Epic Journey of Summer 2010! Part 5 (Germany)

Sorry it took so long for me to post this! I just got the pictures so I'm ready to write. This will be the last part of my summer adventures, so thanks for sticking around!
After visiting Holland, we worked our way into Germany for a quick stop at a city that's very close to Belgium: Cologne (or Koln). This was the first time I'd been in Germany, and my first impression through this city was pretty good!

Cologne is Germany's fourth largest city and is known for (apparently) some crazy parties and celebrations, which we didn't get to experience, as well as this cathedral:

It was so big I couldn't even get a proper shot! As dirty and dark as it is, I still thought it was really awesome and beautiful. We first took a visit inside the church itself...

 

Some shots of the windows. I love stained-glass windows, they're so pretty to look at~

We decided then that we wanted to try to climb to the top of the cathedral, but first we took a quick walk around the surrounding area. One of the things that I think makes a city really beautiful is if it has a body of water. So going down to the river was really nice.

There were some pretty grass areas where you could have a picnic or hang around, and we saw this neat little rock structures that I found pretty.

 

There were all these pools of water with stepping stones, tiny streams and waterfalls. So quaint!

On our way back, we could see the cathedral poking out over the other buildings. Starting to get nervous about the walk up the tower...

Here's a shot of what I'm pretty sure was the train station! I enjoyed a lot of the architecture in Cologne.

We got back to the cathedral and it was finally time to climb that tower. Man was it rough. It wasn't the first time that I'd gone up hundred of stone steps in a tight, cramped twist of a space. But that doesn't make it any easier.

We made it to a large circular room that signaled to us that the worst part was over. The stone windows and whatnot were interesting (sorry that it was so hard to take pictures in there!) but that wasn't our final destination. We still had a metal set of staircase to go before reaching the top, but that was nothing at this point.

Looking up at the very point of the roof!

As rough as it was, the view did not disappoint. From so high up we could see so much of the city.

Definitely worth the climb!

Funny story on the way down, by the way. You don't feel the effort as much going down the stairs, so my pace was a little faster. Suddenly I notice that the tourists in front of me were speaking a very familiar language... They were Japanese tourists! This was the first time I'd ever seen Japanese people in Europe! They were these two guys, a little older than me, walking back down the stairs as well.

I wanted to talk to them and practice a little, but had no idea what to say and was too shy. I couldn't help but stay pretty close behind them, though, both excited to be able to hear the language and trying to come up with an excuse to talk to them. At one point, they stopped in the staircase fairly suddenly, and I accidentally sort of bumped into one of them. I reflexively excused myself in Japanese, and they both whipped around, looking at me and behind me in shock. They looked so intense that I was too embarrassed to say anything else haha (d'oh!) They probably thought they were hearing things because they just kept going...

I never got the courage to say anything else to them. But I was disappointed in myself for not just throwing myself out there and I learned my lesson - next time I noticed a Japanese person was near me, and forced myself to be courageous and trying talking to them. It went great, and I'm actually friends with them now!

Anyway, that's my small taste of Germany with the city of Cologne. And that ends my epic journey of summer 2010! I've actually been back in the states for over a month now, and so I quickly learned how hard it was to blog while abroad. But I'm glad I was able to take some pictures and share some of my experience for you guys.

Looking forward to new adventures! :D

Drama Review: Last Friends

Whoooaaa. This drama is inteeense. I hadn’t heard much about this previously, but from the little impression I had gotten, I didn’t think it was something I’d be interested in. A friend of mine was actually the one who really wanted to check it out, so I watched it with her. I ended up really loving this drama, even though it’s completely different from any other drama I’ve watched. There are pretty tough themes at hand: abuse, homosexual/transsexual identity, rape. While it is a very serious drama and it does have its crazy moments, however, generally I wouldn’t say it’s completely dark and depressing throughout. There were a lot of laughs, a lot of gasps, and it was an overall enjoyable watch.

