Inspiring short travel movie: Sayonara Nippon

Hi dear ones! ^^

Late night-post from me. I should be going to bed, I'm really burned out. I had one of my "thinking days" today, it's when all types of philosophic and depressing thoughts hit my mind at a random moment and I end up thinking about it the whole day. It can be really exhausting to think too much, and my brain just doesn't have an off-button. >.<

Thought I'd share this lovely video from Vimeo. It's called "Sayonara Nippon" (Farewell Japan), and is basically a short movie a guy made after travelling there. This guy obviously is a genius when it comes to movie-making, and he managed to capture all those tiny moments that makes life beautiful :3
Since I'm going to Japan, it's especially fun for me to watch!

Sayonara Nippon

It's uploaded to YouTube as well, but I couldn't find a link to upload it directly on the blog :/
I'm sure you all manage to click on the link, though :D

Let me know what you think of it, or even better, let the creator Kyle Kien know by leaving a comment on YouTube! ^^
Sayonara Nippon on YouTube

We'll try to make a longer post tomorrow, and we'll continue on our "Project: Cool Header". (Everything needs a fancy name these days.)

Oyasumi <3

Thumbs up for self development!

Good evening cute ones!

Sorry for the late post. It was my grandmothers birthday today, so I've been there the whole time ^^

This morning I read my diary. It doesn't stretch far back in history, I started to write in January 2012. But it was fun to see just how much I've changed during the past year! Some parts were a little embarrassing, and I felt like it was written when I was twelve. (How could I even think of that??)
Most of it was interesting and encouraging to read, though. When I read it now, knowing how it all turned out, I'm grateful that I'm not so confused anymore, and that all my worries back then are cleared up.
I couldn't help but notice that even though I was more negative back then, I was strong too. When I think back at all the pain I felt, I'm surprised that the past me didn't complain more.  The past me had accepted that this was a hard time, and she had high hopes for the future. Reading it now is like reading the thoughts of a different person, and I promised myself that I wouldn't let the past me down.
When most people write "Dear Diary", I write "Dear future me". The main reason that I write is for the future me to learn from my mistakes, and to remind myself of my goals.
It really works, and I look forward to read my present diary notes in the future!

My self confidence has grown a lot the past year, and I've learned a bunch of things. I can honestly say that I've become a better person. That inspires me to work even harder so that the future me can look back and think: "I really did my best".

Well then, how am I going to improve myself this year? According to my new year resolutions there a lot of "adjustments" to be made. My main goals are to improve my Japanese, improve my grades, and further develop my personal style.
I think living is about finding yourself, and find out what you are capable of doing!
I need to recite my favorite blogger Rainbowholic on this one: "When you dream, you are halfway there." ;)

Well, enough about the dream-thingy already! I have major expectations for 2013, even though I told myself not to. I'm going to Tokyo and I'll continue to develop this blog!
Gulli and I have big ambitions, and I hope you'll stick with us on the journey! I learn about myself while I'm blogging, and I'm teaching myself to remember everything I come up with, so that you can read original stuff.
It kinda goes automatic now: "Ooh, that sounds interesting, maybe I can blog about that? Or maybe I can blog about this?"

In the near future I plan on more fashion-oriented posts, and why I think fashion is so important in being ourselves! ^.^

Hope you all look forward to whatever I'll come up with! My blog entries are like a peek into my brain, and that place is kinda messy...

Talk to you soon ~

Grand blog ambitions!

Hi everyone! :D

It's been a few days since I posted something. I've been a little burned out, and I had some schoolwork to catch up too. Luckily Gulli has been posting frequently and kept things up and running! ^^

You would think that after a break I would return with an extra inspiring, long and meaningful post.
But no, the gods haven't blessed me with some huge blog-revelation just yet. My brain has been working on some grand ideas, however, they are a bit hard to pull through. (Like most of my ideas.. *sigh*)
But not less it's something I'd really like to do! I spend a lot of time thinking of how to improve the blog, and make it more interesting for you to read! :3
I'll post some of my blog ambitions here, let me know what you think ^^ :

• A new design! The design we have now is pretty cute, but I'd like a special made, more personal design that would fit Sakura Kiss perfectly! Both Gulli and I are hopeless technophobes, so we'll have to find another person fit for the task ^^
• More pictures of me! Once Gulli mentioned to me: "There are so little pictures of you on the blog, the readers hardly know how you look like." I know! I've had some camera complications, but I'll get better and make it a routine, so you at least know who's writing. Right now I seem more like a blogger-ghost, don't I? >.<
• More pictures in general. I've got this habit that I google most of the pictures I use. But I'll try to add more pictures from my daily life, such as clothing, make-up, the things I do, and my surroundings. (Haven't you all longed for your daily weather forecast from Norway?)
• A video blog! This is something Gulli and I have talked about for a long time! Unfortunately, she have just gone to a another town to work at some bakery for two weeks .__.  (The name of the town is Mosjøen; it's a rather depressing place, and NOT on top of your "things to see in Norway"-list.) We'll make one as soon as we can, and maybe, just maybe, I have the courage to make one on my own.
• More fashion! I love fashion, but I don't live in the most fashionable place. Street snaps and such are next to impossible here, so I'll go for more general fashion posts like the Lolita post. I thought I'd also show some more of my own fashion preferences and inspiration sources. 

