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. ( Read more... )



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

( 11-100 )
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 ^-^/

Like every year I will blabber a bit about this whole year. Usually I do this on the 30th, but I don´t have time then, so I´m going to do it now (^-^')

Anyway let´s start (not very interesting, so feel free to ignore )

Year 2007

This year was quite interesting. A lot of first-times for me this year. NOOO! Not what you think now, perverts!! ;P
I graduated from university for the first time .. okay, okay, joking XD
This was the first time I traveled far away and OUT of Europe. It was my first time in a plane. It was my first time in Japan ^____^ Well, if that isn´t something, then I don´t know. This alone was enough to make 2007 a great year.
I often say that 2007 was/is the Japan year in so many ways. SO many people I know or got to know went to Japan this year, it´S CRAZY!!!
More first-times: I ate a lot of stuff (in Japan, but also here in Germany) I´ve never eaten before, I´ve started to make bentos (Japanese lunchboxes) and fell totally in love with Japanese food.
I also fell for only ONE idol for the first time in my life (Ikuta Toma) (*___*) ... usually I´m never only going after ONE guy/character ... so this was really a surprise (*___*) LOVE YOU TOMA! XDD
( and there were even more first times! )



Right now

Right now I´m very busy, which sucks, because isn´t this time of the year supposed to be quite ... calm and relaxing?! (T__T)
Well, it can´t be helped. I´m busy with my part-time jobs and will (hopefully?!) be even more busy the next 2 months.
My brain is absorbing any information it can find about living and working in Japan right now and WOAH! There´s so much info ... my brain´s not ready for that yet XD
There are also so many options that I´m not sure what exactly I wanna do (and what I actually CAN do).
( Well it´s 99,9% certain that I will go to Japan. )



Year 2008 (?)

This year will definitely be a busy one and one with a LOT of changes so or so. It doesn´t matter if I go to Japan or not, I just graduated from university, so it´s only natural that a lot of changes will happen now.
I´m a bit anxious about what will happen, but am looking forward to it at the same time - I guess this is normal.
I wonder if 2008 will become my personal Japan year - wish me luck ;P
Apart from that I´m not really expecting anything special from 2008.
My hopes are that I´m able to stay and work in Japan, that I´ll like it, that I can eat the yummiest food in the whole wide world again and that I can see the sakura in full bloom (*____*)V


I guess that´s all I have to say right now XD



What about you guys? And how will you spend New Year´s Eve this year? Do you do anything special in your country on that day? Any rituals, any special food? (yes, yes food question again XD I´m horrible, nee? ;P)

Oh, and before I forget (I do this every year):

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

1	hesaki	504
2	mahochan1	225
3	chatiel	189
4	bf_nightingale	163
5	anime_junkie18	146
6	linaaa	138
7	karro	120
8	andou_	96
9	amvn	86
10	supajo	85

( 11-100 )
Total Commenters: 3760 (3660 not shown)
Total Comments: 17381
Report generated 27.12.2007 17:32:17 by scrapdog's LJ Comment Stats Wizard 1.7

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*lol* There´s not really much change compared to last year! XDDDD at least not in the top positions.
hesaki congrats again! XDDD
(Well, okay I have to admit that we had an entry here only for the 2 of us where we discussed everything about our Japan journey before we went, so ... no wonder she´s top commenter ;P)
Congrats to #2 mahochan1 as well (^3^) I hope you´re fine although you´re so busy right now!
Yay! I knew chatiel was a stalker!! ;P
#4 goes to bf_nightingale who´s always helped me out a lot (*__*) Thanks hun (Perhaps we can meet this year in Japan, so or so! ^-^V)
Haha! ^^ #5 is still anime_junkie18, now known as lostxxheaven. You haven´t been around much lately, miss you!
#6 goes to another beloved stalker: linaaa! Congrats and love you too, hun!
The prolly weirdest person ;P ever (apart from Daruma in Akiba@Deep XD) holds place #7! オイてば！もっとガンバって下さいね！ああ、そうだ→　(○^∇^)_旦~~♪ お茶どうぞ~
WOAH! Place 8 for somone who hasn´t been on my f-list for sooo long (compared to the others). Congrats to you andou_chan! (^-^) Let´s blabber even more (about food XD) in the future!
#9 is my bento loving friend amvn! YAAY!! Congrats, honey!! (^3^) I always enjoy your comments + entries a lot!
Last, but not least #10: supajo! SUPAJOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO darling! ;o; Your not around so much lately, are you??!!! I miss you, but I enjoy your photos a lot! ^^

