Overeating at Sweets Paradise

Hey guys,

it’s been a while. I went through some pictures of my last days in Japan and couldn’t believe I forgot to tell you about our amazing time at Sweets Paradise!

Me and the two girls I worked with all had a pretty sweet tooth and it happened quite regularly that we would drop by our local ice cream parlour after lunch to get our share of creamy, icy sweetness before getting back to work.

So when we heard of a place called “Sweets Paradise” we immediately made a promise to go there before we all had to leave Japan.

No sooner said than done:

At “Sweets Paradise” (or sui-para) you decide on how long you want to stay in advance. For us, it was 1500 Yen for 70 minutes (a bit less than 15€). Had we payed extra, we would have been able to order special themed food and pretty fancy drinks, as this restaurant cooperated with some popular game.

But, in all honesty, we didn’t even know the game and the variety of regular sweets and desserts was already mesmerizing.

There were a lot of delicious cakes, like this pancake tarte above, and also cupcakes, jelly, cream puffs and also very traditional Japanese sweets, like mochi. Whenever something was finished, new masterpieces arrived immediately.

Right next to the desserts were vending machines for hot or cold beverages. I enjoyed drinking some cocoa while eating my desserts. It went better for me than soda.

It was just sooo difficult to decide on the sweets!

You kind of know, that you probably won’t be able to try all of them, but they all look so good. At some point you can’t help but ask yourself: Do I want to try that cake I haven’t tried yet and risk being too full for the cake I already found to be delicious? Or am I going to eat the same cake again and risk missing another delicious kind of cake?

As you can tell, we almost went into existential crisis 😛

But seriously, eating there was simply great and so much fun as a last event together with my co-workers.

 

If you plan on going there, here are my tips for you:

• bring fun people. This may sound basic, but you really don’t want to spend 70 minutes with someone who will discuss diets at an all-you-can-eat. Make sure your group enjoys sweet things and doesn’t mind eating a bit too much either.
• share things from your plates. You can enjoy it together and won’t have to waste something if you don’t like it but really wanted to try it.
• rather pick many smaller things, than one big piece.
• drink unsweetened tea. It helps your digestive system and neutralises the sweet flavour in your mouth. Green tea worked best for me.
• have a walk afterwards and maybe a broth based soup later if you feel like you have overeaten.

Did some of you already go to a place like this? How did you like it? Tell me about it 🙂

A day trip to Mt. Takao

Hello guys,

time is flying by and for one of my last weekends in Japan I really wanted to see something outside of Tokyo again. My co-worker Alina came up with the idea to go to Mt. Takao as a day trip and since I also wanted to take pictures of the red leaves here in Japan anyway, I was up for it immediately.

From Shinjuku we took the Keio line rapid train, which brought us to Mt. Takao in a bit less than an hour for 360 Yen. We read online before that Mt. Takao was one of the more famous stops for seeing the red leaves and that especially on weekends in the second half of November it can be really crowded. We did however completely underestimate that warning, as we had to admit as soon as we arrived at the station…

There were SO many people.

On the other hand, we always knew where to go – we could just follow the masses. And with our minds so free from worrying where to go, we really could fully concentrate on the photography. The colours were simply amazing. Even on our way up.

We soon reached the first platform and were able to take our first shots from above.

On our way up we passed small statues and shrines every now and then. But almost half of the way to the top was a temple, that I wanted to see very badly. It wasn’t a big temple, but it had an amazing atmosphere and I just like the lucky charms they sell.

The sun came out and we threw some coins and clapped for luck.

From there on it really wasn’t far to the top anymore. Although with so many people it sure took us a while. We walked for about 2,5 hours. But it was worth it.

We were really proud of us. (^-^)

We found us a place to sit down – it was still so crowded – near some benches on a balustrade.

There were food booths everywhere selling ramen and soba. Smaller ones selled dango – rice cake balls.

We did however bring our own lunch, in my case green tea and onigiri.

