Wednesday 4 December 2013

as promised, you never came back again [cry while you can]


Long absence again. Being busy with three presentations that I all had to prepare for last week, I had already pretty much forgotten what blogs are. I had also forgotten what it is like to feel bored. But on the other hand, once you start 'working' on something, it is not as hard to get motivated to do more for it as you keep going. Once you stop, you fall into that hole of 'I have no motivation to do anything'...

Winter has been rough and it seems the mornings are the only bright things these days (that get ruined by class ugh). I hope you all live in a brighter and warmer area! - Speaking of that, it already got terribly cold and as I went to the local christmas market here in Bonn with a Japanese exchange student after all of my exams, I realize that I am really needing another coat for winter.


 

I have been hunting down a warm yet stylish coat for at least one year already though. There was one coat in NewYorker that I saw and got because I had a coupon to get 30% off. I had been eyeing it for one or two weeks and there were only 2 left in the military green colour. Of course it's not very warm so I am still not sure whether I want to wear it or not :< It reminds me totally of SLY coats that I often spot in Japan. It has the same kind of fur-ish lining but you can't take it off on my coat. I have to admit though - it is a bit cheap-looking on the inside and I had to remove several loose threads but for 50€ (!) I think I will keep it.

left: SLY (25,200yen) right: NewYorker (~49€ discount price - regular price 69,99€)

Strangely on the website the inner lining of my coat is beige instead of green as it is on the one I have (actually it looks like in this one from VENCE) and also - it looks quite ugly on the picture. Must be the models fault because it looks better on me haha. No, well, when coats are buttoned up they just don't look as cool as when they are open.
I am still debating though... ! The arms have no warm inner lining, so that my arms actually look slim because I took a smaller size rather than a bigger one... but... I get cold on my arms!!。(´д`lll)
I can still wear my thinner coat from Ghost of Harlem beneath but that will make me look like... a fat military penguin... 。(´д`lll)  But, I am freezing no matter what coat I buy (unless it is a ski jacket but hell no) so maybe this debating all makes no sense.

What about you guys though? Would you rather freeze and cry through winter and look stylish or is your priority to stay warm 24/7?
Of course there is peole who always feel cold (like me) and people who do not really get cold... also depends on the area you live in. And - on how much outgoing you are haha. For example I get the feeling that in Japan all the buildings and trains are heated really well so it is way easier to get through winter with a not super-extremely warm coat. One more thing that Japan does terribly right.

I think that is all for now. Overall, as negative as I might (?) sound, the good experiences are still overwhelming the bad ones. I want to rant a lot about things but I am quite happy with myself and once I get through the next few months, I can prepare my future life after graduation~ (Still dreaming though because I can't believe it will come true! haha)
For now I am praying to get through winter~ And also I am praying that my iPod that I need for several things will not break because I really can't afford to buy anything new like an electronic Japanese dictionary that I need for my Japanese exam(x_x;)

With that I am wishing you all a good start into this winter~ ☆

Wednesday 2 October 2013

highlights in august/september (tokyo part 3: last day in Shinjuku, flight, date-night out)

Oh no, October has already started. How time flies when you are enjoying not doing anything for a while! (still have lots of studying to do that I wanted to start before the semester begins ; ;) There is something that I really like about October, which is the start of a new season/the start of a new semester/the start of a new blog name (haha) or new work that I mostly think of about this month but - I don't like that it is cold! The worst about this is, even my teeth are really sensitive to this cold (><)

But enough of that, here is the last part of my Tokyo adventure time trip

On the last day of August I had a good time with the guy I met in the club (who is hanging in my room in Germany haha.) He was really sweet and I did not even expect that he would really meet me but to my surprise he did show up which really made me happy. The last days of your travel always turn out the best, after all... Anyway, I will talk about this under the cut. If you are interested in the story, continue reading until the end~
Actually once September started, my departure was approaching very quickly. It was on September 3rd but in the morning and I had to leave my guesthouse in the evening before so that I had to pack everything on the 2nd already. I also tried to call JAL to reschedule my flight to another date but ugh, this took ages and they had to call me back after checking whether there was still available flights in the same economy class as mine and of course, after checking for about 10 days, they called me back, said there was nothing in the same price class, then checked another 10 days and said the same. The cheapest option - that should have been 15,000yen - turned into 45,000yen which was too pricey for me. 
Ah, so I packed things up quickly, went to Shibuya for some very little omiyage shopping quickly and also bought something from d.i.a. because how could I leave Tokyo without buying something from d.i.a.!

