Trip to China Winter 2014: Day 1 - Goodbye Christmas

(Which means 'Christmas'. A proper Merry Chistmas is instead '圣诞节快乐' = 'Shèngdàn (jié) kuàilè')

So, finally my (almost) three week trip to China is here! Having celebrated an early and cozy Christmas this weekend, I leave all that mostly behind me as Christmas is not such a big thing holiday-wise in China. For sure, you will see lots of western-inpired stuff but that is mainly consumerism spilling over everywhere in a culturally more and more globalized world.

Being the number one manufacturing nation in the world, it would be hard not to partake in some of this as Santa has most of his factory(ies) in China producing presents at full speed this time of year. I will try to blog as much as I can about this, and of course my instagram will be my best friend too.
I will visit Chongqing around New Years Eve and hope to be at Jiefangbei at midnight when 2015 arrives, and go to holiday island Hainan to soak up some sun at Sanya, but mostly I will be at the smaller Wansheng(万盛) south of Chongqing to enjoy the company of my girlfriends relatives.

Trip to Sapporo: Day 18 - Going home, what was the Top 5 of Sapporo?

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Sitting on my bus home from Arlanda Airport in Sweden (thx Swebus for the free wifi), I thought I would sum up the things I appreciated the most in an informal list. There are lots of other things but these ones I would like to give extra thanks for.

5. The Ishiya Chocolate Factory. It proved to be so much more than just a peek at the production line. Really quite the perfect goal for a family trip or anyone who is interested in chocolate, history, toys, english Tudor buildings, and/or gramophones.

4. The Tower of Sauron. Well, not really. But what do you call a 100 meter high monument made of iron that looks like an 1:1 replica taken straight of of Lord of the Rings? This is for sure one of the hidden tourist gems of Sapporo city.

3. The Snow. I mean - really? It was just fantastic how much snow Sapporo got, it almost snowed every day. To increase the effect, in Japan the snow isn't so much taken away as piled up in high walls so it is not unusual with 3 meter high snow walls even in the city. I got to rekindle my love for snow from when I grew up in the north of Sweden. I love snow(the video…)!

2. The Unexpected Friendship with Minami and Mikael. Just from a spontaneous contact made by Minami at the Mandrake store, I got to experience a genuine New Years celebration with them, but more important, we had some great times and I really appreciate these random encounters in life, they can mean so much. I wish you both the best of luck and I hope we meet again.

1. BUIE Gakuen, or rather it's residents and the openness of its welcome. I have already talked so much positive about the shared living of BUIE Gakuen in Sapporo, but again I must press how great an idea it is. People in the ages between 20 - 50 sharing facilities and lives instead of just living alone. This may not be the main point, but as a recently divorced man I want to point out that I know for a fact that several relationships and even marriages have started here. Everyone there, I don't know when I will come back, and many of you will have moved on by then, but I wish Kenji and all of you the best of luck with finding happiness.

Trip to Sapporo: Day 14 - Sweden Hills, a Villaförort in Japan

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Midsummer images from Kameratrollet.

This is more "Swedish" than we see in most of Sweden…

Swedes are in general rather "bad" at establishing enclaves abroad like you often see other nationalities do when a reasonable number happens to emigrate to the same country, city or area. Therefore it was of course rather fun to read that there seemed to be such a thing here in Hokkaido - Sweden Hills (although, to be honest, it should rather have been named "Svenska Bergen"…).

Some quick research proved to rather confirm than dispute my initial statement, as this residential area in some wood-covered hills outside Tobetsu northeast of Sapporo is a Japanese initiative and the residents are quite japanese beyond the obvious Swedish theme. It was inspired though by a visit of the swedish ambassador who thought the nature in the area looked like back home, and I can absolutely agree with that. In 1984 the first house was built.
To get there is easiest to do by car, which I don't have, so I instead thought it was an excellent idea to walk in a semi-snow-storm…
Goofle Maps suggested that I go with train to the Ishikaritobetsu station and then walk 5 km mostly west to Sweden Hills, which was what I did (after starting up with going 500 m in the completely wrong direction, haha). In hindsight, it is nicer and easier to reach the area by getting of at the Ishikarifutomi station, because from there starts the Sweden street which goes straight up to Sweden hills, and along the way there are small stuff that has Swedish connections.
As I reached this area at the end, I was quite soaked and tired and wanting to protect my camera phone from more snow so I will cheat somewhat and show Google street view (i.e. summer pics):

The railway station at Ishikarifutomi is in itself a homage to Swedish culture.

