Hello,

it's this time of the year again.
I'll try to make it short because I'm super tired and on drugs XD (more about this later).

The year 2008 came with a huge change in my life. Back in 2007 (end of that year, actually) I decided that I want to go to Japan and stay there for about a year.
I started applying to various kinds of jobs in December 2007 and continued to do so in 2008 when finally I got hired.
Back then everything went too fast as my boss wanted me to come like .. ALMOST right away. I remember that I had to cancel my flight and book an earlier one.

I arrived in Japan exactly on March 1st. That means I've only spent 2 months in my homecountry. That's a new record :D
So far I've never been in another country longer than 3 weeks ^^

I've met a lot of new and interesting people this year (although not as much as I'd expected - thanks to my crazy work schedule and stuff). I also met people in real life that I've only known via lj so far.
It made me really happy.
It was a huge coincidence that leviosa8 used to live only a few minutes away from my apartment, so earlier this year we met quite often and did fangirl-stuff together. I enjoyed it a lot and I miss her a lot now! (*waves to her* ^-^/ )
I'm sure I'll meet even more people from now on - at least I hope so.

I also made a lot of interesting experiences this year - which ... well just has something to do with me living in Japan, of course XD
Not all of these experiences were good, though.

It's not always easy to live in another country, with another culture and language - even if you love that country.
I'm not going to rant about this in detail as I do that throughout the year often enough ;)

I still like Japan a lot and intend to stay here for at least 2 more years .... given it's possible (work visa issues).

Furthermore I think I've never studied as much Japanese as this year (well, obviously XD).
I got to eat TONS of food I've never eaten before and as far as I can remember ALL of it was delicious <333
I gained some weight since I came here and never managed to get back to my original "German weight" ever since then XD

For the first time in my life I went to Kyuushuu and fell in love with it (summer).

I learned that I actually LOVE teaching (Japanese) kids which I thought .... would be horrible, but I really like it a lot.

• Best thing this year: Uh, that's tough. Watching the Hana Yori Dango movie in the movie theater and almost understanding everything, watching sakura for the first time in my life and the outside onsen on Sakurajima.


• Worst thing this year: all those stupid hours at work that made me waste my precious time while staring at walls and having nothing to do or rather being not allowed to do anything (not work-related).

No resolutions. I usually don't have any XD



And because I do that every year:

(I think it's pretty similar to last year?! Sorry no time to write something about the top 10 commenters this year ;o; ...)

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Top Commenters on chochajin's LiveJournal
(Self and anonymous comments excluded from rankings)

1	hesaki	542
2	mahochan1	233
3	chatiel	215
4	bf_nightingale	206
5	karro	188
6	andou_	177
7	amvn	171
8	linaaa	154
9	anime_junkie18	146
10	pearlsphere	117

11	quinnsan	110
12	mamoritai	103
13	gabenut	99
14	meister_quitte	97
15	supajo	95
16	chibi_bijutsu	92
17	mtassarion	88
18	kare_chan	86
19	mhizxkyloz	85
20	_usotsuki_	82
21	fey_ish	66
22	moon_bunny735	59
23	evilblueberry	58
24	nadiko	57
25	sakitokun	52
26	musumeyz	51
27	azurewolf7	51
28	miss_dian	50
29	__manga__	49
30	yaoi_hoshi	48
31	currynana	47
32	twistedhalo04	47
33	x_houko_x	47
34	koyachii	45
35	nekoyousei	44
36	shinigami_93	44
37	tokyolights	43
38	asahifirsa	43
39	anime_heart	41
40	apsharha	41
41	princessxia	41
42	himehikari	40
43	dr_crgirl	40
44	xia_hime	39
45	shikach0u	39
46	leviosa8	39
47	loonalovegood	38
48	saa_ri	38
49	crypticbluerose	37
50	chocomemi	37
51	uver_chan	36
52	ravanna	35
53	calpis37	34
54	viennas_harmony	34
55	keikazama	34
56	miyu01	34
57	ayuehime	33
58	lunatic_shadow	32
59	jrock_nightmare	32
60	_harajuku_	32
61	brandedwhite	32
62	kittywitch	32
63	shrew_ish	31
64	shunluv	30
65	tiptoe39	29
66	ame_no_uta	28
67	nyanto	28
68	acelines	28
69	amaya_in_love	28
70	gintoki_sama	27
71	cdramagurl	27
72	tangerinesun	26
73	pnolan	26
74	yajirobesama	26
75	hitorikiri	26
76	nis_chan	26
77	nirmanakaya	26
78	mesmerisz	25
79	kami_angel	25
80	x_reggg	25
81	pocket	25
82	eitoku	25
83	vivisectionlj	24
84	dvampyrlestat	23
85	fallinstar	23
86	annatanhe	23
87	x3__daisy	23
88	aoi_aka	23
89	yukikumo	22
90	pin0k0o	22
91	a_brokenangel	22
92	omittchi88	22
93	echuudo	21
94	kawarashii	21
95	lydzi_de_galles	21
96	kurohaneshizumi	21
97	eternalblue	21
98	proxxie	21
99	aphrael05	21
100	100oni	21

Total Commenters: 4428 (4328 not shown)
Total Comments: 23683
Report generated 27.12.2008 15:23:16 by scrapdog's LJ Comment Stats Wizard 1.7

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On another note:




It's soon midnight here and I gotta get up at 5am-ish tomorrow morning x___X
My winter vacation has finally started tonight, YAAAY!!! ^___^ .....
Of course when I woke up this morning I was sick -___- ... that's why right now I'm filled with drugs in order to get healthy quickly again.

I'll spend a few days in Tokyo and in the new year I'll leave for Sendai and Matsushima together with bf_nightingale.
I'll be away from 28th of December until 7th/8th of January.


I hope my vacation will be relaxing and as great as my last one in summer.


Thank you all for your cute and nice comments on my entries yesterday. I'm sorry that I don't have time to answer to them right now. I'll do so once I'm back again.


Good night and see you next year ^-^/