Tuesday, 14 January 2014

☆*゚Unbelievable things☆*゚

Hi Lovelies

As some may know, I'm studying at an university in the north of Japan. It's a partner university from my german university and therefore a lot of other students already went here, as well as two other students from my class are studying here, too.
As always, before I came here the older students told me funny and not so funny stories about the university and suggested me, things I should do and not do.

Well, one story everyone was telling me was going like this: "Between december and march you'll never see the sun and the snow is about 2m high, so better not take the winter semester it's boring in total. And cold."
As people tend to exaggerate I kinda didn't believe it and here I am, taking the winter semester and being stucked in a hell of snow I could have never ever imagined.
I went outside to take these pictures for like 5minutes and after I returned to my room, it snowed about at least 10cm - and it's not foreseeable if it's going to stop soon. Probably not, as snow is said to be here untill march. What?!

I guess it's a bit difficult to see, but the lowest level of snow is up to me knee, the highest around my waist, sometimes even higher. Yes, to my waist.

So yeah, not really 2m untill now....
Thank you for reading

Wednesday, 8 January 2014

☆*゚Cool or cute?☆*゚

Hey Lovelies

I hope your year started in a good way!
For me university starts again tomorrow and some people already told me, that the winter semester seems to be a pretty tough one so I'm a lil bit afraid, although I could chose only two classes.
I chosed Japanese and Management Practices in Global Business, for those who're interested.

Today's post is about kind of a resolution for 2014 but to be honest, I'm always planning on doing that and I always kinda fail in my opinion lol
I want to be braver when it comes to clothes. Some people told me, they like my style and that it's kinda special for them. That probably depends on what you're used to wear yourself and see on the streets I guess.
I don't want to say, that I don't like my clothing style because well that's what I'm wearing of course I feel comfortable in it, but if it comes to mixing clothes for an outfit, I'll always go for the saver option. I'm not that open to try new things.
Saver option for me is mostly the cuter way of dressing. That's okay.

On the other hand a big part of me wants to try new things and new styles and probably more 'cooler' styles - although they probably don't suit me lol

In Japan there's often a huge difference between かっこい (= cool) and かわいい (cute) girls and I guess that's true for a lot of people. I don't want to say, that you can't be both, but most girls are either the more girly type or the more cooler type, aren't they?
As I'm not the latter, I admire cool girls a lot (^w^)
What would you consider yourself to be when it comes to clothes? Cuter or cooler?

I don't really know if I can really change my style as my taste in clothes varies a lot recently but I definately want to try out different combinations a bit more!
The outfit underneath was worn for the mall recently. The skirt is from Liz Lisa, the pullover is from gina tricot and the hat from H&M. I got this skirt with my luckyback and as I'm restriced with clothes here in Japan, I'm still not so sure how to wear it right but I liked the warm combination with the ruby shade. Accessories are from a juwelry (rings) and from Paris Kids (everything else).
Thank you for reading

Sunday, 5 January 2014

☆*゚New Year's Eve aka Quality Time with Friends☆*゚

Hello Lovelies 

I hope everyone had a nice New Year's Eve!
I for one spend some days with my friends at a town, called Matsumoto (松本), close to Nagano. We decided spontaneously on this town, as for us the get together was more important than  big parties and fireworks (which is pretty rare in Japan in general). Although all of us are currently studying in Japan it's kinda difficult to gather as we're really scattered through the whole country - good for travelling, bad for a whole group meet-up!

One of the things I love the most about Japan, is architecture and I'm always happy about opportunities to stroll through smaller japanese towns - as Tokyo or Osaka are just too modern already.
Anyone out there, who shares my passion?

We stayed at a traditional Ryokan, which also offered a free onsen to its guests. I never used to be friends with Onsen before, but this time I'm madly in love with them! After a long walk through the cold nothing beats the awesome feeling of taking a long bath in an onsen.
Another great feeling, that is close to be as awesome as the onsen feeling is sleeping under a Kotatsu, but as you have to curl yourself under the table, the Onsen-feeling wins over the Kotatsu. Nonetheless I'd love to have either one of them here...
Unfortunately the kitchen was closed due to the holidays, so no delicious japanese food for us. Instead we prepared some Nabe the first evening and went out for dinner the second one. The restaurant we went to, was called 'Big Boy' and few people can imagine what fun I had with that name... Even took a picture with the mascot, isn't it cute?♥ (There was a german band called Big Boy long long time ago)

Matsumoto also has a castle and some small, cute shrines and temples, which were crowded due to the New Year's Eve but sold some food to make it up with us again. Yaya and me shared some curry-taiyaki, which I had never tried before and which was surprisingly delicious. On the other hand, what did I expect - Taiyaki is awesome, curry is awesome.
Furthermore they had a special at the local starbucks; Chocolate Bretzel Moccha Frappucchino / Latte, and we couldn't resist to try. Not that bad but I didn't know, that the specials at the local Starbucks stores change by regions.



