Summer summary

It’s been a strange summer. Weather-wise, it’s been crappy. Any Norwegian will tell you so. Then again, any Norwegian would tell you that any summer, pretty much, and for the most part we are right. We do have a lot of weather in this country, and most of it isn’t of the nice kind. But even if we’d had a warm, sunny summer (not that we did, mind you), we wouldn’t call it a nice summer. We forget easily, in this country. And one rainy day easily translates to “three weeks straight”. If the weather is one of your main conversation topics (and in Norway, it definitely is), it is, after all, much more interesting to speak of bad weather than sunshine.

But I’m not here to talk about the weather.

The summer has been especially strange for me, I guess. I went from a busy life in Tokyo to the slow-as-ever sleepy small town life in Norway. I went from an exciting, interesting and challenging job where I felt I made a difference, to unemployment and application writing. From feeling useful to completely useless. From being a social butterfly to spending most my time on Facebook (which is not the same thing, no matter how you try to justify it for yourself). I went from having too many plans to handle, to having none at all. As of now, I have vacation for the rest of my life – in theory, at least.

But I’m not here to talk about my unemployment.

Norway in general had a strange summer. On July 22^nd the unthinkable happened. Terrorism. In Norway. 77 people brutally slaughtered down, by one man and his hate. A hate that took us all by surprise, and that we’ve been struggling to understand ever since. Maybe we’re not supposed to understand; maybe we don’t even want to. The debate that surfaced after this ranged from “we need to analyze his manifest to make sure others like him cannot go unnoticed” to “we need to give his ideas less attention to avoid copycats”. Principles of freedom of speech have been discussed. We all agree we need to protect this right, now more than ever, but there are different opinions and interpretations what this right should entail. How much can we allow? How far should anonymous online debates be allowed to go before the danger signals flare?

What made the strongest impression on me in the middle of this, however, wasn’t the stories of the horrors at Utøya. Not the controversy about whether someone like this culprit (whose name I don’t like mentioning, despite Harry Potteresque wisdom of not letting him become another “You-Know-Who”) could have been stopped, and what measures would be an appropriate punishment (nothing, clearly. Nothing is appropriate. So we have to stick to the options already provided in our laws).

No, none of that. What made the strongest impression was how people came together after this. How it suddenly didn’t matter where you were from, what you did, how much money you made. We were all one. We stood by one another and acted a little nicer, spread a little love. The rose sea, spreading across the country. In Oslo there are still roses everywhere, a sad and yet encouraging reminder of what happened. Terrorism and hate was met with democracy and love.

But I’m definitely not here to talk about terrorism.

In current events it’s been a summer mercifully free of cucumbers. (An old expression in Norway – “cucumber news” was when the newspapers during the summer did not have anything real to report on, so they wrote about the cucumber prices.) I suppose there were some cucumbers with the e.coli breakout in Europe early this summer. But apart from that we’ve had nice, proper news. Prime ministers have left their jobs (the Japanese, for instance. Today, in fact, after months of anticipation. In Norway we’re happy because the new guy’s name creates possibilities for puns just as the old one’s did. From “Yes, we Kan” [but he couldn’t] to “Hva nå da, Noda?” [that last one doesn’t make sense in English. Sorry, guys. But knowing Japan, I’m sure there’ll be a new guy with a punnier name within a year]).

In addition the Strauss-Kahn (he couldn’t either) case made nice headlines all summer, Libya and Syria (oh, who am I kidding – the Middle East in general) still ensure that trees are being chopped down to produce paper, and most recently, of course, a little lady called Irene got loads of attention (all jokes aside, hope you’re all safe).

But I’m not here to talk about current events either (and still not the weather).

What am I here to talk about, then?

Frankly, I’m not too sure. I meant to say something meaningful about blogging. Blogging on this blog, specifically. If you think it’s been kind of quiet here lately, you’re absolutely right. If you think that’s caused by irreconcilable differences within the group, you’re absolutely wrong. If you think it’s caused by a slight tendency of burn-out and summer business, you’re closer to the target.