Would that be to your liking, o great readers? ^.^

Gulli will soon post some snaps from our cafe trip yesterday, so you'll get another chance too see how I look like, haha :D
If you already forgot that, however, I'll post an old pic right now:

Sweet dreams everyone! ^.^

Why I became a blogger

Good evening sweet ones! ^^

Right now I'm typing carefully while I'm waiting for my nail polish to dry. Due to my laziness my nails have been "au nautral" for a while, and since they started to look ugly I decided to cover them up in deep, shiny Aruba Blue :3 It's a shame that I can't be more careful with my nails, once they've gotten long and pretty, I stop protecting them with basecoat and they all break. It's something very elegant and feminine over long nails. I don't like them super long, but just that little tip that makes the fingers look longer and slimmer.
Haha, but really, this post wasn't supposed to be about nails, anyway!

I have something to confess to you guys. I'm not an experienced blogger, and there are many times I don't have a clue of what to write about, and end up on something random. It's a bit frustrating too, cause' I really want to write about something interesting and helpful to my readers.
I also try to blog everyday. Sakura Kiss is still in a beginner phase, so I find it important to maintain a high activity on the blog, and try to fetch new readers ^.^
Lately our page views have been greatly increasing, so I have a good feeling that we will reach our goal together!

You might wonder why I became a blogger in the first pace?
Well, I've always been a girl with a lots of thoughts and opinions on everything, and it's nice to have a place to share it. I'm very fond of languages, different people and cultures, and the world in general, and that's why I love having an international blog! To get the opportunity to write for people all over the world feels amazing, and I get this tingling feeling whenever I see all the different countries our readers are from :3
I get my inspiration from all types of things, and as you may noticed my posts are quite different from each other too. It goes from Lolita fashion to bad days and personal thoughts and dreams.

I'm not sure what you prefer to read about. Maybe I should continue with a lot of different stuff like before to give you variation?  Sakura Kiss was made to be a lifestyle blog after all, so I'll write anything that I think will brighten your day or encourage you. ^^
Hopefully my posts haven't been that bad, and I hope that anyone who have a wish or idea for this blog doesn't hesitate to tell! We'd love to hear from you, even if it's critique :D
------

As for today, my mood has been on top all day! That's because my favorite band Nu'est released the date for their comeback this morning! ^^ 13th of February is already marked off in the calendar with a big heart :3 They haven't released new songs for over a half year now, so I'm aching to hear something new from them.
It's so nice to have the thought spinning in my back head all the time, that I don't think it's possible for me to have a bad day until the song is released! :D
I'll add the music video from their debut song "Face", which happens to be the most played song on my iPod. Watch it in HD!

Sweet dreams <3

Inspiring city life!

Hi sweet readers! ^^

So... Today have been a quite normal, busy day. Left the house at 08.20, returned home at 18.40.
After school I walked to a meeting in the other end of town, and after we were done I went to a cafe/restaurant-thingy with my friend. (I think it's a restaurant, but it's too ugly to be called that.) Afterwards we had to attend something called "dark driving", which is a part of the driver training in Norway. It's basically about us sitting in a car while the teacher/driver asks us questions about the signs we pass, and about how to use the headlights and what distance we should keep from the car ahead and such.
It's even more important to learn in Norway, as it's quite dark, snowy and icy in the winter time.
I'm not stressing about driver training yet though, as I have to turn 18 before I can drive.
To all you readers in the USA, and everyone else who can drive when they're 16; I kinda envy you, but at the same time it's kinda scary. I would never get driven by most 16 year-old's I know! Way too immature to be placed in a driver seat O.O
I don't think I want to start driving soon, either. I don't trust myself.
Sure, I'm going to take the driver license, but there's no hurry to get a car. I'm planning on moving to a big city when I finish high school anyway, and it's much better to take the metro or use the trains, in my opinion. A full packed metro is not my favorite thing, but at least you'll arrive on time. The rush traffic on the roads is a very different story! And it's good to the environment to use public transport too ^^

I'm looking forward to spend some time in the city soon! It's noisy and crowded, but the city life has it's charm. Personally, I enjoy watching other people. (Don't get it the wrong way).
There are so many different personalities on the street, and it's fun to look at everyone's individual style. I often try to guess where they are going, where they've been, and what's on their mind.
There are so many details many of us don't notice!
Like how cheerful a little girl becomes when she's feeding the birds, and the business man who is way too late for a meeting.
The couple where the guy is obviously in love and tries to hold her hand, show her things and talk to her, but the girl just keeps on talking with her friend on the phone.
You might find it weird that I notice all this, but all I do is looking outside my own world and see what's around me. I find these tiny glimpses of others life really inspiring! ^^
You can try it yourself! Find a nice spot in a park, at a street cafe, or another public place. Airports and metros are also interesting "melting pots" of many different people.