Saturday, 4 January 2014

☆*゚明けましておめでとう☆*゚

。*:..。o○☆Happy New Year
So I wanted to write more entries here and look what happened;
nothing
And once again the only excuse I have is simple life.

At the end of the year a lot of 'Past year in a nutshell' post are coming up and I thought about doing one, too but while I was thinking about 2013 I recgonized, that I simply don't know what to write. A lot of things happened for sure, good things, bad things, important things and not so important things, some things changed, others stayed as they had ever been...
To sum it up, 2013 had been a Life Year for me.
One of those years, that teach you to keep going, and that's what I'm doing (or at least try)


A bit more than 4 months have passed, since I moved to Japan and one of the reasons I couldn't keep up with this blog is, that I struggled a lot. Sometimes I didn't even know if I could handle this any more, I wanted to say "Fuck Off" and leave so so many times - I can't even count.
I flew back to Germany for Christmas because otherwise I would have lost my mind for sure. Being at home with my family, meeting some of my older friends and just relax helped me a lot. I do feel better now and since a few days, I'm back in Japan again.


I still have two more semesters to go and this is my 2nd try.
As it was never Japan or the japanese people which made me struggle, I still don't know if I can manage to get along well with everything else but I'll give my best
On that account I didn't really make any New Year Resolutions except giving my best to improve in general!

For everyone who had a hard time during 2013, I wish improvement for the upcoming year and for all the people, who had a good time the past year even more fun in the future!

Did you make any New Year Resolutions?

Tuesday, 1 October 2013

☆*゚Crawling back to the blogger atmosphere☆*゚

Hello to everyone who has found back here!
Has been a long time, right? I'm really sorry for this delay, I actually planned to update here soon after I arrived in Japan but unfortunately blogger wouldn't let me log in, because I tried to log in from an unknown place. Blogger's trying to be funny! I just tried the very minute and it worked, I have no idea what's different now but probably my patience paid of, who knows. Unfortunately I do not know, if I'll be able to access later again, therefore I decided to post a quick update just to let you know, that I'm alive as well as desperately trying to update!
Cupcakes at my farewell party with my friends
 I do have another blog, that is probably more 'formal' than this one, with a lot of other information about my university, my studies and everything, which I want to keep out of this blog a bit. First of all, I'm not sure how interesting that is for my readers, second I thought it might be easier, to keep the more private stuff seperated from the other things. On that account there might be some more private entries here in the future, I hope you don't mind :)
If you're interested in my other blog, just tell me and I'll give you the adreess, don't be shy!

Being in Japan, being here at my university, going to class everyday, study all day long, meeting new or even the same people day by day is still so new, so strange for me, that I can't say, I have already settled down even a bit.
Before really being here, I wasn't sure any more, why I'm even studying japanese. Since I'm here I got this feeling, I felt for so many years, back, and I'm glad I truly can say; I love Japan again. I avoided even thinking about the Why? for a long time, because I was afraid, that the answer would be: "I don't know."
cute donut in Shibuya
Japan is huge, Japan is loud, it's fast, strange, dangerous - short, it's intimidating. But on the same time, it's awesome, nice & and friendly, open-minded, stylish and cheering.
Nonetheless I'm overwhelmed by everything here. I had so many problems the first weeks here in Akita that I can't even name all of them. It's getting better slowly but surely, nevertheless I do feel lonely here because I miss so much that gave me security. I need to learn to handle things completely on my own, without my friends in the background who helped me every time I needed them, and that's hard for me. - and probably the best thing I gotta learn here.
dancing girls in Kakunodate
I often do feel lost here,especially when I want to talk with a friend, and nobody's online, on the same time, I laugh a lot - the two sides of the same coin, like it's always in life, right?

