僕らの街で♪
As I promised yesterday here's my next report. I'm sorry it took me so long. I was awfully busy because I had to do a presentation of 15 minutes (in Japanese ~.~) about Japan's idol business. As you might assume I chose the topic myself, but it turned out to be pretty difficult to collect any citeable data. I somehow managed quite well, though. I don't know my marks yet, but actually I don't really care either, I'm just happy it's over and that I can focus on studying for my exams in February now. Taniguchi-sensei taped the whole presentation, so I might upload it once he gave it to me.
Nevertheless, researching about the Japanese idol manufacturing industry made me even more interested in Johnny's Entertainment. Their company policy and history is highly interesting and their success has made them on of the most (if not even the most) influental companies in Japanese entertainment business. Of course, you might argue about their means but still you can't deny that it works perfectly, just check out this years Oricon Charts - JE makes out about 30% of the top 100 single charts. (And of course KAT-TUN's Real Face is on # 1. Well, releasing 8 versions of one single might have helped to push that success...)
横浜 - Yokohama
Candy and me went to Yokohama on December 3rd. My original intention was to gather some material for my idol presentation, because there was this exhibition about idols in the Yokohama Museum of Art. It was an interesting exhibition, but it didn't help to get some useful information for my report... So we spent spent the rest of the day visiting some famous sights of Yokohama.
To be honest, I wasn't really interested in Yokohama at first, but when I watched Tatta hitotsu no Koi (yet again that dorama!!) - which is set in Yokohama- I started thinking that I should explore some of the beautiful sceneries you could see in that series. Now I love that city. It's not as crowded as Tokyo, the air is more clean and I love the skyline of Minato Mirai 21.
We spent the wohle day at Minato Mirai 21, Cosmo World and Yokohama Chinatown.
This scenery is one of the first you get to see once you've left the main station. On the right side there's the Cosmo Clock, one of the world's largest ferris wheels. Left there's the Nippon-Maru. As you can see, we had the most beautiful weather that day.
The Landmark Tower, Japan's tallest skyscraper. There's a platform on one of the higher floors from where you can see Mt. Fuji and Tokyo on a clear day. The sky was pretty clear the day we went to Yokohama, but the horizon was clouded so we guessed it would be better save the fee of 1000 Yen (!!!) and come back another day.
The Cosmo Clock. As the name implies, this ferris wheel also works as a giant clock. The Cosmo Clock is part of Cosmo World, an amusement park right next to the harbour at the Minato Mirai 21 area (みなとみらい２１- "Port Future 21").
Of course Candy and me went on that ferris wheel to get a proper look on Yokohama. The picture above is one of the sceneries you get to see during the 15 minutes ride. Osanbashi pier.
Close up: The famous Yokohama Bay Bridge. Next time I go to Yokohama, I'll definitely get a closer look.
Our next stop was Yokohama Chinatown, actually the biggest Chinatown in Japan. They sold delicious Manju (buns filled with vegetables, jam or meat) everywhere... Yokohama apparently has one of the highest percentages of foreign citizens. You can even tell by the architecture that this city was a major transshipment base during American occupation.
小田原 - Odawara
On December 6th Candy and me went to Odawara (close to where we had done the tangerine harvest in November) in order to see not only the castle but also the ocean shore. As for we couldn't leave the campus before 1 pm because we both had classes it was getting dark soon (about 4pm) and we nearly managed to get lost on our way back... You propably wouldn't have that problem in Tokyo where the night is brighter than the day and every place is crowded with people, but Odawara is a rather quiet little town where you hardly won't find any pedestrians after dusk once apart from the main streets.
Yet another day and night shot... I just can't help it. It gets dark about 4pm now and it takes only abou 30 minutes until it is pitch black so it happens only naturally that I have a night shot of most of the sights I visit...
Odawara Castle (小田原城) was built during the Edo period (1603-1867) but dismantled around 1870 (WHY??). What
you can see on the photo above is the main building that was rebuilt in 1960 and is now a museum. I already got this impression at the Yokohama Museum of Art but at Odawara it was absolutely obvious: Japanese apparently don't know how to run museums and protect their heritage properly. In no German musuem you would find 300-year-old clothings covered with dust and attached to mannequins with pins...!
Finally I got to see the Pacific Ocean from a short distance! I'd love to see sunrise at that beach...
