Gambling and Vending Machines

Gambling for money is illegal in Japan so they use these machines where you play with small metallic balls and then try to win some prices. Im not exac

tly sure how they work but seems really popular, people were queuing outside the "arcada"!

The Japanese really loves vending machines, they are in every street corner! I would like to know how many there actually are in this city...

About the subway, it's kinda hard to know where to go, and how to get there! There are so many lines, no english words for anything. And when you buy the ticket you don't know if you should buy the 160, 190, 230 or 270 because some maps dont have this price list like this one.

The Hostel here is pretty good, 5 min from the subway station Minawa at the Hibya line. But this morning there was some kind of special cleaning against bugs or something. So having slept 2 hours coming home from the bar some guys come in and tells me I have to get up. Fine fine, so I took a shower but when I was coming back the room it was locked with a paper on the door "CLOSED FROM 10-13 DUE TO SPECIAL CLEANING". Just great, I don't have clothes or really anything because it's all in my room. Luckily there was some employee who let me in after a while...

Shibuya

Shubuya is one of the busiest shop and restaurants areas in Tokyo. The amount of people here is amazing, better not stop walking in the middle of the street of you'll be ran over...This district is popular for teenage girls because of the shops. Most of the people I saw here were pretty young...

I went to have lunch in a small restaurant and many of them don't have cashiers, they work on wending machines. There are pictures of the food, just put the money in and choose your meal printed on a paper. Then give the little paper with the name of the food to the guy behind the counter. Smart, easy and fast!

Bachelor Party

Timo Timo Timo! The party yesterday was great!

We started at a restaurant at Roppongi. The food was very Japanese and awesome. After a lot of food and countless of beers we went around in different bars in Roppongi and Shinjiku district. Was a fun night out and I ended up coming home around 8 in the morning....

The guys, all been living in Japan for many years. I'm the only one not talking Japanese among them...

Sushi!

Tokyo Tower

Build in 1958 it rises 333 meters high and from it you have a great view of the city!

Yesterday was bright and clear and the view from the Tower was amazing! It cost about 10 euros to get up to the tower. Btw, Tokyo is a REALLY expencive city!

Downstairs they have some souvenir shops and other Japanese stuff. There was this guy or girl dressed in this super cute costume :)

Outside the tower there was this small park, after walking around the whole day I got myself a bottle of wine and stayed here reading a book before the bachelor party

Shinjiku

I went Shinjiku which is full of restaurants, arcades, bars and all kinds of shops. I ate some kind of japanese omelet where you get a bowl of stuff and mix it, then put it on the "BBQ". It was really good, meat, egg and things I didn't recognize :P

Shinjiku looked like I kinda expected Japan to look like. Big streets, huge signs everywhere and a lot of people...

There is also a Skyscraper district in Shinjiku. Weren't as impressive as Hong Kong or Shanghai...

In Shinjiku I saw a accident, a mercedes drove really hard into a skooter and the guy didn't move after that.. I dunno if he was dead but seemed pretty lifeless when the ambulance came. Makes you think how fast life can end, one moment your here, the next gone. You all be careful out there in the traffic!

Akihabara

First thing in the morning was Akihabara! Akihabara is like a huge electric city with all kinds or anime stuff and other weird things. They have vending machines for everything and the girls are dressed up as all kinds of anime characters dealing out flyers.

This place pretty much has everything about: computer games, console games, anime related stuff, arcades, electronics and vending machines!

The Akihabara electric shopping mall is famous for it's size. 10 floors of only electronics. But it's the same in Beijing and Shanghai. It's actually even bigger in Beijing and Shanghai! So if your looking for the worlds biggest electronic shopping m

all go to China instead!

There is a temple for good luck just 5 minutes walk from Akihabara. Just to ensure a good stay here i went there :) There is a big box where you can throw money into for extra luck.

Praying notes for the temple

Arriving at Tokyo

Left work earlier today so I could catch my flight in time. The transportation in Beijing is way much better than Finland. There are airport busses going all the time and also a airport express subway. It only takes about 20 minutes from downtown to get to the terminal and costa 2,5 euros. The express terminal also happens to be just next to my house so it's very convenient!

Food in the airplane was of course Japanese! This is the first time I eat Sushi in an airplane :)

Flight took about 3,5 hours and i arrived to the airport. Finding the Hostel took some time because of the millions of railways and subways…Now 2 hours later lying in my little capsule wit WiFi :)

There was a COKE Station just in case ur in need of some crack :D On the way and people were really friendly and helpful when i asked directions.

One guy insisted on following me and showing me where the hotel is. He also admitted that he had been drinking a lot of Sake and then had a huge problem with me passing red lights in the street and said

with broken english NO RETTO NO RETTO (no red no red i guess) And tried to explain in Japan is not ok to walk towards red lights…Well the streets were empty at 23 a'clock in the night...

Tomorrow Timo's Bachelorparty! I packed the party chicken I found from a club last weekend, will work as tomorrows lucky charm for Timppa :P It keeps a really funny and annoying sound when squeezing it!

This took 3 months

Last week I finally signed my working contract! Yes!

When I was waiting for the Working Permission Visa i was waiting for this document! Think that this little passport looking thing took 3 months to get...phew was it some work!