Shanghai, China

London, England

New Delhi, India

Now, you don't expect me to be the most experienced city girl, but I've always been fascinated by the modern, urban culture. Of course it has some dark sides, but living in a small place does too. It is, like most things in life, what you make it to. 

I was born in a city after all, even though I moved to this small town when I was only six years old. 

My father and sister still lives there, so I visit many times a year. And as mentioned, my family travels a lot, so I've been lucky too visit many world metro poles! ^.^

And this summer, I'm going to visit Tokyo, the world's largest city, and my expectations are sky high! 

I try to keep them low, so I won't get disappointed, but every time I think of it I get that silly little smile and bubbly feeling. It's just like I'm in love. With a city I've never even been too! 

Maybe it's good though? You often ignore your loved one's flaws, don't you? Maybe I'll be so dazzled by Tokyo that I won't get negative. Three weeks without any negativity? Got to be good.

Dear Tokyo. You happen to be all I think of at the time, so you better not let me down.
-Sincerely, yours forever, Silje Nikolina.

What do you think? Is the city life important to you, or do you prefer to be in smaller places? Please tell! :3

By the way, we made a little change on our commenting system now, so you don't have to prove you're not a robot to comment anonymous. We don't believe our readers to be robots, anyway. (Are you?)

Talk to you later! <3

I got a goal!

Good evening everybody!
      
This is going to be a rather short post, as I really need some sleep. I'm blogging from my phone too, and it's very slow and uneffective.

I'm that kind of person who get chaugth in some crazy idea, and do my very best to fulfill it (for example this blog). Once I decide on something, I can't get it out of my mind. My possible exchange year to Japan has become one of it. It's not a normal exchange destination in Norway, and it's quite complicated to pull through. Asia tends to have a different school route than us, which means I have to move in the middle of next school year o.o
Kinda hard to make the teachers and principal accept that...
It's also hard concidering the high grades I need, the subjects I'll need to self study, the papers and confirments I need to move to Asia, and of course the language. I'm not gonna lie, Japanese is very different from Norwegian, and it's so confusing some times.
I'll have to pass a language test in both talking and writing, as well as an interview to find out if I'm suited as an exchange student to Japan.

I know it's gonna be worth it, though! ^^ I've had many reactions on my plans; from ''ooh, that is so cool!'' to ''you're WHAT??''. Some people remained silent for a long time until they said: ''Japan...? Don't they talk like ''ching chang chong'' over there?''
Well, I guess it can't be helped ;)

But if you've wondered what's been on my mind lately, now you know. I think it's nice to have a goal to reach after. It makes you more focused and motivated ^^ Now that I'm sure what I'm working for, I can put my full attention to it, and make progress, step by step :D

Do you prefer to work against a goal, or do you rather stay carefree?

Now I really need to sleep!
Good night! Oyasumi! <3

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Dare to live your dreams!

Hi cute ones!

Did you have a nice Saturday? Well, I sure had! ^.^ In fact I almost forgot to blog today, and I wasn't really sure what to write about. We are huge fans of self confidence and individuality here at Sakura Kiss, as well as fashion and beauty stuff, so I thought I was going to give you another reminder now. Honestly, I don't think it can be said often enough. Please, please, be yourself! And don't let anyone else tell what you can and can't do. I've heard plenty of discouraging things about myself in the past, and I hardly recognize the person I was before. Whenever I think back, I always think about how weak, naive and unsure I was. But it also hits me how cruel and despicable some people can be. Taking advantage of the ones weaker than you, is really some of the most cowardly and coldhearted things you can do. We hear about such people in the media everyday, but just think how many it actually is! People who lie, manipulate and destroy others self confidence to nothingness. .
I don't wanna drift too far away from the point here, but just don't let such trash ruin for you.

While I and a good friend of mine was taking a walk yesterday, we talked about opportunities and dreams, and how everyone should follow them. Since we live in a small town, far away from the worlds center stages, you really have to make a leap to get out. You need to decide on what to do. Some people leave for the city, and hardly ever come back Some move away to study and move back to start a family, and some stay in the area their whole lives. I'm sure many of you can relate no matter where you grew up.
In most communities, cities too, there are expectations of how you're gonna live your life. We also grow up in different environments of people, including our family, who all have an expectation of us.
I think it's important that we get a chance to think for ourselves, without any influence, on how we wanna live.

