Hello!~

So, recently I stumbled across a Japanese reality show called "Terrace House" which is now airing on Netflix in most countries.

Without knowing anything I just started with a season called "Boys and Girls in the City" which is the first season available on Netflix, but there's an original series from 2012 that is unfortunately not available on Netflix (outside of Japan). Anyway, I quickly got rather addicted to the show and I've caught up to the most recent season which took place in Karuizawa (Nagano) which I visited in 2016.

A quick explanation what this is about for those of you who don't know it:

This is a Japanese reality show. Six strangers (always 3 men and 3 women) move into a shared house. There are cameras 24/7, but it's different from Big Brother. The cameras aren't at fixed positions. They're just being filmed by a team during the entire time. They're allowed to leave the house and live their normal lives, commute to work and go out on dates (preferably with each other).
Everybody has different reasons for joining. A lot of them are in the entertainment business and want to become more popular by joining the show (e.g. models, comedians, actors, pro sport athletes), but there are also "normal" people with "normal" jobs. The age ranges from 18 to 30 with very few exceptions.

What I find rather unique about the series is that the respective episode airs shortly after it was filmed, so the shared house members can actually watch that episode and see what others said about them. So, it's basically impossible to have any secrets as it will get out there eventually. At the same time they'll get reactions from the viewers on their social media and friends comment on the previous episodes as well.

( Read more... )



Season 1: Boys and Girls Next Door (Shonan / Kanagawa) - 2012-2014




 So, this is the original season and by far the longest with almost 100 episodes.
Originally this was broadcasted on Fuji TV and somehow Netflix took note of the show and thus took over.

I think this is still my favorite season.
( Read more... )

Okay, that was long. Over and out.

If you've watched the show, let me know what you think!!!
I'd love to fangirl a bit!

Bye~chuu!

Hello again!~

So as promised here are a few more photos from my most recent trip to Japan.
I just came back this month, but it already feels like it was months ago. ^^; ....

Here's a small selection of photos displaying what I bought and ate while I was in Tokyo and Aichi:



I went to the Pokemon Center ... I think for the first time ever.
Although I've been to Sunshine City many times in Ikebukuro (there's also a Pokemon Center), I simply never went there.
The one above was in Nagoya.

( Read more... )





Mr. Donut Japan had a collaboration with Pokemon going on, so they had Pokemon donuts (Pikachu, Pokeball etc.) and if you bought a special set (donut and coffee) you got .....

( too cute to eat? )


P.S.: If you want to enjoy previous Japan shopping hauls you can find them here: December 2017 // November 2017 // November 2016 // December 2015


Bye~chuu

Hi!

I know it's been ages.
I'm really sorry, but to be honest I simply had ZERO time to post here on LJ.
Some of you might have already seen the highlights on Instagram - if you have decided to follow me.

As you know I went to Japan for a week end of October / beginning of November.
I then was back in Germany for 2 weeks, just to travel yet again to Japan for 2 weeks until the beginning of this month.
The first trip was a work trip / promo tour connected to my blog.
The second trip was a work trip - and as always I prolonged it by adding a week of vacation.
That also means I didn't have to pay for the flights and apart from the last week I also didn't have to pay for accommodation, food etc.
After all those were business trips.

But you can imagine how busy I was. Within only a few weeks I had 6 flights (4 international, 2 domestic). And don't even ask about my jetlag.

Now that xmas holidays have finally started, I have some time to get the photos sorted and share a few here on LJ as well.
Enjoy!~



For my 1 week+ vacation I went to Aichi Prefecture. I've only been to Nagoya and a few castle spots before, so there were still quite a few things to explore.
In the photo above you see Shirotori Garden in Nagoya.

( Read more... )



The next day I went to another highlight of the trip: Korankei

This is probably the most popular autumn color spot in Aichi Prefecture.
It's really beautiful and you can walk around quite a bit to enjoy the colors from different angles, down at the river, up on the hills.
There are also a lot of food stands where you can enjoy local food.

At night they light the area near the main bridge up as well.

( Read more... )




I'm sorry that I haven't been around so much.
I will never leave LJ, but I just don't have the time to post super regularly.
Thank you for sticking around!!

Happy Holidays!~

Hihyo~

As I got to go to Japan again in December, I used that opportunity to do a bit more shopping.
Yes, I've just been to Japan in November and was shopping like crazy, but ... as I was only staying in Japan for a few days this December, I had a lot of space in my luggage and I just couldn't let this chance slip!

