The Return

Eight months have passed since my last post. That's a hell of a long time for neglecting a blog.

I am still in Tokyo, still alive and kicking, and soon hopefully prospering like never before, so what better time to dust off this old blog than the present?

Let me begin by summarizing the past eight months in a few short words: I moved to Shinjuku (that's still in Tokyo), and I'm about to start up my second company. Those are all the things that matter. Sure I've been partying, shopping, studying, working, hanging out with friends, and so on. But I did that before as well, so that's not much of a change, now is it?

What I should probably tell the world is that I've started studying Spanish. Officially I did that a couple months ago, but off the record I didn't really start until last week. So don't start a conversation with me expecting I'll be able to follow much. Yet. I do expect to learn pretty quickly though - considerably faster than the painfully slow rate at which my Japanese skills keep progressing. Spanish, being a European language and all, should be like child's play by comparison. Especially when you add a few personal factors, such as my life long interest in the language (due to my family having owned a house on the southern coast of Spain from before I was born all the way up until the year 2000), and the fact that I know several very interesting Spanish speaking people.

I had lunch with a Chinese classmate today during which the subject of which is the most romantic language in the world came up. My classmate mentioned French, which of course is what you'd usually hear. And I suppose I could see why - French certainly doesn't sound ugly. I would argue however that the prize goes to Spanish. It may not conform to the traditional view of a flowery romantic language, I'll admit to as much. But it is my kind of romantic. Sexy, adventurous romantic. And that is the kind of romantic that matters.

The Arrival of the New

Two days ago, Linus left the apartment. With the Swedish krona looking nowhere near about to rebound anytime soon, I suppose he just thought the place was getting a bit too expensive to be worth it. However it may be with that, his departure definitely served to mark the changing winds that has been roaming around me the last month or so, indicating that something major just might be about to happen.

Of course we have known about his plans to leave for quite some time now. For almost as long, we have tried our best to find a new tenant to move in to replace him. We had one potential prospect, a girl in our school who was looking for a new place. Things had pretty much already been decided with her, when she suddenly had a change of heart and opted to return to Sweden instead.

So back we were at square one. Our search for a roommate continued. Had March arrived with no new tenant in sight, we would likely have been forced to leave this place to its own destiny. There is just no way we would have been able to afford the rent if shared by only me and Legato. Which would have been a great shame, as it's really a place worth living in.

As it turned out, my first ever attempt to utilize Craigslist, only a few days before our deadline, turned out successfully. A day or two after the listing had been posted to the site, I received a mail from a couple from Vienna, asking about the apartment. Uriel and Clara were their names. After some further correspondence, we closed the deal, deciding we should meed in Shinjuku on the day of their coming to Tokyo. Which was today.

So right after school, Legato and I left for Shinjuku, accompanied by Helene, a girl from our class. On our way I got a call from Uriel (calling from a Payphone), telling us they were waiting at the South Exit of Shinjuku station. Should have been easy enough, right?

But of course it wouldn't prove quite that easy. Shinjuku station, for one thing, had got to be the most confusing station in Japan. Originally planned at a time long before it would become the bustling center of modern Tokyo - and one of the busiest train stations in the world - it is quite literally a patchwork of ever added segments and reconstructions, nowadays situated between/over/under/inside no less than seven or eight large department stores. Adding to that confusion, of course there just has to be more than one South Exit. See where I am getting at?

When we had finally managed to locate each other, we worked our way towards the Sakura House office to take care of all the paperwork. Dropping within Seven Eleven to allow our new friends to withdraw some cash for the initial rent payment, we ran into another problem. Their card issuer would not allow the transaction. Deciding to try out way at Shinsei Bank instead, Clara and I ran away to their Shinjuku branch - the same branch in which I opened my account a few days ago.

When trying to use a foreign card to withdraw money in Japan - even if said card is backed by a major, international company such as Visa or MasterCard - your options are quite limited to say the least. It's not that people don't use Visa here. As long as your Visa is issued in Japan, no problem! As long as it's not... well, then you do have a problem, unless you know what your options are.

