Daydreaming Diaries

And finally I'm back from spending Christmas in Kobe and New Year in Kumamoto together with my boyfriend and his father.
Well, first of all - I hope all of you had a great Christmas and a good start into 2011.

On 22nd I rode the bus from Nagoya station to Kobe Sannomiya bus terminal [again], waited a while for my boyfriend picking me up, had dinner together with him. Actually on Christmas didn't happened that much.

On 23rd my boyfriend didn't had to work because it was holiday in Japan - so we went out. The usual stuff like riding the train or subway to Sannomiya and actually doing nothing. haha.
On 24th - he had to work, so I spent a day doing some Japanese exercises, writing e-mails and phoning with my sister in Germany via Skype until he came back home in the evening and took me out for a special dinner since it was Christmas day and I didn't want to spend Christmas at Yoshinoya's or something like this.
But before taking me out for dinner, we went to Sannomiya after trying not to be seen by someone of his company - like always when I'm visiting him. Well, let me explain.
Before leaving the house, he's looking up and down the streets in front of the building he's living in next to his company, if there is someone, who could see us walking there together. after realizing there's no one, he 's stopping closed to his company looking into the windows, if there is someone working right now in the room seen by the street. If there's no one everything is fine. If there is someone inside this room he's taking my hand and running across the street hoping not to be seen by the guy in the room or another guy may opening the front door at this moment.
Gosh... I always feel very bad about this. It's like I'm just making troubles even if I'm just visiting him at the weekend. Whatever. That's not what I wanted to talk about.
In the evening he took me out for dinner. We had Shabu-shabu and I loved it! The meal I love the most until this day was Yaki-niku because it made much fun frying the meat and vegetables while eating and talking with my boyfriend, but Shabu-shabu is much more fun. Sorry, I'm really a child regarding this. haha.

On 25th we finally went to Kyoto. We planned to visit the Ginkakuji and the Byodo-in, but just visited the Byodo-in because it was damn cold! It even started snowing.

Byodo-in is a very old buidling also printed on the back side of the 10-Yen coin.

On 28th [26th - 27th aren't interesting at all] we took the bus to Hakata station [Fukuoka], which took about 10 hours. Usually you're served some green tea, a blanket and at least a more comfortable bus than the one we had this time. There was neither tea nor blanket and it was very cold so I had much more problems trying to sleep in the bus than usually. and as I already told you a hundred times I just can't sleep riding a bus, car or train even for about 10 hours - but this time it was horrible - at least me boyfriend was sitting next to me.

On 29th we finally arrived at Fukuoka in the morning had a coffee and a small breakfast at the station, took a shower at a Internet-Cafe, drunk something and relaxed a few hours before hitting the road to the "Dazaifu-shrine" meeting up with a friend of my boyfriend and buying some Omamori for studies.
After this, we went to a meeting of people of different ages at a German meeting hold somewhere in Fukuoka. There we met some friends of him, some German teachers of his University in Saga and I also met some people I met once in Germany when I met my boyfriend for the first time about 3 years ago. It was great to see them again and talk to them. At least a little bit.
When the meeting ended some - well almost everyone went to a bar drinking, eating and talking until the first people started going back home while the ones, who didn't had a possibility for sleeping in this night because it already was too late for a train or they just didn't lived closed to Fukuoka - like me and my boyfriend - spent the night at a Karaoke bar except me. I was able to sleep at a friends place in Fukuoka, because I already was too tired to spent a night doing karaoke.

On 30th we finally arrived in Kumamoto at my boyfriend's father's place after riding the train for about 80 minutes.

On 31st we spent a day lying in the Kotatsu followed by spending New Year's night at a shrine in Kumamoto together with a friend.
Well, in Germany New Year's day isn't spent like in Japan. Most young people just meet up somewhere in the evening, drinking a lot of alcohol, eating [sometimes] and making some cheap supermarket fireworks in front of their houses. In Japan people are visiting temples and shrines ringing a big bell while thinking about something you'd like to happen in the new year or wishing something.
That's also what we did at this night followed by buying a Omikuji letting us tell our luck for the New Year.

---2011---

On 1st I went to another temple together with my boyfriend and his father. But because this one was located on a mountain it was very snowy. haha. But it looked very pretty and because I love snow I really liked it there.



Doesn't it look beautiful, somehow?
After visiting this place we went back home baking German Pretzels because I was in mood of eating one. So my boyfriend decided to make them by ourselves.
Well, they didn't looked very beautiful, but were very delicious!




On 2nd my boyfriend and I went shopping for Fukubukuros in Kumamoto.
Fukubukuros are lucky or mystery bags sold on the 2nd January every year in several shops - especially clothes and make-up shops.
There are a lot of different types of Fukubukuros offered but the most typical ones are the ones sold for about 10,000 JPY.
It works like this, you're buying one or as many Fukubukuros as you want, but you won't open them until you arrived at home or meet up at a special place together with your friends, wither you're lucky, very lucky or less lucky regarding the clothes or stuff inside your bought bag. If you're going shopping for those bags together with your friends, you're able to deal some things after you opened your bags.
Well in our case, we were lucky I guess - my boyfriend bought one for about 10, 000 JPY containing of a very strange jacket, some trousers [I don't like them at all. haha], some very handsome cardigans and zippers he really needed since he had a lot of strange clothes I think. haha.
Regarding the ones I bought, I was very lucky I think. I bought two Fukubukuros for about 5000 JPY each, containing of a jacket, a great coat, a great cap, some useful shirts, sweater, a lovely cardigan and some great shorts. I really love the stuff I got. haha.