Year: 2007

Earlier this week I acted courier for my company and went to Taiwan and back in a few days. I got about 24 hours to spend in Taipei. I just love these crazy trips! Why do someone really want to go on a trip where you spend more time in the air plane than at the location? I realize I have difficulties finding a good explanation so I won’t even try. Part of the time I spent working, mainly visiting a semiconductor trade show. But I did have some time to look around.

First thing I had to do was to go up Taipei 101 which I think still is officially the highest building in the world. In 37 second, with a max speed of about 60 km/h (!), the elevator took us up to the 89th floor. The building has totally 101 floors, hence the name…

As always I am fascinated by the view and since I went there just before the sun went down I got to see the view both in daylight and by night. The view was of course fabulous but as in many cities on this side of the globe the haze is making it difficult to see too far.

In the evening a dear colleague and his taiwanese girlfriend met me for dinner and showed me around some nice places. For example, we went to a night market which is a popular thing in Taipei. At this market there was loads of cheap stores but also lots of food stalls. Here you could find many delicacies like octupus lips and duck tongue, yummy…

Next to the Night Market there was a rather large and brightly coloured buddhist temple. I don’t think I have ever visited such a commercial temple. It is not uncommon that you buy, for a small amount of money, wooden pieces och pieces of paper where you can write your prayers and leave at some suitable place within the temple. Much like in our churches where you can buy candles. Here they had taken it a bit further. There where several counters where people queued to buy a “subscription” on prayers. This means that you go there and pay a certain amount of money and someone will make prayers for you during a certain time, eg a year. It sounds awkward to me to buy that kind of service.

Today it seems I am off to Taiwan for a day. Basically it is just to go there deliver a package and go back again. Fortunately enough I get to stay for a night in Taipei. Hopefully I will get a few hours to walk around and see some of the city. I hope for good weather so I can go up Taipei 101 (second highest building in the world) on Sept 11…

Since I am addicted to travels I of course signed up for this trip although it means more hours in the plane than in Taipei. I have never been to Taipei so I am excited!

During my business trip to Kyoto I got one afternoon to spend in the city on my own. I had gotten a lot of suggestions of what to do from colleagues who have spent a lot of time in Kyoto. I chose to go to the buddhist temple Kiyomizu-dera. This temple is situated on the hillside, with a stunning view, west of the city center. It was of course the fact that there was a view that I wanted to visit this site. The first thing I usually do in a new city is to find the highest point.

Sweden has currently an unusual amount of very good athletes, Carolina Klüft in heptathlon, Susanna Kallur 100 m hurdles, Stefan Holm high jump, Johan Wissman 400m and Kajsa Bergqvist high jump amongst others. Because of this the World Championship in Athletics has been dominating the sport pages in Swedish papers the past weeks. This Championship was held in Osaka, Japan this year. As it happend I went there on business the same day it started.
When I booked tickets to go to a customer site in Kyoto, near Osaka, I was totally oblivious about the fact that there was a Championship coming at all. A colleague, who was also going to Kyoto, pointed this out to me. He suggested that we should try to go there one night and I thought, yes, why not when we are in the area. Of course we just talked about it and never got around to actually arranging tickets.
When I arrived I called another colleague who lives in Kyoto. We arranged to meet up for dinner and he also asked if I didn’t wanted to come along to Osaka the next day because they had an extra ticket. Ok, I said, why not. So all of a sudden I had a ticket and to the best day of all, when Carolina Klüft was going to defend the gold medal in heptathlon. And of course she did! A very good day for a Swede be here! I got some bitter comments about it from jealous colleagues back home…
I have never visited such a big stadium before, it took 70000 people. It was not completely full but probably a good 60000 people were present at the end. It was amazing how, when it was time for the 100 m final, 60000 people became totally quiet and as soon as they start running made an impressive amount of noise.
The picture shows the chaos when Tyson Gay came around our side of the stadium after winning 100 m.

First thing to do in Japan is to go find sushi! In Sweden I usually don’t feel like eating sushi at all because I know what it tastes like in Japan and as soon as I land here I instantly need to go find some raw fish (and it’s not difficult here). The variation of sushi in Sweden is very limited while in Japan you will be busy for a long time if you want to try everything.
This time was no different, I immediately went to a sushi place a colleague had recommended. It was close to the hotel and it was lunch time = I was hungry. It was not particularly crowded and I got a seat at the running sushi counter. Usually I let the plates go by for a while before I choose what to take. I know that I can not eat more than 4-5 plates until I am full so I need to choose carefully.
As I was picking out my first taste of the wonderful sushi the man next to me made contact. He was a middle aged, well dressed, slightly drunk (this was a nice of me) man who started of course to speak in japanese of which I understood basically nothing. This often has no affect on the japanese who gladly continue to talk although you look like a living question mark (don’t know if that expression works in english but I’ll give it a try 🙂 ). The only english word he knew was chop sticks which I now know in japanese… But he seemed to be happy talking to me anyway and he pointed out a few very good plates of sushi for me so I was not unhappy either. As I was leaving to go see the city of Kyoto he insisted on paying for my lunch. Thank you!

As I was taking the express train from Kansai Airport in Osaka to Kyoto I saw something very unusual. When the train was leaving the station three men in uniform with white gloves were standing in a perfect line waving the train off. Where else in the world would you see that? Is that really in their job description? I like Japan!