Today was Andreas Birthday We had a little birthday party at our home

collection of gifts

cakes

with birthday person!

happy smile

He got a new cover for his iPhone! My mom gave it! I was a bit jealous because it is cute,hehehe. The design is from anime “one piece”!

fall version of beer

It was very fun family night!

We had a long weekend , yay yay~ July 19th was sea day so we took a short trip to Kusatsu in Gunma Prefecture Kusatsu area is know for ski resort, hiking a mountain, and famous hot spring!

Our trip started at 6:30am We needed to catch a train at 7:20am in Ueno station!

It was only 3 hours by express train! So fast and we didn’t get tired at all

Kusatu is located on that is an altitude of 1156m so that it was a bit cooler than Tokyo Main activity was to get relax and take hot springs in different places!

Continue to part 2!

Sometimes, Andreas and I have a lunch together at his work place His work place area has many kinds of restaurant It is actually very nice place!

This time he took me to the Italian restaurant and that has Buffet plus coffee/dessert, woohoo

we didn’t make our stomach full completely, hihihi Only 80% full!

It is so nice to see flowers! We took a walk by the river last night with my family!

Cherry Blossom by the river

anchan, mom, and sis

This Saturday we will have real picnic in the park under cherry bloosoms!

I went to Odaiba with my Finnish friend, Sirena Her sister, mom and friend were visiting in Japan for almost two weeks. Next day, they went back to Finland so it was nice to meet them in last minutes

odaibakaihin station

First, we tried to ride Odaiba Ferris wheel!

Odaiba Ferris wheel

BUT…we found more interesting stuff

NekoBus
if you ever see the movie, Totoro, you know catbus right?

At Toyota car exhibition, we found many interesting cars!

Then, we finally took a ride on Odaiba ferris wheel

Mikael, Stella and mom I really had a great time with them!

i was a little bit scared

building a new bridge

Barbie manekin

Venus fort is a shopping mall

Fiji TV station

Yay~group pic

Kamehame haaaaaa My dad will love this pic and get jealous, hahahaha

Odaiba view with Statue of liberty

Odaoba at night

I really had a good time with them! Hopefully, we keep in touch

This Friday was awesome! We went to drink with my parents and Finnish friend, Sirena. Her family is coming to Japan next day! We shouldn’t giver her so many drinks, but we did it! She was claiming she cannot drink so much. In the end, she drunk a lot and we were so happy about it!

first place was at Izakaya! 1280yen ( around 8.5 euros)  It was drink free for 2 hours.

girls and boys

After we said ‘bye bye’ to my parents, we went to bar ishee. We wanted to see the rock band at Cyclone, but it was over. SO we asked which rock bars are good around Shibuya?

The band ‘ISIS’ from US was there. (originally from Boston). A member of ISIS recognized my University too! They had the concert next day so doing pre\party at the bar isshee! We took a memorial pic, hahaha

And Andreas and Sirena spoke in Japanese all day! They said it was good practice speaking in Japanese! The Japanese customers at the bar were amazed with their effort to use our language! Anyway, we will continue partying on Friday from now on!

Friday night, we went to drink with my mother! Since my dad was drinking with his colleagues, i invited her to come with us. It was very fun and nice time!

with different hair color

My cousin had invited to visit her picture books Gallery in Harajyuku. I like her drawing so it was good she invited to go! This is her link <Link Noriko>

noriko’s work

noriko

then we took a group pic! They are my cousins and sister

Harajyuku has many coffee shops so we tried to go a couple of the shops to have some coffee and cakes

it was a nice day!

I came back in Tokyo! From now on, I will write my blog from Tokyo in Japan!

It took me for a while to set up my new life here. Moving to new apartment, get internet, cell phone, TV, desk, refrigerator…etc it is almost ready for life in Tokyo!

The weather is nice here compared to Finland! Even it is cold, you can see blue sky and sun light that is the biggest change for me. No more depression in my heart But I left here since 2001, yeah I need to make new friends and network…might be tough but I have to try

at izakaya (japanese style of bar)

my blog is coming back again

On Sunday, we wanted to go to Public sauna…but it was closed. Even I lived in Finland for three years, I still don’t get used to this Sunday closed custom, hehehe.

We went to see a movie, instead.

at thai buffet restraunt

ponyo was in Finland!

it is already fall&winter in Finland

Then, on Monday I took her to little city in Espoo, Tapiola.

at Tapiola

WAYNE’s Coffee

one day we made a sushi dinner!

Then, next day we went shopping in Helsinki and visit to Public sauna. Only we were the customers at the public sauna. We just enjoyed there so much!

 in our room.

  going to Sauna,yay!

  
it was so nice. After Sauna, we were so relaxed

 kamppi shopping center

 with Japanese anime character, NARUTO

At night, we took my mother to the student party at TKK. The event called, Lakinlaskijaiset seli Dipolirock 2009. It was fun to be with mom at student party =)

 with random FInnish students

 Klaus Thunder & Ukkosmaine was so cool

Now, next post is from Amsterdam trip!