As you can already see in these pictures, I am wearing a face mask at the moment. My roommate at Borderless House has had a cold for the last couple of days and I think it got me, too…

I didn’t like face masks back when I tried them on the first time in 2010. I felt like not getting enough air and the feeling was really uncomfortable.

Now I can say, that I really like them. I always have a problem with dry and chapped lips when I catch a cold and the mask keeps the air you breath humid, so they won’t dry out. Plus, I am not caughing as much as usually, because the air is not as dry and cold when I breath in.

(I am also trying to hide a nasty spot with it, haha.)

After finishing our break, we noticed another platform that looked even more crowded than the ones before. We took off to get a look and were amazed as soon as we saw, what everyone was staring at: Mt. Fuji.

Although it is true, that you could theoretically see Mt. Fuji from Tokyo, sure enough you usually won’t.

The sun may shine too bright or the sky might be too cloudy – it really does not happen very often that you get an actual good look at Japan’s most famous mountain.

The light changed gradually and we realized that we would have to get started on our way down. We took a slightly different route than before to avoid the people, which was quite effective in the beginning.

Most people were just getting in line for the lift, so we could walk quite freely down on our own and actually made it in only 1,5 hour this time.

By the time we arrived back in the small town, the sun had already begun to set and the various restaurants started to brim with life.

We decided to rest our aching muscels in the hot spring bath of the town. They had some amazing special basins with carbonized water and even one with more than 42°C – which was actually impossible to stay in.

Visiting that onsen was just really the best way to end our day trip. We felt super relaxed and although we were exhausted, we didn’t feel overstrained anymore.

It was simply a fantastic day and I can definitely recommend going to Mt. Takao in November – just avoid the weekends. Really 😉

No Pictures

Some people have been wondering, concerning my last entry about the President’s visit, why I only posted the official photos and didn’t make any myself – not even a selfie.

We were quite explicitly not allowed is the answer to that. But we are rebels 😀

Akasaka Borderless House Halloween Party

On saturday we invited friends and had fun celebrating Halloween.

Osaka Ant

Hey guys,

this weekend I did not spend in Tokyo like my name on here implies, but their rival town, Osaka. It was a rather spontaneous decision, since I got the chance to see a friend from my very first time in Japan, Sara. We didn’t quite know whether or not it would work out until maybe a week ago and I’m so glad we could both make it!

 

People from Tokyo probably wouldn’t see Osaka as a rival town, but Osakans certainly do. With many things in Osaka there seemed to be the wish to do things in a way that they would distinguish themselves from Tokyo.

In Tokyo for example you stand on the left side of an escalator and walk on the right – Osakans do the exact opposite.

There is also the Tsutenkaku Tower, that used to look a lot like the Eiffel Tower in the early 20th century, like the Tokyo Tower does today.

It got destroyed in a fire and when it was going to be rebuild some years later they actually decided against their original design – because the Tokyo Tower was already under construction at that time.

Furthermore, it is usually said in Osaka that Tokyoites wouldn’t have any sense of humour and are too meticulous. The people I met from the Kansai region in general all seemed to be rather proud of their home towns and were very eager to tell people about it.

I’ve got to say, I really enjoyed this attitude. My roommate’s friend, at whose guesthouse we stayed, went out of her way to show us some places we should go to and whenever we had to take some more time to figure out the subway systems, there were people ready to help, regardless of speaking English or not.

So, because of many nice people, we actually got to do some sightseeing, although we didn’t really have the time to make plans beforehand. We saw the castle of Osaka and entered the museum inside, too.

We also went to the popular tourist spot dotonbori, a nice area near a canal with many small stores and restaurants.

We ate some okonomiyaki there, which is a dish eaten everywhere in Japan, but especially known in this region, and I later had some takoyaki, also a local dish.

In general, Osaka is quite known for their food.

Sara and I were wandering around a lot besides that. We sure had a lot to catch up on. Six years ago we used to go to the same school in Aomori. We were in the same year, but in different classes. But a few times a week we had Japanese, cooking, and cultural classes together, which were always fun.