After I came back home I got my essential things, 'checked out' and met my bf at the station, got mad at him for being an ass and not helping me with my luggage up the hill (he was eating at the station because he had not eaten all day... can you imagine he was eating AT THE STATION right before we met to go out to EAT. who the hell sh** ** **** ****) 
Anyway, after my little and very subtle anger fit we went to Shinjuku because I wanted to spend a bit of time there. We put my luggage in a locker and since he already ate, went to Alta first. I wanted to buy tons of stuff but I remembered that I won't really be using sun glasses and some clothing here anyway so I refused to everything and spend my money on food. First sushi, then we walked around (and I had to wait for my bf to finish playing his games at the game center where we took purikura before ugh) and then we ate some more at an izakaya and had one last drink.


We caught the last train to Chiba were he lives and where I spend the night. As we were waiting for the train I took a last picture of Alta that we could see from the platform. It took a while to Chiba and it was funny how the more you got out of Tokyo the darker it looked outside of the stations. There was almost nobody outside at this hour either. We walked at least 20 minutes to his place and it was really quiet and everything was closed, I started to feel so lonely (TT)


This building and scenerey reminded me of Hokkaido somehow... even though I have never been to Hokkaido, it had that calming melancholy feeling that I get when I think of Hokkaido. But, we went to a 7eleven on the way and I have to admit that it became a bit less lonely because there were some night-active people. Again, that helped with the Hokkaido feeling haha.

I caught about 3 hours of sleep and then I already went to the airport and home. I got off on the wrong terminal first... but managed to get to the right one by a free highway bus, luckily. This is the first time that this happened to me in at least 3 years haha.
Once I was on the plane, everything felt good. Personally I just love flying, being surrounded by strangers and this feeling of not being on earth. I do not like the air pressure and how it dries my skin but the atmosphere and feelings this gives me are exotic (just until I get home ugh). Some more or less boring pictures from the flight now. Also we had the Yoshinoya food special there, not bad~ But sort of did not fill me up as much as the usual meals haha.


 



That was it. Needless to say, my trip was awesome even though, as always, great and not very great things happened. I am thankful for all experiences.

As for the date-night out I had with the guy I met, read below if you like~

Thursday 26 September 2013

short the Gazette live in Dortmund report, outfit & HD pics of nails

Here I am again and I have a short live report before I go on with my last Tokyo spam!
I was stupidly worried about the live itself because I had an awful experience at my first live of them here in Cologne in 2007. And I am pretty sure the Gazette were feeling the same because not only that 90% of the fandom is crazy and rude but a lot of technical things with the sound and all went wrong. I hardly remember anything of it but let us not talk about it.

I had VIP ticket number 1 omg. Never in my life have I had ticket number 1.
pays off to not sleep for 18 hours after my all-night birthday party to order the tickets hah

The happier I was when I - two days before the concert! - found someone who would give me a ride from a major station pretty close to my parents place (which is closer to Dortmund than my place in Bonn) if I pay her a bit for the gas. Of course I was totally okay with that and I am really happy that it worked out and when I met her I felt like she is a really nice person and we had a great ride! I also drank vodka on the way there and as we were standing at the hall. Unfortunately I had to pee when we arrived and I thought damn. Cause there was nothing around to go to so I just well, went to pee in the bushes. I am not sure if it was the alcohol or not (just drank one of those tiny bottles) but I actually enjoyed that kind of 'natural' experience. I am also glad I was able to ignore all annoying people in front and inside of the hall, for the most part haha.

I left my things in the car and did not bother buying goods (it is mostly just the same old and then some uncool EU goods in my opinion) so that I ended up somewhere in the 3rd row which was quite okay for VIP tickets. The hall was WIDE and not like that stupid Cologne hall at all. The sound and the lights were great! The doors for VIPs opened at 17:30 and it was supposed to begin at 20:00, and it surprisingly did.


