Two newly baked engineers to go

Almost three months have passed since my last post. It's been busy times! What has happened? Well, now I am sitting in a dorm room in Linköping (Funny, the first time I've lived in a dorm in Sweden during my studies is when I am writing my thesis) while what the Norweigan meteorologist calls "Per" is raging outside my window. The Swedish ditto calls it the "January storm of 2007" (in sync with "The January storm of 2005" that our brothers and sisters in west called "Gudrun"). I was hoping that this was my last couple of hours in Linköping since I have booked train ticket for Ängelholm for tomorrow, but all train traffic downwards has been cancelled and only "January storm of 2007" knows how many trees have fallen over the railroad hindering my return to Skåne. Up to 39 m/s wind has been measured (somewhere around Gothenburg I think) and people are advised to stay indoors. Here it is not that bad, but it was pretty hard to go all the 500 meters to Hemköp to buy my grapes, milk and one banana. On my way there I saw some pretty obvious tracks "Per" is leaving behind, see below for a pic. Although I am not 100% sure. It might have been the "Moppekidz" of Ryd (Ryd is the wonderful area where my dorm is located and Moppekidz are these infamous gangs spreading fear around the neighbourhood. (If you fear the whiny sounds of EU-mopeds and 14 year old kids that is). The other day I was at the gasolin stand filling up the car when 8 grown-up versions of the Moppekidz arrived in a Volvo 242 from the early eightees screaming "You are all gaaay").The reason for me being stuck in Linköping again, is exams, a master thesis and the above mentioned dorm room. The exams are cleared, the master thesis is awaiting printing and the dorm room is supposed to be cleaned out today. So, after countless of hours at Island (The computer room of our section) together with my compadre Kuma, we finally managed to put together around 130 pages of master thesis, and suddenly, the world has two more Japan-focused Industrial Engineering and Management Civil engineers to fear. The world will in this case more specifically be Japan, since I will start my hard 10-days-of-vacation-per-year-working life at Tetra Pak in Tokyo in February, and Kuma will be doing the same, except that his Tetra Pak will be IKEA and his Tokyo will be... eh.. somewhere in Japan starting in the New Yokohama.

Other than that, I have been to London a couple of times, visiting Miwa. Lets see if I can get a few pictures up from there. We also went to Malaga, Spain to visit my sister and her family, for my sisterdaughters birthday. Mum was there too, from Sweden, and it was a looong time ago since so many family members where gathered at once! The tube in London.

A famous bridge in London.

Some giant stones.

Security at Stansted.

Salisbury cathedral.

Mum in Malaga.

At Malaga Beach.

Richard in the kitchen.

Almost new born puppies.

Again.

Cheyenne.

Nuncio (?)

We also took a trip over to Florida. Flying via NY, our plane was cancelled due to some mechanical failure, so we had to stay one night in NY. That meant a couple of hours in NY and some time for a trip in to Manhattan and Times Square on Christmas Day. Cold and rainy though. Florida was much better with just below 30 degrees (Celcius) everyday and a Pontiac Grand Prix GT to get around with. Things done in Florida in short: Visited Kennedy Space Center (My 4th time there), Drove a Grand Prix GT on the beach in the Daytona Beach, Shopped in Miami, Went to Key West, Swam in the Mexican Gulf, Took an airboat ride in the Everglades, Saw an NHL-game (Florida Panthers beating the crap out of Montreal Canadiens).
We're going to the moon!

Times Square NYPD.

Shopping in Art Deco Miami.

We're driving on the beach!

Zzzzzzz...

Those Canadiens didn't stand much to the panthers.

Miwa times three!

Tomorrow, if "Per" allows me to, I will go back to Ängelholm for about one week. Then I will go to Miwa in London for the following week. January 29th, I will fly from London to Tokyo, and February 1st I will start my new job at Tetra Pak. So, see you in Japan!

Planting trees at 1440 meters

Last week was the environmental week at TP. As a final event, a tree planting operation on Fujisan was planned for Saturday. As you may have guessed, I like Fujisan. Doing something for the environment isn't that bad either, and some hard labour might do some good for this body. Adding to this that the weather forecast predicted a perfect bike riding weather, I wasn't late to sign up for the tree planting event. As the others were going by bus from Shinjuku, I saddled up on my R6. Buses are way to slow...

