Roma, intermezzo

A place called Goose, close to our hotel. It has pretty great pizzas. I had a diavolo.

This is the cheap Chinese restaurant next to the Termini. I have no idea what it's called.

McDonald's near Scala di Spagna. The entrance was almost invisible; they probably weren't allowed to use their usual garish yellow and red.

Sakura

Last week, my brother, his gf and I were at the cherry blossom festival (hanami) at Kungsträdgården. Thought I'd post some photos of Swedish cherry blossoms, but it looks like someone beat me to it.

The celebration started off with a taiko drum performance. It felt rather anachronistic seeing this centuries old artform being performed in the middle of a city.

Look at them go!

Later, the chairwoman of the local Japanese club showed us part of a Noh play. Unfortunately we couldn't hear much of it since she wasn't wearing a microphone. It was extremely expressive however, and her forceful stomps even dislodged one of those red banners behind the stage. Cooler heads would say the strong winds might have been the culprit, but I'm sticking to my story.

The Swedish Kendo team was there to show off their skills.

No celebration would be complete without a fashion show. I believe these kimono are for everyday use.

These colourful kimono are for celebrations.

This is the Sakura Choir. They sang a few pretty songs, but by this time it was so cold and windy we were all shaking and had to get some actual cherry blossom photos before we froze to death, so we only listened to one and a half song.

I found some of the models "backstage" where some of my fellow gawking Swedes and I snapped a few photos.

This photo may seem perfect at first, but if you look closely her fingers are freezing. It was actually snowing at this point. I wish I were joking, but this is April in Sweden. I'm surprised any of the trees even dared to bloom.

The anime nerds were out in full force, celebrating the Japanese culture in their own quirky way, bless their hearts.

Cute teddybear backpacks were not an uncommon sight.

These European girls emulate the Japanese emulation of a European ideal. The mind boggles. Aren't they cute? How much time does it take just to get the hairdo right? And how much do those creepy dolls cost? Equal parts kawaii and kowai, if you will.

Drottningholm

We visited the Drottningholm castle yesterday. The weather was great, the tour guide informative, and the castle itself was pretty neat. The only thing that bothered me was that the painted faux marble in the entrance hall looked obviously fake to me and looked kind of cheap. No photos of that though, because we weren't allowed to take pictures inside. After taking the tour, we headed back and realized that we were probably starving (since my brother and I both had a headache), and after grabbing a bite we paid Gamla Stan a quick visit.

Sweden Day

Today was the national day of Sweden. Nothing much happens in our town on this day, partly because it was only recently made a holiday. People aren't sure how to celebrate it, or if it's even worth celebrating, although apparently some people in Gothenburg and Stockholm really welcome this holiday, judging by what I saw on TV just a while ago. Still, the reporters never seemed to find anyone who could explain the point of a national day, even among the people who wanted one.

Anyway, it was a sunny summer's day, and there were people on the streets doing watchable things. That's pretty much all I need.

More animals

No need to take a stroll in the forest to see small animals anymore; the squirrel is visiting us now.

Cats and dogs!

No, it's not raining, it's just a bunch of photos of pets that I wanted to upload. So here we go!