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!

Mother's Day - Easy pie recipe

皆さん、こんにちは！ 

今もっともっと練習しなければならない～
だから、このブログエントリーは日本語で書きます。
・・・
嘘。

Of course I won't write the whole thing in Japanese.
But it's true, that I have to practise a lot because...
Speech contest will take place in less than 5 days!!!
Now there's the slight feeling of anxiousness.
Haha...

Yesterday I met up with my new tandem partner Yuka-san.
We talked in Japanese and German and it was hard to do so but I really enjoyed our time!
We'll definitely meet again!
 But that's not today's topic.


Today is.... mother's day.

Did you enjoy this day?
Enjoy doing something for your mother?
Saying "thank you" to her in a loveable way?



As for me I enjoyed it as a children but didn't like it when I was a teenager.
Guess it was the typical "Don't like to do anything" phase back when.
I'm sorry mum!

But now I really enjoy it again.
Because I moved out from home the day will start in the afternoon.
I prepared a little present for her.
This time it's something cute but also handy.
She likes gardening - and so I bought her cute little decoration accessories.

I also baked a cake yesterday.
It's an apple rhabarber pie.

Very easy to make:

1 tsp salt

120g sugar

250g flour

150g sliced butter

then add 125ml cold water

Put the pastry in the refridgerator for at least 2 hours.

(In the meantime I went to the drugstore haha...)

Afterwards: roll the pastry until it's approx. 3mm thick.

Put it in the buttered backing tin.

Fill it with sliced 1 1/2 apples and 200g rhabarber.

(Please buy sweet apples!)

Preheat the oven with 200°C and bake it 30-45min.

You can serve this lukewarm or just like any other pie.

Sprinkle sugar on the surface or even do a brief mixture of sugarwater, so the surface will look glossy and you may won't need another big topping of sugar.

Before and After

The backing tin's radius is 28cm