Back to School

Hi everyone!!

Remember me? It's been a crazy long time since I updated the blog! I've been in an all-out vacation mode, so I'm sorry if you were checking for updates without finding anything new.. :(
Gulli already told you about our trip to Japan, it was super crazy mega awesome! I got so much inspiration and plans for the future that I don't even know where to start. First of all, I'm definitely aiming to take a year abroad. I know it will be hard mastering the language differences, exams and all that, but it will be worth it. I guess it would be more fun for you as well, if I can update the blog directly from Tokyo!  ^^

During my stay in Tokyo I also got the opportunity to explore different fashions, and I got to taste a bit of the lolita style I've always been longing for. We don't have that many pictures of the clothes we bought yet, but I'll try to update you on that later. I'm bursting of fashion inspiration after spending many long afternoons at my beloved Harajuku. Seriously, it's not just a myth. Harajuku is just as freaking amazing in reality as you picture it to be!

I have to admit that I feel a bit lost after finally returning home to our little town. It felt like traveling back in time, actually. It felt like waking up from a fantastic dream and realizing you're still in your bedroom.
I didn't feel ready to leave Japan, so it was a bit painful. We got into the new lifestyle so naturally, it somehow felt like I've been doing the same for years. Getting up early, eating breakfast with the host family, sleeping on the local train to school, grabbing a coffee before class starts.
It all became so nautral for me that I still sometimes close my eyes and pretend I'm at the same train again, at the beginning of a new, fantastic day in Tokyo.
Oh, this became very nostalgic. At least you got a feeling of how our trip was.

School starts in a few days here, and autumn is about to make it's arrival. I'm not sure if I'm ready for it, but in my lack if a time machine I just have to accept it. I'm sure many of you feel the same way ^^
Enjoy your last days of vacation to the fullest, and remember to bring the good memories and experiences from the summer with you when everyday life starts again!

Family picture ~ From the back left: our lovely host mother Noriko-san, Gulli, myself, our host brother Jan from Switzerland
Front left: our super kind host father Osamu-san, and Noriko-san's older brother Shingo-san ^^

Talk to you soon!

One week in Tokyo~

Konbanwa! (Good evening!)

Oh my god!! It's already been a week since we landed here ib Tokyo! The time has just flewn away with the wind, and I feel like we don't have much time left. Since we have school everyday, activities in the afternoon, and then dinner at 7-8 i feel like I really don't have enough time to get everything i want/need... 

The first food I ate in Japan! Ramen<3

I'm so sorry we have not been able to keep our promise about more updates, but my stupid adapter and cord won't cooperate! >< I have been to yamada, one of the biggest electronic shops, but they didn't have my kinda adapter.. :(

So I'm still out of power, and I won't be able to get my pictures from the camera. So until I get this fixed (if it gets fixed) you'll have to survive with phone pictures. Gomenasai!

We had flower arrangement the other day. 

So on saturday we went to an omatsuri! (Festival) We wore our yukatas, and walked around looking and trying festival food. Was lots of yummy food. We also go to try the classic anime/manga thing with the rice paper scoop that you use to catch fish. I got 5, but my friend Ida got around 12. o0

It was actually really fun. 

We also went to the shrine and got some charms and future telling note ( I can't remember the name). We did lots of stuff, and I'll write more about this when I get my computer. 

We went to kareoke! ^.^

Most of my photos are in the camera.. 

Today we we went go.... Pokemon center!!  :D 

That was a dangerous shop! OMG, we went crazy! Some bought for like 40 000 yen! That was really amazing! Even though 40 000 yen is not thaat much in NOK, it's still a lot of stuff. But it was so cool to watch what they had got. I was so jealus of some of the stuff, but I got myself a Eevee, in natural size I think. It's so cute!! <3 I love it! I'm so bringing it on the plane as a pillow. 

Now I think I'll head to bed, since we have schooø tomorrow..-.- 

Oyasumi! (Good night) ^.^

Just one week until departure! \^.^/

Hello everyoone! Remember me?

Today it's just one week until Gulli and I take off to Tokyo! I'm soo excited! The whole trip has always been something "far into the future", so I got a little shock when I realized we're not talking about months or weeks anymore, but days... Now I have to think about packing, learning the rest of the Hiragana (Japanese signs), and go through my checklists. Do I have enough copies of my passport? How much clothes should I bring? (Considering the fact that I will be shopping a lot.) Come to think of it, what is the weight limit on luggage again...? Do I need to bring this much shampoo?
It's so typical of me. I always slack off and take things lightly until the last minute. No wonder I'm always late. Even though I'm talking about it now, I probably won't start packing until the night before...

