Hey!~

Just a short entry, because I'm REALLY pissed right now!
Tonight's already the second night in a row that I see a dead cat on the street on my way home from work!
They were obviously hit by a car.

Today's cat even had a collar, so it was clearly NOT a stray cat!

I often ranted about the crazy drivers here, but they really are!!
Why can't they be more careful? (I know this isn't a problem unique to Japan!)
Both cats were on streets were the maximum speed is 40km/h!
Even at night you should be able to react if you pay attention!

But what I find most horrible is that the cats were left to die!
The people just hit and run! They didn't stop to call ... well, whoever you're supposed to call in such a situation. The police?
I find it so sad and it makes me angry that they just don't care about the cats and their owners!

If one of the cats would have been mine, I ....... I don't even want to think about it! :(

What do you think?

Hello~

Did anybody miss me? Sorry I've been busy planning my Golden Week trip and then I was off for Hokkaido and Tohoku for 9 days.
I'm traveling so much recently, it's really crazy! I never thought it would turn out like that!
After moving to Kansai in March I've been to so many places in just 2 months!
Lots of day trips and 2 bigger journeys (5 days, then 9 days). I've been to places nearby such as Kobe, Himeji, Mt. Yoshino, Sasayama etc., but also traveled further away to Shizuoka, Chiba or Kanagawa.
In my most recent trip I went all the way up to Tohoku and even Hokkaido!!! All by train!!!

Japan has 47 prefectures (did you know that yet?) and I've been to ................. guess how many?

.....
.................
................................

I've been to 41 of them!!!! That means I have only 6 more to go.
Those 6 are: Okinawa, Saga (Kyushu), Fukui and Niigata (Chubu), Gunma and Ibaraki (Kanto) .... that's it! I'm quite positive that I will knock down most of them this year and accomplish my new goal of visiting ALL prefectures in Japan!
I haven't updated my castle index in over a year, but I think I'm somewhere between 60 and 70 castles by now. My goal is to visit 100 castles. This one is gonna be a bit more difficult, but I won't give up!
I really need to update my list(s), huh?

Traveling so much keeps me busy, but is also a lot of fun!
All I do in my free time recently is sorting the photos of my last trip, trying to post about them, but then being interrupted by planning my next trip already! It's crazy!!!!
And right now I have my next 3-days trip in my head already (if the weather is gonna play along)!!!
I wanna use the time before my most hated, hot, humid season hits!

In summer I will have 2 whole weeks off!!! Paradise!!! Usually I never had more than a week off before, remember?

This weekend was the first time in a long time that I stayed home again and it was really necessary!
I can't keep up with posting about my trips anymore, but I rather travel NOW and post LATER, right?!!!!

Here's a short sneak preview of the trips I made:



One of my personal highlights was Tashirojima, Cat Island!
I always wanted to go! However, it was hit really hard by the tsunami last year and it was hard to find any information about the current situation of the island.
I could find out that the people and cats are still alive, but nothing beyond that.

( Read more... )



Of course I also bought too many souvenirs again! ^-^;; ... More Maneki Neko for my collection!

( Sakura donuts are so delicious! )


THERE'S SO MUCH MORE TO SEE!!!
So check out my TRAVEL BLOG for more photos, infos and souvenirs!


Apart from that I can't really post about much. There's not much going on apart from my traveling.
I intend to write a detailed post about my new job soon, though.
I wanted to join a Taiko group as you all know, but with the travel craze that's going on I just didn't have the time yet.

Time's running, but for the first time I feel I'm making full use of it.
There's so much more I want to do, but there's just not enough time - so THAT hasn't changed, unfortunately.
I am a little bit worried about the future. The plan of going back home next year is still valid, but my brain is filled with traveling at the moment, so I'm worried what's gonna happen then ....

I seriously need to work on my travel blog more, too, but right now traveling is more important. I can always work on the blog when I can't travel so much anymore (for whatever reason).

I hope you're all doing fine?!
Thanks for still reading - although I'm so bad at updating recently.

Hello again!

