letters

I trust you had a lovely Christmas with your family and I'm assuming many of you are still enjoying or will be enjoying the seasonal holiday now or soon. I've been receiving a couple of phone calls and SMS from some friends asking me where I am now (I guess it's because I usually disappear from Swden when I have a week off or more). I am actually in Sweden this Christmas break even though I've go a 2-week-off and even though Sweden is dark and icy cold in this period of the year. This doesn't sound so exciting maybe, but in fact I am enjoying a suitable amount of "blank & calm" time, which doesn't demand me to make plans or efforts for anything. I just wake up every morning, and do whatever I feel like doing.

I, even so, have some guests visiting me to take care of and flying up to Stockholm for some activities this week, otherwise I am spending my time reading a lot, writing a lot and eating & sleeping a lot!! This is also a great opportunity to do things which were not always on the top in my priority list, such as browsing my photos and organizing them in the photo folders (done), refreshing the list of all my contacts (done), reading back my diaries (done), making a collection file of my 100 favorite songs/music 2005 (not done yet - Sven, I need your help!) and restarting my French study (done, but it's another story if I can continue it or not...) ect.

Another good thing I've done is clean up my letter box. This box contains piles of letters and cards sent to me by my friends, beloved ones and families in the last 7, 8 years until today. Reading some of them, I realised again how warm, personal and touching the words written by hand are, compared to the ones typed on the keyboard. And now I'm writing some letters by using a pen and papers, and my hand!!

A Happy New Year to everyone!

Do all Swedes drive Volvos and live Ikea furnished houses? - my insight on Sweden (2)

I have seen some similarities between Swedes and Japanese people - both of them are shy, stiff, humble and taciturn. The mentality of "a nail sticks up gets hummered down (to be average is to be safe)" exists here as well. I would emphasize, however, "A nail sticks up too much doesn't get hammered down" in Japan while "every nail sticks up -no matter how much it sticks up- gets hammered down" in Sweden. This might be the reason why there're so few Rolls-Royces to be seen (they can be too obvious a sign of success) and why even rich people don't have 'flamboyant' life styles in Sweden. To be average is to be safe.
One thing I should add after referring to "Swedish average life" is I have lived in several countries and I find Sweden's life-standard is proudly high.

By the way, winter has arrived in Lund. We'd had the 1st snow today for this coming winter.
Everyone, keep yourself warm and look forward to Christmas!
( advent candlestick - pictured on the top )

Farewell

Monday morning -- first thing I felt when I woke up this morning was emptiness and sadness. My boss is soon taking a new big challenge in his career back in Tokyo, and last Friday was his last working day in Sweden. I have been working closely with him for 2.5 years, and today I didn't receive any emails, phone calls or SMSs at all from him, which I used to receive a lot, and his office is just dark, quiet and so empty -- it feels so strange. I think that we sometimes don't realize how attached we become to some of our bosses along our career, especially the very good ones.
I really admire his big contribution to our business and appreciate his encouragement to us, now wish him a good health and success in the new business field!!

internet access in the sky

SAS (Scandinavian Airlines) nowadays offers wireless high-speed internet access on board. You can surf the web, receive and send emails at your seat in the airplane. The rate is about 30 US$ for a flat fee(there is an alternative way of payment too). I am right now flying from Tokyo to Copenhagen, which is more than 11 hours' flight and with the internet access I am no longer bored to be on this long hour flight! This is so cool!!

By the way, on this flight I am seated next to Aki Teiskonen(Finland), a racer of World Rally Championship for Production Cars. He participated in a race in Hokkaido, Japan and now heading to Corsica for another race, then continue to Spain. I have no knowledge about Car Rallying but it is fascinating to listen to him about the car races, championship tour and his life.

side in / side out

What's out / to be out / need in.
What's out / to be in / need frame.
What's in / to be in / need out.
What's in / to be out / need to make a step.

I step OUT of my dream.
I step OUT of my bed.
I step OUT of my room.
I step OUT of my apartment.
I step OUT of my city.
I step OUT of my Country.
I step IN to your country.
I step IN to your city.
I step IN to your apartment.
I step IN to your room.
I step IN to your bed.
But I cannot step IN to your dream......

Joe Kanamori 2003

Budapest

Budapest was so beautiful and lively as rumours say. I especially liked the face of the city at night. The medieval buildings along the river Danube were beautifully lit up and the whole cit looked so marvelous.
I enjoyed some sightseeings, cafés, local cuisune (I actually learned how to cook a Hungarian dish!), relaxation (bath and massage) and of course Tango dancing.
And it was an unique, special and a bit emotional experience to see my friend whom I haven't seen for a decade.

