Hamburg after three years

Dear girls,

it has been such a while since I went to Hamburg.
More than three years!!

And the day didn't start too well...

I missed the train, the train at Hauptbahnhof was on delay for 20 minutes... holymoly.
I was happy that I could finally arrive at Hamburg Altona at 11 AM.

There I met Nadine's mum. I was so happy to see her again!
She looked so beautiful! <3

We went to a nearby café, drank a Latte Macchiatto / green tea with orange & caramell syrup (I love syrup!! <3 I absolutely recommend you this mixture!) and had a little talk.
I only got time until 12.30 PM because I had a date then.

But... the biggest surprise was... a former colleague of Nadine's mother we met there... she looked like an older version of RAN-PYON! <3

I was so in love with her hair!!! <3

I wanted to take a photo of her but I didn't haha... Still, I never forget that impression!

WOW!

Well and then... 12.30 PM I met up with... well yeah.

Because we were hungry, we first went to this very cool Japanese restaurant Matsumi.

It was great to talk and order everything in Japanese then but I noticed once more that I really suck in speaking. I envy him. ;__;

We had a great meal, talked about a lot of things and then went to... Mundsburg,

having a slight stop in a shop, there I got THIS

and continued to go to Wandsbeck because of taking some purikura.

It was a new machine with a lot of new backgrounds and stamps... I really enjoyed this one!

And it was possible to get two photos on your mobile phone as it is in Japan!

That was pretty cool! <3

Moreover we were able to get some 2nd hand manga in Japanese... I couldn't resist to buy those two...

some nostalgic feeling and "scary lessons" is just great! <3

We had a short break at Hafencity and Speicherstadt and then just really stopped at Landungsbrücken. Unfortunately it was too late to have a harbour tour but nonetheless having ice-cream is also great! <3

What is your favourite kind of ice-cream?
I really love stracciatella!

Well around 7 PM I had to get back to Berlin.

My father was so kind to pick me up at the Hauptbahnhof. <3

And he bought me a magazine...

I started Yoga a year ago and always skipped excercises...but I want to do it

properly again since it's good for your health!

 

Starting again really felt good. <3

 

 

 

And of course... here are some photos <3

 

 

 

 

Colonaden - I didn't know this part of Hamburg before although
it's right next to Gänsemarkt, where the Sanrio shop is located.

 

 

 

Getting to Hafencity and Speicherstadt

 

 

I love this automobile!
I also want to drive around in one when I'll get married.

... IF I ever get married. Haha.

 

 

There was this really cool Mexican Navy ship

which will sail off a few days from now.

It was exciting to get on bord.

(I still love Navigation and everything else which is located with that <3)

 

 

 

<3 ~ It was such a wonderful day ~ <3

 

 

 

 

I feel a little bit loveydovey right now.

Haha....

 

Hazukashii yo~ <3

 

 

 

National Japanese Speech Contest 2016

And that was it!!

I still can't believe it that I made it somehow... on the 12th May 2016.

third place!!


It was such a cool event.

But what to wear?
Business dress was wished for...

I asked Mimu, because I didn't know if there is a slight difference in business clothing in Japan and in Germany. Actually, I would have worn a business suit for woman because that's the most formal way you can dress yourself to look serious.
It isn't the way I feel most comfortable but well yeah...

Mimu gave me her opinion and they were the following:

 

(1) really typical type of clothing for Japan

(2) much more cooler but I definitely should wear a jacket

(3) cute (I was shocked, haha)

So what did I choose?

You will see...

But there was much more to be happy about:
After three years I was able to meet my dear penpal Ayaka again.
She's here on vacation and so we just had to take the chance to meet up!

We met in the morning and I was so astonished because she actually wear a kimono! <3
Ayaka looked so cute!!

We went to a nearby café and had a lovely breakfast.

The owner of the shop was joking around and I had to translate everything for Ayaka
but you know... talking all the time in Japanese was such a real good practise and start for the day.

We also went to the J-Store, taking some Purikura, and look what I found there!

I couldn't resist buying V-chan's Crescent Moon!

Afterwards we went to the Japanese embassy.

Lucky us - a demonstration just ended!
We arrived safely and other people were already waiting...
Yuka!