Once they came out, everyone went crazy. And once they started playing the first song, I thought I would die from the heat and I could not even just stand there, everyone moved so randomly and violently and in the end I got pushed back somewhere by the second song. Which was okay. I was always somewhere between the 3rd and 6th row I suppose but with everyone moving so much and so randomly, I had troubles just holding my dress up (it slipped down once) and keeping my sweat from running into my eyes.
My friend was getting a lot of hits and did not feel well so she went back but I really did not want to loose my position there and when I sometimes got closer to the 3rd~4th row, I was really happy because I felt like I could make eye contact with the members (mostly Uruha and Ruki) a few times.  And I swear, this was my first time to make eye-contact with them, after like 6 years of trying.

What was most stunning for me is that Ruki's make-up was becoming a bit imperfect as he sang, it was forming a little crease around the corner of his mouth which I personally found adorable!
There were all looking really great and perfect in their own way though. After all we were standing as close as many hardcore fans never get, in the beginning the band was just 3 meters away from us (!!) so we could see their eyes and make-up and strands of hair moving gently (apart from Ruki's hair, that was just SOLID) and not just figures and shadows of them.

Most of the songs were upbeat, apart from Untitled. I suppose the reason why they play less quiet songs is because of the damn crazy crowd and it not knowing how to move during the quiet songs. Just don't move at all, damnit. The songs played were Vortex, Filth in the Beauty, Shiver and some other songs from the TOXIC album. 
This time I don't remember everything very well because I was so focused on staring at them! And I was trying to look decent because I had the impression they were sort of looking back but hell, that was hard with the sweat running over my face. I am glad I did not go in the first row, though I wanted to first, but they would have thought: Wow, what is with her? Did she cry? And no, my sweat was just getting so close to my eye make-up and that made it look like I had shed a tear haha.

There was one encore and Ruki got his make-up fixed during the break but he did not have time to put the tour shirt on obviously haha. The last song was Linda and the encore entry song was some sort of upbeat song... don't remember but I think it was the same 'pattern' as on the 10th anniversary live. After those 3 encore songs they already said good-bye and it was really short and emotionless but I felt like they felt a lot of things when they left. Or maybe it was because I was suddenly feeling a lot of things.


I was worried that the lives takes 2 hours or longer but with that one break inbetween it was only 1 hour and 40 minutes. I went out and my clothes were covered in sweat completely, I did not even feel how cold it was outside first. As I found my friend outside and we went to the parking lot, we saw the huge background (?) they used before the live outside lying/hanging. I should have taken it with me but I am too nice (◡‿◡✿)

Then my friend got so annoyed by people standing in the way that she almost knocked over people but I was somehow pleased by that thought haha. Also by then I pulled out my ticket that I had pushed inside of the cleavage of my dress and noticed it was totally soaked in sweat and partly had tears but that was okay. After all that all proves to be a great experience.

And now, finally, outfit and hair before I headed out. Nothing too special but hey, that was all I could do. Somehow I am a bit bothered by how my bangs turned out but if you look at me as a whole package, it still looks good haha.


And a HD close shot of my nails that I put on while in the train to meet my friend. I bought these in Japan two years ago but the thumb nails never stick to my nails properly so I rarely wear them. Some little part already feel off from one nail but look at how sparking they still are!


That is all! Now I will brush out the last bits of hair spray and my sore body will get more rest~

Tuesday 17 September 2013

highlights in august (tokyo part 2: more about crazy★shampoo, cat cafe, lots of sushi & epic men's egg night!)

