Mattiaz Fredriksson's MindSay Blog

In the beginning...

mattiaz — 2005-05-24T04:05:54-05:00

Good (insert time of day) to you and welcome to this, my most humble (i.e. shoddily designed) abode on the internet.. or "internets" if you wanna play it ol' school Dubya style. The idea behind this blog is first and foremost to be the primary channel wherein I give you, my faithful readers (please don't leave me..), a retelling of the wondrous things that I will surely (here's to hoping) experience during my trip to Japan this summer. If the whole thing catches on and I end up enjoying sharing my life with others in this fashion I might just keep the whole thing running. We are however getting a bit ahead of ourselves aren't we?

First off, my name is Mattiaz and I'm 21 years old and currently spend my time studying japanese at the university in Lund in Skåne, Sweden. I'm originally from Kalix in north of Sweden, which, as you exotism-fans out there know - is a home to the arctic circle, auroras, reindeers and the whole shebang(whatever the hell that word means). Skåne by the way seems, so far at least, to mostly be the home of semi-alcoholic college drop-outs and potatofields sprawling with ripe potatoes (from which you can make vodka. coincidence? I think not).

The famous Vodka..erm Potato fields of Sweden

Now where was I? Oh yeah.. so I study japanese together with a ragtag crew of other social misfits.. Okay we're not really social misfits; it's just that I have always wanted to use that phrase: "a ragtag crew of social misfits" mm mm mm, goood stuff ^^.. I might actually have ended up scaring away a large group of people with that last statement, oh well.. We're actually quite normal, and also: housetrained... which is definitely a plus. So basically most of the japanese class are going on this trip to Japan during the summer where we will partake in a nifty japanese course offered to us so graciously by the good people of Kokuritsu Daigakuhoujin Gifu Daigaku Summer School of Gifu University. Coincidentally, unnecessarily long and complicated sentences are considered more polite and respectful in Japan.. and something tells me that "the good people of KDGDSSGU" really crave those very things. During this summer course we will officially be studying 10 points worth of japanese. Unofficially however there are wisperings of a 2 month long sake-drinking binge... of which I of course will take no part of... Erm, let's wait and see what happens while I'm there, shall we?

Mommy, my hair hurts!

So as the inquisitive among you may wonder; why is this blog in english when the bulk of the readers are native swedish speakers... and well, that is a pretty good question. I guess the idea is that, in order to cater to the needs of all who read this blog, english really is teh 1337 l4nguage.. if you catch my drift... Actually I didn't catch my own drift in that sentence (damn you l337ish). Anyway look at the bright side: we all get to practice our english.. yay! Which as you native english speakers will have noticed, is something I certainly need.

Us brave explorers, and uh; explorettes? Whoa, did I just invent a new word? Anyway, us brave boys & girls will leave the soil of good ol' svedala (sweden for you non-swedes) on the 4th of june and will be pulling all kinds of shit over there until the 29th of july. The idea is that this blog will be updated with the latest rumours and whisperings from the land of the rising sun until that very date and... hopefully: beyond that as well. Before the trip however I will mostly be filling this blog with various rants on subjects that are all dear to me. Expect something of that caliber to hit the fans tomorrow by the way...

And on that note I end this beautiful (admit it; you loved it) introduction to a blog that I, in all my pretentiousness, have named: the red forests beyond - or the world according to mattiaz (me!).

The end of the world as we know it...

mattiaz — 2005-05-25T06:05:49-05:00

You'll have to excuse the rather apocalyptic title that I have given todays update. Don't worry though. Because unless there is some gigantic asteroid, oh let's say: the size of Texas, heading for earth that I don't know about (care to comment Mr. Bruckheimer?) - we should all be able to stay safely in our couches eating tortilla chips and watching reruns of Dr. Phil... or something else. I don't really know what you people like to spend your time doing. Me however, I luvez my evenings with my ol' buddy Phil.. actually, that's not even remotely true.. also I seem to have lost my train of thought.

My buddy Phil and the tortilla chips
Anyway, the reason for the title is that this, being the end of the school year, truly is a time of upheaval for most of us. Most of us have our finals in the coming days and what awaits us are roughly three months of something completely different. It is a time of goodbyes, though short as they may be, to teachers and newfound friends. It is however also a time of looking forward to new beginnings: to meeting old friends again and perhaps also going places one has never gone before. Now this isn't exactly a new phenomenon, heck - it happends every year. In spite of that it always seems to take me by surprise.

One thing I always find surprisingly difficult is to say goodbye to all the small and silly routines that one has gotten used to. Like standing in line to the coffeemachine every break with your classmates, or watching your favorite tv-show every tuesday evening. I guess focusing on small stuff like that makes bigger things, like actual goodbyes, a lot easier to handle.

One small thing that tonight saw the end of is the aformentioned watching of one of my favorite tv-shows, at least for the season. The show in question being 24, the hit thriller show starring Kiefer Sutherland as the no-nonsense government agent Jack Bauer. The show has been rather eratically aired on swedish TV4 by the way. The show is named 24 because the action on the show ostensibly occurs in "real-time", with each season covering the events of one day in the life of Jack Bauer and his colleagues at the fictional Counter Terrorist Unit (CTU) in Los Angeles.

Oh Jackie B, why must you always be so angry?
The action on the show is, quite frankly, unparallelled on television and watching the four seasons that have been aired thus far has truly been a pleasure. It also paints a spot-on portrait of the new post-911 USA and it's policies. Human rights violations in the form of torture are for example commonplace even among the so called "good guys". Basically CTU and Jack Bauer do whatever they have to in order to stop whatever terrorist plot they are faced with.

This has been taken to total extremes during the fourth season wherein the terrorist plots have involved extreme scenarios like a forced nuclear meltdown of every nuclear powerplant in the country and the launching of a stolen nuclear weapon on Los Angeles. Because of this the need to "do whatever it takes" has meant torturing people who they weren't sure had anything to do with the terrorist plot at all and, basically, violating human rights without second thought. One might think that the show wants us to become staunch believers of the Bush-doctrine. Something that isn't so difficult to imagine seeing as how Fox (see also Fox News) and ultimately it's owner Rupert Murdoch, are doing the producing. The show does not however try to glorify any of this and Jack Bauer is a man who, because of his actions, so far has lost everyone and everything he loves. So regarding the supposed politics of the show I do find myself being rather ambivalent. The action and thrill of the show however is still solid and if you ever find yourself faced with a rainy weekend this summer you might wanna consider renting a season of 24... or downloading it, your choice.

