the adventures of idilneko & hobbes in japan

let's never come here again because it will never be as much fun.

2007-09-30T17:16:00.000+02:00

we've been back in cold, grey germany since wednesday night but we mainly spent the last few days curled up in bed and sleeping. it seems like my body is catching up with the sleep it couldn't get those last few weeks and as for hobbes...well, tigers do sleep all the time anyway, don't they?

it's still 2-3 weeks before university life starts again. everything else is already catching up on me more or less slowly, all those problems i tried to refuse to think about lately, they're all waiting for me now as reality smacks off my rose colored glasses. but for now, crack is wobbling his head happily in front of me and my red panda robot is crawling around in the room. i've got a script to read for a play in november, papers to write and friends to visit. it's gonna be ok.

well, i guess it's time to say goodbye and continue following our own paths again. 600 readers in 2 months, that's really smashing. we hope you enjoyed this travelblog as much as we did, thank you for sticking by.

love & peace,
idilneko & hobbes

spekulatius.

2007-09-26T23:41:00.000+02:00

this was definitively the suckiest of sucky journeys home ever: i missed and took wrong trains to the narita airport in the rush hour of crazy tokyo several times with my heavy baggage, arrived late at the airport and this lufthansa-bitch at the check-in made me pay a ridiculous amount of money for my excess baggage, she even billed my hand baggage! wtf!? i was like "yeah i'd love to pay but see, i just set this big pile of money on fire this morning!!" seriously, how can you rip off a poor student like that?! stupid fucktards.

a boring 12-hour-flight later, the first thing i see at the german supermarket at munich airport is sushi. duh. because it's oktoberfest-time in munich, there was an army of drunken germans wearing dirndl and lederhosen at the main station and to crown it all, the train to stuttgart had a delay of 70 minutes. yeah, welcome back to germany.

when i was finally home, everything was so unusually normal. it didn't feel like we've been away for almost 2 months at all.

well, as it's already morning in tokyo time, i should finally get some sleep.

sometimes you have to go halfway around the world to come full circle.

2007-09-25T18:50:00.000+02:00

i'm not yet realizing that we're flying back to germany tomorrow. it feels so unreal. my bags are packed but it more feels like tomorrow's gonna be a day just like the last few ones has been: i'd wake up in the morning, get a shower, go to the convini to buy 2 onigiri with grilled salmon and a bottle of pocari sweat, go down to the subway station and eat my breakfast during the 30 minutes ride it takes to get to shibuya/harajuku/shinjuku with the JR yamamoto line. i'd get off and walk around in the streets, visit a shrine here and a temple there and wish i had such a great taste for fashion like most of the girls here in japan have. i'd eat a chicken salad and french fries at mcdonalds and in the afternoon i'd get a chûhai or two, get a bit tipsy and gaze at the skyskrapers and huge advertising screens on the buildings which make my head whirl and laugh at random whacky japanese stuff.

i don't wanna go back. sure, it sounds childish and of course i'm missing my family and friends and stuff but these last weeks have been a nice escape from all the stress and other annoying things that really wore me down the last few months before i left for japan. i'm tired of dealing with moronic chocolate queens and crooked marzipan kings, smart-ass hypocrites stabbing me in the back over and over again. i'm exhausted by wasting my time with those people or other preposterous stuff, i don't wanna do it anymore. this journey made me realize again, that i've got better things to do.

time to wake up.

suntory boss is the boss of them all.

2007-09-25T16:36:00.000+02:00

so this was my last day in tokyo, my last day in japan. i tried to make the best of it.

in the morning we first visited the attractions in asakusa which means we first went to the asahi beer building with the huge golden ~~fart~~ flame on top of it and then the kaminarimon (gate to senso-ji), nakamise (street leading to senso-ji) and the senso-ji temple. i didn't know it was the most popular and famous temple which probably explains why it was so crowded there, even on a wednesday morning.

we walked along the kappabashi shopping street and took the train to shibuya at ueno station. i guess shibuya and especially the large intersection at hachiko exit of the shibuya station will never stop to amaze me. when onur first showed me shibuya, we went to this building with the huge advertising screen right in front of the intersection (by the way, in the movie lost in translation it's that screen where charlotte sees the ad with the huge dinosaur). there is a tsutaya (cd/dvd store) and a starbucks on the first floor and from there you have a beautiful view over the crowd. we spent quite some time at tsutaya, listening to japanese punk and hip hop and pop. i was just listening to a cd by 東京事変 (tôkyô jihen, tokyo incidents) and i really liked the music and then suddenly i found out that this is shiina ringo's band! i really like shiina and i liked the songs so i bought the brandnew album "娯楽(バラエティ, variety)".

we walked over to harajuku, bought chûhai and sat at the side of the omotesando avenue, watching people and resting for a while when a really drunken bum showed up and started to bother us. when julian told him to shut up in japanese he got really angry and started insulting us and went away. when he came back later with a new cup of cheap sake in his hand, he had already forgotten everything and started babbling again and we decided to move along. my brother had asked me to buy a tshirt by a certain brand ("bape") and we searched for the shop in takeshita dori for over an hour until we found it by chance. well, at least takeshita dori was really interesting.

afterwards we got a train to shinjuku (it was rush hours btw so it was real fun in the crowded train) but as julian was too tired and went home, i walked through shinjuku alone. i wanted to look for the park hyatt hotel from lost in translation but i terribly lost my way and ended up in the middle of nowhere, went back to shinjuku station by train and went to some gamecenters in kabukicho. that silent hill arcade game was rather boring but i really liked playing tekken 5! *sighs* gonna miss the game centers...

tokyo

tonari no totoro, totoroooo.

2007-09-24T14:36:00.000+02:00

one really annoying thing about japan? the lack of garbage cans! and yet, the streets are super clean! it's a fucking mystery.

i'm really exhausted although i slept in late today (well but as i went to bed at 4am and woke up at 10am you can't really say i got much sleep). my feet hurt like hell from all the walking and i got a severe headache.

today ana and me went to shinjuku. we went to the tokyo metropolitan government office in the skyscraper district which has an observatory on the 45th floor. we went to the south tower, the elevator took only 50 seconds for 45 floors! the weather was rather rainy so we couldn't see the fuji-san but the view was breathtaking nevertheless.

in the afternoon we met up with saskia and went to the ghibli museum in mitaka (=am arsch der welt). the exhibition and the museum itself were really lovely, i especially liked the huge furry nekobus (but only children up to 12 years were allowed to play with it, bah!). the museum shop was a bit disappointing though. afterwards we walked through harajuku up to shibuya again and went home. ana had to leave for kyoto and i just wanna get some rest now.

tokyo

harajuku.

