Goodbye 2012 – Best Of Memories.

wow, we’ve already made it this far. We survived this year’s apocalypse and a lot of other crappy things and soon we’ll have to write 2013 on our paper sheets and change the calenders. I want to use this to look back on a year that has been very special for me in a form of a monthly review of the most important events of that month for myself.

In January, I had an amazing New Year’s Eve with my best roommate and my friends from Italy on a boatstrip in Yokohama. My roommate and I also went to the Onsen (hot springs) in Hakone for the first time as a reward for passing all our Japanese exams. Shortly after that, fall term ended and we had the last days with our friends who only stayed for one term in Japan to study.

February was pretty exciting because I went home to Germany after being abroad for about half a year. I really really needed to see my boyfriend, family and friends at that time! I don’t really have any pictures from that month because I was too busy meeting all my friends 🙂 I made a Kigurumi party with one of my best friends Susann and when we got bored, we decided to try out the so called Gyaru Mamba Style XD I hope she’ll forgive me that I posted this picture because we just look HILARIOUS. We just got bored and had enough make-up to make this happen, was such a good night! :’D 

March was the time of visitors for me and my roommate. Her best friend Sushi came to visit for a week; our friend Alex came to visit us for some weeks and our best friend Susann also came and we lived in a hostel with her for two weeks. It was really exhausting but a reaaally good time having all these friends visit us in Japan. Also, I dyed my hair pink for the first time! 🙂

In April, not only unversity started again after a 2 month break but it was also SAKURA PERIOD in Japan. Gosh, how beautiful that was. Pachi and I didn’t go for university for 2 weeks because we simply HAD to go to every Sakura hotspot there was. You really need to be there to get the whole atmosphere. I have to say this was a really special time for me as well as for my roommate 🙂 Beginning of spring always has a lot of magic.

I don’t have much pictures from May and I guess we were simply busy with university. One event happened though that I’ll never ever forget: I had my very first musical visit! Pachi and I went to see The Lion King musical! I wanted to see that musical for like forever and it was soooo extremely well done. Loved it. Tickets for students were, despite Germany, only about 30$ which was the main reason we went 🙂

A lot of events happened in June. The most important was that I participated in my very first Yosakoi dance festival! It was great and it is something that I treasure until now. Also, we learned to dance the traditional Bon dance, went to the Kabuki theatre and the NHK Broadcast Station as an excursion from university and had a lot of fun.

July was the month of my birthday which made it into a pretty awesome month! Our friend Susann moved to Tokyo in the middle of June so she also was there to celebrate my birthday what made me very happy! Both, Susann and Pachi, made it possible that we went to visit Phantom Of The Opera musical which was the best birthday gift ever!! I wanted to see this musical for ages and was finally able to do so. It also was the last full month that we stayed in Tokyo so we did a lot of shopping and travelling around. But oh, the summer was hot OH SO HOT in Japan. We also had the last courses in Japan and ended with a ceremony in the end of July.

The month of August was the most confusing time for me EVER in my life. I was extraordinarily sad that I had to leave Japan for once and go back to my „regular“ life in Germany. On the one hand, I really missed my boyfriend and all my loved ones, on the other hand I really did not want to go back home because I loved it in Japan. I survived because I definitely now I will be back in Japan a lot of times. I had a lot of goodbye parties and went to a lot of events because we only had 2 weeks left in Japan before going home.  Also, we succeeded with our plan to take 100 sheets of purikura within a year of living in Japan! Once I was home, I tried to adapt again to the German way of living and my bf’s birthday was also just around the corner.

This was the month when I tried to re-adapt to my „normal“ life. Somehow, I had a feeling of not belonging where I am. I might still have that feeling, somewhen. I might speak the language and have lots of bonding with people here but somehow, it’s different. Still home, but different. I tried to get everything back on track and I started working again part-time at a coffee shop. I tried to make up for all the things I missed but failed with no surprise. September was a happy reunion, yet strange month.

Short before university started again I went together on a trip with my sweet little cousin Jacky 🙂 We went together to London and it was such a fun trip! Okay, pretty exhausting too, but I had a great time with her. I fear nothing much to tell more about October, rest of the month was just busy with working and university and working and university.

In November, my boyfriend and I were separated (AGAIN) for 2 months because he went to study elsewhere. This was the time when I first lived on my own!! Wasn’t that special though, most of the time alone I was just lazy like hell. I made a roadtrip together with my bf’s mother to visit him on a small island in the North of Germany which was pretty fun 🙂 I also had a lot of sleepovers at „my“ place; my girls and I made a Disney night and Pachi and I recalled our life in Japan with lots of anime and same lunch as in Japan ^-^

This month has been… strange. Niko came home when Christmas was almost over and I had no Christmas feelings whatsoever. I also had a lot of stress in university since I took JLPT N1 test on 2nd December which went pretty horrible. Still no results though but I’m pretty sure I failed (ALTHOUGH I STUDIED SOOO MUCH. Sick.)  Except for university nothing much happened; I attended 3 different Christmas parties and I was pretty drunk on all of them. My Christmas was kinda nice except for lacking Christmas feelings. I got the time to see my Dad and my little fattie cat which made me really happy. I’m really looking forward for one single shift of work and the final party with all my friends at the end of this exciting, amazing, confusing and exhausting year 2012 🙂

For 2013, I wish to graduate from university. I hope my bachelor thesis will be of great success so that I’ll be able to enter a great master course. I hope I don’t need to work all year in the coffee shop although I love my work. I hope I’ll be able to contribute a lot for my future. I wish to stay healthy for all I love and for myself and I hope for a lot of parties and fun! I wish all what my readers are wishing for might become true in the new year 🙂 Have a good one!

Much love & See you soon,

Sam