- - Slight SPOILERS for Season 4 of 24 follows - -
I did like the final episodes, even though I'm beginning to realize how WAY out there this season has been. The terrorist plot was simply way to elaborate to be believable. The worst thing is however the way that CTU was able to stop all of these at the last second, often through pure luck. The attack on Air Force One obviously succeeded but other than that Marwan & his jolly terrorists really scored bupkis. Which, considering the elaborate nature of his plans, just feels improbable. And yeah, comparing to the previous seasons this one lacked that sense of realism that was present in previous seasons.

Setting that and my disbelief aside however I thought this season had a ton of good stuff. The Michelle and Tony love-after-love story was wonderfully portrayed and most of the action this season was fantastic. The end however was truly anti-climactic, something I found very fitting for a season that had otherwise been so over-the-top. The man that walked towards that sunrise wasn't Jack Bauer. He wasn't that man that had saved his country all those times - while at the same time being unable to save the people he loved or even.. himself. For all intensive purposes that man, and his entire existence is dead & gone.. forever... Or at least until next season, which I still have no idea how they're gonna be able to pull off.

The sun rises for the man who once was Jack Bauer

- - End of SPOILERS - -

By the way, if you're looking to laugh a bit you might wanna check out Dave Chapelles version of the Bush presidency: Black Bush

Oh and also; you guys always make me a very happy camper when you give feedback, or whatever, through the speak softly link underneath. And you do want me to be a happy camper, right? If you're not already a mindsayer you will need an account here which takes like 5 seconds to create.

Legends and sunburns...

mattiaz — 2005-05-26T06:05:09-05:00

So summer reached Lund for real today and brought with it a veritable explosion of bikinis, fake ray-bans and fresh, crimson red sunburns. Now, the coming of a new season is something that I think we all notice instantly, at least on some level. Usually because the change is small but incredibly sudden.. also, the fake-bans and other seasonal horrors sort of give the whole thing away.

Summer, studentghetto-style
So each season has it's own signs, like the falling and subsequent melting of the snow that obviously signifies the beginning and end of winter. Or that special feeling you get when the first chilly autumnal winds start blowing. And summer, well summer has its warm winds, oh and also real sunlight. Not the Cheap-O spring version that fools you into going to school in shorts and t-shirt thinking it's warm outside (even though it's really hella-cold) and ultimately ends up giving you a cold so bad it makes you sniffle for months.

Actually that made me remember something, or more accurately: someone. You see normal people fear the cold, (which is why so few people live in the north of sweden), or at least they try to dress properly when having to face it. And then there are people like my old high school classmate Ossi.. a guy so hardcore that cold never even made him flinch - even if he, oh let's say, happened to be sleeping outside during the wee hours of the morning in like +5 C wearing only a t-shirt. Actually I think he slept there willingly... Anyway I don't think I ever saw him wearing anything more than a t-shirt; not even when walking outside during the winter in like -25 C. I guess that what I'm trying to say is that this dude probably could trek across fucking Siberia during the winter wearing only a t-shirt. And that is why he... is a legend.

Ossi, a living legend
It's funny how the memory works.. I was actually going to dedicate this post to something completely different. But seeing as how nothing can exceed Ossi in awesomeness it might be just as well to end on that note.

Due to my japanese finals on Saturday, and the heavy partying that will inevitably occur after that, the next update won't be up until maybe Sunday. It will most likely be quite juicy though so - stay tuned and have a nice weekend!

Also the crew over at Little Gamers have a really nice webradio that you could check out if you're looking for some earcandy.

Sex, drugs and uh... burning pubes?

mattiaz — 2005-05-29T04:05:11-05:00

So yesterday was the day with a capital D. T'was the day when the excrement made physical contact with the hydro-electric powered oscillating air current distribution device.. or for you non-.. uh.. geeks: the proverbial "shit" hit the likewise proverbial "fan". All this in the form of the japanese finals. The tests proved to be a bit of a cakewalk however, and in the words of a fellow japanese student, "this was an insult to my intellect". I don't know that I would go that far, but uh, yeah: easy-peasy. Which is nice, really..

Right after the test about half of the class headed out to a "post-exam dinner party". Now when you hear the words "dinner party" you usually expect something rather fancy. And so when a well-dressed 30-something dude asked for our attention I expected some form of well thought-out and possibly intellectually stimulating speech. He had other plans however and the fact is that he umh, actually stood up on his chair, pulled his pants down and proceeded to set fire to his pubes. I mean literally, he lit a match - and set his pubes on fire. The worst thing was that since the room was rather small the aroma of burnt pubic hair permeated the air within seconds. And this was before the food had even been served... I wish I was fucking making this shit up, I really do. Apparently it's some form of dinner party-tradition here in Lund, which sorta makes me glad I'm moving the hell out of here after summer. I totally wish I had a picture of this uh, "traditon", by the way... or actually, I think I'd rather just forget. "The horror, the horror.." to quote ol' Marlon Brando in Apocalypse Now.

While the beginning was sorta, well, stupid and disgusting in a really disturbing way.. the evening ended up being really fun. I talked to a ton of people, downed some brewskies and generally enjoyed myself. Oh yeah, and the nice thing about post-exam parties is that it, to lamely quote the Beastie Boys, truly feels like you've "fought for your right to party".

Oh right, so after dinner we went over to some random dorm in Sparta and did some karaoke. The neat thing is that I actually happen to have some footage of that very thing. So without further ado ladies & gentlemen, I give you Mats performing the song Kids as Robbie Williams. Enjoy!

All in all it was a great weekend, a real tribute to the very concept of weekends, so to speak. So, what were you guys up to?

Oh and for the gamers out there, LEEEROY JENKINS!

