❤63❤ My new Travel Blog

Hello everyone!

I just created a new blog especially for my year in Japan!
I plan to keep it a bit more neutral and informative than my personal blog here : )

You can find it here:

http://rinas-wonderland.blogspot.de/


My first posts there contain a bit more details about my preparations and information about the procedure of getting a working holiday visa as well as information on how to find accomodations in Tokyo : )


Once I'm in Japan I plan on sharing my tips on cool places to go and for the Vegetarians amongst you I also want to introduce dishes and possibilities to survive without fish and meat in Japan!

❤62❤ Preparations for Japan

Hello~

A few days ago I finally booked my flight to Japan!

It'll be on October 1st!

Insurance and all other documents for application for my Work & Holiday Visum are also prepared!

Tomorrow I'll go to the embassy in Düsseldorf and hand everything in.

I hope everything will be okay!

I'm already exited and hope that it won't be too hard to find a nice place to stay. All the agencies I want to stay with do only reserve a room for 2-3 weeks after the last tendant left the room. 

Most of the people cancel their contract only on short notice, 

so I still have to wait.

If anything works as planned I'll also visit some friends at Bonn tomorrow!

They will leave to Japan at the end of August already!

Maybe we are going to eat something together? 

Or have some tea~? 

I'm really looking forward to tomorrow!

Finally getting a chance on leaving this small and boring village~!

Thanks for reading and Bai Bai~

❤61❤ An old flame never dies

Some of you might know that I moved back to my parents for the next about 3 months : )

As I moved back into my teenager-flat I noticed that my shelfs are full of stuff I haven't touched for years!
I already threw so much away over the last two weeks and still it seems as if my rooms are full of ..stuff.. 



I also decided on selling almost all of my manga.
Manga and Anime were of course the first thing that made me come in touch with Japanese culture at the first place, but my interest both decreased over time.
The only anime I watch nowadays are Ghibli movies if they show them in TV.

Same with Manga.. The last time I bought one was more than 5 years ago.
I had some complete series and there are basically only 2 which I won't sell!
One is called "FAKE". I don't remember story anymore, but I remember loving it so much! 






I guess I'll read it again over the next weeks, just for nostalgic reasons 




And the other one.. well it was the first Manga I read completly.
It's a mix of Hetero and Shounen-Ai and I couldn't resist but reading it again...
It's called Seimaden and is drawn by You Higuri.
She was my favourite Mangaka and I also have a couple of other Manga by her..
However, Seimaden is the one that touched me the most.
I love each and every character <3







It's a story about Demons, Humans, Love and Hate mixed with some Drama and Battles.
What more could you wish for?

My favourite character back then and now is still Teteiyusu!

His appereance is the one of an angel, but in fact he's a demon.
I think I fell in love with him, but.. well.. 
I wouldn't stand a chance against his love for Laures, king of the demons haha

Although he always says it's just deep devotion and not "this" kind of love, every girl reading the manga just thought "Yeah..sure.."
















And here we have Zadei, another strong demon that once lost against Laures, the current king of the demons. Laures locked him up in a kind of jail, but someone set him free again.
He's pretty... emotional. Mostly the bad side of emotional.
Still I loved him from the beginning. 

Then there are Laures and his beloved Hilda. Aren't his ears funny?  I remember that it took me a while until I could take him serious... but his long, straight black hair made up for his ears. xD

Hilda is a human girl that lost her memory. Rumor has it that she's Laures' girl, but then Rod appears and claims her as his girlfriend - uh oh~









The last main character is Rod. He is the son of a tribe called the "Azeel". They fought against the demons and.. well lost. He is one of the last survivors and his destiny is.... surprise, surprise... to take revenge, kill Laures and save the humans! : D

Oh and.. well he's in love with Hilda - as is Laures.

Can you smell the drama already~? 

Not only do I love the way she draws, but also the story and the characters.
When I think about the story it seems so much longer than just the 10 volumes!


There isn't any anime about that Manga and while I would love to see that story animated, I would also be afraid of it.
It's like with a really good book. You would love to see a movie of it.. but well..  movies are always worse than the original book, aren't they? (´ A`;


By the way~
Although this Manga is kind of Shounen-Ai, there are no explicit Yaoi-scenes in it, which I give another thumbs up for! (same for the hetero-pairings) 






So far from me and my nostalgic flashback!

Thanks for reading~

❤60❤ Flowerpower!

Summer doesn't really feel like summer in the western part of Germany!
The last week it was sooo cold, windy and rainy!
I really don't like dark weather.
On the other hand.. I also don't like too hot weather..

Sunny autumn and winter days are obviously the best for me!






Still I wish that the sun would show up a little bit more often~





Two days ago, the sun decided to shine for a few hours and when I went to our garden with my dog,
I took some pictures of the flowers growing there! 

So be prepared for this picture heavy random post full of flower-power!

 

                                  


So how did you like all those flowers?
Roses are my favorite, but I like them all!
What's your favourite flower?

Thanks for reading!

Have a nice week!!

Bai bai~

❤59❤ Paris & Dir en Grey

I'm sorry it took me so long to write this! 

I just moved back to my parents to write my bachelor thesis and save some money for Japan in autumn!

Well~

As I already told last time, I went to Paris with one of my best friends!

After the Dir en Grey live in Cologne I took 4h of sleep and had to leave again at 5am to catch my train.

I was soooo sleepy!

Normally I need a coffee before even being able to move properly ww

I just dressed, grabbed my bag and little suitcase and headed to the train station.

Although I was there in time and managed to get myself some coffee I noticed something 10 minutes before the train arrived 

.

.

.

.

.

I forgot all my papers.

