I have to admit that average Swedish kids are way more style-savvy than Swiss or American kids, forget Germans. The country has got definitely more to offer than H&M, and we really enjoyed window shopping in Stockholm. Here in the picture is an upgraded version of Urban Outfitters called Weekday, which has the largest selection of Cheap Monday and carries other brands such as Henrik Vibskov and Acne Jeans. Peter was fascinated by its own line MTWTFSS (Monday to Sunday) and had to occupy a cabinet in a changing room for quite a while.
Then we followed the advise of Frederik and Christof of Rokin and went to the second hand boutique called Judit for men. Their selections were preppy, and the store clerks were also dressed like students in ivy league universities in the 70s. In the store, they were playing early Eurythmics like “Thorn in My Side” and “When Tomorrow Comes” and singing along like Karaoke while folding clothes. I fell in love with the store right away, because the store was packed with things which reminded me of a part of my life that indulged in the world of Eurythmics and ivy league. The women’s selections were not as good as the men’s section, tho.
Speaking of Eurythmics, it was my very first live concert when I was in the 5 or 6th grade in elementary school. My mom got 2 tickets in the 2nd row with the help of our family friend, Mr. Kitayama. I remember getting hyped going up the hill towards Shiuya Public Hall amongst a crowd of concert-goers and feeling like an adult. Usually around this time of the night, I was supposed to be in bed, but this night was special. When the concert started, Annie Lenox and Dave Stewart came right in front of our eyes and I almost wet my pants from excitement. My mom was crazy for Dave Stewart, and I was crazy for this beautiful he-lady singer. Days after the concert, I was posing like Annie Lenox in front of the mirror with the thin tie I snatched from my dad’s closet and squinting my eyes. This was also the time when I started calling myself “boku” instead of “watashi” and behaved like a tomboy. Oh, those were the days!
When we arrived in Stockholm, there were these posters für “Stor I Japan” everywhere in subway stations and at bus stops. We kind of guessed that this is a mock reality show, where these two guys travel to Japan and try to be a star.
Then we were zapping in our hotel room and happened to catch the beginning of the very first episode!! Even though we did not understand what they were talking, we could sense that this would be a very funny show. Too bad that there is not a translated version in English. And I was wondering if my friends and family have heard about these two Swedish guys on Japanese TV!?!?
In Göteborg, we saw this poster for “hål i väggen“, human Tetris where a team of 3 people go through an opening in a wall moving towards them.
The original human Tetris was first shown in Japan 1 year ago, and I think something so stupid and meaningless like this must have only come from Japan. Watching tall and blond Swedish men and women in tight vinyl suits doing the same thing as the small and short legged Japanese was equally funny.
hål i väggen
original human tetris from Japan
Please don’t think we wasted our time watching TV most of the time during our trip, but I love watching TV in foreign countries and guess what they are talking about. In Swedish TV, foreign movies are shown in original with subtitle, so everyone speak very good English. Thanks to the Swedish TV stations, we never had a problem communicating during our stay.
From Göteborg to Stockholm, we took an express train X2000, Sweden’s fastest and smoothest train. Since there was not much difference in price between first and second class, what a heck! we got first class tickets. Besides comfy seating, you can enjoy free Internet access and snack on board, which you won’t get in the first class on Swiss or German railways.
First class wagon
Free coffee and fruits
I love looking out the window and watch how sceneries change as the train approaches a city. I was remembering Hanna’s saying that the urban scenery continues withoutinterruption when you ride Shinkansen from Tokyo to Kyoto. Here on the train in Sweden, I saw mostly forests and grassland and hardly a human being…
What I really like about riding a train in Europe is its quietness. There are occasionally idiots who talk very loud on their ugly mobile phones, but besides that, people are well mannered and respect each other. Toilets are relatively clean (except in France and Italy) and announcements are kept minimum. When I traveled to Osaka on Shinkansen with my friend Mariko, there were two foreigners sitting behind me complaining about the persistent announcements, and I totally agree with them. Destinations are repeatedly announced from 30 min. or 15 min. away from arrival, and announcements go on every 5 min. until the train reaches the destination. Then there are those “the door will close” “Please stay away from the closing door” business. If Europeans can enjoy a quiet ride with minimum announcement, so can Japanese. They are just too uptight about running the train strictly on schedule. Who cares if a stupid kid gets stuck between a door and the train is 1 min. delayed?
