Swedishness presentation

Today we went to IKEA Funabashi store. Our third presentation needed to be taken care of. We had never been to this store before so we where pretty excited as always! One of the best things with these presentations are the possibility to meet the IKEA staff. They have been wonderful to us! What a fantastic opportunity for us!!
After our presentation, that took place in the staff canteen, we were invited to a english presentation about japanese living. That was very interesting for us. What a nice surprise!! Thank you Funabashi!!

Welcome to Paradise!

We just came home from Nagano where we have spent last weekend. This place is heaven on earth! We took about 800 pictures, and here is a little taste.

Nagano has the clearest water in Japan. Hot water from the vulcanos mix with the cold water from the mountains. When this picture was taken we were on our way to a Japanese bath-house called an Onsen. We took a bath in the natural hos springs.

Bento on the train. We have a new passion, it is bento-boxes (japanese lunch box)



The leaves are turning red for the autumn.




Louisa is laying out futons in the hotel wearing a kind of kimono



Nagano is called the Alps of Japan, it is surrounded by very high moutains!

This is how Anna feels about Nagano!

This is how Louisa feels about Nagano!

They produce beauty products in this factory.

The "welcome comity" serving fresh apples.

A 600 year old building that is a part of a temple in Nagano.

Sushi and sake

Kaleidoskope



Ring the bell



Big in Japan tonight

There is a national holiday today, and we had the day off from work. First of all we slept late in the morning, because sleep is quite rare for us. Then we took the train to Shibuya to met up with our new friend, Mo and his girlfriend. Mo is from Sweden and works at IKEA.

It's so funny. Yesterday when we got the news about the day off, Anna had just been talking about how nice it would have been to have more time for exploring and shopping, and Louisa was talking about how nice it would have been to spend a day with some one who lives in Japan showing us around. Dreams do come true you know ;) Mo came up to us and asked if we wanted to spend the day with them!! How fantastic!

And when we walked to the train this morning we spoke about kareoke and that we won't have any more time to sing. But dreams DO come true you know! Mo sugested karaoke so we sang Big In Japan in a Karaoke place in Harajuku tonight!

While walking around in looking for a karaoke place we saw this Xmas tree decoration. Do you think it is a sign?

After all our dreams had come true we took the train to Ueno and had dinner in a Korean restaurant!

Thank you so extreamly much for making this day so fabulous!



The famous Hatchico statue in Shibuya

We also must say that things like this happens all the time in Tokyo for us. People are so nice, taking care of us, showing us around. It´s like they have a 6th sense for what we need and makes us happy!! =)

Presenting swedishness in IKEA Kohoku

Our big IKEA-tour started yesterday (monday 1/11). We woke up early in the morning to found out we had forgot an important paper in our locker in Shim Misato. We started the day by going to get it. Fortunately we had time on our side (and the trains) so we didn´t loose much time by doing so. Then we headed off for Shim Yokohama where the IKEA store is located!

Outside of Shim Yokohama station

On the IKEA shuttle-bus. There was an information video showing customers how to shop at IKEA. Very cute!

We had a really warm welcome! <3

We arrived just in time for Fika! First we sat down with one of the ComIn co workers. She had worked at IKEA Kohoku since they opened 5 years ago. A very nice woman! We look forward to get to know her better when she come to Shim Misato to work and evelope her interior designer skills even more.

After Fika we set up our computer and layed out paper, pencils, businesscards and peppar cockies and then we had Lunch.
Food is always a good subject to talk about. Japanese people are very inventive when it comes to the food in IKEA's food market. They can do anything with meatballs!  In pumpkin soop or roll them in breadcrums and deep fry them. :)

At lunch we met some others from ComIn. One of them was a swedish guy. He was really funny! He was learing swedish to hes co worker. Well... kind of learning. If you hear a japanese guy say "Jag är flintskallig" he is asking for your help.

The presentation started at 13.30 and the whole ComIn team atended, all and all 16 people. We got some really good questions. There are so many things we take for granted in our swedish homes. Like why we have floor-mats or more than one lamp. We hope Kohoku ComIn enjoyed, this picture sure looks like it!

THANK YOU KOHOKU!!!

Tokyo Designers Week

As you know the design exhibition called Tokyo Designers Week was canceled because of the weather on saturday. So we had an other go on Sunday instead. And now it was finally opened for business!
The theme for this year was Environmental design.

This place is amazing for several reasons. The creativty is very inspiring, there are so many interesting new invetions. We discovered a technical device that had a shape of a stone with eyes. It was made of plastic and had lights in it. The colors changed and it could receive text messages AND tell the message AND understand if the message was happy or sad. Don´t ask us how it works, it just does. Too bad it´s not in Sweden yet...

Also a beautiful clock with a shape as a Merry go around.

There were rugs made of an old rug. Very beatiful with different models.

Walking around for hours very happy we decided to leave. At the exit we met a IKEA co-worker. It was very nice and we decided to have lunch with her. What a fantastic day!!!


Starting the day with an energy drink bought in one of the bending machines in Tokyo.



A rainy morning outside the exhibition





The opened at 11 o´clock. Not everyboday was done with ther stuff.

But IKEA was

We thougt IKEA's container was one of the best ones!

pretty pictures in the IKEA kontainer

This is how it looks.

 IKEA-gave away blue small bags. What a perfect blue color! The same as the Tokyo Designers Week logo.

Amazingly you were lloud to take pictures in most of the stands

Ccool new design cup holder.



A giant banana made from recykeled paper.



Tthe exhibition hall.

At this place we had lunch.

Tthe exhibition continued outside.

Cool shoes.

Students work.

Typhoon?

 We were supposed to go to Tokyo Designers Week with our interior design mentor William today, but when we got there it was closed! The reason was there´s a typhoon coming to Tokyo... So we had to turn around. There were no signs anywhere that said that they were closed today. The only thing was 2 security guards at the enterence. The funny thing was when people went up to the guard and asked about it they took the news with a smile and just walked away. If this would have been in Sweden people would have gotten mad and irritated!
Instead we took the train to the newest part of Tokyo called Odaiba! A piece of land ,in northern Tokyo, that has been man-built during the last 10 or so years. It is quite a futuristic part of the city. We also passed the Rainbow bridge, a famous landmark in Tokyo. (Traveling by train felt like flying in the sky.)

the place we decided to visit was a museum called National Museum of Emerging Science and Innovation. In this musem they have a humanoid-robot called ASIMO. It performs twice a day.  It´s repetoire includes tricks that humans both cannot do. It moves both children and adults. Besides the robot-show, the museum contained exhibitions about biology and technology. Very interesting.


After the museum we decided to call it a day and go home. Just in case of the typhoon-warnings. It has been raining all day and it has been some hard winds. But actually it wasn't even a storm... maybe the typhoon will come through Tokyo in the night time instead...
Tokyo Designers Week did not have to be closed today. No typhoon today,

We will have an other go tomorrow instead!

Subway

Louisa figuring out were to go

qute communication



National Museum of Emerging Science and Innovation



This is how the toilet looks in a space ship

this is what happens to things when they are exposed to pressure

cool heat ditecting camera

Anna in an submarine

if you sat on this rotating sofa your picture came up on the wall, and if you moved arround like the bicture came out this way.

invitation to yokyo design week

Before going home on Wednesday William gave us invitations to go to the Tokyo Designers Week in Roppongi! It startes this weekend. It is actually our last free weekend in Tokyo, so we hope to make it a rememberable one! crossing our fingers the typhoone will let the trains run smoothly...