Michiru (Nagasawa Masami) is a girl who has a rough home life with her mother and decides to move in with her beloved boyfriend, Sousuke (Nishikido Ryo). Around the same time, she runs into an old high school friend of hers, Ruka (Ueno Juri), a tomboyish girl who is living with her cheerful friend Eri (Mizukawa Asami) in a house together. Michiru’s move in with her boyfriend does not go as smoothly as she would have hoped, as he proves to be both mentally and physically abusive. Meanwhile, Takeru (Eita) enters into the picture, a kind and gentle – and seemingly homosexual – guy who has a dark past of his own. Through twists of circumstances, Takeru, Michiru, and Emi’s friend Ogurin (Yamazaki Shigenori), all end up living together with Ruka and Eri. But the drama isn’t over yet – Sousuke has not given up on Michiru, Ruka realizes that she is in love with Michiru, and overlapping love triangles arise in this emotionally intense story.

I was impressed by many of the actors, namely Ryo and Juri. They had tough characters to play, and they weren’t too dramatic with their personas while still being effective – in fact, I believe they were the only two who got acting awards for this drama, and I definitely agree, as their performances were great. The characters all had nice chemistry, which is very important as this drama is primarily about friendship (hence the name). The plot was very interesting and the storytelling was great and kept you hooked. The serious themes were a nice change of pace from other dramas I watch, and I liked the fact that there were also many happy moments in the series to balance it out.

Sometimes I couldn’t stomach the drama very well as it occasionally went overboard and became unnecessarily melodramatic. Michiru annoyed me a lot; not only was her character generally weak and irritating (the way she would let her boyfriend treat her at the beginning got ridiculous and wasn’t believable to me), but I didn’t find Masami’s portrayal of that particular character very good either.  I have nothing against her, and I do like her in other stuff, so I think it’s mostly the character of this particular role that was the problem. There were many exiting, tense scenes that were very effective, but sometimes it got so dramatic that I had trouble taking it seriously. Not all parts of the plot were played out to the end or explained fully, which always irks me, and while there were some aspects of the ending that I really liked, there were other aspects I wasn’t really satisfied with. While the negative aspects are a factor to consider, however, they didn’t really get too much in the way of my enjoyment of the series.

Ultimately, I feel this is a very particular drama that wouldn’t appeal to everyone but was very well made. The characters and plot were very good, the acting was solid, as were the visuals. I usually like happier or funnier dramas and thus I’d want the serious ones to be exceptional for me to enjoy them, and while Last Friends wasn’t perfect, I still feel it met the mark, and do recommend it if you enjoy its genre.

Tweet Log 9 (April/May)

Continuing my story through tweets... start at the beginning here.

Go back to part 8.
Go forward to part 10.

*~*~*

I also successfully made croquettes (korokke) last night! Two new recipes in one day~ :D

Blog Post: Another way to view Japanese material http://bit.ly/bXqTpc

Finally watched the Kurosagi movie and thus finished the series!! It took, what, 2-3 years? O.o

Just finished watching Mr. Brain! I'm surprised by how much I liked it XD

Just started watching Sunao ni Narenakute (the drama that's about Twitter..?!) So far, I'm really intrigued! (And yay for Jae Joong <3)

School has definitely been piling up and exams are approaching, so it's been harder for me to be active online. Can't wait for summer!

I finally actually watched the last episode of Arashi no Shukudai kun. So sad ;_;

Watched the first episode of Kaibutsu kun and was pleasantly surprised! I thought it was really funny~

May Tweets

Just made pan-fried lemon chicken and Japanese-style stewed eggplants. I can't wait to write about all my cooking adventures! XD

You may have noticed already, but I'll probably be pretty inactive for a little while now - it's crunch time in college world!

Blog Post: Cooking Adventures - Croquettes (korokke)! http://bit.ly/aAed04

Haha, of course the day I say I'm too busy to do anything is the day I put up a new blog. I should go on hiatus more often!

