Weird things in your suitcase

When going back from Sweden I had quite a few strange things in my suitcase. I bought some licorice root extracts (because who doesn't want to make food that tastes of licorice?) and some salmiak salt (chemical stuff that tastes like licorice), since that is not available in Japan. I also keep buying fun props that may or may not be useful for magic tricks. This time I found a shop that sold huge CocaCola bottles for 10 dollars. So I bought two. This meant I could not fit anything else into my suitcase, so I had to fill the bottles with all my clothes and other luggage...

I flew from Stockholm to Helsinki, and then from Helsinki to Nagoya. And from Nagoya I was going to fly to Sapporo. Upon arriving in Nagoya I had a small delay. I was politely dragged into a small room far away, where they frisked me, took out everything from my pockets, and unpacked everything from my bags.

We talked for 30 minutes or so about how wonderful it must be to work at Sapporo's most prestigious university, and whether or not my bags contained drugs (they do not). They kept showing me photos of different types of drugs and asking if I was sure I did not have any of these in my bags. They also explained that "even marijuana" is considered an illegal drug in Japan, so even having that would qualify. I told them that I did not have any drugs and they kept asking and unpacking my bags.

Since I had a kilo or two of magic props, once they reached those parts of the bags, there were many many suspicious looking items. There were many: "And what in the world is this?!" After a while they asked if I do magic. But by the time all the weird props started appearing out of the bags, they seemed pretty relaxed and they thought it was funny that I did magic.

But apparently I look like a drug smuggler. And they also thought it was suspicious to have "only two" heavy bags when visiting Europe. I had plenty of time between my flights, and the flight to Nagoya arrived early so I still made my connecting flight to Sapporo. Once they let me go from the customs, I hurried to the domestic terminal where I again received special treatment at the security check and had to be frisked, and remove lots more things than most people. So I guess I also look like a terrorist, haha. But the customs people told me that it was one of the drug sniffing dogs that had indicated that it thought my carry on bag contained drugs (which of course it did not). They also said that sometimes the dogs indicate for other reasons than drugs, but since they are dogs you cannot really ask them about why they do what they do.

Rune stone in the airport

In Sweden you can find old stones with runes carved into them. Runes is what people living in Sweden used before the Christians arrived and brought the Latin alphabet with them. So most rune stones are old, from around 1000 years ago.

In the Stockholm airport I passed a rune stone. It was found in 1990 near the airport. It was raised about 1000 years ago in the memory of some guy going east in the late 1030-ies and being killed during this adventure.

Pizza again

Swedish pizzas are bigger than Swedish dogs.

Not a dryer

When I was in Stockholm, I saw this thing in a public bathroom. It says "tork". In Swedish, this means "dryer". It can be used for things that dry your hands, or for things that dry clothes or bigger things.

This was located next to a sink for people to wash their hands, so you might expect it to be something that dries your hands. It was, however, not. It was a soap dispenser.

It turns out that Tork is a company (not Swedish) that makes, among other things, soap dispensers.

Japanese products and chance meetings in Stockholm

In Stockholm, there is a shop that sells specially imported goods from Japan.When visiting this store, I saw some ramen from Sapporo. Since I can eat all kinds of Sapporo ramen whenever I want, I did not buy any, though.

I also ran into a guy I know from high school and university in Stockholm. He was there with his two children. He lived in Kyoto for a while. I was happily surprised to see him. It had been at least 10 years since I last saw him, I guess.

We talked over the Internet from time to time in Japan, for instance when the Swedish embassy called everyone living in Japan early in the mornings to suggest evacuating from Tokyo with some early flight during the Fukushima incident, even though we both lived very far from Tokyo and did not have to evacuate and if we wanted to could have done so much better without going to Tokyo first...

Natto, fermented soy beans. Look like the eggs in the movie Alien, and smell really bad. But I am told they are very healthy.

My part of the world, described in Chinese

I found a tourist magazine with photos of Görvälns Slott, which is a nice place close to where I used to live. You can walk there from my parents' place if the weather is good. There was text that I assume talk about what you can do and see there, but it was all in Chinese so I am not sure.

Bowling and steak

Some friends that I first met in Sapporo are now living in Stockholm. When I visit Sweden, we sometimes meet. This time, we met and played a few games of bowling. No one of us is very good at bowling but since everyone is more or less on the same level, it was quite enjoyable.

For kids that are too small to use bowling balls the normal way, a ramp was provided. You aim the ramp and then you roll the bowling ball down the ramp.

After the bowling, we went to a shop that sells specially imported goods from Japan. I can get all the Japanese stuff I could ever want without trying since I live in Japan, but for my friends in Stockholm there are some things that are hard to get (some teas, for example). In this store, I ran into a guy I know from high school who was there with his two children. He used to live in Kyoto, so I guess he also uses Japanese things in his daily life. I was happily surprised to see him. It had been at least 10 years since I last saw him, I guess. Though we talked over the Internet from time to time in Japan, for instance when the Swedish embassy called everyone living in Japan early in the mornings to suggest evacuating from Tokyo with some early flight during the Fukushima incident, even though we both lived very far from Tokyo and did not have to evacuate and if we wanted to could have done so much better without going to Tokyo first...

After the quick stop in the Japanese shop, we went for steaks. I also ordered deep fried cheese and habaneros. This was good, as was the steak. There was also an offer of all you can eat ice cream and ice cream toppings, so I and the kid in our group went for that. They turned out to have licorice sauce for the ice cream. In Sweden, almost everyone likes licorice. In Japan, almost everyone thinks it is the most disgusting thing they have ever tried if they ever try it, so it is not normally available.

Licorice!