Stressed out

mattiaz — 2005-06-01T12:06:43-05:00

Gonna' be moving the computer back to K-town in the morning and won't have time for a proper update because of packing, travel preparations and other glorious things. I should have my first update from Japan in place sometime in the middle or end of next week though, so check back then!

The floating world

mattiaz — 2005-06-07T11:06:31-05:00

Notes from the night of 7/6-05
...I find myself sitting at the edge of the world, tired eyes looking down on the words "the floating world" written on an otherwise blank page in my notebook. A title of sorts I suppose. Somewhere outside my window a thousand frogs jointly call into the night, drenching my thoughts in a sound both soothing and unbearable at the same time. The words won't come to me.. My fan buzzes gently back and forth in the corner. I'm not ready.. not just yet...

Tomorrow maybe?

An odyssey of the soul

mattiaz — 2005-06-11T01:06:43-05:00

Still there? I didn't scare you off with that poetic well.. BS that I posted earlier did I? Anyway, summarizing the events of the last few days is gonna' take a while so get comfortable in your chairs, you might be here a while.

After having said goodbye to Lund and everything I love about that place the night before I set sails and uh.. took the bus to the train station... yeah. Anyway, the flight over was as expected long, uneventful and hella'-uncomfortable. But uh, no pain no gain right?.

Standing around at Narita station
Having flown with the light we landed at Tokyo Narita in the morning, with the rising sun you might say.. Okay, so maybe a while after sunrise, but yeah, sun - light - no sleep, yay! As you know, the natural urge for someone really tired is to... go and buy a cell phone at the busiest street in all of Japan. Well that's what we did anyway, and I'm now the proud owner of an uber-kawaii piece of orange plastic that you can call to if you feel rich. The number is 0081 9060155955 and costs like 5SEK a min from Sweden. Do mind the time difference if you do though (think +7 hours).

Anyway, back to the story. Right, so after we got our cell phones we hung around Shibuya a bit. If you've seen Lost in Translation that is the street with the HUGE screen that, in the movie, shows a dinosaur walking around. Shibuya was bustling with people and the atmosphere of the place was exactly like that stereotypical image of hi-tech Japan that most of us westerners have.

Actually I'm gonna have to end this post right here. As you might have noticed from the lack of updates I have rather big problems getting hold of a computer for any longer periods of time. You can see pictures from our travels by clicking around here. If everything goes according to plan I will have my own folder there, check it out vettja!

The terms of your surrender

mattiaz — 2005-06-13T12:06:44-05:00

Okay, let me lay it out for you; things are gonna' be really hectic for maybe another week or so which will limit my capacity of putting anything interesting here. While the text might be scarce for another little while you will be able to follow my adventures visually over at Mattiaz goes Japan.

If you have 1337h4XX0r sk1llz you will be able to find the albums of some of the other peeps who also hang around Gifu U over there. Or if you have a life, just click here. Until next time.. au revoir

Live and in color

mattiaz — 2005-06-17T03:06:28-05:00

So where was I? Right, so after having spent a day fooling around in Shibuya and checking out Kaminarimon (awesome, if you like temples that is) in Asakusa we headed over to Gifu by train. Well, first we spent a few hours over at Ueno station wondering where Erik K had disappeared. We did like the settlers in the old west and huddled our wagons, or uh suitcases, in a circle to protect us from the masses of japanese wageslaves hurrying to work. We saw no trace of Erik however and eventually had to give up and head out.

Gifu was, well, hot. We arrived right before the rain period (which just began a few days ago) and found ourselves sweating like... uh, like foreigners in Japan you might say. Jonas K and Tobias even managed to get themselves rather nasty, although disturbingly symmetrical, sunburns during the trip.

After being greeted at Shin-Gifu station by Inuma-san and finding Erik waiting at the station (after having been on a bit of an adventure himself) we headed out to our dorm.. Ah yes, the dorm. It lies on top of a mountain at the ass end of Gifu city and a long way from the university. I suppose it is rather fortunate then that our classes are few and limited to like four hours a day, tops.. Another fortunate thing is that there is like 5 or 6 stores that sell used manga and videogames, which by the way are hella-cheap, on the way. Since they are spread out rather evenly along the way home this has the effect that the trip home usually takes like 3 hours instead of half an hour each day. But what better way to waste time then browsing through tons of rare and extremely cheap videogames?

Over at the dorm we were greeted by our tutors, or "chuutas" which is the japanese pronounciation. They are a rather nice bunch of people who never say no to partying or a Mario Kart challenge. Oh yeah, these days a lot of the spare time activities over at the dorm consist of people playing with their respective gaming machines. Seeing as how the prices on games over here are hella-low there are like two Super Nintendos and a few Sega Saturns for public use. We got the saturns for like 300 yen, which is like 20 SEK.. and the average price for games are like 3 SEK a piece... which is nice and has led to Tomas Sunhede (of Syntax Error fame) having bought about like a hundred games for the Saturn... Me? I bought myself a nice little Super Famicom Jr. with all the rare RPGs I've ever wanted.

Gonna be heading back to the dorm now, pictures of the weekends activities (firefly watching, karaoke and more) + more dirt on the people here to follow on monday.

Preemptive strike

mattiaz — 2005-06-18T01:06:42-05:00

Seeing as how I managed to drag myself over to the universitys computer room today I suppose an update is in order. After having endured a horrificly boring lesson on the art of crafting your own japanese sword (think utbildningsradion meets shop class) yesterday we headed out to see some fireflies that apparently were bred by firefly-loving peeps.. most likely in some underground laboratory with green goo ominously bubbling in huge vats.. yeah. Not having seen any fireflies before I was expecting something rather fantastic. I mean come on, the tv-show was great, why not the IRL-experience too? So uh, the fireflies were rather few and not more than tiny twinkles of light really. That didn't stop us gaijins from attacking them with blinding camera flashes though. Oh and by the way,　when you drown a tiny twinkle of light in a burst of said flash light, the result is.. well.. really nothing. Because of that the firefly watching session ended up with us swedes taking stupid pictures of each other in the dark. Not having brought my camera with me I have no pictures of that at this time. They ought to show up somewhere over at - PICTURES FROM JAPAN - (which at all times can be found in the menu to the right) really soon though.

