10 death sins of advices

People ask for advices constantly, sometimes just to exchange thought but other times actually only to get some kind of sympathy. So here are my 10 advices of the day.
1. if you take 120 minus you age, that is how many per cent of your saving you should have invested in stocks.
2. Rather take economic advices from monkeys than from economist
3. Luck matters in EVERYTHING, make sure to get a lot of it.
4. To get a job is not a matter of what you know but who you know
5. Everything cost, even if you might not pay for it, someone else has to pay for it
6. Fat food doesn’t make you fat
7. Expensive creams doesn’t remove your wrinkles
8. Stay single for as long as it’s possible
9. Agree on the credit BEFORE you do the job
10. Don’t work without getting payed. The myth is that it looks good on the CV, but that’s pure crap.


As Baz Luhrmann said in “Everybody’s free (to use sunscreen) about advice; “Be careful whose advice you buy, but, be patient with those who
supply it. Advice is a form of nostalgia, dispensing it is a way of fishing the past from the disposal, wiping it off, painting over the ugly parts and recycling it for more than it’s worth.

Animal testing for dummies

Since I’m pretty much doing animal testing all day long (hour after hour day in day out) I figured that it’s about time to explain how animal testing really works.
So to make it easy for my readers to understand what I am talking about, I will mention some people that fit on the description of a certain method, type of animal or a certain behaviour that is studied.

ddY mice. The behaviours studied on these mice are not reliable and not repeatable. If you do a test one day, it’s most probable not to get the same result the second day.


Kate Moss= i.v injection. Efficient method to inject the drugs, Katie knows it well.

Truman Capote= Phenobarbital, with this drug, the animals start moving slower and gets really relaxed.

Tom Cruise in love= Hagueleagues test. with hagueleagues test, you put a beam on the palm and feet of the mice and record how long it takes for the mice to feel something and start moving. Like Tom Cruse in love.

Bill Clinton= knock out mice (known as the “active mice”). “I did not have sex with that mouse”.

Picasso= Paw pressure test. I’ve studied this test for 3 months and still don’t know what it wants to say.

Kim Jong Il= black mice (se Donald Rumsfeld) These mice are evil, they never do the things you want them to do.

Terrance and Phillip (from South Park)= all above mentioned mice. They are not clean, they poo and pie everywhere.

Feed up on oysters=daily problem of the industry countries

I never thought I’d say this, but yesterday, I had sooo much oysters that I’m feed up. The best thing about this restaurant is that it served THE Snob food (with a big S) nr one in THE Trash restaurant nr one (we had bugs and had to wear jackets because they didn’t have any windows. But it was the best and cheapest oysters I’ve ever had. After that I went to a green tea spa. My friend Diana is braver than I am so she tried to take photos. For you information, people are naked at the spa.

Ultimate video

Queen- Under Pressure

As I posted before, "Under pressure" is the ultimate song to listen to on repeat when you're under pressure. I found the you-tube-video and I have to say that after watching the video, the song got better. This makes me soo happy that I can almost cry.

What a mighty good whale

This is not a food blog but last night I prepared whale for the first time. Japan and Iceland are the only countries as far as I know, where you are allowed to eat whale.
The meet is bloody, red and contains hardly any fat. The price for 100 gram is around 5 euro. It’s not expensive but definitely worth a try. Before preparing, I asked Margit, about a recipe and she was kind enough to suggest a couple. Combining the recepies I got, this is how I prepared the whale.

Take the file and put some salt and pepper+paprika. Fry it with extra virgin oil on a LOW heat for 1 min per side. Pour red whine and cut some mini onions and garlic and keep the whale in the whine. I this is the basic principle if you want to make low fat beef without making it too dry (and if you don’t have time to put it in a marinade).

The result; it tasted like a shoe sole. But actually, I liked it. You don’t have to come to Japan to try whale, it taste like a badly made beef.

How do you prepare meat with no fat at all? The only thing I can think of is to have whale raw.

The good and the bad

The daily dose of paternalism is something that has been increasing lately I noticed. You have the government who’s always present to tell you to put on a helmet when you bike and give you recommendations on what to do and not to do. Besides from “Big brother”, you often have your boss whose making you feel like a character from “1984”. But he’s doing it “just to protect you”.

F A Hayek said something really brilliant once; humanities worse enemy is not the bad leader but the good leader. Hayek is right; by “protecting” citizens, you create unnecessary fears. That is what happened after 911, people got different recommendations from the government, something that increased their fear, unnecessarily, and created chaos.Japan is amazing in that sense.
The liberal market here makes you think that the Japanese government will let the citizens do whatever they please, but that’s wrong. Recommendations, rules and restrictions (se picture, taken from the boarding point of the train in Nara) makes me furious. I might be a tiny little woman, but I don’t need protection. The reported rapes in the media won’t scare me, since they’re only a few and there are other things I should fear.

People in Japan walk around with face mask in order not to catch any diseases on the tram. I guess that it's only a matter of time before people will walk around wearing helmets, just to be sure that nothing will happen to them. And THAT is something we should fear more.

The trip (Part II) day 1 in Kyoto

Just posted some photos from the trip to Kyoto. The first photo is the classic "philosopher's path". Along the path, you will find many shrines and temples. A friend's theory about why it's called "philosopher's path" is because it's long (and according to him boring) so you'll have time to think, since you can' t do anything else.

The rest of the photos is taken from the Ginkakuji Tempel (or the Silver Pavillion). It is situated along the philosopher's path.

Do we have to bear this beer?

