To find some beautiful place to get lost.

I'm not really getting used to my new lifestyle. It's very flexible, and it's hard to keep focus.

Recently these things happened:

I had fugu at AKAT. Kinda got carried away by the excitement, so I only took a picture halfway through.

 

I had it with friends. Juhyun left Japan two days ago. I can't believe he's not here.

 And I had Ouzo. It was so nostalgic. It's been years! Maybe 10 or more.
I still don't really like it.

At home Esben and I helped preparing gyouza for his farewell dinner. He has also left Japan. Everybody's leaving.

The gyouza turned out really nice, though father burned some of them.

 Then my successor at the Embassy Anne Rosa came. She's a lot of fun, and we have been hanging out a lot. I teach her some Japanese, and she's fast. My friend Ei told me she's going to be better than me. I hope he's right!

 I got some free tickets for the Frederic Back exhibition at the Museum of Contemporary Art, and went with Nishimura and Anne Rosa. I loved his use of color, but I did not love him as much as the last exhibition I saw there.

 There was a workshop though, where you could draw on cups. It was part of a Native Americans Totem-ish kind of theme. I drew the bird, which looked kind of out of place on top of two very cute cups.

 Taking pictures.

 And looking.

 Anne Rosa had drawn a scene from lunch.

 While at the museum I got a message from all time partner in crime Gen-chan. He was in town and asked me to have dinner with him. Gen has been my friend since my brother asked me to a small venue in Copenhagen to see a Japanese ska band. He is amazing. We had a lot of fun, but I also felt very uneasy. I don't want to go far away again.

 I took Anne Rosa to AKAT. And she tried Shoutarou's hat. She looked very handsome.

 And... I did not get a working permit.

 But my family from Nagasaki came to see me!

We are not related but they are family to me. Being with them made me want to forget about Tokyo completely and move south.

A lot of things has happened. Japan's got a new prime minister, Denmark is having elections on the 15th. People at home have fallen ill. A very strong typhoon has hit western Honshu, leaving great damage and many dead and missing in Nara, Wakayama and on Shikoku. Soon it'll be September 11th, marking both the terror attacks and the tsunami. It's been quite a year this far. I wonder what's going to happen next.

I also stumbled upon this photographer. She's brilliant.

Now... I must have discipline.