Unfortunately, I only had a very short time for shopping, like only a few hours, but that was still enough to get all of the stuff below. (^___^;;) .....


Considering that I'd only have like 1-2 hours for shopping in the evening, I decided to go to Ikebukuro.
I needed to go to Tokyu Hands anyway and I already saw last time that they didn't have what I wanted in the smaller stores. The one in Ikebukuro is much bigger.


( Mandarake - Tokyu Hands - Book Off - Donki )



Last but not least I went to Donki to grab a few snacks for my co-workers and some for my family and friends (although I think they're already sick of it *g*).
I had to give up the tax free counter as the line was way too long and I was worried that I would miss my last train. ^^;


( Read more... )



Other random stuff I bought were those cute cat items.
The postcards I found near the Tsukiji fish market. The artist also includes famous regions e.g. Kotohira (Shikoku) or Yamaguchi (blow fish).
There were others as well, but I decided to go with these.

The clear files I got at a little store in a side street near Sensoji Temple in Asakusa. :)

( more cute stuff ^^ )


I really spend too much money on stuff during those past 2 trips but as I never know when I get to go to Japan again, can you really blame me? ;)
I'm just glad I got another chance to do a little bit of shopping. I'm really thankful for that.

At least I'm almost done with Christmas present shopping now.
How about you?


Bye~chuu!~

Hello again!~

As promised here's part two of my Japan trip this month, namely the food and shopping haul.

( WARNING: Do not read when hungry! XD )



I like the menus where you get to try different dishes.

( ... even ... more ... FOOD! )



Moving on to the shopping haul:

As always, I made sure to book a flight where I was allowed to take two checked baggages.
What I've been doing in the past few years is that I enter Japan with one luggage (and just have my travel bag folded away in there) and then I travel back with 2 pieces filled with goodies. XD
I flew with British Airways for the first time and they actually allow you 4 x 23 kg theoretically.
I say theoretically, because besides your 2 checked baggages you could take a handbag and your carry-on luggage at 23 kg each, but that's simply impossible. How can you fill up a tiny bag with that much weight? XD
But it still helped me a lot as I just squeezed all the heavy books into my backpack without having to worry about the weight .... well, my back DID worry ... as it was SO HEAVY, but ... you know what I mean!! ;)

( And it all somehow fit into my luggage! )



(*_________________*)b ............................... but don't worry, I didn't buy it! XD




( manga and doujinshi shopping haul~ )



Okay, that's it.
I know, I've been saying this for the past 3 years, but I do intend to sell all of the doujinshi and manga once I've read them.
There's so much stuff by now from the previous years as well ... and I worked on getting up my typical LJ sales entries right before my departure.
It's just ... there's so much and it takes sooooo much time, but I do intend to have it all up some time earlier next year, so certainly stay tuned.
You can also have a look at what I bought in 2016 and in 2015 to get an idea of what will await you. XD



Thanks for reading.
Stay tuned for more!~

Hullo.

I know it's been ages, but a lot of things happened ....

( Why I almost didn't make it to Japan .... )


EVERYTHING seemed to be against me going to Japan this time and I have no idea why.

It's a miracle that this vacation even happened, but it did.
And since I've annoyed you enough with my blabbering, let's move on to the actual vacation:

( From Halloween in Shibuya off to walking the pilgrimage trail Kumano Kodo )



After slowly walking my way (using parts of the Kumano Kodo) from Mie to Wakayama I finally travelled back to Mie.

Mt. Gozaisho near Tsu was quite impressive. The autumn colors there were lovely and different from what you're used to as there were no maple leaves but lots of other trees! :)

( Lots and lots of onsen this time! )



You know you're in Japan when .................. ;)

( This tiny island near Tokyo is paradise? )


This was really just a very small selection of photos.
If you follow me on social media you've probably seen them all and more.
I'll also eventually post them on "Zooming Japan".


Stay tuned for the "shopping and food haul" entry.


Bye~chuu

Hullo again.

As promised here's the continuation of my last entry featuring some of the delicious food I got to eat and the stuff I bought this time.



Why so delicious?

( Warning: food porn ahead! XD )



And don't even ask how many times I went to Starbucks!
They currently have a huge tea variation. That was new to me.
I fell in love with the yuzu tea. Had it many times.