For both of us that exchange year turned out not quite how we expected it. Although in different aspects. We talked to eachother a lot back then, not even about certain subjects – more like talking for the sake of being able to voice your thoughts eventually. Or that’s how I felt. For our Japanese skills our friendship probably wasn’t that beneficial, for my mental state during that time, however, I absolutely believe this was the best that could have happened.

Ma Prang from Thailand, me, and Sara from the US in our school uniforms in 2011.

The weekend was a lot of fun and I kind of regret not being able to travel a lot while in my internship. I will have to tell you guys about how I even got to Osaka next time, because that was just really an adventure in itself…

A fun Night at a Japanese Hot Spring

Hi everybody!
Last Sunday my housemates from the Borderless House invited me very spontaneously to a visit of a Japanese hot spring on the artificial island of Odaiba.

Inhabitable land mass kind of turned out to be a very valuable resource in Tokyo, so in the 1970s, when Tokyo was expanding fast, some island fortresses from the Edo period where taken as a base to form this artificial island. And when the Japanese economy went crazy during the 1980s Odaiba was supposed to become THE example of futuristic lifestyle and a lot of money was invested.

On the way to Odaiba – with the Yurikamome Line across the Rainbow Bridge.

However, the Japanese economy broke down shortly after and now Odaiba is probably the emptiest place in entire Tokyo. But while one of my housemates called it therefore “the shame of Japanese economy”, I really came to enjoy this emptiness.

The Shopping Malls, Hotels and Museums in Odaiba can offer a lot more space here and often add gardens and parks to their area. Therefore, since I was only used to very small, rather traditional bath houses, the hot spring Oedo-Onsen just had me astonished with its size!

The Onsen had a large entrance hall, where we left our shoes and received some Yukata. After changing into those and locking our luggage, I expected the typical resting room with some couches and vending machines, where we would spend our time after having the bath.

I couldn’t have been any more wrong though.

We entered a hall that I didn’t even recognize as a hall at first glance, because it was designed as a Japanese summer festival out in the open. There were small restaurants to eat in a traditional manner on tatami mats, cold drinks were served, and there were ice-cream booths and a lot of games typical for Japanese summer festivals.

And we were all in our beautifully patterned Yukata!

From this main hall diverged the ways to the hot springs for men and women. We split up here to spend some time in the hot springs and decided on the time to meet back in the main hall.

After one and a half hours of relaxation in both the indoor and outdoor springs of the women area, we got ready in our Yukata once more to meet up again. I kind of got lost in the process. While wandering around I found a door in the main hall that let to a seperate spa and massage area, and another door that let to a beautifully decorated outside area, which was, luckily, our meeting point.

This outside area was made for both sexes and consisted mainly of an artificial river to relax the feet in while chatting quietly. They even had those fish that gnaw on your skin in another area, but it was not included in the price and even if it was, I would have probably been too grossed out to try that…

So we just sat there for a while and really had a good time after being in the hot waters for so long and feeling a bit exhausted from that.

I don’t think I had so much fun in a Japanese bath house ever. I still wish I could have stayed longer. It was just as much fun as it was relaxing and I left the Island of Odaiba with an actual feeling of fulfillment, thinking maybe only of when to come back and who I could bring next time! 🙂

Bye Odaiba… I’ll return soon!

Showing some colours

 Hello everyone.

German-Japanese partnership.

As a German, who grew up in Germany, I’m not really used to seeing the German colours outside of soccer championships or souvenir trash stores.

While the flags of the UK and the USA, or France’s, are even considered fashionable and are produced as fabrics for clothings of all kinds, Germans tend to be really self-conscious not to choose our national colours for products.

Now that I’m working at the embassy’s, things are a bit different though. Here, Germany is “merchandised” to a certain extend and we are working hard on getting people interested in our country, especially the younger ones. And colours are very easy to remember and to recognize, plus, they convey a neutral image when seen the first time.

