Getting up at 7am, I resumed writing letters to my family and my friends. Then at 11am, I met my friend, Rod, who comes from Britain and has been living in Sweden for over 30 years. His occupation is to translate Swedish into English. He is also interested in Japan and practicing Japanese at Stockholm university.
　
　　We talked about the book “Dogs and Demons (犬と鬼)” written by Alex Kerr, a devoted japanese lover who comes from American but grew up in Japan. He argues in this book that Japan is far from a developed country. He is critical about how politicians and bureaucrats misguided Japan since 1990s.
　　His anger is not only toward the construction business connected with politics which has ruined beautiful landscape, but also the old-fashioned education system which has deprived people of critical thinking.
　　Rod seemed to be surprised to read this book. He asked me to what extent his arguement in this book is true and valid. I told him that although it is true Japan has ruined many beautiful landscape and our politics are in confusion and education systems are far from working properly, I am not so sure about to what extent Japan is in danger when compared with other countries.
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　　Then, I went to “cosmos cafe” which is located in front of V-Dala nation building. At 13:30, I was supposed to meet my Swedish friend, Stefan, who used to live in Japan for 2 years and work as a music engineer and as a language teachter in charge of Swedish and English.
　　For almost two months, he has been my private Swedish teachter here in Uppsala. To my sad, however, he is going to leave here tomorrow and he will be back in Japan next week.
　　After entering the cafe at 13:15, I resumed preparing for a special card for him, putting my foto and decolations as nicely as possible. Finally I added one of my favorite poem by Terayama shuuji （寺山修司）――”If there is such a life that is filled with farewell, then I don’t need such a life. (さよならだけが人生ならば、人生なんかいりません)