Hello everybody!

As you know things have calmed down, especially down here where not much was going on anyways. I'm not gonna write anything about the situation as you can read all about it EVERYWHERE anyways.
It seems that A LOT of people have left Japan, though. Far more than I thought! I was browsing through random LJs yesterday night and the majority has left! It's a little bit sad, but of course I accept their decision and can understand why they would leave as well.
I've seen a LOT of people complaining about having to cancel their trip to Japan that they planned for this year. DON'T!!!! There's absolutely no reason for that! Of course, please stay away from Fukushima or generally Tohoku!
Furthermore Japan =/= Tokyo! If you planned a trip to Tokyo, fine, go there, but if you feel uncomfortable, then also consider coming further down to the west! There are so many awesome places here in Japan (if you need inspiration browse through my travel index) and they're so far away from the affected area as well as less prone to earthquakes! You'd definitely help Japan's economy, too!
I suppose quite a lot of tourists are scared now and let's not talk about all the countries out there who've stopped getting imported products from Japan!

Alright, let's not talk about this anymore!
On a happy note, spring vacation is around the corner! Only a few more days, yay!!!~ And of course I'll stay in Japan ^___^ I already planned my trip before the earthquake and there will be no changes!
I'm a little bit afraid that the cherry blossoms won't be on time this year, though! They're definitely slower than the last few years!
They were in full bloom on March 30th 2009 and March 27th(!) 2010.
It's March 27th and they've not even started to bloom yet!!! My vacation starts in a few days, oii!!!~ Will this be my first vacation without cherry blossoms? ;o; ..... I planned my trip so that I would visit spots that are famous during the cherry blossom season ....
I wonder why they are so late this year?!
Sure, it's extremely cold this year, but I think it was about the same last year! Hmmmm.
Well, I kind of can understand if they don't wanna come out this year, but ... PLEASE!!!! Only a few more days, hurry up!!! *cheering and dancing*

With all that happened time stood still for almost a week - for most of us I guess - as we were too shocked to really do much of anything.
I also wasn't able to buy a tripod, so I'll be without one during my vacation yet again, but it's okay I'll look into it once I'm back.

Because it became a minor issue during the "catastrophe" I stopped thinking about it for a while, but it's still a huge problem. My facial skin is really getting worse and worse. I'll finally go and see a dermatologist or at least a doc after spring vacation.
It might be the water. I heard a lot of people got skin problems, even hair loss due to the Japanese water (too much chlorine?!) Then again I've been here for over 3 years already, so why now?! Doesn't make much sense!

On another note ( Twitter readers might already know) I'm finally getting some fitness!!!
For now, as I really haven't done any real sport for many years, I'm just literally hopping and dancing around and stuff in my apartment.
I wanna get into shape again. I don't mean losing weight, that's not an issue, but I easily get out of breath - even if I only jump around with my little ones at school for a while. I do look like the sporty type, but I really am not ... not at the moment at least.
I do have the motivation right now, so NOW'S THE TIME!!!
For now I really only wanna do stuff at home.

I'm gonna get one of those:



I also wanna use a jump rope, but I fear my apartment is too small for that?! It would be a lot of fun and will help me to get into shape again.



As my floor is quite hard, it probably also would make sense to buy some kind of mat. Any suggestions?

Luckily all of these items are not that expensive and small enough to take back home, so it's defnitely not a waste of money! I used to be quite sporty when I was young. I did many years of Karate until I was 13 or 14, then I did less, but still at least once or twice a week something until I turned 18/19. Ever since then it's been pretty much nothing ..... I was in super shape and also had a flexible body, I was almost able to do a split, I'm soooooooooooooooooooooooooo far from it right now. I'm a little bit worried about doing stretching, though. I've read quite a few websites about it and some say you harm your body more with it than it would actually help. I'm a bit afraid that I might make things worse, so if you have any good tips for me or also good instruction videos, websites, books or whatsoever, please let me know!!! For now I don't want to do anything too complicated. I don't have a specific goal other than getting fitter again, so that I won't get short of breath easily and have a more flexible body in general :3

Oh, I also need to get a new suitcase! It's been a problem for the past 3 years as I only have an extremely huge one and then a hand luggage sized one. One is too big, one is too small for normal travelling within the country. It's about time to buy a "normal sized" one.

I've seen this one a few times around and it's pink! Yay!! Ahem. It also rolls in any direction, mine (from Germany) only can roll forward or backwards which gets annoying at times.
It's too late to get one before my spring vacation, though.




Random encounters: The soy milk stuff was yummie as well as the Starbucks one (though too sweet), but the pumpkin drink was yuck!!


That's all for now.
There'll be another entry before I leave for spring vacation.
Read you again then!