Shinsei Bank. Citibank Japan. JP Bank (Japan Post). And Seven Eleven Bank. Those four will always take your card, on that you can be pretty damn sure. The most convenient of them is the last one, mainly because Japan is the country with the most 7 Eleven branches in the world, and in each one of them you will find the means to withdraw your money. But they also take a slightly inconvenient fee of 21o yen per transaction. Which of course adds up with the fee your bank back home takes for allowing a withdrawal from outside the EU.

In either case, 7 Eleven appeared to have failed us this time. Surprisingly enough, the same would prove to be the case with Shinsei. So scurrying halfway across Shinjuku to the Citibank branch that can be found there, Clara and I began to doubt whether we would actually get to see any of that money today. But as they had withdrawn ten thousand yen earlier this morning at the airport, using a Citibank ATM, we concluded that Citibank would surely be where our luck would return!

In a way, it did. While the same problem at first did occur, a member of the staff suggested that Clara tried to withdraw smaller amounts at a time. Amazingly, that indeed seemed to have been the problem. It was probably due to some strange limitation on the side of her bank. So a number of 20,000 yen withdrawals later, we could finally get on our way back to the others and on to the Sakura House office.

Where the Japanese paperwork bureaucracy set in to prolong our stay there long into the afternoon. Further, small things that elsewhere would have been solved in a minute or less has a tendency to be made overly complicated in this country, resulting in formalities like this taking much longer than they possibly should be able to.

Despite all these problems, however, nothing could reign in my great mood today! The sun was shining the whole way through it all, its beautiful, warming rays letting it be known that spring will soon be here for real. There was definitely something in the air, something that simply cannot be explained, making me feel freer and happier than I have felt in months.

Returning home, I was however somewhat disappointed to see that my package still have not arrived. That Swedish candy I am waiting for would have done wonders for my studies. But I suppose tomorrow has got to be the day then. And until then I guess I'll just have to make do with some more of this tea. Time for homework now, and then some further studying of kanji. I am really getting a hang of them now. Feels great, I have to say. I find myself able to read stuff I had no idea I could actually read. Really makes it all worth it. Now let's see how long it takes before I can actually start reading newspapers. They say you need to know almost two thousand kanji for that.

Again, wish me luck.

A Somewhat More Unusual Day

No traditional school today. Instead we met up at some gathering hall in central Ikebukuro (i.e. walking distance from home) for a speech competition between the chosen representatives of fifteen something classes from the three branches of our school, two from Shinjuku right here in Tokyo, and one from some other far off place.

I was supposed to have had an audition for a fashion show today as well, but that was apparently postponed. So finding myself with nothing to do following the end of the competition, I opted to tag along with Staffan and Linus to a gaming card store they were heading for, to look at some Magic the Gathering cards. While it has been a long time since I last played the game, and me going back for real is a very unlikely scenario, the visit to the store did make me somewhat interested in at least getting a preconstructed deck or something, to allow me the social benefit of being able to attend any gatherings that some of my friends may have from time to time.

After the store, I returned home, put on some rice for lunch (surprise, surprise), then for some reason started cleaning the kitchen. Don't ask me why. I suppose it just wasn't clean enough. I then watched the latest episode of the L Word, and once my rice was done I started eating. I am actually just about to go for seconds, and then I will hit the books. The goal is repeating 50 kanji and five chapters from the book today - and to know it all well by the end of it.

Today I have had the greatest craving for Cinnamon Melts, by the way. If you don't know what that is, it's this great sweet available at McDonalds here in Japan (and in the US, I believe), almost like cinnamon rolls but warm and creamy and with lots and lots of cinnamon. And if there is any spice I am not far from being addicted to, it's definitely cinnamon. Especially in pastries.

Unfortunately my economy is still not at the point where I could easily afford a 290 yen indulgence such as that, so it will just have to wait until I've done a few more modeling/acting jobs, or started getting students as an english teacher. Or found some other parth time job that wouldn't interfere with my modeling aspirations. All in good time, I suppose.

