Eating Conveyor Sushi

This evening I was with friends in a Treadmill Sushi Restaurant. So here are some pictures to make you jealou... I mean, I just want to show how such a restaurant look from the inside ;)

No waitresses - Just order per Screen :)
After this the food and drinks come via the conveyor ^^
(C) Oliver

So let's start! :D
(C) Oliver

Looks a bit gross at first and it has a jelly consistency
but it tastes good :)
(C) Oliver

My dessert: Milk Cake ^^
(C) Oliver

1st time in the new Mega Store

Yeah! Today I was in the new supermarket in Hodogaya (Yokohama). By the way, the supermarkets in Japan are big buildings like "Kaufland" in Germany or "Wallmart" in America. So you can get nearly everything from there.

Feels like Home ;)

So I took the chance and of course I spend some money. Mostly on food, compared to the normal prices it was a bit cheaper here. And I got finally an original Japanese kitchen knife. Is really awesome to prepare my dinner finally with a sharp knife :D

Everything what I needed and a bit more ;)

Kamakura: Round 2

Entrance of the 1st shrine

Today was again a day for many photos. Because I went with Oliver first into a shrine near his flat and afterwards we went to Kamakura. But let's start at the beginning:

The first shrine near his flat was unexpectedly big. The staircases to the shrine were really long and afterwards we saw that behind the shrine lied a big graveyard. It was Sunday midday and there were no people when we arrived. So we took our time to make photos of every detail in front of the shrine. Some of them are in this post.

We saw this kind of spider today
literally everywhere

Like I saw on other graveyards before, this one was built on a hill, so it was a bit cliffy when we literally climbed up to the top. But again, we had a good view over this place and the ones nearby. We also discovered that you can easily find big and colorful spiders. Okay, when you think about it, we were about the same longitude like the Mediterranean Sea, so it's no surprise you find much more insects and plants than in Germany ;)

On the way down, we met a monk. At first I thought he would say that we did something wrong and we cannot stay here or something like this. Damn prejudices oO He actually just asks from where we come from, because we looked literally like tourists. After a bit smalltalk, he just said that we can take our time. Another proof that Japanese people are really friendly.

Japan: Here wear even statues hats ;)

After visiting the shrine and taking dozens of new pictures, we went to Kamakura or better said North-Kamakura. Like I did before, we visited the famous Engaku-ji. Because we had a really sunny day, I felt like last time when I was here. And it was even better, because I knew this place in general, so I could focus more on the details than orientation like last time. And it was worthy ^^

Finally back again! :)

We visited the front temple area and also some places I didn't knew. Like the national treasure, a bell which seemed to have some sort of meaning besides the name. This is one of the times when I envy a bit the people who studied Japan. Of course, I could read about it but then are so many other things that would make much more fun ;)

National Treasure: The Bell of Engaku-Ji

For lunch, we went into a small but nice restaurant where we got Curry Rice. Did I ever mentioned that I love the Japanese Curry Rice? If not, here it is: カレーライスが大好きです！:D

The beach - Felt like summer ;)

The next station was the beach at Kamakura, so we took the train to the main city. Because we also wanted to visit Hase, a part of Kamakura with the famous Hase-Temple and the Big Buddha Statue, we went along the beach to it. After 20 minutes of watching at the ocean and collecting some big seashells, we were finally there. So first, we went to Hase-Dera (D(T)era = temple).

Didn't noticed this shape last time oO

And before someone asks a stupid question:
This is a symbol of luck and it's origin lies in Buddhism

Again I was impressed by the nature and all the details you can find here. I would really like to visit this in winter again when snow fells. Hope this will happen :)

Entrance to the Cave - even small for Japanese oO

This time I could even make photos in the little cave. Last time, we didn't had much time for this place, but this time was different. I also bought a little written oracle, like you see in the picture. Cannot be bad to have a little support from heaven ;)

Excellent Fortune - The best one you can draw :)
May Kami-sama with us all ^^

So after hours of taking photos and being impressed, we wanted to take a short break. To what better place could we go than an ice cream restaurant? But not just one, Nene-san, one of the employees at Axis Networks, told me that Kamakura is famous for it's Gelato Ice Cream that comes from Italy and is sold in one little restaurant between the Hase-Dera and the Big Buddha Statue. I hope we got the right one ;)

The (famous?) Ice Cream Restaurant

After recovering, we went into some shops and finally to the last station of today, the Big Buddha Statue. As you probably know, there is not much to say about this place. Just the Big Buddha and his shoes :D

Didn't changed that much, didn't it? ;)

Puhhh .. What a day! It really threw me back, because Kamakura was one of the first places I visited in Japan. But I also got so many new impressions. Definitely worth a third and a forth visit :)

Some more impressions:

Statues at the 1st shrine of the day

Just checking if I'm reincarnated ;)

Place for Ceremonies in Engaku-ji (Kamakura)

Feels like summer, ne? ^^

Actually, they selling clothes :D
I like the last words: "We made it", it's a good statement ^^

Entrance of the Temple of Hase

Good Fox Spirits - Looking a bit sneaky ;)

Always posing in photos :)

Just a beautiful statue :D

We waited a looooong time until the train came
and we could take a photo ^^

The lightened one

Statue in the Cave

And here the smaller ones but a few more ;)

Don't go in there with claustrophobia oO

just Beautiful Nature

The (famous?) Gelato Ice Cream
in the flavors Green Tea and Blue Berry

Maybe small Weeping Angels?

At last, again a sample of how beautiful it is in Japan ^^

Contract With The Devil

This day I went with Oliver to Akihabara at first and afterwards we were invited to the Halloween-Party of AIESEC SP. Maruta-san was also there. It was in a little restaurant called "Ultra Café" in Ikebukuro. There we had a little buffet consisting mostly some dishes which seemed to be a mix of western and Japanese food. So much meat, potatoes and rice. If I can remember correctly, unfortunately I didn't make any fotos because my camera was at home.

