Ari and Nici in Japan: Day 1 - Arrival and Asakusa

Hey guys (^.^)v

I am finally back from Japan and brought lots of photos for you!

Let's start with the arrival and our first day in Tokyo ♥

I have to announce that I'm really scared of flying.
The idea of flying for about 12 hours just made me feel sick..
On the advice of my friend Nici (who works as a travel agent)
I tried to control my fear with tablets against travel sickness.
And I think it really worked. I already took them when I rode to Berlin
by bus. And well I slept during the whole ride and didn't feel sick; 
so in my opinion they worked x3
And I also feel like I wasn't that scared anymore when I took them
before the flight. Also I could hold Nici's hand the whole time during
the take off which helped me a lot to relax ^.^

Our first flight was from Hannover to Frankfurt
and then the nearly 12 hour flight from Frankfurt to Tokyo Narita.

A melon lemonade I had at the airport in Hannover. It was good but terribly expensive >.<

Our plane didn't arrive yet..

 After more than 12 hours, 2 take offs and not that bad plane food,
we finally arrived at Tokyo Airport! ♥

The first 'culture shock' wasn't as big as expected.
The only thing that was really different from germany was the silence.
It was much more quiet at Tokyo airport than at both the airports in germany.

At Narita airport Nici's pen pal Yu piced us up.
She even made this cute sign for us *-*

sorry for looking so messed up, but I didn#t sleep well in the plane and the night before..

Yu is such a nice girl ♥
Although she didn't know me at all, she welcomed 
us so lovely and hugged us ^.^
She also helped us a lot to get Pasmo-cards and find the way
to our homestay home. Thank you so much!
(I think Pasmo or Suica Cards are really helpful for foreigners.
Many Japanese use them, too. You just charge them with some money
and then simply put it onto the scanners at the electronic gates
when you enter and leave and it will automatically debit the money.
You can also pay drinks in some vending machines with it ^.^)

Since we arrived at 8 a.m. in Tokyo and were finished with
unpacking in the early afternoon, our host mum wanted
to take us to 'a beautiful place' the same day.
She didn't tell us before we arrived and so we entered some
metros and when we got out of the station, we were standing
in front of the Sensoji-Shrine in Asakusa ^.^
The entrance gate 'Kaminarimon' is very famous for it's
huge paper lantern.

still looking weird and tired.. sorry q.q

When you go deeper into the temple ground,
you reach another shrine.
After doing the ritual cleaning of hands and mouth
(our host mum showed us how to do it), we entered the shrine
and got our fortunes told by doing Omikuji.
Omikuji is a traditional way of fortune telling. You donate 100 Yen and
have a box with a small opening, filled with many thin wooden sticks.
You shake the box until one stick falls out. Every stick has a number on it,
corresponding with the number of a certain drawer.
When you open the drawer, there are strips of paper which tell you your fortune.
Nici and I both had a positive fortune ^.^
Our host mum told us, this was really rare.

I still carry the fortune in my purse ^.^
Near the shrine there was another very small shrine, where we
also prayed. The shrine sheltered a big stone. With smaller stones
you can knock onto the big stone and the dust that occurs can be put
in your purse, so you never run out of money.

Here are some more photos of the Shrines and the area.
Nich took most of the photos ^.^

from above ^.^

a kind of souvenir shopping mall between the Kaminarimon and the Shrine

On the way back to the station,
I had my first food in Japan at: Mo's Burger!

Melon Soda and Rice Kimpira-Burger ♥

It was so super delicious *o*
I can really recommend Mo's Burger. Go there, when you're in Japan xD
Also this was the only burger I could eat (because of vegetarian),
it could not have been better! ♥
Everything is also made very fresh, so you always have to wait a bit.
But, other than in germany, you don't have to wait at the counter
for your food. They will bring it to your table ^.^
And the staff was so friendly ^.^

When we got back to our homestay house, we were so tired we
immediately slept in. At 6 p.m. xD
We only got up once again for dinner and then slept the whole night.
It was a very exhausting, but yet very awesome day ^.^
We've arrived at Japan! \(*-*)/

So that was our first day.
Thank you for reading ^.^

It will probably take some time until I can post the next
entries about Japan. Because I am moving to another home at
the time and probably won't have any internet for the next two weeks q.q
Bye, until then (^.^)v

♥ OFF TO JAPAN!! ♥ ＼(*T▽T*)／

Hey guys (^-^)v

here is just a quick announcement for you:

I am leaving for Japan tomorrow *-*

I'm so happy and so excited, I still can't believe it *-*

whatever, I will stay there for about three weeks and probably

find no time to update my blog here..

but of course I will do this when I'm back ♥

so stay tuned for lots of entries of my vacation (probably)

While I won't update here,

I'm almost sure I will nevertheless post many pics online,

so feel free to follow me on

instagram (baka.ari)

or

twitter (Ari Pancake)

(or both xD)

also feel free to follow my friend Nici's blog about our journey ^-^ 
she also writes over travelling in general x3

So, I'm off then..

I hope you will have a good time

and I can show you some nice pics when I'm back (^-^)v

Nisa-Con and Pastel Goth again ♥

Hey guys (^.^)v

for a few years now Braunschweig, the town I live in, has it's own convention.

It's a quite small town, but the con itself is often very crowded.

I'm happy people from other parts of germany come to our local convention, too x3

So this year it was really hot again..

I visited the convention for the third time now and it's always really warm x'D

two years ago we had almost 35°C and last year around 25°C (still warm),

but this year it was 32°C again x3

not the best weather for a convention, but better than heavy rain ^-^

Since I really like Pastel Goth at the moment, 

I choose to wear a creepy cute outfit again x3

It's just my second try with this style and I'm still really at beginner-level x'D

My boyfriend decided to accompany me this time *-*

our first convention together ♥

And before we went of, we took some photos in the garden ^.^

 and a pic he took of me x3

My boyfriend then went to his brother-in-law and his niece to 
pick them up and I made my way to the event location x3

When I arrived there already were a lot of people waiting to get in

and I had to queue for half an hour.. in our small town x'D

Of course I went to the Karaoke Room first and met my friend Rinni there x3

I myself didn't sing anything.
There was a new karaoke system and they had
quite few songs I liked or knew the lyrics of..
So I went on to the Video Room to watch some anime ^.^

This anime was quite funny xD
but I forgot it's name q.q
do you know how it is called?

While strolling through the floors I met cute maid Lisa

She sold soo~ delicious cupcakes and donuts *-*
We bought some when my boyfriend finally arrived x3

cat donut *-* ♥

As you can see in the pic, I deeply fell in love
with this bulbasaur plush *-*
and had to buy it, it was soo cute q.q

After walking around the whole time,
we sat down in the hall to enjoy some shows ^.^
First was the singer 'Chocolate Music' from Bremen.
She translates and sings anime soundtracks in german x3
She  did a really great show *-*

The next artist was the singer Shiroku.
She sings anime songs (and also J-Pop I think) to piano music.
She was really really great *-*
To piano music of course she sings lots ballads,
which I personally don't like that much..
but you could see how moved she was by every title
and how much every song ment to her ♥

I heard she likes penguins, this was her mascot for today ^.^

After the shows it was already pretty late
and we were really exhausted from walking and the heat, so we went home x3
It was a great convention and it's always fun going there ^.^

thanks for reading
and see you next time (^.^)v