It is dark and cold outside, so I am hiding under a blanket on the couch, where I read marketing articles, eat chocolate and work on the website. In spite of my X chromosomes, I am not particularly good at multi-tasking. But I am pretty good to work on different tasks in a sequence. Smashing Pumpkins “1979″ is on iTunes. It is a really great song from a really great band. Last week Sissel and I were talking about how brilliant and timeless Smashing Pumpkins are. In addition to “1979″, there are also songs like “Ava Adore” and “Perfect”, which I can listen to over and over again without getting tired of them.
In front of Sapporo University. I considered studying there, so we went to have a look.
To jump to something completely different, I just found an old picture from the first time I was in Japan. It was there with Rikke, and in less than one week we managed to get drunk in Roppongi, sleep through an earthquake and then slip onto the plane to Sapporo to meet my friend Mari before heading back to Denmark again. This was my first hectic introduction to Japan, and it was love at first sight.
In connection to this first visit to Japan, I also have a small confession to make. When we were out shopping in this huge Japanese supermarket, I found this shelf with Japanese whiskey in 3L plastic bottles and I could not resist the temptation to bring such a funny liquid souvenir with me back home.
Roppongi 2003
However, I am not a good liar and I am definitely not a good smuggler, so when I went through customs in Amsterdam, I was probably oozing bad conscience. An officer told me to step aside and asked me to open my suitcase. There, the big plastic bottle was staring right back at him. He picked it up to inspect it closer, while he asked me what in the world it was. “Some kind of Japanese wine” I muttered as I mentally prepared myself on the public pillory or what else Amsterdam might do to offenders like me. I was therefore very surprised as the officer just shrugged his shoulders, put the plastic bottle back down and closed the suitcase, while he waved me through customs.
Rikke and Mari with Japanese whiskey bottles.
To this day I do not know whether it was because of the difficulties in reading the Japanese characters on the list of ingredients, or whether he just did not care, but the whiskey was a great success in Sweden, where I brought it to a student party. It tasted horrible, but 1) it was from Japan and 2) it was in a plastic bottle.
In Amsterdam airport.