I was happy that she made it.

She's my tandem partner and she's just a cute person!

Jassi and my father also arrived on time and we're just waited some minutes, then we were allowed to enter.

The room was assigned nicely.

I found my place in the first row because I was a participant.
Your guests were allowed to choose their seat freely.

The whole event was moderated in German and Japanese.

After introducing the jury and explaining the contest's procedure to everyone the speech contest started.

I was number four and so I had to wait but also to listen to really interesting talks, too.

The most difficult part were the questions afterwards.

Of course, you can memorise a whole speech without having a clue about the language itself but answering questions is much harder.
Fortunately I could answer almost every single one... except... one.

And that was the simple question "how long" I was in Japan in 2012...

So, after everyone gave their speech, we had another report.

This time it was Caroline, winner of the last year's contest, talking about her travel experience to Japan.

It was such an interesting report and the pictures were beautiful!

So when they named the winner... and we had to stand in line for taking group photos.

What else can I wish for?

A 150€ coupon for the bookstore!!

(It's better than the 2nd place since I already have a camcorder)

Well... and what happened then?

We had a reception with excellent food!!

Sushi by Ishin, Créme-brûlé, chocolate cake, potato-aspergus gratin, chicken wings, salad, .... 

WOW!

And there was also great red wine offered to us all. <3

The reception last an hour.

I talked with a lot of people, with Osaka-san from BigS-International, with the vice president of the Japanese Association in Berlin, with the winner of my group, with Caroline, ... great. <3

Afterwards we were invited to go to a restaurant - of course it was a Bavarian one.You know... Japanese people love good German beer, right? ;)

Well, I still feel so lucky and the first days I couldn't even believe it...

It was a national contest in Japanese... and I made it.

Third price.

YEAH!

Mother's Day - Easy pie recipe

皆さん、こんにちは！ 

今もっともっと練習しなければならない～
だから、このブログエントリーは日本語で書きます。
・・・
嘘。

Of course I won't write the whole thing in Japanese.
But it's true, that I have to practise a lot because...
Speech contest will take place in less than 5 days!!!
Now there's the slight feeling of anxiousness.
Haha...

Yesterday I met up with my new tandem partner Yuka-san.
We talked in Japanese and German and it was hard to do so but I really enjoyed our time!
We'll definitely meet again!
 But that's not today's topic.


Today is.... mother's day.

Did you enjoy this day?
Enjoy doing something for your mother?
Saying "thank you" to her in a loveable way?



As for me I enjoyed it as a children but didn't like it when I was a teenager.
Guess it was the typical "Don't like to do anything" phase back when.
I'm sorry mum!

But now I really enjoy it again.
Because I moved out from home the day will start in the afternoon.
I prepared a little present for her.
This time it's something cute but also handy.
She likes gardening - and so I bought her cute little decoration accessories.

I also baked a cake yesterday.
It's an apple rhabarber pie.

Very easy to make:

1 tsp salt

120g sugar

250g flour

150g sliced butter

then add 125ml cold water

Put the pastry in the refridgerator for at least 2 hours.

(In the meantime I went to the drugstore haha...)

Afterwards: roll the pastry until it's approx. 3mm thick.

Put it in the buttered backing tin.

Fill it with sliced 1 1/2 apples and 200g rhabarber.

(Please buy sweet apples!)

Preheat the oven with 200°C and bake it 30-45min.

You can serve this lukewarm or just like any other pie.

Sprinkle sugar on the surface or even do a brief mixture of sugarwater, so the surface will look glossy and you may won't need another big topping of sugar.

Before and After

The backing tin's radius is 28cm

Small Haul ... greetings from Poland!

Last weekend I was with my parents and we went to Poland,
just running some chores and looking for interesting stuff.

We had some nice lunch first.

You really should try a Schnitzel there!

The meat is much better than the typical Schnitzel meat in Germany.
Usually I don't like pork but this was so damn good! <3
Will keep it in my mind! <3

After walking down the market we stopped at the supermarket.

This day I couldn't resist buying some things... of course most of them are
food but there are also some fashion and make-up things...

A fresh fragrance and some nail polish for the
French manicure look.
The nail polish really is great and yet so cheap!