Another has already week passed. And guess what? That one beautiful person that I talked about in my last post (that I met while clubbing with Kitai, Jasmin and Eriko) messaged me two days ago on line and asked whether I was free or not. Of course I did not yet get the change to say I am not in Japan anymore... Ahhh how cruel is life (ノДT)

Anyway, I am going to tell you more about what actually happened all after that. The live I was at (Crazy★Shampoo) was sort of fun because they had this contest for the two members whose birthday it was. I was surprised that I understood a lot of the talking there!
Basically the game was about the two members being blindfolded and having to guess what food they were given. They were really bad at that actually! And almost nobody there knew what avocado tastes like?! When the guitarist said: 'Oh, it kind of tastes like maguro.'
... And the audience was like: Ehhh?! But then some where like: Right, right. - If you ask me though, not everything that tastes fatty tastes like maguro but hey! Whatever.
Actually the bassist whose birthday it was lost and so he had to be the one who sings instead of the vocalist. The singer was sort of small so the bass looked a bit heavy on him, I thought?! And then before they actually started playing like that, the vocalist asked the bassist if he knew the lyrics to that one song they were going to play. And the bassist was all like: 'It's like.... kono mama~~ somethingsomething'
So everyone bursted out laughing until the vocalist asked him about how it continued. So he asked him all like: 'What about the way it goes on? Or, do you know some of the English parts of our songs?'
And the bassist was all like: '... yesterday~' Everyone was laughing again because the bassist kept thinking what else there was but he could not remember anything and so the vocalist sang the lyrics a bit but in the end the bassist could not remember them when they were performing. But ah, this is just a bit of an impression from the live... I thought this song was very catchy~



But I don't think I will go to any live (after Gazette) anymore this year. I just felt like such a child among everyone! And the way everyone was clapping in their hands so the band would come out, aww... no haha. Plus I rather like the kind of entertainment where I am talked to directly and do not watch some sort of live show.

Okay so days after all of this, we went to party on a Thursday night again with some of my friends and Kitai's and Jasmin's friend and the music was sort of good but I did not think it was very intersting or anything. I imagined it to be a really epic night somehow (do not even ask me why) and it was great but somehow different from what I imagined it haha. But! I finally fit in my d.i.a. hot pants as you can see here. For what price though (TT;)


I think on the same day I went to the cat cafe in Ikebukuro with my bf... which means, after sleeping and all that. I imagined it to be way cheaper but sitting there for 1 and a half hours was about 1500yen + 300yen drink fee, which was voluntarily. Since it is a CAFE I thought I would not be allowed to bring my own drink but now I know better. However you could also charge your phone there and all.

Overall, it was relaxing but rather boring. The cats were not moving a lot and mostly sleeping and people were taking pictures all the time of course. Just like me that time haha.






They were feeding the cats right when we came and they were all crazy about it apart from that one little cat sitting in its place. It was just staring at them, and the funny part was, it had such a flat face and sometimes it was just looking around and waiting for someone to come up and feed it like: (´△`。)?

And I am quite sure that we ate sushi before this. Because we ate sushi a lot. I cannot count how many times I ate sushi because it was cheap and really great and I cannot get the same quality in Germany. At least not around where I live. So here are just a few pictures of sushi~




The first sashimi picture was when I was invited by a friend in some chain restaurant... I don't remember where that was but it was not kaiten sushi haha. Then I also went to this place where they serve sushi on those moving plates that stop right in front of you. That was in Shibuya. Here you can see how I ordered some grilled salmon, ebi and maguro and later we also ordered some cakes haha.




And theeeeeennnnn it was soon Sunday and I wanted to go clubbing. Apart from one of my male friends nobody wanted to come and I was pretty unpleased by that because hell it was men's egg night!!!! That does not happen all the time you know.

So but I still had time before that and so Sarah and I met in the late afternoon to go to an izakaya. We were basically just sillying around but that izakaya she showed me had really nice meat dishes and there was no table charge or anything so I thought it was a nice spot to keep in mind. Finally, even though she was super sleepy, I could convince her to go clubbing with me! And my friend. We spent time getting ready at my place and I was wearing my new Gold's Infinity dress that I bought that seemed just perfect for partying. Then we headed out and took purikura before meeting my friend.


