Been down to Stockholm today. I don't know how other people (not even other swedes) see it, but I'm always going down when I'm going south, no matter that Stockholm is our capital and a good eight times the size of Uppsala. I know the japanese are always going up to Tokyo even if they're coming from northern Japan (probably even if they're flying in from LA or London). How is it in other places?
In any case, the purpose of the trip was to meet Monique who'd come up (definitely up) from Holland to run in Tjejmilen tomorrow. I was also accompanied to Stockolm by Kana, an exchange student from Sendai. Had a nice day walking around in central Stockholm (walked a lot, my legs are tired) and meeting Monique again was cool. For once the weather kept clear for most of the day, just a few drops of rain around three or so, which made everything much more enjoyable than it would have been otherwise (sitting out in the sun with an ice cream is harder to do when there's no sun and you're chilled to the bone by icy rain).

Listening to: Page & Plant - Nobody's Fault but Mine

It was about time I changed the look of my blog a bit. If you see any problem with it or have any comments, let me know.
As you can see, the übercute jellyfish is now my blog mascot.

that I forgot to back up. All my preset tools and custom brushes in Photoshop are gone. This is terribly annoying since I'd spent quite a long time building my collection and getting used to it. At the same time it's good to start from scratch sometimes, see what can be done with the basic brushes. I need to spend some time in PS again, I've gotten too lazy. It's good that I'm making that broshure for the PulseLavage, that should give me plenty of oportunity to get my graphic design thinking back in gear.

Listening to: Edo Boys - No One Sleep in Tokyo
Feeling: Sick

Seems I'll be biking with the ridiculously large umbrella (RLU) again. It's actually large enough that if it's not windy I can keep almost dry even when biking with it. When it's windy however, the RLU is next to impossible to wield one handed.
My files have been moved back onto my computer from my little brother's USB harddrive so I'm starting to get up to speed again. I suppose I'll have to defrag now, moving 70 GB of stuff around probably isn't very nice for the drive. Ok, off to school.

I formatted my hard drive today. It feels good to start fresh again without all the little quirks that a computer picks up over time. The slow loading of LJ comment pages for example seems to have been cured. It'll take me a couple of days to install all the programs I need again and getting stuff set up the way I like it, but it's worth it. Seems the only thing I forgot to copy to an external hard drive was my folder with old email in Outlook. I'm not too upset about it, although I like to save everything like that. At least I remembered to copy the address book.
Some things were lost of course, mainly programs I installed in the lab in Japan. But I don't think I'll have any need to model molecules any time soon. I kind of liked Igor though.

Ah, the "Advanced Quantum Mechanics" class is fun. So far I've a good understanding of everything that's beens said in the lectures, now I just need to hang on to this understanding through the rest of the course. Unfortunately the book that I need in order to do this cost 630 kr (~US$85) when I checked yesterday. Today I had come to terms with this and went back to the book store with a pile of cash. Unfortunately the book was sold out and they won't get more for two weeks. The other book store for academic literature in Uppsala didn't even have it to begin with, but would order some that will arrive in... about two weeks. A third of the course will be over in two weeks! I need the book now! I suppose I'll look around for it in Stockholm this weekend when I go down to meet Monique. Did I mention I'm meeting Monique this weekend? She's coming up to Stockholm to run in Tjejmilen, so I'm going down to meet her :D

Twining's Earl Grey Green Tea; terribly disappointing. It's not green. It looks and tastes like english breakfast tea with a bit of lemon. I'll have to find somewhere to replenish the small supply of tea I brought with me from Japan (didn't think about it until I was home, but that might have been illegal to bring into the EU).

I'll get around to changing my blog to something along the lines of what I've sketched out in Experimental Archetypes eventually. But I was so tired of the old commenting system I used so I've changed over to Blogger's internal one, not that I've tried it but it can't be any worse. The worst part of this is of course that I lose all the old comments, but rest assured that I've read them all (at least all that the stupid commenting box thing would let me read, I couldn't even post anything myself for the last few weeks). I've also linked to a few more blogs over in the Sideburn <---
Now I just have to try to comment to this and see if it actually works.