For some reason however, nearly everything in the embassy that the staff uses is also in the German colours. Everyone is given an umbrella in the German colours, we write with pens in the colours and in the intern’s room there are even the flags displayed.

The umbrella of Germany.

The pen of Germany.

The water bottle of Germany.

The waterbottle in the last picture was designed by a Japanese company for the G7 summit this year in Japan. Every delegation received bottles in their county’s colours. It was actually a very nice idea.

Still, I think this is hilarious for the most part, because it it doesn’t really matter what our pens looks like, right? But what I like even more about my workplace are the doors of my Japanese co-workers. The doors in the embassy are magnetic and some people hang posters for upcoming events there or notifications of absence. Every now and then however there would be a door that is simply crammed with German themed magnets and accessories.

I would probably do the same with weird Japan related stuff, though… 😉

My work routine

Hey guys.

My internship has kept me really busy this week and I always came to the borderless house extremely exhausted. There’s a lot going on at the embassy’s right now and, just as everyone keeps telling me, for me as an intern, this is a major chance to witness the more exciting parts of the embassy’s work routine.

The wall of the embassy is decorated with artwork about Germany – this will also be redecorated soon with a new concept 😉

Right now there are two main events coming up. The next one is going to be the big reception on october third, the anniversary of the German Reunification. On this date the German embassies all over the world hold events, some bigger some smaller, according to the embassy’s size and the ambassador’s wishes.

The second main event will be held in november and although I can’t talk about that yet, you will definitely see it in the news, when it comes up! I’ll keep you updated!

So, how does the intern contribute to all that important stuff?

My major task this week was to write a draft for an article to be published in the English newspaper the Japan Times. Every year on the third of october, the German institutions of Tokyo get an entire page for transferring the message of the German Union. As someone who always loved writing and research, this was a very exiting task, that only held the always very present problem of an immensely tight deadline…

In general, I write a lot for the embassy – may that be interviews I have to revise, the minutes for meetings hold twice a week or greetings in the name of the ambassador.

These Junior High students visited us on wednesday.

Every now and then though, I get to be part of a more direct communication. For example, I welcome Japanese students at the embassy, who want to learn about Germany and the work of an embassy. Usually those are small groups that do a project and not entire classes.

We tell them about the differencies between Japan and Germany, but also about those things our countries have in common. We bring a lot of illustrative material and often have some German sweets prepared. This time we brought some Oktoberfest themed gingerbread hearts.

The questions the students ask reach usually from “What do you think of Japan?” to “What can Germany and Japan do together for the worlds future?” and cover almost everything inbetween.

Japanese students love to hear about Japanese popculture in Germany, so we told them about manga and anime that were translated to German language.

Another thing I experienced first hand this week was an event held at the ambassadors residency, which is right next to the embassy’s building. The Japanese-German Society of Tokyo helds their annual festivities at the residency and as a part of the department for communication, I was expected to attend.

The society went through a lot of effort to also invite their younger members to the event and the result was a very interesting mix of both younger and older members, who all held an interest in Germany and were rather eager to talk about that. Speeches were held, drinks were served and the buffet consisted of masterfully arranged foods that combined tastes of both German and Japanese cuisine.

I am naturally not attending to have fun, but that doesn’t mean I can’t have any, either. 😉

Birthday Adventures

Hey there,

yesterday was my birthday and I turned 22, yay! Thank you guys for all the congratulations and good wishes! I’m going to tell you about my day in this entry, because there was just so much stuff we did and it was such a fun birthday, that I want to share it with you.

When I got home from work on friday, the birthday adventure kind of already started with my housemates asking me, if I would join them for a drink at a new bar in the area. I was really in the mood, so I kind of joined them without really knowing what to expect. I guess the proper term for a bar like that would be “experimental”. The interior was kept rustic and woodsy and they really took a liking to smoke – as in a wood fired smoker. I do remind you, that this was a bar – not a restaurant! So we actually had our drinks and cocktails with a smokey flavor to it and it was so good! Also it was very expensive.

