My trip to Osaka and the USJ January 3rd-January 6th

On the 3rd of January 2019 I met up with Marion at Tsurumi Station to go to her host family. That day we actually did nothing but lazing around and sleeping. In the evening Marion, me, her host mother and two other exchange students had dinner while watching 'Frozen' (or as the translated Japanese title is: Ana and the Princess of Snow). Watching this movie was actually a big mistake because we all started a heated discussion over Frozen's magic's logic. For example, if Ana (Anna?) gets hit by her sister's ice powers and her hair turns white, why not her eyebrows as well? And in the end she freezes but her clothes as well? Doesn't make any sense. Contra: It's magic, Elsa's eyebrows are also dark, not white. This went on for the rest of the movie. 

The next day was as unspectacular as the one before, we mosly slept and read manga. In the evening though, Marion and I took the train to Yokohama. There we took a bus at 11pm which would drive us all the way to Osaka. Our seats were almost in the very back plus curtains made sure that no one could look through any window. In this enclosed space it was no wonder that I got motionsick. I tried to sleep it off but at 3 in the morning it got so bad I had to throw up into a plastic bag. I felt better after that but still not very peachy. We arrived in Osaka at around 8 in the morning and had to wait for a while until we could go in. As the gates were finally open, people actually started to run! Marion and I though were pretty relaxed. The first attraction we went to was the Minion Land. It was some kind of village, full of minions and cute stuff. We got on a 4D ride which was not the best decision because I got really sick and dizzy, motion sickness still lingering in my stomach. Since we didn't have a proper breakfast, we got something at a restaurant (you'll see what in the gallery). After that we strolled around (I still didn't feel great) and did what we wanted. There was a Spiderman 4D ride (Pretty cool and realistic), Jaws, Jurassic World (we didn't go on the Flying Dinosaur), Charlie Brown and Snoopy, Hello Kitty, the Sesame Street... The best thing of all, you might have guessed it already, was Harry Potter. They built a small section of the Hogsmeade village and even built a Hogwarts Castle! The shops were all named after ones like in the HP franchise, like Olivander's, The three broomsticks, etc. You could by souvenirs and merchandise. People bought like crazy and many got a full Hogwarts uniform, cloaks, scarves, wands. Even Marion bought a wand (Sirius Black)! I thought it was too expensive (a cloak was like 14.000 Yen, about 120EUR) so I only got some small stuff for myself (a file), Taka (Notebook) and my sister (I won't say because she also reads this blog...maybe). For my host family I brought waffles in form of Minions.  The special attraction was the roller coaster thingy in the Hogwarts Castle and we literally waited for about two hours to get on a 5 minutes ride. Worth it. It felt like we were on a broom with Harry, playing Quidditch and escaping dragons. It was really cool. As it was dark, the castle was illuminated and it was beautiful. We ate dinner at another restaurant and then at around 8.20pm went to the bus station. The bus for Yokohama departed at 8.40pm and we arrived in Yokohama at around 5 in the morning, dead tired (I felt Pretty good though, no throwing up, sleeping through the whole bus drive). In the afternoon of the 6th I finally returned home after this long journey. Pics in the gallery!

December 30th-January 1st

Even though this event starts in December I want to consider it as an entry for January. 
In the morning of December the 30th my host family and I took the Shinkansen to Mishima and the train to Numazu to visit the grandmother. It is close to the Mt. Fuji so you could see it very clearly and so much bigger than from Yokohama! After eating lunch, my host sisters and I went to Karaoke for a few hours and had a lot of fun! In the evening some friends came over for dinner.  The next day I stayed back at home and helped my host mom and grandmother to make the おせち, the traditional Japanese New Year's cooking. It was very interesting and fun to help! In the end we had Datemaki, Kuromame, Kamaboko, Konbu Maki, Soba, Mochi, Nabemono, Game-ni, Namasu and more! It is normally eaten on the New Year's day, so on the 1st of January. They all have special meanings, like Soba for a long life, Lotus root for wisdom or Kuromame for health. Everything is packed into jubako, some kind of lunch boxes that look a bit like Bento boxes. Here you have to watch out for the arrangement because the order of the boxes is important. While preparing the food the TV was on, playing different New Year's programms. I noticed one particular thing about them. They. Are. LONG. Like 3 hours and more! Who watches all of that? 

In the evening some other friends of the family , mother with son and daughter, came over and we all ate the Nabemono while watching the Japanese 紅白 (lit. red and white) programm.It's is a singing Competition between a red and a White team. The colors red and white can be seen everywhere during New Year's, even in the food. It was interesting to watch but I didn't know every artist and definitely didn't understand most of it. BUT the  friend's daughter, Moeka, is also a big Kpop fan, and a BTS fan. Together we watched a live stream of a Korean New Year's TV programm, with many of my favorite Kpop groups! EVEN BTS SANG 'MIC DROP'! We were fangirling and dancing and singing and drooling all over them. In addition Moeka informed me of the newest Kpop news, Jimin from BTS published a new solo song! And I didn't hear anything about it because for these 3 days I didn't have any WiFi! 

Surprisingly the friends didn't stay over the countdown into the new year? They left at 11.45pm. And suddenly everyone was getting ready for bed? So to make it short. I did my personal countdown in the bathroom and started 2019 with a shower.

On New Year's Day my host mom, host dad and oldest host sister took me to a shrine for the first prayer. We also drew Omikuji and I even got 'Great Fortune'! After that we went to the cemetery to the great-grandparents' grave and after that we drove to the sea. Only to take some pictures because the weather was great (yet cold) and you had a beautiful view, Mt. Fuji in the background. 

In the evening we all ate leftovers from the previous day, and of course the おせち for dinner, even though I didn't get to eat everything because later my host mom and I went back to Yokohama. She had work and I was going to go to...Osaka!

Pictures in the gallery!