Or is the Livejournal comment pages loading extremely slowly for everybody else too? It takes several minutes (at least perceptual minutes, the actual time may be no more than a minute and a half) just to load the page and then of course as much again if I want to actually post a comment. Does this happen to others?

As Stefan Holm and Christian Olsson proved yesterday. And just in time for dinner too. Watching Swedes win two olympic golds within minutes of each other while munching on my mom's excellent cooking (how I've missed it) was definitely the high point of this past weekend.
Not that there weren't enough goodness anyway. Saturday started with me and Carl Fredrik going for a ride in his GT40 (a replica of course). Not a very long one though since it started looking like it might rain.
After that we drove out to Östhammar (in a somewhat more conservative Audi). Östhammar was at least as wonderful as I remembered it. The weather kept being a bit unstable with a short shower or two in the morning, but around one it looked clear enough that we took the boat out to a small island. I've always preferred the smooth rocks of the archipelago over sandy beaches. They're at least as comfortable and much less sandy (duh). However, after a couple of hours (spent reading and listening to my brother playing the accordion) the sky once again started to go dark so we retreated back to the mainland.
Not having any other plans for the rest of the afternoon we went and visited two of the old... and now I lack the English word; an old metal production facility around a manor house. My dictionaries are still making their slow way back from Japan by ship. In any case, the places are called Lövsta (or Leufsta) and Forsmark. (Today Forsmark is more famous for the nuclear plant)
Wanting to finish unpacking before today (when lectures start in a little over an hour) I took the bus back to Uppsala. This turned out to be something of a mistake. These busses are usually quite empty and I can spend the time reading or sleeping. I hadn't taken the Fyris Festival into the calculation. The bus was filled with annoying and LOUD children (of the age where they'd hate to be called that ;) most of them not quite sober or at least not acting it. By the end I was starting to think that the last stop must be Hell instead of Uppsala. But I survived and walked home from downtown in the early evening. Of course I didn't finish unpacking yesterday. Since they're still changing windows, lot's of stuff has been moved around and there's simply nowhere for me to put much of what I unpack at this point. Except for my floor, which is where most of it's ended up.
I did unpack the cable to connect my camera to my computer though. Some of the pictures will eventually be mailed out to people who might want them. Others fill me with nostagia as they depict things I'm not likely to see again in quite a long time. Take for example a Pocky vending machine or Napoleon wielding chopsticks. Oh, and here's one I got in Tokyo that ranks right up there with Japanese clothing stores selling teeshirts with the names of American universities, a shop devoted to selling Canadian souvenirs.

Ok, time to get ready for school I guess. The first half of this semester I'm just studying the continuation course in quantum mechanics and something called "dynamic systems and chaos". I was tempted to take surface analysis too, but I decided to start light since I've been neglecting my higher brain functions for a year.

The windows in my room are being changed to proper triple glazed vacuum filled (that doesn't sound right) ones. Though I'm very happy for this, it's also something of a bother. So after moving my furniture away from the windows and covering them as well as I could with a limited supply of plastic covers I've fled to my parents house and am hiding in the library. Brought my computer and a book on quantum mechanics in the hope that I would do some reviewing. My mistake was of course to hide in the library. While I was in Japan my parents moved the library upstairs and are installing the new kitchen in the old library. Thus the library has a new look and layout, meaning that I absolutely had to browse the shelves for a bit to see if I could find something interesting. And what do I find if not a "Geografie för ungdom" (geography for youth) printed in 1781. Of course I had to sit down for awhile to properly enjoy reading about the kingdom of Portugal and Cuba (for those who don't know, this is a sparsely populated island, belonging to Spain and situated in the West Indies) not to speak of the United States with its population of 2.5 million. So now it's already almost ten o'clock and no work has been done... clearly worth it though.
Today I've also decided to try to learn to play the irish whistle. It's supposed to be a really simple instrument, so I hope I'll have the patience to actually learn it. Just so I can play something until such a time when I pick up the bagpipe again. Borrowed the whistle and a small manual from my little brother (the collector of all things musical) and will irritate people to bits until I can at least get the notes out right.

And because it's been requested by no fewer than two people, here's the only clear picture I have of the yukata-macarena event.

