First post!

Let me start off with a bit of background about myself and what I have in mind for this blog.
I was born and raised in the suburbs of Stockholm, Sweden. I moved to Uppsala to earn a degree in chemistry. During that time, I studied as an exchange student in Sendai, Japan for one year. I had a fantastic time and as soon as I came home to Sweden, I started longing to go back to Japan. I eventually found a scholarship for two years of graduate level studies in Japan and now here I am, working on my Masters thesis in Kyoto with high hopes of graduating by the end of March next year.
I came down with the bonsai-fever sometime at the end of 2011, but more on that in another post.

My imagined reader is the next lucky fellow who happens to be in the Kyoto or Kansai area, gets mad about bonsai and wants to get at it sooner than quick. Or any happy traveller. Well anyone who takes an interest really :)

Oh, and about the name of the blog? I just had the most incredible experience once, when I brought home a small seedling plant of Katsura - Cercidiphyllum japonica. The leaves got a bit ruffled in my bag on the way home so when I opened the bag and brought it out, the leaves gave off this extraordinary fantastic sweet fragrance. I was stunned, baffled, just couldn't bring myself to stop smelling it, at the same time giggling at my own reaction. The sweetness of the scent was somehow light, balanced, just perfect and utterly addictive. It's a good thing the foliage gives off this scent naturally in the autumn as they are about to fall, otherwise I would probably be left with a brown barren stick by now.
Trees can be like that - no matter how much you take in, you keep wanting more.  :)