Ume trees and the plum blossom

Laura: Are those flowers what I think they are? Is it time for Sakura blossoms now? :D:D (See post 19 February 2009, Climbing outside for the first time)
Answer:
It is probably some kind of cherry blossom, or sakura in Japanese yes, but it is not time for the full blossoming yet. I read a little bit [...]

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Concert in Tokyo

Monday 23/2: 
Monday Bea (German YSEP student) and me finally got to go to the Feeder concert we originally were supposed to go to last year, but that was canceled and postponed to today (see 7 October, Grønn te dessert). Bea is the music expert of us, and it was she that showed me their music [...]

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Odaiba, Ebisu, Roppongi and many more

Sunday 22/2:
Sunday I went to Odaiba (or Daiba) with Koo, Jery (probably not how it is spelled), a Korean girl that had studied a semester at NTNU and Yutaka, a Japanese guy that also had studied a semester at NTNU. It’s a small world ね。
It was fun to talk about my school back home, and [...]

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Japanese Valentine

Saturday 14/2 and Friday 20/2:
I forgot to tell about the Japanese valentine, or the big chocolate event…
Valentine was imported by the chocolate industry to get people to by more chocolate, just like valentine is being imported by the post office in Norway, to get more people to send valentine cards.
One huge difference with the Japanese [...]

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Skiing in Hakuba

Friday 13/2 – Sunday 15/2:
Friday night I headed out on my second snowboarding trip in Japan. This time with friends from the YSEP program, Sheng, Josh and Ben from America and Koo and Sunna from Korea. As last time we went to Shinjuku, and tock a night bus from a big bus station there. This [...]

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The おげんきりん man

Tuesday 17/2:
The おげんきりん man (see post, 30 September 2008) showed up again, and this time he made me some cute bunnies ^^ We had a small chat, mainly in Japanese and I was glad to notice that my Japanese had improved a lot since last time I talked to him. Even if I was better [...]

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Climbing outside for the first time

Thursday 12/2:
Ok, time to tell about my first outside climbing experience that I had this last Thursday. I went with Sheng, by train early in the morning as usual, to Yugawara, an onsen town outside Tokyo. It was close to the sea, and seemed like a nice town. But I didn’t get to see much [...]

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Winter mountain training II (with snow this time)

Friday 6/2 – Sunday 8/2:
I know I said I was gone write more about everyday stuff over here, but before I can do that I have to update you one my latest trips, so bear with me. Firs I tell you about another Wander Vogel trip I had last weekend. It is beginning to quite [...]

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The wonder of onigiris

I found this quote one the Internet, which I felt had to be in my blog.
“Most people are only peripherally aware of the world that surrounds them, especially if their surroundings are familiar…Some people feel more alive when they travel and visit unfamiliar places or foreign countries because at those times sense perception – experiencing [...]

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The third force of nature

Monday 02/02:

Earlier I have written about experiencing typhoons and earthquakes here in Japan, something that wouldn’t happen in Norway. Well, Japan had a third surprise in for me, volcano eruptions! I hadn’t rely thought about that one, with all the talk about earthquakes, but after reading about it I now know that Japan has [...]

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