I put up some of my photos taken in Budapest.
www.flickr.com/photos/tokyoryoko/

You also find it in "Ryoko's photos" under "Links" at the right side bar on this page.

Credit card fraud

25th is my pay-day. I usually don't care so much about the pay-day or my saving account status, but this month I checked it because I have an investment plan for this autumn (I'm a bit hooked on the play of funds & shares for a little excitement :-) Will blog about it some time!)

Sogu Kuala Lumpur 153 euro 20 Aug, 2005
Jasco BDR Puch 245 euro 20 Aug, 2005
Sogu Kuala Lumpur 98 euro 21 Aug, 2005

When I saw those lines on the page of my saving account status, firstly I asked myself,
- "Have I been to Malaysia recently?"
20th Aug is just a couple of days ago....
- "No, I was in Sweden on 20th Aug."
And secondly thought,
- "Did I do net-shoppings in Sogu K.L.?"
- "No, not at all."
And thirdly ,
- "OK, I was there 3 years ago, maybe the cost of my shoppings there were withdrawn now 20th Aug"
- "no, no, no,,,, that's silly. "

And then I finally realised,
"Oh, no!! This is a Credit Card Fraud!!".

I immediately called 24 hour service of my bank and blocked my card.

Afterwards, I talked to a colleague whose card was also abused some time ago, and in his case he didn't notice the strangeness for 3 weeks and the fraudster kept on making purchases 3 to 4 times/day, almost everyday for 3 weeks until he blocked his card and the total sum of the fraud soared to more than 10,000 euro!!

In my case, I only found the cases dated 20th and 21st Aug so far. Considering money transactions sometimes take a couple of days, there is a possibility that "my" fraudster might have been enjoying his/her shoppings with my card until 26th Aug when I blocked it, and the purchase reports haven't been shown yet on my account status on the net, and I'm fear this could be the case.

Anyway I'll leave this nasty happening behind me for now and set off on holiday again. I'm on my way to Budapest! I'm so excited about this first visit and also to see a friend of mine I haven't seen for 10 years!!

Are Swedes cold and boring? - my insight on Sweden (1)

Already!? autumn scenery (last week taken)

Lakeside at sunset

What and how much do you know about Sweden?

You have probably heard some of the names of Sony Ericsson (where I work at! well, it's actually headquatered in London though), Ericsson, Ikea, Volvo, Tetra Pak, H&M, Abba, Bjorn Borg etc.

What I knew about Sweden before arrining here were Viking, aurora, ice Hotel, vodka, hight taxe rates and a strong welfare state, and my images of Sweden were the girls are beautiful (which is true), people are tall and blond ( for some peole yes but not everyone), suicide rates are higher (not sure if this is really true : but it is locally said so too) and pornography is widespread ( not ture - unfortunately, Joaquim - : we sometimes confuse nakedness with sex, Swedes are simply nature oriented and less prudish, I think).

Chatting with, for example, taxi drivers who are often immigrants from warmer climates, they quite sometimes say Swedes are cold, boring people, who don't know how to have fun.
From my point of view, I feel that to describe Swedes as cold is absolutely unfair. They are very warm, kind and sincere but it takes time to get to know them.
People's life, even everyday life, seems to run on the basis of organized plans and agreements. Here is an extreme example, but some people make their holiday plan 1 year ahead on where to go and what to do, and book flights for next year!!
I wonder how successful "lastminutes.com" is in this country (he he...).
A lot of planning certainly bring you securities, but at the same time impromptu surprises might be missed in life, which I personally appreciate to be happened.

(to be continued)

Protagonista in Tango?

Last weekend I danced Tango outdoors just beside the seawater of Oresund strait in Malmo, Sweden. To be honest, I am not really much of outdoor dancing by several reasons - e.g. it looks too healthy for my very personal and almost illusional image of Tango (for me Tango is something related to "black & white""mysterious""bitter" and I like that special atmosphere, not many places serve this ambience though.. ), but the outdoor dancing turned out to be very enjoyable and I liked it a lot. I felt dancing with some sea breeze and sea smell in the sun somehow made me feel as if I was a protagonista in a dance film or something (sounds silly?). Anyhow this is arranged by Steve, who is well know in Malmo/CPH by his dance of course and his social skill and network. And all ladies love to dance with him, he is so popular. Everyone of us appreciates your effort for keeping this on. Thank you.