A-N-Y-W-A-Y!  Our schedule for the trip is super full with super fun stuff!
I'm really hoping we can manage to make a dairy out of it. It would be more realistic to call it a "every third day-dairy" or something though, as I'm guessing we'll be pretty dead tired.
If we see the opportunity we could maybe make a vlog too, with Gulli's cute little camera that was sent in that crazy huge monsterpackage you saw in the last post.
Some of you have may seen our introduction video? It was pretty amateur-ish, but at least we learned some valuable lessons about video blogging. Such as:

1. Don't make a video if there's a party downstairs. 
2. Steer clear of noisy roads and camping cars.
3. If two people have to stand under an umbrella, use a big one.
4. If you don't have a big umbrella, at least stand still so that you don't hit the other person.
5. Avoid camera men that laugh at everything you say. 
6. Don't use almost full memory cards. 
7. If you're going to speak English, learn the difference between "dairy" and "diary". (Big fail from my side.)
8. Once you're at it, learn the difference between "trip" and "tour" as well. 

Well guys, I hope you'll stick with us through the learning process, so that we can make better stuff in the future!

I know this is super delayed, but I have some pictures from the 17th of May (Norway's national day), to those of you who wonder how a Northern Norwegian national costume looks like ^^
I guess it's okay to upload some patriotic photos before I leave, so I won't get all blinded by Japan's glory. Or something like that.

 
Talk to you later ~

Summer vacation soon! ~

Hi sweeties! Long time no see!

I really wonder where all my energy went. It's the final days of school over here now, next Thursday I'll be graduating... So I'm really using my last energy reserves before summer vacation to get over and done with it. Today we got to know our subject and theme for the final oral exams that will be held on Tuesday.
I got English! My theme is "Being young on the edge", so I choose to focus on youth rebellion. Finally a task where I can express some of my own opinions, not just the endless mathematics!

Yesterday we had a day off, so I got time to catch up on non-school stuff. There are so many things going on now, you have no idea! I'm really tired, and I can't wait for the vacation. My grades are finally where I want them to be now, so I can relax with good conscience ^^
As you may know I'm self-studying Japanese now, and that won't take a break just because it's vacation. The blog won't take a break either, of course! I hope I'll have more time to write here once school is finished. Also, a few days ago I got chosen as the new leader in our theater for next season! I'm really looking forward to begin with a new play! Luckily I got a co-leader, so I won't take on too much responsibility.
Since I had some time on my hands yesterday, I took on a long neglected task: bathing my dog Tinto.
Tinto has A LOT of fur, and he really dislikes water. Sounds like fun, right?

"I thought... I thought you loved me :("

"Do you see how much pain I'm going through because of you? :(("

"Please stop... I promise I'll be good for the rest of my life!"

"Wiiih, finished! ~"

And here's a practicing sheet from my Hiragana studying. It's starting to look okay, right? :D
Now I just have Katakana and Kanji left... 

I can't believe I'm graduating next week. I haven't had the time to think about it, so I realized just now. I'm really excited to see what lays ahead of me now that I'm finished with this period of my life. 

I'm sure you all are feeling excited for the summer as well! Remember, no matter how hard things may seem in the present, there are always good things waiting for you in the future! 

Stay well, everyone! Until next time ~

Beautiful Norwegian Scenery~

(づ｡◕‿‿◕｡)づ Hello~

How are you doing? The weather have been just awesome lately! It's been sunny and warm, and I've spent the days bathing ans grilling. All util yesterday when it started raining... But It's okay because rain is so calming to listen to, and it was getting pretty dry outside. On the other side I've been preparing for our pre-exam and the final exam... Got a really good grade on the pre one, so now all that remains are the final exam. As long as I get a passing grade I'm happy.~

There is very little interesting going on in my life at the moment except that our friends who have been abroad studying the past year are coming home. Wiii, gonna be fun when we're all gathered again. ^.^

Here are some pictures from the last week.

Now it's time to fall asleep to the soothing sound of the rain. Sweet dreams. ^.^
Bye Bye~

5 tips for making the summer even better!

Good evening cuties!

Wow, it's so hot here now. In fact, Northern Norway just got a new record on amount of sunshine in May. And our town got a new heat record for May month! I can't believe it went so fast.
I mean, where did spring go? It feels like we jumped straight from winter to summer. I've barley had time to adapt to the changes. Summer is great though! I've been wearing some summer dresses lately, and it feels so light and feminine. (That is two words you really miss when you walk around dressed like an Eskimo in a blizzard.)
Every season has both good and bad sides, so in this post I'm going to write a little about how to best enjoy the summer!