Two hours later I arrived at the tree planting center. After an introduction it was time to replant some middle sized plants that had grown out of their small plastic pots inte large sized plastic pots.A couple of hundred of those pots later, it was time to relocate to the actual planting area. Sadly, these guys in their new plastic pot homes, were supposed to wait for three years before being moved to their final home uphill. So, after a lunch at 1440 meters we started to plant trees that somebody three years earlier had prepared for us. Thanks guys! Some 200 plants later, the good deed was done. However, the survival rate for these guys is less than 60% (after the first year) and decreasing. The worst enemy seems to be raindeers starving for these new guests. I hope some of my guys will survive. Think I'll have to return next time in Japan to check them out.

The defeat of Schumi

... or, theoretically, Schumi still has the chance of becoming the Champion one last time. If he wins the next race and Alonzo gets 0 points. I am not a big fan of Schumi, but still it was a cruel way of losing the title. Engine trouble... Anyway, it was a perfect weather for watching F1. Having not succeded in getting tickets for reserved seats we had to do with the non-reserved ones. So, having heard rumors that unless you went there at least during the qualification day, it would be hard to get somewhere to sit, we left Tokyo station at past 7 am. Saturday morning. Kuma, Shota (Colleauge from TP) and Kenta (Arrived from Sendai 5.30 am. the same morning). The bullet train took us to Nagoya in less than 2 hours.

At 10 am. the doors to Tokyu Hands opened up, and we could get a giant sheet to use as a seat "reservation".

11 am., we got off the train at Shiroko station, a small village in Mie prefecture. Getting off, I couldn't believe that 150,000 people were supposed to pass here the next day. It was already crowded with people, and it wasn't even race day. Seeing the queue for the buses and taxis, we decided pretty fast that walking to the circuit would be faster. We were told 6 km and around one hour. Piece a cake! You even heard the whining sound of the machines warming up, all the way to the station. Then it couldn't be that far. But the engine sound reaching 6km. Pretty impressive. Which also made us buy some ear plugs in a drug store on the way.

One hour later, we arrived at Suzuka circuit. Time to find a good spot! Walking around for a while, adding another 2 or 3 km for the record to keep. Finally found a spot good enough for the qualification race, reckoning that if we stayed for a while after the race, we might be able to find a better spot for the main event, we settled down in the 200R curve between the hairpin and the spoon curve., just in time for the qualifications. The roaring sound from the main stretch at the grand stand was heard all the way to our curve. Then you heard them work their way through the gears, whee, whee, whee, whee in a higher and higher pitch, breaks, gear down, gear up, accelerate. Then, pushing the breaks to the limits, without locking them, for the sharp hairpin, then whee, whee, whee, we still couldn't see them but you could follow them easily by the bee-ish agressive sound and suddenly they where all over us! Zoom, zoom, zoom, zoom, before you'd known what struck you, these crazy guys in nice helmets and colorful built-for-speed-and-nothing-but-speed-horse-power-overdosed supermachines had blasted past you leaving you half deaf, half scared to death, but amazed and with nothing but a "wooooooooooaaaaaahhhhhh" left in your brain.

After the first brain lockout I got my acts together and got my camera up for some shooting. It took some laps to get the right settings. They are fast, them little bastards. Finally, the shutter time set to around 1/1250 I could get some unblurred shots. Qualifications over, our hunt for a better place started. Our target was the spoon curve, and besides walking there, some more kms, it didn't that very long before finding a good spot. Spreading out our 890 Yen sheet from Tokyu Hands, collecting some rocks and filling PET bottles with sand as countermeasures for the wind, our land claim was final. The view wasn't that bad at all. All preparations for the final race complete!

Returning to Shiroko station, circumstances hadn't improved at all, so nothing else to do than use what man has been using for ages, long before even thinking about chasing each other around for 53 laps in cars reading Red bull, Marlboro or Panasonic, leg power. It was getting dark and before getting half way back, it was pitch black. But at least we were accompanied by a couple of thousands others taking the same trail, and a full moon. Having had under consideration sleeping at the circuit, the wind and some rain showers made us rethink, and having Nagoya less than an hour from Shiroko, we decided that a hotel would be a much nice way to spend the night. The only problem was that, some of the other 150,000 visitors had thought of it too, and even made reservations. We hadn't. Instead, we ended up in a "manga kissaten", a kind of cafe with mainly mangas, comic books. You rent this litte room, with a nice chair, a computer, tv and spend some hours there doing whatever you like to. We decided to sleep.