Even my ID card was still in my other bag at home..

I was never as lucky to own a smartphone than at this point of time!!

The trainticket had a QR-Code which could also be read from my iPhone, I had the email with the reservation number for our tickets and I also got the mail for my bus back to Germany on my phone.

Pheww~!!

The train to Paris took me 3,5h from which I spent 3,4 with sleeping. 

When I arrived in Paris the weather was... well... cloudy and cold.

I walked from the station to our hotel, where they wanted to put us in a smelly, dirty room with mold all over the walls in the bathroom.

  

Unfortunately - for the reception lady - I got the selfconfidence from my mom when it comes to such things.

So I complained and voila~ 

We got a room with 2 single + 1 double bed, tidy, freshly renovated bathroom and no mold!

However we had to wait until 2pm to move into the new room, so we decided to leave our luggage there and explorer the city a bit.

First we ended up in a part that felt like the bronx of Paris haha. 

We just kept walking until we reached a bigger street and since we were hungry we entered one of the bistros.

I never thought it would be so hard for me to find food in Paris, but finally we found this place:

About 8€ for a really tasty baguette, a dessert and something to drink.

Kind of cheap for Paris : )

Since we walked around a lot without actually doing something we slowly returned to our hotel, checked in the other room and.. left again xD

Vanessa and I never know what to do so we looked at all the flyers in the lobby, but .. the only thing which seemed worth checking out was the Hard Rock Cafe.

When we found the street we also found two small passages with shops and restaurants:

Everything here was kind of expensive, but doesn't it look just cute?

Then...

We checked the Hard Rock Cafe.
Oh dear..
We weren't prepared for the prices on the menu xD

We decided to check out the restaurant next to the HRC:

Indiana Cafe : D

Cocktails for 5€

And a massive meal for ~12-13€

We both couldn't finish our meals, but at least mine (Veggy Burger) was super tasty! 

Of course we also checked out the Eiffel Tower!

Just all the guys around trying to sell something, steal or ripp you of with illegal games are SO annyoing!

On our way back to the hotel, which was just one station - or 10 minutes walking - from the venue there were even more people prepared for camping.

Once more we were happy to have our hotel room. haha

Since we decided no to wait in line and just enter as one of the last people, whe had the whole next day off as well!

Actually we wanted to check out the Catacombs. This attraction was only 8€, but when we saw how many people were lining up at 11am (and one guy heard that we would have to wait about 2-3h from our spot in line to get in) we decided to sit down and get something to drink.

It was heavily raining that day as well and I honestly didn't feel comfortable without an umbrella.. haha

Later I found a Crepe Restaurant at FourSquare ( I LOVE foursquare!!) called "La Bella Ronde".

It had lots of positive feedback and it was honestly one of the cutest restaurants I've been to!

After lunch we went to Notre Dame and met a friend form Vanessa : )

She was living in Paris for already some time and we went inside the church!

I took so many pictures and 

light up a candle for my cat who passed away almost 2 year ago 

I visited Notre Dame a couple of times already, but I still love being there! It's such a beautiful place and I'm not even religious!

If you have the chance to visit Paris, definitely go there! It doesn't cost you one cent and you'll be stunned by its beauty! 

Then we went back to the hotel and got ready for the concert! : D

Nothing special, but headbanging friendly! ww

When we arrived at the venue the tourbus was parking right in front of it and the line of people waiting was suuuuper long!

We were there like 20 minutes before doors opened and just noticed that there was Happy Hour in the cafe next to the venue!

Beer and Ricard (some Anis-Ouzo tasting drink) for just 2€ each - in Paris!!

We had a couple of drinks and watched the people waiting in line. 

We waited till we saw the end of the line and joined as one of the last people : )

I even bought the hoodie before we entered the actual hall.

Since I've never been at La Cigale before I was positivly surprised! This venue is just awesome!

And we got one of the best spots you could probably get!

The balcony was SO close to the stage!

Perfect view, space for headbanging and jumping around and no ther people pushing you around!

The live itself was just awesome! It was 1000x better than Cologne. The people, the atmosphere, even the band seemed to be more.. active! 

Setlist was almost the same as Cologne but the fun I had was immense!

I went to a lot Dir en Grey concerts already and I can honestly say that this was one of the best!

They played about 2h, but it felt like 10 minutes. 

I still can't put in word how much I loved that concert 

Back in our hotel room we talked a lot about the live and how funny and cool and awesome it was haha

Vanessa had to leave early the next and I walked to the station with her, so we didn't stay up that late : /

After she had left I still had a few hours till I had to go to my bus station and since our hotel was close to Sacre Coeur, I decided to walk up that hill.

Although I went there already a few years back it took me longer than expected haha.
This day it was also pretty hot again and I hadn't eaten anything until noon.

So I stopped at one of the prettiest Starbucks Houses I've ever been!

It was so super cozy in there!
I guess I stayed one whole hour haha.

From Starbucks it wasn't far to the church!
Unfortunately you weren't allowed to take pictures inside, but I can assure you that it's worth the way!
It's not as crowded as Notre Dame, but still very beautiful.

You also have an amazing view over Paris from there!
I bet it's even more beautiful if there are no clouds.
I sat a long time at the stairs just watching this scenery <3

On my way back I saw those at a bistro!
Barbapapa drinks!!

And when I went back to the hotel I saw this store!

It was so close to the venue...!

Guess that store comes in handy if you forgot or broke some of your equip on tour.

The bus back to Germany took me about 8h in total, but it was okay ( and less than half the price of the Thalys haha).

I really really enjoyed this short trip with all its ups and downs!

Concerts are imho one of the best occassions to travel around~!

Thanks for reading!!