2007-09-23T20:24:00.000+02:00

i finally got one of those transparent plastic-umbrellas, put on something nice and went to harajuku with ana today. although it was sunday, there weren't as many dressed-up people at the famous bridge of the harajuku station as i'd expected. there were mainly crazy gothics and a few gothic lolitas as well as some crazy guy singing to his cd-player and a very cute boy who was giving out free hugs (more pictures of harajuku fashion here). but if you wanna see people like in the very famous FRUITS magazines, you just gotta walk along the omotesando avenue, i never saw that many trendy people at one place ever! unfortunately it was so crowded, that i couldn't take any pictures except that whacky ojisan you can see on the next picture.

his earrings were actually fish bowls with living goldfish in it! before i went to omotesando, ana and me went to the meiji shrine first because it was near the harajuku station. it was very worth the long walk through the yoyogi park: not only was it beautiful but we also saw a few shintô wedding parties! it must've been very annoying for the bride to be photographed by dozens of tourists at her wedding day but she looked so beautiful in her wedding kimono!

after our visit to the meji shrine, ana left because she wanted to met her friend at the youth hostel so i got myself a chûhai at lawson (convini) and strolled along omotesando avenue. there was a man selling old kimono, obi and other kimono accessories on the street where i bought sashes for a few yen. as i was walking down the avenue, i called my mum and stopped at a corner. while i was talking to her on the phone i noticed that there was a man taking pictures of me. i smiled at him and he continued taking pictures with his big camera and then he was gone. i still don't know what that was about, maybe he thought i was some kind of celebrity or maybe he was just a pervert.

suddenly i spotted a kebab restaurant and as i was already tipsy i went to the guy and asked him if he speaks turkish. he was like "of course, sister!" and gave me turkish cherry juice and we talked in turkish/english/japanese about our lives. as i'm not good at memorizing names, i forgot his but he told me that he's been living in tokyo for 12 years now and that he's planning on opening another restaurant in osaka. i asked him about night life in tokyo and he recommended me roppongi if i don't wanna spent too much money. but then another turkish guy showed up, onur (yeah i remembered his name), and he told me that roppongi sucks and that there's a night club in shibuya i should go to. as he was on his way to shibuya he offered me to show me a around the streets here and as i had no actual plans for the afternoon, i agreed happily. he got us chûhai and told me about why he came to japan, that he's working at a yakiniku restaurant and that he's planning on returning to istanbul and opening a yakiniku restaurant there (damn, what a great idea!). he couldn't speak any english at all so we mainly talked in turkish (as i was drunk it was probably the best turkish i've ever spoken!) and japanese.

we had a great time in shibuya, i was amazed by the large intersection at the shibuya station. onur told me that at around the rush hours, over 5000 people are crossing the streets there at once! we ate a snack at mcdonalds, then went up the love hotel hills and he showed me the club (called "womb") he mentioned. before i went home we exchanged phone numbers because we eventually wanted to meet there in the evening but as the admission was a bit too expensive for julian, him and me decided to visit roppongi in the evening instead. now roppongi really wasn't that spectacular and there were too many gaijins and other strange folks so we walked around for a while, took purikura at a game center and left around midnight. unfortunately the train stopped a few stations before the one we had to get out so we strayed for 1-2 hours along the sumida river till we finally found our youth hostel, ate instant yakisoba at 3am and went to bed.

tokyo, fashion & people

tokyo!

2007-09-22T16:45:00.000+02:00

i don't know how how many times we lost our way today and how we actually made it here in the end but we made it! we're in tokyo!

the k's house, our youth hostel, lies in asakusa. our room is pretty small, we barely have space to put our luggage on the floor, but the youth hostel is nice and clean plus we have our own shower/toilet, tv and internet connection in our room. also, there are at least half a dozen convini in this street! (but none of them has momo chûhai, meeh!)

as we're really tired this evening, ana and me just wanted to go to a shabu shabu restaurant near the hostel but couldn't find it so we ended up in a mcdonalds somewhere in asakusa instead. afterwards we decided to make a short trip to akihabara. there were 2-3 teenagers singing around at the akihabara station and we found a game center where we could finally play tekken 5 but apart from that we couldn't find anything interesting (maybe we were just too tired) so we went back again. tomorrow's sunday so we're definitively going to harajuku - looking forward to the crazy fashion styles of the teenagers there!

tokyo, , food

biba osaka!

2007-09-21T04:55:00.000+02:00

today i took a break from cultural sightseeing. i bought a few manga at some second hand book store, mostly erika sakurazawa's stuff and attack no1 (/mila superstar) because it was only 150¥! in the afternoon i put them and some other junk in a big cardboard box and sent it off at the post office because my bag is about to explode. guess i'll have to pay for excess luggage this time. damn.

around 6pm julian and me went to osaka for one last time because osaka rocks! kyoto has nice temples and shrines and stuff but apart from that it's a rather boring and dirty city in my opinion. the only bad thing about osaka is the humidity though. fortunately we arrived in the evening so at least it wasn't that hot anymore. we walked around in namba of course and crazy shinsai-bashi-suji for a few hours, drinking chûhai and making purikura and we were lucky enough to get the last train back to kyoto in the end (although spending the night at the osaka park with the bums would've been fun, too).

trips to various places

robots.

2007-09-20T05:56:00.000+02:00

we met a chatty obaachan (=grandma) at the sento this evening. when she found out that we understand a little japanese, she just wouldn't stop blabbering. i was too tired and didn't understand most of it but occasional nodding and a "sô desu ka" here and there seemed to satisfy her. she even gave me and ana an o-mamori (amulet)!

ana and me visited the heian shrine this morning. we took the wrong bus and lost our way a few times before we found it and it wasn't really that interesting, also the people there were rather unfriendly. at noon, we ate lunch at an italian restaurant at the main station - real european food for the first time in 6 weeks! after lunch we met with julian and went to Nagoya which takes only half an hour from Kyoto with the hikari shinkansen. we didn't visit anything special there except the spaceship aqua of the oasis 21 complex, just walked around and did some shopping and found a robot museum where we spent about an hour in the museum shop playing with all the fancy robots and toys and i bought myself a robot tshirt and a nohohon zoku.

kyoto

momooooooo.

2007-09-19T04:55:00.000+02:00

i bought myself a 400¥ momo (peach) today to cheer me up. the peaches here in japan are huge and really expensive, they usually cost 500-700¥ at the supermarket so i got away really cheap i guess. i'm starting to feel better again. these last few days i really couldn't stand japanese food anymore and felt rather lost and sad and even more exhausted that usual but now i'm getting back on my feet again. only one week left and i should try to make the best of it. like buying overly expensive peaches or a camouflage fan. guess my kali mates are going to go green with envy!

soooo we went to the kiyomizu-dera (temple) today. i was looking forward to that because i enjoyed my trip there in 2003 very much. like the last time, i ate macha icecream, drank from the holy water of the otowa spring and bought chocolate yatsuhashi for my family. we also saw a few maiko walking around today. the temple was very crowded and there was a school class from Nagasaki which obviously had the task to talk to tourists about their home countries and stuff, we were "attacked" by at least 2-3 groups of pupils today but at least we always took funny pictures. we actually also wanted to visit the nijo castle today but as we spent far too much time at the souvenir street leading to the kiyomizu temple, the castle was already closed. we went to the main station instead and saw an amazing cheerleader performance, afterwards walked around at the gion district a bit before we headed home again.

kyoto

deer cookies.

2007-09-18T14:07:00.000+02:00

we have really good weather these days. although it's getting quite atsui (hot) here again, the light's good for photography. today i went to Nara together with ana. we got our japan rail passes this morning and took the nara express which only needs 45min there from Kyoto.

we visited the todaiji temple with the huge 大仏 (daibutsu, great buddha). the todaiji itself was really huge and impressive as was the buddha statue. we also walked around in the gardens and the nara park, visited the kofukuji with it's five-story pagoda and saw/fed/pet/were hunted by lots and lots of deer! although it was quite scary when half a dozen deer attacked me at once when i tried to feed one with those deer cookies, i enjoyed it. i was looking forward to this day, finally one of my childhood dreams (petting deer) has come true! :)

nara

save the global warming,

2007-09-17T15:53:00.000+02:00

we just came back from the sento. this time i used the sauna (the first time in my life btw) and one of the baths and i'm feeling soooooo relaxed and tired now. i just wanna go to sleep.

i've rather lost my appetite these days because of the cold and the stress and insomnia. i'm feeling exactly like in 2003, craving for sparkling mineral water and european food. ana and me went to starbucks at the kyoto tower today, ate cheese blueberry cake and macha frappucino, one of the yummiest things i've ever drank. alas we don't have that in europe!

today ana and me went to the kinkakuji (golden pavillion) and the ginkakuji (silver pavillion). i had already seen the kingakuji in 2003 and although the ginkakuji itself wasn't as impressive as the kin one, the gin's garden was more beautiful. afterwards we met with the others in the gion district and went to a restaurant. sorry this entry's boring but i'm tired and sulky.

ps: save the global warming? that's actually on a bag of a perfume dajana bought today. ...

kyoto

kyoto.

