Ari & Nici in Japan - food and beverages (食べ物と飲み物)

Hey guys (^-^)v

I'm so sorry I didn't post for such a long time.. It was the longest hiatus I have taken until now and I wish I could promise it never happens again, but I am not entirely sure about that. Anyways, I needed some time for myself, also to sort some things out. My current occupation doesn't allow me to have a lot of free time, and I am almost stressed out everyday with studying and homework and more studying (maybe I will explain it in a seperate post if anyone is interested in what I'm doing at the moment). So I took advantage of the holidays I had and did absolutely nothing. And I really needed that for myself to keep me going and to be able to finish the last two semesters. So I hope you understand and are still a little bit interested in what I post. For what comes next, I think there will be two more post about my Japan journey (it's more than a year ago by now Q_Q) and than we will see what's coming as, with a lack of free time, I also don't have time to explore things and show them to you.. But I have some huge plans for my future that I want to share with you and I will keep this blog running to at least that point of time. Anyway, here we go with the next post ^-^

Before Nici and I left for Japan my dad asked me to take photos of the stuff I was going to eat there because he had nearly no idea of what Japanese food was like (except for sushi of course). So I thought it may be a nice idea to write a post about what we were eating and drinking in Japan.
Also, I thought it might be interesting for some people, who also are vegetarians, as Japan is not really a vegetarian-friendly country and there is fish or meat included in lots of things..

While staying at our host family's place in Tokyo we usually got breakfast and dinner from our host mom.

breakfast - red bean paste filled bread, yoghurt with a slice of pineapple and a boiled egg (that I didn't like at all.. tasted like it has been boiled in soy sauce or something..)

breakfast - miso soup and some vegetables rice stuff for the microwave (althought I told our host mom that I am vegetarian I think there was fish included.. I just picked out everything that looked suspicious x3)

Dinner - Japanese style pasta, absolutely delishious *-*

Dinner - rice with stir-fried tofu, onions and some more slimy stuff (but tasted pretty good)

Dessert - CAKE ROLLS!

Dinner - vegetarian hamburger steak and rice

 As you maybe can guess from the amount of pictures I, most of the days, forgot to take pictures.. 
One evening, after we had visited a wind orchestra competition of our host mom's daughter, she treated us to dinner for kaiten zushi (running sushi)

You could either take something off of the conveyor belt or order something you like via touch screen

Mine delicious food ^-^
Our host mom laughed at us for only eating "children's stuff"..

they also had so yummy desserts that were soo amazing ^-^

As poor stundents don't travel with enough money to go to restaurants, we also bought a lot of food in Convenience Stores:

Dango and Milk tea

left - Nici's; right - mine, there was fish in the sushi rolls but I just picked it out

Yakisoba Pan

Omu raisu and Pasta

Melon Pan

A really great thing about Japan is that there are vending mashines for drinks nearly everywhere. Especially during the hot summers this is super convenient and refreshing ^-^

C. C. Grape - really delicious

My favourite drink of all time: C. C. Lemon ♥

favourite tea - just usual green tea, super refreshing at hot days ^-^

One day in Osaka we also got a pizza. As you might have heard before, pizza in Japan is super-expensive. We paid like 15 Euros for a normal-sized one (in Germany you can get some for like 5 Euros or even cheaper), and it was not even delicious.. My pizza margherita was flavoured with some strange herbs and tasted really unfamiliar, and the pizzas my friend's had ordered, did not have that usual pizza crust, but were made with some kind of puff paste instead.. I don't know if all pizza stores do it that way, but I can not really recommend eating pizza in Japan alone because of the price x'D

We also bought a lot of the really fancy snacks and ice creams Japan has to offer:

Ice cream from Baskin Robbins - Suica (watermelon) and cookie flavour. Definitely try out this store! Is has one of the best ice creams I have ever eaten

Frozen yoghurt you could assort on your own! Unfortunately, you pay for the weight and these were a bit very expensive..

Hello Kitty dounut at Sanrio Puroland (did not taste as good as it looked to be honest..)

famous Harajuku Crepe with strawberries, cheese cake, and chocolate sauce ♥

Last but not least I want to show you our food we had at fast food restaurants. All in all, we only tried two of them: Lotteria and MOS Burger. MOS Burger is my absolutely all time favourite! At the moment they only offer one vegetarian burger, but it is absolutely delicious ♥

Melon Soda and Rice-Kinpira Burger at MOS♥

Lotteria one the other hand only has frensh fries if you don't eat meat or fish...

Frensh Fries and (of course) Melon Soda again ^-^

But next time I also want to try Freshness Burger. They also offer a vegetarian black bean burger ^-^

Japan has to offer a really wide range of food and you will definitely not die of hunger as a vegetarian, but on the other hand it is really hard to find something you can eat in a restaurant. When we went eating out with our host family in Osaka, our host dad ordered ramen without meat for me and it was no problem, but I haven't tried it on my own yet, so I don't know if it had worked out too. But in supermarkets and conbinis you get lots of food you can eat and it's really good! It's just a bit sad that it is hard to get traditional food without meat or fish. If you are really craving for it, you can go to a Buddhist temple restaurant that traditionally serve vegan food, but it's terribly expensive so I didn't do it..