See? I'm really trying hard to keep the entries coming
Nothing to be proud of as it's almost September and I still haven't finished even half of my spring vacation travel entries (^-^') ....

As this is my newest trip and I still remember it clearly, I thought I'd post about it first.
As some of you know I went sightseeing before my flight as I had to go to Osaka anyways. My flight was at midnight and so I had almost one whole day to spend.
Also, because I've been to almost everywhere in Kansai, I decided to try Wakayama this time. It's only a short train ride from Osaka: 1.5h by local train (and around 1200yen). There's also a limited express which takes you there in an hour, but it costs twice as much!

Wakayama (Wakayama/Kansai) (July 28th 2011):

( Read more... )



( Kishi Station where you can meet the only cat station master in the world! )



( Read more... )

That's it. Hope you enjoyed my very short day in Wakayama.
Next up: I'm going to continue with my spring vacation trip.
Actually I want to take some random short trips from now on as my time in Japan is soon over and I wanna get as much done as possible, but it's been raining every single day since I came back to Japan. No good travel weather ... *sigh*

Thanks for reading.

Heulou~

I'm quite busy lately. 　Work is almost killing me and on my days off I study Japanese like crazy (might do an entry about it - if I find some time). I try to keep up with the travel entries, but I can't promise to update every week. We'll see.

Anyways, for now let's continue.
As my brother joined me from the night of the 10th, we were finally together on the 11th. We decided to explore Nagoya together. I spared some good sightseeing spots for when he's with me (like the castle).
The weather was actually quite good compared to most other days during our vacation.
Here we go~
WARNING: This entry contains a shi...load of photos!! I once did a poll, asking whether my f-list prefers long days to be splitted up or not and the majority wanted entries seperated by days even if they get extremely long. Just expect this entry to be twice as long as usually (o_o'') ....

Nagoya Day 2 (August 11th, 2010):

( What a looooong day! )



Yes, Hello Kitty stone statues. Hello Kitty rules Japan!! And she wants to rule the whole world! XD

( 2 castles in one day ^-^ )



Then it was time for some shaved ice (*__*)v (strawberry for my brother and melon for me, of course WITH milk! :D)

( Awesome taiko performance (videos!!) )

And then it was time to leave.
It was an awesome, long and eventful day. Plus, we also were lucky with the weather.
At that point we didn't know yet what would await us back at our hotel .....

We went back early enough because we knew we would have to get up early the next day!
Why? Because that's the day when we planned to climb Mt. Fuji! The day I've been preparing for so long! The day I've been reserving the mountain hut and expensive bus tickets for.
Back in the hotel, I was really extremely tired. All that was left, was taking a shower and packing stuff for tomorrow. I kicked my brother out of the room and was already on my way to take a shower when I saw that somebody had called my cellphone.
It was the mountain hut. I immediately called them back. I already had a bad feeling about this.
( Read more... )

That's all for today.
Sorry it got so long.
Bye☆⌒ヽ(*'、^*)chu

Hallou~
It's time for antoher "travel entry" - I won't be able to post anything the upcoming week, so I figured it's better to throw one in now ^-^; That has to be enough for a while!!!　

After leaving Hiroshima in the early morning I went by Shinkansen to Fukuyama which is already the next stop anyway.
Afterwards I also went to Onomichi (wich is so awesome and I definitely have to go again one day!!) just to leave early to go to Kyoto to meet up with my friends and start our Kyoto adventure ;P

Fukuyama and Onomichi (April 4th, 2010):

( Fukuyama Castle )



( Onomichi's beautiful views! )



( View from the top of the Mt. <33 )

CU all again soon!
。・:*:・゜★,。・:*:・゜♪☆LOVELOVE('∇^*)☆♪。・:*:・゜★,。・:*:・゜☆

(=⌒ー⌒=)ノ~☆・゜:*:゜Hello~

It's finally time for the photos of day 3 in Matsuyama which was also my last day there. After that I went to Kochi and then to Naruto to see the famous whirlpools, but that's not the topic of this entry today XD

Matsuyama - Day 3 (April 5th, 2009):