A bridge with a Swedish "Dalahäst"

Ond of course the cliché version of the Viking helmet

So, what did it look like now in full winter? Well, lets see:

This is the more humble approach to Sweden Hills, from the east.

The first thing you notice is that there isn't all this airborne cables and wires, instead they are below ground, like in Sweden.

And the houses was impressively Swedish looking

But to be honest, we never have this much snow in most of Sweden… ;-)

Beyond a few exceptions like this house with bricks (spot on 70s Swedish style), the combination of all the snow and the extremely high frequency red houses with white corners, made me think of Sweden Hills like somewhat of a luxurious skiing resort in the Swedish mountains, with the only thing missing a couple of skiing slopes.

All-in-all, Sweden Hills seemed like a rather successful go at recreating the Swedish "Villaförort" i.e. suburban housing.

In comparison with Sweden, here they use some serious (10+) manpower to clear the tracks...

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Trip to Sapporo: Day 12 - Hokkaido Museum of Modern Art

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Today I went to the Hokkaido Museum of Modern Art. Regretfully, but as usual, you aren't allowed to photograph anything inside the exhibitions, but I can say it was well worth the 400 Yen (27 SEK / 4 USD, I used my student ID).

Afterwards it was time for some the Hokkaido speciality, Curry Soup.

Trip to Sapporo: Day 10 - New Year celebration; Hatsumōde

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In Japan, during the days of the first week of January, people often take one of their few vacations of the year and travel back to their hometown. There is also the big winter sales with characteristic Fukubukuro grab bags of gifts put together at nice prices.
The first days of the year is also the time for the first visit to the local Shinto shrine (or Buddist temple), called Hatsumode. In contrast to relatively unreligious Sweden, here people go en masse to visit the shrines, young and old, and it is a kind of open fair feeling to the areas around the shrine.
When shopping at Sapporo's fantastic otaku (nerd) store for new and used collector stuff, Mandarake, I got talking with the charming Minami and ended up being invited to join her and her friends (and another Swedish guy who is visiting!) to go to the Maruyama shrine Hatsumode today. And of course I brought Francois along too, as he is such a piteous guy too. (I will post a separate blog post about what I shopped at Mandarake later.)
Every shrine visit is different, so I will just tell you what we did, but here is what happened:

1. First you wash your hands before entering the shrine at a special small beautiful building. You are supposed to wash your hands and drink in a special order if you want to do it right, it's not complicated.

These guys are actually freezing their buts off… ;-P

2. Then you enter the temple and queue for the prayer part. Usually you go up the shrine stairs to a kind of box with a grille for coin offerings, but due to the extreme number of visitors instead a large area in front of the stairs was roped and people threw their coins into the snow. I don't envy the monk having to sift through the snow mush afterwards… ;-)
So then you clap your hands together twice and pray for something you wish for. Some do this for minutes. I may have done the clapping in the wrong order but it's the thought that counts. ;-)

3. Then you can go and buy paper slips (100/200 yen) with good/bad luck oracles on them. If it is good you keep it, if it is bad you tie it around racks put up to negate the bad luck. Of all six I was the only who got a good one, actually the maximum luck one! See the proof below. So I hope this means what I prayed for comes true. ;-)

4. After that you buy new amulets for luck or love or something else. These come in all sizes and prices, from small bells to put on your iPhone to big ones to show of at home. I bought a number of these for my closest ones at home (thanks again Minami, for helping me to choose the right ones):

After that you go to the fair/market outside the shrine grounds, where they sell foods, candies and toys.
All the snow got my inner child going, so we had a little snow ball fights and kicked down snow from trees also (a big sorry to the two old obaasans who got snow on them…). I looove this kind of winter, really!

I read people often wear the kimono-looking traditional clothes called yukata at this celebration, but these weather conditions I was happy to go with my skiing clothes.

This was another "fortune" lottery, this one related to your birthday. It was more like a horoscope, it seemed.

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