2007-09-16T15:46:00.000+02:00

sorry for not updating properly. i had a bad cold those last few days and i couldn't sleep last night at all. we left Tsu and arrived at the temple in Kyôto yesterday. coincidentally there was a buddhist wedding ceremony that evening and as those are very rare (even in japan) we all went down to watch it but after half an hour i was feeling so bad i left and went to bed. i also missed the noh theater performance this morning because i stayed in bed till 3pm. when i finally could stand up and walk without almost fainting immediately i went to the sento (public bath) right next to the temple (as the temple itself has no showers) which made me feel a bit better.

i don't know, i'm just really really exhausted and confused at the moment. the weather is strange, i've got mosquito bites all over my arms and my neck and back hurts from my heavy luggage i had to drag from Tsu to Kyoto yesterday. i've just watched hard candy with the girls in my room, now we're all lying around reading manga (the temple has hundreds of manga, it's crazy!) before going to sleep.

countdown...

2007-09-13T15:56:00.000+02:00

i'm feeling sick and exhausted again. it's really annoying: the days here start off sunny and rather cool but in the afternoon it's raining cats and dogs so i always get soaked on my way home. an umbrella isn't really that helpful so i got myself a raincoat but still got a sore throat.

as ana was a bit sulky today, julian and i took her to that kimono shop after classes where we had bought those cheap yukata, kimono and obi lately and when she got that beautiful white/red kimono with golden embroidery for only 1000¥, she was all happy again.
so today i visited the saty mall, uniqlo and the edobashi (where the lawson plus & the us mart, where we always sang karaoke, are) for a last time. still can't believe we're leaving on saturday. on my way home, i also shouted "sayonara!" to miss kyanya and as i rode past her house quickly because of the rain and i heard her meowing back at me.

i've already started packing as i don't wanna waste my time with that tomorrow and enjoy my last few hours with my host family instead. tomorrow's gonna be busy: first we'll have our presentations in front of the class, after classes we'll go buy the ingredients for the german dishes we have to cook for the sayonara party in the evening. on saturday morning we're leaving for Kyôto then. they said that there's internet at the temple, we'll see.

ps: i still gotta finish monday's entry, sorry about that.

university life

broooooooot.

2007-09-12T16:50:00.000+02:00

idil: 0 - weather: 1. yeah, so i finally catched a cold. this morning i felt dizzy and had an headache so i asked my host mum if it is ok to stay at home today. she immediately gave me medicine and sent me to my room where i slept and stayed in bed till 4pm.

a few weeks ago we had met a professor at the university who needed help with the pronounciation of some turkish names for a paper. i told him that i'm turkish and helped him with the names and we incidentally met from time to time on the campus and because his german is really good we chatted a lot and so he invited anastasia and me and our host families over for dinner at his home this evening. i wasn't feeling too well but i went there anyway and it was so worth it! it was a very nice evening with lots of delicious food and laughs and: german bread and salad with balsamico vinegar! ana and me were delighted!

tsu

kimono.

2007-09-11T13:05:00.000+02:00

i'm so exhausted. because of the binge yesterday everybody skipped classes today so it was only me (dead tired) and anastasia. it was really stressful and i was royally pissed off at the others for just staying in bed and letting us do all the work.

it's raining again and i got soaked on my way home. i took a hot shower when i arrived but i'm feeling a cold coming up. just watched some drama with my family again while eating matcha cookies.
julian's host mother gave mine a hint today that there's a sale at some second hand shop in the city where you can get yukata at a low price. she took me there and i got 4 yukata, 3 beautiful obi and even 2 kimono (each only 1000¥!) for a total of 5,500¥! one yukata and one obi even was for free. me lucky. me happy gaijin.

on our way home i gave my mum a call and when i put her on speaker, she talked to my host mum which was really cute: "konnichi wa, okâsan!" "konnichi wa, okâsan!" (...) i can't believe i'm already leaving on saturday. it feels like yesterday when i arrived here, putting my clothes in the drawers of my room and feeling rather uncomfortable around my host family. but in the meanwhile i grew fond of them and this house and everything and i'm really sad about leaving this place.

today we also had our last trip where we went to an elementary school which was real fun - japanese kids are just so cute! when we arrived, they were all super excited and cheered and waved at us. first, they were rather shy but soon they started touching our blonde hair and "different" clothes and permanently asked questions and asked for autographs on their exercise books, we felt like damn celebrities! it was exhausting but fun.

i was in a 4th grade class with haichi (a chinese student). we came around lunch time so we ate lunch together with the kids. the way they act with their teachers and their politeness is intriguing, so different from european kids. they all have their tasks, for example a group of pupils handed out the food to everyone, two stood in front of the class before and after lunch and asked everybody to put their hands together and say "itadakimasu" and "gochisôsama deshita" and they all cleaned up their classroom together afterwards. also, the teacher's more acting like a father than a teacher.

after lunch, they had half an hour of free time and we all went to the schoolyard and played basketball together. after that, they had to clean up their classrooms. when the lesson started, haichi and me stood in front of the class and were the sensei (=teachers) and tried to answer their questions. i didn't felt nervous because they were so curious in a nice way. before we had to leave, we all played games together and had to give more autographs or draw pictures for them. one girl wrote me a little farewell letter, how cute is that?

university life

funky donkey.

2007-09-09T16:21:00.000+02:00

what a busy weekend! on saturday the kids had their ballet performance at the city hall. we arrived very early so i walked around in some park with beautiful gardens and a pond with huge kois and little turtles right next to the city hall. the performance was very nice, there wasn't only my host kids' ballett school but also performances by a modern dance school.

after the performance we put on our yukata (ok, it was only me and the kids) and we drove to Toba to a matsuri (=festival/fair) which was very lovely with so many people walking around in their beautiful yukata. there was a 2-3 hour long wonderful hana-bi. we all sat on the meadow, got some yakisoba (=fried noodles) and yakitori (fried chicken) from the fair and watched the hana-bi.

afterwards we went to the grandparent's home. they live in a fishing village in a very old japanese-style house with tatami flooring and sliding shoji doors and everything. unfortunately, you could hear every word and every snore of the people in the other rooms so i didn't really get much sleep and was a bit grumpy in the morning.

the next morning i walked around in the village, the houses there are quite colourful. i walked down to the docks with my host father and brother - finally! the sea! the pacific!!! the water looked so clean (though there were jellyfish here and there) and i wanted to jump in so hard. at least i went down to the shore and greeted her shortly, got some shells and went back home.

we then left for spain mura. yeah if there's somebody putting up a fake spanish village with roller coasters in the middle of nowhere, it's the whacky japanese! first, i wasn't too excited about it because a) i was still tired and grumpy and b) nothing can beat the UCJ! my host parents bought me kitty ears because i like cats so much and to cheer myself up i walked around with them on my head all day long (omg did i really do that?! how silly!). the rides weren't as much fun as the ones in USJ of course and the music (about "funky donkeys" and "hola! amigos!") was rather annoying but all in all it wasn't so bad after all. for example, there was this ice castle which was so freezing cold that you couldn't stay in there for more than half a minute! my kids and i ran through the halls screaming and laughing quite a few times that day. i had much fun together with them today, my host brother and i explored the castle museum on our own for example (y'know, they're usually afraid of being alone with me without their parents around). we also watched a musical and the dancers and actors and the choreography was actually much better than this horrible universal monsters live rock and roll show at the USJ!

in the evening the grandparents invited us to a yakiniku restaurant. now that's a really cool thing: you sit at a table with a build-in grill and get all the raw ingredients you like, not only meat and fish but also vegetables and mushrooms for example, and you cook them on this little grill, dip them in a sauce and eat it. it was one of the most delicious meals i've ever eaten, i was so stuffed but i couldn't stop eating. (...) while dad drove the grandparents home we waited at a mall before we drove back home. i incidentally finally won my first prize at the gamecenter there: a stitch squeezie thingie!

trips to various places, food, whacky japanese stuff

kaiyakiba.