For now, my books await.

Bank Account

When school was over for today, I went to 新生銀行 (Shinsei Bank) in Shinjuku to get that bank account I was talking about. Apart from being one of the coziest banks I have ever been to, the service was great, and everything went more smoothly than I could ever have expected. Though I had to sit down and wait for almost half an hour (in a quite comfortable chair, I might add), once my number was called it didn't take long before I walked out of there with my brand new ATM card.

Even nicer was that I didn't even had to get up from my chair while the whole thing was taken care of - they came to me. And another nice touch was that they allowed me to choose the color of my card from among twenty something different nuances. I picked a very nice shade of almost viridian green they called crocodile. I would have given you a picture, but my camera wouldn't give a close enough representation of the color. 

I am currently awaiting a package from my mother, by the way, containg no less than two kilograms of pick and mix candy. While very popular in Sweden, such candy doesn't exist at all here in Japan - one of the very few reasons I wonder whether I could really live here indefinitely. But I suppose as long as I have a steady supplier, I'll be alright. Thanks mom! You're a life saver! :D

Wish me Luck!

Ever tried standing around near the top of a mountain plagued by dreadfully cold winds wearing nothing but a black suit while waiting for the director to decide enough of the mist has gone away for you to actuallt be able to continue shooting? No? Well, here's a little piece of advice: don't.

Today I went back for a third shooting of Zettai Kareshi, and it was cold. But what the hell, I'll get paid, and I'll probably be seen pretty well in the picture too. But it sure wasn't easy standing there extremely still, pretending to be a deactivated robot, when you really wanted nothing but running back inside to sit a few more minutes leaned over that wonderful heater they had there.

On the way back I discovered the first McDonalds ever that wouldn't take plastic. This country is truly ridiculous when it comes to that. The second largest economy in the world - and not even Seven Eleven will take your Visa or MasterCard? And now a McDonalds!? Come on! No, what this country needs is a major card revolution. Unfortunately, that's not going to happen anytime soon.

I am going to get a bank account tomorrow, I think. About time, you may say, but I haven't actually had that much use of one until now. Of course, had I opened one up when I first got here and transfered all my funds to it, I would not have been affected by the global currency crash. But as they say, hindsight is a bitch. There was no way I could have known.

Now, however, as I hope to get more and more modelling and acting jobs - which of course I will - a greater need for a Japanese bank account has appeared. I was contacted yesterday about the payment for the first job I did, which can be picked up at the office of my agency any day now. But having them transfer the amount to my account would save me the trip - which is time and money both. So after school tomorrow, I will go to Shinjuku to open a bank account.

In the meantime, do wish me luck (1) getting the fashion show job I am currently awaiting an answer about, (2) receiving ever more calls about jobs from my agencies this coming month, and (3) winning Drömvinsten on Lotto.

Zettai Kareshi: Part II

As I may very well prove to be too lazy to update this blogg after the job, I thought I might as well post a quick notice about it now, before I leave for it.

I am going to Narita Airport today, for a second shooting of Zettai Kareshi. Needless to say, I am much looking forward to it. I am meeting up with my agent in Shibuya at six, so I should go get ready now. Wish me luck.

Glass på Terrass: Tokyo Edition

Spring is on its way! Today the sun is warming more than ever before this year, and though it's still cold and quite windy, the heat of the direct sunlight make it all worth taking walks outside.

The warming sun rays of early spring always make me remember the best times of my life, all those days when I was truly happy. Very uplifting. Spring always seems to have that effect on me, breaking the negative spell of the winter months, during which I never seem to do anything worth remembering, and never seem to get anything of importance done. During the summer months, on the other hand, I always have a whole lot of more fun, and still manage to learn more in school, get my work done more efficiently, and so on. The coming of spring is, and always has been a freeing golden wind, a parole from the prison of my mind that marks the winter season.