Day 3 was mainly spent in the Dogo Onsen area and it was a long and very interesting day :) Enjoy~

( Be aware: too many photos today! XD )



( Approached by a middle-aged female guide!! Read the whole story! *lol* XD )





( Dogo Onsen and the very awesome Ishite Temple )



And that was my last day in Matsuyama. I'm sorry that it were so many photos this time! I already selected just a few (originally there were WAY more).
Ishite is an awesome temple! If you ever have the chance to go there, DO IT!! (*_*)
Next will be Kochi! XD

バイ(*￣◇￣*)ラ(*￣・￣*)ブ(*￣〓￣*)チュッ♪～

Hi everybody,

Sorry it's been a while. Like I told you before I had to work 6 days this week, so today is my only day off and so much stuff to do.
I'll be less busy in the next two weeks, so hopefully I can update more often.

Anyway, I'm posting today to finally continue with the photos of my spring vacation 2009.
After I left Okayama, I went straight to Shikoku, one of the huge islands in Japan.
There are several ways to get there (e.g. by ship, ferry, train or car). Everything leads over or through the ocean, though.
I travelled by train and it was awesome!! Honshu is connected to Shikoku via a huuuuuuuge bridge over the sea. Beautiful view, I tell you ^-^

Shikoku (四国^?, "four provinces") is the smallest (225 km long and between 50 and 150 km wide) and least populous (4,141,955 as of 2005) of the four main islands of Japan, located south of Honshū and east of Kyūshū island. Its ancient names include Iyo-no-futana-shima (伊予之二名島), Iyo-shima (伊予島), and Futana-shima (二名島). The current name refers to the four former provinces which made up the island: Awa, Tosa, Sanuki, and Iyo.

Anyway, I arrived in Matsuyama at noon on April 3rd 2009. Here's my day.

Matsuyama - Day 1 (April 3rd, 2009):

( Arrival in Matsuyama and Matsuyama Castle )



( Matsuyama Central Park )



( Dogo Onsen )

And that was my pretty busy, but awesome first day in Matsuyama which I'd like to call "pink flower day" XDDDD
I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did.


Ciaoっス☆⌒(*^-゜)ノ~♪

オッス＼(o￣∇￣o)/ ーーー♪
Hello again,

here's already the next photo post featuring my spring vacation 2009.
I'll show you my day 2 in Okayama.

( Sougenji and the Kibi District (tracing the Momotaro fable) )





( Read more... )

And that was my time in Okayama. I wish I had one more day for the Kibi district in Okayama ... but that was my crappy planning and thus my own fault.
Next photos will be from Matsuyama in Shikoku


バイ(*^ヽ^) ンー……ヽ(*^・゜)ノ~チュッ♪

Yay v(≧∇≦)v イェェ~イ♪

Finally it's time for the photos of my great srping vacation 2009 (so far my second favorite vacation after my summer vacation 2008 in Kyushu).
As I have so many photos, I'll go by days. I hope you enjoy it (beware of all the sakura love! ψ(○ ｀∇´ ○)ψイヒヒヒ)

Okayama - Day 1 (April 1st, 2009):

( Saidaiji Temple and Okayama Castle )



( The awesome Korakuen Garden )



( Cherry blossom festival at the Asahi River .... and .... Alice in Wonderland??!! )


And that was my day 1 in Okayama. I hope you enjoyed it!!!
Okayama Day 2 wil follow soon, I promise!
Thanks for reading (〃⌒ー⌒)/どもっ♪

チャεε(・_・)ゞオッス!

Hey there!

I FINALLY managed to sort and upload ALL of my vacation pics (and that includes the incomplete winter vacation photos as well). YAY!!!
So of course I'll start with the winter vacation now. Unfortunately my camera's memory card decided back then to delete all of my photos after a few days which is why I almost have NO photos of Tokyo and Aizu-Wakamatsu's first day.
The photos of Tokyo I got from my Japanese friend and ame_no_uta who I met there. Thanks again <33


Tokyo (28th of December 2008 - 2nd of January 2009)

( Tokyo and mocchi?! )



( Tokyo Dome and a NEWS concert?! O_O )



The 31st I spent together with my host family. I told them that I want to experienc a typical Japanese New Year's Eve and so that's what we did, with hot soba and all XD
And of COURSE I watched the Johnnys countdown live on TV. Awesome feeling ^^ (I had photos of that, too, but as you know ... *grwrskliehuorfw* -___-; ....).
On January 1st we all went together to do our "hatsumode (詣)" (first visit of a shrine) in the new year.



