Of sauces

Today I received my package from Iceland, which I have been waiting for for over 3 weeks or something. Usually it only takes around 6-7 days for packages from Iceland to arrive, so after 10 days had gone by without a word, then I started thinking something must have come up. And come up it did.

My father was sending me some sauces I like from Iceland, amongst other items. Unfortunately, the containers under the sauces couldn't handle the shipping and they burst... Apparently during the flight over here, my package started leaking and ruining other packages around it.... Whoops!!
But, hey, not my fault.

Finally after having waited for about 2 weeks for this one package, the people from the office called me and said that a post office employee wanted to have a word with me, because of a shipment that had been sent to me. That's how I got to know about this problem my package caused. We set up a meeting with this post office representative about a week later, which should have been last Tuesday. They said they wanted to bring in an English speaking person in order for everything to go smoothly so I thought to myself that that person must be very busy, not being able to attend to this until in a week's time. I waited patiently and on Tuesday morning I woke up to a phone call informing me that the English speaking person couldn't come that day... We arranged for a new date, which was today at 15:00. Again, I waited patiently, but a liiiiittle tiiiiiiny bit annoyed because of the immense time this was taking. The only thing they had to do was to bring me the package, after all.

So, finally, the person arrived with my package. The original box was so messed up because of the leaking sauces that they had taken every single item out of the box, put them individually in clear plastic bags and then put them into a large box filled with styrofoam. That was my new package. Nicely done by the post office workers.

So, yeah. Received my package, finally. The interesting thing about this story is that the person who delivered the package in the end didn't speak a word of English. When he had made it clear to me in the absolute politest way possible that I could not hold them responsible for what happened and he had heard it from me that I would be willing to accept the package as it was.... then.... then he had to go back to the post office and fetch the papers for me to sign. Un-fucking-believable...

When he came back, an hour later, guess who he brought!? The English speaking guy!I had to sign 5-6 papers before I got to take the package away, as they were freeing themselves from any further implications with this single shipment. Before they left, they apologized for the inconvenience 5 times and bowed 5 times. That's only when I turned the corner, maybe they kept on doing it for a little while longer...

They gave me a present though... Sarcastic present, but they meant well. Given that the contents of the package were flooded with greasy sauce. They gave me.... laundry detergent.

Notice the paper measuring spoon... ingenious

Added 3 pictures to the May various album: http://picasaweb.google.com/gustafh/MayVarious

Nah

So... yeeeeaaah... Almost been a month now. Not much has happened in that time, except that I went to the top of Hiei mountain, went to Nara (the first capital of Japan), had my 27th birthday, saw the Aoi festival, smelled the "spunk" trees as we call them (as their smell is so much like that of jizz that it's uncanny), got sunburnt, saw a part of a program on Japanese TV about puffins and the last 10 minutes of the show were about Iceland (Vestmannaeyjar)... and.... and... can't think of anything else that happened during this time.

On my birthday we went out for 'all you can eat/drink' and I didn't have to pay, being the birthday boy and all. I also got pretty swell presents from my friends here and from H. I haven't received presents (things, not money) in several years. Never gets old. Get it? It doesn't get old, but I am getting old?
It's amazing.

Spring has certainly arrived here in good old Japan. Sunny days with temperatures around 25-30 degrees. I've discovered that 22-25 degrees is my preference. Not too hot for going outside and doing stuff and just right for enjoying outdoor activities. That's not going to be the case this summer though. Experienced people have told us that it stays around 40 degrees for a few weeks later on and that you actually get wetter just staying outside then, than during the rainy season. Oh yeah, the rainy season... We can expect it to rain for 5-6 weeks, almost straight, from the beginning of June to the middle of July.

The spunk trees... oh man oh man oh man... It is disgusting, plain and simple. I have a theory that a lot of very desperate japanese men have all waited for spring to arrive with great anticipation and then just wacked off straight into the bushes. I might be wrong. But then again, I might be right. Japanese are weird.

A couple of weeks ago me and H went to Hiei-zan, or just Hiei mountain. I've written about that mountain before, about its significance in japanese history and stuff. You can also just look it up on wikipedia, if you are interested... It is the tallest mountain around Kyoto and the view from the top is quite good. We went there on a fairly hazy day, but still. On the other side of the mountain there is view over the biggest lake in Japan, lake Biwa. It's on the agenda to visit that place someday in the next 3 months.
Pictures here: http://picasaweb.google.com/gustafh/HieiZan

Went to Nara with H, specifically to see the large buddha statue which is so famous. We also walked around Nara Park, which is quite huge, and saw other stuff. Nara is very close to Kyoto, only about 1 hour by train from where I live. Nara was the first capital of Japan, from 710-784, or until Kyoto took over for the next 1100 years or so.
Pictures here: http://picasaweb.google.com/gustafh/Nara

There are 3 big festivals in Kyoto each year. One of them is the Aoi matsuri, held on May 15th. Well, the word 'festival' is a bit misleading, at least it is to my ears and I guess it is also the same with others non-Japanese. Festival to me means something fun, something going on which is interesting to see or partake in, for a day or a series of days. The Aoi matsuri only had the visual part. We watched as a 800 meter procession walked passed us, slowly. It was hot and there were rude old people around us. That is not to say I regret seeing it, but saying it was fun would be plain lying to you. There is another festival in July, called the Gion matsuri. It takes up all of July and in the middle of the month there is a huge parade. I really want to go to that festival as by the look of things, it might be a bit more exciting than the Aoi matsuri.
Pictures here: http://picasaweb.google.com/gustafh/AoiMatsuri

A few days ago I turned on the TV and there was a show about puffins. I kept it on for some reason and went on to do something else. My head turned to the TV again when I heard they were talking about Iceland and for the last 10-15 minutes of the show they showed footage from Iceland, specifically from Vestmannaeyjar. Hearing Icelandic spoken on a Japanese TV program was weird, but quite nice somehow.

I almost forgot a very important story I wanted to tell! The funniest thing happened the other day to Bragi. As I have written about before, there are monkeys in the woods around where I live. Bragi was on his merry way back home after a successful trip to the konbini, where he bought some coke and 2 packets of biscuits. When he was about to reach home, he felt something tugging at his shopping bag from behind. He looked and there was a monkey staring him in the eyes. The monkey then pulled an impressive "yoink" and stole his 2 bags of biscuits, jumped up to a wall close by and chowed them down. If only the monkey would have been smart enough to flip Bragi the bird, then that would have made a great story even better.
Seriously... getting mugged by a monkey. That's the funniest thing I've heard in a long time.

Have some various pictures here: http://picasaweb.google.com/gustafh/MayVarious

I was kinda dreading coming home and stuff, but as of few days ago, things are looking much brighter ;-)

That's all for now.
Take care and be good to your neighbour.