....... actually I wanted to stop here, but I decided to say something to the next five "places" as well (^^*)

( My stupid comments for #11-15 - I hope for you that you´re not one of em!!! XD )

[random thought] Kyousuke (Hungry Heart) has to be Ichigo´s (Bleach) twin brother *nods nods* [/random thought]
Hmmm, guess I overload my brain with more Japan related info now *runs away*

First of all I have a request and I hope you are willing to help me
I need the following songs and JPOPSUKI is no help ;o; ... or I´m just to stupid to find what I´m searching for (^^;)

• Kinki Kids: HAKKA Candy (I think I already have this one, but can´t find it anymore XD)


• Kinki Kids: Namida, Hito Hira


• Southern All Stars: Tsunami


• MIYU - Beautiful Mind


• Kumi Koda - Koi no Tsubomi

Yes, yes, these are all jdrama songs as well (^^;)
Or if you don´t have the songs, do you by any chance know a good site where I can download esp. jdrama songs? (not OST, but the op/ed songs?!)


I´ve finally updated the rest of my journal. Besides some smaller things, I´ve finally updated my Resources List.
And I´ve created a "how-to-credit-properly"-guide


Last but not least, I got tagged by apsharha:

( 8 things meme~ )


I tag: whoever wants to do it

And now I´m off to watch Yukan Club / Hero (and run away from the dangerous Kimura pheromones! XD)

Okay,

first of all thanks to all of you for your comments and your concerns!
A lot of people kept asking the same questions, that´s why I want to make another "worm entry" to clarify things ^^

1) Where do those monsters come from? How do they get into your food? Where do you live anyway?

Those worms are actually the larvas of food moths. They are pretty common and it can happen to ANYONE! That´s why I want to warn you, it can happen to you as well. I will also be super-cautious from now on!
Usually you buy the eggs or even the larvas with your food. They are especially in cereals, noodles and rice (esp. bio products)!
So the first important thing is that you have a look at what you buy! If you find small wholes (grub traces) or if you see small webs inside of the food: DON´T BUY IT!!! The food is contaminated.
But usually you buy food with eggs in it, so you don´t see anything. That´s why it´s important to seal all of your food up properly. And I mean EVERYTHING! Don´t let anything lie around.
They can eat through plastic and carton, that´s not a problem. They can even crawl in some tupperware containers without any effort!
Another good tip is to put everything you buy in the freezer at first. If you leave it there for at least 24hours, the eggs or larvas will die for sure.

So how did the larvas enter my kitchen?

I prolly bought them with my bio cereals. From there they ate through the plastic wrapping and found their way to other food.
You see: It can happen to everyone. WHO does seal up all the food they have anyway???
But I will do so from now on.

I do live in Germany. It´s FUCKING cold here right now, so it has nothing to do with season or heat or whatever. It has also nothing to do with hygiene!!!
Those moths are something natural and thus are in food.

( Read more... )



( Cut for haiku meme! XD )


That´s all for now ^-^/~

Puh!~

Gosh this weather is really §$%§$%"§ ..... storm, snow, rain, cold (T___T)
Oh well, but that´s not the reason for my entry.
I´ve made a new User Info! Finally (^_____^)
I still have my old one here , because I loved it and it was a lot of work back then XD

I don´t think that I will update the JOURNAL INDEX anymore. It´s just so damn detailed that it´s too much work to keep it updated (^^;) .... but I won´t delete it either, cuz this was REALLY a lot of work XD
I´m currently working on a cute/useful taglist index, but that´s the only thing that is not ready yet ^^;

I´ve also made a new layout for my Japanese journal densha_onna, although I´m not writing much there lately (^^;)
But I always wanted an unique layout there and here it is. Hope you like it XD
And while I was at it, I´ve also made a NEW USER INFO for densha_onna as well (^-^;) .......

