living in Düsseldorf ~ Japanese events

Finally I finished my blog postings about my last Japan journey but in the meantime happended so much...

Since the end of April I live in Düsseldorf now where most of the Japanese people live in Germany. So here are many Japanese restaurants, stores and so on and of course many events take place here.

The most popular event is the Japan Day in the old city. It is held every year and more and more people are coming to this event which took place at May the 17th this time. Of course I went there as well especially while I'm living in Düsseldorf now^__^

Some of my friends also came for a visit: Kiki, Lau and Kirschu stayed over night and we were happy that we could enjoy the fireworks for the first time.

The Japan Day is also a good oppotunity for us to wear our Yukatas. I tried my new Yukata which I got from Tomomi's mother as a gift^.^ (and I lend Kirschu my short Yutaka I bought 2012 in Japan)

Many people took pictures of us (the first ones were some older men in the pub around the corner XD) so I guess we were looking pretty good, don't you think:

peace^^v

we four girls^^

me in front of the Düsseldorf skyline^^

But it took quite a long time for my friends to got dressed up and styled^^;

So we arrived around 4 pm at the location and we were open-mouthened because of the crowd >.< There were so many people... we hardly got a free place at the meadow to sit down, chill and enjoy the atmosphere. We also met our friend Sato who was there with her cosplay group (she was the one taking photos of the four of us^^).

While my friends went to a Gyaru meeting I met with my friend from Switzerland. She came all the way here by train but I was really happy to spend some time with her. We went over the place and watched the stands. We looked at the merchandise but didn't buy anything. But I couldn't avoid to stop at a little stand selling Matcha food *_*

I had to try the Matcha cheese cake! And it was really good^.^

Matcha cheese cake *yummy*

The highlight of the day was of course the Japanese fireworks in the evening. But before we went back home and dressed up in casual clothes because it got quite cold after sunset and it was more comfortable. So great that it was possible this year because of my new flat X3

The fireworks were really beautiuful, it is so much better that seeing it on TV. But if you want to take a look, our reginal TV channel put the video online:

http://www1.wdr.de/studio/duesseldorf/lokalzeit/japantaguebersicht102.html

But at the end of the day we must say that it was just too crowded >.< If I hadn't meet my friend from Switzerland it wouldn't have been worth a visit. It's more comfortable to enjoy the place in Düsseldorf without an event and because of my many travels to Japan I know everything they offer. So maybe next year I won't go again.

+++

Three weeks later the Anime and Manga Convention 'Dokomi' took place in Düsseldorf, too. It is situated in the Fair of Düsseldorf. Next to it is a great park with a Japanese garden, so the perfect location for fans.

On Saturday we were cosplaying alltogether but the Sunday I took the chance to wear my short Yukata for the first time in Germany (really useful with over 30 degrees^^v).

Kiki and me cosplaying Golden Bomber in Kung-Fu Outfit (doing some 'practise' XD)

me in my Yukata in the Japanese garden

The Japanese garden is really a nice place. I think I will visit once again when there is no event as well. But we had much fun.

I really love it that in Düsseldorf you get to experience many sites of Japan. I'm looking forward to more events like these^__^

Japan Expo Bruxelles

Hello everyone!

My last big Japanese event this year was the Japan Expo in Bruxelles on Novembre the 1st.

Early in the morning I took the train to Cologne main station and caught the Thalys to Bruxelles. It was very relaxing though my first thought about the Thalys was 'in what brothel am I here?' XD

But I arrived in time in Bruxelles, understood the subway system and found myself in the middle of the city. Unfotunately I had no idea which way I shoud get off the subway station and how I get to the Expo hall then. My street map wasn't helpful at all when you don't find any street names or so. But I was lucky and saw people walking down the street who looked VERY much like they would head to the Expo as well. So I followed them and voilà, I reached the Expo hall without problems^o^

