Postcard from... Helsinki (Viking country!)

Muumi/Moomin

Dear Jim-sensei,

I'm in Helsinki waiting for my flight to Berlin.

When I read "Viking Tales" I didn't imagine I could have a chance to come to Northern Europe.

Everything is very cute and I hope I can spend more time when on my next trip.

Tomoko

Describe your favourite place in Scandinavia - after reading Viking Tales

I have never been to Scandinavia, but want to visit Sweden someday. There are mainly two reasons which have being inspired me.

One is music. One of my favorite pop group is Cardigans, who are based in Sweden. I bought their CD when I was a high school student. Nina’s voice is very cute and their songs are very catchy. And, they sing their song in English. This is the most important point for me. They sing very clearly and it was easy for me to catch their words. Their songs became popular in Japan and it was called Swedish pop. I also love Meja. I bought two CDs and listened again and again until I remembered all her songs. When I had my wedding party, I picked up her song “Welcome to the Fun Club of Love” as the starter. Since then, this song reminds me the happy feeling.

Another is furniture and housewares. In Japan, there are some stores of IKEA. They have some floors to display their furniture. It is fun for me to look around their stores. Their design is very pop and the color and textile is very different from that in Japan. So, I want to go to flea market in Stockholm someday.

After reading Viking Tales - Utgard writes to Odin

Dear Odin,

 Hope you are doing well. Thor and Loki with small human boy named Thialfi visited us without any notice last week. Thor said he came to here, our castle in order to fight us all because he was board and had nothing to do. Fortunately, Skrymir told me they were reaching to our kingdom. We wanted to avoid fighting with Thor, Loki and Thialfi. Thus, we had no way but we used tricks.

Firstly, we took the bones from the table and burned them while Loki was eating all meat. Secondly, we put Hugi’s twin brother at the other end of the field and pretend Hugi had already arrived the goal. Then we used the drinking horn which is connected to the sea so that Thor could not drink it up. And we asked Jormungand to change into a cat. The cat could not be picked up by anyone even though by Thor. They believed some of our friends had a special ability and we won all competitions. We did not have to fight each other in the end.

We appreciate it if you keep them away from our Kingdom so that we can avoid any unnecessary fighting each other.

Sincerely yours,

Utgard

The Viking lifestyle - ice hotels

I am very interested in ICE HOTEL in Switzerland and Finland.

All things in this hotel are made by ICE.
Lodger can do all things as usual, but all tools are made by ICE.

• Sit iced sofa to rest 
• Sleep at iced bed 
• Eat meals at iced table and chair 
• Talk at iced bar and drink alcohol using iced glass 
• Take a bath surrounded in ICE 

All furniture are made by ICE, but lodger doesn’t feel cold. But if lodger wants to get all warmed up, lodger can take a sauna bath made by ICE only for 15 min. When a lodger take a sauna bath, the ice width of sauna bath will reduce by 5mm.

I want to try how I can sleep at iced bed. Lodger doesn’t lie directly on Iced bed and some fur skin from serow protect the lodger from the coldness of iced bed. So, I want to experience how effect the fur skin from serow has.

And I have another reason that I am very interested in ICE HOTEL. Switzerland and Finland are one of counties where alive with aurora.

ICE HOTEL is made by ICE and it means there are many translucent sites. During lodger stays in ICE HOTEL, lodger can see aurora inside the hotel.

When aurora appears, lodger can go to outside to see aurora more clearly.