6 am. Kuma woke me up. I'd slept like a baby. Comfy chair! Could've stayed there the whole day, but today was the race day! Taking the elevator up to 4h floor, to take a bath and freshen up, then get to the station for a breakfast and the train for Shiroko. We waited for Kenta, who stayed at a friend of his, for a while but not being able to reach him, we left. He had his own ticket and our guess was that he'd overslept.

In Shiroko, something crazy met us. The queue for the bus was longer than any queues I've ever seen. Like a giant snake, it stretched some blocks away to take some right turns and return on the other side of the small square outside the station. With stiffened legs from the walks last day, we were not in the mood for another 6 kms on foot. Queueing up, we moved pretty fast, but since I'm not the person who likes to 1) Wait and 2) Queue I got restless and Shota wasn't late to agree that taking a walk wouldn't be that bad at all. With a Kenta still sleeping somewhere in Nagoya, Kuma not as stupid as the 2 of us, decided to stay in the queue, and suddenly we were up for a challenge, now we had to beat Kuma to Suzuka. Having walked about 5 minutes, it suddenly struck us that we'd left the tickets in my bag that Kuma carried. Laughing at our stupidity and that we hadn't got to far, we returned to Kuma and grabbed our tickets.

We arrived pretty much at the same time at Suzuka circuit. Except the 20 minutes or so we waited in line before deciding to take the walk instead and the 10 minutes it took to return for the tickets, the Kuma way wasn´t that much slower than ours. But I don't think that I'd survived waiting in queue for that one hour or so I'd had to if we didn't walk. I think we made the best individual choices, and everyone was happy!

To fight our way from the main gate to our seat took it's share of energy and time, and when we finally reached our spot, we were pretty out of it. 2 1/2 hour of rest before the race start. In an October sun acting like it was the middle of July or so. Hot, hot, hot.

Kenta arrived an hour or so before the race. Overslept, just as we guessed. He'd been running parts of the way from the station, cutting almost half the time getting comments like "Look, that guy's running" on the way.

Race start! Once again, you'd hear them far away, whee, whee, whee, whee, then the dark sound of breaks cutting trough the air, and again, whee, whee, whee, high pitch, and there, around the corner accelerating like bullets out of a barrel, then, the barking sound of brakes just before throwing themselves into the spoon, whee, whee, accelerating, gear down, barking brakes, whee, whee, out of the spoon and onto the stretch.

A really exciting fight, with Schumi getting up in the lead early in the race, Massa keeping the others down to get Schumi some distance to the others. Alonzo passed Massa pretty early though, during the first pit stop I think, and soon chased and closed in on Schumi. I don't know the others that well, but at least I kept an eye on Kimi, who climbed pretty fast from his start position at 11th. I even got a shot of his name on the helmet =) Can you see it?And as you probably know, Schumi had to retire due to some engine failure. A fast pit stop, getting on the tracks in front of Alonzo for the last ten laps or so, thing looked all good for the German geniues, when there was a sudden smoke cloud from the engine, and the race was over for him. Unfair, but that's the way life goes.
The way back to Shiroko, was of course another put-one-leg-before-the-other stretch. Finally arrived in Tokyo at around 22 pm. Kenta continued on for Sendai and arrived at midnight. Checking google earth at home, from the station to the spoon curve, we walked around 7.4 km. Adding to that some kms in the circuit area, we'd walked some 35 km during the weekend. That's about Yotuya in Tokyo to Yokohama. Legs hurts.

Pa vag till Suzuka

Jag sitter nu pa shinkansen fran Tokyo, styrandes kosan mot Suzuka Circuit for vad som kan komma att bli det basta F1-lopp genom tiderna. Tva race kvar och lika poang pa toppositionerna. Dessutom kan det vara sista racet som kors pa Suzuka nagonsin. Att det ar nast sista loppet for Shumi, det gor inte saken mindre intressant.

