Denmark and back

I attended the annual user innovation workshop. This year it was organized by CBS in Copenhagen. It was great as always to meet with people who do research in user innovation.

Paluu pulpettiin

Pakkohan tää peruskoulutesti oli tehdä, kun tällanen kerta löytyi! Yllättävää kyllä sain keskiarvon 9,7 eli sitten vuoden 1993 on ilmeisesti jotain kehitystä tapahtunut meikäläisessä. :)

Sushi for the pain

Today was a loooong day in the office. We have to file all travel documents through Personec Travel, which is a program from hell. I ended up spending a little bit over 2 hours trying to clear my travelling expenses for the trips to Japan and the US. I would say I'm above average computer user with use experience of dozens of programs and some programming skills. But no, this is obviously not enough for being able to clear two trips in two hours. The result (after sweat and near-tears) was only one trip cleared (which in fact bounced back later!). After that I was done. And also ready to rip off heads of the mean and useless people who have "designed" the stupid program.
Once I realized I had also missed the 7 o'clock train to Tampere, which means I will not be at home until a little after 10 o'clock, I was ready to scream. The only solution to ease out the pain, was to stop for sushi at Kamppi Center. It helped.

California dreamin'

After the trip to Japan, only 3 days at home, 1 in Helsinki, and then I was off again. This time I was headed to Silicon Valley, mainly to Stanford University. I also spent one day in San Francisco doing the usual tourist stuff.
I quite unintentionally spotted the street where the famous BRAVIA Commercial with bouncy balls was shot. I love that ad (if you can love an ad)! Their other colorful ad is pretty good too.

PS. Check out the videos: the cable car, sea lions

Fried vendace for lunch

This is truly a summer-thing to do in Tampere: Having fried vendace for lunch at Tammelantori market place. I am (as you probably already know) a big fish-eater, so this is a perfect lunch for me. Some might argue they put too much salt on the vendace, but I don't really care - it's delicious! The only thing that was missing was a glass of cold white wine. :)

Kyoto is lovely

On Monday we took Shinkansen to Kyoto. It was not the first time I took the same train. I could easily see myself living both in Tokyo and in Kyoto. And probably anywhere else in Japan, too. These two cities are just the only ones I know. The highlight of this trip to Kyoto was probably seeing Kinkaku-ji temple i.e. Golden Pavilion Temple or visiting the Ito Jakuchu exhibition. The man must have been a genious!
On June 1 we flew back to Helsinki.