We’ve been blogging approximately five days a week for a little over a year now (we even missed our own bloggiversary, that’s how preoccupied we’ve been!). We’re eight individuals, trying to coordinate across despite living in different countries, time zones, continents. We have different schedules, backgrounds, different ideas about blogging. In a way, I think our diversity is what makes the mix interesting. But it also makes it challenging.

Thus no one complained when a summer vacation was suggested. A vacation that allowed us to take a much-needed break from blogging. In order to not leave the blog hanging over the summer, however (no telling what crazy shenanigans it might have gotten into then), we decided to post once a week. Thus, this summer have seen fewer posts at the BB&B blog, but I think the posts that my dear colleagues put up were more than top quality wise.

Maybe that is why I had such reservations about my own post… What in the world could I write about that would be equally interesting as the previous posts? Trust me, the sleepy small town life doesn’t provide interesting blog fodder…

My solution was to post about our blog schedule. To explain why we took a break, and when we will return to normalcy. But (you thought I was gonna write “I am not here to talk about…” didn’t you?) even if I wanted to be here to talk about that, it is easier said than done.

You see, we haven’t made up our mind! Every now and then, we make some (smallish) changes here on the blog. Like setting up alternative schedules when we tire of our old topics. This is a golden opportunity for doing just that. So, the debate is going in the Burrow. What will we do now?

But I’m not here to reveal any secrets…  

The Graveyard Beer

As fun as my new job can be, it is also quite stressful. Thus when I discovered that last Friday was a Japanese holiday and therefore a day off from work, I had mixed feelings. I wasn’t sure if I should be happy to have my weekend start one day early, or if I should be annoyed for not having enough time to do all the important, interesting, workish stuff I was supposed to have done that Friday.

Regardless of my sentiments in the matter – a day off it was, and I couldn’t go to work even if I’d wanted to. Instead, I ended up going out of town (this being a silly term when the “town” in question is Tokyo, and the “out” of it is Yokohama, Tokyo’s conjoined twin city); I ended up freezing my Norwegian ass off (well, not off – it’s still there, but I was certain I was about to lose a finger or two); and there is beer involved as well.

Delusional, huh? Yeah, I thought so. But I am getting ahead of myself. I should start with the start.

Back in 1864, a young man arrived in Japan, a country that had been closed for foreigners for more than two centuries, but had recently been reopened, much thanks to Matthew Perry (not the actor). The young man (again, not the actor, nor Matthew Perry at all. My narrative is distracting, I know….), named William Copeland (actually, his name was Johan Martinius Thoresen, but he had – for reasons unknown to the internet – changed his name upon arrival in the US a few years earlier), came from the small, Norwegian town Arendal, and he was a brewer by profession.

Copeland must have been quite the entrepreneur, as he started several small businesses before finally deciding to return to his original career. Around 1870 he opened the Spring Valley Brewery in Yokohama, and soon his beer became popular among the Japanese as it was less bitter than the other beers on the market. Unfortunately, Copeland’s luck ran out, and he faced bankruptcy. He left Japan, and when he returned a few years later, he died not long after. He was buried at the “foreigner’s cemetery” in Yokohama. This could have been the end of Copeland’s story.

But it is not.

Even if Copeland never managed to bring the brewery back to its initial success, others did. The Spring Valley Brewery was bought, it continued to produce the popular beer, and eventually it was renamed. If you’ve ever been to Japan (and maybe even if you haven’t), there are a few brand names you will have encountered. Meji chocolate. Toyota cars. Sony, Fujifilm, Nintendo. And Kirin Beer. William Copeland’s company grew into Japan’s largest beer producer, and eventually also a massive soft drink producer.

As a way of expressing gratitude to Copeland’s legacy and contribution to the company, today’s Kirin Brewery Company, Ltd. still tends to his grave, and every day on his death day, his gravesite is visited by representatives for the company. If the Wikipedia page about Copeland is anything to go by, his gravesite is also visited by others who pay their respect by putting empty Kirin beer cans on his grave.

I came across this story while doing some research on Norway-Japan relations. As coincidences would have it, however, I was reading this just a few days before my day off on Friday. And even more coincidental – Copeland’s death day, the day of the beer can covered grave, was that very Friday. It seemed like it was meant to be. Thus, my coworker and I decided that we should go to Yokohama and pay William Copeland’s grave a visit.