That reminded me of the trip to Italy in 2006…
When my friend Yuko and I traveled to Italy, we took a train, Cisalpino, from Zürich to Milano. Within Switzerland, the train was running on schedule, but as soon as it crossed the border, it started running late a bit by bit in every station. It finally arrived in Milano 30 min. late. The connecting train to Genoa had left 10 min. ago, and Yuko and I were panicking and running through platforms to find the next train departing to Genoa. Then a station attendant told us that the train to Genoa has not come yet. Whew, how lucky we were! Then, when we arrived in Genoa, the train to Viareggio had supposedly left 1 hour ago, but of course it had not even come. After waiting for about 30 min. by eating potato chips and feeding them to pigeons, the train we were supposed to catch 1.5 hour ago came into the platform like it was never late. Because Italian trains are always running late, it just kind of makes smooth transfers possible in its own comical way. Since I was used to punctual Japanese and Swiss trains, traveling in Italy was a nerve-racking experience for me. But it also taught me the importance of being patience and relaxing my tense shoulder for once.
After brunch in Marstrand, we head back to Göteborg to catch the train to Stockholm. On the car, we had a great time exchanging tips about new TV series, listening to music on iPod, and gossiping about our friends back in NYC. Sooki told me she still misses NYC a lot, and I remember I used to talk about NYC all the time when Peter and I moved to Germany in 2003. Even after 5 years, I get sentimental when I see NYC on TV. The saying “once you’re New Yorker, you’ll always be New Yorker” is very true. The city left me so much memories and gave a chance to make friends all over the world. When I was a school girl in Japan, I had never imagined that in the future I would be visiting a Korean-Swedish couple in Sweden with my German husband. Thanks for the great time in Göteborg/Marstrand, Sooki-san and Johan-san!!
Pictured here are Johan and Peter picking pears in the garden. It is lovely to have a fruit tree in your own garden, so you can eat healthy snack at any time. It’s even lovelier to have a hubby who is tall enough to be able to pick them.
Those pears were very sweet and juicy and reminded me of my mom’s Compote de poires she used to make when I was little.
We got on Johan’s boat to go to a small island to have late lunch – fish soup!! I have never been on a boat to go & have a soup!! What a luxury!
Peter and Sooki-san were somehow very prepared for this boat trip and acted professionally under the directions of Captain Johan, whereas I sat next to the captain and did nothing but be useless.
Here is a sexy snapshot of Captain Johan at wheel.
Enjoying the sun and the view of the ocean
Island of Åstol
Once we reached the island, Sooki and Peter quickly tied the boat to the deck, and we went off to the restaurant. All of us of course ordered fish soup only.
Here is the photo of the best fish soup I’ve ever had in my life.
Creamy soup, slightly flavored with dill and a sprinkle of lime juice. Soft but tasty fish meat. I’d love to go there again and eat this heavenly soup!! I am glad that Johan and Sooki shared the secret with us.
After lunch, we walked around the island before heading back to the island of Marstrand.
This was my favorite house on the island. I would live here at any time.
Some window decorations
Here comes life vest dogs! They were so cute with their flashy neon-orange life vest that I almost had tears in my eyes.
We saw an old couple holding hands and taking a walk. It was a lovely picture, and I wish P-san and I will be like this when we get old.
Of course we wish this newly wed couple will be forever in love as well!