And this was the last time anyone saw Oliver smiling .....
Ahh, just kidding ;) - (C) Oliver

Anyway, Oliver got his contract with Maruta-san at this party, so he could finally start his work officially the following monday. Actually, I didn't read the contract, so I don't know the price for this. But it seemed very high oO

Thanks for the great evening guys :)
(C) Oliver

The rest of the time, we talked a lot, Oliver and Tsubasa-san did a bunch of pictures and some of us were dressed with some character suits. Whenever Halloween is celebrated in Japan, it's more like Cosplay than the typical costumes. Another good adaption of Japan, I think. You have the costumes anyway, so why not use it on this day too? :D

Actually the video is from another part of Tokyo, but hey why not? Okay, we hadn't this crazy stuff at our party to be honest ;)

Wherever you go, at least one person has a camera ^^
(C) Oliver

To future employers: I just pretend to be drunk
to have a funny picture of me ;)
(C) Oliver

The person in this picture didn't want to be recognized :D
(C) Oliver

Ramen For Dinner

After the work of Axis Networks was over, I hang out with Oliver, the new German intern of the company, and Yuri-san. So what to do? Of course, going into a Ramen restaurant. And like everywhere else, if a restaurant has just one dish, they are doing it propably as the best.

This is how you should cook noodles ;)

So in this restaurant too, which is very popular in Yokohama. Luckily we just had to wait about 30 minutes which is really short for a popular one. And it was totally worth! ^^

おいしいいいいいいい！！！！
Ｔａｓｔｙｙｙｙｙｙｙｙｙｙｙｙｙｙｙ！！！！

Welcome to Japan Oliver! :)
(C) Oliver

Dinner with Axis Networks

This evening I went with Axis Networks, the company of Maruta-san, to an all-you-can-eat buffet in Yokohama. There we had chicken, pork, beef, shrimps, salad, tofu, rice and so on but also some western style food like potato salad :) Of course I ate so much that my stomach nearly bursted :D

1st and 2nd plate ... looks a bit similar, ne? ;)

 The most interesting thing I drank was a vinegar juice. Yeah, you read correct, but it was more sweet than sour. Like a mix of sugar water and a bit vinegar. But anyway, very interesting and to my surprise really tasty ^^

Thanks for the evening!
(C) Oliver

The End ... woaaah the posts getting really short, am I right? ;)

Teriyaki Burger - Japan only

Today, I just went to the Local Committee Meeting (LCM) of AIESEC SP for about 2 hours. I was just there to met some people and to hear  what's new ^^

1st Teriyaki Burger :)

Afterwards I went to the McDonalds near the Ikebukuro Station to eat for the first time the famous "Teriyaki Burger" which is sold in Japan only. It has really a bit taste of Teriyaki but in summary, it's just another Burger, not very special. But hey, that's just my opinion :D

Then I walked about around the streets and saw that many stores and restaurants were already prepared for Halloween.

The End ... yeah, this day doesn't happened so much ;)

Another adaption ^^

Kabuki in Tokyo

Today, I went with Yuri-san to a Kabuki performance in the National Theatre in Tokyo. Kabuki is one of the first styles of Japanese Theatre. If you watch the Kanji of this word, you see it contains singing and dancing. Many of the stories, like the one I saw today, are dramas.

Lunch: Soba and Soaked Tempura

Because we had an ongoing Taifun, it was very hard to get there. After a combination of bus, traffic jams everywhere, finally taking a more than full train and a taxi, we were at the theatre about 1pm. It wasn't perfect, because the Kabuki started already at 12:00am, but we could get inside and wait for the 1st break at 1:30pm. In the meantime, we had lunch which was very delicious as usual by Japanese food ;)

Okay, the soaked tempura wasn't so good, but the rest was ^^ This is really something I cannot understand, why frying something and then put it into soup so it got soaked? oO

The National Theatre

In front of the White Lion

Afterwards we watched the Kabuki. Two different stories were told and it was very hard to understand them even for Japanese, as I was told. The actors spoke with many old words, so not many people didn't know them. Nevertheless, so I could concentrate more on their acting part and it was awesome :) It's fantastic how the actors could get into their roles and play them so good that I actually believed they had the personality they played. Of course the gestures and mimic were very strong and dramatic.

The stories were 一谷嫩軍記 and 春興鏡獅子. Because a translation isn't really possible (for me), I just let the names stand ;) Just in short: The 1st story was like a history of a war. Many actors held long monologues, so it was hard for me to follow the story.

Who had thought that
I would be here? ^^

And I had already missed the first half oO The only thing I really understood was that the main person, a Samurai played by 左團次市川 Sadanji Ichikawa , had to leave his home at the end of the story and to live on as a common.

The actor and his son, who played a female role in this story, are very famous. So people from the audience shouted sometimes their names when they were on stage. Unlike in Germany, this is common in a theatre like I was told afterwards. Another proof for the passion of Japanese people ^^

By the way, there were only male actors, so all female roles were played by men. The second story seemed for me like a fantasy story. In this part the actors danced most of the times, unlike the 1st story with monologues. The most impressing was the actor Sadanji again, because he wore the costume of a white lion. Not the animal, more like a man who became a lion ^^ Both stories are very popular in Japan. So if you want to know the full stories, just search for it :P

Maybe I should search for an apartment? ;)

After the theatre, we went to the Ramen street in the Tokyo Station. Or better said under it ;) Again delicious food, maaaaan ... I will miss Japanese Noodles so much when I fly back to Germany oO

Okay, it's not Ramen :D