I don't know what was up with my face haha. It must be because we were drinking before!
So we had some drinks close to Donki in Shibuya and then we headed for the club where my male friend somehow insisted to pay everything (><) We felt so extremely guilty, especially me! I kept trying to say it is okay for me to pay my own entry and drinks but he would not let me. I was getting just the right amount of drunk and I enjoyed myself totally. 
Since I was not really drunk for a while (due to my sickness), I was somehow brave enough to talk to a vk-ish looking guy too. I was first just like: Oh, your hat is cool! (that's what Sarah said I should say lol!) And then he was like: Oh really? You like fashion? And then we talked somewhere where it was more quiet and he told me that he was looking at me the whole time but he was not sure whether he should approach me or not (because I was with a guy). I was totally surprised by that! We ended up exchanging contacts and then I saw the background picture of his cellphone was some guy that I have hanging on my door (here in Germany) and so I asked him who it was and he said: 'Me' and I was just like: ............
We parted then and he went home early. Also my friend who paid all the drinks for us somehow kept passing out but he did not tell us because he wanted us to enjoy the party. I felt so bad for him trying. We wanted to go with him towards the exit to get him home but he said we should just go and enjoy ourselves so well, we did... I talked to some other guys, saw someone I know and also talked to Yukihide once more when he passed by (smalltalk) and that was basically where I called it a night.
I do think it has been ages since I enjoyed myself that much!

I met the guy that I talked to then once more on a different day and it was a lot of fun, I am not sure if I am going to post about that though (is that intersting even? haha) but let us see.

And after all of this was (including all the sushi dining sessions) over, I caught some sort of cold but my vacation was already coming to its end and it was only a small cold so I did not bother.

That's all for part 2! Last part is going to follow soon~~

Tuesday 10 September 2013

highlights in august (tokyo part 1: yakiniku, partying, zero calorie beer & a vk live)

Finally I am here with a new blog entry (=that is not a sale post. But please have a look at my stuff. I will have more coming new items up for sale soon probably!)
I am sorry it took so long but I was really either too lazy or too busy to get online on my PC while in Japan (I literally just sat in front of it about 2 or 3 times). Also I've been plagued by all my little sicknesses again. It's terrible, but lately, whenever I try to lose weight, I get sick, especially in Japan. I know and research a lot about nutrition and the right foods but the sicknesses still break out ugh. Next time I will do it like my mum does, take ALL the meds for various diseases with me and then I will probably end up not being sick at all (><) I am still fighting off this little cold but that is nothing compared to what I have all been dealing with.
Traveling is stressful, let me tell you! Especially if you are constantly trying to lose weight but that is another story.

Here I finally come and present you the highlights of my holiday. It was a fun trip, as always, and I feel like I have done way more than usually, probably also because I took a lot time 'off' and did not have too many conversation lessons. I sort of feel like I should have watched my expenses more but well, I had a lot of fun with a lot of different people so I cannot complain and I do not regret anything. So anyway, during the first days, I met with several friends and the guy who became my boyfriend (of some sort) in the end. I got extensions in Shinjuku for about 8,000yen and then I quickly got back into the Tokyo life-style of dressing up and doing make-up everyday.

First time yakiniku that year was when I went out with my bf in Shibuya.
It was not very good but we only spent about 1,500yen each so it was sort of alright!


The next day it was my friend Mia's almost-last-day in Tokyo or at least the last day that I saw her (TT) We went out for Yakiniku at a place in Kabukicho that I found online. It was really good but also expensive, damn. We ended up paying almost 5,000yen together and I was not exactly full!


Mia managed to take a nice picture of me though! Kind of a true to life picture haha.
(doesn't happen to me very often that I look the way that I really look in photos)

We went to a host club later where I had THE prettiest host I had seen in ages who actually tried to lure me in. Oh wait, we went to two host clubs and then to Yukihide's bar (which ended up being pretty lame and a disaster so let us forget about that). So I sort of kept in touch with the hosts that I have sort of shimei'd/picked at the end and met one two more times. The other one (the hottie/pretty guy) had a plan to meet me on the last Saturday that I was there on his day off but because there was another guy who I met at atom who also had off that day, I didn't make it to meet both of them (TT) Well, scheduling dates is difficult! There you have the reason why I hardly got online.

Well, so let's skip back to the time after what happened when Mia left for her trip Osaka (and then home to England after that). I finally met Kitai for clubbing but before that I have also seen her at Hachiko while I was waiting for my guy! What a coincidence. We finally got to hang out and I went clubbing in Shibuya for the first time that year. And after that a few more times, again with Kitai and some of her friends. I also met Jasmin and Eriko, two very sweet girls that I would love to see again!

