Snowing time

Yes, it actually snowed all day in Tokyo the other day. And what did the snowmen talk about? About life’s perishability, maybe :)

Mr Kotooshu

If you ever get a chance to watch SUMO wrestling live, don’t miss it! I went the other day and it was a truly fascinating experience. The atmosphere in the stadium, the wrestling in itself and to see these enormous but at the same time very lithe men is really something. When the remarkable Bulgarian; Kotooshu (outstandingly successful, although non Japanese) entered the stage the excitements rose and everyone seemed to be in high spirits! Right besides us were three women in their 60’s, enthusiastic shouting his name over and over again. Luckily he won, as he does most of the time.

Mr Kirishima

After the wrestling mentioned above, we went to a restaurant owned by a former champion; Mr Kirishima. Surprisingly he turned up and all guests in the restaurant greeted him and took the chance to pose besides him while getting photographed. He had a charisma as a God and seemed to enjoy the admiration, as did the guests of the restaurant; enjoying him turning up!
The served food was typical sumo dishes (hrrmm), a soup cooked on the table, with various ingredients. Although without meat at my table (sorry Ambe-san, Takeuchi-san & Asano-san). The main dish is accompanied with several side dishes of you own choice. Good and filling, after the extra ordinary excitement from the day.

Divine times

Well, it’s been a long Christmas holiday... All family members joined and we had a great time. It is also a very pleasant time of the year, staying in Tokyo, it turned out. Weather is bearable (almost warm, compared to Sweden) and all the national holidays makes the time a relaxing and very enjoyable.

Christmas, as probably is the “biggest” holiday in Sweden, is also celebrated in Japan. But it is quite different from back home. There are surprisingly much of Christmas decorations in the streets and the shops try to gain as much us possible from it. I read in the paper that the Japanese women buy the most expensive Christmas gifts – to themselves :-) Otherwise the most widespread way to celebrate Christmas seems to be to join with you friends in a restaurant to have a Christmas party. The two “musts” for at Swede is to attend a ceremony in church and watch Disney on the 24th. All adults in my age has grown up with this specific program, which been running for around 40 years. The program last one hour and show some highlights from classical cartoons. It used to be the only occasion in Sweden during the year that we actually could see Disney on TV and that probably contributed to make it such a special moment. If you happen to be in Sweden on this day and get out at around 3.00 on the 24th, you will probably not see a single person, everything is closed and standing still and everyone is watching TV. Not very spiritually, is it?

New Year is probably the most important holiday in Japan. More then 90 million people visits a Shrine and pay their respects, to get a happy new year. We went to Meji Shrine nearby our home – and so did 3 million others. Imagine almost half the population in Sweden. But now everything is back to normal. Up early, prepare lunchboxes, commuting, hours in office, get home, eat, homework, sleep, up early and so forth.