On January 2nd I left my host family and moved on to Aizu-Wakamatsu together with bf_nightingale where we spent 2 days.
I don't have any photos of the 1st day anymore as it was part of the evil plan of my stupid camera's memory card, so these pics have been deleted as well ;o;
What I remember clearly is that it was SUPER cold and there was a LOT OF snow x___X
The photos are by far not as breathtaking as my spring vacation photos, but I hope you enjoy them nevertheless ^-^/


Aizu-Wakamatsu Day 2 (January 3rd 2009)

( A lot of snow leads to memory loss? )



( Read more... )



I know the photos are not sooo interesting plus I have no information about anything at all, so I guess this was kinda boring, but I still wanted to post the photos.
Next time: Sendai / Matsushima photos and then I'll FINALLY start with my spring vacation photos (^-^)v


Ciaossu (^-^)/

Hey everybody,

it's been a while, sorry. I've been quite busy, but in a good way, I guess. I'm not really stressed or anything. I just really didn't have time for anything else and in my free minutes I had to finish planning for my upcoming spring vacation. I'll go to Okayama Prefecture for 2 days and then head over to Shikoku where I'll visit Matsuyama and Kochi. After that I'll jump over to Tokushima Pref. in order to visit Naruto and the famous Naruto whirlpools (*-*)v

Anyway I came back from Tokyo last week on Sunday and ever since then have been too busy to post about my few days there. I'll do so now.
I'll warn you it's pretty photo-intense, but I guess most of you don't mind?! ;P

Here we go:

Thursday (19th of March):

After about 5hours of sitting in the train (most of the time it was the Shinkansen - and I couldn't get a window spot this time ;o; ... it was too full!!!!! Well, Fuji-san was hiding anyway *sigh*) I arrived in Tokyo about noon.
My first goal for the day was Shibuya ................................. where in the end I spent the whole day XD



( Read more... )



Friday (20th of March):

Actually I wanted to visit a shrine before starting my second shopping day, but it was raining like woah and it was pretty windy, too, so I went straight to Ikebukuro where I planned to stay the whole day XD
My first stop was Nekobukuro, a cat café (*-*) (I think I wrote about those in one of my last entries?! And thanks to asahifirsa for recommending it to me ^^)
If you wanna go there, too, it's really easy to find. It's in one of the top floors of Tokyu Hands in Ikebukuro. Just on your way to Sunshine City.

So, what is a cat café? Actually, I'm not really sure XDDDD You pay a small fee and can pet and take photos of cats or just be together with them as long as you want.
I guess in a huge city like Tokyo where the apartments are too small to have pets, these kind of shops/cafés are quite popular. For me it was kind of strange as I come from a pretty rural town in Germany where we have tons of cats just walking around on the street.
I'm not sure if the cats were completely happy there. Some of the seemed to be REALLY scared and weird, but it was definitely an interesting experience and because I miss having a cat it was REALLY nice ;o; *sigh*



( Read more... )



Saturday (21st of March): Day of the Wedding

I left really early together with the bride (my good friend) and her parents. We arrived at the hotel (which was situated right at Tokyo Bay) around 10amish.

( Read more... )



( Read more... )



( Sakura time?! )







And that was my lunch on Friday. I like that new low calory latte from Starbucks (*_*)V



Uhum ..... I still haven't posted ANY of the photos of my winter vacation and now I'm leaving for my spring vacation. Is it just me or is this getting kind of funny? (-___-'')>
I just don't have enough time, sorry



Alright, that was a long entry. Way too long, sorry
Hope you enjoyed it nevertheless.

ByE~bUu