Instagram Magic: Heidelberg I

, a photo by Chisa2010 on Flickr.

Yesterday was the first "Schlossbeleuchtung" this year in Heidelberg. Thousands of people come together at the other side of the Neckar river to get a good view of the fireworks.
I ended up squashing myself in the tram like I used to in Tokyo. It was great in an odd way! The other passengers complained all the way to downtown. And then I waited on the other bridge to get a view of the fireworks, which were nice an all (especially when the castle slowly 'burned down'), but as I'm used to other one hour long fireworks in Japan, it was a rather short pleasure.
Sadly, I'm no good in taking pictures of fireworks, hence only pictures with daylight.

Romantic Bohemian

Romantic Bohemian by Chisa2010 featuring clutch handbags

Tsumori Chisato draped dress,
Sue Wong shimmer dress,
Dries Van Noten cotton blazer,
TOMS pale pink shoes,
Dazed Dorothy clutch handbag,
Floral jewelry, 


I just found Polyvore, another website that helps us girls to play around and make nice collages of things we'd like to own.  I just erased the price tags, because it made me feel rather nauseous.  Be assured that I am absolutely not able to buy such things, especially since I am more broke than ever. But still - a girl can dream. 
And I like all colors and girly clothes. And maybe, maybe, someday I'll finally earn some money. Hopefully someday soon. 

Japan Archives: Glimpses of Old Tokyo

Indeed, earthquakes, fires and Pacific War bombings haven't spared much of Edo (the old name for Tokyo) for the tourist to see. And even without natural and man made catastrophes, original houses are made of wood and the humid summers in Japan tend to dissolve wood very fast. That's another reason the main sanctuary of the famous shrine of Ise is rebuild every 20 years. Private houses aren't getting very old either if the financial situation allows it. The house in the picture above isn't very old, even though it looks like it. It was situated in Ikebukuro Honmachi, the part of Tokyo where I lived last year in March. 
  It was a harsh lesson for me, when I first came to Japan. I expected way more old buildings and shrines and temples than I actually could see with a first glance. And I guess that's a disappointment for many western travelers. But we Europeans are rather spoiled with old downtown sceneries (even though it is sad to think of the wars that have left so many European cities in rubble). And the second glance is worthwhile in Japan! Wandering about you can see so many little treasures and the new architecture doesn't even need to be seen as nuisance either. Rather, newest Japanese architecture tries to combine the best of old and new! (Please, don't kill me Prof. X!! I'm not using "tradition" and "modernity" as keywords...)  Let's have a look. 

Mitaka is a lovely outskirt area of Tokyo, where the soul of Edo lingers on. Some of you might know that it is the place of Studio Ghibli - at least the museum can be visited here. (Studio Ghibli: Maybe the most famous animation studio of Japan, comparable to Disney. Famous characters: Totoro, Nausicaä, Kiki, Mononoke, Howl, Ponyo) The day I visited last year was rather cold and rainy and nothing much was going on. But I loved the atmosphere the little village amidst a megacity breathed. There is some traditional trade along the road and one can eat soba (buckwheat noodles), manjû and other tasty stuff. 

This is a picture of the infamous Kabuki za theatre (well, a part of it anyway) at the infamous Ginza street. Sadly, it was demolished shortly after my visit last year. There had been some concerns about earthquake safety, which cannot be taken lightly in Japan, as the "Big Northern Catastrophe" (the 'official' name for the Earthquake/Tsunami/Nuclear Catastrophe so far in Japanese Media) has shown. The last rebuilding had been in 1950, after the War. This building style was called "baroque Japanese revivalist style" as one can guess from the details, but used western building technics to keep it "fire safe". (the original building in that style was finished around 1924.)

Another great and breathtaking example for new and old architecture in Tokyo is the Hama Rikyu garden. I love it there especially in spring during plum and peach blossom time (March). In the center of the park lies this tea house where you are served Japanese green tea in old style. There is no furniture in the tea room itself, and one has to kneel/sit on mats while being served matcha tea in a big bowl with a Japanese candy. The Hama Rikyu Garden ponds are connected to the Sumida River and have a tide. It remains the last Edo-style garden in Tokyo and I strongly recommend it for travelers in Tokyo.

This pagoda can be found in the Ueno Zoo, the only Zoo in the center of Tokyo. For Germans this zoological garden seems rather sad and way too small for all the animals imprisoned inside. Even though the zoo has tried to build better facilities for their animals as there isn't much room in the midst of Tokyo to begin with, this is an arduous task. Obviously a pagoda doesn't belong to a zoo. It belongs to a temple or shrine. And the best places to find such buildings in Tokyo are Ueno park and - not far off - Asakusa. Next to the zoo lies the Tôshôgu Shrine, where this pagoda belongs to.

 Normally this door stands open, but the Tôshôgu Shrine is undergoing renewal, that will last five to ten years (!) as I was told by a monk. (Every time I visit Japan I'm astonished by the doors the Japanese language can open.) So the main building is packed up in a big storehouse and can't be seen anymore. That wasn't a big problem for me as I've visited this Shrine a lot during my one year long stay, but I kind of felt sad for the tourists who were swarming about in Tokyo last year. When I lived in Japan 2005/2006 tourists from Europe or America were still scarce or at least not that common as opposed to last year, where "white people" (hakujin) were everywhere. Somehow that bugged me as I loved to be exotic when traveling in Japan.

That's a little Inari-Shrine (Fox Shrine) in Ueno, which I totally adore. Can you see the fox statures? Since I came to Japan for the first time and lay my eyes on shrines like these, I'm convinced that my "animal spirit" is a fox. I don't really believe in such mumbo jumbo, but still...who knows? The Fox is a very interesting figure in Japanese folklore and religious beliefs. It combines good and bad traits and while the shrine honors the inari as being the one that promotes fertility (especially for rice! For humans there are less ...subtle ways to promote fertility), the foxes in folktales tend to be mean and insidious. Which somehow connects to the European belief of the fox as a cunning and shifty fellow. 

