever it is called.

January 23, 2004 - Friday

Phew, today I managed to unlock the locked map. So I could finally backup all my documents. What a relief! But what a killer. It took my so many days. And still my laptop is not up and running as before the krasch. That will take another few days to get all teh software back.

The cause of the problems are probably some kind of hardware problem. At first i thought it was my HDD, but after several checks i could find no disk errors. The conclusion? Probably something wrong with my RAM, or perhaps some contact that does not fit as well as it should on the HDD. This might have happened when they changed my network port a couple of months back. But who knows?

January 22, 2004 - Thursday

Still not getting my laptop up and running fully. Today, though, I got it up and running enough to transfer most of the files to my desktop. That is a great feeling.

Now I just have to solve how to get the documents from a foleder that is locked for access. But that is for tomorrow.

January 21, 2004 - Wednesday

All day was for repairing my laptop. In the end I was able to do it so I, at least, can recover and do a proper backup on all my files. Yeah, you say I should have done that before. Shouldn't we all?

January 20, 2004 - Tuesday

Ahhhh. Worst day in a long time. My computer broke down. Totally. Something is terrible wrong with it. It do not start or anything. Ahhhhhhhhh.

January 19, 2004 - Monday

Wake up. It's football time. Watched watched Indianapolis get beaten by New England before I went to the office this morning.Great. Tom Brady is in Super Bowl again.

When getting back home in the evening we watched the second game Carolina@Philadelphia. The underdog Carolina won the game. Quite a surprise. But it is always fun when an underdog wins... Except when they beat your favorite team of course. However, Philadelphia is not one of my favorites so I was amused.

January 18, 2004 - Sunday

Sunday with a capital S as in sleepy and sleeping. Zzzzzzzzzz.

January 17, 2004 - Saturday

did not do much today. Woke up late. Had some breakfast and rested. Watched some football. What to do when the NFL season is over?

January 16, 2004 - Friday

A Friday as every other Friday... Almost. In the evening Chie and I went to Ginza to watch a Namie Amuro show. She is one of the most popular J-Pop stars with a countless number of hits. The show was at the Tokyo International Forum, and could only seat 5000 people. Or seat, everybody was standing up, singing, clapping hands, dancing, and screaming. Amazing.

They just needed to hear the intro of a song and then... Aaaaaaahhhhhhhhhh! For every song. For two hours. It seemed like it was only hit songs for two hours. And really good ones as well. I have only heard one song before - So Crazy - but I really liked all the songs. And so did her fans.

Most of the songs had a nice beat which Namie complemented with her beautiful voice, and dancing. And most of the songs had a nice sing-along chorus - if you sing in Japanese that is - that would make any western Pop-star jealous. For short, it was a wonderful evening with good music. If she would sing in English I believe she could be a star outside of Japan too.

On our way to the Ginza subway station after the show we passed a Karaoke bar. We did not enter but I have to write about it because I was shocked. A 9 stories bar only for Karaoke. Wow!

And speaking of music. I bought a CD a couple of days ago - The Soul Sessions by Joss Stone. A CD I can really recommend to all of you that like rock-soul music that has that spirit of 60s-70s, often accompanied by a fat Hammond organ and a great voice. What a voice. And the girl - I heard on the radio - is only 16 years old. I must have heard wrong. Anyway, look out for this girl. I think you will hear a lot of her in the future.

January 15, 2004 - Thursday

Today was the first time to really visit the gym at the Hongo-campus. It was really nice to be working out again. This time I did my knee rehabilitation exercises. And one exercise for my lower back.

Then I headed home for dinner and to study Japanese. Although I did not study too much this night. Hiragana as usual, maybe it is time to start with Katakana? But I still read Hiragana too slow. And then some more Japanese words. How great would it be if reading a word once, and its meaning, and then you would know it for the rest of your life? I would say it would be SUPER GREAT! Now I read it and once a read it, it is lost. Feels like I have to read a word a thousand times to make it stick in my mind for a day before it is lost again. Some words are easier to remember than other though, like uma (馬), which means horse.

January 14, 2004 - Wednesday

Nothing special happened today. Except that we watched an exciting playoff game in the night. A recording from the last weekend. Indianapolis@Kansas City. Both teams are offensive teams so it was a fun game to watch. Indianapolis scored a touchdown on every drive, except one in the first half that was a field goal, and their last drive of the game which was more to kill the time than anything else.

Kansas City was almost as good, just missing a field goal in the first half, and scoring another field goal in the same half. Fortunately, Indianapolis won the game 38-31. A late Christmas present for all Indianapolis fans. I am not one of them but I don't like Kansas City so it was an easy decision to convert into a Indianapolis fan this evening.

January 13, 2004 - Tuesday

Back at the office again after a somewhat longer weekend than usually. Not much to tell about the day at the office though. Nothing special.