Rubbingourdrowsyeyes, we packed our bags to head for an Island of Marstrand, 45 min. car drive from Göteborg. First we stopped at a local supermarket to get groceries for dinner and breakfast. Then we stopped by another fish market along the way to get more smoked salmon. Many people told us that salmon from Sweden is very good, so I was glad to be able to taste it during our stay.
Here is a photo of yummy looking salmon canapé at the fish market.
Cars are not allowed on the island of Marstrand, so we parked a car at a nearby bay and took a ferry across. It was only a 5 min. ride, and in summer I could have easily swam over just to save some bucks.
On the island, we walked up the hill to the vacation house of Johan’s family. The whole scenery reminded me of Cape Cod where I once went camping with my high school classmates.
The houses are neatly painted in pastel colors, and together with sea breeze they just boost up the vacation feeling. Le mainson de Hornestam was huuuuuge! 2 houses, a guest house and a garden with pear tree.
Most of all, the house was super clean, and everything in the cabinet was neatly organized like a library.
While I put on the 6th layer to protect me against the cold September wind, Peter, Sooki, and Johan went to the garden to pick pears from the tree. Then we all went down the hill to get on the boat to …. guess what?! To be continued.
Next day we started with Swedish breakfast. Round bread with butter or cereal with Yogurt. We liked these two options very much that we bought them at the end of the trip to take home.
Then we strolled around the city of Göteborg and had lunch. We saw many nice shops but the prices were high as we were told by many friends back in Switzerland.
DesignTorget is where you can get nice design products at a moderate price. It’s sort of like a smaller version of LOFT in Japan.
Towards late afternoon, we bought some sweets at a bakery and visited friends of Johan and Sooki who run this amazing shoe brand called Rokin Footwear. The name Rokin sounded very familiar, and we found out later that it comes from the street called Rokin in Amsterdam where we stayed last year.
Christof (center) and Frederik (right) design and produce modern but traditional leather shoes in Europe. Christof showed me a palatte of leather like Pantone colors in different texture and how the colors change as the leather stretches. Johan photographed Rokin shoes for the new catalogue, so they are discussing the layout here.
Too bad that they don’t make shoes for women, but I think Rokin shoes will be very popular in US and Japan!
The city of Götheborg reminded me of Boston – river and ocean, people on bicycle, many small shops, universities and suburban life. Johan and Sooki live near Chalmers Tekniska Högskola which is like MIT of Sweden. The photo below is almost like Newbury Street with a bike lane, don’t you think, Momo?
In the evening, Sooki and Johan cooked us yummy pasta with cumin seeds and artichoke from Jamie Oliver’s recipe book. Peter helped them grind the seeds, but I was not much of a help. As you can tell, I was just taking the photo of two in the kitchen.
Under the permission of Sooki-san and Johan-san, I gave a trip to Sweden as Peter’s birthday gift. But then I used his mileages to book the flight, so the gift was more like my idea to get us there and reunite with our good friends who just tied the knot a month ago. Did we bother their newly-marriedlife? We surely hope not!
We left Zürich in late summer heat and arrived in chilly Göteborg in the early evening.
Sooki and Johan came to pick us up at the airport. After we dropped our luggage in their apartment, we headed straight for dinner… of course for original Swedish meatballs in the best meatball specialist in town!
At Smaka (Vasaplatsen 3, Göteborg, Tel: 031-13 22 47), we first ate Herring for appetizer and then the famous and much-awaited Swedish meatballs with a massive wall of mashed potatoes and a bowl of lingonberry jam and cucumber pickles (Köttbullar med brunsås, lingonsylt och ättiksgurka). As Sooki-san warned me beforehand, cream gravy was a bit on a salty side but I just loved the flavour and juicy meatballs. Unlike sweet cranberry jam for Thanksgiving turkey, ingonberry jam is a bit sour and not so sweet. Pickles are exactly like きゅうりの浅漬け and さっぱりした味付け of these two side dishes go very well with heavy meatballs. My expectations for Swedish food went high up this evening.