クリスマス - Christmas
I thought it was only a stereotype, but there actually are Japanese who think Christmas is Santa's birthday... It's always astounding who Japanese manage to import western traditions and assimilate them. The streets and avenues are brightly illuminated and you can buy Christmas goods EVERYwhere. It somehow feels too "christmasy" to be honest. At least no one I know got into Christmas mood, even though the Japanese staff at our dorm put up a Christmas tree and some fairy lights and set up a Christmas party. Different to Germany where Christmas season is the time you most likely spent in quiet with your family, in Japan it's a time for lovers and pretty hectic (because people are preparing for New Years Day - the most important holiday in Japan).
So what did I do to get myself into Christmas mood: I baked. Nearly every week. I must be nuts - the ingredients are twice as expensive as in Germany and still I baked as much in one month as I would bake in half a year if I was at home...
Enough talk - see what Christmas actually looks like 10 hours flight from home:
Two perfect examples for the Japanese way of putting up fairy lights. Left hand the illuminations at Tokai University. They slightly overdid it, eh? Apparently the fountain was illuminated in a different colour each day. Right hand some random illumination near Shinjuku station. Looks quite nice but blue fairy lights are so not like Christmas to me~.~
A Christian kindergarten from Isehara held a concert at our university and the German student were special guests. The kids were soooo adorable!
Suddenly Santa would show up as conductor and all the little children sitting in front of us started cheering.^o^
On December 23rd, I went to a classical concert of the Tokai University Orchestra. That was propably the time when I finally got into Christmas mood at last. When we left the concert hall we got to see that beautiful sunset.
Christmas Eve. Tamara, Courtney, Katja and me decided to set up a small Christmas party on our own. Tamara bought some delicious fruits and sparkling wine, Courtney did Australian rum balls (yummy), Katja decorated a vacant room in the dorm and I cooked Lasagna. We had a lot of fun that evening but somehow at the same time it was kind of sad, because Courtney and Tamara will leave Japan in February. They're so hilarious!! Japanese humour isn't that funny to me, but those two made me laugh till I cried.
Me and Courtney. She's so cute X3
秘密の部屋 - The Chamber of Secrets
Some people kept requesting for new pictures of my room, so instead of "Absurdities in daily life Japan" I will this time show you "The metamorphosis of a (somehow) grown-up student to a fangirly teenager":
The Blogthing was right: I AM a teenager at heart. At least I turned back into one ... Look at my walls: They're wallpapered with boygroup members... Arrrrrrrggggh! Well, at least seeing Akanishi before I close my eyes every night makes me dream well XD
You can also see that I put up some Christmas decorations and that my plant is miraculously still living.
Nevertheless, researching about the Japanese idol manufacturing industry made me even more interested in Johnny's Entertainment. Their company policy and history is highly interesting and their success has made them on of the most (if not even the most) influental companies in Japanese entertainment business. Of course, you might argue about their means but still you can't deny that it works perfectly, just check out this years Oricon Charts - JE makes out about 30% of the top 100 single charts. (And of course KAT-TUN's Real Face is on # 1. Well, releasing 8 versions of one single might have helped to push that success...)
横浜 - Yokohama
Candy and me went to Yokohama on December 3rd. My original intention was to gather some material for my idol presentation, because there was this exhibition about idols in the Yokohama Museum of Art. It was an interesting exhibition, but it didn't help to get some useful information for my report... So we spent spent the rest of the day visiting some famous sights of Yokohama.
To be honest, I wasn't really interested in Yokohama at first, but when I watched Tatta hitotsu no Koi (yet again that dorama!!) - which is set in Yokohama- I started thinking that I should explore some of the beautiful sceneries you could see in that series. Now I love that city. It's not as crowded as Tokyo, the air is more clean and I love the skyline of Minato Mirai 21.
We spent the wohle day at Minato Mirai 21, Cosmo World and Yokohama Chinatown.
This scenery is one of the first you get to see once you've left the main station. On the right side there's the Cosmo Clock, one of the world's largest ferris wheels. Left there's the Nippon-Maru. As you can see, we had the most beautiful weather that day.
The Landmark Tower, Japan's tallest skyscraper. There's a platform on one of the higher floors from where you can see Mt. Fuji and Tokyo on a clear day. The sky was pretty clear the day we went to Yokohama, but the horizon was clouded so we guessed it would be better save the fee of 1000 Yen (!!!) and come back another day.
The Cosmo Clock. As the name implies, this ferris wheel also works as a giant clock. The Cosmo Clock is part of Cosmo World, an amusement park right next to the harbour at the Minato Mirai 21 area (みなとみらい２１- "Port Future 21").
