Kategorie: Leben

Day 8 in Japan: Shop till you drop

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Yuo all really must get the feeling all I do is go shopping here…well, to a certain extend that’s true, but today after breakfast I actually learned. I saw that there are so many words I have to repeat. All the time my window to the street was open and I could hear drums from afar. I wonder if this was a matsuri (festival) or some kind of temple parade? Till I had finished the sound was gone and so I couldn’t go after it with my bike, but instead I met Anna and we planned to go to the 100 Yen shop…only for some quick shopping (I had made a list what I need for my household). Well, first of all we went to the train station so I could pick up some money at the post office’s ATM.

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Today it not only spoke, but it refused to give me money for several times. It seems I do have a limit of how much I can withdraw per day, maybe even week. That’s a problem, because I have to pay my rent here and it will take me a week of everyday money withdrawing till I’ve got the right amount >_<

Right next to the ATM there’s a robbery alarm button. I guess the robber will shoot you before you have a chance to press it, I mean, in movies clerks are shot when they press the button secretly beneath their desks!

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On our search for the main post office (the one at the station was closed and I needed to send a letter and a postcard) we came across some lovely stuff. This little house has got a sign attached which reads „imported from USA and Europe“.

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Anna!

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I love all the cute and funny signs. Look at how the dog blushes!

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While I don’t think the entire city is that beautiful I love the many little details like the manhole cover which shows Okazaki castle and some hanabi (fireworks).

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We finally found the post office or in other words discovered it’s the one very close to our apartments (it’s been in the wrong place on my map) and guess what, they have an ATM, too. So no more bike rides to the station for withdrawing money. I was astonished when I saw the post office is open 24/7. Who the heck hands in some letters at three o‘ clock in the morning? However I told the clerk in Japanese that I’d like to send my letter to Germany, asked if it’s correct that postcards are 70 Yen and bought 10 stamps. I was really proud of myself ^^

Here’s the postcard I threw into the mailbox…someone of you is going to receive it (the person who’s most eagerly waiting for post by me)

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After that we went to Seiyu to buy some food (it took me hours to find pickled ginger) and finally to the 100 Yen store, where I bought lots of cleaning  and bento stuff. Those mini donuts for example…well, they are meant for my bento but not from the 100 yen shop…but so cute! (approx. the size of a 2 Euro coin)

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One of the most cutest things I’ve ever seen (thanks to Anna) is this salt shaker. Isn’t it Miffy?

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And more food with faces *kawaiiiiii* I had decided NOT to buy cute exercise books for school, but when I saw these…

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And I guess you want to see my bento stuff. Some of you may know the onigiri-box, I’ve got the same at home in Germany.

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More interesting are all the bento accesoires that are available. So far I’ve bought egg molds (to the left in bunny and bear shape), an onigiri-mold (bottom), sidedish-cups (in the middle; with a cat on everyone that’s dressed like a witch and tells my fortune for every day…sometimes my lucky number or a place where I should go ^^), soy sauce bottles with animal caps (right) and the cutest thing on earth: aluminum foil with strawberries and flowers on it! I’m going to die due to kawaii-overdose soon ^^

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Now I’m going to enter a bath with Harry Potter *wink* and a chocolate éclair. Tomorrow starts the serious part: Lessons begin with a vocabulary quiz. I’ll give my best!!!

Alles Liebe,



Day 7 in Japan: Manga Wonderland

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Hooray, for the first time I was able to sleep witouht a disruption! Accordingly refreshed I started into this Saturday with…suprise, suprise…riding my bike to Seiyu Supermarkt. I felt like eating toast with cheese, ham & eggs and drinking hot chocolate for breakfast. Everything was horrible expensive, but that’s just how it is over here.

At half past one p.m. I met with Sarah and Anna to check some of the Second-Hand-Bookshops and we rode our bikes south, a direction we had not been to so far. OH MY GOD, it’s been simply gorgeous! Second-Hand-Books in Japan means manga, manga, manga. There were tons of them, all in very good shape and so cheap. Most of them cost only 105 Yen, at Meiroku there are even plenty of completed series you can buy in a bunch (like CLAMP manga or Fruits Basket *drool*). Here on the picture you can see „Book off“ which seems to be a chain all over Japan. There I also bought a Hello Kitty Amigurumi book. Kawaii!

