09.12.2012

Japanese New Years Tradition: Mochitsuki!

Last weekend, Zach, Matt G, Cheris and I went to an Chuo alumni hosted event at a S.O.S Child Village in Takao. At first we thought we had to work a little and play with the children, but it turned out to be a Mochitsuki event!

What is Mochitsuki?
It is a traditional Japanese festival held at the end of the year, where Mochi is made. Mochi is a form of rice paste, starting out as rice, then being beaten with a big hammer and molded into the desired shape.We got it raw, but you can also grill it with good results!



This is the SOS Child Village, the surroundings are just amazingly beautiful!


 Cheris, Zach and Matt!



Some of the food stalls. It was a free for all event so you could just eat as much as you could handle!


Mochi being made!

The Yakitori (grilled chicken) stand! The sauce they used was SOOO good!


And food haul? lol
Mochi types: Seaweed mochi, mushroom sauce mochi, sweet powder (cannot remember what) mochi, daikon mochi and nato mochi. I am a sucker for seaweed so  my favorite is of cause that one haha.
They also had wieners on sticks and french fries!

All in all it was a good day! Even though we did not get to talk with the children, but oh well, they food was nice, and you could see they were happy to have us there!

Take care!

04.12.2012

Shoes, Saitama and NOMZ!

Wo let's try and catch up to what I have been doing right!?

At the start of November, I met up with Hopy and Sabine in Ikebukuro, to have some fandom feels and do some shopping!


Wearing my already beloved BatGirl shirt!




And I finally got me some wedge heeled creepers! I love them so hard, and I had been dreaming of them ever since I saw them in Jelly last October! Finally I found some in my size and price range!
And the studded heels were on sale, and I needed me some party shoes sooooooo.


Random pic of one of my priced down Seiyu desserts. These are SO tasty, I love it! Chocolate mousse, chocolate cake and some chocolate jelly, I am in chocolate heaven!!

  Two weeks ago (already, it feels like it was yesterday!) I went to my fathers place to just have some fun!
It was HELL to get there! My trains were late, I hit my self on a 'holding on' thingy in the first train RIGHT IN MY FACE, and most of my trains were really stupid and not driving at all :C I missed one train by 5 seconds, enjoy 40 minutes more of transportation. Oh god!


But when I made it,  I got to feast on this baby! Oh effing hell yea! It was so incredible good, I am so sad it filled me so much, so I could not eat that much of it ;A;


Goofying around with Noa-chan~ She looks like Rola! Idoru desu~


Next morning, my stepmother made me some hot chocolate for breakfast! Nom nom nom!


After breakfast we drove up in the mountains near by to eat our lunch at the top!




Cold noodles and hot tea, with an AMAZING view, just my thing.




On our way home we stopped by another mountain to just walk a little. It was so beautiful from the top!


Saturday night we ate (pr. tradition) yakuniku! It is basically just grilled meat like pork or beef. It was as always really tasty and I ate SOOO much!


And my stepmother kept on ordering me Calpis Sour! It is a mix of alcohol and Calpis, and it is really good, so I might have gotten a little drunk. With my dad. Yeah. Party on!

And now we have reached (almost, but for now) the end!
I just want to show you my look for going to Akihabara with Hopy and Sabine last Saturday! It felt good wearing my circle lenses again, oh how I missed them!





Take care of yourself, Christmas is so close so have fun ok? <3 p="p">

03.12.2012

Volunteering in Sendai!

Some three weeks ago, I went to Miyagi, Sendai with Matt G and Zach to play and teach kids who had been affected by the tsuami. I was at the start really afraid to do this, because I have never been around that small children, let alone had to be an authority figure for a crowd of them.
For the longest time I had been so in doubt of weather or not to make this entry, but I feel like I probably should, since this experience changed a lot for me.


Friday night, we had to take an over night bus to get to Sendai, and GOD I was all shades of tired when we arrived at 6 in the morning! And kids were coming to play with us at 6:30. Oh yea!


When we had picked up our group of children, we went inside a bus and went up into the mountains. We were staying at this ski resort at Mt. Zao.
- and of respect of the children and their family, we were asked not to post pictures of them on our blogs or facebook, so I cannot really show you guys that much.


Besides English lessons and word games, we also got to go outside and play a sticker game with the kids. It was kinda like catch, but each adult had some stickers to give them. I did not participate though, because I was really afraid I would hurt my hip even more :/ - yeah I am still unable to run due to a strain, so now I am just giving it a good long rest.


Our Friday dinner! In doors BBQ, and god it was SO good! But we only managed to eat our way through one of those meat plates... Waay too much food!!


 After dinner, we were devided into smaller groups with our kids and taken to a hotel. We got to stay at a 旅館 (ryokan ; traditional Japanese inn) with inside and outside hot springs!
It was so nice! And our room was really nice too, we were 4 adults and 4 girls sleeping in a big tatami room. After such a long day, and a dip in the hot springs, I was so ready to sleep!



Sunday was more games and fun time! We got some curry udon for lunch, and it was really good! The kids almost made all the food, I feel so spoiled!

After lunch we had to say good bye to the kids again. It was really hard because so many of them had become so attached to us. I made the girl I liked the most cry because she would miss me so much. So when I get home, I will hopefully be able to send her something from Denmark, for her to remember me by!


After we got back to Sendai city, we got some time to get dinner, and then we went on a bus tour of the disaster stricken area. It was really horrible to see how much was destroyed and what power nature really can muster.


This is from the airport (As well as the two pictures above), and this shows how high the wave was at this point, almost 200 meters away from the shore, with A LOT of houses in between.

This trip really made me realize, that in my life, I really want to help more people. All of the things I saw and the kids I met really opened my eyes to how much I can do. The difference I can make, might in a big picture seem really small, but the smiles on those kids faces and the tears my little sweetheart cried for me, really showed me that the little good I can do, is at least making a difference in their lives.

We went home by the night bus again, and arrived in a almost dead Toyko at 5:30. Luckily the trains had JUST started to run, so we got on the first and the best line bound for Toyoda!


We got back at around 6:30 and went to McD! I got a beak feast muffin for the first time, and I must say it is not half bad! 

As an end note for all of this I would like to say, that if you ever just consider going to volunteer  be it in another country or your local community  do it! It might take you so far out of your comfort zone, but the things I learned about myself from this experience, is worth all the discomfort I might have felt at first.