Trust me, pet
Mother knows best, Mother knows best,
Listen to your mother, it’s a scary world out there
Mother knows best, one way or another
Something will go wrong, I swear
Ruffians, thugs, poison ivy, quicksand
Cannibals and snakes, the plague…

I love Tangled‘s MOTHER KNOWS BEST. Disney knows how to do villain songs ♥

OATMEAL, which means porridge and that equals JOY :D And semolina porridge. Wow, that sounds like a serious illness in English and that though it’s incredibly delicious. A shame ;)

So this post if mostly stuff from January (which is not much, I did not take many photos this month) since I was sick or studying most of the time and will be (studying!) until next Wednesday. First I had a nasty cold and then I … did something to my neck and could hardly move for a while. So I am sorry for not updating (there is so much from November and December to show!), but I will try to do that as soon as I am free of the dreary learning. I also might start on the weekend since there is not much planned except studying.

But I promised bread, didn’t I? (And not excuses.)

PROPER BAGUETTE! Oh, I missed this. I do not miss that much about Germany cuisine, here but bread, which is just as bad as it was in England, and oatmeal (which is RIDICULOUSLY expensive!!) are definitely two things I miss in my diet.

Also today something great happened, which mollifies me because after experiencing something great I also messed up my rather easy test pretty badly. Poor stupid me.

THE WONDER OF THE FIRST SNOW OF THE SEASON (初雪、hatsuyuki)
According to our tandems it does not snow very often around here, since while bitingly cold at times, it is still mostly above zero degrees and the cold stems often from the fierce wind rather than from the temperature.
But today – even just for a very short while – it SNOWED. That made me happy, winter without it is just not winter, even if it might be the begin of spring tomorrow ;D

So let’s have some randomness from last month and three pictures of my room as it looks now :D

I always find it a bit eerie when you can see the moon while it is still light out, but it also makes me feel as if I was in a sci-fi novel and anything could happen in that particular moment while I am looking at this strange object in the sky… (I love view of the stars and the moon we have here in Tsu. Since it is mostly clear and hardly ever cloudy you have a wonderful night sky.)

I FORGOT THE NAME OF THIS DELICACY! I am ashamed of myself. Some Japanese sweet filled with white (anko, sweet bean paste) that is mixed with mandarin jam. Although the wikipedia article says that you do not call it anko but shiroan. I’ll ask my tandem partner about it since he was so nice as to bring those to one of our tandem sessions. Anway, IT WAS DELICIOUS. DELICIOUS I TELL YOU!!

And now onto my now less pretty but a little bit warmer room and its changed furniture arrangement.

I should also show the pretty postcards I bought at Tokyu Hands and hung over my desk. One word: steampunk *___*!

FANDOM LINK-A-LOT:

A obituary for Diana Wynne Jones and her SUDDEN WILD MAGIC. Beautifully written and made me tear up here and there…

A quick look at SAKAMICHI NO APOLLON an upcoming anime, that brings together Yoko Kanno and the creator of Coyboy Bebop, a match made in heaven. (Watch the trailer, that drumming is gorgeous!!)

A CASE FOR A GAY PROTAGONIST sums up all the reasons why we need more minorities in our video games and beautifully so.

ANOTHER LOOK AT ANIME… ah just read it, it’s awesome!

And have some Music Delights:

I discovered Kimbra through WALK OFF THE EARTH’S BRILLIANT ACUOSTIC COVER of GOTYE FT. KIMBRA’S SOMEBODY THAT I USED TO KNOW. Great music, all of it.

I was hopelessly squeeing about the Disney Date CD, where 10 Japanese voice actors will cover Disney songs that is to be released this year. 5 out of those 10 voice actors are among of my favourites and listening to the samples on the CD’s official webs just made me incredibly happy. The songs are of not gorgeous and beautiful, funny and make me laugh. I’ll make sure to buy that CD. (And should there really be a female version, I am definitely getting that, too! Disney and voice actors, not just one but two of my favourite things, what’s not to love?

Midterm snacks :D

and a few more random photos from November:

Mum sends her love along with my favourite Assam :)

Warm winter slippers with elk! ELK ♥

Proof that I was beginning to look fairly ridiculous.

Study Time.

In between Kyoto and this trip there were midterms and we had a WONDERFUL barbecue with V’s host family with only delicious food as well as wonderful company. (Might show you photos once I remember getting them from V.)

At the beginning of December V, Maj and me went on a trip with our universities “UNESCO Club” (they raise awareness and visit the more or less local UNESCO World Heritage Sites). We went on a very small pilgrimage and wandered a small part of the routes called 熊野古道 (Kumano Kodo). It was breathtaking and I would LOVE to do it or something similar again and soon. At times it was rather exhausting since we went up about 500m and the trail was rather steep… but I enjoyed the trip immensely, the physical exercise as well as the nature around us and all the beautiful views we were rewarded with.

Even before we arrived at the Kumano Kodo, we were treated to beautiful views. Somewhere between Tsu and our destination, we made a stop at a rather beautiful river.