I've spotted a book called "The Economics of European Integration" from where I'm sitting and it has gotten me curious.

Though in reality my internal clock is set a few hours ahead. Was awake for something like 24 hours, about 14 or 15 of which were spent on a plane. Then I was home and went almost straight to bed, after hugging my brother of course. Now it's all of three hours and a half later, 4:40 am, and I'm dead tired but wide awake. I'm lucky I was a late riser in Tokyo or I probably wouldn't have gotten that much.
The flights went without problems of any kind, so I'm grateful for that much at least. And since I'm whining I might as well mention that one of the last things I did in Japan was catch a cold.
So, I'm home. The water tastes better here than it did anywhere in Japan. I could crawl in under my thick down comforter last night without dying from the heat or sweating myself to dehydration because of the humidity. My room feels ridiculously big now, I mean there are places where I can't reach the wall in any direction (probably at least half the floor actually). Ah, and then there's that feeling of coming home. I think the best description of it is in a few lines of a song by Lars Winnerbäck:
"att komma hem är som att resa i tiden
du känner samma känslor igen
den där kvalmiga, väntande friden
och samma kärlek och vemod igen"

Most, if not all of you who read this don't know Swedish, so I'll try to translate it (know that some nuance may get lost in translation, especially the word stifling is not a very good translation of kvalmig but it's the best I've got at... now five am):
"To come home is like travelling in time
you feel the same emotions again
that stifling, waiting peace
and the same love and sadness again"

There was a big thunderstorm last night, just starting when I landed and really hitting a crescendo when we were about half way home (dad came to pick me and Markus up). I'm just glad I wasn't driving. I think I'm going to ask one of my brothers or parents to drive me to some empty parking lot and let me get used to driving again for 15 minutes or so before I'm confident enough to risk going out on the road again. Cars are back to driving on the right. Even though I haven't actually been driving on the left, that's where I'm used to seeing them now.

I'm going to try for another couple of hours of sleep.

Listening to: Clocks that surprisingly enough haven't run out of battery, it seems like such a long time and here they've just been ticking off the seconds.
Feeling: A little dizzy now.

don't know when I'll be back again...
I've got Bjork's cover of that song stuck in my head. Not entirely unfitting, since I'm sitting by the gate and will board in an hour ad a half. After that the AirH card will just be a small piece of curious junk, so I'll use it as much as I can until then.
I've grown so much more attached to this country than I realized while living here. Airports however are all the same, so on this neutral ground it feels like I've already left. All thats left before I'm home is a bunch of hours of discomfort, boredom and security controls. At least I have candy.

edit: I don't know why, but Blogger decided it was a good idea to put this post four days earlier than it was actually written, sorry for any confusion.

If you're the least bit interested in music and especially if you happen to play the guitar you definitely want to walk around the music stores south of the station in Ochanomizu (Chuo line one stop from Kanda). In just the first shop I probably saw more guitars than I'd seen previously in my life. And that was just one of a dozen or more. Markus was in heaven of course and if I hadn't been there with him he'd probably still be there. Surprisingly we didn't see a drum store, but that may just be because we were looking in the wrong spot.
While there, it's just a short walk over to Jimbochou, the book district. If I could read Japanese and could bring another hundred kilos home with me I'd spend my last couple of days in Japan there.

Listening to: Some tea commercial
Feeling: Wrung out, the heat is bad today.

To continue the afternoon in the same vein I walked over and looked around in Apple's store/exhibition as well. Then I hiked up to Akihabara (much needed after all the konbini food I've had lately) and strolled around for a bit. Finally got me a small mouse for those times when unpacking the tablet is just too much work.
I chose a miniature optical mouse. Twce the price of a normal sized one and kind of silly considering the size of my laptop. Not cordless though since that would have doubled the price again. Now I'm just doing my best potato sack impression on the fancy leather sofa in the hotel lobby. I don't really know when my brother and parents will be back so I can get into the room and take a shower.
You might have noticed that I'm taking full advantage of ridiculously mobile internet while I have it.