So it is with great anticipation I look forward to the warming months ahead. Soon it should be warm enough on my roof terrace to allow me to lie up there studying while basking in the sun, and maybe I could even organize a Japanese reprise of the hottest theme party of last year: Glass på Terrass - that is Ice Cream on Terrace.

Zettai Kareshi

What a day I had today! Waking up earlier that I have ever done since coming to Japan, I took myself down to Shibuya, one of the southernmost centers of Tokyo, well before rush hour had even hinted at starting. There I met up with a representative of one of my agencies, along with a bunch of other gaijin who were there for the same job. Walking to a buss, we then went south for three hours before reaching a place in the mountains where the shot were going to take place.

It would prove to be quite a sight: twenty foreigners dressed in black suits with black ties and back sunglasses, portraying a task force of Agent Smith-like robots. And most of what we did was running. We did a lot of running - grouped into two parallel lines we dashed downhill more times than I remember, from the black SWAT-like car we were supposed to have exited at one end, to the small car we were chasing at the other.

All in all we were out there for about eight hours, with the bus taking three hours in each direction, adding up to a total of 14 hours. We left Shibuya when it was still dark, and came back not before the darkness had returned. Kinda cozy, that neon-lit darkness. As for the pay, I will get around 25 000 yen for the day. Not too bad for doing something as enjoyable as this.

The name of the series is 絶対彼氏 (Zettai Kareshi, or Absolute Boyfriend), a romantic drama about a girl falling in love with a robotic guy.

There will be one more shooting at the same location before the end of the month, which I am almost guaranteed to be part of. I may also be selected for two other shooting occasions - one at Narita Airport and one in a studio - but as they won't need as many people there it remains to be seen whether I will actually get those jobs. Though I am quite confident that I will.

A fun tidbit is that a few of the other guys I worked with looked a bit like American celebrities. There were two guys who had a resemblance to Gary Sinise and (a younger version of) Kurt Russell respectively, and this one guy who looked very much like Bill Maher.

A Quake of Awakened Dreams

So apparently there was another earthquake this morning. A magnitude 6 on the Richter scale, it is supposed to have struck at 6:51 am, waking up a couple of my friends. I say supposed to, because as have been the case with all somewhat stronger earthquakes since I got here, I slept right through it. But then the epicenter was a hundred and seventy kilometers northeast of Tokyo, and something like 35 km below the surface, so maybe it wasn't that strange I didn't wake up. It is getting somewhat annoying though, that I still have only felt a single quake since getting here, and a very small one at that.

Well, well, maybe next time. In other news, the first signs of spring are finally showing up! Yesterday the temperature almost allowed me to have my jacket opened, and the sun rays themselves are getting warmer by the day. Now if only the wind would stop its constant assault, and some flowers actually started showing up, then we could talk about spring for real. I can't tell you how much I am looking forward to the day when I'll be able to ascend to the roof terrace on top of my apartment building and lie down basking in the late spring and summer sun.

Hopefully I'll have gotten myself an iPod Touch before then. I have realized that said device would be a blessing to my studies. There are not only programs for it that would allow me study vocabulary and kanji so much more efficiently, but also dictionary programs that would eliminate my ever growing need to buy an electronic dictionary - which would pretty much cost as much as an iPod Touch. Add to that the fact that it's just the coolest device this side of the iPhone, and I obviously need to get one.

Another thing I need to get is an electric piano. The more time that goes by, the more desperate I become on this point, the more urgent the need for a piano grows. My artistic inner angel is screaming out unheard, dying to relearn the piano and start composing things for real - instead of simply doing it in my head, with no way of getting any of it out before it disappears into the mists of memories long gone.

I have actually been looking around a bit on musical instruments in the last few months. While most electric pianos start at around 100 000 yen, I have found the occasional one for just under 60 000. As soon as I can afford one I am getting it - possibly after the iPod though, as I have to prioritize those studies. There is of course also the option of getting a used piano. That would allow me to get it that much sooner, at a fraction of the cost.