Early bird

What can I say, but life is good today. Things started out pretty good. One reason of this is that I woke up early this morning -- woke up at 05.30am (usually at 07.30 or later), did some private stuffs home, got prepared and I started my work around 08.00 (usually at 09.00 or much later sometimes)!! The point is I got extra 2 hours in the morning when my body and mind were very fresh after sleep. I could do a lot in this 2 hour free time, that 's what I found today... but I am not sure if I can do this again tomorrow morning.... I sometims have insomnia and extremely low blood pressure, my alarm doesn't work properly---- (Yeah, just excuses, hi hi...). I will try to get up early and will have another good day tomorrow too! (if my alarm works properly - still excuse... )

By the way the picture shows my office. I spend more than 8 hours a day in this space. It's small, but I like this room. I sometimes decorated the window with flowers, but not today (Hey guys, why don't you send me some flowers!!).

（Ｊａｐａｎｅｓｅ　ｔｅｘｔ　ｂｅｌｏｗ）
日 本の皆さん、お元気ですか？Ｂｌｏｇを始める際に、英語で書くか日本語で書くか大変迷ったのですが、どちらか一方を選ぶのではなく、欲張って両言語で書 けばいいんだ！という簡単な事にこれまで気付かずにいました（冷汗）。それを教えてくれたスペインの裕子ちゃん、ありがとう！おそらくメインは英語になる かと思いますが、たまには日本語でも書くようにします！よろしく。

Palamos in Costa Brava // Oms in Pyrenees

The weekend in Palamos was great! The town was small and cozy and the sea water was transparent and the beach is more relaxed than, for example, Costa del Sol. We (Yuko, Joaquim and I) enjoyed Calatan cuisine, ceramic shopping (it's famous in this region), sun bathing and swimming in the sea! Yuko, Joaquim, let's go to more north (towards France) next time and try to find our own "private beach", then I could try "topless" as Yuko recommended me to do
(I was too shy...)

Sunday evening I went beyond Spanish/French boarder to french side of Pyrenees. I came from the beach to the mountain with a drastic change of the climate and the view! I was warmly invited to this place (a village called Oms) by a friend of mine Lisa and I had a fantastic time with her and her family even though the weather was not as good as we expected (it was overcast and drizzling unfortunately).

By the way,
I was always interested in learning French and I bought some study materials even 6 or 7 years ago, but I never started. Last March I had an opportunity to stay in Cannes, France for a week and I was again strongly inspired to learn it and I actually started (proud of myself!) a couple months ago! It is still going little by little though. During my stay at Lisa's I listening to Lisa speak in French and I was melting down by its beautiful sound.

To Yuko, Joaquim, Kunrat, Terressa, Lisa, Nicky, Noa, Lonia and all other people I met in Costa Brava and Oms, THANK YOU very much for your warm welcome and hospitality!!

Tango milonga in Barcelona

For tango guys,
Just a small piece of info on a milonga in Barcelona.
Casa de Valencia - C/ Corcega 335
Open on Thursdays, 22.00 - 01.30, entrance 6 euro
Full of people(maybe 100 people last night), a lot of male dancers. Mainly milonguero style. Traditional tango music. Large wooden dance floor, open atmospher and friendly people.
I visited on my own, but didn't have any problems in finding partners. I guess people are used to receiving foreign dancers.

Gaudi for the five senses - La Pedrera

Hola amigos!
I'm in Barcelona, spending a take-it-easy style of time in this busy city, which I found not too bad. Anyway no sightseeings are in my favor (since I used to live here before), instead, I'm sitting in different cafes reading books or watching people and checking new shops in the daytime, and dancing Tango at night!

I, however, did a specific sightseeing, which I do every time I'm in BCN - visited`La Pedrera`. This is one of Gaudi's works and constructed as a residencial building about a century ago. This modernista building is just so beautiful both in its exterior and interior, and even on the smallest details like a door handle, door frames and so on. When I enter this building, I feel like as if I was in the water, completely shut out from the outer world. It's like a spell that entrances all my five senses!

We are heading for the beach - Costa Brava - for this weekend!!

Happy Summer

Dear All my friends,

First of all, HAPPY SUMMER!!

I am here, writing my 1st blog as a general and experimental means of creating an open communication between all my friends & family and myself!!

I haven't been good at writing emails to each of you and I felt unhappy about that. Now I believe this blog would be a good and easy way of keeping in touch with everybody, and I'm looking forward to your feedback and comments as well :-)

I'll write in English to cover as many friends as possible, but don't hesitate to write me back in any language you usually write to me. The important thing is not language, but communication.

-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-

Now the middle of July, Sweden is practically quite closed for vacation and I myself on vacation too! I'm off to Barcelona this Tuesday(See you soon, Yuko, Joaquim and Lisa!). I'll try to write you from there!
Please reply to me from here if any comments ↓