Just finished (re)watching Minami kun no Koibito. Cute show~

College is on break and it gives me a little time to breathe! SRSing it up :D

I went down from a backlog of over 600 to less than 300 in just a couple of days. やった〜！ ^o^

Getting back into learning new kanji. I really want to finish Heisig's first book this summer! Let's see if I can do this! :D

Also working on a new blog post. Expect it later today!

Blog Post: Drama Review of Yukan club! http://bit.ly/bgxxgb

Just finished Yamato Nadeshiko Shichi Henge... what a weird show... XD

My sister's graduating today! Yaaaay! Busy busy~~

Backlog's GONE! Right now I'm at a pace of ten new kanji a day, hope to push that to twenty soon~

Epic Journey of Summer 2010! Part 4 (Holland)

So this blog's about the second part of my trip in Holland! After Amsterdam, we spent a day taking a tour of the countryside that include all the local specialties. Everything was so beautiful and quaint - I really enjoyed it!

They don't call it the land of the windmills for nothing! We saw so many of them, and apparently they serve all different kinds of purposes, such as grinding grain or pumping water. We also saw a lot of more modern ones that convert wind into electricity. They're all over the place!

Our first stop was at a small village that had a small but wonderful tourist attraction: a cheese factory.

It wasn't a very big cabin at all, which just added to its charm, and you actually get to see cheese being made!

The cheese is being melted and churned in that big tub. Lining the shelves are dozens of giant wheels of cheese. It was a pretty impressive process.

And, of course, my favorite part... was samples! I really love cheese in general, but this was something else. Everything was so deliciously rich and creamy, and there were so many different flavors to try out. I think one of my favorites was this smoked cheese, which in the picture is the sausage-shaped one. I was in heaven~

We also got to take a little walk around the village, which was very cute and traditional. There were lots of goats and cows and everything was so green! (This is actually where it started raining a little bit, but honestly, the fact that the weather wasn't too fabulous that day didn't really take too much away from the experience. Everything was still so beautiful!)

Our next stop was a slightly larger town that was right on the cost - I guess a fishing town of sorts? We walked through the streets in order to reach the water. This was a nice little walk in and of itself.

We got to the port and were able to look at the boats for a little bit.

Then we got some lunch from the small stalls along the side of the water. Food straight from the sea! I got some sort of combo that had fish, mussels, shrimp, and so on. I'm not a big fan of shellfish, but I really wanted to try a variety of what they offered! Most of it was fried, so it was kinda greasy, but still very tasty~

After that we were allowed to walk around and shop or whatever until our next little journey. We looked around for some souvenirs and clothes (there was even a place where you could dress up in traditional Holland garb and take pictures!), but we were more interested in visiting the town itself.

There were canals crisscrossing all over the place, and the houses were all sort of squished together -  these small streets were so quiet and pleasant and pretty.

Kitty! We saw this guy a couple of times, and while he did meow incessantly, he wasn't as angry as he looks here XD

 

 

Walking past the houses, we were basically in their front yard, everything was so close together, and got to see lots of cute makeshift gardens. The architecture is very typically European and was nice to look at too.

 

Nice little church! Also, I couldn't get a clear picture of them, but there were a lot of ducks swimming around in the canals too. I love seeing ducklings trailing after their mother X3 

It was then time to leave, and we went from this town to a small island by boat.

Here's the shot through the window of the boat. Bye-bye, port town!

When we got to the new island, we came to a town that had ridiculously narrow streets. The whole group was practically walking in a single file line, and we could literally just look straight through people's windows if we wanted to. It was so tight and crowded (plus the line was constantly moving) so that I couldn't really even get a picture of anything. It was really cool to see all the houses up close though!

And then, on the other end of the village, we came to our last stop: a shoe-making factory. You know those typical wooden shoes from Holland? Well we got to see how they were made. 

Like a cheese making factory, this was also in a very small building, but we had a lot to see. There were shoes everywhere - both completed and still in-process. 

Here's the worker showing us how it's done. See those rows and rows of shoes above him? While I'm sure the shoes were made by hand a long time ago, now they're made with these really interesting (and loud!) machines.