Of course Candy and me went on that ferris wheel to get a proper look on Yokohama. The picture above is one of the sceneries you get to see during the 15 minutes ride. Osanbashi pier.
Close up: The famous Yokohama Bay Bridge. Next time I go to Yokohama, I'll definitely get a closer look.
Our next stop was Yokohama Chinatown, actually the biggest Chinatown in Japan. They sold delicious Manju (buns filled with vegetables, jam or meat) everywhere... Yokohama apparently has one of the highest percentages of foreign citizens. You can even tell by the architecture that this city was a major transshipment base during American occupation.
小田原 - Odawara
On December 6th Candy and me went to Odawara (close to where we had done the tangerine harvest in November) in order to see not only the castle but also the ocean shore. As for we couldn't leave the campus before 1 pm because we both had classes it was getting dark soon (about 4pm) and we nearly managed to get lost on our way back... You propably wouldn't have that problem in Tokyo where the night is brighter than the day and every place is crowded with people, but Odawara is a rather quiet little town where you hardly won't find any pedestrians after dusk once apart from the main streets.
Yet another day and night shot... I just can't help it. It gets dark about 4pm now and it takes only abou 30 minutes until it is pitch black so it happens only naturally that I have a night shot of most of the sights I visit...
Odawara Castle (小田原城) was built during the Edo period (1603-1867) but dismantled around 1870 (WHY??). What
you can see on the photo above is the main building that was rebuilt in 1960 and is now a museum. I already got this impression at the Yokohama Museum of Art but at Odawara it was absolutely obvious: Japanese apparently don't know how to run museums and protect their heritage properly. In no German musuem you would find 300-year-old clothings covered with dust and attached to mannequins with pins...!
Finally I got to see the Pacific Ocean from a short distance! I'd love to see sunrise at that beach...
クリスマス - Christmas
I thought it was only a stereotype, but there actually are Japanese who think Christmas is Santa's birthday... It's always astounding who Japanese manage to import western traditions and assimilate them. The streets and avenues are brightly illuminated and you can buy Christmas goods EVERYwhere. It somehow feels too "christmasy" to be honest. At least no one I know got into Christmas mood, even though the Japanese staff at our dorm put up a Christmas tree and some fairy lights and set up a Christmas party. Different to Germany where Christmas season is the time you most likely spent in quiet with your family, in Japan it's a time for lovers and pretty hectic (because people are preparing for New Years Day - the most important holiday in Japan).
So what did I do to get myself into Christmas mood: I baked. Nearly every week. I must be nuts - the ingredients are twice as expensive as in Germany and still I baked as much in one month as I would bake in half a year if I was at home...
Enough talk - see what Christmas actually looks like 10 hours flight from home:
Two perfect examples for the Japanese way of putting up fairy lights. Left hand the illuminations at Tokai University. They slightly overdid it, eh? Apparently the fountain was illuminated in a different colour each day. Right hand some random illumination near Shinjuku station. Looks quite nice but blue fairy lights are so not like Christmas to me~.~
A Christian kindergarten from Isehara held a concert at our university and the German student were special guests. The kids were soooo adorable!
Suddenly Santa would show up as conductor and all the little children sitting in front of us started cheering.^o^
On December 23rd, I went to a classical concert of the Tokai University Orchestra. That was propably the time when I finally got into Christmas mood at last. When we left the concert hall we got to see that beautiful sunset.
Christmas Eve. Tamara, Courtney, Katja and me decided to set up a small Christmas party on our own. Tamara bought some delicious fruits and sparkling wine, Courtney did Australian rum balls (yummy), Katja decorated a vacant room in the dorm and I cooked Lasagna. We had a lot of fun that evening but somehow at the same time it was kind of sad, because Courtney and Tamara will leave Japan in February. They're so hilarious!! Japanese humour isn't that funny to me, but those two made me laugh till I cried.
Me and Courtney. She's so cute X3
秘密の部屋 - The Chamber of Secrets
Some people kept requesting for new pictures of my room, so instead of "Absurdities in daily life Japan" I will this time show you "The metamorphosis of a (somehow) grown-up student to a fangirly teenager":
The Blogthing was right: I AM a teenager at heart. At least I turned back into one ... Look at my walls: They're wallpapered with boygroup members... Arrrrrrrggggh! Well, at least seeing Akanishi before I close my eyes every night makes me dream well XD
You can also see that I put up some Christmas decorations and that my plant is miraculously still living.