After a rather death defying trip (think: fast driving, sugar sweet j-pop in the background, car without seat belts) back to the dorm with Kenji, Manaka and Oliver - the friday night party started. After a couple of sessions of "takenoko, takenoko, nyouki-ki" ("child of the bamboo", veeery dangerous drinking game) the tutors and their guests were slowly but surely starting to daecka suru (swejapanese for collapsing due to too much alcohol) and we decided to call it a night. Hopefully someone was able to catch Shou-kun playing ping-pong with himself (and losing) on camera, good stuff..

Tonight is as previously mentioned karaoke-night, look forward to a full retelling of the whole thing on Monday...

Oh noes, we gots teh cancelled!

mattiaz — 2005-06-20T12:06:44-05:00

So saturday night karaoke got postponed due to a large number of tutors cancelling at the last minute (aka "calling in lame.. not sick"). And hey, what's karaoke without some crazy drunk japanese people, right? Well it's gonna happen this Friday in any case, zettai ni, so look forward to it. Due to this, my Saturday ended up being a rather slow affair with a group of us swedes watching FMA and eating Pocky. I was also able to catch the mandatory dorm party right after that (which seem to be happening every night these days). As per usual we lost about half of the tutors to the ever so dangerous "Take no ko"-game and the whole thing ended up being a rather swedish affair with 3 out of 4 tutors in bed and Hiroko bravely fighting to keep herself awake.

Sunday, as all good Sundays, was all about sports. Me, Lennart, Christer, Max and Johan joined the "Ryuugaku rabu" or "Foreign exchange love"-clubs sports championship. It is a yearly battle of who is the strongest, fastest and who yearns after the home made tin foil trophy the most. After my team being defeated in such classic sports as dodgeball and soccer we proceeded to the final round... BIG..ROPE..SKIPPING - the most noble sport of them all. A harsh battle of survival and basically being able to jump simultaneously up and down with 8 other people for a hella-long time. The fight was harsh, but in the end we prevailed and gave the other teams a beating worth recognition in the annals of sports history. Our record was 62 times in a row, twice as much as the Murasaki-team that had whopped us so badly in soccer and dodgeball. All this under a clear sky with a nice "cool" temperature of +32C. The tin foil cup was ours and we biked home happy, tired and sunburned to hell... but it was worth it.. it was all worth it!

Oh yeah, I actually experienced my first earthquake today. Felt a bit like a truck hit the house I was in. A really small truck though, like Glassbilen (the ice cream truck).. Oh and there are some new pictures up at my album.

A case of mistaken identity?

mattiaz — 2005-06-23T12:06:11-05:00

So life here in Japan is progressing quite nicely with something at least semi-interesting happening everyday. Comparing the boredom of university studies in Sweden with the life at Gakugaiken and Gifu city is well, like comparing the population of Andorra with uh... like any other country? Damn, that comparison didn't go as well as I would have hoped. Aaanyway, point is - I'm having lots of fun and am doing something that feels just right. Which at least on some level is what we all want. Right?

Having gotten past todays mandatory "thoughts around the meaning of life - starring Mattiaz" I think it would be rather prudent to delve into the actvities that this week has offered so far. Wednesday did, as per usual, offer us the chance to talk with 15 japanese kids our own age.. something that usually devolves into talking about oh say; partying... and alcohol.. and cars - the "language of todays youth" you might say. This one japanese guy kept a picture of his pimped out Toyota van (motsvarighet i Kalix: Diesel-Merscha) in his cell phone which he proudly showed to us. I asked if it was a "nanpakuruma", roughly "shagwagon" or "babemobile", and got a rather vague answer that indicated that, while he would like to be able to pick up chicks with it, the chicks here didn't really go for that kind of car. He did however indicate that my white Volvo 240 probably would work like catnip. So now there's just the question of getting my car here before the beginning of August. Hmm, someone feel like taking a drive? No?

Later that night Erik got a mail from one of the japanese girls we had been talking to in which the last line said "by the way, your friend (me) looks like Hally Potter"... yes "Hally"... oh yeah, why don't you "lip my stockings" while you're at it? :) Still though, kind of a beloved character so I suppose that I should consider it a rather nice compliment. Oh yeah, I have also been called "Beckham" on 3-4 occasions due to my waxed up hair.. can't say that I mind being compared to him.. as long as it's just about hair that is.

Oh yeah, we're currently planning a traditional swedish midsummer party for this Saturday. So why Saturday? Well on Friday we're heading out to watch the traditional art of building the Katana, the japanese sword. And after that it's most likely gonna be karaoke, can't promise anything though since karaoke-plans seem to have a tendency to change. I should in any case have a nice interesting update with tons of pictures from the midsummerparty when I update next time.. Until then, Auf Wiedersehen

Oh yeah, and why don't you check out Bex blog from Japan here and Saras here. They're teh nice.. and some of the few swedes here without those pesky Y-cromosomes.

Nights and days to remember.. or forget?

mattiaz — 2005-06-28T02:06:47-05:00

Last week could quite possibly have been one of the busiest ever with three rather nice parties in three days. A bit like my High School graduation... only with more japanese people. The whole thing started out a bit bad though as I, and most of the other swedes, and even a ton of the japanese students on campus, caught a really vicious cold around wednesday. My theory is that it was some form of a terrorist attack using a biological agent, like SARS... or just a result of the last few weeks of living together with 25 other peeps in close quarters. Actually it's quite a bit like kindergarten.. with alcohol.

Fourth floor party (pics)
In spite of the cold us peeps in the "A-team cooking group" (I am Mr. T by the way) threw a bit of a party on the fourth floor of the dorm. There is like 50 pictures or so of that up on Mattiaz goes Japan by the way. Basically we watched a load of That 70's show, conducted a taste test of all the Lemon Chu-hi's (cocktail on a can, like "alkolask") learned some dirty japanese words and took a bunch of silly pictures. We also created our own versions of beer commercials - which is the reason for all the silly "I have a beer can... cool!"-pictures in the album.

