End of an era...?
It's been a month - again. But now, finally, the catch-up blog will follow to get you guys from September 21st until now.
I'm afraid, I have to write two posts, anyway. One for the last month in Okinawa, which will be in English, because I want to dedicate it to all the awesome people I met there - and almost all of them speak English.
I hope all the peeps from home will enjoy this as well, even if it'd be only picture stalking. Rest assured, there'll be loads of to stare at. :D
Let's get started:
21st September - one of those days, lovely Lauren will thank me for... I guess. XD
It was shortly after a rather weak taifun that hovered around the Okinawa islands for, I donnu.. a week maybe? A friend invited her to go to a cape (WHICH ONE, Lauren? There're too many, I forgot its name. T_T) Anyway... apart from that guy being creepy and me being a welcome (by Lauren) and unwelcome (by him) distraction, the sea was just splendid that day.
But see yourselves:
"Oh look, there's water!"
Those are the stairs, Cthulhu will walk when he finally rises.
windy hair Qan is windy hair... Qan
Ah yeah.. not only the sea was beautiful that day:
The next thing I need to talk about is the festival, Mongol 800 held from 1st-2nd October. My first real festival and one of the most amazing concert events I've ever seen.
Apart from the fact that that shit cost me almost 350 Euro in total (including merchandise and fucking transportation) I was just freaking out for two days straight, to cut things short.
I saw Kishidan... KISHIDAN! live. I knew their lyrics even though I haven't listened to them in like 3 or 4 years. I saw Orange Range, Dragon Ash (with RIZE's Kenken on bass - moronic orgasm anyone?) and Glay's Teru live on stage - and drunk afterwards. I was high on music. I felt so happy, utmost happy. No matter what people say, but when I'm attending a concert and I see people living their art and their fans getting completely absorbed, the most profane but deepest thankfulness hits me. Because music can make you forget every bad thing in the world. At least it does that to me.
I was so happy, when on the 2nd, Ue-chan (Maximum the Hormone, Bass) was soundchecking together with Nao (Drums) by themselves... and I could watch them. It was such a private moment, even though there were hundreds... thousands of people around me watching them, too.
I didn't take that much pictures, because it was actually not allowed to do so.. but here are some, including 2 videos. CHRM.
It wasn't even sunny but.. yeah.
The guys behind Lauren had an awfully hard job. Moving the huge crane-cam all fuckin day long. O_O"
That's Kishidan.. being very Kishidan-ish.
Towel waving during Orange Range's performance
Monpachi say hello to the festival audience in traditional Okinawan clothing
This video shows some of Kishidan's performance. Show and all the others are such amazing entertainers.. arrrr. Sorry for the bad sound and video quality, guys... on the first day I only had my cell phone with me. :(
And this... this is very secret and very cool stuff for all fanweirdos out there.
Drunk Hosomi + drunk Nao and Daisukehan totally not fighting over the microphone to sing along with Monpachi's encore "Chiisana koi no uta". I almost died laughing.
October 7th James, Yoshi, Marcus, Mitch and I had breakfast at Tancha Bay (the restaurant I worked at) and a pretty relaxed morning at the beach.
Lowana totally photobombed us from behind. :D
My awesome legs (cough) in Frau M's awesome present - dotty stockings. YEAH.
Oh.. and the beach.
We truly love each other. ♥
Sea...and yellow swimming... whatever playground islands to lay on.
Random snail is random.
At the end of September and until Mid-October so many people left that it almost felt lonely at the dorms. I basically forced Dawn to visit me everyday in my apartment to hang out, sleep away the afternoons and talk about shit (and watch porn. HOHO!) Good times, good times.
Manami and Yan wanted to take me to see the Shuri Castle in Naha on 10th October, but since the weather was shitty (YES we had rainy and cloudy days over there!) we decided to go to the Churaumi Aquarium in the North of Okinawa. I'm so utterly thankful that those crazy girls invited me to go there. I was basically out of money at that time and couldn't have afforded to go anywhere without them treating me. So nice. T_T
See some pictures of awesome sea creatures!