My father, for instance, is a very strict and proper man. My grades interest him far more than if I thrive at school. His biggest wish for me is that I get a good education and a well paid job, so I can live a comfortable life. He would prefer me to become a doctor, engineer or lawyer.
"But Father, my dream is to become an actress!" I told him once.
"That's just a child dream. In reality, it's close to impossible. If you try to become an actress, you'll end up poor, with no other options."
He didn't believe in me. Even when I called and told him I got a small role in a TV series, his answer was: "You just got lucky this time."
And when I told him I was learning Japanese, and that I wanted to go to Tokyo this summer, he just laughed.  "What is the point? What do you want to achieve there?" he asked.
"I want to learn a new language and explore a culture I'm fascinated by. I want to experience. That's all."
He still didn't understand.
"Japanese is a very important language in the modern business world, you know." I said.
"Then why don't you go to China? I think Chinese is more important."
Of course my father would never understand my real reasons to go to Japan. I convinced him that knowing Japanese would give me a big advantage in many jobs. And so he agreed to pay a third of my travel expenses to Tokyo. Believing that I wanted to learn Japanese in order to get a well paid job.
"Maybe I can live and study there too, someday?" I said.
"No. Stay in a culture close to our own. Don't make it difficult for yourself."
But guess what, I'm aiming on a year abroad in Japan, anyway. After all, how is he to decide how I'm gonna live my life? This is me, and this is what I want to do. And believe me, he is not the only one being skeptical about my Japan dream.

Despite what it may sound, my father encourage me greatly. I've always looked forward to the day I can look him in the eyes and say: "I've succeeded on my own. You were wrong."

Another quite personal post, but I hope some of you got inspired to follow your dreams! ^.^
I'm sure everyone has that special someone they wanna say "Look, I did it!" to. Who's yours?

Good night and sweet dreams! ^^

Make 2013 your year!

Hey sweeties! 

First of all, I have to say thank you to everyone who's been reading this blog so far! We started just recently, but we've had a lot of views and and I have a good feeling about this! ^.^

2013 is coming closer and closer, and I have big expectations for next year. I'm continuing to work on this blog with Gulli, and hopefully it will turn into something big! Also, we are going to Tokyo for three weeks next summer!! How awesome is that? I'm screaming inside myself every time I think of it. We'll be going to a  language school and live with a Japanese family, so our language skills will definitively improve. And of course, we'll try to blog a lot while we're there, and give you a sneak peek on Tokyo in our free time!

Other things I need to do next year.. um, yeah, improve my grades. They're not that bad really, but I got an 3 (D) in math :( Math is really dragging my average score down. My teacher keeps telling me that math isn't dangerous and it won't hurt me, but I'm still convinced those pluses an minuses and digits are attempting to kill me slowly. My personality really doesn't match! In math there's always a correct answer, and I can't change it to my liking. I tried to invent a new way of solving math puzzles during a test that wasn't going too well which I called "Silje's alternative solution". I also added a drawing of a cute animal.
My teacher wrote "Well, at least you tried... [3]." Meeh :(

And what about you? What are you going to do next year? During 2012 I learned that a lot can change in one year. After all, nothing is more powerful than time. And in most cases, especially when you're young, things change for the better ^^
I really hope everyone dare to be themselves next year, instead of an illusion. Remember, satisfying others isn't necessarily going to satisfy yourself. I don't want you to walk around and be a meanie, of course, but let's just say...bitches are bitches, and superheros are superheros.
Another thing, don't be afraid to chase your dreams! I've already tried, and really, the worst that can happen is that nothing happens. Maybe you can't reach the main goal yet, but every big dream should be divided into many smaller goals. ^^ If chasing your dream means do something crazy, then go ahead! It's your life, and no       one can live it but you! If anyone is trying to bring you down, just use them as stepping stones to climb closer to your goal. ;)

I know that 2013 is going to be full of surprises and ups and downs, but we'll live through it just like a roller coaster ride. Oh, and don't forget us on your way to glory, we'll be cheering in the background! ^.^

Stuff I did this year, which I may (or may not) repeat:

 I got confirmed. (?) No idea what that is in English. Kind of a growing up ceremony thing. Wearing the northern Norway national costume ^^

 I went to Thailand. Picture taken on some island near Krabi.

 I dressed up in the Thai national costume in an amusement park. NO idea why...

I dressed up as a Mexican on the Norwegian national day (how ironic). Then I suddenly bumped into a REAL Mexican from a circus! And he had a donkey! And I got to ride it! While he was having a conversation with me that I didn't understand at all. All I said was "Si, si, grazie, grazie, amigo!" Ah, well. ^^