Karaoke Night (pics)
Friday was as promised Karaoke night.. even though more than half of the crew got cold feet (or something) right before we left. It wasn't bad.. but not really that great either. Being 6 people and singing for like 7 hours is kind of rough on your voice.. which I learned the day after when I woke up more or less mute. Given some more people and less 6-minute long metal songs chosen by a certain someone (and him screaming like an animal instead of using the mic) it would probably have been a hoot. I don't want to be mean or nothing... but seriously, when the people next to you are holding their ears - please take the hint. After going to the convenience store and getting some breakfast (we sang until 5 AM you see) we headed back to the dorm through a very quiet and empty Gifu-city. Anyway, gonna' have to try going again sometime soon, didn't feel like Friday made Karaoke any justice.

Midsummers eve (pics)
Even though Friday was Midsummers eve we decided to have our Party on Saturday. This due to the fact that we were going to return rather late on Friday and would have to really stress to get the preparations done on time. So Saturday was the day with the capital D and well, really captured the spririt of Swedish midsummer. First of all we had a really neat looking midsummers-pole (made out of bamboo) around which we danced "sma grodorna" "vi aro musikanter" and other swedish classics. On top of that we had been able to score some meatballs, potatoes, sill, kaviar and other traditional midsummers eve foodstuffs. We even had som "nubbe", albeit the finnish version since they were out of absolut at the liquor store (named "loft" and called "loftet").

Another thing that truly made this a swedish midsummer was the like 4-5 people collapsing due to drinking too much and two "making pizzas" in the dorm. Sounds like midsummer eh? I took it rather easy myself and ended up spending a lot of time speaking with our japanese tutors. It was quite a fun night though and a lot of interesting and nice people showed up. Hopefully you will get some sense of how the whole thing felt through the 85 pictures I took during the evening.

Dance Dance Sunday
Sunday was "hung over"-day for the people whose Saturday motto was "Party 'til you puke" to quote Andrew WK. Not having any such problems myself I headed out to Book Off/Hard Off (Or Hard On/Jerk off as it is known to some of the Swedes here). They sell used manga, game systems and such at very reasonable prices. Anyway I bought some used (most likely by 30 kg japanese girls due to the excellent condition they were in) Dance Dance Revolution dance mats and headed back home to try them out with the PSTWO so kindly lent to us by the tutor Jeong (aka Wanchan). Oh yeah, I also stopped by the "store without a name", who totally kick ass when it comes to used games, and picked up DDR Festival. Oh and the store probably has a name, it's only that it's really carefully hidden on their sign. The mats worked perfectly, as could be heard even on the third floor, from the thumping of dancing feet on the tatami that proceeded throughout the day. I also managed to find a very worthy dance partner in Elin whose dancing technique is probably only excelled by her fear of snakes... (which makes her technique pretty much godlike).

That's it for this update. I hope you had a nice midsummer and are enjoying summer to the fullest. I know I am..

Time flies..

mattiaz — 2005-07-07T01:07:56-05:00

..and another week has passed. Time truly does fly when one is enjoying oneself. Oh the woes of those trapped in a land not so close (to home). Nice rhyme eh? Yeah, it's kind of my thing... right, that's all the lame wordplay you're getting today. Aaanyway, seeing as how the last update was quite a while ago I suppose we ought to start where we left off. So last week(end) was really something special and contained such things as real Karaoke, a daytrip to Nagoya (feat. shopping and beer), random partying and talking to nice japanese people and also a tad of general slacking on the fourth floor watching Hipp-Hipp, Seinfeld and me doing some DDR.

Thursday: Karaoke - This time fo' REAL! (pics)
Karaoke is really fun, don't let anyone try to convince you that it's not. While the first time was a bit of letdown (for various reasons)- the karaoke night on Thursday was quite frankly one of the most fun nights since I got here. A bunch of japanese tutors and a ton of swedes showed up and we ended up, once again, singing our lungs out for king/emperor and country until 5 AM. Karaoke is a rather difficult subject to write about though, mostly because it's more of a "feeling" then a normal activity (like, say a party). You don't talk, well not really anyway, and instead convey everything in the form of singing.. or well, something distantly related to singing anyway.

On the way home the city was once again empty and quiet.. something I've always found quite.. "poetic".. in lack of better words. We ended up catching the morning rain and arrived back at the dorm tired, cold and slightly mute.. but happy.

Saturday: Nagoya - Shopping and Beer (pics)
After a friday that pretty much disappeared due to oversleeping and heavy rains - me, Tomas, Filip and Jon decided to head out to Nagoya on Saturday. The goal was to hit all the gamestores in the city and wipe the place clean. Here's the thing though... Nagoya is BIG, it's like the fourth biggest city in the country or something, and in spite of us looking through the shopping districts of Sakae and Osu Kannon rather thoroughly, we ended up finding few true game stores and got a dissapointingly small haul. I know the gamestores are out there somewhere, it's just that there's a hell of a lot of Nagoya to search through. I was able to find Panzer Dragoon Saga for the Saturn though, a game I've been looking for during a fairly long period of time. Oh yeah, and the curry they make in Nagoya kicks ass. Best lunch I've had for quite some time.

After meeting up with Andre, Jonatan, Max, Kudo and Pippi at the Osu Kannon temple (and finding a silly store called "Uncle meat") we headed off to the nearest Izakaya (basically a pub), downed some brewskies and tried some of the local delicacies. Oh and we also gave the waiters some swedish licorice which for some reason is the one taste that japanese people cannot stand. I mean this is a nation in which people eat the the bowels of pigs, seagrass, rotten beans (with the consistency of snot) and wasabi or curry strong enough to kill a grown man - but can't even handle a little bit of Jattesalt or Lakrisal? I don't say this often, but Japan truly is a difficult country to understand sometimes.

While the others headed out clubbing in Nagoya - me and Captain Coma took the last train back to Gifu around midnight. According to some of the others the nightlife of Nagoya was, while nothing in particular, definitely interesting. Kind of wish I had visited the gangsta' hip-hop club that Max and Filip told me about. I mean - asian people who want to be afro-american.. could it get more wrong?