Unfortunately, the weather was not on our side. Some people claim that just because I am Norwegian, I am water-, snow- and low temperature proof. This is not true. Even Norwegians will get used to a warmer climate if they spend too much time abroad, and thus I was not prepared for snow on Friday. I was also not prepared for how much colder snow and low temperatures are by the coast. Yokohama is basically one big port, and the cemetery was right by the ocean side.

I have rarely been so frozen in my life. The entire day was spent outside, as it took some searching for the grave in the surprisingly large graveyard. We actually had to take breaks every half hour to warm up in cafés to survive the journey… Also, there might have been some climbing over a fence at some point. And when we finally did find the grave – what did we discover? It was covered with lovely flowers (and snow), but no – not even a single one – beer cans…

We had, as good visitors, come prepared. In the first convenience store we saw in Yokohama my coworker and I bought each our can of Kirin beer (and I bought a woolen cap – you’d think I wasn’t even Norwegian for venturing out without being properly dressed!), and this (the beer, not the cap) we meant to drink, toasting Mr. Copeland and respectfully leaving the cans on the grave.

As it turned out, we didn’t feel like drinking the beer. Partly because it felt wrong, considering it was a graveyard, and no one else was doing it (no one else was there. It was closed. Ahem. Hence the fence climbing…). Partly because it was so freezing cold that I am pretty sure I definitely would have lost a few fingers if I had attempted to spend more time outside than absolutely necessary. And we had absolutely no desire to leave the cans – full or empty – as we already had committed enough sins that day (did I mention I trespassed on a cemetery?!)

In the end, we placed the (full) cans on the grave, took a few pictures, and then brought the cans back home with us. No one will ever know that William Copeland’s grave was visited by two icicle Norwegians with the intention of littering. Well, no one but you guys, of course, but I’m sure you won’t tell anyone. The question, then, is whether the beer can story was just a story; or if the grave had just not been visited that year, either because of the weather or because of the fact that the cemetery was indeed closed. I have no idea. I may have to return next year to find out?

(And if you thought all of this was the result of the delusional mind of a storyteller, I bring forth picture evidence below…)

I think it was called the "Ocean View Park", but I wonder if "Foggy View" wouldn't have been more appropriate...

Apparently, foreigners do die in Japan. By the bunch. And those white specs making the picture blurry? Yeah. Snow. 

Snow. Fog. It was sort of a theme. 

At last we found Mr. Copeland. Beautiful (though cold) flowers. No beer. Hm... 

Fortunately, we were able to add beer. Some day I'll even drink it, and think of William. Indeed I will. 

Delusional Thursday: End of Vacations

(Blurry Fireworks at Magic Kingdom in Disney World)

Well, as this post was a complete surprise, I am just going to dive right in. I just got back from Orlando, Florida. Not delusional enough. Well, we (as in 26 of us in my extended family), did eight amusement parks in ten days. Everyday we went somewhere. Disney's Animal Kingdom, Magic Kingdom, Typhoon Lagoon, Blizzard Beach, Downtown Disney, Universal Island of Adventure, Universal Studios and Sea World twice! Still not delusional enough.

Well, on the day that we left for Florida, I had surgery for my kidney stone. Yes, I did! Then, we drove from New York City to Orlando with a bunch of kids in each car. It took twenty-four hours to get there. As if that wasn't enough, we drove back. It took 1 1/2 days on the return trip. I cheated though. We stayed in Laurel, Maryland because I simply couldn't take it anymore. Since I do not want to bore you with the absolute insanity that occurred on this wonderful vacation, here are some pics:From left to right: Charlie Marie (my niece), Jerilee (my cousin), myself (looking hot and confused), Iris (my sister), Ayanna (my daughter). We are at the entrance to Animal Kingdom.
My niece Heaven, daughter Zionne and niece Hailey at Magic Kingdom.

This was the highlight. My little ones (nieces and my daughter Zionne in stripes) at Hogsmeade and Kings Station!
My nieces, cousin Jenny, Tamika (sister), Juan (brother-in-law) and my daughter Zionne drinking butterbeer.

And last but not least, my nieces are superheroes posing with Cyclops at Universal Island of Adventure.