The photo above was taken at one of the Starbucks in Harajuku (the one opposite of Laforet).
I like it because of the terrace on the roof which offers a great view of Harajuku's Omotesando. ^^


Yeah, sorry. I didn't take photos of EVERYTHING I ate.
I'm just too used to it, I guess, so most of the things are nothing special anymore, but I'm SO HAPPY that I got to eat the most delicious food in the world again.
Even just the breakfast with raw egg and natto in my hotel made me smile every morning. Had missed this shit so much! ;)




Shopping in Tokyo:

( ... is dangerous for your wallet! )



( The reason why I had to drag 60 kg back home .... )



I really didn't like the series "No game, no life", but this figure is what actually made me wanna watch the anime.
I still love the figure, but I REALLY thought the anime was sooooooooo booooooring. T_T .....

Oh, and I was so happy when I saw this "Nagi no Asukara" artbook, but WOAH, look at the price. ;_; ....

I didn't buy either. ;)

( Read more... )



Ok, that's all.
Hope you enjoyed this entry.

Bye~chuu!

Hey! ^__^

I'm back from Japan.
Not sure if you even knew I'm going, but just like last year I had a business trip to Japan and just stayed a bit longer to have my vacation there afterwards.
This time I stayed there for 24 days, so about 3,5 weeks!

( Read more... )



I also got lucky again to see Mt. Fuji while taking the Shinkansen.
As you know, I rarely get lucky with Mt. Fuji. Whenever I travel near Mt. Fuji or to places where you're supposed to see it, I rarely do. I think my success rate with Mt. Fuji is like 5% or so. T_T ...
But for some strange reason I almost ALWAYS get to see it from within the Shinkansen at least. XD ....




( Yamanashi, Gunma and Nagano Prefectures this time! ^^ )



( I simply love Shima Onsen! )

My time was filled with fun stuff because almost EVERYTHING you can do in Japan is enjoyable for me.
I've mentioned it several times, but here in Germany it's just not the same. It's hard to find things that are fun .... and then those are far away or difficult to obtain etc.
Returning from Japan made me think what the heck I'm still doing here in Germany.

Give me some time to get over my jet lag and think about things, ok?
But some of my friends in Japan already are convinced that I'm coming back soon. XD ....
We'll see.


Bye~chuu!

Hi again!

Just a quick warning, you probably shouldn't have a look at this entry if you're super hungry right now!

( Read more... )



But I did not ONLY eat sashimi. I also went for gyoza, ramen, udon, tonkatsu, okonomiyaki and all the other things I had missed so much. ;P


Oh, less photos than I thought.
But I guess I've flooded you with enough photos in the past few entries, so it's all good. ;)


So sad that I don't get to eat any delicious healthy food for a while, but at least I know that I'll get another chance. :333
Hope you enjoyed the photos and are not too hungry now.

Bye~chuu

Hey there! ^___^

So as you might know I recently went to Japan and couldn't resist to buy lots of stuff.
I won't only show you what I bought, but other fandom stuff that seems to be "a thing" in Japan at the moment. ;)



I failed big time as I couldn't hold back when I saw the sakura danboard portable battery for tablets / smartphones. I just HAD to get it. (*__*)b
There are so many cute ones, lots of Disney stuff, Star Wars, Hello Kitty etc .... why didn't they have those when I first needed one back in Japan. :( Booh! ;P

( More photos ... I HAVE warned you! Don't cry afterwards ... ;P )



I really wasn't sure what to get. I only had two series noted before I entered Mandarake and that was Free and Ace of Diamonds. But what shall I tell you?
As soon as you enter Mandarake the rest just happens from alone, I guess. XD
I checked out most recent series I had watched and as always those were the ones with the most doujinshi. I didn't find ANY Captain Tsubasa doujinshi this time. ZERO! Like ... there was a marker in the shelf, but it was empty. ;_;
Also no interesting Dragonball doujinshi. Not many Bleach ones, either. It's a bit sad to see how older series are slowly dying in the douji world. But it's always been like that.

( Not all of the covers are worksafe ... *^^* )


Ok, that's all for now.
Guess that was more than enough anyways.