After the office though I went to Komaba Lodge to pick up some mail and look after my room. Then I went to the Komaba campus to find the room of the Todai Vikings. This is the football team of The University of Tokyo. All I found was two freshmen that had no clue whether I could join the team or not. But I got the telephone number and e-mail to their coach. So now it is just to contact him to find out if I can join the team or not.

At home I continued my studies of the Japanese language. I found out that an island is shima (しま in hiragana and 島 in Kanji), that something striped is also shima (縞 in Kanji), that a horse is uma (うま Hiragana and 馬 Kanji), and that a striped horse (a zebra) is shima-uma (縞馬). A station is eki (えき Hiragana and 駅 Kanji). The observant notice that the right part of the Kanji character for station is horse. So obviously it had something to do with horses when the word station first came to use. Anyway, I bid you a good night.

January 12, 2004 - Monday

Monday. Still holiday. Great. Watch football in the morning. Green Bay@Philadelphia. Exciting game that, unfortunately, Green Bay lost.

After the game it is time to go to Roppongi hills. Roppongi is one of my favorite Kanji-character name, so far. The Kanji for Roppongi is 六本木. I don't know the meaning of the first character but the second and third means book (hon) and tree (ki). When you put words together they shift the first syllables from voiceless to voiced. So, hon becomes pon, and ki becomes gi. That is the best I can explain it so far.

Anyway, where were I. Oooh, Roppongi hills. It is a newly built complex for shopping. And complex is a suitable word for it. It was really difficult to find the way to the shops there. The shops were kind of hidden. To be honest, it was kind of a nice architecture -in a modern sort of way - but as an architect I think you have to do some serious thinking about what the building should be used for. Just looking at it as a very expensive sculpture, or - as in this case - for shopping.

Chie and I were going to Roppongi hills with Mina to watch the Last Samurai. A movie with and produced by Tom Cruise. Well, there were other actors as well, but he is the most famous one. Popcorn and coke and movie. What more can you ask for. Well, a story that is more true to the history of the Samurai perhaps. I am not to tell that it was not true, but in the end of the 19th century (1876 and 1877) the Japanese emperor did not speak much English, and a Samurai does not speak the last words in English as he is dying on a battlefield. Of course you can always argue that it would not be a good movie otherwise, but I doubt it.

Anyway, it just encourage me to get more information about the way of the Saumrais and their history. It might take a while to acquire the knowledge but when I have it I will write about the Samurai on this web page. So keep coming back, please.

January 11, 2004 - Sunday

Woke up early to watch football. It is the playoffs in NFL right now. First game up was Carolina@St. Louis. An exciting game. The lead went back and forward and it ended tied. So it had to go to overtime. Carolina missed a field goal. St. Louis missed a field goal. Carolina had to punt. Big chance for Rams (St. Louis) but Carolina intercepted the ball. 3rd and long for Carolina. And they make a great play that ended in a touchdown. Carolina Panthers win the game and continues to the next round in the playoffs.

Next game was the Tennessee@New England. A cold game, about -15 degrees Celsius. I was going with the Tennessee and Chie with the New England. I mainly go with Tennessee because I spent a year in Tennessee about 10 years ago and I really like McNair, their quarterback. He is huge and can throw the ball like few. But he was up against another great quarterback. Brady in New England, and Chie's favorite along with Bret Favre in Green Bay. Anyway, Tennessee lost the game but made a great effort at New England's home field. And I am not too sad that Tennessee is out of the playoffs.

January 10, 2004 - Saturday

Saturday today. And I went to the gym at the university for a gym-class. Everyone that wants to us the gym has to take the class, no matter what. So I did the class. It was pretty much a waste of time for me. For two reasons. First of all it was in Japanese - and even though I have progressed I did not understand anything, except a few words here and there. Second, it was for totally beginners. They went through that it was important to warm up and stretch afterwards, and how to use particular machines. Well, I have been practicing sports all my life and I know that I have to warm up and I know I have to stretch afterwards. Nothing new. But I can understand them too. How can they know who's a total beginner and who's not.

Anyway, through the papers I got - in English - I found out that this class was just to use the machines in the gym. If I want to use the free weights - which I do - then I have to take another class - free-weight introduction. The first class available is January 22. Kind of frustrating if I may say so.

After the gym-class I met with Chie in Ginza. We went to get some massage. It was great and I have another appointment in two weeks. Then we went shopping in Ginza. I found some socks, and a pair of shoes. Tokyo is on sale just after new year. Well, not Tokyo but all shops have big sales now. I think you know what I mean. After shopping we met with Yoshiki-san at Red Pepper in Ebisu for a dinner. Yummi.

January 9, 2004 - Friday

It's Friday again and the last day before a three days rest. Monday is a national holiday here in Japan. I have a thought - if ever I became king of my own country, or president, or prime minister, but king sounds better - to include all the holidays from all over the world to the calendar of my country. That would be nice I think.