Of course we went to an Izakaya before partying! & I took some pictures of myself because there was a nice lighting. I feel like that sort of smile makes me look like  MiA from mejibray a bit but well! 


Some more blurry pictures before and during partying! Here you can see out outfits actually.
We also took purikura but I will upload those later because I didn't get all of them on my phone. 

The next days I thought I need a rest. The night before I drank the zero calorie & zero alcohol beer and felt horrible after it! I don't know what that is even, zero calorie and zero alcohol beer. I think it must be something terribly chemical?!


I am quite sure I will never drink that again unless I want to harm myself. Anyway, the next day I wanted to meet my bf and I suddenly felt a bit nauseous (I often feel nauseous though, especially when I don't eat enough) but then I also felt a strong pain in my abdomen that was linked to my back! I was a bit scared about it. I talked to one of my Japanese acquaintances who happens to be a doctor about it and he told me that I should drink at least 3 litres of water and go to the hospital if it does not get better. I guess I simply did not drink enough and did not care too much about my health but it is sort of difficult for me when I am busy and want to lose weight and want to control my expenses, ugh. He kept advising me to go to the hospital but since it was obon week, it would be more expensive than usual so I really thought it would be okay on its own. (After a few days I felt better and then I also got antibiotics later.)

Overall I can say that constantly meeting someone stressed me out a lot though. Of course I wanted to meet everyone but my time there was so short that I felt forced to go here and there and that I also felt like I owe something to people sometimes. And it bothered me that all that most Japanese people say is 'shinpai shiteiru' but they don't give a fuck about whether you are sick or not, bf included. Even the guys who were intersted in me wrote me just shit like 'oh so did you bf visit you?' and some others wanted to do 見舞い but wtf does that even mean and how does that look like when I am sick and lazy in bed trying to recover and you are coming to look at me like at a wild animal.
But anyway... during my few days off that I used to relax and drink lots of water, I only went out for a few hours a day for lessons and meeting that friend and then I did my nails with nail stickers (´д`lll)


Also my Garula coordinate that showed lots of cleavage hahaha. But that is hidden here.

So the next time I went out it was when I still did not feel very well but I though whatever. I am stronger than this sickness and I will not let it ruin my holiday. This time it was with Kitai, Jasmin and Eriko. I was on pain killers but in a good mood because I got out again. I did not drink anything alcoholic during that night, the music was good as always though and there was even someone good-looking in the club that I talked to so it was actually just what I needed and wanted, I had a great time talking with the girls and dancing. This is also a way to relax, right?~



Lovely purikura that we all got because Eriko uploaded them~


I look huge here because the wooden border on the wall has almost the same colour as my cardigan so it looks like my shoulder ends there but it does not omg (iДi)
This is the first time that I think I'd have actually looked slimmer without my cardigan! haha

I literally do not really remember what was on my schedule for the next day. I wanted to meet Eriko again but we both caught only very little sleep so we did not meet, I started taking anitbiotics the next day (that the acquaintance gave me) and went for 2 more lessons, then in the evening... did nothing, I think? It was a Sunday and I was tired I guess. The next day I met Jasmin and Eriko again, we took some purikura and went to karaoke with another friend of Eriko. After spending some time in Shibuya 109, Eriko (who is from Nagoya) told me about all little wounds she had since she came to Tokyo! So I am not the only one who gets sick here haha. Also she bought flat shoes because her heels just became really uncomfortable after a while. Later I could convince everyone to go to the free live Crazy★Shampoo was hosting in Harajuku. I hate Harajuku but I paid everyone's drink tickets that we had to pay for and we spent about an hour there before Eriko and Jasmin said they wanted to head home. I stayed a bit longer and it was kind of fun. There was some birthday contest event and a lot of talking.


I don't enjoy going out to lives as much as I used to but it was still good and I liked the songs!


So this is all that happened up until August 19th and with that half of my holiday there was already over. I guess I will stop here because this is getting really long. Orginally I wanted to make this only 2 parts but there might be 3 after all. Please look forward to hear about the cat cafe I went to, as well as more party, more beautiful people, more purikura and some more food!~