1. Stay safe and protected!

You thought I was going to write about molesters and rapists, didn't you? Nope. Your enemy is the sun! Of course, sunlight is good as well, but that's what makes it all so dangerous. The worst enemy you can have is an unstable one. The sun might hate you then love you then hate you again. Your job is to ensure that you can handle it. First of all, you must must must use sun lotion! It doesn't matter if you live far north, south, east or west, the sun rays are still harmful. And just because you don't get burnt, it doesn't mean that your skin doesn't get damaged. Did you know that getting tanned is a sign of damage? The skin is building up its protection after it's been hurt. The results of bad sun protection might not show up right away, but in the future. Too much sun lowers the quality of your skin, and gives you early wrinkles and uneven skin tone. You may also develop sun rash, even though it often appears a year after the damage's been made.
Just to clear up; I don't want you to avoid the sun either! Sun light gives you a lot of important D-vitamin, and it makes you happy. Just enjoy the sun, but protect yourself at the same time.
It's not that important to get a deep tan either, though many of you might think so. Learn to appreciate your own, nautral skin color, and you'll have a much better summer already. And it will save you from sun burn disasters.

My long time favorite sun lotion from Hawaiian Tropic. It gives good moisture and protection, and smells addictively  good. 

After sun is important too!

      2.  Feel confident in your own body!

Yeah, yeah, we've heard about it before. "Summer work out!" "How to get the bikini body!"
Of course working out and staying healthy is important, but when it comes down to it you can't completely transform your body figure. It's something we are born with. You can't starve away your hip bones, or stretch your legs longer. If you are healthy, it will shine through anyway. We have to understand that there is no such thing as ideal body, because everyone is born with an unique one!
Find the good points in your look, and highlight them. A tiny, almost non-existent swimsuit might be sexy, but self confidence is sexier! Don't be trapped in your own body just because someone else told you that you're not good enough. Wear whatever you want, your friends don't care. And if they actually do, you throw them in the trash can together with that crazy diet magazine article.

     3.  Live it!

There are two types of to-do lists; things that you have to do, and things that you want to do.
Summer is the perfect time to focus on the last one. Write a list of things you want to do, see and experience during two effective months, and make sure to get as much as possible done!
May it be BBQ-party, road trip, boat trip, summer boot camp, working as a street musician or whatever project you got hidden in your brain; sign up those involved and start planning!

Random picture of me taken in Thailand, because Thailand was amazing.

     4. Create your summer playlist

I always create a playlist on my iPod for each summer like "Summer 2012" and so on. The music varies for each year depending on what I'm doing, so every list has a different "theme". Music is a great way of remembering stuff, so you can always sit down later and dream yourself away to ice cream and blue water.

     5.  Meet the summer in style

Okay, so this might come natural for many of you, but refreshing your wardrobe and make-up palette really helps putting you in summer mood. I don't think you should spend a lot of money, or throw away all your old clothes, just refresh. Summer is the perfect time to experiment with bold colors and accessories, especially if you're not used to it. We tend to get more daring and playful then usual, so use the opportunity!

 I hope all of you will have an amazing summer! Of course, it's hard to beat Gulli and I who's going to Tokyo, but...

Talk to you later! ~

A mobile post written in half-sleep

Hi everyone! How are you doing?

I'm just making a short mobile post from bed to let you know that I'm still around ^^

Summer has finally arrived in our town! Today it was almost up to 30 degrees (c)! That's a lot for being so far north. We really reap the benefits of the Golf stream here. But that's just part of what makes Norway great, I guess ^.^

This afternoon some friends from class and I played sand volley ball. I don't usually do it, but I realized I should. This is one of the few ball games I actually have a chance of sucseeding in...
Tomorrow our class is going out to relax in the sun and swim (wash, I'm sorry, wash. After all, swimming is against school regulations). I'm looking forward to it! (Especially since the other half of the class are stuck inside with English exam. Who's laughing now?)
I'll try to get some pictures for tomorrow as well as some from today. I doubt they'll be pretty, but oh well.

Sorry for having nothing fancy in this post, but I'm dead tired and not a fan of blogging with my phone. Why can't you guys just follow us on Facebook instead, so I can prove my continued existence by posting an awkward picture or something. When it's a blog post I feel like it should have a higher standard, you know.
My feet hurt. And my eyes. I'll stop here.

Good night, sweeties! ^^

Lazy day in the sun~

Hello sweet sunshine!

The last days of the week has been a little cold and rainy, but today it turned around. All day I've been lazing around and even got some hours in the sun. I'm going to try and get, well maybe not a tan, but at least some glow to my skin this year. I'm never able to actually get much of a tan... But my friends on the other side gets it easily. Like every year I will try. On the bright side, my fair skin might be a good thing when I'm in Japan.^^


The sun can be very damaging if one is not careful, so to you all: Remember to use SPF! On this I'm very lucky since I have a friend who is fanatic about people wearing enough sun block and stuff.. Hopefully I won't be getting too burned this year. Also it's really important that one drinks loads of water when being exposed to the sun for a long time. Re-hydrating is important!