I was lucky to see the feeding of the great whale sharks. Goddammit, that fellow was actually standing in the water. O_O
DORI!
Cute mini eeeeeels. *_*"
Nooo don't eat meeee! T_T
Tentacleeees!
Random stuffs:
Ryûkyû bakudan - supplement shit to take to avoid hangovers. LOL
Found that funny, but I never actually tried that.. hm next time.
This is the penis icecream I told my twitter followers about - crashed ice, some strawberry-sugary stuff and white cream/chocolate... that bursts all over your face when you're not being careful enough... >__<"
Chicken soup I made for my restaurant fellows, because we all caught a cold. :(
I'm still proud that everyone liked it so much. Haha.
The last day at work... 30th October.
This is the gaijin crew just seconds before starting their final day (except for Michael who strikes his arms here. He'll stay until the 20somethingth November)
The schedule.
I was runner! >_< \m/ (getting orders from the ryôridai people, giving those to the chefs --- and carrying out the food, so ryôridai can set it up)
This is Dawnie in the pan (bread) corner.
We had the most amazing and perverted talks there.. and loads of croissants! Thanks Lowana (and Ruby, and Black Eye)!
My last lunch break in the Rizzan cafeteria...
I guess all Japanese stuff will truly miss us weird gaijin since we... made this cafeteria a party room every day. :D
A group photo with some of the Tancha Bay staff...
Akiko, Dawn, Satsuki, Michael, me, Ishikawa-san, Lowana, Taeil, Maurice and Koji.
I felt SO, SO relieved when I threw those shoes, stockings and the skirt away. 4 months of everyday running destroyed not only the soles of my shoes, but also 10 kg of body fat *lol* which made this skirt way too big for me.
On the night of the same day we had our goodbye-drinking-party with some of our co-workers.
It was a blast! In every possible way. :D
This is us... 10 people in .. a car that is actually set up for only 5 on our way to the Izakaya.
We felt adventurous that day, I guess. /MAJOR cough
There everyone seemed KINDA sober... yet.
This was taken about 30 minutes after the first photo. AHAHAHAH
I will leave it at that... There's video footage on karaoke later that evening. HORRIBLY awesome, I'd say. But the people who were there, know it. And that's it. XD"
The next morning we were invited to have free breakfast at the restaurant again. *_*
Took that chance, of course and also some other photos with our co-workers:
And FINALLY a picture of the hot bakery chefs. *_*
(Maurice, Dawn, STOP wanking immediately!)
On to the next highlight: 31st October = HALLOWEEN!
The people at the dorms barely knew it, so it was a rather tiny party, but! Dawn and I spent all our nasty love on some cool decoration.
See:
I even carved some tiny pumpkins. ^^"
This... was the bathroom door. :D :D :D
(Click to read the awesome notions!)
Pumpkin cake #1 sponsored by Akiko
#2 sponsored by Fuji
The 1st November was fully dedicated to Yan and Manami. ♥
Despite the shitty weather (again) they showed me around to the ruins of Katsuren Castle, Shuri Castle, and some amazing spots to watch the landscape/sea from. We had an amazing time and I'm really looking forward to them coming to Germany soon.. and to go back to Okinawa to rock the island together.
Katsuren Castle ruins... rainy morning. LOL
Those stones mark the place where the main building was once.
misty sky... haha
Wet from the rain and totally not prepared for climbing up slippery stonewalls - Yan and I.
As soon as we picked up Manami and Ai to get some lunch, the sky cleared:
We went to a cool thai restaurant.. with a little fossil-museum from stuff found in that area:
... I SWEAR they were watching me. TT__TT
Scary shit.
omnom food. *_*
A view from the restaurant's terrace...
And the four of us being awesome:
They then took me down a bridge to the see, which goes down the hill in serpentines.
I have seen the sea every day since 4 months.. but this was... EVEN better than everything before. O_O
(And the photos cannot even capture half of it)
Can you find Germany here? :)
Looks yummy, eh? But is poisonous.. /sigh
Now on to the Shuri Castle:
The entry gate. *_*
Yan, me, Manami. ♥
The king's water.
cloudy view over Naha... xD
The inner part of the castle.. residence of the king of Ryûkyû.