2007-09-07T13:27:00.000+02:00

i hardly slept this night, the strong wind and rain of the taifun kept me awake and i was dreaming about annoying things and persons again which happens too often lately. i wake up all angry or sad or both. this morning i was feeling a bit sick from last night's binge. i tried to appear as sober as possible but when i went down to the kitchen i greeted my dozy host father with a loud and cheery arigatô! (="thank you") instead of a ohayô! (="good morning"). there was a moment of silence and he looked at me rather confused before i started apologizing and mumbling ohayô, ohayô!!, sat down at the table and ate my cornflakes without saying another (wrong) word.

when i left the house, the weather was great: sunny and a fresh breeze. i really enjoyed my ride to the university because later that day, it was only hot and sticky again.
in the afternoon we went to the mie prefectural art museum. the exhibition wasn't very interesting imo, although there were a few paintings i really really liked (e.g. kaiyakiba by noriyuki ushijima).

when we arrived at school again i couldn't find my bike. i thought it was stolen and went to the office. they suggested that i should look for it on the campus so poor ana and me looked for that goddamn bike everywhere only to find it in the end at the very same spot where it always stands. just embarrassing.

i've just watched this cheesy tv drama called yamada tarô monogatari with my host family, i need that theme song! tomorrow my host kids have a ballet performance, i'm really looking forward to that. afterwards we'll go to see a hanabi where i'll probably put on the pink yukata i got as a gift from my host family. after that, we'll stay at their grand parents. they live by the sea and i asked them if i may go swimming but they said it's too dangerous because there're too many jellyfish there. dammit, i really wanted to swim in the pacific!

university life

fuzzy navel.

2007-09-06T15:26:00.000+02:00

as i've already mentioned, today there's this crazy taifun raging around. it was cloudy all day long and it started raining as soon as i've left the house so we arrived at the university all soaked. fortunately, i had an extra pair of pants with me because i knew something like that would happen today.

we went to this candy factory this afternoon, they gave us azuki icecream which was quite tasty but i prefer matcha! after our trip, a small group of japanese and german students went to the us-mart karaoke bar. we drank lots of chûhai and were quite drunk and sang funny songs all evening long. they ranged from songs by björk, beastie boys and no doubt to eminem, dolly parton and britney spears. julian and me scored a fancy 97/100 when we sang the beatles' groovy back to the u.s.s.r., only outperformed by yuya with an 98/100.

i drank this canned cocktail called "fuzzy navel" because i thought the name was funny but i think there was vodka in it or something. anyway i got really sick by the time i arrived at home. i had drunk a whole big bottle of pocari before to sober up but it didn't really help. we had to ride through the nasty weather, there was strong rain and the wind almost tossed us into the rice fields. i was soaked and exhausted and had this funny feeling in my stomach and guess what we had for dinner - sashimi (raw fish)! urks. my luck i've already accustomed to japanese food. i wonder if they have noticed that i'm a bit drunk...?!

university life

miss kyanya.

2007-09-05T10:52:00.001+02:00

i FINALLY met a cat today on my way home! she was very talkative but hobbes wasn't with me and i couldn't really understand her accent. we had a lovely time anyway. maybe i'll visit her tomorrow again. her name is kyanya by the way.

after a week of rain and cloudy weather it's getting hotter and hotter again. i was all sweaty when i came home. they're expecting a taifun tomorrow though. i'm really excited. september's apparently taifun time here in japan!

anastasia and me spent the afternoon at the saty mall, killing zombies and drumming at the gamecenter, doing purikura and eating donuts. i really love those cute mister donut animals. i'm already a member of the so-called misdo club but i'll have to eat a lot of donuts to earn enough points to get a present. i also found a cheap handy curling iron today, i wanted one for so long! me happy. i really like the hairstyles of the girls here in japan. so curly and perfect. how do they do that?! *_*

yesterday we went to the suzuka museum of traditional crafts and learned about suzuka zumi (ink) and ise katagami (paper patterns). we also did small easy stencils ourselves which was fun, you can see mine on the picture to the left. i was so tired that at first i didn't wanted to go but it was worth the visit. those paper patterns were amazing and some of the artwork quite inspireing.

university life, tsu

back in the u.s.s.r.

2007-09-03T10:26:00.000+02:00

someone has stolen the umbrella i bought last friday at the university's convini. it was only 400yen but i'm still pissed off. i also stumbled over my own feet today, fell on the stairs and hit my toe. it hurts like hell and even bleeded. kinda like charlotte in lost in translation, now where's my bill murray bringing me an owl?!

this week's teacher is a lot more bearable than last week's! also, the lessons are quite demanding, i really need to sit down and read about all this 丁寧語 teineigo (polite language), 尊敬語 sonkeigo (respectful language) and 謙譲語 kenjōgo (humble language) stuff over again.

after classes we bought chûhai and snacks at saty, went to the us-mart karaoke bar and spent the afternoon singing radiohead, the beatles and captain jack.

university life

苺。

2007-09-02T14:06:00.001+02:00

holy schmoly! i had no idea that eggplants turn BLUE when being pickled! my host family took me to a sushi restaurant this evening (finally! sushi!!) - prawn, raw tuna and salmon with wasabi and mayonnaise, blue pickled eggplants...sooooo delicious! i had frozen strawberries for dessert and incidentally learned the kanji for ichigo: 苺. cute, isn't it? i didn't even know there was a kanji for it.

the food was much better than what we had for lunch in Igaryû. for the first time since i've been here in japan, i could neither identify most of it nor eat it without feeling nauseous. i know that there was lot of tofu and i'm not the biggest fan of tofu you know. although everything looked delicious and nice, i just couldn't eat it. my okâsan on the other hand makes delicious meals, i'm really lucky!

this morning our group and our host families we all went to Igaryû to visit the ninja museum there. the museum was fun and interesting, i especially liked the cat eye's clock. you could also try out some of the ninja stuff like a rope ladder and there was a ninja action show. afterwards, you could threw some shuriken at an aim and win t-shirts and stuff. nobody but alex suceeded but it was fun.

in the afternoon we went to a pottery museum or something, we had ordered various pottery like vases and plates ahead which we would paint now. i had a bowl and while everybody drew landscapes and flowers and cute animals on their pottery i had really no idea what to do and painted an abstract world or something like that. some people looked at it and didn't really know what to say, others told me it's great and someone told me it looks like a mushroom cloud. oops. but it's a tree, dammit!

trips to various places, food

the hippo club.