This entry is just about my general feelings about being here at the moment. I'm sure they're going to change during my stay here, for example the loneliness and this 'being overwhelmed'-feeling.
Before coming to my university, I had stayed some days in Tokyo with my friends and I'm going to write about that later I guess, that's probably most interesting at the moment, right?
To start off with, I love Tokyo. I really do love this city and I hate at the same time. There are people, staying in Tokyo for four weeks, claiming after it, that they 'love Japan'. At bottom, that's not true at all, because Tokyo does not represent Japan, it would be kinda frightening, if entire Japan would be represented by this city. Probably others of you, who had already been there and to other places as well, do understand what I am talking about here.
There are people, staying in Tokyo for five days, being already annoyed and bored by it. (To all the people, crying now; I understand them partly.)

There are even people, being in Tokyo for one day and fleeing it again.
I think, Tokyo really polarizes, even within myself I'm never sure, wether I love it or hate it.

And that's the reason, why I always want to go there again.These schizophrenic thoughts can only be put to silence here ♥
I do not want to claim, that I've been to every single city in Japan and know everything about that country, actually my knowledge about it is pretty limited I think, but that's based on my experience, some people might think in a different way.


But I do think, that's a long entry to enter the blogger atmosphere again, right? I'll leave you with this, and hope to be back soon with other entries!
Please take care everyone ~♥


Is there anything special, you want me to write about in Japan? 


Monday, 12 August 2013

☆*゚Paper cranes are made for deepest wishes☆*゚

A late hello to you Cuties!

Today I went on my last "Goodbye journey" before leaving to Tokyo, to see someone special off in Stuttgart, and on my way there I met beautiful Loan on the train! My home area is like a little village - whenever I drive to Stuttgart it's always possible to meet friends there and I'm of course always happy to see them (^_^) Especially today as I didn't think of meeting her before I leave - happy me!
Schloßpark - Stuttgart
As you can see on the picture, the weather today was just perfect for sitting outside and enjoying the pleasant temperatures.
Unfortunately it seems like the Matcha Frappuchino  isn't sold any more at the german Starbucks stores? Does anybody know is it really sold any more? That would be so sad, I really liked it!

Mango Passionfruit Frappuchino
Do you know how to fold paper cranes? I didn't know it and I'm still not able to fold them although Ken really tried to teach me. When it comes to craft things I'm unebelievable clumsy, I can't even cut an even line ( you should be able to do so in Kindergarten...) 
perfect paper crane♥
In Japan it's said, if you fold 1,000 paper cranes one of your deepest wishes comes true. I found it really difficult to fold them, but for him it was so easy, that he even folded smaller, baby cranes. lol So cute ♥ Would you have a special wish for folding 1,000 paper cranes? The most famous story with these paper cranes, is the story of Sadoko Sasaki, a schoolgirl who lived in Hiroshima as the US army dropped the atomic bomb. Probably as a result of the radiation she was diagnosed with leukaemia. She folded more than 1,000 paper cranes for getting healthy again but she died after more than one year in hospital. Since then paper cranes are a symbol for peace and in Hiroshima there's a statue from Sadoko, also as a symbol for peace. 
Paper crane family
In less than 3 days I'm off to Tokyo and oh my gosh it's so thrilling and annoying at the same time I can tell you!So many things to think of but at least I'm finished with packing my clothes and I think I have collected everything important. The less important things... well I'll look after that tomorrow.

Have you ever been abroad for a year or even longer? How did you feel? 

Good Night now! ☆

 
 

Saturday, 10 August 2013

☆*゚Living someone else's dream゜゚*☆

Happy Summer Cuties!

Finally the long awaited summer arrived in Germany - and I'm dying. I'm allergic to the sun, to sweating and to the heat. And yes, that's possible, so you can imagine that summer's not necessarily my favourite season...
I've been silent for a long time and I'm sorry for it! Life and its pitfalls you know... Actually there was another entry I had prepared, explaining what happened and what I did, but in the end that's nothing that's interesting to you I think.

I keep concentrating on the future though because...


I never really announced it officially I think, but in a few days I'm leaving for Tokyo, Japan!!!

I'm already SO EXCITED and really looking forward to the time there! 


That's not all though. After staying in Tokyo for some time, I'll drive to the north of Japan, where I'm going to stay one year and attend classes at a japanese university. Yep yep, one year studying abroad in Japan. Sounds awesome, huh? I know! And it's so thrilling although the preparations nearly brought me to the brink of the abyss becaue it got pretty complicated at some point.
Nevertheless everything's fine and the only thing I still have to finish before leaving, is finnishing packing.


 As you see, still a lot to do... lol

I hope you're going to accompany me during this year! (^_^)

Have a great summer!!!