Anyway, today I read some more at the office. And tried to figure out the meaning of some terms and how they relate to each other. Pretty amazing how little words can be so difficult to understand sometimes. Usually when not thinking about them they have a pretty clear meaning to us. I mean, we use them without thinking and it seems to us that they have an obvious meaning... To everyone. But do they mean the same thing for everyone? And, indeed, do they have a clear and unambiguous meaning to ourself? Many do, I am sure... Perhaps. But many, I believe, do not.

So today I tried to clear things in my mind by defining a few of these terms that I use in my work, and will use in my models. Not so easy, actually. But now it becomes too much work related thing so I quite talking - or actually writing - about this subject.

After work I had a dinner and studied Japanese again. I was going over the Hiragana (ひらがな in Hiragana) again. And started to use Hiragana to write new words to learn. Some of these in Kanji too.

Kanji is quite fascinating because you can actually know the meaning of the characters without knowing how to pronounce the word(s). And by combining different Kanji-characters into another character you combine the meaning. A nice example is the tree, woods, and forest which is pronounced ki (き), hayashi (はやし), and mori (もり)respectively. Tree is 木, woods is 林, and forest is 森. The observant have already noticed that it is the same character as tree for woods and forest too. Just more trees. So clever.

January 8, 2004 - Thursday

What happened today? Well, it was a clear and beautiful day with a blue sky (あおぞら - aozora). You see, I do some small progress anyway. Still, the day was cold but beautiful.

At lunch I went to a small restaurant and had a grilled fish, rice and misu-soup for 500 JPY, around 40 SEK - some things are pretty cheap in Tokyo. Most of the times I go to lunch by myself because the other seem to be in another time zone. Some arrive when I go to lunch. I prefer not being at the office until midnight so I get here early and leave in a rather normal time - whatever that is here in Japan? - like 5 or 6 pm.

After work it is subway home. Dinner. Study Japanese. Every day... Almost. Some days I am too tired or have other things planned. But most of the days I try to study Japanese. It progresses slow. But a slow progress is still a progress.

January 7, 2004 - Wednesday

Another day passed by. Not much to say about this day either. So I write about something that happened during the new years break instead. Since I don't wrote any diary then it will still be news. Not a big deal anyway, but still.

You all know about potato chips, I guess. In Sweden they come in a wide range of flavors. From plain salty ones, sour cream and onion, BBQ, and pepper, just to mention a few. Well, during the new years holidays I tried a Japanese potato chip. Now you think - He's gone crazy. What's special about that?. Well, maybe it is not so special but the flavor was seaweed. Like a dill flavored potato chips in Sweden but with seaweed. Quite tasty too.

So maybe you still think I am crazy. But what the heck. I was crazy before too. We all are. The only sane people are the crazy ones.

January 6, 2004 - Tuesday

To be honest... not much happened today. No new driving license... No alien registration card... No nothing. A truly in-between day. Or ordinary day. Or you name it what ever you want.

At the office I read and read and read and... Sounds boring perhaps, but it is not. Not yet anyway. And I still have a big smile on my face at the end of the day. That is the most important thing in the world... To have a smile on your face as often as often as possible. Not a fake one, but a real smile because you are happy. And there are so many things to be happy about. Like a clear blue sky. Or that your cold is getting better. Or that your friends are well and happy even though they have a frozen pipe in their house. Or... You can find so many reasons to smile if you just try.

January 5, 2004 - Monday

First working day of the new year. Not so fun, though, to be back at the office. Or back at the office is a little bit too much to say. I got a ride by Chie this morning to the Driving License Center. Time to get a Japanese driving license. It took most of the day to do that and to pay the rent at Komaba Lodge.

But now I have a Japanese driving license. It was tricky and very close that I did not get it this time either. It turned out that I had to be able to prove that I spent, at least, 90 days in Sweden after I got my Swedish driving license - which I got in 1991. But how do you do that? Well, by showing your passport of course. But if this particular passport is recently renewed due to the poor quality of the first EU-passports. Then there are nothing in the passport to prove how long I stayed in Sweden. Fortunately it turned out that since I renewed my passport I had stayed in Sweden for about 92 days. Lucky.

Then they told me that since I was not able to prove that I stayed in Sweden for more than one year I had to get a beginners driving license. Hrmmmph. Turned out that it was enough with a certificate from my professor in Sweden that I been employed at the KTH since 1998 until 2003. That was more than one year. So I got myself a driving license that last until August 1, year 18. Japanese year 18 that is. So it should be 2006 in western years. I will try to find out how they calculate this - it has something to do with the emperors - and then I will write about it under the Japan-section of this web-page. Anyway, I got to go now. Wrooooooooooom!