2007-09-01T16:29:00.000+02:00

today i went to Nagoya with julian, his host mother and her friend ame-chan. Nagoya looks like an interesting city, although the streets of Osaka seemed much more cleaner. we'll definitively make a trip to Nagoya with the japan railpass during our week in Kyoto again to see more of it!

we primarily went to Nagoya to visit the tokugawa art museum and tokugawaen (a landscape garden) but later, when ame-chan's friend fu-chan joined us, we spent the evening walking around in sakae, probably one of the main shopping/entertainment districts of Nagoya.

there was this huge complex called "oasis 21" with a large fountain/pool on the "water spaceship" roof and a great view over the neighbourhood and at the famous tv tower. as it was already evening, we went to a little restaurant where i drank my first beer here in japan. as you may know i'm not so crazy about beer but i drank a glass with 'em because it was fun and so cliché. but i got tipsy quickly (and sober again even quicker haha) and got an headache from the permanent nodding while talking to the japanese women.

by the way, the tokugawa museum was great, definitively worth a visit. there was this one crazy drawing of the ninomaru garden of the nagoya castle which really fascinated me because the perspective permanently changed and you could look at it for hours. i wasn't allowed to take pictures but ame-chan got me a little book at the souvenir shop with a picture of it as a gift.

the garden also was beautiful. there were koi in the pond and when i was watching them swirl around, an elderly woman came and started clapping her hands. she said that you can call the kois by doing so and really! they all gathered around her in no time.

nagoya

do not hit with a bat.

2007-08-31T16:17:00.000+02:00

today anastasia, julian and me wanted to go to the university's convini between two lessons when it started raining so hard that by the time we got back to our classrooms, we were soaked! my hair and clothes dried rather quickly but my shoes didn't and it was quite uncomfortable to walk around in wet shoes all day long. after university we rode on our bikes cross-town forever till we found a damn atm machine which would accept our cards. in the meanwhile, it started raining again and we got soaked again.

we spent the rest of the afternoon mostly at the saty mall, i bought the cheapest socks so i wouldn't have to walk around in those damn wet shoes. anastasia and me played "the house of the dead III" at the game center which was so much fun! killing zombies with shotguns, hell yeah! also, i bought some clothes at uniqlo again because they're so cheap and comfy. my host family must think i'm a spoilt rich brat who is addicted to shopping because i buy so many things here but i usually don't like shopping that much, the japanese just have so much awesome stuff and most of it is even quite cheap. there're also many expensive things here as japan isn't the cheapest country to live in but so far we always found the cheaper stores in Osaka and Tsu. guess, Kyoto and Tokyo will be a tad more expensive...?!

my life at the host family is really getting more comfortable. the last few days we played games in the evenings, i've started talking more to my okâsan and the kids stopped ignoring me and sometimes even talk to me now or try to explain things to me. they also always give me little presents, mostly sweets or cuddly toys or roboter pandas. this evening i showed them pictures of my family and friends and when our otôsan (father) came home late, we all hid and scared him when he entered the house which was funny.

boy, i'd really like to eat some haribo gummibärchen right now.

university life, tsu

red pandas.

2007-08-30T15:55:00.000+02:00

i ate a cherry blossom today, it was inside some fancy sweets and tasted awful, quite shoppai (salty) in fact!

after class, we all went to an archeological excavation. i usually like archeology but this afternoon was really boring. also, it rained and we all got muddy. before i went home i went to uniqlo with anastasia and bought another bunch of clothes (i.e. a skirt for apporox. €3!). my life at the host family is getting better, this evening we went out after dinner and did hana-bi in the back yard. also, my host brother gave me one of his pandas because they think i love animals so much. apropos, i saw a beautiful white cat at university today. i squealed and tried to catch it but alas, it was pretty shy and ran away. i really really need to cuddle some cat soon!!

i can't find my damn cutter.

university life, tsu, food
(fyi, this camera icon means that the following albums at my picasa webalbums has been updated. i will use this in future, mkay?)

雷 - kaminari.

2007-08-29T16:30:00.000+02:00

yeah, weather icon!! i woke up to thunder and the rain against my window at 5am this morning. i really like storms and as i know that they usually calm down in the morning, i told my worried host mother that it's ok if i'll go by bike but as it was still raining during breakfast she intended on going by car. when julian's host mother fetched me up to drive us to the university, the rain stopped (of course) and i felt quite helpless without a bike the whole day long. especially when we went shopping after university and had to walk the whole way over to the "saty" mall because unfortunately, the rain in the morning didn't bring any coolness but more humidity. well, i'm at least happy that the average temperature here is now around 30°C and not 40°C like our first two weeks here in japan.

i really need to stop buying tiny whacky stuff and food all the time! i bought socks&tights today, treated myself with dark chocolate and pink grapefruit juice because it was suppai and bought an epilator by braun (since mine isn't working in japan) at the reduced priced of approx. €20 which is quite cheap for such a thing. smooth skin again! aah, the little pleasures in a girl's life!

this evening i did 留守番 rusuban (house-sitting) with my host brother. when we had dinner earlier (btw we had sukiyaki, a yummy nabe dish), the kids told me that they wanna play (board) games with me later so when okâsan and my host sister returned from her ballet class, we had a fun game night. i always lost but i'm happy to see that they're losing their shyness little by little. also yesterday i was sitting in my room doing homework when they both appeared at my doorstep, grinning like cheshire cats. they gave me a bowl of matcha icecream and ran away giggling cheerfully. so cute. the one thing that always makes them happy is the fact that i'm a sucker for green tea like themselves.

i'm resigning to the fact that they often still ignore me because they're too busy watching tv or something. speaking of which, japanese tv is crazy. &who would have thought that a tv show about a couple of men dressed up as women standing in front of a table with miscellaneous items who have to guess if an item is worth 100¥ or more could be that entertaining!?

my hands are bananas!

2007-08-28T14:29:00.000+02:00

another lousy day at university. our teacher's shrill voice gave me a severe headache again (julian's "scale of sonic death" gives you an idea of how much her voice actually hurts) and i don't even wanna start ranting about those chinese students. i just hate that language and communication's not really going too well between germans and chinese. at least the things we are learning in class (set phrases for example) are quite useful methinks.

we had classes till noon. anastasia and me ate "kitsune udon" at the university's cafeteria and got some sweets at the convini afterwards. i really really like the food here, especially udon and soba but also the chocolate and everything with green tea in it. it's strange because the last time i was in japan, i really had a problem with the food here. only after a few days everything tasted like algae to me which is why i brought half a bag full of german food with me this time but until now, i'm fine and enjoy the food. i just miss "suppai" (sour) stuff like lemons and the first week i really graved for haribo gummi bears. it's also a bit annoying that most of those 飲物自動販売機 nomimonojidôhanbaiki (soft drink vending machines) don't have clear water but all that sticky sugary drinks.

after lunch we all went to the cultural center of Tsu and attended a tea ceremony. afterwards we visited the library there. i went to the children's corner and found some english beatrix potter books and read the adventures of peter the rabbit and his friends.

the man in the wilderness said to me,
how many strawberries grow in the sea?
i answered him as i thought good:
as many red herrings as grow in the wood.

- the tale of squirrel nutkin

chûhai & burgers.

