About Christmas in Japan

Some of you might been wondering how I spent Christmas in Japan. So, let me enlighten you.
(Speaking of light, the illuminations were ... well, the ones in Omotesando are nice, but the rest of Tokyo feels like, "Christmas? What's Christmas?)

Since Japan is not a Christian country, they don't really celebrate Christmas the way Europeans or Americans do. Instead, they're having parties with their friends or, really popular, dates. So on December 25th, the streets and stores are brimming with couples.

Since I didn't have a date (did I hear pathetic?) and couldn't celebrate with my family either, I met up with a German friend who's in Keio at the moment (like 90% of my friends? ^^;) on the 24th (German Christmas day) and tried to find the most German-ish Christmas lunch in Shibuya. My normal 24th food is Potato soup with sausages, hers Potato salad with sausages. (Yes, Germans do like sausages. But we have to keep it simple on the 24th because the 25th usually involves eating a looooot with the whole family.) Of course, neither of them was anywhere to be found. So we ended up at a place called Shakey's that had an all-you-can-eat pizza and pasta buffet plus drink for only a bit more than 1.000 Yen per person. (*___*) We sat there and ate until we were really full, had a nice chat and then moved on to do Purikura. xD Afterwards, we ate a bit of Baumkuchen my parents had sent me and then parted. At home, I skyped my family, called my Grandma and all that kind of stuff.
Yesterday, I did karaoke with a friend from one of my classes here. We called it a "date with Arashi", because out of the 4 hours (!) we spent in the box, we sang 80% Arashi songs. XD (Gosh, my throat hurts. I'm really bad with songs by guys because my voice is not low enough.)
And today, I'm gonna meet another German friend who's over from Kyoto. So I'm not lonely at all. :)

I hope you all had a nice Christmas as well!

I got tickets for Garnet Crow!!!

First of all, Merry Christmas to you all! May yours be as happy as mine, although I miss my family.

I got tickets for the Garnet Crow 10th Anniversary Tour next year!!!
One for Nagoya and one for the final concert in Osaka!
As I'll be in Germany until March 21st, I'll probably make a journey through Japan after that and stop by in Nagoya and Osaka for the concerts until the 2nd semester starts.

I can't believe it!!! <3<3<3

俺、知らないわ！

Some of you might remember an old post of mine here where I talked about the difference between men's and women's words in Japanese. As I learned a lot of my Japanese from TV dramas, that sometimes use weird dialogues or mark characters as male/female by letting them use explicitly female language (as if the viewers were all blind ^^;), I kinda let some わ or のよ slip from time to time.
So when I was out drinking* with some Japanese people from the German language department (ever tried not to mix Japanese and German after the third drink? xD), I asked them about their opinion on the topic. They confirmed my recent observations: Phrases like わ have become something men use now, whereas women younger than, hm, 40, don't really use those anymore.
This would actually be an interesting topic for a term paper or something like that, wouldn't it?

*For all those who now frown upon me for drinking, let me tell you I drink very rarely, I never drink so much I lose my memory or can't get home anymore, and I used this gathering for research purposes!

Shopping again ^^;

Sorry for posting about shopping so much lately, but I haven't really had time to get out of Tokyo so far due to busy university schedules. (I would have had a long weekend because today is a national holiday, but we never get Mondays off. >___<)
I'll probably travel to Kyoto and Osaka in the Christmas holidays, so bear with me until then! m(_ _)m

Anyway, I went with a classmate (I really like my class now - you know, the one I got put into because the normal class for people from my programme was already full) and she showed me this store called Forever 21. For around 9.000 Yen, I bought a pullover, a knit jacket, a long-sleeved shirt, a T-shirt, a skirt, long pajama pants and a pair of tights. I love this store!
Now I still need a pair of boots to keep my feet from freezing off in the winter that is sure to come - it's already getting cold, and some areas fake a christmasy feeling (without much success, though. ^^;)

Beauty

Today, I went to a beauty salon and got my hair done.
Cut, treatment and perm - for about 70 Euros (9.000 Yen). Well, it only needs to be redone after half a year, so... It is a hell lot of money, but I worked in saved before I came here, and since I study really hard, I thought I should do myself something good.
Then I got a Shiseido eyeshadow for 1.500 Yen - I think that's quite okay for Shiseido.

And now I' beautiful! xD
Well, at least better than before.

早慶戦

Today I went to 早慶戦 - the baseball game between Waseda and Keio university.

As a Waseda student, I wanted to support my university's team, but I ended up going with my friend who's in Keio and who I don't see all that often, so I sat in a Keio seat and ... well, felt a bit awkward. But since I have NO clue about baseball anyway, I couldn't really cheer for a team. ("What's going on now? Is that good or bad?" ^^;)

I couldn't even see half of the game because some stupid cheerleader was blocking my sight. But no one really seemed to watch. Everyone was busy making hand movements or singing the Keio song. ^^;

Anyway, Waseda lost. ^^; 残念だわ。

flumpool!

I just came back from Budokan where I listened to a flumpool concert! My tension is high!!!

For a band that only had their major debut last year, filling the whole concert venue two evenings in a row is really something! (90% of the guests were girls, it seemed. xD)
Of course, they still need to improve a lot, like Ryuta's microphone interaction, but wow!
I ended up buying the jacket and a T-shirt and a wrist band and their pamphlet. Now I'm broke for this month. ^^;
But wow, really! It's actually the first time I was able to see a band I really like live, as I mostly only listen to Japanese music and most of the artists I like don't come to Europe. Speaking of that, I must, must, must get tickets for the Garnet Crow tour! The one for next month is already sold out (anyone wants to offer me a ticket?), but they'll have another one in February! 10th Anniversary! I MUST go, no matter what it takes.

Anyway, flumpool are awesome! The members interacted really well, Ryuta was cute as ever <3 and their songs become better and better (frame <3). Plus, they announced an album that will be released exactly two months from today. (Christmas present, anyone?) I wonder if I should go to their next tour as well - there's even a date on my birthday. Who knows when I'll have the chance to see them again?!

So, everyone, check them out at youtube! Buy their new, first full album, "What's flumpool?", on December 23!
Good night!