The shoes were cut, sculpted on the outside, then the inside, and smoothed out. There were wood chips flying everywhere and it was really fascinating to watch a shoe being made, start to finish, in a matter of five-ten minutes.

And that was the end of our trip! We took the tour bus all the way back to the city and went back to the hotel tired yet content. I really felt like I saw a lot of Holland, both the key city of Amsterdam, as well as its rural areas, and truly fell in love with the country. Definitely wouldn't mind going back (and having some more cheese!)

The last blog post will be about a quick stop that we had in Germany. My tales of my summer journey will soon come to a close. Hope you're finding them interesting!~

Tweet Log 8 (March/April)

Continuing my story through tweets... start at the beginning here.

Go back to part 7.
Go forward to part 9.

*~*~*

Blog Post: Lang-8, Looking Back and to the Future! http://bit.ly/8YU4VB

Went to karaoke last night. I suddenly realized I can read Japanese lyrics on the screen with little to no problem - makes me happy :)

Question: If I bought a PS or PS2 game in Japanese, would it still work on my American PS3? Or is it just PS3 games that are compatible? ^-^

もうすぐだよ！ | Lang-8 http://lang-8.com/21498/journals/401250 #lang8

Backlog's down to 150! And Spring Break's coming, so I'll have more time to spend on Japanese! :D

Just got back home for spring break, and waiting on my bed was my shipment of manga from Japan - the whole series of 「よつばと」! やった!!!

Yosh! So this spring break I plan to try a bunch of recipes out! I need to learn to cook~ :D Recipe 1: Tamagoyaki!

http://twitpic.com/18cobf - Tamagoyaki was a success! おいしかった！I think I might actually blog about my cooking adventures~~ XD

Blog Post: Cooking Adventures - Tamagoyaki! http://bit.ly/dyeQoU Alright, trying this new food section out :D

Almost done with the second volume of よつばと and it feels amazing to be able to zip through it like that with no problem following. So fun! :D

Finally reached the double digits in my kanji backlog!! So close to the goal and will finally be able to learn new ones in earnest ^o^

Made Yakisoba for the first time last night, and it was pretty tasty if I do say so myself~ XD

I WILL get this backlog down within the next few days >:D Also, finished RTK lesson 32~♪

Finished lesson 33~ I think I'll still keep my kanji to 10 cards a day for a little bit though... School makes things to difficult ><

Spring Break is coming to a close... *sob* But it's been a fairly efficient week, especially when it comes to Japanese and cooking! :D

Blog Post: Drama Review: My Girl http://bit.ly/9yCvKN Such a cute drama ^o^

春休みの料理 | Lang-8 http://lang-8.com/21498/journals/421330 #lang8

I'm so sad Arashi no Shukudai kun is over... Although I'm excited for the new Arashi show that's coming up :)

Finished Lesson 35 of RTK :D Might be hard to keep up with it in the next couple of weeks due to midterms, though... がんばります！ ><

I only have one episode left of Bloody Monday (season 1)! Such an intense and exciting show O.o

There! Finished Bloody Monday. Overall I thought it was great, can't wait to write a review... looking forward to watching the second season

April Tweets

Reached Kanj 1300 :) And working on an essay and studying for two midterms next week... Always a balancing act...

Blog Post: Tweet Log 5 http://bit.ly/br9Njh

http://twitpic.com/1ce8y7 - Statue of Confucius (I think?) at the temple in Akihabara

http://twitpic.com/1cmj5c - The beautiful green mountains of Shizuoka~

Definitely a little absent this past weekend and coming week... Probably one of my toughest weeks when it comes to school (until finals) ><

What a crazy week! I'm behind on a lot of stuff, but now I can start getting back into the flow of things :) Expect a new blog pretty soon~

Backlogs grow so damn quickly XD But this is probably the fastest I've been at getting it back down! *chips away* ♪ https://twitter.com/CultureQuirk/status/12111049255

Sea World | Lang-8 http://lang-8.com/21498/journals/443434/Sea-World #lang8

Made an improvised attempt at Okonomiyaki! And, surprisingly, it tasted great! ^o^

Epic Journey of Summer 2010! Part 3 (Holland)

Even though I go to Europe every year to visit family, I rarely actually visit Europe as a tourist and haven’t really seen that much of it (for the record, I’ve been to France, Italy, and Belgium many times, but have rarely been anywhere else). So this year we decided to do something different and travel within Europe for a change.