2007-08-27T14:17:00.000+02:00

the day started off awkwardly with my host family. our relationsship is getting better but i still don't feel really comfortable around them, especially the kids can be very repellent. like this morning, when i loudly chanted "ohayô gozaimassssu" ("good morning") but they just ignored me. things like that often upset me.

since language classes started today, we first had a reception in the morning and had to introduce ourselves in front of everybody. unfortunately, they obviously only told the chinese students about it so most of them had prepared some fancy self-introduction and we german students just mumbled "yoroshiku onegaishimasu" and sat back on our chairs. we then had this placement test and i really screwed up, especially the listening comprehension, and ended up in the loser's class. well see, it isn't as bad as it sounds.

after the test there was a delicious buffet und we were put together in groups each with a german and a chinese student plus a japanese student as their adviser. my adviser is a very lively girl called naoko. she is the first japanese person here i could really get along well with. of course i really liked our tandem partners but naoko is always happy, always chattering and thus encouraging me to speak as much as possible in japanese as well. i didn't feel awkward around her when i talked in japanese like i do feel around everyone else...

after the buffet, we already had our first lesson. unfortunately, our teacher has such a shrill voice and annoying intonation, that i actually got a headache. then, just when i was sulking and distracted for a second, she asked me to stand in front of the class and let me introduce myself in japanese. i was completely caught off guard and could barely utter a word. that really sucked.

after university i was so frustrated i went shopping at uniqlo and saty, then bought some chûhai and a grilled chicken burger from mcdo, sat down at the river on my way home and just sat there till i had to go home.

universal studios japan.

2007-08-26T16:59:00.000+02:00

today was such a fun day i don't even know where to start! i went to the universal studios japan in Osaka with my host family, julian and his host sister. we left Tsu around 5:30am and arrived there around 7:00am, lined up and had to wait till 8:30am when the gates finally opened and the crowd rushed in.

first we went to see the shrek 4d adventure, which was a 3d movie but you could not only see and hear the action, you could also FEEL it. for example when donkey sneezed, it rained or when they flew on the dragon, there was wind. i was scared to death when some spiders in the 3d movie fell down and at the same time there was a stream of air under our seats which felt like the spiders would crawl along there! simply amazing!

the next thing was the e.t. adventure but i'm not a big fan of that movie and the ride was rather dull as was the jaws ride in "amity village" later that day. compared to the rides of spiderman and jurassic park, the back to the future ride wasn't that great either.

after e.t. we went to the "new york" area of the universal studios and lined up at line for the spiderman ride. we had to wait for over 50 minutes but it was so worth it! that ride was one of the funniest, entertaining things ever! we had those 3d glassed and were driving through the streets of NYC when spiderman jumped on our ride and villains appeared and we were actually caught in the line of fire. it was like that 4d shrek adventure but even more fun! we were attacked by the villains with water (raindrops) and fire (hot streaming air) and were thrown around. we laughed and screamed out of joy, it was awesome!!! in the end, spidey saved us (and NYC) of course. thank you, spiderman!

we had an exquisite lunch at "lombart's landing" and afterwards went to the jurassic park. we had to wait there in line for quite a while again for the ride. the ride was on the water and at first, it was quite peaceful watching those dinosaurs till we got to the research center when things started to get dangerous. we were attacked by little dinosaurs and everything was getting darker and scarier till a GIANT t-rex appeared in front of our ride and we suddenly plunged down into the darkness and fell down 26 meters almost vertical into the water!! (this & this is how it looks like when you shoot out of the building after the fall) i got so fucking scared i screamed like a madman! afterwards i trembled and giggled hysterically for a few minutes. fucking awesome.

next on our schedule was the waterworld show. just like in the movie, there was a huge floating fortress. there were "dry seats" (yellow) and "wet seats" (blue) in front of the stage for the audience. as most of the "dry seats" were already taken, we cluelessly sat down on the "wet seats" but soon found out the meaning of the seperated seats: the waterworld guys walked around and poured water on the members of the audience of the front rows. oddly enough, we were spared but when the show started (which was quite good btw with all the stunts and pyrotechnics and stuff), there were guys on motor boats and jetskis driving very close to the audience so one large wave of a jetski hit me and i was literally SOAKED! (as you can probably see here)

it was ok though as it was a very hot day and my clothes dryed rather quickly. after the show we took pictures with one of the waterworld guys. there was this guy at the beginning of the show whom i think was really cute and i wanted a picture with him and also one with the kinky villian but a fat old security lady told me that time's up and chased me away. i'm still pissed off about that.

the salty brass band cheered me up a bit, they were the only cool thing at amity village anyway. we went on the boring jaws ride and sat down and watched the shrek baby birthday parade and then the universal water parade where they poured water on the audience and sang about "summer water fun" so just as my clothes were dry, i got soaked again. duh. we went on the back to the future ride and watched the universal monsters live rock and roll show which was bad, not only the story but especially the singing and the dancing. sorry, guys.

we passed on the terminator show and went to the spiderman and jurassic park rides again instead. in the evening, we watched the peter pan's neverland show at the lagoon where the actors were soaring high above the ground! after the show, the universal studios closed and we left. on our way home i was so tired i imagined i was sitting in a ride instead of a car and when we finally arrived at 12:30am, i was so exhausted i immediately fell asleep.

花火。

2007-08-25T13:42:00.000+02:00

this morning my host sister's friend and her mother visited us and we baked several pastries together with eggs or sausages or cheese&ham or chocolate. they were really tasty. in the afternoon we first picked up my host brother from ballett class (he was the only boy in a room full of tiny young japanese girls in tutus which was quite cute) and then went to a big shopping mall. they had a disney store there and i spent a lot of money on stickers and pens and stuff. we also went to the mall's game center and my host family won a few dozens(!) of tiny cuddly toys (but also a huge micky mouse). afterwards we ate dinner, i had udon with tempura and green tea donuts filled with azuki beans. i really love the food here! (except pulpy meat)

i also found hobbes a new friend, the cat "jiji" from kiki's delivery service which i still haven't seen. yes, our family really is getting bigger and bigger! hobbes was happy to finally have found a feline fellow. there aren't many cats here in japan, let alone tigers. they have beautiful cranes and scary huge insects here instead. a few people have tiny dogs but we both really miss the alley cats!

on our way home we saw a little display of fireworks. my host parents stopped their car and waited and said they wanted to see the fireworks. because the few effects we had seen so far weren't that spectacular and because i was tired and had to wake up at 4am the next day i was quite annoyed but about half an hour later the real display of fireworks began and it was so beautiful and huge and almost scary! i tried to take pictures and videos but they just can't capture how great it was! if you ever go to japan, be sure to watch a hana-bi at least once!

ちょっと眠い~

2007-08-24T17:23:00.000+02:00

i like curling up like a cat.
(even without tomcats around, darling)
i'm quite tired and took over 300 pictures again, that's crazy. "camping" was great, the location was beautiful and we had lots of fun - what a pity it's already over! we stayed up until the crack of dawn and drank chûhai (and/or "ureshii wine", bahaha!), we did karaoke, we cooked curry rice and german food (the kartoffelsalat was more like a kartoffelbrei but obviously they liked it anyway) and this morning we went fishing which was a bit boring plus i got a damn sunburn again but standing in the river bare-footed was quite refreshing! speaking of which, today's lunch was cold soba and tempura, oishiiiiiiiiiiiiiii!

we also had classes, of course, but they were ok because our tandem partners are great fun people ("superman ist super, das ist doch selbstverständlich!"). i hope that we'll meet them again sometime during the next few weeks (our tandem week is over now, the next three weeks we'll only have language courses at university with a bunch of chinese people).

my japanese is getting better, especially thanks to the last few days. nevertheless, most of the time i have to ask my okâsan to repeat her sentences and then i still have to guess most of it. i'm such a loser. after dinner i watched some japanese "drama" show with the family, the kids danced and sang along to the opening theme which was quite cute. i didn't really get the story but it was hilarious because the acting was so bad! i love japanese tv.

i'm getting quite fond of those flavored pipes, called paipo. i never smoked (although many people thought so for whatever reasons or said it would suit me) but i really enjoy the peppermint ones. the picture on the left is me holding a can of chûhai in one hand and a peppermint paipo in the other (that bloke behind me is julian btw). yeah well gotta go to bed.

Tsu: Camping (Aug 22-24th)

lucanus cervus.

