Hamburg after three years

Dear girls,

it has been such a while since I went to Hamburg.
More than three years!!

And the day didn't start too well...

I missed the train, the train at Hauptbahnhof was on delay for 20 minutes... holymoly.
I was happy that I could finally arrive at Hamburg Altona at 11 AM.

There I met Nadine's mum. I was so happy to see her again!
She looked so beautiful! <3

We went to a nearby café, drank a Latte Macchiatto / green tea with orange & caramell syrup (I love syrup!! <3 I absolutely recommend you this mixture!) and had a little talk.
I only got time until 12.30 PM because I had a date then.

But... the biggest surprise was... a former colleague of Nadine's mother we met there... she looked like an older version of RAN-PYON! <3

I was so in love with her hair!!! <3

I wanted to take a photo of her but I didn't haha... Still, I never forget that impression!

WOW!

Well and then... 12.30 PM I met up with... well yeah.

Because we were hungry, we first went to this very cool Japanese restaurant Matsumi.

It was great to talk and order everything in Japanese then but I noticed once more that I really suck in speaking. I envy him. ;__;

We had a great meal, talked about a lot of things and then went to... Mundsburg,

having a slight stop in a shop, there I got THIS

and continued to go to Wandsbeck because of taking some purikura.

It was a new machine with a lot of new backgrounds and stamps... I really enjoyed this one!

And it was possible to get two photos on your mobile phone as it is in Japan!

That was pretty cool! <3

Moreover we were able to get some 2nd hand manga in Japanese... I couldn't resist to buy those two...

some nostalgic feeling and "scary lessons" is just great! <3

We had a short break at Hafencity and Speicherstadt and then just really stopped at Landungsbrücken. Unfortunately it was too late to have a harbour tour but nonetheless having ice-cream is also great! <3

What is your favourite kind of ice-cream?
I really love stracciatella!

Well around 7 PM I had to get back to Berlin.

My father was so kind to pick me up at the Hauptbahnhof. <3

And he bought me a magazine...

I started Yoga a year ago and always skipped excercises...but I want to do it

properly again since it's good for your health!

 

Starting again really felt good. <3

 

 

 

And of course... here are some photos <3

 

 

 

 

Colonaden - I didn't know this part of Hamburg before although
it's right next to Gänsemarkt, where the Sanrio shop is located.

 

 

 

Getting to Hafencity and Speicherstadt

 

 

I love this automobile!
I also want to drive around in one when I'll get married.

... IF I ever get married. Haha.

 

 

There was this really cool Mexican Navy ship

which will sail off a few days from now.

It was exciting to get on bord.

(I still love Navigation and everything else which is located with that <3)

 

 

 

<3 ~ It was such a wonderful day ~ <3

 

 

 

 

I feel a little bit loveydovey right now.

Haha....

 

Hazukashii yo~ <3

 

 

 

A really short Shopping Haul

... which is already a little while ago. :'D
I met with a dear friend one Friday after work and

we just met up to go to our English café but it was closed

and now it's... a Bangkok one.

We didn't want to go there so we decided to go to
Wilmersdorfer Straße, doing some window shopping

and having a nice coffee or whatever.

Tanja introduced me to a student café-bar that I want

to recommend you the next time, I'll write about soon.

So... what did we find?

Do you know the shop TIGER?

This one got a lot on unnecessary stuff but with a lot of
childhood memories, too. Games, crayons, kendama, ... it was

fun just to look at all the stuff. Furthermore there was a lot of cute

stationary stuff, too!

I used the time to buy some silly presents for friends just beause I can!

I was always kidding with my twinsnake that we would
paint a huge pink strawberry on the kitchen wall (just as

it was seen at PomPom's crêpes back when).
So THIS strawberry jewellery case was just perfect for her! :D

And here are more presents...
Some ducks for Hannah who is so in love with them and

collects everything with them.

A headband with Elsa for a friend's daughter who will be enrolled

in school this year. (She's in love with Elsa, haha)

And a bracelet for sisters. The golden one's for my lil' sister of course. <3

They even got some alcoholic markers.
I still have to try them out, but they were cheap, so why not?

Water colors!

And here... is some upcoming cosplay stuff.
I want to do a remake of Misty in August.

The brown pants are for Saki.

I just love them!! <3

Some more clothing...

A flourish t-shirt and finally a thin black cardigan again...
I lost mine some years ago and I was always in trouble
finding this one again. <3

Little Presents from Japan

Hello my dear ones,

how have you been?