Well.. yeah. :D
The Ryûkyû phoenix stitched on an ceremonical umbrella. *_*"
Castle wall.. and sun.. and I found that cool.
Shuri Castle at night. ♥
After exploring the castles we were pretty hungry so we decided to have some cake.
Beware: Mouthwatering pics will follow!
Matcha and black sesame
Mousse au chocolat and orange
Nutty nut cake. :)
Pumpkin awesomeness
Oh.. and healthy herbal tea:
And since we are in the food corner right now, I proudly present the soup I made out of the rests of the carved pumpkins:
Every autumn needs pumpkin soup!
OK to end the Yan and Manami chapter, I have to say that they gave me such awesome presents. *_* Too bad I already sent them home, so I cannot show them to you.
They customized sandals for me.. green ones, with Okinawan signs and some MTH fan stuff... and guess who got the same coloured ones as a present from them at a certain festival a month ago?
/dies in happiness now, since Ue-chan has the same lovely made sandals. xD"
The last days at Plage and our road trip ~
The daily view we had while sitting on the stairs of our dorms... 懐かしい！
The second balcony from the right in the second row was miiiine. :D
Maurice, Dawn, Michael, Koji and I decided to rent a car for the 3rd of November and explore the south of Okinawa a little... and so we did in an OARRRRSUM car:
BÄM ALTER. (That had to be in German, guys, sorry.. xD)
"Hit the road Ja--- Maurice!"
Dawnie and I being Dawnie- and me-like in the back of the car.
House on a tree (a fake one, but still...) Must've been some kind of izakaya or restaurant. We just drove past it.
Okinawa being beautiful as always...
Some trees in the Heiwa Memorial Park
In this park there are stone tablets with the names of all the Japanese fallen in the second world war. It was amazing... in a sad way. :( So huge.
And every prefecture has a memorial figurine or shrine in there, as well.
The view was so beautiful and peaceful there it is hard to imagine that only 70 years ago everything on that island was being bombed and burnt. :/
btw random cave... WE WANTED TO GO THERE SO BADLY!
We also went to an underground bunker where Okinawan soldiers tried to defend themselves until the end...
One of them committed suicide down there.
Horrible. :/
It was interesting to wander around down there.. but I cannot imagine actually living there. :O
After all this war stuff we had to get our mood up higher again.. so we decided to go to a place, whose Japanese name I forgot, but it is a little forest with stones that are said to enhance the spiritual powers of priestesses.
It was quite refreshing and a good contrast to all the sad stuff we had before.
Do you guys remember the post where I showed you the picture of the barrel-shaped restaurant I saw while driving through Okinawa-shi?
Thanks to Yan we got the address and had an AWESOME (and affordable) dinner there.
See some pics:
The crew... I will never forget that Maurice actually BURPED into the waiters face.. XD"
And guys.. even the bathroom was stylish:
It's called "Tonneau". If you should ever go to Okinawa, you HAVE to eat there. It's pure love!
Once again to make you all jealous (again): The car... and well... us.
One of the last days in Naha - @ Partyland Frozen Yoghurt (Gosh, I would kill for this.. ahahha)
Dawnie, Maurice and Mr Yoks. :)
After another splendid dinner in a teppan-yaki restaurant called Sam's Maui we had some chû-hai in a little park in Naha... where cats were lying around lazily... just as if to make us feel comfy and at home once again.
Here's the last video I took in Naha:
(It starts in German.. but there's English in it.. and Taiwanese and.. Japanese as well...)
Very random and very inappropriate... but it's us and I love it.. and I love you guys. ♥
That's it for Okinawa. I could write pages and pages more.. but I cannot set my mind on stuff right now and I guess it's a good thing when certain stuff remains in our memories alone. :D
I just wanna say thank you to everyone who made my time in Okinawa as wonderful as it was.
4 months of my life spent wisely and intensely.