And this is a sneak preview of all the beautiful photos of trees, trees and sometimes even a bit of the woods that are awaiting you under the cut. (Even more image heavy than most, I am afraid.)

D’aaaaawwwww.

One of those ” for my parents” kind of photos ;)

View during the bus ride. Unfortunately I couldn’t catch them, but I especially loved all the small waterfalls we could see driving through the mountains…

Everyone had to introduce themselves and during the ride there was a quiz, where we happily guessed answers, because we hardly understood the questions or if we did we weren’t able to answer properly.
I also made a nice friend, M-san, who sat beside me during the bus ride. (The Friday after our trip we had a “stew party” at the foreign boys’ dormitory. Photos of that, when I remember getting them from V.)

Our wonderful 70-year-old guide.

Up and up and up we went.

300m

I had never seen bambus this big before, I was so fascinated by those big stems (or is it trunks?) and their colour and texture…

Place of worship.

I don’t know why but you can collect stamps at a lot of places in Japan (shrines, temples, train stations, famous buildings…) and this is a place where you can do just that. (Guess what we did? Lucky I always have pen and paper.)

The rewarding view on top of the mountain path, the photos I took do not do justice to that view…

That was one big bird….

As if I was looking at a postcard of some sort.

So cute!

Following are some random pictures from the tow at the other side of the mountain.

Too cute not to take a photo of it, love Stitch!

HALT! Look to the left! Look to the right!

The seas was gorgeous, breath-taking and I wish I would not have had to ever leave. The colour and magnitude of the waves… I wish i could have stayed. (Again, the photos are mercilessly shite comparing to the actual beauty of the place.)

D’AAAAWWW.

Colour!

Size!

More magical than…

magical, isn’t it? Straight from a fantasy novel or a fairytale.

After having had lunch at the beach, we went to visit a last shrine which is supposedly on the spot where Izanagi, a deity who bore many islands and other deities, died. (Hence the shrine.)

手水! Expressing my love for those basins, again.. ;)

A 狛犬(komainu, lion dog) guardian statue.

I loved that there were prayers written down on those stones.

Oh dear, I absolutely forgot the significance of those rope-things, but I know that they were significant!

I love, love, love おみくじ (Omikuji, fortunes written on strips you can purchase at shrines and temples). If you are cursed, or have small luck or even if you’re bind them on certain places at the temple/shrine, to avoid a the bad luck, curse or just to strengthen your (only) small luck.

Spider!!

Group photo of the smaller group with which we climbed up. (We split into three groups.)

The big one ;D (Rudelphoto V called it, wonderful description, isn’t it?)

Since it was Maj’s birthday (and V’s was just two days before that, we celebrated a little in the bar around the corner.)

This entry is really random and just a collection of nice photos I’d like to show (with a peek into the dorm kitchen)

I looked for a huge teacup over and over, but somehow I was unable to find one. And when I actually found something that I wanted to buy the shop had this Snuffkin mug standing right next to a not that pretty big Moomin mug…. As you can see my childhood crush won by miles and I bought the mug with Snuffkin and Little My.

The weather is almost always extremely nice here in Tsu and this could have been any day. (Since the middle of November it has been rather cold though…)

In Osaka M. and me bought German style bread from a German(ish) bakery and I celebrated my new oven (as shown in the room blog post) by toasting the delicious bread!

Have more assorted photos and see the Little My side of my mug here –>

This is the awesome box the mug came in, I am rather pleased with both so far :D

Our supermarket is rather eco-friendly and you will not get a plastic bag unless you ask and pay for it, but what I wanted to show you here is the strange Japanese notion that normal womanly body functions are something that you need to hide. When I bought my first pair of pads here in Japan, they actually gave me the little grey bag for it and usually when you buy pads or tampons in a drug store they pack it in a brown paper bag before putting it in a plastic bag. … Strange right? It is not my favourite topic of conversation either, but even though they just want to make young girls less embarrassed about buying that stuff I just do not like the notion that it is something to be embarrassed about that lurks behind those plastic bags. (The big plastic bag is just there to show you the difference in colour.)

Our (roach infested) kitchen. Snapped this in the process of preparing cream stew and watching some concert broadcast on the telly.

The Kinki Kids actually performed one of the few songs I know: 硝子の少年 (garasu no shounen, ahahaha please watch that video it’s hilarious! Just as most Japanese boy groups ;D )

Love broccoli!

Heimweg :D (Usually taking the scenic route from the supermarket has me snapping pictures with either my mobile phone or if I am lucky and have it with me, my camera.) Nothing new, but I just LOVE the view so, so much, so bear with me please.

It was so clear that day, you could see the 知多半島 (Chita Peninsula).

Another one from my room.

Not our usual bridge, I took this when coming back from a barbecue V’s host family held for us *^* (SO DAMN DELICIOUS. Once I get hold of V’s photos I’ll show you some of that GLORIOUS food!!)

Tadaaa, me ;D