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There were quite a few manga by Chiho Saito, my favourite manga artist (she drew „Revolutionary Girl Utena“), and…now grab a chair or you will faint…some of them were only 10 Yen. 10!!!!! That’s 7 Cent in Germany!!!!!!!!!!!!

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The Hello kitty book is for many crocheted Kitties and some knitted goods like scarfs, hats and bags.

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Of course I have brought my crochet needles with me to Japan, so all I have to do is buy some yarn in the 100 Yen shop, where else? XD

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With all the shopping again I didn’t take too many pictures but I plan to make some bike tours for photography only.

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Though it is not allowed I secretly took a picture in the Domy supermarket. Look *lol* Diapers for dogs…damn, that’s crazy! Do we have those in Germany, as well?

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Ah, I feel so good. For shopping cute stuff and cheap manga Japan is the best place on earth. In combination with some new friends and three rusty, red bicycles everything seems to turn out well!

After only one week I have relaxed so much an laughed much more than those two years before. My family is with me everyday via MSN and i don’t feel lonely at all (though I do miss b. of course -.-). One certain sign of me feeling happy? There’s a new Jas & Josh-story on my mind…but we will see!

Alles Liebe,



Day 6 in Japan: School starts & Friendship-Reflectors

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So, today was my first day at school. We were storted into classes and could take a look at the lists this morning in the foyer of the institute. I’m in class F and like I had hoped (desperatly wished for, prayed for…) I’m in Beginner Class 3, which means till the end of this term I will be at an intermediate stage and can continue from there! Yeah!

This is our classroom before everybody arrived. All together we are 13 students, eight of those are from Tawain O.o I was able to follow my teacher very good, but very soon it was clear I’m not able to use the grammar I can understand. In other words the level they put me in is perfectly fine for me. I can repeat ceratin topics I have forgotten ‚cause I’ve never used them and from now on learn to talk in everday life!

Right on the first day we were able to choose our elective classes. There are four every week and at the beginner level I’m allowed to choose half of them, the other two are „class communication“ for all of us. As I hoped they offer Japanese cooking, but it’s two hours, so I wouldn’t be able to take anything else. Next semester I can choose all four lessons freely, and as my Japanese will be better than i decided to leave the cooking for next semester and turned to „Writing“ (of letters and diary) and „Reading of longer Texts“ in which we bring our own novels and mangas and learn how to read them fluently without using a dictionary all the time. Exactly what I want to reach!

This had been my lunch bento and you can see the umeboshi on the rice just before I ate it. It’s often put there to represent the red dot on the Japanese flag and it’s supposed to be very sour. Of course I only knew it from animes and when people eat it there it looks something like this:

Some mates told me I looked exactly the same XD

After two hours the teachers changed and we started to learn the vocabulary of the first lesson and repeated some grammar (agemasu, kuremasu, moraimasu) in preperation for monday. There’s already a bunch of homework and time went by pretty fast. After school two other girls from Germany (Sarah and Anna), to whom I already felt close…I mean, we survived a typhoon together and using the washing machine/rice cooker/oven etc., and I went to buy bicycles for them. By coincidence we all ended up with a red and rusty one, so we were very proud of them and rode them on our way to the Aeon shopping mall with a lot of laughter ^_~

We spent hours and hours shopping…well, not really, we just looked and tried to keep each other from spending our october budget!

We took some crazy pictures of us, the red-bike-gang in front of the mall. It’s Sarah to the left and Anna to the right. It’s almost scary how good we get along, I mean we are talking of me and other girls here. I’m not the best with female friends, but it feels so good to have some fun with other people who share the same tastes and interests!

Here you can see me to the left in my new coat.