I'm at least enough of one that spending half an hour wandering around the displays in the sony building is worthwhile. For example I hadn't seen the new model of their robot dog. Sitting down and feeling the real meaning of home cinema for a minute or two is nice too.
But could somebody tell me why they don't display the weight of the superlight laptops? Sure 1.1 GHz is nice, and so is 512 MB of RAM, but really, if I made a computer that's hardly heavier than my pda I'd be bragging about the weight.

Feeling: tired
Listening to: busy Ginza street corner

If anybody had told me three years ago... or yesterday, that today I'd see japanese girls in yukata dancing the macarena I wouldn't have believed it. But on a boat filled to the railings with japanese people in a partying mood and send it out on an evening cruise in the Tokyo Bay and such things are bound to happen.

everybody seems to be doing it I'll answer this set of questions:

1. FIRST & MIDDLE NAME:
Pontus Sven Henrik

2. WERE YOU NAMED AFTER ANYONE?
I think my grandfather on my father's side was called Sven.

3. DO YOU WISH ON STARS?
Can't say I ever have.

4. WHICH FINGER IS YOUR FAVORITE?
Left middle finger, it's the one I push my glasses up with.

5. WHEN DID YOU LAST CRY?
I'm a guy, I can't answer this. Bad for my image ;)
(a couple of months ago actually)

6. DO YOU LIKE YOUR HANDWRITING?
Not particularly, it's ugly and not very fast.

7. WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE LUNCH MEAT?
Smoked reindeer.

8. ANY BAD HABITS?
An assortment stemming from my general laziness.

9. WHAT IS YOUR MOST EMBARRASSING CD ON THE SHELF?
I bought a Meja cd for a hundred yen just because it was fun to see an entire row of cds by a swedish has been in a japanese second hand store.

10. IF YOU WERE ANOTHER PERSON, WOULD YOU BE FRIENDS WITH YOU?
I probably wouldn't know me very well.

11. ARE YOU A DAREDEVIL?
Sometimes, if I'm the only one who might get hurt from it.

12. HAVE YOU EVER TOLD A SECRET YOU SWORE NOT TO TELL?
There probably aren't more than two or three secrets I've sworn not to tell, and those I intend to keep.

13. DO LOOKS MATTER?
Other people's looks matter, I don't have to look at myself very often... did that sound too self centered?

14. HOW DO YOU RELEASE ANGER?
Usually not at all, you never know when a bit of anger can come in handy. But sometimes I punch things like walls, chairs and tables.

15. WHERE IS YOUR SECOND HOME?
Sendai, Japan.

16. DO YOU TRUST OTHERS EASILY?
No, I don't.

17. WHAT WAS YOUR FAVORITE TOY AS A CHILD?
My lego, it still is.

18. WHAT CLASS IN SCHOOL DO YOU THINK IS TOTALLY USELESS?
Well, I haven't had much use for most things I've learned, but that doesn't mean they're useless. But probably the least useful classes I've had were the first two years' high school English classes, but I got perfect grades so I won't complain.
Several of the classes I've taken here in Japan were little more than a repetition of what I learned in high school, so I think those too would count as pretty useless, except they gave me the credits I needed to get my certificate of completion without having to spoil my year with an overly large amount of studies, so I'll count them as useful.

19. DO YOU HAVE A JOURNAL?
No, of course not.

20. DO YOU USE SARCASM?
Who? Me? Never.

21. HAVE YOU EVER BEEN IN A MOSH PIT?
No

22. WHAT DO YOU LOOK FOR IN A GUY/GIRL?
A complete set of wits. And as Joey would put it, being easy on the eyes doesn't hurt ;)

23. WHAT ARE YOUR NICKNAMES?
pofo and a few ones I won't mention. But usually I'm just Pontus.

24. WOULD YOU BUNGEE JUMP?
I wouldn't pay for it.

25. DO YOU UNTIE YOUR SHOES WHEN YOU TAKE THEM OFF?
Depends on the shoes.

26. DO YOU THINK THAT YOU ARE STRONG?
Strong? I suppose I could lift my own weight.

27. WHAT'S YOUR FAVORITE ICE CREAM FLAVOR?
As long as it's ice cream I'm happy... But I really like Hägen Daaz's cherry ice cream.