Well, I hope I could give you some new information and provide an insight into what kind of food will expect you if you don't go to restaurants.

Thank you for reading, and feel free to leave your opinion or questions in the comments!

See you next time (^-^)v

 

Cristmas and New Year's Eve - I finally had holidays xD

Hey guys (^.^)v

As the title says, I finally had holidays!

...which are sadly already over again x'D

But I nevertheless want to show you what I did and got for christmas.

And I althought wanted to do a post about something else 

than Japan once in a while xDD 

So, of course I went home to my family at holiday time.

And, as Christmas markets are a really big deal here in Germany, 

I went there quite often ^.^

I don't like Christmas that much, but I like all the sparkling decoration xD
But sadly we had just rain instead of snow..

Unfortunately, it was raining a lot this Christmas..

had to cover my face, sry x'D

 As every year, I spent Cristmas Eve with my parents 

and my boyfriend at my father's house.

He cooked a very delicious (vegetarian^^) dinner for us *-*

The first day of Christmas I visited my grantmother

together with the rest of the family.

The same procedure as every year.. x'D

And here is what I got for christmas ^.^

I really love these Beanie Boos ^.^
My two new ones are called Safari (the giraffe)
and Scraem (the bat) ♥
I already have some more, so it is already a small collection x3 

The red dragon in the front (his name is Legend)
belongs to my boyfriend.
My mom gave it to him as christmas present this year.

And I got even more plushies and giraffe *-*

You can put these two in the microwave to make them warm
and then they keep you warm if you cuddle with them ♥
The long giraffe is very good to put it in the neck ^.^

And my last giraffe xD
I got a muff ^.^
It was a present from my mom.
She got herself one in 'snow leopard'
(of course, it's not real fur, just plush)
 

And I also want to show you this:

It was not a present for me, but from me to my mom.

As I mentioned before, she is a big fan of hide

and as I heared they would release a new single

(more than 15 years after his death), I totally had to buy it for her.

And I don't regret it at all!

It is really amazing they have the technology to bring his voice back to life again.

I love his new song so so much and I am happy

his management finally shared it with the world.

(I would have loved to share a video here with you,

but unfortunately yt doesn't find it when I'm searching on pc

(but if I'm on my phone, it does and even plays the song without restrictions..))

And finally, I also could see my friend's again!

I miss them very much since I had to move to another city.

But fortunately I managed to meet everybody I wanted to meet 

and could do a lot of things, I don't have time for when I

have to go to school ^.^ 

We went to the cinema to watch 'St. Vincent' in Sneek Peak x3

This is the most delicious curd I've ever eaten before *-*

It is raspberry curd, blueberrys, vanilla curd, pomegranate,

chocolate sprinkles and rapsberry sauce ♥

 

And I went eating sushi with my mom 

at the best restaurant in my home town ^.^

It was the first sushi since Japan xD

 

I also got a new haircut just a few days before last year ended x3

Before, my hair was about this long:

And then I let it cut to this:

So last but not least,

I want to show you my two favourite outfits during Christmas holidays:

That's it for today!

I hope your are now up to date again xD

See you next time (^.^)v

Nyappy! An Cafe in Essen o(≧∀≦)o

Hey guys (^.^)v

An Cafe is on tour in Europe at the moment

and so my friend Nekoko and I decided to see

them at the live in Essen ^.^

It is a bit far away, but so we had the chance to

visit Düsseldorf before the concert started x3

Düsseldorf as you might know has many japanese inhabitants

and therefore there are many stores which sell japanese stuff

like books/magazines, every day necessities and of course:

lots of food *-*

We wanted to have breakfast in a Japanese backery ♥

I love this place and their delicious food soo much *-*

My food:

on the right for example Anpan and Cornet with Matchcream ♥

Neko's food:

in the front is Kare-Pan ^.^

Afterwards we strolled through some other stores

and bought some onigiri ♥

It's one of my favourite japanese foods.

They also have many onigiris filled with vegetables

and without fish or meat. I choose one with kimchi ^.^

Then we continued our journey to Essen.

I have never visited this town before and we were quite confused

when we arrived at the main station...

But in the metro we met another girl, who visited the concert

and luckily she showed us the way ^.^

Still in the train I took a photo of my hairdo that day.

Nothing special, but I like the hair tie so much x3

a fluffy ball with wiggling eyes ^.^

While waiting at the concert hall some staff member 
of An Cafe came out and took fotos of us, 
which were published at An Cafe's official facebook page *-*

with my friends Neko, Riyoki and Bou ^.^ Bou even made this cute Nyappy-plush all by herself *-*

Since we found the staff members were so cute

we also took a photo together with them *-*

 The concert itself was really awesome *-*
It was my third concert of An Cafe
and definitely one of the best ^.^
For the next time we already planed to get VIP upgrades, too x3

After the encore the band took a photo with us ♥
I didn't found me yet in the picture,
but I must stand some where on the right side, near the
star shaped glow sticks and the Nyappy-plush ^.^

 

Thank you all for the great day (^.^)v