I'll be back with "Glimpses of Old Tokyo" soon. Meanwhile let me emphasize my copyrights on this pictures. Please don't post them anywhere else without my permission and naming of the source. Thank you. 

Working

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Well, I'm so totally stealing this idea, but we all love lists, don't we?
My "June list":
- do my work in a timely fashion: translating Japanese texts and writing job applications (hey, it's fun!)
- take more pictures and play with instagram
- make a blog schedule and write every day !
- leave lovely comments on lovely blogs
- find more followers (I should write this solely for my own happiness, but still - who wouldn't want to find a place in the bloggosphere? )
- buy the missing manual for building websites to get better in blogging
- do more creative writing (I'm currently writing a short story)
- do more crafty projects (I'm currently knitting a chunky scarf even though it is summer; I'm also crocheting coasters, granny squares and flowers)
- and write about those projects here! With pictures!
- maybe provide an DIY-project on this blog?? (How would you like that??) But I have to warn you: I'm a total beginner at this. Still - let's have fun!
- celebrating my 2X- birthday!!! Yay, another year that past.

Greetings - have a lovely weekend!

Instagram Magic!

, a photo by Chisa2010 on Flickr.

As I'm fairly new to the bloggosphere and all things App-related I just wanted to set up an account where I can share my finest pics with you. I haven't really used Instagram till now because I "only" own an iPod touch (even though it is the newest version) and cannot really connect to the Internet while being on the move. But I think I am able to work it now.
This is the Rainbow Bridge in Downtown Tokyo. I really love the 'old touch' Instagram provides.

End of May Day

Meet Bob - a rather shy fellow (he's a Maikäfer the German word for cockchafer which literally means May's beetle)

My dog (a tibet terrier - you just have to love this gentle and charming breed!) is trying to hide from the heat. 

Burg Eltz at the River Mosel is just a typical German medieval castle ---with a crane. Totally normal. 

After all this heat a little bit of rain isn't bad at all.  Double Rainbows are free of charge. 

So today was the last day of a sunny and rather hot May. Let's make a list and summarize:

- I had a lovely picnic with friends and the friends of said friends in the castle park in the middle of Karlsruhe. The place was swarming with maikäfer/ cockchafer and I absolutely had to get some pictures. In my home area of Germany those beetles are not existing anymore. Or at least when I was a kid there was no beetle to be found. Must have been the pesticides.

- I got to spent a long weekend with my parents at the river Mosel - a famous area for wine in Germany. My parents actually purchased quite a wagon load full and I got to do some test drinking as well. Not that I'm drinking that much alcohol. Ever. But it was quite delicious and it is a wonderful landscape. I actually got to see the castle Eltz, which I've been hoping to see for quite some time now. But sadly, as a German, you actually tend to forget your own country when traveling around.

- Last weekend I spent with wonderful people doing a creative writing workshop with an actual author! She was fabulous and we had quite the blast doing some writing exercises about "showing not telling" or "inner voice". Now I wish I'd joined the creative writing course earlier in my life. But it was always serious - meaning academic - writing for me up till now. (And I actually have been wanting to start a blog for quite some time now. But as we all now, this is time consuming writing as well...)

- Today I had another workshop about "self marketing". You know we Germans love crazy english vocabulary. (But Japanese are worse.) Well, I learned quite a bit and I can announce proudly that I am a yellow person, not a blue one. Thank god. No, really, I think this helped me quite a lot for my job hunt and my self presentation during job interviews.

- And: I actually got a job offer yesterday! It is just a hour based student job - so nothing all too special. It is with a popular shop brand that specializes in fake jewellery and I am a girl that loves everything sparkly. I may actually be liable to special prices once working there...

- But: I've got an inflamed wisdom tooth since friday and it is killing me. It just hurts so bad. I've been to the dentist twice already, but she can't do much. I'm sitting here with an ice pack to the side of my head - that's about as much as I can do. If it is getting worse I may end up taking penicillin, which I really don't wanna do, because my body functions (especially my stomach) totally crash if I swallow such stuff. Normally my body has amazing healing powers, but this tooth is very stubborn, too. I will have it removed as soon as it doesn't hurt anymore...

Aims for next month:
I definitely need to figure some columns out for this blog. Some more. And I need to create a schedule for writing more regularly. I really like writing here and I hope you find some pics and stories to your liking as well.
See you in June!

What I just found

I just browsed through my external drive, which I can't really use anymore as I switched from Windows to OS X last year. Well, obviously I could use it if I were willing to delete everything on it. But I'm not going to delete 6 years worth of photographs, Japanese television series and my master thesis just now. I bought a new terabyte external drive anyway.
  Well, I found a folder with scans of some of my characters. Please forgive my scanners lack of ability to scan properly. I drew those little character studies mostly during classes, when I was still a high school student. Psst, don't tell my teachers! You can see my sign at the corners and the year in which I drew them. Those three pics where drawn in 2001 and 2002, when my ability to draw manga characters was at its highest. I graduated in 2002 and went off to university to become a serious student. At some point I stopped drawing all together - I'm regretting that now. I lost 8 years of practice here!
Occasionally I'll start a picture or some forms with color only, but I soon realize that I'm lacking my feeling for the ART. Will it come back to me?
  Well, I try to develop my skills further and I don't want to get caught up in the "Manga trap" too much. So I tried other styles as well. But the Japanese influence is too strong I dare say. The last picture I'll show you today is from 2006, where I was deeply in love with Japanese Kimono. (Which I am to this day...)