What happened in Sweden?

I procrastinated on writing a blog on Sweden for many months now, I went in April for Easter for a little over 3 weeks. (It is now September) Damn, Jenny get your act together!

I am going to correctly assume that there are a handful of people who was like, "huh. Jenny's in Sweden?" Not saying it usual nor unusual because who knows what that is anymore. I myself, wasn't entirely sure 'what' I was doing, I went on a whim a serious leap of faith.

Who doesn't like standing on top of a building and leaning over the edge whilst thinking... if I jump, will I survive?

There is the undeniable thrill in chasing a dream and most of all seeing it through. This tingling sensation that whatever is going to happen next is going to blow your mind. As you may already know, I am one to always follow my heart over any logical thinking. A being that believes there is no time to waste, don't linger on the idea too long because it might lose that luster and you might regret it later. Which is MY biggest fear, missing an opportunity.

The passion is what drives me to travel and keep embracing changes that is thrown my way. Not only am I catching them at an unimaginably quick rate recently, I am molding my inner self to be a better person each and everyday. A tough job. Practice makes perfect.

If you have read this much, you are probably wondering 'when is Jenny going to talk about Sweden?' Don't worry I will. Just making sure I am in the right mindset to share something very personal with everyone and that I get the words down correctly.

*drum roll*

After a full days worth of travel, transferring in Dubai I finally made it to Stockholm to grab a quick coffee before hoping on my last flight to Lulea.

I am immediately greeted at the airport with a lovely sign (this is first for me) and a grand smile. Over a coffee at the airport while we waited for the bus into town, there was a rehash of the disbelief of my actual presence in the country. I really wanted to pinch myself several times to make sure that I wasn't having some insane outer body psychedelic lucid dream.

Okay, phew. I wasn't. To keep it simple I was not in Sweden to see the sights or to the eat the food. I was here to be with someone, yes yes...Jenny is a romantic who wants to be written into a a grand novel. Who would have known? XD

The first couple of days was like living in a movie, woken up with breakfast in bed and the bright days ahead of us. We packed lunches, brought mini speakers, talked and laughed throughout the days. With nothing but time and a list of ridiculous things to cross off that we had made in the previous months. I felt like time was on my side and there wasn't anything in the world that could make this memorable event less than what it absolutely was. Of course all romantic trips have a bitter sweet ending and time who was once on your side slowly becomes the enemy.

Easter in a nutshell was beautiful, I never would have been one to say that this was possible since none of my Easters before this year was very memorable. This one was made perfectly, I was given an Easter egg hunt. (my very first one and maybe my last) I got a home cooked meal and warmth flourished in a way I could not possibly explain. It lingered and remained to this day.

I was going to share all the events that we did but to appropriately share them all would be a bit personal.

We tried to make a hot air balloon a couple of times but failed to do so, we wrote a song, made a podcast, cookies, cinnamon buns, cakes, tacos, club sandwiches, quesadilla (casedias >.< ), BBQ'd, read on roof tops, play guitar on a bus, went on a road trip, went bowling, golfing, enjoyed some live music, I learned how to play backgammon, built a fort, made wall art, I even went to class, built a space ship, visited a bird tower.....there is more I am sure and even had a date!



Travel videos: 
Oh I guess there is one more from the little science museum I had forgotten to post!

The days were lush, I was looking forward to falling asleep more than ever. Insomnia was warded off for the time being and I was able to enter the dream world with out any qualms. Waking up, knowing that I was alive, was a new excitability that I have long forgotten.

I am not going to post all the pictures of food that we made or the places that we went because they are all on facebook in an album that you can look at but I have added a couple other ones that weren't shared. Just to add to the effect of this blog post, well it is mostly for myself...when I have long forgotten the days long past and if they will stay in my memory forever or not.

Mulling over the end of this post is quite hard because I don't entirely know how to end it. I am unsure myself of how to write an ending to a story like this......

People are made in a way where they want to love like they'll never get hurt.

Though, there are no happy endings in a world of doubt. It isn't something we can instill in people...they run, they worry and most of all fear the things unknown. Faith is overrated and destiny doesn't exist in the way that contemporary fiction will write for our souls. So we are blessed with a short amount of time and are only given incidental seconds to grasp at what is only a flicker of a moment of bliss. Before you know it is a memory that lives only within your dreams.