Though I got really confused when everyone passed through a gate behind which was a castle-like building O.o It was really a gallery but I couldn't imagine the Expo to be inside. It looked quite beautiful:

Gallery building

But everyone was walking around the building... and then we reached the real entry of the Expo XD 

Expo halls

The entry fee was 10,- €, so quite cheap for such an event! The Expo had opened at 10 am, because I arrived around 1 pm I hadn't need to wait in line and could just buy my ticket at the checkout. Then it wasn't as crowded as I had expected. Though it was Friday, novembre the 1st is a holiday in Germany and Belguim, so I expected more people to be there. But good for me, it was easy to walk around and watch the many stands with merchandise, manga and mangaka, Japanese (culture) stuff but also American comics and merchandise, accessory and other goodies.

Here are my gets:

Japanese Obi modern style

artbook 'South Side' & manga 'Drug&Drop 1' (by Clamp)

piture of maste Yoda (Star Wars)

shopping bag with cute onigir ^.^

Besides the shopping I also watched some shows at the Expo. In the main hall the program started with a Taiko group from Bruxelles. They were really good and also made some jokes on stage.

Taiko group on stage

The next performer on stage was the Japanese Emo Punk Rock band 'Blue Cloud'. They really rocked the hall but most people didn't get up on their feed so their effords were quite a failure^^;

I must confess I also just watched them. The music style is not really my cup of tea but for 45 minutes it was quite entertaining.

band perfomance of 'Blue Cloud'

The next shows I watched on the 'culture stage'. A Japanese cook performed some Japanese dishes on stage and finally made a super cute bento of his ingredients. He made Tamagoyaki (omelette), rice balls with faces (onigiri), ebi fried (fried shrimps) and Kaarage (fried chicken) and as deko for the bento he uses some salad leaves and cutted sausage. Thorugh a camera you could watch what he was making in the pan and how he cut the ingredients and so on. I was really impressed and he maded so fast...

the cook on stage

bento is ready

On this stage the Taiko group had another perfomance. They introduced the basics of Taiko and after the performance people from the audience could try for themselves to beat the drums (with instructions from the group leader).

the Taiko group playing again

In between times I also watched a part of the cosplay competition which took place in the afternoon and last for around over two hours in a whole. Two moderators made the announcements, one in French and the other in Dutch. I really asked myself if they assumed that most of the people understand both languages equally? Because my French is quite rusty and I haven't leaned Dutch (of course you understand some words because it's mixture of German and English) I didn't understand very much of what they were talking about but the cosplayers were really great. They did cool perfomances and the cosplays looked very beautiful.

all cosplayers of this round on stage

In another part of the halls the Expo arranged a special Japanese village where you could many culturel aspects of Japan like Ikebana, Origami, Shôgi and so on. I was not so interested in these things because I have already tried them and must say that not many people were in the village^^;

entrance gate of the 'Japanese village'

rush hour in the village

Another insteresting point was the initiation of a Japanese town with info posters. This year they introduced 'Fukuoka'. It was nice because I plan to visit the city in the future so it was interesting to read about culturel aspects, life in town, special dishes and festivals of the region.

Fukuoka information poster

At the end of the day the only negative point was that the program of the Expo ended at 6 pm though it was opened till 7 pm. I don't understand this and so I left just before 6 o'clock. I have seen everything, spend enough money and my collegues was waiting somewhere in Bruxelles because he didn't find his way to the Expo hall^^; (he wanted to arrive some hours later but he never arrived and just spend some hours in town *fail*)

But I had a very good and successful day and when I will have time I am going to visit the Expo next year again^__^

MegaMangaConvention (MMC) Berlin and J-Store with Purikura

Hello everyone!

I have almost forgotten my trip to Berlin on the first weekend of Oktober to visit the MMC with my friends. The conventions takes place every two years and it was always fun to go there. Of course we wanted to do some Cosplay again as well^^

I visited the convention on Friday and Saturday though the event was also opened on Sunday.

