CARE PACKAGE!!!!!!

I got a package from mah mum. It was a big package!

I wanted to very open much fast.

There was a package inside my package!

And more packages inside the package that was inside my package!

Weegian comfort food! Good bread good for stomach. I can have knekkebrød med brunost for breakfast tomorrow. Smasssshhhh.

The card wished me a happy May 17th, which is evidence to show that snail mail is snail. It also contained 5000 yen. From Norway. I wonder if that might have something to do with one of my moms colleagues visiting Japan about a month ago. But I cannot know. Unless I ask. In which case I would know.

Sudden worry: is it technically legal to send money by mail?

I naturally ate all the candy immediately.

The best kind of therapy!

It was delicious.

The best candy every, srsly.

Tried to take a selfie in front of all my swag. Fell over.

What I'm basically trying to say in this here public way is THANKS MUM! Tusen takk mamma, kjempekoselig!

Hipp hipp...

Having spent 12 years of my life in a marching band, I used to have a bit of a strained relationship to May 17th. My instrument being large and unwieldy, strapped to my front (with a harness ironically branded "comfort") sticking out from my body in a way that created a wonderful leveraging ampification of weight, my primary memory is that of backpain. Sore feet, bleary-eyed earliness and oh, oh, the backpain.

Insult to injury, I didn't even get to walk out in front in a cute dress. I was third row between the tenor horns. It sucked.

My bell lyre actually looked exactly like this, except for the n00btastic
note-hint on the sides.

This year was a little different.

I, and all other Norwegians in the area, got invited to celebrate our Constitution Day at the Embassy in Tokyo. 

Balloons are an essential part of 17. mai celebrations.

For me, this was made extra special because the offices of Innovation Norway are located at, you guessed it, the very same embassy. As very recent news have told me, this will thus be my workplace anno August.

Not too shabby.

There is a pool.
I will be working here, and there is a pool.
OhmydearsweetCHRYSANTHEMUM I LOVE POOLS!

The guests were greeted with Norwegian-style waffles (remember me trying to make these without a waffle iron way back when?) with real goaty brown cheese, making me feel right at home.

Yuuuum

I also had to appretiate the patriotism of the flag-colored flowerbeds. Our very special red white and blue colour combination that is so unique to our fair country.

This could be the patriotic flowerbed
of any one of 35 nations. #redwhiteblue

We had joy, we had fun, we had waffles in the sun.

It wouldn't be 17th of May without childish drawings,

I really needed this program too, because
I know embarrasingly few 17th May song lyrics.

speeches,

The ambassador spoke, and also the Norwegian childrens... something.
What on earth is "barneombud" in English anyway?

cake,

Delishhhh!

ice cream,

Not raisin flavoured, even if it is Dole.

sausages-inna-bun/potatopancake,

Pølse i lompe. This one is fanschypants. On offer were also the regular simple kind.
"Lompe" is not only one of my favourite Norwegian words in general; because of the whole
 l/r thing, it also gets very funny very fast in Japan. #rompe

and a PARAAAADE!

Pre-parade selfie.
Ready...

Set...

woo-hoo!

We walked noisly around the block with marching band music on a boomblaster yelling "Hurra!". The neighborhood of the embassy is very quiet, so the few onlookers did not know what hit them.

There was also a cold buffet overflowing with a delicious mix of Norwegian-style koldtbord and Asian influences, a raffle, and the most brilliant weather anyone (not in a bunad. Gods, the heat!) could have asked for. 

A chance to meet a large proportion of the Norwegian people living in the Tokyo area (and some from more remote parts of Japan as well), I got a really great sense of community. It of course didn't hurt that I was "the new Innovation Norway trainee", not "the sad person who was here last week but unfortunatelly didn't get the job". I appretiated that.

Also, random ISFIT-reunion:

These weirdly lit people all volunteered for the International Student Festival in Trondheim, 2013.

I gotta say, I think this might qualify as my first-ever cocktail party. While I am aware that it was a very informal affair, I felt quite fancy standing poolside in the sunny day with my food and wine.