Sweden was the country that I never wished to visit but now I can't imagine my past without it.

En route to Sweden

This might be really random if you haven’t spoken to me recently since you might think wasn’t Jenny in Japan? Don’t worry I’ll be going back but as you know I have very itchy feet that needs to walk new grounds. With enough motivation I am always ready to travel more to unknown locations. You already know that it always a good idea to head out of your comfort zone.

Here it is folks! Across the continent I go. The route itself isn’t difficult as long as you have the patience.

I travelled from Higashi Nakano to Narita Airport taking a total about 2 hours. Luckily for me I was able to hop on local trains and save myself some money. (1500yen for the local route or you can take the skyliner from Nippori taking 50 minutes but costs about double the price. I’m sure that this will be the route that I will take on my way home.) Through security, checked-in, shuffled passed immigration and security again , it went really quickly I think I made it through everything with no hassle or line ups in about 20 minutes. That actually be a world record! Then I boarded my flight to Dubai 11.5 hours later I was at one shiny airport with a lot of elevators and escalators. (I have to mention I go the whole row of seats to myself and I was able to lie down and get about 5 hours of rest!) The weather was a nice improvement, 28C  in Dubai… it about about 16C when I left Tokyo. I had a 4 hour lay over and one very quick security check and no immigration to do a transfer. 6.5 hours later  I made it to Stockholm where I stood in a line up and realized that there is no wifi here. Oh well. I was able to self check in for my next flight and dropped off my bag and went outside for a smoke. The weather here is 10C and it really reminded me of home.

I walked through Sky City and was reminded of many places I had been before! Of course all the main chains, places that I haven’t seen before. There was even a WHsmiths, that was a blast from the past. I found that the food at the airport seemed really expensive when I did the conversion in my head. FYI 100yen = $1CAD = 6SEK. Why is a sandwich and a bottle of water 99SEK? I don’t think I read that wrong.

The last flight was with Norwegian, there were no complaints about this flight since it was a really short one. About the same distance from Vancouver to Edmonton, except this airline has wifi on the plane. Woohoo go bringing wifi in the sky. Made it all the way to the north of Sweden, Lulea. Phew a couple more buses and I’m done with transport for a little while. Safe and sound.

Cherry Blossoms! Hanami!

Of course this is a post that I have to write about whilst living in Japan. This is the largest event and I would say the jolliest season in Japan. The Cherry Blossom season only lasts about two weeks depending on the weather. The hotter it is the shorter it becomes and you can ask any Japanese person what their favourite location is to view them.

Included in this season is the ability to drink outside and eat lots of food in the parks during the day with whoever will keep you company. I went to the following places!

• Ueno Park
• Shinjuku Park  
• Meguro River
• Inokashira Park

I drank, ate and ran around with friends and by myself enjoying the immense amounts of cherry blossoms. The blossoms themselves are amazingly beautiful and on top off all of that there are many different types. With a bit of research you can see a variety of them ex. Ume (plum) blossoms flower about two weeks before the  traditional white sakura.

Be warned that there are many Japanese people that lay tarps down and reserve these spots, don’t worry though you can still find places to sit even if you don’t go early. Just know that you won’t be sitting down under the most biggest and most beautiful trees. It really doesn’t matter since you are surrounded by them regardless. If you don’t have time to make it to a park you can still enjoy them on the riversides, near train stations and at temples all around the city.

I have also heard of people traveling throughout Japan to follow the blossoming of the sakura from south to north making it more than a month of viewing. When the season ends the leaves starts to grow and the petals rain down littering the streets and parks with lots of white petals.

This is a real sight to see, if you ever make it to Japan come at the end of March beginning of April.