I´ve also updated my CURRENTLY WATCHING/READING entry. I´ve neglected it toally and never updated properly. Now I´ve made it a sticky post and I hope that this will make me update more often XD
Oh and I´ve changed small things about my layout here, perhaps you´ve noticed some things, but I still love this one very much, so I won´t change it any time soon ^-^; .....

When I´ve finished the taglist index, I´ll prolly play around a bit with theme layers, although it sounds quite difficult?! .... Oh well XD

I have 2 random questions, perhaps s.b. can help? XD (don´t worry it´s not that important)

• Do you know where I can find a good audio crop program? I wanna crop some mp3s so that I can use them as ringtones, but I don´t have a program. I don´t want anything BIG!!! The smaller, the better. Perhaps s.o. can direct me to a good one? ^^ (You know a program that allows me to cut out short parts of a mp3 XD)


• And do you know where I can find .ico graphics? ^^; Or is there a way that PS will help me here in any way? XD

That´s all for now.
Man, I´m tired. ..... One shouldn´t start with layouting XDDD ..... you can´t stop!!!!! *headdesk*


( Short Meme )

Originally stolen from pinkujisatsu, also seen @ _usotsuki_´s journal XD


LEAVE A COMMENT AND SHOW ME YOUR FAVORITE PHOTOS OR PICTURES OF WHATEVER!!
Pictures or photos of things, landscape, your town, your friends, fandom stuff, people you like!~
You can post 1 or 2 or 3 or how many pics you want to ^_____^

Yepp~ I´m curious and I loooooove to look at gorgeous and interesting photos/pics, so please go ahead! ^-^



*offers cookies, cake and green tea* ~~(○^∇^)_旦~~♪

....
....... somehow this is the shortest entry I´ve ever written, eh? XD
*disappears in a dark corner*

...

# You separate your trash into more than five different bins.
→ Okay, then I´m definitely German!

# Your front door has a sign with your family name made from salt dough.
→ Ah ... uh ... well .... (T____T) so what? XD

# You carry a “4You” backpack.
→ As far as I remember I NEVER had one!

# You eat a cold dinner at 6pm.
→ EEEHHH????!!!!!! I hate cold dinner! I always need warm dinner!!!!!! Unless I eat sushi or onigiri, but is that very German-like ? XD

# You call your cell phone “handy” and a projector “beamer”.
→ *blushes* .... I admit it XDD *lol* this is funny XDDD Germanish / Engliman XDDDD

( You don´t want to know, do you ? )



Taken from here.
I LOVE stereotypes (x___x)/
And talking about stereotypes, y'know what´s missing?
# You´re VERY fat! (talking about the fact, that Germany ranked #1 in Europe in having a high percentage of fat people x__X)

Sorry for being so random today ! But I felt like it.

Sorry, sorry I´m very random today XD ....
but I saw this meme @ ladyofspira and I just HAD to do it ! XDDDDDDDDDDD
(And yes, yes it´s FULL of stereotype XDDDD but that´s why it´s so fun !)

You scored as Italian. </td> Italian 75% Spanish 63% Belgian 50% Danish 50% Polish 50% Turkish 38% Swiss 38% German 25% British 25% Molvanian 25% Dutch 25% Irish 13% Russian 13% French 0% Which European nationality should you have created with QuizFarm.com

YAAAY I scored as Italian just like I wanted to ^^ And Spain is on 2nd place :D
Hahahahha XDDDDDDDDD 0% French .. soooooooooooo agreed ! XD *runs away from French f-list* XDDDDDD
Oh I´m not very German as well ? (Yappari ! Just look at the stupid questions ! XDD)

P.S.: This picture is sooo cute ! Poor spaghetti ! ^-^

Sooo~ ... where to begin ?!
(I apologize right here, cuz it´s VERY random today ^^;..)

I´ve finished:

1) たったひとつの恋 (Tatta hitotsu no koi):
Well, ... what should I say ? It wasn´t bad. I really wasn´t bad, but I personally didn´t like that drama very much ! I don´t hate it though ! It´s definitely worth watching, especially when you´re a Kame or KAT-TUN fan ! ^^
But I´ve seen sooooooo many good dramas by now ... that this one was only average ^^; .. I guess :) don´t mind me and go ahead and watch it !!!