Wednesday: Tanabata, japanese festivities (pics)
Yesterday, or actually today, was Tanabata. It's the japanese version of the star festival which at it's core is about love, fireworks and making wishes for the future. Us exchange students had a nice, calm party together with the good people of Ryuugaku Rabu (Foreign Exchange Love) and ate some nice japanese desserts, shot of some fireworks and met a lot of new interesting people. I have yet to put up the pictures from that night but am going to do my best to get them to a screen near you (like uh your computer) by tomorrow.Done!

Aside from that the dorm also got invaded by 5 korean peeps who are going to study japanese with us from now on. I haven't really talked to them much yet but am hoping to get to know them better on the big welcoming party this Saturday. That's it for now, have a good one!

Stuck in reality

mattiaz — 2005-07-11T02:07:51-05:00

Yet another weekend has passed and once again I find myself sitting in the computer room at school on yet another monday. They say that time flies when you're enjoying yourself and, well.. it's not a lie. Only two more Mondays in Gifu and then I'm hopefully off eating watermelons and checking out cuties on the beach in Okinawa with Erik... The trip to Okinawa is still in the tubes though and might get flushed if budget concerns would deem it an impossibilty. If so it's back to K-town and my favorite people in the entire world... which when you think about it - isn't too bad.

Seeing as how todays subject is gonna' be a bit of a downer I guess I ought to start off by emphasizing how much I like things here. I've made a ton of new friends, gotten to speak a lot of japanese and seen so many, many new things that I would never have gotten to see otherwise. And while I'm sure that a lot of people feel the same, there has been a lot of negative stuff happening lately. To get the whole story you can check these blogs (swedish) (1) (2). Seeing as how we live as close to each other as we do I suppose thing like these were inevitable. There is such a thing as going to far though and when some people start making idle death threats and go as far as actual violence it really has gotten way out of hand. The only thing I don't get is why things have to be this way. Why can't we get along? You know, like adults? Because that is, whether you may think so or not - what we are...

To some of you - be more tolerant. Realize that living together with others can be tough sometimes and that you can't expect things to go as smoothly as you are used to. This isn't your apartment back home or like living with your mom. I'm not saying that you need to accept things the way they are, just that you need to try to be reasonable in your responses and realize that no one is perfect. Not even you..

And to some of you others - respect the fact that other people might not appreciate loud partying every night and people running around making noise in the corridor at 5 AM. This isn't some friggin' high school field trip or party-trip to Greece where you are free to do whatever you want. Being drunk is no excuse for being an ass.

I'll get an update of the weekends activities complete with pictures up by Wednesday or Thursday and if you're lucky also some reactions on tomorrows Sumo-watching trip to Nagoya. Until then - stop the hatin'.

Welcome!... and good night

mattiaz — 2005-07-14T02:07:43-05:00

So today is Thursday and I'm currently sitting around at school listening to some random japanese music I borrowed&ripped (to my new snazzy Sony NW-HD5) from Sara (It's Luna Sea by the way) and worrying.. well not actually worrying.. but kind of wondering how this weeks homestay is gonna turn out. You see the plan is that us 28 swedes and koreans are gonna head out to this small town called Gujo Hachiman (known for it's crazy dancing) tomorrow and spend some time with a normal japanese family for like three days. It still feels kind of sketchy but will hopefully get a little clearer once we get there..

Now we get to the part that you've been looking forward to this whole week (you have done that, right?) - the run down of last weeks activities.

Friday - Izakaya (no pics yet)
Seeing as how Saturday was the welcoming party for the korean people me and Lennart decided to take it easy and head out and have us some nice food. If you don't mind the rather rowdy atmosphere and japanese youngsters doing drinking games at the table next to you (which I really don't) - heading to an Izakaya, the japanese version of a pub, isn't such a bad idea. The food is really tasy, albeit probably not the best for ones cholesterol-level, and the prices at a nice level. Oh and the tutor Mai (nice picture eh?) also happends to work there which makes it even more fun.

Pui and Lisa also showed up and the evening ended up being rather nice, even though we had to sit outside due to the place being too crowded. After some quick candy shopping over at Lawson I headed back to the dorm but happened to run across Andre, Elin & Pippi who were at this place called Miyos (which is like hella close to the dorm). It's also really small and can fit like 8 peeeps totally... anyway, spent a few hours talking to them and some of the japanese regulars who were there. The evening didn't end there though and after having said goodbye to the owner Mrs Miyo we headed back to the dorm and continued the party there. A really fun evening all in all.

Saturday: Welcome party - Swedish style (no pics yet)
Saturday was the official "say hello to your new dormmates" day and the tutors threw a really sweet party with lots of food, beer and happy people. I talked to a ton of people and had a really great time.. the evening did however end up getting a little bit too happy for quite a few peeps. Something that the broken lights, umbrellas and other things that had fallen victim to the previous night were evidence of. Other than that it was a really sweet evening that is probably best summarized by the pictures over at the photo albums.

Sunday and onward (no pics yet)
On Sunday I headed out to see War of the Worlds together with Aki, Lennart and Max and ended up having a really nice eveing. The cinema we were heading to was like 40 minutes out by car (driven skillfully by Aki having donned her cute pink glasses) and on the way I realized how different driving is when comparing Sweden to Japan. Obviously there is the whole right-left thing but beyond that the landscape is truly different. When driving in Sweden, at least in the north, one finds oneself having rather deep forests on both sides of the road. In Japan however the landscape is pretty much made up of some form of buildings, huge signposts however far one drives. Even though we are supposedly in the countryside of Japan the only thing that seems to mean is that the buildings are less high, not farer between.

The movie didn't disappoint, probably because my expectations were set rather low, and I would definitely recommend taking a look if you have the time and the money for such an endeavor.

The week kicked off with the same old 3 hour long lessons that we have each morning. The reason I haven't written about them is not because they are uninteresting or something but rather because I find myself having so much more fun things to write about. Moving on..

Last night contained a rather nice visit to a japanese public bath, Sento, which was... well warm and filled with naked japanese people.. and as previously mentioned - relaxing. Basically they have all kinds of bubble pools, saunas and other things one might need to relax after a hard day at the salt mine. And relax I did... and no - I obviously have no pictures of this... =)

The pictures will have to wait a little bit by the way, have had some trouble getting them up. Should be able to get them up like next Tuesday when we get back from Gujo. Keep enjoying the summer!