When it comes to beer, many countries feel some kind of national proudest when you start talking about their beer. In England, every body drinks Newcastle, in The Netherlands it’s Heineken, in Finland Lappin Kulta, in Belgium Hoegaarden, Guiness in Ireland, in USA Budweizer or Samuel Adams and in Japan Kirin or Asahi.

But my question is; why is Beer so connected with nationalism?

The first Kirin factory was actually started by a Scottish guy, Tomas Glover. “The Glover garden” is the beautiful garden and house of mr Glover and it’s situated on the mountain in Nagasaki. He was Scottish, but instead of importing good beer from Scotland, he started his own brewing factory here.

Why Mr Glover had to start his own brewery and make terrible Kirin beer instead of importing beer is a mystery to me. I guess it’s better to have a terrible beer than no beer at all?

But the good news is that you get adjusted to the taste and after two months it’s not that bad.

Another tragic beer is the Budweiser. There is a really funny Monthy Python episode when they compare American beer with water. I have to say that you can definitely compare Japanese beer with water. Or Japanese drinks with water, please put SOME alcohol in it at least.

A good thing on the other hand is that many countries don’t produce any whiskey at all, since it’s obviously pretty hard to make a good one. But not Japan.
“For relaxing times, make it Suntory time” is a classic line from “Lost in Translation”. I guess Monthy Python would make a really good joke out of that since Suntory whiskey is not a whiskey. What if Europeans would start making Sake instead of importing it? It would be terrible sake. Europeans don't know how to make sake, so import it. Japanese don't know how to make beer or whiskey, so import it!

I was going to go to a beer brewery today, but I figured out that it’s better to work on a Saturday instead of having bad beer.

And I just found out that my father was in a bus accident back in Sweden. My family and relatives haven’t told me anything. He is supposed to do fine and have fun with the nurses at the hospital. I can’t wait to have a nice Ardbeg whiskey with dad when I come home.

Answer to the "interpret at the tram" quiz

I posted this photo in October and asked people to interpret the photo about "priorities at the tram" but I didn’t get ANY answers. Here is the answer about priorities of the seats at the tram.
1) people with broken arms
2) people with children
3) pregnant woman
4) I don’t know this one actually.

(This is how I interpreted the sign: 1)guy is hard 2) guy gets sex 3)woman gets pregnant 4)woman delivers a baby)

The myth of Kyoto

Kyoto is one of the greatest myths of all our time. With ancent temples, shrines and pagodas, a philosopher’s path and vivid night life, it’s not strange that the Kyoto protocol was written in one of the mythical places of Japan. Since the protocol is a myth.
The Kyoto protocol has effected the world economy, and the goals that were set up were too high for many countries to even follow. George W Bush is the only guy who got that. Just by not signing a protocol doesn’t mean that countries won’t take their responsibilities.

The danger about the Kyoto protocol is that the countries that contribute to pollute most are the developing countries. By strict regulations, people will risk to loose their jobs, and not being able to support their families and stop the economical development.

By letting the technical and economical development occur, you simply develop better technique and methods to keep the environment clean. Because honestly, most countries can’t live up to the goals that were set, and even if they’d do so, research show that the carbon dioxide pollutions will reduce just marginally. That’s why Kyoto is a myth.

I posted some photos, the first one of the mythical Kinkaku-ji Golden Pavillon (it's pure gold) in Kyoto, the second photo is the mythical Kyoto Tower and the third photo is a mythical japanese style toilet (from Tokyo actually), and in the japanese style toilet is where the Kyoto protocol belongs...

The daily dose of terror

Newspapers today don’t have much to write about and scare us with. In ancient time, when we had war it was easy for journalist to find something to write about. But not today.
So, what to do? Let’s scare people with the environmental threat! The glacier ice is melting, the pollution will kill our children, the consumption is bad, meat is bad, you are bad!!!
The fact is that the earth is going through a natural environmental change. The anent Neanderthal didn’t drive around in big Jeeps, and still…the polar ice managed to melt. In fact, you could actually grow grapes in the cold Sweden in 13^th century.
So continue to consume, it will save people more than killing them.

The trip (Part I) the night train to Kyoto

Ok, I just posted some photos of the night train to Kyoto from Nagasaki to demonstrate everything that I wont' have to say. The price one way was 12 000 yen (756 Sek or 110 USD), and this is what we got; beds and a train that has not been renovated since the 60's. At least we got kimonos, sheets and really nice blue flip flops to wear. The thing is that you were allowed to smoke in the train. As I walked through the train, I got the feeling of being in a prison. The trip to Kyoto took around 12 hours and as soon as the people got on, they went to bed to sleep...This is something EVERYONE should do before they die. The cigarette smell, the smell from the 60's, the flip flop and the kimono...I bet if you'd take one square centimeter from the train, you'll find all the bacteria there is in the world plus three new undiscovered on. It was fun…

Deeppresso???

I found this "Deeppresso" (observe spelling) in one of the vending machines in Nara. Do you think it's FOR depression or AGAINST depression (it's the same thing I know but you know what I mean)?
Still haven't found a vending machine with used underwear.

Party party party

As I previously posted, I'm back from the vacation and a brief report is to come when I have been able to catch up with some work at the lab. I miss Tokyo and the neonlights already :(
what I don't miss is the Tempeles and the Shirins, think I got an overdose of them.

Anyway, going on vacation is actually really exhausting in so many ways. But that won't stop me from going out this evening.

So sorry to say it, but I'd rather go out tonight than post a report on my blog on this trip. And besides, the around 500 picutres taken from this trip is saved at my new lover (=ipod) who's not at the lab right now.

The thing about the clubs in japan is that you can go there directly from the lab (ok, just take off the lab coat at least).

Back from the vacation

Brief report about the interesting trip is to come.