The Fukuoka logs is taking me more time to complete than I had expected, and I won't be able to catch up with the new logs if I keep this up, so I'll continue with new logs while working on the Fukuoka ones. 

Since I got back I have been busy. We got the applications for the Japanese Language Profiency Test (highest level), which I haven't completed yet. There has also been some trouble concerning school fees. It has been sorted out now though. Also, next week there is the conversation test, and the following week there is the big test again. And the 27th there is a Speech Contest, probably in front of a lot of people. And I miss Emma. These things, and some others that I won't bore you with, have caused me some mental exhaustion. These last weeks have been difficult. I haven't been able to study properly and I even stayed home two days, feeling really bad. I'm not sure if it was a cold or something, or just my troubled mind, causing my body to feel so tired and miserable. But of course this will pass.

The day after I got back I went to see Kyeong and talk and show all the pictures I took during my vacation. I had such a great vacation and it felt like I had been away from Sapporo and my friends here much longer than just a month. When we were going home I was pleasantly surprised when passing through Odori Park. There was an O-bon dance! I had wanted to see it in Fukuoka, but there was no time for that, so I thought I would have to wait until next year. The original purpose of the O-bon dance is to send spirits of one's ancestors back to the land of the dead, and it is performed by dancing dressed in yukata around a stage on which musicians and singers are performing. A big part of this festival is the paper lanterns, which are hanged most everywhere. Anyway, The following day was the last day of the Sapporo Summer Festival, and it was celebrated with a kind of dress-up festival. A lot of people wore costumes, looking like famous manga characters and such. Apparently there were characters from Sen to Chihiro no Kamikakushi too, but I missed the whole thing. I never had a thought of there being such a grand finale...

On August 23 I had some bad luck after dinner. When leaving the dining room I ran my toes into a plug on the floor and it hurt a bit. The pain passed pretty quickly and I laughed over my clumsiness. But after I had retired to my room and some time had passed it hurt all the more. The middle toe went from red to blue to near black. The worst thing when you have strong pain in a toe is that it affects the whole leg. I couldn't walk properly for a couple of days. Now more than a week has passed and it still is a bit swollen and reddish and stiff. But you got to look at the bright side of things - I had something interesting to tell my friends and make them laugh. I mean, how on earth did I hurt the middle toe so bad when no other toe was hurt at all?

On the way home from school one sunny day (by foot because I still hasn't found the lost key to my bike...) I passed some Swedish style houses. I was quite stunned, because I haven't seen it Sapporo or any other Japanese city before. Last year I went to a "Swedish village" called Sweden Hills in Tobetsu to the north of Sapporo, but that was a special area a bit away from the rest of the town. Those who want to live there have to buy a Swedish-type house for a fortune. Just in case you didn't know - Swedish houses are famous for good isolation, keeping the temperature indoors cool at summer and warm at winter. Japanese houses usually have pretty bad isolation, so the temperature inside is pretty much like the temperature outside, and therefore you have to use air cons in the summer and heaters in the winter, wasting a lot of energy. The houses were still not quite the same and it felt really unnatural that all the houses looked just the same; not all the houses in Sweden have red wooden outer walls and white corners. Anyway, that is another story. I wonder if the houses I saw in Sapporo recently were built in Swedish style inside too. Near these houses I saw another interesting thing: a tiny cornfield. There are a lot of small fields between houses, where fruit and vegetables are being grown. You don't see that a lot in Sweden.

There was recently a huge typhoon sweeping up over Japan, and it was the first one to reach Tokyo in a couple of years. A lot of buildings and people were hurt and some people were missing. For some reason it moved much slower than usual. When it came all the way up to Hokkaido, I got worried calls from Emma. Even though it didn't pass anywhere near where she lives, it was extremely windy when it passed, and when it reached Hokkaido it would pass nearby Sapporo. I was a bit worried too, but even more excited. I have never experienced a typhoon before. The day before it was supposed to come, pretty heavy rain swept over Sapporo, but everyone said that this was nothing. The following day would be dangerous, with things blowing across the streets. And so I was more than surprised when I pulled my curtains aside the following morning. It was like the calm before the storm, without the storm. There were even openings in the sky where you could see the blue sky, and later that same day, there were hot sunshine as any fine weather summer day. I didn't know if I was supposed to be happy that I didn't have to experience the typhoon, or sad that I didn't get any good typhoon pictures...

Some days after that I saw a white crow for the first time in my life. Really strange. It sat on the electric wires outside the school, so I could see it through the windows during class. I was even more surprised when I was on my way home afterwards, as a woman started calling out to the crows. I think she called "Haku" (White) but I'm not sure. She threw some food in front of her as she called, and sure enough, after a little while the white crow came to her. A white crow as a pet? That has to be quite unique. 

On Friday there was another of the bar parties that I often go to, and at that party I some Korean and Japanese friends of Kyeong's. The Japanese friends were teacher-students at our school, and the Korean friends were language-students like Kyeong and me. I talked a lot to one of the Japanese, and it turned out that we had a common interest - karaoke! Apparently he and the two Korean guys are friends, and they were planning on going to a karaoke bar soon, so I was invited. It sounds like fun.

This Thursday there was another party. It was very special. It was some of the Japanese teacher-students who had arranged it as an opportunity to meet and make friends with the language-students (and the same for us of course). As I understood it, after reading through the invitation card, there would be a drink and light food included in the entrance fee. Since I was a bit hungry I got something to eat before I got there. I met up with the others who were going there and we walked there together. I thought it would be a bar or a restaurant, but it was in a room similar to a living room with a kitchen. It turned out that I was wrong about the food - there were corncobs, onigiri, and plenty of snacks and soft drinks. After everybody had made his or her jikosyokai (self-introduction) we started chatting with each other. A bit later we were taught a children's song, and sang it 6 times or more. Some Taiwanese girls sang a Taiwanese song too, but I really don't remember all lyrics of any Swedish song so I couldn't sing for them. I can't say that I'm sad about that, being the only Swede and all... Finally some of us were asked about our impressions of the party, and of course everyone said the same thing: "It was fun", but one guy also added that it would have been better if there had been alcohol to drink. All in all it was a fun evening, and I am really happy that I went there.

One interesting thing in Japan is the way they look at and report about suspects of crimes. In Sweden the suspect is considered innocent until judged as guilty, and no substantial information about the suspect is let out to the media before the verdict, to prevent that innocent people suffer. The suspect is referred to as "the 37 year-old", "the 21 year-old" and so on, and when shown on TV, the face is always covered. But in Japan after what I've heard, the suspects are considered guilty until judged as innocent. In the media they are referred by name, i.e. "Tanaka yôgisha" ("the suspect Tanaka"), and I have ever seen that they show the suspect's picture on TV. It must be devastating for that person even if he/she finally is judged as innocent. It makes me wonder how the Japanese legal system really works. There are other things that I have found a bit dodgy, but if you are interested about those things I recommend that you look up facts at more reliable sources than my logs. Anyway, just so that people understand why I criticize Japan a lot, I criticize Sweden too, it's just that I happen to be in Japan right now and I criticize anything that I feel is worth criticizing.