On Friday my friends Lau and Kirschu wanted to wear their GALS! Cosplays again so I decided to join them. We did it on the book fair in Leipzig for the first time but back then I wasn't too happy with my GAL-Character. So I changed this time and became Aya Hoshino. With Lau as Ran and Kirschu as Mami we weren't the whole group but it was so much fun nevertheless.

But first we decided to visit the J-Store in Berlin-Charlottenburg. Since a few month ago the J-Store owns a Purikura machine now and like every good GAL we wanted to make some XD

J-Store entrance

interior

purikura machine

The machine is quite modern and has good functions, backgrounds and dekos. And because of the convention is was 1 € cheaper than usual^o^

Because of this side trip we arrived a bit later at the convention but the line for entrance was still very long^^;

At the inside our first action was taking lunch *lol* The Catering of the MMC is really good. They sell many Japanese dishes, this time even the Crepe Station (a Café in Berlin selling Japanese style crepe) and an Onigiri shop had their stands there. Lau and Kirschu decided for a crepe while I took Onigiri^^

Crepe Station

Onigiri Stand

my Onigir with mushroom & pumpkin

Strengthened we went outside again to take some photos. It was great weather outside and we had much fun! Of course we got some curious looks from the citizens walking around the place *lol*

me & Lau as Aya and Ran

Of course we also met some other friends and chatted a lot. It was a great day!

But Saturday was even better! Our friend Kiki was also coming to the convention and together the four of us became the Visual Kei Band Golden Bomber again^o^

We wore our Memeshikute Outfit again which we had worn on the book fair in Leipzig 2012. But it was so cool. Of course my Make-up was really attracting views^^: One man in the metro said I had eaten a clown, ha ha.

But before we went to the convention we stopped by the J-Store again. Of course we had to make some purikuras as Golden Bomber as well! The shop owner even recognized us when we entered the shop, that was great! XD She wanted to take a picture of us:

Golden Bomber in the house XD

At the convention we really rocked it XD

We met our friend Fluff who took pictures and videos of us. It was so funny, we joked around, did some dance practise or just didn't want to do *lol*

Inside there was a special photo corner where a photoraph took pictures from you before a special backround and if you liked the pics he printed them at once (one pic = 1 €). Each of us took one picture, it was really cool - like a real photo shooting with Golden Bomber^^

This was my favourite one:

hanging on the sofa XD

So we had a great convention and thanks to my people doing cosplay was as great as ever!

This year it was my last convention, next will be the book fair in Leipzig in March 2014^^

See ya!

Sunday on the DoKomi 2013

This day my friends and I visited the Anime- and Mangaconvention DoKomi together. It was the second year on the new location at the Duesseldorf Exhibition Hall. Last year we weren't so impressed about it but the weather was nice and we just wanted to have some fun together in our cosplays.

In the morning I prepared Bentos for us, I really looked forward to it because it is more interesting for me to do it for other than just for myself X3

This time I was really satisfied with my doing:

the three bentos

my bento layer

I made sweet potatoes, fried cabbage, sushi sandwiches and for dessert a dorayaki and a little matcha (okay, the mochi wasn't self-made). It was so nice to eat it in the sunshine with my friends. They really like it, so I was very happy ^o^

After that lunch we went to the Japanese garden. I haven't known about it, last year we missed it somehow^^'

It was of course a great location and most of the cosplayers were there making photos or just enjoying the nice weather.

the Japanese garden

many cosplayers walking around

We also made many photos in the garden but also in front of the exhibition hall. It was really fun and I liked our group^^
We cosplayed some characters from the series 'Sket Dance', a really funny Anime & Manga. I cosplayed 'Himeko' (the only girl in the group). Sato was 'Agata' and Lau 'Michiru' from the Student Council.

our trio

having fun in the park

We also met other friends, chilled in the garden/in the sunshine and just enjoyed the beautiful day. When the sun began to set we left the convention. It was really a wonderful day.

Thank you guys^o^