I'm looking forward to the next ones... and I really want to spent them with you. ♥
I'm afraid, I have to write two posts, anyway. One for the last month in Okinawa, which will be in English, because I want to dedicate it to all the awesome people I met there - and almost all of them speak English.
I hope all the peeps from home will enjoy this as well, even if it'd be only picture stalking. Rest assured, there'll be loads of to stare at. :D
Let's get started:
21st September - one of those days, lovely Lauren will thank me for... I guess. XD
It was shortly after a rather weak taifun that hovered around the Okinawa islands for, I donnu.. a week maybe? A friend invited her to go to a cape (WHICH ONE, Lauren? There're too many, I forgot its name. T_T) Anyway... apart from that guy being creepy and me being a welcome (by Lauren) and unwelcome (by him) distraction, the sea was just splendid that day.
But see yourselves:
"Oh look, there's water!"
Those are the stairs, Cthulhu will walk when he finally rises.
windy hair Qan is windy hair... Qan
Ah yeah.. not only the sea was beautiful that day:
The next thing I need to talk about is the festival, Mongol 800 held from 1st-2nd October. My first real festival and one of the most amazing concert events I've ever seen.
Apart from the fact that that shit cost me almost 350 Euro in total (including merchandise and fucking transportation) I was just freaking out for two days straight, to cut things short.
I saw Kishidan... KISHIDAN! live. I knew their lyrics even though I haven't listened to them in like 3 or 4 years. I saw Orange Range, Dragon Ash (with RIZE's Kenken on bass - moronic orgasm anyone?) and Glay's Teru live on stage - and drunk afterwards. I was high on music. I felt so happy, utmost happy. No matter what people say, but when I'm attending a concert and I see people living their art and their fans getting completely absorbed, the most profane but deepest thankfulness hits me. Because music can make you forget every bad thing in the world. At least it does that to me.
I was so happy, when on the 2nd, Ue-chan (Maximum the Hormone, Bass) was soundchecking together with Nao (Drums) by themselves... and I could watch them. It was such a private moment, even though there were hundreds... thousands of people around me watching them, too.
I didn't take that much pictures, because it was actually not allowed to do so.. but here are some, including 2 videos. CHRM.
It wasn't even sunny but.. yeah.
The guys behind Lauren had an awfully hard job. Moving the huge crane-cam all fuckin day long. O_O"
That's Kishidan.. being very Kishidan-ish.
Towel waving during Orange Range's performance
Monpachi say hello to the festival audience in traditional Okinawan clothing
This video shows some of Kishidan's performance. Show and all the others are such amazing entertainers.. arrrr. Sorry for the bad sound and video quality, guys... on the first day I only had my cell phone with me. :(
And this... this is very secret and very cool stuff for all fanweirdos out there.
Drunk Hosomi + drunk Nao and Daisukehan totally not fighting over the microphone to sing along with Monpachi's encore "Chiisana koi no uta". I almost died laughing.
October 7th James, Yoshi, Marcus, Mitch and I had breakfast at Tancha Bay (the restaurant I worked at) and a pretty relaxed morning at the beach.
Lowana totally photobombed us from behind. :D
My awesome legs (cough) in Frau M's awesome present - dotty stockings. YEAH.
Oh.. and the beach.
We truly love each other. ♥
Sea...and yellow swimming... whatever playground islands to lay on.
Random snail is random.
At the end of September and until Mid-October so many people left that it almost felt lonely at the dorms. I basically forced Dawn to visit me everyday in my apartment to hang out, sleep away the afternoons and talk about shit (and watch porn. HOHO!) Good times, good times.
Manami and Yan wanted to take me to see the Shuri Castle in Naha on 10th October, but since the weather was shitty (YES we had rainy and cloudy days over there!) we decided to go to the Churaumi Aquarium in the North of Okinawa. I'm so utterly thankful that those crazy girls invited me to go there. I was basically out of money at that time and couldn't have afforded to go anywhere without them treating me. So nice. T_T
See some pictures of awesome sea creatures!