There and back again...

mattiaz — 2005-08-03T02:08:53-05:00

And so I'm home again.. yeah. I cant believe it either...

I can't believe that two months have passed... I have seen so much, so much so that I constantly find myself being unable to articulate any of it into even semi-interesting stories. It's like it's all just this massive blur of impressions and feelings.. and before you jump to any conclusions: it's not because of the excessive partying.. I hope anyway.

I met so many new interesting people and found friends in the least expected places. I was never bored and rarely sat still for any longer periods of time. Not to say that it isn't nice to be home.. meeting up with my friends yesterday was just as nice as I could've hoped for it be.. it's just that it feels as if a part of me is still over there. A part I wish I could have brought with me. Oh well.. One thing is certain though; this summer was truly an adventure. And the memories I made will undoubtedly be with me as long as I live. That, at least, gives me some consolation..

Last time I wrote something here was right before the homestay in Gujou Hachiman. Seeing as how you're most likely extremely interested (I know you are) in the everyday life of your average Joe Schmoe's of Japan I'll kick the whole thing off from there.

Homestayin' (pics)

The weekend in Gujou Hachiman can, in many ways, be said to have been the peak of this whole trip. The pinnacle if you will... I spent Friday-Monday together with the Kobayashi family (not related to Mr Kobayashi though) who live in a small town called Gujou Hachiman. They welcomed me with open arms and allowed me a chance to see japanese society from within. The one thing that needs to be said first of all is that I slept heavenly there, not for that long of a time due to a lot of partying and activities - but heavenly. You see the family owns a futon store and obviously don't exactly sleep on the crappiest of futons, if you get my drift. Not that there is anything wrong with the dorm, or actually several things are wrong with the dorm.. not the sleeping part though.. the point is anyway that I slept very well.

Gujo Hachiman is really only known for one thing, it's crazy dancing. During the summertime basically the whole town put their finest yukatas and junbeis on and then dance these really whacky dances for hours, sometimes throughout the entire night. Being in the town for the sake of seeing japanese culture up close and personal we obviously took part in this. Thing is that it actually ended up being really fun. Dressing in weird japanese clothes and jumping around for hours really shouldn't be underestimated. As always the pictures tell stories of dancing a lot better than words.

I also did a whole lot of fun stuff with the Kobayashis; I saw the cool limestone caverns near the city, went to an onsen, did some fishing and participated in their favorite tradition of barbecuing every time the weather allowed it... which was pretty much all the time. Before I knew it the weekend was over and we were all once again back in Gifu. It was an incredibly interesting experience though and gave me a chance to see Japan from within, the real Japan if you will... the one hidden beneath the exchange studies and sightseeing tours.

小林さんたちへ、お世話になって、本当にどうもありがとうございました。

Kyoto - Temples galore (pics)

A few days after the homestay we headed out on yet another field trip. This time to Kyoto, Japans cultural capitol, and a city with literally thousands of temples. Thing is, it felt like we visited pretty much all of those during the 1,5 days we spent there. What I mean to say is that there is such a thing as seeing too many temples. Sure they were pretty and some, like the golden pavillion, were truly breathtaking examples of what man can create (and therefore crowded with thousands of tourists).

So besides getting an overdose of temple-watching we did, for the first time in almost two months, sleep on a real beds. And sleep I did, partly because of the karaoke we had gone to with the teachers, but mostly because of the bed. Add to that a standard european breakfast courtesy of our fine un-japanese hotel and you get something that can most accurately be described as a one day vacation from Japan.

The trip was in every other case one of eyecandy and is therefore best captured by the pictures over at the album.

I still find myself being in a phase of not quite having collected all my thoughts and still feel unable to write down any thought-provoking reflections on this, in lack of better words, "adventure".. that I spent this summer living. Don't worry though, I'll get to that point.. eventually.

おはあチュータたち！みんな元気の？スウェーデンはやっぱりいつもと同じ寒すぎて、もう一度みんなに会いに日本へ行きたいよ。しかし、お金がないからいまは無理かな。とりあえず、http://pics.olsson.beにあるスウェーデン人が取った写真を見るときに、夏のいい思い出が思い出せる。この二ヶ月間の中に楽しくていい時がたくさんあったよね！

ええと、CDのTRACKLISTはhttp://mattiaz.lunajstorm.seで見られる。とにかく遠慮しないでメールしてね！また、今度ねぇ ^_^

Fast forward for instant replay!

mattiaz — 2005-09-12T02:09:24-05:00

..and what of the souls trapped in limbo? Those who do not seem to deserve hell, yet cannot find the path to heaven?

I don't mean to imply that I feel trapped nor lost, because I really don't.. Well maybe a little lost, but I doubt that I'm alone there. Whether we know the path or not we are all however undoubtedly moving forwards. Time passes - seconds becoming days becoming months. Summer slowly fades..

Unforgettable. Yeah.. it truly was.. unforgettable. Am I romanticizing? Probably.. But why not? The ideal world lives only in the memories of that one perfect sunset. That one flawless summer.

But a summer can pass in a heartbeat.. and without realizing it you are suddenly back to where it all started.

Worthwile:
Rome - Warfare, sex and politics all mixed in a $100 million HBO stew. The first episodes bring promises of true greatness.

Love? Love is for the living..

mattiaz — 2005-09-14T06:09:39-05:00

I saw Advent Children tonight, a movie that I have been looking forward to for a very long time. Did it live up to my expectations? Sure. It wasn't exactly a masterpiece storywise but what it lacked in that regard it more than made up through its breathtaking action sequences.

Love in high-res (click for trailer)
I can't help but wonder though whether video games (and movies based off of them) are always going to be this shallow. It's an art form with an incredible potential for storytelling. A potential almost always squandered by hamfisted writing and clichéd storylines. I'm not saying that all games are shallow though, just most of them. An example of a game that fully realizes its potential in terms of storyline is Tim Schafer's seminal masterpiece "Grim Fandango" from the golden year of gaming - 1998 (Fallout 2, Baldurs Gate, Half-life and more). I think I'll let the trailer do the talking when it comes to introducing this little gem.