Oh yeah and keep an eye open because most of the manga and doujinshi will be sold here on LJ again once I've read them. ;P
Though I really don't know when exactly as I don't have so much time to read them right now. I might be able to stock up on even more before finishing the ones I got this time in Japan. ^^;

Bye~chuu!~

Hey!~

As most of you know I'm quite busy at the moment, so sorry for the lack of updates, but I'm still around!

I've been waiting to write an update of my previous Japanese skincare products entry, but just didn't find the time to do so.


SK-II (Max Factor):



When I went to Hokkaido this summer vacation - and it was raining most of the time - I had a lot of time for shopping (too much) and I ended up buying a SK-II trial set.
I've heard about SK-II's Facial Treatment Essence on Youtube and ever since then wanted to try it.
The trial pack with an additional 20% discount on that day (yay!) was cheaper than the essence alone .... although saying "cheap" doesn't cut it. SK-II products are one of the most expensive skincare products in the world. (o__o'') ....

Anyway, whenever I use a beauty product somebody recommended and claimed to have seen changes, I usually never see any on my own skin.
Sometimes I like the product simply because of its texture, smell etc. .... but I can't remember ever using anything where even stupid ol' me could see a difference.

This time I could ... like immediately!
My skin looks smoother, more radiant and just feels much better overall.

But let me first tell you what's so special about the SK-II products.
( Read more... )

After using the products for about 1.5 weeks I stumbled upon a SK-II counter in my local shopping mall. They have a tool called "magic ring" which they use to analyze your skin. It's completely free of charge, so I figured, why not try it!
I was a bit afraid to be honest. I'll turn 34 in a few months and I've already first fine lines / wrinkles around my eyes and I can see more are coming through around my mouth as well. (T______T) ...................

Plus .... I know that I've committed so many skincare sins without knowing until recently .... so I was expecting a really bad result!
I also saw that some beauty gurus who blogged about their "magic ring" experience got pretty bad results as well. So, I thought ... if those people who know so much about how to keep your skin healthy and young have already such bad results, I don't wanna see mine ......



After scanning my skin, that's what appeared on the screen:

( Read more... )




Ok, that's it for now. I'll keep you updated.
I might go to do another "magic ring" analysis next month to see if there's any improvement. Would be funny if my skin condition got worse after using their products for a while. ...

Hey there!

It's been a while since I've last written a public entry. Sorry about that.
But I doubt there are many people still reading my journal who aren't on my f-list anyway.

In one of my previous entries I shortly mentioned that I bought a few Japanese beauty products based on recommendations like this or that.
I promised to write a short follow-up, so here it is.

Japanese Beauty Products



In the photo above you see some products I bought.

The Cure Natural Aqua Gel was recommended by so many. It's a great exfoliation product. Even for sensitive skin it works fine. It mainly consists of water and is very mild. You just rub it softly onto your face and you'll quickly see small pieces of dead skin coming off.
This works really well and I'm not breaking out after using it at all. No blemishes.
However, what I noticed is that some of the stuff is rather stubborn, sticking to my facial fluffy hair especially around the chin, but maybe that's just me.

( Read more... )



Whitening Your Teeth

I also tried to whiten my teeth for the first time in my life.
At first, I tried it using natural ingredients such as rubbing strawberries and banana peel onto my teeth, but that didn't help.

I've also started oil pulling with coconut oil. That's supposed to get rid of all bacteria in your mouth, so you should do it first thing in the morning before you eat or drink anything. Keep the oil in your mouth and squish it around and through your teeth for about 20 minutes. Spit it out. DO NOT SWALLOW as it contains all the bacteria that were in your mouth.
I don't think it did anything in terms of bleaching, but my teeth feel smoother by doing so.
Apparently you can use other types of oil as well, but coconut oil has this antibacterial characteristics and is not disgusting at all. I can't imaging doing this with any other kind of oil.
Have you tried this yet? :)

( Read more... )



( How I whiten my teeth )



Hope you enjoyed this entry.
Thanks for reading! ^_____^

Hey there!

I haven't been able to update in a while.
Jeez, I've been so insanely busy! Not in a bad way, but still!
Sooooooooooo many things happened. It will take ages to update, so today's just a very short review.

I can't even remember the last time I was home where I really spent the whole day in my apartment without going anywhere.

Some time in February I went to the Sapporo Yuki Matsuri. Then I was busy with selling things here on LJ. In March I went to enjoy plum blossoms and was still busy with selling stuff, planning my next few vacations etc.
And since then things got really crazy!