Inte for att jag foljt F1 sa noga egentligen. Jag kan inte pasta att jag har stenkoll pa en trejdedel av forarna ens. Forst idag fick jag reda pa av F1-experten Kuma hur kvalificeringsracen gar till. Det dar med 15 + 15 + 20 hade jag inte den blekaste aning om. Men vad gor det. Att sitta och spana pa ett 20-tal bilar som susar forbi i hejdundrande tempo, det ar en speciell kansla.

Men som manga av er sakerligen kanner till sa, snabba bilar i all ara, ligger motorcyklar mig varmt om hjartat. For tva veckor sedan var jag pa Motegi for att atnjuta MotoGP.

Annu kan jag inte bestamma mig for vilket som var hojdpunkten pa den dagen. Ett par timmar pa hoj i det basta tankbara touringvadret for att komma upp till banan. Val framme mots jag av ett hav av motorcyklar. Pa parkeringsplatserna stod uppradade hojar i alla dess former. Tiotusentals. Sakerligen fran alla oar i hela Japan.
15 minuters promenad fran parkeringen (nummer 11) till banan och det stod hojar, hojar, hojar. Hela vagen.

Kanske var det ljudet av 20+ topptrimmade supermaskiner som mullrade igang samtidigt nere pa rakan. Ljudet skulle fa min stackars fabrikstrimmade R6a med ynka 136 hast att skammas som ett barn borta pa parkeringen om hon hort det. Hon som inte direkt brukar skammas for sig nar vi susar fram pa Tokyos neonljusfyllda gator. Kraften av alla hastar samlade under kaporna pa de reklamfyllda, fargglada maskinerna kandes hela vagen upp till hogra delen av the Grand Stand som jag turligt nog lyckats kopa en biljett till. Ljudvagen tryckte mot brostet pa mig.

Det som slog ovriga kandidater med hastlangder var nog att efter loppet forsiktigt fa lata henne rulla in pa asfalten. Asfalten som just hunnit svalna efter jakten da Rossi desperat forsokt plocka in hundradelarna pa Capirossi i taten, forgaves.

Forsta kurvan lite forsiktigt. In i Bridgestonetunneln och sen vaga dra pa lite. Upp pa curbsen bara for att kanna kanslan.

Bara nagon timme tidigare har galningar sladdat genom denna kurva, ut pa rakan dar maskinernas visat sina muskler och vibrerat av spanningarna da forarna pressar det sista uns av hastkrafter tillgangligt for att spranga 300-vallen, for att sekunden senare pressa bromsarna,vaxla ner 4 steg, ner i 80 pa en stoppstracka mindre an 200 meter kort, kasta sig pa sidan for att ta kurvan i basta sparet.

Nakano, japans hopp, klarade detta fint i 23 varv. Efter att ha forsvarat sin femteposition under hela loppet, kor han i 24:e och sista varvet in i Gibernaus bakdack och pa en tid kortare an nagon manniskas reaktionformaga, ligger Nakano en halvmeter upp i luften och svavar ovanfor sin cykel, totalt oformogen att gora annat an att forbereda sig for smallen och forsoka krypa ihop som en skoldpadda i sitt skal for att minimera antal lekamen som sticker ut nar han far fram over banan och ut i den dampande sanden som en mansklig kanonkula. Ser ruskigt otackt ut, men som vanligt ser det varre ut an vad det ar och han traskar darifran efter bara nagon minut med sankt huvud, uppenbarligen besviken att inte kunna gora en repris pa bravaden fran nagot ar tidigare, att plocka hem segern pa hemmaplan infor tiotusentals hemma-fans. Jag och ovriga japaner pa laktarna lider med honom...

Jag tar mig genom kurvan utan bekymmer dock. Mest beroende pa att jag inte ligger och fightas med varldens basta motorcykelforare och for att jag haller en hastighet pa knappt 100 km/h.

Trots att det var en vantetid pa runt 2 timmar och att jag delade banan med ca 50 andra hojar, sa var det en upplevelse att fa ta sig runt Motegi pa sin kara R6a. Skont, skont.

Samtidigt, kan jag inte lata bli att tanka pa vilken otrolig miljoforstoring det hela ar. Att frakta ut tonvis med material rakt ut i naturen, gjuta betong och asfaltera kilometrar, ta dit 20 fartglada darar som spyr ut avgaser och skrammer livet ur djuren med sitt buller, atfoljda av lastbilskolonner och tiotusentals fans som tar sig dit pa nastan lika manga motorcyklar som i sin tur gor sitt for att oka koldioxidmangden i luften, ar kanske inte det perfekta bidraget till att ge moder jord ett halsosammare liv. ... och sa ar man pa vag mot nasta stora miljoforstoringsevenemang.