28. SHOE SIZE?
In Sweden 42.5, in Japan 27.5 I think.

29. WHAT ARE YOUR FAVORITE COLORS?
Green, brown, grey.

30. HOW MANY WISDOM TEETH DO YOU HAVE?
1.5, the half one decided to only come out a little bit and then stopped.

31. WHO DO YOU MISS MOST RIGHT NOW?
All my friends from Sendai.

32. DO YOU WANT EVERYONE YOU SEND THIS TO SEND IT BACK?
I won't send it to anyone.

33. WHAT ARE YOU LISTENING TO RIGHT NOW?
A Little Plate's Rondo from Haibane Renmei.

34. LAST THING YOU ATE?
Chocolate covered almonds. I'll eat some kitsune udon in a few minutes.

35. LAST PERSON YOU TALKED TO ON THE PHONE?
... my dad a few days ago.

36. THE FIRST THING YOU NOTICE ABOUT THE OPPOSITE SEX?
Well, if it's a japanese girl I'm likely to notice the funny English on her teeshirt first. This may unfortunately look like I'm checking out her chest, which I'm not prone to doing, I promise.

37. DO YOU LIKE THE PERSON WHO SENT THIS TO YOU?
I found this in the blogs of Corey, Meghan and Kuro. I haven't actually met any of them, but they all write interesting blogs and posts on Neko. So yes, I think I can say I like them.

38. HOW ARE YOU TODAY?
Tired and lazy.

39. FAVORITE DRINK?
I've gotten to like the various japanese teas during this year.

40. FAVORITE ALCOHOLIC DRINK?
Hot spiced wine, but only after I've boiled all the alcohol away.

41. WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE SPORT?
Kyudo... if that counts as a sport. Otherwise tennis.

42. YOUR HAIR COLOR?
Darkish blond.

43. YOUR EYE COLOR?
Messy brownish greyish...

44. DO YOU WEAR CONTACTS?
No, glasses are sexy.

45. SIBLINGS?
Older brother, younger brother.

46. FAVORITE MONTH?
June, much light.

47. FAVORITE FOOD?
Right now I really miss black pudding with apple sauce.

48. LAST MOVIE YOU WATCHED?
I watched part of some movie with Hirose Ryoko two days ago.

49. FAVORITE DAY OF THE WEEK?
Fridays

50. ARE YOU TOO SHY TO ASK SOMEONE OUT?
Definitely. Last time I did it was by mistake.

52. SUMMER OR WINTER?
In Sweden, summer but in Japan the summers are too hot so it'd have to be winter.

53. HUGS OR KISSES?
Yes please, many and often.

54. RELATIONSHIPS OR ONE NIGHT STANDS?
Relationships, this is related to the not trusting people easily.

55. PERA PERA

56. PERA PERA

57. WHAT BOOKS ARE YOU READING?
Neal Stephenson's Cryptonomicon still. And Salmon of Doubt.

59. FAVORITE BOARD GAME?
Chess

60. WHAT DID YOU WATCH ON TV LAST NIGHT?
Some japanese commercials (how's that spelled?)

61. FAVORITE SMELLS?
Summer rains, black powder, leather, wood tar, pine wood...

62. WHAT IS THE FIRST THING YOU THINK OF WHEN YOU WAKE UP?
I don't really think much that early.

63. WHAT MOVIE DO YOU WANT TO SEE RIGHT NOW?
I'm curious about Howl's Moving Castle.

64. SAY SOMETHING NICE ABOUT THE PERSON WHO SENT THIS TO YOU.
All cool seeming people. I've been falling behind in my blog reading lately though, I have to try to catch up.

So, how pointless was that? At least it took up the time I had to waste.

Too bad I can't remember the numbersof syllables.
Sitting down in the old duckhunting park by the water. Warching how jumping fish affect the reflected patterns on the undersides of pine boughs.
It's one of those quiet moments when I just feel like sitting here until the ants carry me away.

Living close to Tokyo that is. Even though I would never want to live here.