Spring Vacation 2014:



I had 9 days off around the end of March / early April and some of you might remember that I said I didn't plan anything and that I had no idea where to go.
The first day of my vacation was rainy anyways, so I decided to stay at home. I ended up meeting asahifirsa who happened to be in Japan and nearby at that time.
I came back in the evening, decided to go somewhere after all. Finished booking hotels, packed, crawled to bed and after only 3 or so hours of sleep I was off to Shizuoka.

( more photos under the cut )


And once GW is over there are soooooooooooooooooooooooooo many things to do!
I procrastinated everything until after GW!! I need to restart my sales entries here on LJ and continue selling stuff, I need to prepare to move, I need to work on my blog, reply to e-mails and requests and and and .... phew!!!


Sorry for the very short update.

Hope everyone is doing well!
How was your spring vacation?

I'm in permanent pain and it sucks so much!

I already mentioned it in my previous entry, but in the past few days it has become worse and worse.
AND I have no freaking idea what is going on!!

My neck and shoulders are stiff and hurt.
Well, that happens sometimes, right? I had that many times before and usually it gets better again after some time without me doing anything.

This time however it's not just my neck and my shoulders, it's also my back, my hip AND the inner side of my left thigh!!!! o_____O'''
The latter one really doesn't make any sense.

At first I thought I maybe had sore muscles, but it just didn't get better at all. In fact, it has gotten worse. And it's only the upper left thigh!!!

I researched a little and there actually seems to be a connection between pain in the thigh(s) and back pain.
However, if you have pain in only one of thighs on the inner side, then it usually comes from playing soccer. WTF????

I swear I haven't done ANYTHING recently that could have caused it!!
Maybe I'm sleepwalking?

"Luckily" my thigh only hurts when I walk or when I touch the muscle(s) there. It's ok when I sit.
However, the rest of my upper body hurts all the time, especially my shoulders and my back. I can't even tell if it's the bones or the muscles, but I guess it's all the muscles.

The issue is that I CAN'T go to a doctor / clinic anymore before I leave for Germany.
I have 3 more days at work and am also busy before work. Then, I have Sunday off and I'm flying on Monday.

I'm just worried how I can manage to survive in Germany with all that pain. It's not a strong pain, but I'm exhausted, cuz it's a permanent pain, no matter what I'm doing, it's always there.
Even if I could go to a doctor before I have to leave, I'm not sure if they could help me right away. And in the worst case I would be told to stay here and not to go to Germany.



( Read more... )

I wonder why this has to happen NOW ....... I haven't been back home in 2.5 years, you know? :( .......

I'm so annoyed!!!

I don't know what exactly is going on or how it happened, but it's annoying and it also starts to hurt!!

I'm talking about my teeth.
First of all, one of my teeth in the lower jaw moved quite a bit since I moved to Japan, so it looks like there's a tooth gap now.
This is a beauty problem. It never caused any problems and I didn't even notice it until I went back to Germany 2.5 years ago and my friends and family noticed at once! That "tooth gap" wasn't there before. At least not the last time they had seen me.

No big deal.

However, recently I assume some more teeth in my lower jaw have moved gradually. At least some teeth have moved over the time, but I think it's the front teeth of my lower jaw.
But it wasn't until a few days ago that I actually FELT something has changed. While they still look pretty normal in the mirror, they don't feel normal anymore.
I really can't describe it well, but when I close my mouth / my jaw, then at least one of the upper front teeth and one of the lower ones are rubbing against each other every single time.
One of them is "in the way", because it moved so far that it's "in the way" now.

I'm self-conscious all the time, because it's annoying as hell and all the rubbing has made my teeth more sensitive.



The solution might be a dental brace for my lower jaw.
( Read more... )


JESUS, gimme a break please!
Why does that have to happen now? Can it not wait a few more years? T___T ....

Hey there!
How was (or is) your summer vacation?

I came back from mine less than a week ago and it was AWESOME!!
There were a lot of ups and downs, but compared to the majority of my previous HORROR trips, this one was actually quite good!