2007-08-21T17:07:00.000+02:00

just a quick update. we're on a tight schedule and i almost can't find the time to write here. at least i've finally uploaded some pictures over at my picasa webalbum. so far it's only the pictures from osaka but i'll add the ones from tsu maybe this weekend.

the lessons at university are ok, the weather's still unbearable though and the permanent change between the hot/sticky outside and freezing cold inside of buildings/stores/restaurants is quite exhausting and i feel like i'm finally coming down with a sore throat.

the relationship to my host family is getting better day after day. yesterday we went to eat ramen at a restaurant (i had never eaten ramen and i didn't really like it either). on the way to the restaurant i made my first little joke everyone laughed about and also, the boy talked to my directly for the first time. also, i had quite a chat with my okâsan this morning at breakfast and this evening, her, the kids and me played some cute game on nintendo ds together. it sounds strange but it's those little things that make me feel better. i'm not much of a chatty person anyway and i still have to get used to the fact that they're so much different from my other host family.

in japan, they eat a LOT. i'm just happy that i started eating again properly a few weeks ago otherwise i couldn't keep up with all the food at all! all those side dishes and the sugar-filled drinks you get every few hours for 100¥ because of the heat and those tasty green tea chocolates and pocky they all already made me gain a few pounds! and i've only been here for a week!!!

which is why i especially like the fact that i'm going to university by bike. julian and me (since he is practically my neighbour we go there together) have to ride for about 20 minutes through rice fields every morning. tsu is quite a grim place, all grey and bleak, but those residential areas we ride through every morning are quite beautiful with old houses and those typical japanese blue roofs and pines in their gardens.

tomorrow we're going camping for three days in..."green park"?...or...whatever, where we have lessons and have to cook german dishes for our tandem partners amongst other things. we decided to make "schwäbischer kartoffelsalat&würstchen" and chocolate cake. i'm all on edge because i never made kartoffelsalat and cooking for over 20 people is difficult anyway. at least we're doing karaoke again in the evening.

yesterday i had my first real karaoke experience and it was so much fun. first i didn't dare singing alone and sang fun stuff like "barbie girl" by aqua with saskia but then i dared to got for it alone. they didn't have songs by tori amos so i mostly sang weird stuff like "it's oh so quiet" by björk, "wuthering heights" by kate bush (omg! ^^) but also "don't speak" by no doubt for example. also, isabella sang "supermassive black hole" by muse which was pretty cool! i can't get that song out of my head since.

by the way, hobbes found some new friends: belle & genie. i'll post a picture soon. well, that was more than just a quick update but now i've gotta go get some sleep.

ps: what's the deal with all those stag beetles here in japan? like they wanna piss me off on purpose or something, y'know? like it wasn't hard enough already...stupid.

techno-toilet.

2007-08-19T14:32:00.000+02:00

finally, another weather-icon! it rained today for a few minutes but unfortunately, the weather's still as hot and sticky as the days before. the only thing this change of weather gave me is a severe headache.

yesterday in the afternoon we arrived in tsu. after the orientation with o.-sensei there was a little party with the tandem partners which basically means we were thrown together into a room with music, crackers and a couple of bottles of tea for one and a half hour to get to know each other. anastasia and me were talking to the two boys in our group about squirrels (リス risu) and sunburn (日焼け hiyake, my shoulders still burn like hell btw). after that little party we met our host families.

i'm still a bit unsure about mine. they were extremely distant the first few hours which gave me a really bad feeling. they kinda ignored me, especially the kids. now i know, japanese people are shy and stuff but my other family in ogaki (in 2003) was so different. so when we came home yesterday they just showed me my room and disappeared. it wasn't until my okâsan (host mum) showed up about one or two hours later and told me that we were going to a restaurant with julian and his family in the evening (his family lives only a few yards away) which cheered me up not only because i wouldn't be alone but also because she actually TALKED to me!

the food at the restaurant was delicious! it was sort of an all-you-can-eat open buffet and at some point of the evening, the chef pounded mochi for everybody. some kids and julian and me were also allowed to pound the wet rice a few times which was fun. also, during the evening things started to loosen up and i started to feel better around my host family.

although i've got an air conditioner in my room, i could barely sleep so i was feeling really exhausted this morning and got sick on the bus on our way to the ise shrine (伊勢神宮 ise-jingû). in ise, our group and the tandem partners went to some place where we learned about japanese food and then we even cooked our own lunch: miso-soup, pickles, fish and rice (w e had to make onigiri!). it took forever, especially roasting the fish, but it was worth the wait because it was quite delicious. afterwards, everybody washed the dishes and/or cleaned the whole place together before we had the afternoon off to walk around the area around the shrine(s) with our tandem partners.

it was very hot but the gardens and shrines were beautiful, also the restaurants and shops. i finally got to eat macha (green tea) icecream, my favourite!! (and i usually don't like icecream at all!) they selled lots of delicious and weird stuff, for example cooled salted cucumber (which is a great idea for hot summer days!) or sweet potato icecream, ugh!? anastasia and me even tried some black(!) icecream with 黒ごま kurogoma, black sesame!

back at home we had japanese food for dinner: a large cube of tofu with soy sauce (i never ate tofu before but it was good), rice, fish, edamame (which i LOVE), yellow tomatoes (they're really good), pickles and some soup. tomorrow okâsan wants to make ramen for dinner because i never ate that. (...) we came along better today. they even gave me a pretty pink yukata and showed me how to wear it (but i'll forget how to bind the obi by tomorrow anyway it's too complicated).

i wish my japanese was better because everytime i try to make more than one proper sentence i fail or completely forget the grammar or don't remember the easiest words. it's also annoying that the japanese aren't really correcting us as long as they basically understand the meaning of our babble...that doesn't really help me, y'know.

i took over 300 pictures the last two days and i'm just too tired to go through them and upload them now. but i'll publish them soon, i promise!

suntory boss is the boss of them all.

2007-08-18T04:35:00.000+02:00

we checked out this morning and are sitting in the lobby of our hostel now, killing time till we leave for tsu around 12pm.

yesterday we went to osaka castle, which was quite boring in my opinion. the park around the castle was pretty though but full of huge, ugly cicada. i also got a sunburn on my shoulders. we stayed at our air-cooled room in the hostel during the afternoon, in the evening we went downtown again. first namba and then america-mura. ebisubashi and shinsaibashisuji were pretty cool, too.

my feet hurt like hell when we finally arrived at the hostel. fortunately, i had bought a foot mask at lush (i got 50% off when i told them i work at lush in germany! ha!!) which really helped. oops, gotta go! looking forward to meet my host family. i hope they have internet at home...

convini-hopping.

2007-08-16T16:05:00.000+02:00

still not feeling too tired considering i didn't sleep much the last few days, my feet hurt like hell though. we walked a lot today. in fact we walked from one chilly airconditioned convini to the next because you can't stand this heat for more than 5-10 minutes.

we went to tempozan today, a huge area where the aquarium, the santory museum and a giant ferris wheel are located. the disney exhibition was really lovely, i especially liked the sketches of sleeping beauty. afterwards we decided against the aquarium because it was just too expensive and went to a huge electric store in namba instead. i finally got my ac adapter (although the clerk told us that it's not the right one and that it would be "abunai!" (dangerous) to use the plug in japan but my notebook didn't blow up till now so me=happy) and i'm already about to upload pictures. :)

at the moment we are waiting for the other students from germany to arrive at the youth hostel so we can go get something to eat together.

maccha daifuku.