I was lucky to see the feeding of the great whale sharks. Goddammit, that fellow was actually standing in the water. O_O
DORI!
Cute mini eeeeeels. *_*"
Nooo don't eat meeee! T_T
Tentacleeees!
Random stuffs:
Ryûkyû bakudan - supplement shit to take to avoid hangovers. LOL
Found that funny, but I never actually tried that.. hm next time.
This is the penis icecream I told my twitter followers about - crashed ice, some strawberry-sugary stuff and white cream/chocolate... that bursts all over your face when you're not being careful enough... >__<"
Chicken soup I made for my restaurant fellows, because we all caught a cold. :(
I'm still proud that everyone liked it so much. Haha.
The last day at work... 30th October.
This is the gaijin crew just seconds before starting their final day (except for Michael who strikes his arms here. He'll stay until the 20somethingth November)
The schedule.
I was runner! >_< \m/ (getting orders from the ryôridai people, giving those to the chefs --- and carrying out the food, so ryôridai can set it up)
This is Dawnie in the pan (bread) corner.
We had the most amazing and perverted talks there.. and loads of croissants! Thanks Lowana (and Ruby, and Black Eye)!
My last lunch break in the Rizzan cafeteria...
I guess all Japanese stuff will truly miss us weird gaijin since we... made this cafeteria a party room every day. :D
A group photo with some of the Tancha Bay staff...
Akiko, Dawn, Satsuki, Michael, me, Ishikawa-san, Lowana, Taeil, Maurice and Koji.
I felt SO, SO relieved when I threw those shoes, stockings and the skirt away. 4 months of everyday running destroyed not only the soles of my shoes, but also 10 kg of body fat *lol* which made this skirt way too big for me.
On the night of the same day we had our goodbye-drinking-party with some of our co-workers.
It was a blast! In every possible way. :D
This is us... 10 people in .. a car that is actually set up for only 5 on our way to the Izakaya.
We felt adventurous that day, I guess. /MAJOR cough
There everyone seemed KINDA sober... yet.
This was taken about 30 minutes after the first photo. AHAHAHAH
I will leave it at that... There's video footage on karaoke later that evening. HORRIBLY awesome, I'd say. But the people who were there, know it. And that's it. XD"
The next morning we were invited to have free breakfast at the restaurant again. *_*
Took that chance, of course and also some other photos with our co-workers:
And FINALLY a picture of the hot bakery chefs. *_*
(Maurice, Dawn, STOP wanking immediately!)
On to the next highlight: 31st October = HALLOWEEN!
The people at the dorms barely knew it, so it was a rather tiny party, but! Dawn and I spent all our nasty love on some cool decoration.
See:
I even carved some tiny pumpkins. ^^"
This... was the bathroom door. :D :D :D
(Click to read the awesome notions!)
Pumpkin cake #1 sponsored by Akiko
#2 sponsored by Fuji
The 1st November was fully dedicated to Yan and Manami. ♥
Despite the shitty weather (again) they showed me around to the ruins of Katsuren Castle, Shuri Castle, and some amazing spots to watch the landscape/sea from. We had an amazing time and I'm really looking forward to them coming to Germany soon.. and to go back to Okinawa to rock the island together.
Katsuren Castle ruins... rainy morning. LOL
Those stones mark the place where the main building was once.
misty sky... haha
Wet from the rain and totally not prepared for climbing up slippery stonewalls - Yan and I.
As soon as we picked up Manami and Ai to get some lunch, the sky cleared:
We went to a cool thai restaurant.. with a little fossil-museum from stuff found in that area:
... I SWEAR they were watching me. TT__TT
Scary shit.
omnom food. *_*
A view from the restaurant's terrace...
And the four of us being awesome:
They then took me down a bridge to the see, which goes down the hill in serpentines.
I have seen the sea every day since 4 months.. but this was... EVEN better than everything before. O_O
(And the photos cannot even capture half of it)
Can you find Germany here? :)
Looks yummy, eh? But is poisonous.. /sigh
Now on to the Shuri Castle:
The entry gate. *_*
Yan, me, Manami. ♥
The king's water.
cloudy view over Naha... xD
The inner part of the castle.. residence of the king of Ryûkyû.