( The downside(s) of my vacation. )


Apart from that I had a REALLY great vacation and here's why:




I finally got to see the beautiful turquoise color of the ocean in Okinawa! Something I wanted to see and experience so badly!
I went swimming in the crystal clear water (even at the beach where they shot the final of Hana Yori Dango - the second movie)!!!
I went snorkeling a few times, even saw a giant sea turtle (which is rather rare where we were snorkeling - at least that's what others told me). So lucky! ^^

( Read more... )



I already mentioned that it was raining most of the time, so I decided to go diving because underwater the weather doesn't matter!
It was my first time ever and it was not planned at all! I spent a lot of extra money (I think this was my most expensive vacation ever), but it was totally worth it!

I'm the one on the very right in this photo, in the foreground!

I took a beginners' course and apart from me there was another young Japanese man (roughly 10 years younger than me) who had ZERO experience (as in: he has never even snorkeled before).
The air tank (or whatever it is called) was REALLY heavy, but as soon as you're in the water it doesn't matter anymore.
I was told that my breathing technique was already excellent (it's pretty much the same as for snorkeling), we just had to test if my ears can handle the depth of the ocean.
I can't remember exactly, but I think if your ears can survive 5m, you'll be fine.
My ears hurt, but I managed to "open" them again and again, so I was ready to go for the "real thing".

( Read more... )


I already miss Okinawa.
The people there (especially on the small islands) are all so laid-back and the mix of things I know from back home (cows, goats, horses) with the beautiful ocean views is just beyond imagination!
I think I became a fan of snorkeling and diving as well.
I know that I will be back in Okinawa at some point. Can't wait to go again!
I won't forget the time where I rode my bicycle on one of the small islands with the greatest view of the ocean and fresh green all around me, accompanied by beautiful butterflies flying right next to me! ^____^

Hey! How's everyone doing?

I'm sorry that I've been silent in the past few days / weeks. I think some didn't even notice that I was gone for 9 days and was traveling around during Golden Week?
After all I didn't write about it on LJ, simply because I didn't have enough time.

People who follow me on Twitter, Facebook or Instagram might already know where I've been and might have seen some photos, but here's a short review of my vacation! ^^


As I was so busy and so many other things were going on, I didn't have much time for planning. And most of you probably know that during Golden Week it can be quite crazy in Japan as almost EVERYONE is traveling.
Thus prices for transportation and accommodation or more expensive and you usually have to book far in advance.
Because I couldn't do that this time, I decided to go to Tokyo!!!

I haven't been to Tokyo ... meaning actually INSIDE of Tokyo ever since 2008, I think.
I've only changed trains and stuff, but never actually got off to spend some time there.
While I was such a huge Tokyo fan in 2007 and 2008 - and visited many times - I just had no reason to go back there.

My hope was that Tokyo would be rather empty during Golden Week, because everybody would get out of Tokyo to travel somewhere else, but I was wrong!
I guess all the people who live in the countryside decided to visit Tokyo! (T____T)

Tokyo is always crowded and it's one of the reasons why I hate big cities, but during Golden Week it's even worse!


Tokyo doesn't have so much to offer for a sightseeing geek like me, but my plan was to do several day trips and get out of Tokyo!
I had a great time and another reason to go to Tokyo was to FINALLY meet hinoai!!!!! (^______^)b
( Read more... )



( I swam with dolphins on Mikura Island! )




One of my highlights was certainly THIS!!! I swear it felt like paradise!
I had this on my list for such a long time now and I was so worried because you know my bad luck with Mt. Fuji, right?
The weather that day wasn't perfect. People were complaining about the few clouds that were covering Mt. Fuji, but that's MUCH better than what I'm used to, so I was sooooooooooooooooo happy!!!!

( Read more... )


What did you do during Golden Week? :) (And yes, I realize that GW doesn't exist outside of Japan XD ...)
Bye~chuu~

Hi everyone!

I hope you're all doing fine.
Just a quick update. If you follow me on any social network platform you probably already know about this, but I was awakened at 5:30am this morning when everything suddenly started to shake, my smartphone's alarm went off and outside there was also a loud alarm.
I jumped out of bed immediately, but had no idea what I should do!!!
I saw the big shelf next to my bed shaking like crazy and things kept felling down from it. All that shaking plus the two loud alarms just made me really anxious.



I quickly walked under my far too thin door frame.

I can't remember how long the quake actually continued, but when it finally stopped I crawled in front of my laptop to check what was going on.
I wanted to know how strong the quake was, where the epicenter was and if there's a tsunami warning.
As I don't have a TV or radio at home that was my only option.

