Ruhrgebit, Lakris and engine factory detention

Long time, more trains and planes.

I wrote something about not knowing if the updates here would be short and frequent or long and far apart in the first post. Well, I think we are starting to see a pattern. At least the blog is still alive, I think.

October consisted of more than three weeks in hotels. This had a reason, but we will get to that later.

To pick up where I left of last time, Yoggi did bring some licorice. Then he of course ate half of it himself, but nevertheless a nice gesture. He also did a very good job of generally bumming around in Japan. Good times with some general sight-seeing and a couple of very late nights on the town. Only downside to the visit was that he won the Pro Evolution series. Might be a while before I will get a chance to even that score. Hopefully I can squeeze a visit in around new years.

I've also been in the land of lederhosen and bratwurst. In the Ruhrgebit to be more exact. Reason was work of course, no person in their right mind would ever go to the Ruhrgebit for holiday, right? However, it is not really the dark, dirty coal pit that it is supposed to be. Still not holiday material, but charming in it's own right. While there I met a colleague from Russia who I somehow manage to keep running into. First Belgium, then Stockholm and now Essen. But the company only has 3000 employees, so I guess it makes sense as a statistical anomaly.

As always, these half week intercontinental adventures are pretty devastating when it comes to jetlag.

Soon after Germany it was time to leave Nagoya behind again for what should have been a nice and clean eight day operation installing systems in Yokohama. It however turned out differently and had me at one point wondering if I would be stuck in cheap business hotels for eternity. To cut a long story short, first six days went more or less according to plan. On the seventh day the customer did not rest, they instead ran into problems. This in turn meant that we got tied up in the factory first proving that our equipment was doing it's job correctly and then providing support in the form of hanging around looking concerned. I am all for being supportive to the customer, but also very much against spending resources where they clearly are not productive. This made the "detention" very frustrating, even more so because of a complete lack of schedule.

On the bright side, I got to try out a couple of hotels in Kawasaki, one in Shin Yokohama, one in Tatchkawa and then of course the capsule hotel in Tsurumi. Turtle Hills in Kawasaki was a bit original, and Tsurumi is one of these places you drive through without even thinking about it (didn't stop the train-station from being crowded in true Japanese fashion of course).

The above was actually written in the beginning of November, but I never had time to do the finishing touches and it was not posted. Lets jump to present time instead.

I was in Sweden last week for some meetings. Also had time to spend a weekend back in Småland. Nice meeting up with family and friends. Flew Finnair this time. Pretty ok, but Lufthansa is a little bit better overall. Next trip is coming up on the 22th ofDecemberr. Three weeks of vacation over the holidays. Will also be very nice. SAS will provide transportation.

Managed to find time for a night on the town yesterday. Met up with a Sebastian, a German friend for some dinner and beers. Following that more beers at aforeignerr hangout where my soccer-team was having a gettogetherr. Here, I met this girl that apparently used to work at my office. I say that I'm Swedish, she asks if I know about Atlas Copco, and I say that I sort of do. It is a small world.

After this we continued to what would become thehighlightt of the night, the club. This club is a members only, basically no foreigners allowed kind of place. But Sebastian has a membership, and was nice enough to introduce me. It turns out that the owner of the place has lived in Stockholm, so before long I'm also presented with a members card. Sweet, since the policy is that threerecommendationss are needed and they have a one year waiting list. Very nice place, looks like a winner this one. Funny how the Sumo-wrestlers all seem to get very pretty girls though.

Only in Japan, kids..

That will be all for now, next post might be from Sweden. It wont take three months anyway.