I'm sitting in a hotel room in Tokyo now.
After a somewhat stressed morning and early afternoon of packing and cleaning (thanks and hugs to Haesung, Andy and Tim) I checked out around two as planned (thanks and hugs to all you who saw me off). Got down to the station with my family by taxi. Walked to the central post office with my little brother and 20 kilos of books. Walked back to the station.
Getting on the shinkansen with a massive amount of luggage is a pain, but we managed by putting some bags in either end of the car. After that the trip went smoothly.
I'm not sure how I feel about staying in Tokyo for a week before returning to Sweden, I feel a bit uprooted and in between homes right now. It would have been kind of nice to just go straight on to Sweden. To lie down in my own bed and just let my old life wash over me. But I suppose that'll happen once I get back in any case, no need to rush. I wonder how next year in Uppsala will be. I'm sure it'll feel a bit strange coming back. I haven't kept in touch much with my friends at home, so I don't even know if many people will be in Uppsala this year or have moved to another university/graduated.
No matter, I've had the year of my life in Sendai and wouldn't have wanted to miss it for anything.
I'll have the AirH connection until I leave (more thanks and hugs to Haesung), so now is as good a time as any (and better than most) to start keeping in touch.

Hotmail's delivery failure notification that is. Almost three days between when I sent a mail and when I got a mail back saying it couldn't be delivered. That's annoying now that I only have less than four days left and the person I couldn't reach was the one I hoped to sell most of my stuff to.
edit 08.11: sorry for the multiple postings of this, somehow they didn't show when I looked before.

So, I'm sunburnt and sweating like a pig. What do I do to relieve this? Eat icecream? Get a nice, cold glass of water? No, I cook a big pot of decently spicy chili. Now I feel like I'm sweating twice as much.
To my defence I have to say that that was pretty much the only thing I could cook with what I had left. Now I probably won't cook anything more before I leave, makes me a bit sad.
My parents and little brother are coming sometime this afternoon, I don't know exactly when so I'm in my room waiting for them to call.

Listening to: Africando - Dagamasi
Feeling: Medium rare

Here follows some notes I wrote during my little trip to Shizugawa and Kamiwarizaki. It's a bit of a long post, since it's written as a series of posts.:

Friday
13:52 Sendai-eki

I really hate this connection sometimes. When it works it's great, connect anywhere at any time. But lately it's been growing more and more erratic. Particularly irritating is when it says it cannot find a page without even trying, that's what I'm getting right now when I try to log in to my Blogger account.

In any case, my quest to find Kamiwarizaki is off to a slow start. I should have realized that trains to backwater fishing towns in northern Japan woldn't be very frequent. When I arrived here at the station a little after noon and asked the tourist office, they recommended I take the 14:43 train to Kogota and change there for a train to Shizugawa. Strolled around downtown a bit, but it got too hot so now I'm sitting in the station. I'm considering getting on a train for Kogota that leaves at 14:20. It won't get me to Shizugawa any quicker, but I'm tired of sitting still. There is of course the risk that this train is slower and will arrive too late for me to transfer. But what's life worth if you don't even dare to take these little risks? Worst case I'll spend the night outside some station in the middle of nowhere and take the train back tomorrow morning. Ok, here we go.

15:09 Kogota
I'm already out in the middle of nowhere and I still have about an hours train ride left. It looks like it may rain, I just hope I can get there and get my tent up first, but that's probably too much to ask.
The most interesting thing that's happened so far today is a couple of small children pointing out that I'm "kowai! kowai!".
From where I'm sitting I see only a row of old japanese women (make that one woman, the rest just left), some railroad tracks, some kind of construction work, rice paddies and low mountains in the distance. (old women now replaced by high school girls). I sure hope that the station isn't located in central Kogota.

21:21 Kamawarizaki
I found the place finally. Not that it was hard to find, just a bit further away than I thought from looking at the map outside the station (admittedly that map didn't give a scale). I suppose I should have taken the bus... or at least gotten of the train at the right station (for people going here: get off one station *before* Shizugawa). However it was still quite early (train got in at 16:35), so I started walking... And got here just before eight. The last part seemed like some kind of modern gothic dream. Dark except for the light from a full moon, partially hidden by sparse thin clouds, and the occasional street lamp and passing truck. Bats could from time to time be seen outlined against the moonlit clouds and spiderwebs spun across the little used sidewalk would let their presence be felt but almost never seen. In all a close to perfect night if it wasn't for the sweat and blisters.
When I arrived the office looked dark and closed. I was confused, would any self respecting roadside campsite close before eight? Walked around the building a couple of times, trying all the doors, and had just decided to give up and put up my tent and just sort everything out in the morning when I found the doorbell. Without getting my hopes up I tried it... and a woman answers! Filling out the paper with my name and address and paying the 800 yen went quickly and smoothly (though I realize now that I'll only live at that address for a little over a week longer) and now I'm sitting in my tent having just feasted upon canned fish and bread.
This is obviously not the most popular time for camping. They have room for 350 tents here, but there seems to be at most ten.
Now I shall have a couple more choco sand cookies and read Cryptonomicon by flashlight. And behind it all, the sound of waves.