One thing we all three couldn’t resist to buy (and there were only three left) was a small bike reflector in form of Little Red Riding Hood. It’s our „Friendship-Reflector“ like Sarah called it :3

When I inspected the packaging at home I discovered why it’s in that shape. Nowadays evil wolves seem to drive by car XD

Today the new calendars for 2010 arrived at the 100 Yen shop so the old ones of this year were given away for free. I chose this Din A 3 one:

Some usagi-coaster to protect my desk…

and a notebook, pen and two postcards.

I love the little details of everything here like the jewel on the pen!

And you should all know I LOVE food with faces! Daisuki xD

By the way I bought four kinds of trashbags (there are even more), but I still don’t get how to sort everything correctly. Where the heck should I put my used juice and milk cartons???

Alles Liebe,



Day 5 in Japan: Typhoon Night and the Day after

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I’ve survived the typhoon, damn, that was scary!!!

As I was extraordinary tired yesterday I went to bed early and really was able to sleep…until two o‘ clock in the morning. When I woke up the wind and rain had become stronger and I was afraid. Thank God there’s a time shift between Germany and Japan, so I was able to reach half my family by MSN. b. was with me all night, because I was too afraid to get into bed again. Actually the wind was so strong that the whole house was shaking! No lie! It was really scary. My TV has got a NHK news channel and I was ablte to see how the typhoon was coming nearer and nearer. It approached Okazaki at about 6 a.m. and I thought the roof might come off or something was going to crash my window, but suddenly sun rose and the birds started to sing. That was the moment when I knew everything was okay. I returned to bed and slept till past two p.m.

Here are some pictures of other parts of Japan:

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I didn’t leave the house today, because it was still windy, so I don’t know what Okazaki looks like but I heard a lot more ambulances than the days before ._.

The crazy thing is after the storm it got really hot and sunny today. It’s a pity I couldn’t ride my bike through the streets (I suppose it’s still there…isn’t it?)!

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Here are only some pictures I took from my window. I was awake about three hours when dawn came XD
I shouldn’t sleep the entire day but this was really an exception!

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In the distance you can see some mountains. It’s beautiful and I can’t await to see more of this country!

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Well, school hasn’t even started and I’ve already started to learn. Yesterday the teachers told me what to repeat, so I do it ^^

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I have to admit, this is no long entry, but nothing really happened today…of course besides the fact I’m still alive and wasn’t blown on top of Mt. Fuji! Take good care, all of you!

Alles Liebe,



Day 4 in Japan: Entrance Exam, Power Rangers Recycling & Typhoon Warning

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Another bad night, slowly it starts to get annyoing. Anyway, today it’s been time for my entrance exam (that could be an explenation for the little sleep) so I got up early at seven o‘ clock in the morning. As ist was the first day of school I decided to walk there, but the weather ist still horrible and my jeans started to get soaking with water from the street. I arrived safely at the institute, you can see its founder here:

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Everybody seemed really nice and I had to go to a classroom upstairs where other people from all over the world waited to start with the exam. The test was more or less okay, I wonder why I panicked that much. Did I expect some university entrance examination, or what? This doesn’t mean I was perfect, I will have to run through some topics of „Minna no Nihongo“ again, but that’s okay. I knew there are things I simply forgot.

Also the interview was not killing me. I had expected to speak only English or say in japanese „Sorry, I didn’t understand“ but in reality I was able to understand most of the questions and at least answer with simple sentences, so my teachers told me it was quite good and I’ll be looking forward to my class placement. (the lists will hang out on Friday). Everybody is so terribly nice here ^^

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Right next to school there’s the „Yakult Center“. I really wonder what that is. When I came across it in the morning there were lots of motor scooters in front of it and women coming to work, shouting „ohaiyou gozaimasu“ to each other. As later all scooters were gone I suppose they deliver stuff…perhaps yoghurt drinks? *lol*

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Here’s one of the billion automats you can find just everywhere. Normally they are filled with drinks or cigarettes, but who knows what else I’m going to find ^_~

In the afternoon we had an orientation session with lots of talking about Alien Registration Cards, the National Health System, bank accounts and cell phones. In the end we took a walk through the rain (cats and dogs, my friends…my jeans were drenched up to my knees) across the campus and all classes for tomorrow were cancelled: Typhoon Wanring!