It's such an odd season - right now it's too warm for me

but the good thing is... I finally can wear my dresses and skirts

again. <3

But this time it's all about gifts from Japan!!

Enjoy!!

When I met Ayaka on the Speech Contest's day

she brought me a small cute bag - there were my

favourite KitKat's inside (Matcha! <3)

but many more...

So it was a really traditional gift bag with such cute

designs - A tea towel with the Fujisan on it.

A koi printed fan and small little cards and envelopes

made of Japanese paper.

Risa wanted to send me a package since Autumn

and now look what arrived...

She asked what I wanted to have and I only had

two things in mind: a cute printed mask and some lunch

box items. So she picked a lunchbox (two bowls in one) with

a dog design and two Alice in Wonderland styled masks. <3

There was also a lot of stationary stuff which I really adore! <3

I also met Kotone almost 2 weeks ago.

She brought me that beautiful letter set with flowers

and also another one with a small ribbon and some

sticky notes. <3

But I didn't enjoy only the gifts... but the wrapping

paper, as well! I love it! Isn't it cute?!

And this is how the lunch box set works.

A rice bowl and the upper box you can fill with

another topping.

It is closed safely so it won't spill.

~

I so long for going to Japan again and buying a lot
of great things. (;___;)

I really miss all the cute little things.

You don't need them... but it's nice to have them!

<3

National Japanese Speech Contest 2016

And that was it!!

I still can't believe it that I made it somehow... on the 12th May 2016.

third place!!


It was such a cool event.

But what to wear?
Business dress was wished for...

I asked Mimu, because I didn't know if there is a slight difference in business clothing in Japan and in Germany. Actually, I would have worn a business suit for woman because that's the most formal way you can dress yourself to look serious.
It isn't the way I feel most comfortable but well yeah...

Mimu gave me her opinion and they were the following:

 

(1) really typical type of clothing for Japan

(2) much more cooler but I definitely should wear a jacket

(3) cute (I was shocked, haha)

So what did I choose?

You will see...

But there was much more to be happy about:
After three years I was able to meet my dear penpal Ayaka again.
She's here on vacation and so we just had to take the chance to meet up!

We met in the morning and I was so astonished because she actually wear a kimono! <3
Ayaka looked so cute!!

We went to a nearby café and had a lovely breakfast.

The owner of the shop was joking around and I had to translate everything for Ayaka
but you know... talking all the time in Japanese was such a real good practise and start for the day.

We also went to the J-Store, taking some Purikura, and look what I found there!

I couldn't resist buying V-chan's Crescent Moon!

Afterwards we went to the Japanese embassy.

Lucky us - a demonstration just ended!
We arrived safely and other people were already waiting...
Yuka!

I was happy that she made it.

She's my tandem partner and she's just a cute person!

Jassi and my father also arrived on time and we're just waited some minutes, then we were allowed to enter.

The room was assigned nicely.

I found my place in the first row because I was a participant.
Your guests were allowed to choose their seat freely.

The whole event was moderated in German and Japanese.

After introducing the jury and explaining the contest's procedure to everyone the speech contest started.

I was number four and so I had to wait but also to listen to really interesting talks, too.

The most difficult part were the questions afterwards.

Of course, you can memorise a whole speech without having a clue about the language itself but answering questions is much harder.
Fortunately I could answer almost every single one... except... one.

And that was the simple question "how long" I was in Japan in 2012...

So, after everyone gave their speech, we had another report.

This time it was Caroline, winner of the last year's contest, talking about her travel experience to Japan.

It was such an interesting report and the pictures were beautiful!

So when they named the winner... and we had to stand in line for taking group photos.

What else can I wish for?

A 150€ coupon for the bookstore!!

(It's better than the 2nd place since I already have a camcorder)

Well... and what happened then?

We had a reception with excellent food!!

Sushi by Ishin, Créme-brûlé, chocolate cake, potato-aspergus gratin, chicken wings, salad, .... 

WOW!

And there was also great red wine offered to us all. <3

The reception last an hour.

I talked with a lot of people, with Osaka-san from BigS-International, with the vice president of the Japanese Association in Berlin, with the winner of my group, with Caroline, ... great. <3

Afterwards we were invited to go to a restaurant - of course it was a Bavarian one.You know... Japanese people love good German beer, right? ;)

Well, I still feel so lucky and the first days I couldn't even believe it...

It was a national contest in Japanese... and I made it.

Third price.

YEAH!