A light maxi skirt which you could also wear as a dress

Lots of food. The mini chocolate waffle bars in the middle
are really sweet but delicious!
The white blue box is chocolate confectionary with a
cappuccino like cream inside. <3
And the yellow crackers (right side) are similar to TUC,
are just cold PUB and really tasty.

Jap. restaurant "Hanage"

Dear Gals,

last Saturday I had a relaxed time with two friends.
First a nice brunch with a lot of talking and afterwards meeting up to shop and go to a Japanese restaurant, I wanted to try out.

I really want to recommend you the Hanage, a small little restaurant, specialised on Okonomiyaki, Japanese pancakes.

☆* Review *☆ 

☆ Atmosphere

When you enter the restaurant you have a very clean and nice area.

The furniture is made of wood, there even is a traditional sitting place where you can practise the seiza. ^__°
Of course there are cushions for your knees.

If you have to use the toilet it's unisex, but it's very, very clean. The doors (one for the "bathroom" and one for the toilet itself) are wooden sliding doors. You will find a funny sticker on the wall about what you should NOT do, using the toilet. Cute.

☆ Menue

The restaurant is specialised on Okonomiyaki, that are made of white cabbage, white flour and other ingredients.

You can choose of three sauces: the original Okonomiyaki sauce (similar to BBQ sauce), a soya-citron sauce and a hot-spicy Korean sauce.

We tried the original one.

Then, you also have to choose the "toppings": extra cheese, bacon, mince, leek ... you can mix them if you like but also could only choose one - the price doesn't change.

Our Okonomiyaki consist of the first three ingredients.

It was pretty delicious! I have to say that I usually don't like sauces that taste like BBQ but in that case I totally change my mind!

The Okonomiyaki is really fluffy, not too crispy but also not too feebly. The flavouring is excellent!

I can't compare it to other Okonomiyaki but for a first try it was more than good.

Other than that, you can have side dishes like selfmade onigiri with two different styles of flavouring, miso soup, edamame, yakitori, japanese potato salad, sea weed salad and as dessert also mochi-ice cream.

Except the salads we tried everything out (at least my friend did, I just stole some little bits from everything xD).

So according to my friend the miso soup was really yummy and accurate. I looked into the bowl and the soup 

really looked good. You know, sometimes miso soup can look like it's fermented...

The onigiri we had there nicely formed in a perfect triangle. You can have it with two kind os flavouring as a "crust" - the egg one was very nice. Some kind of herbal aroma, salty but not too much. The rice was cooked well and there isn't any nori - which I welcomed.

Then... the yakitori.

I swear, it was the best yakitori I've ever eaten. The chicken was pretty good grilled - some kind of crispy,  not burned, really well. The teriyaki sauce was also the yummiest one I've ever tried - and I eat pretty often yakitori. So if you want to go to "hanage" please take one yakitori!

The mochi-ice cream was really surprising. I've known baked ice and also matcha ice.

But sesame ice cream, covered by a "mochi" wasn't something I've seen before.

So you can tell that the consistency is some kind of jelly (as a mochi is) but the inner filling is a creamy ice cream.

The flavour is special - first you only will taste the mochi, then the sesame and then all together a pretty interesting desert. The colour of the cream is grey... I wonder why? But I love such individual ice-creams!

If you would like to drink traditional drinks, you can soft drinks (also ramune), beer but also green tea.

Green tea can be served in a pot for one or two persons with free refilling of water.

☆ Prices

The prices are more than accurate.

You will pay around 6€ for an Okonomiyaki, 2€ for one Yakitori and the drinks are also okay. 

I even would pay a bit more for these great dishes!

☆ Service

When you enter the restaurant the little signs on the tables tell you that it's self-service.

They will serve you your order but you have to go to the counter and tell them what you would like to have.

The team usually consist of two people - a waiter and the chef.

They are really friendly and politely and also happy chat partners. ;)

You don't have to wait long for your dishes.

☆ bottom line☆

Atmosphere: ☆☆☆☆

Service: ☆☆☆☆☆

Food: ☆☆☆☆☆

Price: ☆☆☆☆☆

Total: ☆☆☆☆☆

☆*ﾟ ゜ﾟ*☆*ﾟ ゜ﾟ*