2007-08-16T05:00:00.000+02:00

insomnia got me last night. after being exhausted all day long i was suddenly wide awake as soon as i went to bed. couldn't sleep till 5am and woke up two hours ago. strangely enough, i'm feeling quite well right now. eating maccha daifuku (small green tea mochi filled with red bean paste) for breakfast and waiting for julian to wake up who couldn't sleep last night either.

i found this great website, the osaka visitor's guide, which says that there is a disney exhibition at the suntory museum tempozan. i also wanted to visit the kaiyukan aquarium...which i think julian is not too keen to do...but as it is in the same area as the museum, we should probably go there and postpone our visit to the osaka castle as it already closes at 5pm.

rosehip-mint chewing gum.

2007-08-15T14:48:00.000+02:00

these weather icons are getting boring...

we saw the grossest insect on the street on our way to tennoji. fortunately it was dead but it was about as big as my hand! ugh. we ate dinner at our new favourite restaurant (a small cup of delicious soba for only 200￥, that's about €1,20!) and i bought rosehip-mint chewing gum. they have lots of crazy food here anyway like kiwi chocolate, salt candy and banana-flavoured baumkuchen.

jetlag.

2007-08-15T11:21:00.000+02:00

i'm fucking tired. last night we explored the neighbourhood of our hostel before we went to bed. it's definitively not one of the most beautiful areas of osaka (bums and lots of pachinko parlours) but if you walk a while you reach the tennoji ward which is quite nice.

today we went to namba to look for a japanese lush store. after about 2-3 hours of wandering around quite aimlessly we finally found it in the huge namba parks shopping mall. i had to pull myself together as to not to buy any more soap as half of my bag is already filled with them. (but boy i couldn't do without my therapy massage bar! i was feeling so depressed this morning and the neroli really cheered me up! ...and NO they don't pay me for writing this!)

afterwards we ate lunch and the first thing when you enter a restaurant here in japan is that you'll get a cup of ice cold water or, even better, iced green tea! yummy! i ate a delicious noodle-shrimp-salad dish (i actually choose it because i liked the photo on the menu) which turned out to be a cold dish which was of course perfect because of the heat - 36C today! later i got myself a honey milk latte and some sort of cake with macha filling at a coffeeshop - yummyyyyy!

unfortunately, i still can't post pictures. we found an electric store (denki ya) today and bought ac adapters but they don't work for the plug of my notebook. maybe we can find a denki ya at the tennoji ward later. and maybeeee i should buy me an energy drink or something.... *headdesk*

ion!!

2007-08-14T11:18:00.000+02:00

somehow we have arrived in osaka and met up with julian at our youth hostel. the humidity here in unbearable and the journey was long and exhausting, especially the flight (i almost fainted and threw up three times, it was just horrible).

still feeling a bit weak and i could really need some sleep. hobbes is dozing upstairs in our permanently air-conditioned room while i'm trying to keep me alive with pokari sweat and oishii onigiri and all that funky stuff we bought and the supermarket earlier. i'll write a better update and post pictures as soon as i get an ac adapter and can use my notebook again.

when i was your age, pluto was a planet.

2007-08-12T18:40:00.000+02:00

everything's finally packed and ready...except me. hobbes is dozing on my bed but i'm too nervous and worried to sleep. too many changes in my life lately, it's getting a bit overwhelming.

my new mobile phone is driving me crazy. that sony ericsson w660i is crap, it just annoys the hell out of me. bluetooth doesn't work, the screensaver is the most stupid thing i've ever seen (the same color for the background and font of the clock - wtf!??!), you can only use crappy themes and it even doesn't have a currency converter! i hope that at least it'll work in japan. also, the ac adapter i ordered didn't arrive in time which sucks. i hope i'll find a good one at the airport.

tomorrow's gonna be a long, long day:
stuttgart - munich - tokyo - osaka
a total of about 24 hours of travelling!
i have no idea if the internet at the youth hostel will work or when i'll be able to update the next time...also, i can't find any clever closing words for this post.

the pink dress.

2007-08-10T12:30:00.000+02:00

the weather's awful here in germany, don't mind the smiling frog on the left. by the way i guess you've already figured out that those little animations at the beginning of each posting are displaying the weather at our current location. we're still working on the design and widgets of our travelblog. yesterday we've added a shoutbox, feel free to leave random comments there. still searching for a nice pownce widget though as they're not available for blogger yet. please let me know if you've found one!

idil is no big help at the moment as she is jumping around happily all evening because she finally found this pink dress she was looking for for weeks and even bought it at a reduced price today. oh well. i also have to look after my buddy mico (idil's brother's cat). he is so sad because his big brother left for turkey yesterday for three weeks so he is eating cookies and chocolate all the time like some depressed girl. he even started licking the furniture again. that cat is crazy...

/hobbes

plazes.

2007-08-09T15:28:00.000+02:00

a few days ago i watched lost in translation again. as you can tell from my website designs, i really like that movie. ;) japan-guide.com has a list of the locations where the movie was shot and i'd really like to visit the park hyatt hotel for example. hobbes says i'm a dork.

some other places i'd like to visit in japan this summer are:

tokyo: senso-ji, harajuku, shibuya, roppongi hills, ueno park, national art center, takaraza revue, ghibli museum, park hyatt tokyo
osaka: osaka castle, kaiyukan aquarium
kyoto: gion district, kiyomizu-dera
nara: nara park, todai-ji

if you have more suggestions, let me know. (...) japan-guide.com is a neat website with lots of information on japan and tips for traveling/living there. for example did you know that there are large lavender fields on hokkaido? weird. too bad i probably won't leave honshû though.

i'm still a bit unsure about that plug and voltage stuff in japan as it differs from the european standards. i've ordered some travel plug adapter and i just cross my fingers and hope my notebook won't blow up or something. also, i don't wanna drag it around for nothing. especially not after i've checked the weather forecasts for japan earlier today: average 30°C! apparently i'm going to melt there.

there are still so many things to do! today i bought myself a new sketchbook and ordered my new cell phone. i just hope it'll arrive in time and that it'll work in japan. i also need to think of a name for it...

realization.

2007-08-04T16:43:00.000+02:00

this morning i had the last exam for this term. i still got papers to write but i'll deal with those after my trip. anyway, i'm relieved the learning stress is over for now and i'm gradually starting to realize that i'm going to japan for almost 2 months!

i've never been away from home for that long and my longest stay at a guest family was 3 weeks. i got a letter from my host family in tsu today which lifted my spirits because they have two little children (you gotta love japanese kids!) and sound very nice and i'm looking forward to meet them.

nevertheless i must say, the whole thing's frightening me a bit but i'm also excited. i really need some time off of germany and especially tübingen anyway. i'm sure there'll be plenty stuff to take pictures of and maybe i'll even start drawing again!? i wish i already had some kind of crazy art project in my mind for japan. i really miss the art in my life.

hello there

2007-07-29T08:25:00.000+02:00

hobbes an me are currently in germany, preparing our trip to japan this summer. we've already been to japan in april 2003 for one week and we were extremely lucky then because it was cherry blossom prime time, we had a very lovely host family and visited many interesting places in a very short time.

this is a picture of us i took on our first night in japan at the hotel in oogaki
this time we're gonna stay for about 7 weeks. the first few days we'll be spending at a youth hostel in osaka for acclimatisation, the next four weeks we're staying at a host family in tsu which lies in the ise bay and is the capital of mie prefecture. i'm going to take part in a language course at the mie university there. in september we're leaving for kyoto. we'll be staying at a temple there and by using the japan rail pass, travelling a bit around, visiting cities like hiroshima or nara. our last few days we wanna spend in tokyo before flying back to germany.

we're going to write about our adventures in japan and post photos here in this travel blog. if you have any comments or tips, don't hesitate to leave a comment! enjoy!

love,
idil & hobbes