#42 - Proactive move

Returning back from a long trip is often tiring, which is why I usually took taxi to Tampere airport. Thus it was almost a reflex to walk straight to the taxi queue after arrival. Sometimes there were too few taxis and you needed to wait a long time in the middle of the night to get your taxi. This time I had made an exception and my car was waiting for me at the airport parking.

While flying back from Europe to Helsinki, I remembered my car and decided not to drink any wine with the meal. However, after landing to Helsinki I decided to be clever and avoid long queuing, so I called to Tampere taxi center and ordered taxi to the airport.

The next morning I woke up and felt happy, until my wife asked me about the car. That’s when I remembered that the car is still at the airport. When you are tired, do not try to be cleverer than you are.

Lessons learned:

Do not make decisions when you are exhausted.

Remember proactive thinking.

#41 - The art of persistency

I was flying back to home together with my colleague Mr. V. I think we were the only ones sitting in Finnair business class. We had a hilarious discussion and pretty good meal during the flight. Especially the wine tasted good. The wine was actually so good, that we asked the air hostess, if we can get the wine back to home. Unfortunately the answer was negative; we are not selling the wine, because it is not part of our catalogue. We asked repeatedly if we can get the wine back to home, but the answer was always the same. We even pointed out that we do not necessarily need to buy the wine; we just want to get it because it is so good. Negative result, so we continued enjoying the wine and our hilarious discussion.

It was a nice and relaxing flight. Once we arrived at Helsinki airport, the airhostess gave both of us a package. Inside the package was a bottle of the good wine. We were so surprised and happy.

Lessons learnt:

Do not give up - Persistency is rewarded.

If you can dream it, you can do it.

#40 - No ferry tonight

One decade later I was back in Tromsø Norway again. It was a three generations’ holiday summer 2011; me, my father and my girl. The purpose of the trip was to enjoy the perfect scenery and to participate into the midnight sun orienteering competition in the area that had been rewarded as the most beautiful orienteering area in the world. Such enjoyable three generations’ moments are very rare.

Idyllic competition center in the middle of nature

We had about 90 minutes drive from Tromsø to the competition center in the Kirkevik and the same route back after the competition. The most optimal route included a short ferry ride over the sea. One of the competitions was arranged late evening, a real midnight sun event. Everyone was tired after the race and we tried to get quickly back to the hotel. We drove almost one hour to see that the ferry was no more operation at the night time. We had only two options; sleep on a car until the next ferry in morning or take another route back to the hotel. We chose the latter one and after three hours of driving we were ready to go to bed.

Lessons learnt:

Remember to adjust your plans to the situation.

Route from Kirkevik to almost Tromsø (point 1) +
from almost Tromsø to Tromsø.

#39 - To lie or not to lie

Long time ago I participated a conference in Tromsø, Norway. I was very excited; because that is the most northern part of the world I have ever visited. It was end of June and luckily the weather was extremely beautiful. I arrived at the hotel on Sunday before midday. The hotel room was not yet available for check-in and there were four hours before the conference started. I decided to dress short, t-shirt and running shoes and take a long run. There would have been a cable car taking people up to the level of 421 meters above the sea level, but I needed to run instead because I did not have any money with me. The route up to mountain was very complicated small path and it took me about two hours to get the upper station of the cable car. I continued climbing and I reached the snow level. The scenery was very beautiful. After climbing up three hours (almost 1000 meters height) I decided to return back because I was be really hungry. I was not sure if I could manage to run down two more hours because I was running out of energy. Because I did not have any money with me, I prepared myself to tell all kind of stories in order to get down to the hotel with the cable car. Luckily enough, the cable car ride down was free; at least nobody was checking tickets. After nearly four hours of running in the mountain I was back at the hotel, exhausted, but ready to check-in, take a shower and start the conference.

Tromsø city view from the mountains

The trip to north next to the Arctic Ocean was overall so beautiful that I decided to go back some day. Which I did summer 2011.

Lessons Learnt:

Problems tend to go away.

Nature in Tromsø

#38 - Japanese hospitality

Tokyo undergroung map

Tokyo style international breakfast 

Tokyo is a nice city, but the hectic bustle may get you out of breath. Couple of years ago I had an opportunity to experiment some interesting semiconductor companies, advanced universities, crowded subway, and tasty food in Tokyo. After a week I started to feel exhausted.

Luckily the next two days were reserved for a visit to an international semiconductor company located at the Awaji Island, 500 km south-west from Tokyo. Our hosts had taken good care of all the practical arrangements. A private bus took us from the Naruto airport to our hotel at Sumoto. As a positive surprise I noted that we were going to stay at a beautiful spa. All of us enjoyed hot baths (onsen) early mornings and late evenings. The hospitality at the factory was also more than friendly. Finnish and Japanese flags were welcoming us in the morning and the day was started by the group photo of the Finnish visitors with Japanese hosts. The official Japanese style dinners were delicious. Even if we worked hard in the meetings, I felt like a re-born man after those two days.

Our Spa at the Awaji island

Sneaker Traveller enjoying delicious
Kobe beef from the local farms

Authentic Awaji style breakfast table on a private room

Time run and it was time to get back to Tokyo. At the weekend Mr. E. - our half native guide -guided us on an exciting hiking tour at the Japanese mountains outside Tokyo. All that relaxation and exercise was needed to survive another hectic week in the bustle of Tokyo.

Lessons learnt:

Learn from Japanese punctuality, hospitality and ability to relax.

Profile of the hiking route

Satellite view of the hiking route. Source Google maps.

Where to hike on the steep hills?