Now it’s getting exciting, I would say. Together with another student from Germany I went to buy a flashlight and batteries. We were adviced to stuff our apartments with food and stay inside from 6 p.m. on. Tomorrow all shops will be closed.

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This is so far the funniest sign I have come across. The blue one says „Silver Road“ and the one below something like „elderly people – Warning“ though it sounds more like „Be aware of elderly people“ ^^

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In the orientation session once again a big topic was trash…here’s a brochure I received. Are those the Power Rangers or are those the Power Rangers? Oh sorry, it says they are the Eco-Commanders! How could I be mistaken?

The Typhoon is supposed to be over in the afternoon, but I don’t know if you will hear from me before Friday. Maybe the internet connection will be broken or something. Take care!

Alles Liebe,



Day 3 in Japan: Money, Shopping & an Italian Restaurant

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Today, I’ll try my best to write in English so everybody can follow along *huggles to Salomé* Don’t mind the mistakes, you know I barely passed the exam ;p

Last night wasn’t my best. I awoke at five o‘ clock in the morning after a stupid nightmare, but to my suprise it was only ten o‘ clock in Germany so I was able to call b. and we talked for over half an hour. Untill I returned to bed sun was already rising and I wasn’t able to get to sleep again…at first. When I finally woke up it was almost past noon! What a shock! I had planned to go shopping in the morning, take a bath after the bike ride in the rain and then learn for tomorrow’s entrance exam…

Well, so I started my day a twelve o‘ clock, who cares? ^_~ Here you can see the house I live in, my apartement is the one in the middle on the first floor of the dark brwon building. To the left and right there are even more Yamasa student acommodations.

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Trash seems to be a very important topic in Japan and there are many public deposit places. You have to bring your garbage out the morning of the day it’s taken away, NOT the evening before! I had to take a picture of the sign, so I can translate it. I don’t really get the difference between burnable and non-burnable trash.

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Here are two pictures of nice places I came across on my ride to the train station. I was running out of money and the maestro webpage said there should be an ATM, that I can use with my card, in front of it…somewhere. I found it in the post office…not in the bank nearer to the station. *lol*

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This is Okazaki station. With the rainy sky everything looks even more grey, but I cannot tell you how much fun it is to explore the area by bike.

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Did I say bike? That’s the car park in front of the station, well it’s more a bike park. Bikes as far as the eye can reach! Awesome, isn’t it?

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Afterwards I was out for shopping again. As I need about two hours per shop, and I visited three, you know what has been my main task today. At least I do have a 1.200 W hair dryer now (a country with 110V just isn’t enough…I miss my 2.200 W dryer at home) and quite some cute stuff for everyday life and…some food: eggs, shoyu (soy sauce), miso (a paste to make soup and season meals), udon noodles, even more furikake and some fresh vegetables and fruits. It was all still expensive, but Tuesday seems to be Super Saving Day at Jusco. Almost every second item’s price was reduced and there were lots and lots of people.

I just arrived in time to meet the young man who lives right downstairs. He had invited me to meet some other students and we went to a new Italian restaurant together. There I ordered Spaghetti Carbonara and a dessert set, which meant one drink and additionally I was allowed two choose two pieces of a dessert buffet for the price of normally the drink alone. Strangely enough the drink came with the dessert and not with the main meal and I should keep distance from anything that’s connected with tea here. I ordered lemon ice tea, but it tasted more like the standard Japanese green tea, which I don’t like very much. However the dessert was so small and cute and also delicious. My fellow students looked a bit sceptical when I took a picture of the cake, but I just had to ^^

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Here are some of the cutie, cutie, cute things I have bought for my little household. A glass container for my sugar, a totemo kawaii cup and two really gorgeous sponges for cleaning the dishes. The one that looks like a cloud with a face is so soft, I’d rather take it with me to bed to cuddle instead of using it for the plates ^_~

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I have to get up tomorrow to write my test, but I’m still jetlagged. Wish me good luck for the test…or at least that I can get up early enough ^^°

Alles Liebe,