Saturday
3:41
How the heck did all these mosquitoes get in?
You usually get one or two when you come in yourself, but there must be about a dozen here. If I don't want bloodstains when I roll the tent up I'll have to kill them all in the morning.
It'll be good to be back in Sweden where mosquitoes aren't smart enough to navigate through the net. I've zipped the tent all the way up now, not leaving the opening with the net hanging over it. It'll get a bit warm, but at least I can set about killing bloodsuckers without having any more come in.
...
A dozen was a bit optimistic, I've gotten eight so far and there's at least another seven or eight lurking in the corners. Hunting mosquitoes by flashlight is an interesting exercise, especially when you're trying not to get stains on your tent. Of the eight, seven have left bloodstains on my palms.
Nine
Ten, either they're learning to fear the flashlight or only the naturally wary have survived 'til now.
Eleven, 4:18 dawn is here.
Twelve, definitely more than a dozen then.
13, 14, 15, still a bunch to go.
16, 17, 18, 19, 20 I see at least another four. I'm also getting a headache.
21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26
There is a couple more, but my lust for blood (hey, it's *my* blood) has been sated.
27
28, that may have been the last one.

6:41
One mosquito escaped when I opened the tent, the brightest one. She will now go out in the world and multiply. With all the people here trying to kill them and thereby sorting out the stupid and the weak, no wonder the Japanese mosquitoes have gotten so smart.
In daylight Kamiwarizaki is beautiful, jagged black cliffs and rocks stick up out of the waves at an odd angle and on top of these grow pine trees. In spite of the mostly sleepless night I'm glad I came.
It's almost seven, but I'm in no hurry to get going. Maybe I should take my tent down before it gets too hot though. Speaking of tents, my 30-year-old one looks a little out of place. Lower and much more "tent shaped" than the newer ones. In hard weather I've no doubt that mine would last better; it's more ground hugging and is held down by no less than 27 pins (28 can be used but that makes the outer tent hard to get in and out of).

11:14 Shizugawa
Wonder of wonders! It seems I'm here at the one time when something is actually happening in sleepy Shizugawa. The first thing I saw as I stepped off the bus (yes, I decided to take the bus this morning instead of hiking through this abysmal heat) was a group of dancers and a dragon. There's some kind of summer festival going on. The parade/festival train thing seems much too long for a small town like this. On the other hand there weren't very many spectators, maybe this is so popular that they all participated so no one was left to watch.
While following the sound of pipes and drums to get to the main body of the festival I was stopped by a middle-aged man who spoke excellent English. He offered me a cup of cold tea and made small talk for a few minutes.

Oh, and I got one last mosquito just before taking the tent down, making the final score 29.

12:30 Shizugawa-eki
How long does it take for the average person to back a truck into a tree?
Train coming...

12:34 On the train for Kogota
So this guy drives a truck into the lot in front of the station, goes back and forth for a couple of minutes until he finally backs into a tree. Not branchbreakingly hard, just kind of pushing into it.
Then he drove away.
Odd.

12:54 Still on the train
I finally understand what the "one man car" or something similar that has been called out at any number of stations means. It means that there is only one employee on the train, the driver, and none at the current station, so you have to exit through the front door where the driver checks your ticket. You can imagine how small a station has to be for the Japanese (who've been known to use five people for helping a car get out of a garage) not to have somebody working there.

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Good thing I copied everything before posting this time, Blogger failed to post and now I can’t even log back in to repost it. I suppose I’ll post it later sometime.