2) BlackCat:
It was really a good anime. As I already said in a previous entry I liked it a lot: a lot of glowing eyes, cute guys, sexy seiyuu! ... but it was TOO short ! It only has 23 episodes and that´s DEFINITELY not enough ! So I guess I have to read the manga now ^^ .. although there won´t be any glowing eyes and no seiyuu ;_____________; ... and my "to read"-manga list is growing and growing ! HELP !!!! (;__;) XD

2 series finished, 2 new at the start:

1) １４才の母 (14sai no haha = 14years-old mother):
The title says it all I guess ??!!! I LOVED that drama right from the beginning !!! I really love it although I´ve only watched the first 2 episodes so far.
I already know the main actress Shida Mirai from Sapuri ! (<- "the daughter" XD). She´s soooooooooo damn cute and although she was born in 1993 (Jesus, how YOUNG!) she´s doing a GREAT job acting such a tough role !!!!!!



( more about it + screencaptures )

2) Beck
I wanted to read the manga for ages now, but still haven´t had time to ;___; ..... so I decided to watch the anime first instead ... and I think it was a good idea, because HEY it´s about MUSIC and can YOU hear music by reading a manga ??!!! XD ..
The drawing style may be a bit ... strange (perhaps a BIT like in GTO .. a BIT), but it fits this series well !!!
The music there is REALLY great, I also LOVE the opening song ! ^-^



<~ as you can see the series is all about music, bands and stuff ^^ ... that strange dog on the 2nd pic is called "Beck" .. later on the band the series is about is also called "Beck" ^^ ... They talk A LOT in English in that series !!! .. and it´s pretty GOOD English ! (well we all know how it sometimes sounds when Japanese speak English ^^; ...)


( oNe meme!~ )


Things I found yesterday:



@hesaki: Schau mal was ich gefunden habe:
(Ace wo nerae - der Anime !! *kreisch* ... OMG! ich wette, wenn der jetzt in Deutschland laufen würde, wären wir beide Fans davon ?!?! ... der Zeichenstil sieht aus wie eine Mischung aus Mila und Lady Oscar !! (*-*) .. ich will das sehen !!!!!)

I found some screencaps of Ace wo nerae ! (I´ve only seen the jdrama with Aya Ueto, but I LOOOOOOOVE old sport series like this and I sooooooooo want to see it now !!! ... it was never broadcasted in Germany ;___; ....)
The drawing style reminds me a bit of Rose of Versailles, nee ? ^^; ... KYAAAh~
That series is from 1973 !!!! (I feel so young suddenly ! XD)

( more screencaps of Ace wo nerae!~ )


and another thing:



What are these white-pink things ? I´ve seen them so often in animes and stuff (especially in ramen !), but WHAT are those ?! XD .. sorry for being so stupid ! x____x .. and while I´m at it ... do you know by any chance what drink that is (not the beer ! XD) ????

( Densha Otoko - THE BOOK!!!! )



And finally an important question about LJ´s notification system:
Do you have problems with it lately ? Since 3 days now I DON´T get any mail notifications when s.o. answered to a post, comment, etc. !!???!!! (so I´m sorry if I don´t answer at your journals etc., because I just DON´T GET NOTIFIED!!!) -___- ...
anyone with the same problems ? if not .. any ideas what I could do about it ?? :/ .. this sucks !!!!

Stolen from hinoai


Go through the list and check off the titles you have watched. For our purposes, "watching" a title means that for TV and OVA series, you have to have seen at least one episode all the way through. For one-shots,you have to have seen the whole thing. At the end of each genre/category, add up your sub-total. At the very end, add up the sub-totals to come up with your grand total. If your grand total is 80 or over,congratulations-- you are an obsessive anime watcher!

As an extra note: not all the titles listed here are great, and some are even steaming piles of crap. Titles on the list are here because they are either 1) genuinely good, 2) insanely popular, 3) good examples of the genre, or 4) just plain notorious. Good anime obsessives should be able to watch series with any of those qualities.


( I don´t like this XD )

GRAND TOTAL: 132/260 buahaha ;___________;

If your grand total is 80 or over,congratulations-- you are an obsessive anime watcher!
Shut up ! x___X XD
I HAVE WATCHED A LOT YOU KNOW ??!!!
*argues with this poll* XD