Once I saw where the epicenter was, I was really shocked. It was almost the same as back in 1995 for the Great Hanshin Earthquake where parts of Kobe were destroyed and over 6000 people died!!!!

The earthquake was a lower magnitude 6, the one that killed many people almost 20 years ago was a bit over 7!!!!!!! (T____T)

( Read more... )


Here are some articles about today's earthquake in case you want to know more:

• Strong earthquake hurts 23


• 24 injured after M6.3 quake hits western Japan

Experts say there will be a big earthquake by 2014 in Japan and that Mt. Fuji will erupt soon.
North Korea is also getting on our nerves.
It's just not very nice recently, is it?

Hope everyone else is safe!

Hey!

So, my short spring vacation of 6 days started as of today.
And I'm quite sure I don't have to explain this to you, but usually I'm out of here ASAP!

So far I left with pretty much the first / earliest train on my first day off on EVERY SINGLE VACATION I can think of in the past 5+ years here in Japan!
Sometimes I even extended my vacation so that I came back on the day where I had to be back at work (in the afternoon).

I always tried to use every single second, every single day - to the fullest!

There are / were several reasons for that:

1. I knew that I'm not going to stay in Japan forever, so I wanted to see as much as possible in my limited time.



2. In my first 4 years in Japan I only had 3 weeks of vacation per year (1 week in April, 1 in August, 1 in December / Jan), so my travel time was very limited. On top of that I lived so isolated that day trips were almost impossible. Thus I was always very happy to get OUT OF THERE as soon as I could. That's one reason why I eventually decided to move.



3. I just came to love traveling in Japan. When I first came here that was not my priority .... it just happened! ;)

But this time it's different. It's already my first day of vacation today and as you can see I'm home!
(Well, it was supposed to rain today anyways. In fact it's only cloudy and very windy, but whatever...)

You might have noticed that I was traveling a LOT this past year. It was really crazy! First of all I had much more vacation than before - almost 3 more weeks per year! And then I also have public holidays off, so that I sometimes am blessed with a 3-days' weekend - giving me a great chance to do some minor trips - and I did! A lot!
Because of moving to Kansai, I'm now very central and day trips (even to Kyoto, Osaka or Nara) are not a problem! And I've done a few of those day trips already.


On top of that I got sick before ALL of my previous vacations last year (I'm sure some of you remember). And I was also extremely unlucky with the weather every freaking single time!
Last April I was hit by a typhoon, in May again - followed by horrible weather for many days. And the top of it all was my vacation in Okinawa this winter! TWO WEEKS OF BAD WEATHER!!!!
I was really frustrated.
Of course I still enjoyed traveling, but now that I have achieved one of my goals (visiting all 47 prefectures), maybe it's time to calm down a bit.



This photo is from last week when I met amvn in Himeji, but that's a story for another time! ;)


I've not started planning my short vacation until a few days ago. ( Read more... )


Sorry, I guess I just had to get this off of my soul! :/ ....

Hi!



So yeah, I'm back!
And first of all we need to celebrate because now I've officially been to
ALL 47 JAPANESE PREFECTURES!!!!!!!!




Unfortunately I was EXTREMELY unlucky with the weather (again).
Almost all 16 days were quite bad. My first days in Saga Prefecture I spent out in the cold snowstorm and from there it was strong winds and rain the whole time.


Remember how much I was hoping to get at least 1 or 2 sunny days on Okinawa?? :( ...
Well, I didn't.
( Read more... )






Yet Okinawa was GREAT!!!!!!!
I really fell in love with Okinawa although I've only been to three islands. I definitely want to go again and explore some more (hopefully next time with better weather!).

( more photos!! ^-^ )



Well, that's it for now!
Actually there's so much more to tell you, but I really have TONS of other things to do.
My blog is almost dying. I haven't had time to post anything in ages. I have millions and millions of photos to look through since last summer vacation. I need to renew my work visa this month.
I just bought a car navi, so hopefully I can explore the prefecture I'm living in now a bit more by car (after my "travel hiatus" until March).

It was really a crazy, busy year. Can't remember that I've ever been so busy before!
Especially since November when my family came to visit, I barely had any breaks at all. I need to make sure my body gets some good rest, but I also need to get back into blogging!

Hope you're all doing fine out there!
Bye~chuu!~