A while back I actually found an electric grand piano at Yodobashi Akiba, going for just over one million two hundred thousand yen, if I recall correctly. Now wouldn't that just be a wonderful thing to have in your apartment! I doubt I could ever get it into my place though.

Whenever I do succeed in getting myself that piano, this apartment will truly become a musical place. My roommate Legato bought a violin a while back. Let's hope that Isaura - the new girl who is moving in when Linus leaves by the end of this month - also has an interest in playing something. We could then invite Christian, Kitti, and a bunch of others to come over with their instruments from time to time, and we could have some great weekends of music together.

That would be the days for sure. I am looking forward to it. For now, I have started looking for jobs as an English teacher, while continuing trying to get more jobs as a model. I may have something coming up on that last front, but I don't want to say too much before I know for sure. I am also looking into some more business ideas on the side - I'll let you know if anything comes from it.

Another point of recent interest is that I have now applied to the University of Hong Kong. The program I am trying to get into is the Bachelor of Business Administration. If I do get in, and have enough money for tuition fees when the time comes, chances are pretty strong that I will minor in Japanese, while trying to learn Mandarin and Cantonese as best as I can on the side.

Speaking of university, I had a bit of a problem paying the application fee of 300 Hong Kong dollars. Some technical error prevented me from finishing the application process. Had to call them and arrange for a document to be mailed to me which I could physically send over there. Worked out alright in the end - apart from one major complication. Apparently the actual payment process hadn't failed quite as much as the rest, meaning the money was drawn from my account every time I tried! And I tried quite a few times, meaning my account was depleted by the time I realized anything had happened.

Now, I am sure I will get the money back. We are dealing with the second most prestigious university in Asia, after all. But I am aware it will take a while, so for the next few weeks, I will confine myself to a diet of rice. Quite exotic, wouldn't you think?

I am feeling kinda lucky I had already added three additional months to my commuters card. Otherwise I might have had some slight problems getting to school in February. As it is, I am sure everything will work out just fine. Especially as was recently brought to my attention an as of yet unreceived tax return of about 3800 sek, money I had no idea I were supposed to get. But apparently I will, as soon as some bureaucracy is brought out of the way. But that too may take a few weeks.

I may have had some financial problems lately, but aside from a few temporary setbacks like this thing with Hong Kong, I have to say it now looks like that will soon all be behind me. Especially with this forced rice diet, I fully expect to be back over break even within a month, and from there things can only get better. So now do wish me luck, and that I get that modeling job I am hoping for right now!

Sayonara!

First Job

Today I did my first ever ad job. Unfortunately I can't disclose any information about it, but know that it was really fun. I will return tomorrow for some additional shooting, so my whole weekend will pretty much have been devoted to this. Time well spent, in my opinion. Looking forward to the next job.

Now laundry awaits, and then some studying of kanji, before I leave for a tattoo studio (of all places, I know) to pick someone up for the evening.

Rain, rain, rain...

As I am writing this, Tokyo is being plagued by the worst rainstorm I have experienced since october. As I was walking home from Ikebukuro station maybe an hour and a half ago, carrying with me a well-sized umbrella I might add, the rain no less managed to make me wetter than a dog in an ocean. By the time I got home, my jeans were soaking wet, as were my shoes and socks, and parts of my jacket.

After getting inside and out of the wet clothes, however, I've started to find the rain much more to my liking. It's really cozy, sitting here on pillows on tatami floors, listening to the rain. In a minute or two I think I'll pick up a book too, and read my way through the evening. I will probably go to bed in less than an hour though. Have a big day tomorrow.

I found today that it was a very bad idea to wait like I did through eight days of sale before venturing out to find that coat I've wanted for some time now. All good looking coats seem to be sold out already, at least in Shinjuku. I'll continue my search further south on sunday, I think. Between Harajuku and Shibuya there has to be something of interest. If nothing else, I could always venture east and take a look around Ginza. Haven't been there in two and a half years.

Happy New Year!