After the official event ended people went to Fuglen, an Oslo bar/cafe that has had great success with its Tokyo branch, and I joined. From there, we celebrated Norway together with a Swede at a Japanese izakaya, because multiculturalism is awsome especially when it leads to Nåmihådai.

And because of reasons, after having had a constant buzz since 11:00 a.m., we went on to make more party. I felt obliged to join, since I so far never actually tried going to a club in Tokyo, and while I'm living here it really would be a shame if I didn't at least try out some different aspects of the nightlife.

On our way there, I noticed to my slightly tipsy great amusement that one of the stops, aoyama itchoume, actually literally means "the first city block of the blue mountain". ...Kom blåååååååneeee, kom JENTE kom GUUUUUT!

"...snaaaart kommer julen til Aoyamaaaa"

The day ended with me feeling very cool on a rooftop bar in Roppongi. 

And when the day ended came a good night. But I gotta say the district lived up to its slightly sketchy reputation. Having now finally seen it for myself, I don't think I'm going to go back in a hurry. Since we stayed after 1 a.m., we had to stay until 5 a.m., because that is just how it works here. Quite enough for a long time, I think. The club-place was quite expensive, so I stayed more or less completely sober most of the night, and saw a lot of ...activity... happening. Remembering the jazz-club scene from Downton Abbey, I couldn't help but think about what the Dowager Countess would have said if she had seen this "dance" floor. I found it more my style to retreat back up to the comparatively quiet rooftop, where you could have more intelligent (or at least intelligible) conversation.

"Here you will find ...things"

Bone tired, I finally stumbeled in the door at my dorm at around 6 a.m. Even with 12 years in a marching band, I don't think I've ever had a more exhausting May 17th. But I've very rarely had a more eventful 24 hours either. All in all totally, totally worth it.

To all my fellow 'weegies, a belated gratulerer med dagen! :D

Hurra!

"Exotic" foods

Having been a bit under the weather this week, I decided to tackle my homesickness by throwing money on it, splurging on some rare foods so that if nothing else at least my stomach would feel at home.

First, bread.

I cannot overemphasize the sheer unadulterated sucktitude of Japanese bread. It's like they've fundamentally misunderstood the concept. First off, there is no crust. Even if it looks crusty, that is a lie. It will be soft, squishy and awful. They'll serve MASSIVE thick slices, but the size is incredibly deceptive; the doughy white substance compresses to almost nothing at the slightest touch. Yet that is probably a public health requirement or something, because the small amount of solid matter that actually is there is made almost exclusively of butter. It tastes like nothing, contains nothing and will make you fat. BLERGH!

While I do like rice, my stomach grew up on BREAD goddamnit, DARK NUTRITIOUS FILLING HEALTHY DELICIOUS BREAD! With SALTY STUFF ON TOP.

And finally, finally,

Real, crusty, crumbly, rich, fragrant, delicious. Even though it did turn out to be kind of stale, my bread-starved digestive system was all appretiation. But wait, it gets better.

YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY!

I could hardly believe my eyes.

And my luck continued!

KOS!

Along with bread, cheese another thing Japan does with less than stellar expertise. Most of it is really weird - like an imitation cheese made by someone who only heard tales about the stuff from a drunk sailor*.

*who took out his foot and said "THAT. IT SMELLS LIKE THAT!"


But locating a familiar brand, I figured that heck, I can be French today. Let's cheese and wine this bread I found!


And since I still didn't feel like I'd blown my daily budget quite enough, I also got some smoked salmon.

Yuuuuuuuuum!

"So what is Norwegian culture?"
"Basically this picture."

Got home and dug my old and careworn yet still perfectly delicious brown cheese that I save for special occasions, and got ready to feast.

Viola*:

Violas never get enough attention.

Look at my face so happy!

Mmmmm fooood

Yes!

YUM!
But seriously, you have no idea how rare a simple meal like this is here.

Homesick-level: Reduced.

Happy-level: Increasing.

Feeling like such an obvious stranger wherever I go these days, it was really good to tangibly remind myself that there is a place where I do belong. Makes it easier to keep on not belonging. Beh-long. Be long. Blong. 

Go suck a cheese slicer!

GOODNIGHT!