Vi passerade nyss det heligaste i Japan, Fujisan. Hur ofta man an ser detta berg, sa trottnar man inte pa att aterigen fa vila ogonen pa det. Inte jag i alla fall. Det reser sig sa maktig upp over oss och har formats precis sa som man tanker sig att ett heligt berg ska vara format. Man forstar direkt nar man ser det varfor det har helgats och beundrats under hundratals ar.

Idag ar toppen nagot molntackt, men man kan anda skymta att det ligger ett lager sno pa toppen. Det ar trots allt nagra grader kyligare pa 3776 meters hojd. Sa mycket vackrare hon blir nar toppen ar snotackt.

Forsta veckan pa Tetra Pak i Japan. Pa fabriksbesok i Gotemba vid foten av berget. Man blir avundsjuk nar man ser vilken otrolig utsikt de har fran kontoren.

Forsta natten pa hotellet. Jag blir valkomnad av min forsta jordbavning pa dryga tva ar, redan ett par dagar efter aterkomsten till Japan. Aterigen blir man pamind om hur oarna har uppstatt och vad som kan handa harborta. Med en aktiv vulkan som tornar upp sig utanfor hotellfonstret, kan man inte lata bli att snudda vid tanken pa att aven Fujisan som statt sa tyst och majestatiskt under evinnerliga tider, ocksa skulle kunna fa for sig helt plotsligt borja spotta ut otackheter. Den natten kande jag en otrolig respekt for berget.

Det har gatt ett par veckor sedan vi tog oss uppfor Fujisan. Aven om det ar tiotusentals japaner, i alla aldrar, som gor samma sak varje ar, kan man inte lata bli nar man ar nedanfor henne igen, att kanna ett sting av stolthet vid tanken pa att man faktiskt tagit sig upp hela vagen dit. Langst upp pa toppen. Det kanns bra. Otroligt bra. Nasta projekt pa hog hojd ar Lhasa i Tibet. Ett stalle jag otroligt garna skulle vilja se. Om man aker via Nepal, kan man om man har vadergudarna pa sin sida se Mt. Everest pa vagen. Aldrig for att jag i nagot liv skulle fa for mig att ge mig uppfor den kullen. Nej. Men att se varldens tak maste vara en vacker syn.

Snart framme i Nagoya. Borjar fa ont i fingrarna av att knappa in det har via mobilen. Inte det ultimata sattet att skriva langre stycken pa. Vadret ar helt underbart! Stralande solsken och inte for varmt. Jag ser fram emot att aterigen fa se tekniska vidunder spakas fram av underbarn pa en kravande bana igen. Det ar nagot speciellt med det hela. Det ar nagot som lockar... Ljudet... Farten...

LAB4/RAB4 Live in Otsuka

It's 5pm, a normal Tokyo Sunday afternoon. We are in a place I've never been before, in spite the fact that it is one of the stations along Yamanote line, Otsuka. Together with Kuma and Ma-kun, I am waiting for Mika to enter the stage for her first live performance ever. LAB4 (Or RAB4, have you made up your mind yet? =) ), playing together since April this year, are doing acoustic covers on Do As Infinity.
She is nervous, you can tell. Beside the fact that she has mentioned it a couple of times together with a "I normally throw up when I'm nervous", during the band member introduction, her voice is trembling, just a little, but enough to make you notice. But what does it matter? As soon as she starts to sing, it's all disappeared. With an impressively clear voice, she gives a superb performance, passing even the highest passages without any problems, without hesitation. I'm impressed. The two guitars and the bass gives her great support, and they are well coordinated considering that they have only being playing together for a couple of months. Beatiful.

Steve stung by stingray

Steve Irwin is dead, but I think the whole stingray story is a cover up. I think that he actually succumbed to the grief of losing his Harriet not too long ago.Both of you, rest in peace.

Tokyo

Aug 30, 2006 - A perfect Tokyo night














手を繋ぐ、
幸せな今。
目をつむる、
悲しみの夜、
明日はさよなら...