My friend this summer <3

I've only been using this lotion for a couple of days so I haven't seen much results yet, but I hope to. ^^
Now I'll talk to you guys more tomorrow because it's already kinda late and I need my beauty sleep...
Bye Bye~

I'm back and (almost) finished with exams! :D

Hi sweeties!

Wow, one week since my last blog post... I'm really out of it. Sorry! But don't worry, I haven't forgotten about you! I've been making ideas for what to do for our half year-anniversary, and I've been busy with my math exam. I had it this Tuesday. I must admit I had this strong sensation of freedom when I walked out of the school door after five hours of non-stop math. I really surprised myself though.
I pushed myself to sit the whole time, and to do the all the tasks, even if I didn't understand them.
I feel like I did my very best, so if my grade doesn't improve... I think I might just lay down and cry.

As Gulli told you, it has finally become close-to summer up here in the cold north! Wiih ~
I'm really in summer mood now, and when I finished my exam it felt like my summer vacation just started. A bit sad to think about the fact that I have another exam coming up in June. Oral this time. If I get drawn in math this time too... Yeah, I think I might just lay down and cry.

I felt so sick and tired today that I stayed home from school. (They probably just messed around the whole day, anyway.) I try to make the best out of these re-charging days. I relaxed and tried to get rid of my headache. I had crazy PMS too, so it was probably the smartest to keep me away from people. After all, we don't want me to punch anyone ^^
While I was having so much time on my hands, I ended up re-discovering one of the bands I listened to before; Cross Gene. They've changed so much! For the better, luckily. I was also happy to see that they made their comeback in Japan, and they've started to make songs in Japanese. They have turned into a J-pop band, in fact! o.o
(Cross Gene is an Asian band with members both from South Korea, Japan and China. That's why they make their songs with many different languages. They speak good English too ^^)

Of course I'm a big K-pop fan too, but it can't compete with the thrilling feeling I get when I can actually understand some of the lyrics without any translation. It makes me relate to the music even more.
And also, let's face it: the K-pop industry have taken some wrong turns, and it bothers me to know that some of my fave bands might just be puppets for greedy label owners.

I got to sleep now, but of course I'll post a music video from the "new" Cross Gene before I leave:

Cross Gene - Shooting Star

Talk to you later! ~

BTW: Everybody please answer in our little question thingy up here, so that we know what to do for our half year anniversary! ^^ 

Summer on the way~

Good evening all you sunflowers out there!

The last days have been awesome! I've finished my Russetime, celebrated the national day, finally got to take of the Russebukse for good and got to wear shorts and skirts again. Yaay!
The weather is awesome as well. It's been super sunny here and it feels like summer. Hope it last for a good while. It's always really pretty here in the summer, and today was no exception. Because of all the nature around us we have lots of beautiful scenery. If it were always summer here, that'd fit me perfectly.

Some photos from today~
We went grilling at Siljes place and it was super warm and perfect weather.

Tonto <3

Now it's off to bed for me^^

Bye Bye~ 

Tokyo Girls Collection Spring/Summer 2013

Hi pretty ones!

On March 2 Japan's largest fashion event Tokyo Girls Collection went off at Yoyogi National Gymnasium in Tokyo.
It's the 16th time it's being held, and it's the number one event for fashionable girls, both inside and outside Japan.
What makes Tokyo Girls Collection so special is that the fashion presented are the fashion that's in now, not stuff that's going to be popular in the next season etc. It's something for every taste, and it's a great way to get inspired! ^^ TGC is also an important arena for Japanese bands and artists, and every year there are surprise performances.
Here is a short summary list of the key elements:

• Vertical black and white stripes
• Floral pattern
• Bright colors
• High-waisted shorts
• Platform heels
• Skinny trousers

There were endless outfits, but I picked my favorites that either got me inspired or made me want to wear it right away! ^.^
The summer feeling is strong on these!

Actus Colors

Actus Colors are showing off their suitcases. 

Avail

Bonica Dot

DE TER NL

Duras

Lands of Eden

Lip Service

Sorridere

Vivayou

These are just some of the outfits and brands that impressed me, and it made me miss warm weather even more! Gotta wait just a little longer...
As you might know I'm a huge kawaii fan, and that's one of the reasons the outfits I picked were cute and brightly colored. You get happy just by looking at them! ^^

Important: All photos are taken by Michael Steinebach, and borrowed from Tokyo Fashion. I was not present at the fashion show myself. 

What do you think?

Talk to you later ~