It´s finally here for you, after 6 long weeks. Well they weren´t that long for me really. Especially not the weeks in Fukuoka. You´ll understand when you read about it. Anyway, first of all, here´s the logs I didn´t have time to upload before the vacation.

I have been feeling really worn out recently, for some reason. One morning I just felt I didn´t have the energy to study. So I decided to leave for school early and rest for a while in the Maruyama Park on the way. I sat by a pond and just breathed.  I felt real peace. Sunshine in my face and birdsong and the wind playing a  soothing symphony for my heart.

 When you´re busy (no matter if it is with actual work or with troubles on your mind) you don´t pay much attention to the things in the periphery, like sounds. When I sat there it only struck me after a moment how quiet it was. I don´t know, maybe the reason it got quiet is that my brain shut up for a while. It is usually running hot composing melodies, ideas and other things (except things it should be occupied with, like schoolwork...). Anyway, sitting there I watched the birds and their behaviour. The tiniest birds are the ones who come the closest. They fly up to me and land right beside me. But only for a couple of seconds until they understand that I´m not going to give them any food. Then they disappear as quickly as they came. The pigeons stay a bit further away, but not much. But they are the calmest. They just walk by as if I am no threat at all. The most careful birds are the predatory crows. When they get close they stay in a position so that they can fly away quickly any moment. It is probably not because they are more chicken than the other birds, it is because they are smarter. They react to my every move. I had the displeasure to see a gang of crows killing a pigeon and the next day there were pigeon feathers all over that place.

Now there is an election period again, meaning noisy speaker-vans all over the city and posters and commercials for the different parties. It seems that the most important thing when choosing a party here is it´s image. The commercials say nothing. Just how "cool" or righteous or revolutionary or whatever that very party is. Well, there is probably a serious political debate also, but my language skills don´t go as far as for me to understand all they say in those debates so I usually don´t watch such things. I guess I can´t give you a good picture of how it really is before I learn more about the system, and get better at understanding Japanese. But even if there is a serious debate I still think it is a bit scary with the image-only commercials. I guess it is for people who don´t know or care much about the politics, but if you think a party or a politician of that party is cool, it is probably because they have a lot of money to spend on the image. Hence, the wealthy parties won´t budge whatever their politics are. I only hope that the people voting according to image is a small number. But then why would the parties throw so much money into colleting these few votes? Anyway, before the political election campaign there was another roadwork period meaning roadwork all over Sapporo for a week or so. 

On Friday the 30th I had dinner with Ayako and her mother and her childhood friend who had come from Chiba prefecture (next to Tokyo) to see Ayako. It was great fun. I had lots of dishes I hadn´t tried yet, and of course lots of delicious dishes I have eaten before too. For example I had raw shrimp (the Japanese giant kind, at last as thick as my thumb - about as big as the crayfish we eat in Sweden), and sea urchin. And we chatted for hours. I had a good time to say the least.

Yesterday I found a place more beautiful and far more relaxing than the Maruyama Park. And really close to my dormitory too. There is a little river (or what you should call it) called Hassamu River running nearby. It takes about 15 minutes to walk there. Just nearby is a big Hokuo restaurant, by the way, with a replica of the Little Mermaid statue in Copenhagen just outside. Hokuo is the "Scandinavian" bread-shop I wrote about earlier. Anyhow, back to the river. Along the river is a small but beautiful park. I went there with my bike and followed the river to the west until I had gone about as far as it is from my dormitory to the school (although it felt further). The river is not like any river in Sweden. Apparently the water level changes drastically here (probably because of typhoons and such), and while the river is built to be able to climb high without doing any damage, it seems to be shallow at most times. Since it is almost always shallow, parts of the riverbed is above water and there are even bushes and trees there. It looks a bit strange and very Japanese. It makes me think of Japanese gardens - where you shape the trees, flowers and bushes to perfection, emphasizing beauty, in contrast to Swedish gardens where the trees and bushes are usually allowed to grow freely, emphaizing practicality. Aaanyway, it was a hot day and a lot of people were playing in the river, relaxing beside it and strolling around in the area. At one place there were a lot of people barbecuing and I really felt a strong urge to join them and have a beer and some yakiniku, but after watching them and the kids playing in the river beside them for a while I decided to go on biking. A bit further down the river took a right turn and after a while I discovered something pretty weird. In one garden there was a tram parked. Having a tram in your garden is weird enough, but since there is only one short tram-line in central Sapporo, how did it get to this far away place?