Well now I have it and the picture is absolutely gorgeous :D (not)

According to Manpower my titel at the moment is PROJECT CONSULTING MANAGER which sounds pretty cool :P

Tomorrow I'll take a head start for the weekend and leave my office at 14.00 and head for the airport, NIPPON!

The Crow's Nest

Yesterday night the rain kept pouring down and it was pretty stormy...But on sunday's you often want a greasy pizza or other junk food for certain reasons...There were no free taxis because of the rain, but this lady with a motorbike turned into a minitaxi took us there for 1 euro :)

Crows pizzas were huge! Probably weighted a few kilos a piece...After finishing it it was just to roll back home and spend the rest night with Mass Effect 2.

Weekend!

One women at my department had her last day at work so we went to celebrate her last day with a huge dinner Chinese food. The food comes from easter China and its called Dong Bei food 东北菜 - North eastern food). (The tree box looked pretty cool, it's full of Tofu!)

We probably sat in the restaurant over 2 hours and then went back to work, real chill afternoon. Later in the day i was assigned all the American clients at NSN so I worked until 20 without even finishing my job.

Picture of my team!

Later in the evening there was a Red Carpet Party at a club called Suzie Wong and dress code is same is "Dress to impress". They had a lot of photographers from different internet sites who kept taking pictures of most people all night. Outside the club there were many Lamborghini and Ferraris parked...Beijings whole upperclass party people attended this event...

On saturday it was a friends bday party at a place called Cocomo in Sanlitun. After the Cocomo we went to a place called The Lantern which play too loud electronic music but has recent priced drinks. There was some DJ playing and they had put up a huge TV which played stuff with the music.

Late night food at Sanlitun!

Now for a nice chill day home playing Xbox and wait for a short 4 days workweek and then head off to Japan, YATTAA!!

Singing in the rain

One thing you don't want to wake up to in the morning is rain. When I opened the drapers today it was grey and looked kinda wet. But because I live so high up i can't really see if the ground is wet or not. I don't really own an umbrella so the way to the subway was pretty wet...Luckily they thought us in the army that NOBODY IS MADE OF SUGAR! Don't be afraid of water...After the army i seldom used any raincoats or umbrellas, it's just water.

Notice the phone on the street! Haven't seen those things for a long time!

JAPAN!

I just bought my ticket to Tokyo! Flying there the 28.4 until 3.5! They gave me an extra 2 days off work, nice :) Timo and Yuki are getting married there, my first Japanese wedding! The tickets were more expensive because of the incoming Labors day holiday and i had to pay over 400 euros for them :(

People have learned to que here pretty well, before the subway come they all line up...When I was in Shanghai with Niko 3 years ago everybody just waited outside the door and push themselves immediately when the doors opened! The guy dressed in yellow is a "shouter", he tells people to line up and stand back... "Tee työtä jolla on merkitys"

The cantina had great food today, the line so reminds me of the army BATA!

The Swedish touch - IKEA

When we move apartments we always go to the same place no matter where in the world we find ourselves - IKEA!

The IKEA in China is really popular, I've been here in the daytime and weekends and it's always full! Today it was worse then Hullut Päivät because of weekend, there are so many people that you can't walk without pushing then out of the way. Luckily I didn't have a shopping cart, we just chose some things for Timo's new place to be delivered.

Once in IKEA the Hotdog, Meatballs and ice-cream are a must! Food prices here are really low! You can get the Hot Dog for 30 cents and ice-cream for 10 cents (picture!). 20 meatballs are 2 euros and they taste just the same as home! The cream sauce and jam make it really good and everybody gets an Swedish flag as souvenir :P

BBQ

There are a lot of barbecue places in China. You can order all kinds of meat and intestines etc on sticks. Today the people at my office wanted to go out for a very meaty lunch :)

The lamp and chicken on the stick is really good! But then they also have chicken hearts, cow stomach, joints and other less tasty stuff that I leave alone.

Some pictures of the table when the food came...

and after we were finished, nice and clean :P

Nokia Siemens Networks :)

I got my finally got my badge and computer at work! Now it's busy days ahead!

Nothing has really been going on here, been going home straight from the office everyday because this cough don't wanna leave me alone. Just waiting for the weekend to have James goodbye party and help Timo to move into his new flat...

The traffic in Beijing is getting worse, the amount of cars just keep rising by thousands by the month...I got a picture from a sky scraper just next to the "silk market" and as you can see there is traffic from all sides. There are several lanes on both sides but all are full!!

Daily Chinese Life

People in China seldom make any own breakfast because they are always "busy" and besides it's cheap to eat outside. Another reason is that they don't know how to make any food themselves...

Every morning there are a lot of "food carts" by the road selling milk, bread, tea, cookies, chinese pancakes (1 egg + some spices with dough). People line up here and wait for their turn...The pancakes are about 30 cents, used to eat them when I came to Beijing but got kinda tired of them and prefer my own morning porridge with coffee :)

There is a cantina just next to the office, food there is 1,2 euros and you get all kinds of stuff. Reminds me of "Intti Bata" (finnish army food) somehow...The locals here still think it's expencive to use 12 RMB on food...when i told them that a lunch in Finland is close to 9 Euros there were like WOOOOW.