The drinks we ordered. I had the one in front in the bowl – the ingredients included chocolate powder and japanese green tea.

While drinking, my housemates tried to wish me a “happy early birthday” and gave me a hard time explaining to them that this brings bad luck in Germany. Memories came back from my sixteenth birthday, which my hostfamily decided to celebrate two days in advance, because I was having school on the weekend. At that time it was a very nice evening after all with really good sushi and they even got me a very nice yukata, but I was all in tears on my birthday itself and felt so far away from everyone, because they had already congatulated me and that was it.

You can see the shock in my entire face.

My hostfamily got me even really tasty sushi.

The present I received was this beautiful yukata I still keep in my wardrobe.

This time couldn’t have been any more different, though. We left the bar, bought some wine and set down in front of our house in the middle of the street, because some people wanted to smoke and that is forbidden inside the house. The borderless house is in a blind alley, so it was really a quiet and calm place to chill that late in the evening. And while we were sitting there and quietly chatting, all the time switching between Japanese and English, it finally turned midnight. My housemates began to sing for me and congatulated me and I ran up to my room to get them some german chocolate I bought beforehand and it was all so wonderful and perfect and we kept sitting outside for a few more hours.

A picture a housemate took. I am on the far left, desperately trying to be in the picture 😀

Birthday cards and chocolate!

After going to sleep that late, unfortunately, I had to get up early later that day. I opened the birthday cards I received and a small present from my boyfriend, who got me german chocolate because I had missed that and wanted to share. He also got me coffee and some stuff I had forgotten to bring here.

A fancy breakfast.

Since friday was the last day of work for the two trainees that worked with me, my supervisor invited us to his apartment for breakfast and they all remembered it was my birthday. My supervisor even got me one of those expensive small japanese cakes! It was delicious.

I afterwards met up with my german friend, who arrived with me in Japan in August. She was travelling for the past two weeks through the Kansai region and we had so much to catch up on, we basically spend the rest of the day talking… But I also got us free tickets from the embassy for an exhibition in Odaiba. It was a ninja exhibition for little kids and we had so embarassingly much fun! The exhibition was devided into an explanatory part about the historical facts and an active part where we could learn to tiptoe like a ninja and throw shuuriken like a ninja and we learned the distinctive hand formations for gathering chakra and gaining concentration. At the end we received a “ninja certificate” and yes, we were even more proud and excited than the preschoolers!

We met again in Asakusa.

Shuuriken!

We got the ninja certificate.

The only part of the permanant exhibition we could see… 😦

And even though we only had the time for this special exhibition and didn’t get to see the amazing regular exhibition about future technology, it was all in all such a fun day we spent together! I’m definitely going back to the museum at some point though. Being able to see the future technologies of Japan is just really a chance to jump at.

History repeating itself

Going to the movies is really expensive in Japan. I’m so glad I brought an international student ID so I can get at least some discount on the usual price… Nonetheless, I previously didn’t even consider going to the movies here in the first place. These days however, I saw a poster that made me change my mind.

The first movie – 2011

Six years ago, during my very first time in Japan, my hostfamily of that time took me to see the first live action movie adaption of the manga “Gantz”. Now, as I mentioned before, I was really into manga at the time, but of that one I had never heard when taking my seat next to my hostsister.

I admit my language skills of that time where absolutely not sufficient at all. The images however really impressed me. The movie plays out a possible afterlife concept, in which the characters have a chance to win their life back. To do that they need to fight – you’ll never guess – alien creatures.

I really enjoyed this mix of science-fiction with philosophical questions about the meaning of life and whether or not it is worth fighting for.

The reboot – 2016

 

 

Now, guess what movie poster I saw when passing by the theater… – The series is getting a digital animated reboot in october! 🙂

I start to see a pattern here. Well, I really don’t believe in fate but I’m still going to watch it!