Better late than never ever 8: A stonkin' great misc folder

This kawaii poop:

In the spirit of the my previous entry.

This reminder of my unwomanly height:

Spoiler alert: I'm the one in the middle. No high heels were worn in the making of this photo.

This woman-products vending machine:

Panties of the "not used" variety, found inside the womens changing room at a hot spring of course.
I have it on good authority that these not-yet-intimate items would make a lot of Japanese men
profoundly uncomfortable. Yaaaaay, gender segregation!

This unhappy café:

This old man feeding cats:

This gorgeous LCD-screen disco ball:

@Miraikan science center in Odaiba

This extremely creepy remote controlled robot woman:

Also @Miraikan

This guy sleeping on my shoulder:

This restaurant with a nice view:

This tribute to fans of Persona 4:

This wig shop in Harajuku:

All these cute shoes my feet won't fit into:

This extremely entertaining "brass band" with a woodwind section:

This breakfast at home:

Burned ma'toast tho. So sad :(

These hip-hop dancers:

And finally, the LCD-sphere again, this time as the Moon accompanied by traditional Japanese music.

Used the poop-label again. Lol.

Better late than never ever 5: Birtday girl part 2: Japanese national romantic roller coasters

Eirin also has a blog, which you should read. Or not. I really don't think I'm
qualified to tell you what to do with your life.

Treated myself to a fieldtrip as a birthday present to myself*. I actually just rudely attached myself to my lovely friend Eirin and her crew of Norwegians from Josai International University in Chiba on their overnight trip to Fuji-Q Highland roller coaster park, because I have literally no shame.

*one of several, actually. It always ends up being several.

Theme park Halloween-themed for the season, of course.

This is what everybody wants to see before taking a big terrifyin' 'coaster, right?

We stuffed our luggage into some coin lockers, and I remembered that when I love Japan I really really love Japan.

I mean seriously. Look at those guys. THEY ARE ADORABLE!!

The area around Mt. Fuji is also the home of Fuji-chan, Japan's most amazing mascot:

Happy-Fuji

I love it, I want to hug it, and I want to bring it home.

I mean, from the highway it just kinda looks
like the world's largest pimple.

Gotta say, I think I've always kinda underestimated Mt. Fuji. I've seen it from faaaar off thinking "yeah, it's cool. Cool mountain bro". But getting up close... Holy bovine quadruped that guy is imposing! It basically covers half the sky. And there are no mountains of any kind of comparable size anywhere near it, so it just ... it big, 'kay? It really, really big.

The view from the ferris wheel was okay, I guess :)

Thinking about the fact that it's an actual active volcano gives me the heebie jeebies!

But then I remember this:

Omg.

and I'm suddenly okay.

The Fuji-Q park actually has the world's coolest* rollercoaster.
*by some official measure I can't remember.

Going up the 70-something metres* on a clear day gives you the best view of Mt.Fuji I could imagine anywhere ever.
*I can't remember, do your own damn research!

Disclaimer: photo not actually taken from rollercoaster.

It was awsome.

I needed some time to recuperate after that, so we hung around the Hamtaro-area for a while just chillin' and eating foods.

This Hamtaro-ride was really quite terrifying, as it was really old and kept jerking abruptly.

The haunted house was visited, too, lest I forget.

Live actors running after you through a horror-movie set hospital. Pretty damn cool!







Unfortunately, even though it was a regular wednesday, the lines were long, everywhere.



Some people came prepared:

Queue-chair. Genious!

Some people in the past have clearly tried to cheat:

Life is a jrpg.

But it was a beautiful autumn day full of those gently changing leaves that everybody loves. With Fuji in the background I guess it was basically Grieg in a Fjord-level Japanese romantic nationalistic imagery.

The area, however, was trying really really hard to be France.

No really. They had an Eiffel Tower.

This is not what Japan looks like!

#ParisSyndrome

Anyway.

It's very very common in Japan to buy little gifties to people in your life whenever you've been on a trip. Something local or a bit special, often edible. For this reason, and because the Innovation Norway people are constantly travelling, we more or less always have tons of sweets and candies and cookies and stuff hanging around the office.

I decided to contribute, so I bought these astoundlingly beautiful Mt. Fuji-cookies:

 ART!

Better late than never ever 3: A backlog of food-type-things

I have a real thing for Japanese sweet foods. Red beans, white beans, sugarsugarsugar rice things and green tea makes for the best combos!

It's strange to me that this does not look strange to me. Green tea, green tea shave ice, and a traditional sweet.

Japanese shave ice kicks the butt of pretty much everything and everyone.
I mean look at the size of that thing!

Basically ice with flavoured syrup and condensed milk. Delishh!
 But the white balls are slime. Not delishh! ><

Beans in dessert: Welcome to Japan!

Sometimes one of the guys in the office finds cheap avocados. He shares willingly, usually randomly, and always surprisingly.

It's like, I'm just sitting here working and then BOOM! Avocado!

Home-made okonomiyaki:

Litterally "Fry what you like". Perfect home food, because it's just whatever you have/feel like.

Restaurant okonomiyaki:

In typical Japanese fashion they basically give you the mix of inigredients and some sauce, and leave you to do the actual cooking yourself.
It is sooooo good though...

And then this:

Ehhhh.... 

It's a lot of hit-and-miss. Like, if you don't like really chewy tentacles, this is probably gonna be a miss:

I've touched upon the perhaps slightly overblown amount of wrapping things tend to get, and I feel like this just epitomizes the issue:

WHY WOULD YOU WRAP AN INDIVIDUAL BANANA THEY ARE THEIR OWN WRAPPING

On the other hand, getting a straw with your juice carton is something I will miss dearly:

This is so handy!

Sometimes I just long for something familiar. And then I remember I work at the embassy: familiar stuff all around!

Other things are also swimming around. Things like the Norwegian Seafood Council's promotional Norway Salmon sushi lollypops.

This one appeared on my desk one morning.

I find it incredibly adorable!

Unfortunately(?) it does not taste like salmon.

FYI Japanese apples can be HUGE!

LIKE THE HEAD OF A SMALL CHILD!

Oh, and then there was this:

This was a Chinese restaurant though, to be fair. One decorated with gigantic golden penises, boobs, butts, and vajayjays. It was a strange, strange place.

For more strange, strange things*, tune in tomorrow for Better late than never ever 4: Birthday girl
*This is a lie. Tomorrow's post is pretty boring.

Or you could navigate back to part 2. You know. If that's more your thing.