And so we made our trip to Amsterdam. I’d been to the Netherlands (or Holland) before, but mostly it was just passing through, and I never got to get a good feel for it. Now, however, I can safely say I’ve seen quite a bit of Holland and really enjoyed it! ^o^

What’s nice about Europe is that everything’s relatively close together; the drive to Amsterdam was only a couple of hours from my grandparent’s place in Belgium. We didn’t stay in the city itself – and speaking of which, I would not recommend driving in the city if you go there. We stayed near the airport and took a train from the airport to the city center. I thought this was a great system, and Amsterdam is small enough that you can visit most of it by foot.

The train station itself in Amsterdam was really cool so I took a quick shot.

When we got there, I was shocked by how beautiful the city was!

I’m not really much of a city person in general, but this one was really great. Very typically European small streets that are just pleasant to walk through and look around, lots of cool buildings and famous structures...

 Seriously, there were just SO many beautiful things to see. One of the things that really makes the city so pretty is the water. One must remember that originally Amsterdam was famous for its giant port.

There are so many boats all over the place!

And we can see these waters all throughout the city in the form of about a hundred kilometers worth of canals. They criss-cross through the entire city so that you're almost always walking next to a body of water, and there are many opportunities to take a boat ride through these water ways.

And alongside these canals is something else that is a very typical part of Amsterdam...

Bikes. There are bikes ALL over the place. Like I mentioned earlier, you probably don't want to do much driving within the city. Most of the vehicles we saw were buses, trucks, and whatnot. Other than that, people either take the trams, or use their bikes to travel. There are even entire parking lots just for bikes!

Apparently this lot holds over a million bicycles. Good luck finding yours if you park there. And something that made me chuckle...

Traffic lights just for bikes. Just goes to show how important they are in this city XD

Something that's really peculiar and interesting in Amsterdam - although maybe not kid-friendly - is the red light district. I didn't get many pictures of the area because I felt a little awkward taking any, even though it's surprisingly a relatively normal part of the city.

So this district is a pretty sizable part of the city that's found basically in the center of it. There isn't any kind of barrier or dramatic change of scenery, you're just walking through the streets and then start thinking 'hmmm... interesting signposts..." Of course, we only went through during the day, and I'm sure it's a much more different atmosphere at night.

Nevertheless, you can still very much tell that you're in the red light district when you get there. Even though it was daytime, we saw a lot of scantily-clad girls posing in windows like moving mannequins. I was personally kind of disturbed by this simply because I wasn't expecting it, but it was also kind of interesting. I didn't feel threatened or anything, and no one was outside or loud or in your face about it. It was just kind of... there, and completely normal. Honestly, if you're old enough and not easily offended, I would sort of recommend checking this area out - it really is a curious part of town.

Other than that we also saw lots of vegetation! Quaint gardens...

 

With... stone iguanas? XD

We even had the pleasure of coming across a flower market and going through a long street of flower stands.

 

And finally, one of the things I found great about Amsterdam is how liberal and open they are - we saw so many different shops and restaurants and whatnot that featured cultures from all over the world. We visited the mini "China-town" (and even though there's plenty of Asian stuff scattered all over the city, this street was definitely focused on Asia). There was even a little Chinese temple.

 

It might have been a little touristy (I wouldn't know, I've yet to have gone to China), but it was still a nice, quiet moment to enjoy something a little different.

 So there you have it, a very quick look at the beautiful city of Amsterdam. We were so lucky when it came to the weather and had an awesome time - if you are ever in the neighborhood, I definitely think it's a place worth visiting!

In the next post I'll be talking about the more rural parts of Holland where I also had an amazing time! That'll be coming soon~