Meet Manny, Travel Agent of Death(click for trailer)

After the burst of the IT-bubble, and its seemingly endless supply of risk capital, making games largely became an affair of creating as mainstreamed games as possible in order to maximize profit. Preferably sequels within already established franchises. Logical? From a capitalist point of view - uh huh. From an artistic point of view - not so much. I suppose it could be compared to the movie industry and let's face it - it's the crappy Jerry Explosionheimer-type movies that make all the moolah. However, it's the quirky and original movies that make the world a better place.

The same is true in the gaming industry - Grim Fandango was a critical success but a commercial failure and marked the beginning of the end for the adventure game-genre.

Anyway, the difference between the games industry and movie industry is that there still seems to be room for quirky little movies like Donnie Darko, Napoleon Dynamite and other such films within the latter. Hopefully, the gaming industry will mature someday and make room for something more interesting than Quake 6 or the seventeenth expansion pack for The Sims 2.

Here's to hopin' anyway...

Dream station

mattiaz — 2006-06-14T09:06:46-05:00

Time passes.. like a river uh, flows.. Ah, fuck it.

Keio University in September. Lookin' forward to it.. way too much really. Usually there's at least some alternatives for me to consider, but uh, not this time. It's scary to consider how much of my life now revolves around Japan. A country on the other side of the fucking globe.. and I used to hate traveling as a kid..

Soundtrack: Sparta Locals - 夢ステーション

Summer in Düsseldorf

mattiaz — 2006-06-26T04:06:09-05:00

It suddenly dawned on me that this will be the last year that I spend hanging out with my friends in K-town. One final summer of partying, RPG:ing and playing beachvolley near the river. At least if things work out the way I hope.. Which is really weird. I used to really look forward to coming here, and now all I can see is going away.

Is it me that's changed? Or is it this place?

Soundtrack: bob hund - Düsseldorf

Miracle

mattiaz — 2006-08-26T11:08:40-05:00

So I passed. I jumped the hurdle. I'm in the race baby - DjZ vs the dirty 100. Old news, but, yeah, I'm still kind of full of myself because of that. Also the oh-so-slow peons at KeiDai got me the room I wanted. All-male corridor, boo-yaka.. wait, is that a good thing? Nah, not really.. but hey, at least there's actual japanese guys there instead of the ever-present self-proclaimed otakus (otaki?) that traditionally infest anything even remotely related to Japan. Oh and the rent is really nice and meal service is included.. This post really isn't about that though, or anything else for that matter. Just thought I'd let you know what I'm planning for this blog. See I'm leaving in uh, what is it now? Two weeks? Fuck, that soon?

Anyway, I'm going to try to update once in a while with some nice music and a line or two regarding my oriental adventures. Not very ambitious, I know.. but ambitious blogs usually crash and burn the fastest.

Soundtrack: The Back Horn - Kiseki

Idiot?

mattiaz — 2006-09-09T08:09:44-05:00

My journey starts tomorrow.. fuck. Do I even know what I've gotten' myself into? And how can I not be nervous about it? Aren't you supposed to be nervous about these kinds of things? Or am I just too big of an idiot to realize the gravity of the situation? Shit.. well, I guess we'll just have to see.

Oh, and Stockholm loves me by the way. I'm already cleared for the second and final stage. How ya' like them apples?

See you on the other side.. in Cipangu.

Soundtrack: Sparta Locals - Bakayarou

Green & Gold

mattiaz — 2006-09-15T03:09:40-05:00

So here I am - Japan.. again. Certainly very different from last time, although there's definitely something about this place that always feels the same. Maybe it's the humidity? The area around the dorm is really nice and green anyways - likely the product of being a place to which people only come to sleep.. or die (graveyard like next door).

Had my placement test for the Japanese class today and it went, I don't know, OK I guess? As it's a test determined to examine your language proficiency you're not actually supposed to know all the answers (as you wouldn't have anything to learn in that case).. Still feels weird to leave blank fields and just write random things in others though..

Headed to the N's place tomorrow - gonna' meet her fam' again and do some shopping. Would be sweet if I could find a used TV for ￥10-20k. Still gotta' get the piece of crap over to the dorm though. Guess I'll have to send it. Hauling around a 28" on the Tokyo subway doesn't really sound like a kick-ass idea.

Soundtrack: Mo'Some Tonebender - Green & Gold

Heaven and the white Pierrot

mattiaz — 2006-10-09T11:10:47-05:00

So where was I? Ended up in the Advanced level of the Japanese classes here at Keio. Me and a buttload of Chinese and Korean people who are totally in to anime.. ah well. The level of the classes feel just right though and I'll probably end up learning a lot over the coming, what, 9 months?

The Japanese educational system still is obsessed with the thought that memorization=learning. Which, as anyone in the west will tell you, is total bullshit. Thus we've spent 2/3's of each class listening to an article about the geography of Tokyo and then repeating what is being said to the letter. It's not about, let's say - using our skills to independently reproduce basically what is being said; no what they want is the whole thing down to the last comma..

If you've ever wondered why Engrish exists - this is the reason. Through this method Japanese people usually know all kinds of words, know all the grammar and read just fine - they just suck at creating sentences by themselves and oh, actually using the language actively. The fact that they dub movies obviously also plays a part - but you just don't see this kind of stuff in Germany or France.

So if you happen upon a Japanese person who actually speaks decent English - be impressed.. that person has had to fight the antiquated and sometimes downright moronic Japanese educational system to reach that level.. and more than likely spent some time abroad.

Soundtrack: EGO-WRAPPIN' - 天国と白いピエロ

Battlestar Galactica started it's third season!

mattiaz — 2006-10-09T12:10:27-05:00

BSG is a great example of a show that"just happends to be sci-fi". Don't let the starfighters and explosions scare you off from what might be the most culturally and politically relevant show on TV..

Season 3 trailer here (crappy Nickelback tune included).

Voice

mattiaz — 2006-12-09T09:12:58-05:00

Gonna' try and get this piece of crap going again... soon. Until then, enjoy...

Soundtrack: The Back Horn - 声