An interesting observation of mine as I walk through the streets of Tokyo or am out clubbing in the nightlife districts of Shibuya of wherever, is that the girls I generally find the most attractive among the native population of this city, are the ones that look the least like Japanese. Quite tall, hair dyed dark brown, or at least another shade of black, and skin at least a bit darker than the ghostly pale skin tone most seem to strive for - those are all attributes that would increase the likelihood of me looking twice at someone. Add a fashion style that says luxury rather than cute or slutty, and that second look is almost guaranteed.

Not that this is anything new. The ethnicities I tend to find the most attractive are, I think, those found in southern Europe, the Middle East, parts of Africa, and South America. So you might wonder what the hell I am doing in a country like Japan in the first place. You might. But doing so would of course fail to take into account all the wonderful things that make this country - and this city in particular - one of my absolute favorite places in the world. So let's stop wondering, and get on with the rest of this post.

Something very interesting that I learned today is that apparently the Japanese word arigatou, meaning "thank you", is a loanword. It comes from Portuguese obrigado, imported around the time when westerners (read: Portuguese) first came to Japan. Who would have thought that?

Anyway, as today is the first day of the new year, that of course means that yesterday was New Year's Eve! And that in turn means I had some great fun with a bunch of my friends. It was probably the most spontaneous and least planned New Year's Eve I have experienced in quite some time though. By the time I left my home for Shibuya at seven forty five in the evening, I still didn't know where we would be around the countdown to midnight.

We started out at the nice french-italian restaurant La Boheme in Shibuya (on the way to which we passed an Apple Store, which made me think of how much I want a Mac again). The restaurant had a very nice atmosphere, feeling a bit "old school" European, with interior walls of stone and everything. It felt somewhat exclusive, to be sure, but the place was actually quite affordable.

As for the food, we ordered in a bunch of pizzas with various toppings, and some tasty chicken as well. This was the first time I ate pizza since I left Sweden. They were considerably smaller than Swedish pizzas, but oh so tasty! I started out drinking wine, but then switched to drinks, finding a very nice, slightly sparkling orange tasting drink whose name I unfortunately can't remember.

Around eleven thirty we left the restaurant, as they had another reservation at twelve. We worked our way back to the large crossing outside of Shibuya station, where we got just in time for the countdown! The crowd went wild, and the new year arrived. Sad to say there are no fireworks on New Years in Japan - I wonder why. After gathering up on the opposite side of the crossing, I opened the bottle of champagne I had bought on my way to Shibuya earlier that evening. Sharing it with about half the people I was there with (it was only enough for so many, but I did have the prerogative of choosing who got a glass), we cheered for prosperity and success in this new year.

And prosperity and success is exactly what I would like to wish all of you out there. Happy new year to all of you! May 2009 be the year when all our dreams start coming true.

That naturally should have come at the end of the post, but as I am not really done yet, that will not actually be the case. Back to my story, we have reached the point where the fellowship start breaking up. For after the cheering with champagne, the group split in two. One half went to karaoke, while the other, with me among them, went clubbing. The choice of club fell on Atom, mostly because I said I wanted R&B and House, and none of us seemed to know of any other club in the area playing that kind of music. Which reminds me, I really should check out some new clubs one of these days.

We danced the night away, went to McDonalds for breakfast, returned to the station and went separate ways. When I exited the station in Ikebukuro I noticed that people seemed to be camping outside of several department stores. I am guessing that means that the legendary city-wide January sale starts today. Worth checking out to be sure, but I am definitely not in the kind of rush that made those sorry ass souls stay out there in the cold for I don't know how many hours this night.

Another interesting flock of people I ran into on my way home this morning was a group that had gathered on the walking bridge across the highway to look at what I think was the sunrise. If it was anything else, it was nothing I could see, and the sunrise was pretty nice, so that was probably it. They even had a camera set up, with some old man taking pictures.

I stopped up there for a few seconds to look at it with them. With one last glance at that beautiful sunrise, I then turned around and continued my walk home.