Animal Cafes In Tokyo

Now I don’t know if you all know that you can go to a restaurant/cafe in Tokyo and just hang out with animals. Whether it be cats, dogs, rabbits, owls, penguins or even goats! I had been meaning to check one of these out to see what it is all about and I finally did after being in Tokyo for 8 months. (WOW, time really flies) So we picked out one on a top 10 list of best neko cafes in Tokyo, it had the best interior decor. It was located in Kichijoji, I do have to let you know that it was really hard to find. I can’t remember how long we walked around for but it was a hell of a  long time. Finally after stopping for lunch and trying one last time (I was determined not to give up) I found the sign for it and we were able to enter.
It was 1500yen for an hour and it didn’t even include drinks, I have to say I was quite disappointed with this. When we entered we were able to sit anywhere where each table had a menu of all the cats that they housed. Now I have to make note that they don’t have all the cats out at once they are rotated in and out, I would say that they had about 10 cats out at once. Now the down fall about this cafe was the fact that there were a lot more people than there were cats. There is one big RULE here is that you cannot pick up the cats. Which boggles my mind since they are really spoiled and only come to you if you have already bought treats  to feed them even though there are large amount of cat toys to choose from. The cats here don’t want to play. Making this not a very good deal. I have on the other hand heard there are more cosier places where the ratio from human to cats are more even giving the individual more for hat they paid for.
Heather, Cindy and I all together didn’t get a lot of time hanging out with the cats except for the ones that were sleeping but this is only because they are too lazy to move. >.<
We made the most of what we could of the place and enjoyed the time we had inside. Of course you can always buy a membership or go there when they have 1/2 price hours but this one wasn’t one I would go back to, though the decor was really awesome. Like out of a Studio Ghibli movie.
Now there is a part two of this post! Monika, Asia and I went to a yagi (goat) cafe to see what this one was all about. Now this was totally different! There were two goats outside and you don’t have to pay an hourly fee to hang out with them. The cafe is located in Shibuya and to be honest the menu at this place was more like a real restaurant and was more appealing. People walking by could just take pictures whenever they wanted and we were able to sit outside next to them on he sofa. Not bad right?
I think I will go to the owl one next. Stay tuned.

Anime Japan 2014

I have been meaning to write this for ages now I am finally able to sit down and tell you all about it. Yay!
This event is enormous, much larger than I would have imagined to be. So when in doubt do what the Japanese do, I started thinking and planning what I wanted to cosplay. I finally came to the conclusion of dressing up as Saya from Blood-C.

We went down to Otome Road in Ikebukuro hitting up the street of cosplay gear. There is everything there! (Wigs, full outfit, contacts, make up, construction supplies, accessories, weapons and even cosplay cafes where people dress up in full gear) People in Japan don’t really do anything half assed. So after doing some homework online I found the outfit that I wanted and we were on the search. After going into the stores I was starting to think that we weren’t going to find the costume, there were just so many. Suddenly in one shop Alex was able to just pull it off the rack, I tried it on and there we go that the was the exact outfit. She constructed a sword for me over a three week period, I dyed my hair and ordered contacts. We were pretty much ready to go! I was really excited to see what the final product would look like when we finally put it up all together.
Time to head to Odaiba – Big Site. (Tickets were only 1500yen, of course you can get the line skip for double the price) Knowing how big the line up is now I think if I go again I would spend the extra cash and buy the line skip pass.
So the four of us headed out, we stood in this massive line that consistently kept moving so it didn’t feel like we were just standing there. I think we were in the line for approximately 45 minutes. It was like a giant sea of people, I was told at a later date that there was about 10,000+ people on one day and this is only a two day event!

When we stepped in I was overwhelmed with how much there was to look at. Of course we had our main stops but this kind of convention is totally different to the ones I have been to in Canada. Instead of having a fanfare corner or artist avenue there were kiosks set up by the producers and sponsors. Bandai, Sunrise, Aniplex etc. Every place had their own theme whether it be their new anime or celebrating 50 years of old ones. I was at a loss on the vast variety that I wasn’t familiar with. I couldn’t believe it, I thought I watched a lot of anime but now I know I hadn’t even touched the surface of it. Then again watching series/movies that are only subbed in English limits the selection we have available to us in North America.
Of course for the cosplay section there is a huge market even the stands have their own cosplay girls promoting each individual kiosks.  You can register and change in the designated cosplay area for 500yen giving you a registered number. I believe for a future contest maybe just to have your name on the website if you are really popular. From there you can model indoors or outdoors of your choosing for as long as you like. This is the part that I found a bit creepy since there are the girls with a large cue of men standing in the line with huge cameras.

Of course they all have their own styles! Even I was at a loss when I saw some of them!

There was a lot more there to see of course, they had anime on the big screen where I was able to watch Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood (they only played one episode of each show) On top of all of this I was interviewed too!


I was really happy that I was able to experience this large event! 8 hours of serious otaku-time.