Friday 18th. of August.

And I have nothing much to say, so I'll say it. “Nothing much”.

Today would have been my mothers b -day. Would have, she isn't alive anymore.

She would have been 87 years old today. She died when she was 66.

21 years ago. I was 34 years old back then. The following year I left Denmark to go to Spain and study. I have never moved back.

How would she have been like, had she lived until now? One of those question you can never find an answer to. So why try?

Maybe because I visited one of my uncles and aunties in Denmark this summer. And they are the age my mother would have been now. Well, my uncle is one year older. And he is fine. Absolutely fine. Healthy, witty, interested and curious and has a huge growth mindset. So has his wife. She must be the age my mum would have been and she still roams around in the kitchen and make and bake and cooks and cleans, and argue with her husband and he is nagging her back. They have always been this way. I think they need it like that.

I must write to them. He gave me his email address. Imagine that. He is 88 and he has got an email.

I must do that, soon. This weekend. Okay.  

Tokyo Tales #1

Outside my window lies an urban landscape so very different from any European urban areas. At the first sight it reminds me of the Star Wars "Death Star" surface as Luke Skywalker peace over and through it in the first Star Wars movie.

I am in Tokyo in the Shinjuku district in a room in a hotel. Well, room is perhaps not the right word. Probably bedroom could do as it is simply a queen size bed with a bathroom attach. And a TV. Yes, the room I've booked is that small.

From high above the city seems so sterile and empty. Grey concrete, glass and metal structures as far the eye can see. On the surface though, when walking the streets, it is lively colourful and inspiring in this certain Japanese sense of being inspiring.

This is my 3rd time in Tokyo and even this time is only a brief stop over on the way to a rock festival in the mountains, it still leaves an impression.

Typical Japanese impression I could say, but what is that?

Is typical Japanese the way the houses are build and the way it all look like it has been randomly built, with no greater plan and concept?

Is typical Japanese the bright colours and light and noise coming from speakers and shops and the numbing number of neon signs and advertisement boards?

Or is all this what it means to be typical Japanese?

At least for me this seems to be what I recognise every time I get to Japan, either the main islands in the north or Okinawa further south.

There is a certain feel and vibe about Japan. Japan to me is a mix of new and hyper and extreme old fashion.

It is hard actually to explain this, but on street level it all seems so ultra modern and cutting edge. Extreme fashion statements and technology from all corners. When you get inside a post office or train ticket office, you suddenly feel like boosted some years back in time. There is paper folders and old fashioned computers and calculators. An a lot of paper. Piles of paper and grey cub bards. Nothing much cutting edge or 2017 like here.

3 X manipulated Centre point perspective.

Japan journal #1

After 4 nights I some rainy mountain in the north of the Honshu island, I am now back in Tokyo and to the heat. It was just incredible to get out of the Shinkansen train this morning and feel the difference. Vilounterely ive stayed out in the rain for 3 days, well more or less. If it wasn't raining then it was just damp and wet and all the clothes were damp and cold, but the music and the spirit kept it up. It wax a great experience and I would probably go again, if there is s convincing music lineup.

Naeba with the Fuji Festival in Niigata prefecture on Sunday late afternoon when the sun nearly broke through the thick clouds.

Tokyo this Monday at lunchtime, sunny and over 30 degrees,

Fuji Fables 2017 #1

Finally, I have made it to Fuji Rock Festival in Japan.

Previous this event was hold at the mighty Mount Fuji, however the weather never really played ball for the organisers there so the Festival got moved to a ski resort in the mountains just south of the city Niigata.

Normally a very quiet and empty place during the summer months, but now music lovers from many countries gathers here to enjoy 3 days of rock'n roll music.

The town itself is a bit worn down, or at least so it seems, and to some extent it do reminds me of ski resorts I have seen in the Chech republic and Slovakia with reminicences from the post soviet east European era,like on this photo where the contrast between old and new is obvious.

Denmark Docs # 5

Take the train. Close to finishing the Denmark leg of the 2017 summer vacation. Sure it is a bit sad, but we have had a great stay in Denmark and here by I would like to say thank you to all of my family who have put up with the two of us.

Last train to Copenhagen for the Morten send in 2017.

Denmark Docs #4

After about 2 weeks in Denmark, finally it has become a bit like summer. Not sure this is all over the country but it is at least here where we are in Løkken, a small'ish beach and bathing town in the far north west of the country.

Denmark docs #3

My wife with the "big boy" sculpture at ARoS Artmuseum in Århus. An artwork by the Australian artist Ron Mueck. So scary and realistic.

Denmark docs #2

Tai tai like a Hammerhøi painting in Fåborg Færgehotel Restaurant.

The Denmark docs. #1

Prolog:

This is to be the start to the Denmark Documents.

A summer adventure through my homeland, which I have not visited during summer for 7 years.

Before we get to start, there will probably be a short Stockholm story and a London letter. Anyway, that'll just be an interlude before I begin the Denmark documents.

I wrote this prolog as I'd anticipated it to become, however, it was all just in my imagination. Everything went entirely different and I could or maybe should actually change the heading of the whole post to “Airport Poetry” or “rear mirror reflex ions from a tired traveller”.

So, because of this “going different entirely” there is not going to be any Stockholm Stories just now, and the London Letters will probably just be a fart of a note about a rush hour between terminal 3 and 5 and if we make it or not. Make what? Yeah, make what?

Make it to our connecting flight to Copenhagen off corse!

Scandinavia is famous for many things being in art, design and thinking and being one of them from birth I have a certain pride in being Scandinavian and also a certain respect for Scandinavian enterprises and companies as being good and have a certain standard. So weeks ago when I finally decided to take action and get going booking flights and some accommodation for this years summer vacation, so when the airline came up with a quotation for the trip we wanted to undertake - and a good one - I didn't hesitate to chose the Scandinavian Airways System as the carrier to bring us from our home in Hong Kong to Europa and my country of origin, Denmark.

Boldly spoken, that airline -SAS in short- was the first airline I'd ever heard of as a silly wee boy from a hamlet in the deep dark of Jutland - and this mainly because Denmark was the biggest kind of togetherness or enterprise I could fathom and therefore was the centre of everything I was taught by my parents, in the media and at school and about my roots and entire cultural heritage.

So, back then as the itinerary was planned and thought through with all our sidetracks and diversion -which in fact turned out to have an immense impact on the quite challenging 24 - 26 hours or journeys we have just ended- I did not have any worries booking a long haul flight with that airline as they -in my mind- would deliver a good product.

My tai tai on the other hand, as she is from the British Isles, are a firm believer in the services of British Airways and asked why I didn't choose them?

"They have the much better price!" was my answer. And they did. There were much money to save choosing the Scandinavians.

 

To be continued.

A year in 6 minutes and 13 seconds.