Well.. yeah. :D
The Ryûkyû phoenix stitched on an ceremonical umbrella. *_*"
Castle wall.. and sun.. and I found that cool.
Shuri Castle at night. ♥
After exploring the castles we were pretty hungry so we decided to have some cake.
Beware: Mouthwatering pics will follow!
Matcha and black sesame
Mousse au chocolat and orange
Nutty nut cake. :)
Pumpkin awesomeness
Oh.. and healthy herbal tea:
And since we are in the food corner right now, I proudly present the soup I made out of the rests of the carved pumpkins:
Every autumn needs pumpkin soup!
OK to end the Yan and Manami chapter, I have to say that they gave me such awesome presents. *_* Too bad I already sent them home, so I cannot show them to you.
They customized sandals for me.. green ones, with Okinawan signs and some MTH fan stuff... and guess who got the same coloured ones as a present from them at a certain festival a month ago?
/dies in happiness now, since Ue-chan has the same lovely made sandals. xD"
The last days at Plage and our road trip ~
The daily view we had while sitting on the stairs of our dorms... 懐かしい！
The second balcony from the right in the second row was miiiine. :D
Maurice, Dawn, Michael, Koji and I decided to rent a car for the 3rd of November and explore the south of Okinawa a little... and so we did in an OARRRRSUM car:
BÄM ALTER. (That had to be in German, guys, sorry.. xD)
"Hit the road Ja--- Maurice!"
Dawnie and I being Dawnie- and me-like in the back of the car.
House on a tree (a fake one, but still...) Must've been some kind of izakaya or restaurant. We just drove past it.
Okinawa being beautiful as always...
Some trees in the Heiwa Memorial Park
In this park there are stone tablets with the names of all the Japanese fallen in the second world war. It was amazing... in a sad way. :( So huge.
And every prefecture has a memorial figurine or shrine in there, as well.
The view was so beautiful and peaceful there it is hard to imagine that only 70 years ago everything on that island was being bombed and burnt. :/
btw random cave... WE WANTED TO GO THERE SO BADLY!
We also went to an underground bunker where Okinawan soldiers tried to defend themselves until the end...
One of them committed suicide down there.
Horrible. :/
It was interesting to wander around down there.. but I cannot imagine actually living there. :O
After all this war stuff we had to get our mood up higher again.. so we decided to go to a place, whose Japanese name I forgot, but it is a little forest with stones that are said to enhance the spiritual powers of priestesses.
It was quite refreshing and a good contrast to all the sad stuff we had before.
Do you guys remember the post where I showed you the picture of the barrel-shaped restaurant I saw while driving through Okinawa-shi?
Thanks to Yan we got the address and had an AWESOME (and affordable) dinner there.
See some pics:
The crew... I will never forget that Maurice actually BURPED into the waiters face.. XD"
And guys.. even the bathroom was stylish:
It's called "Tonneau". If you should ever go to Okinawa, you HAVE to eat there. It's pure love!
Once again to make you all jealous (again): The car... and well... us.
One of the last days in Naha - @ Partyland Frozen Yoghurt (Gosh, I would kill for this.. ahahha)
Dawnie, Maurice and Mr Yoks. :)
After another splendid dinner in a teppan-yaki restaurant called Sam's Maui we had some chû-hai in a little park in Naha... where cats were lying around lazily... just as if to make us feel comfy and at home once again.
Here's the last video I took in Naha:
(It starts in German.. but there's English in it.. and Taiwanese and.. Japanese as well...)
Very random and very inappropriate... but it's us and I love it.. and I love you guys. ♥
That's it for Okinawa. I could write pages and pages more.. but I cannot set my mind on stuff right now and I guess it's a good thing when certain stuff remains in our memories alone. :D
I just wanna say thank you to everyone who made my time in Okinawa as wonderful as it was.
4 months of my life spent wisely and intensely.
I'm looking forward to the next ones... and I really want to spent them with you. ♥