Giveaway Winners!!

So, today my first giveaway ended! I want to thank everyone who participated, I hope you are all excited as I am right now, typing these lines to you. The winners have been drawn, and I ensure you that the drawing was absolutely random and fair. I never expected it to become that big, honestly I wanted it to be a little game for my first 25 followers only! Now, that there are over 100 entries, 6 winners seem a bit less. I wished you all could win. XDD

Now to the lucky winners!! The first three entries would win handmade automatically. Congratulations to:

   

Rena from Rainbow Briteness   

Sonia from Last Minute Madness    

StrawB3rr3 from Pre-Concience

And two other randomly drawn winners will win handmade items, too! Congrats to:

Illness_Illusion from Away with the Fairies

Joanne from joanne.j@hotmail.com

The big winner of the giveaway is:

Riechan  from Riechanster

Congratulations!!!!!! You won the loot!

I will mail you because of the shipping addresses. For the handmade item winners: it may take a while for me to send your items, since I have only finished 3 pieces yet. But I am working on that asap, so expect it within the next two weeks! Also important: I will give you 3 days from now on to mail me to confirm you want the items and of course your shipping address, if you don't I will choose other random winners! (Sounds hard, but I want to avoid waiting for response too long:-)

For all of you who didn't win, there will be other giveaways soon. I hope you will participate again. Please go on supporting me and my blog, you guys are awesome!

"The Brilliant Green"

The post about the visit to Konpira-san has to wait a little bit, today I want to intoduce you to one of my favourite japanese bands called "The Brilliant Green". Actually, I got the name of my blog "Rainy Days Never Stays" from one of their songs I love so much. Lately I have started to listen to their songs again and realized how much I missed them.

The Brilliant Green formed in 1997 and consist of three members: Kawase Tomoko (vocals), Matsui Ryo (electric/lead guitar) and Okuda Shunsaku (bass). Tomoko is also known as a solo artist called Tommy Heavenly6 or Tommy February.



"Rainy Days Never Stays" music video from 2002

I wish I had her hair :-)

Isn't she lovely?? She is holding Gundam 00's mascot (since they made the series opening theme), called Haro!

I really recommend their songs!

If you have time, listen to them on youtube! :-))

That's it for today, good night!
(I'll have my first working day on Saturday! Had the introduction on Wednesday XDD Anyway, I am so excited.)

EDIT: Join Amonousagi's awesome giveaway:  You can win 10 lovely rings!

Chousa Matsuri in Kotohira

Thanks everybody for your kind comments on my last post! It is not that I am smart, hell no, I think that I just have a talent in learning languages (and for that I've always been a looser in mathemetics XD). So for those who wanted to know, here I officially announce it! I speak 5 languages which are: German and Vietnamese (both are my mother toungues, cause my mum was smart enough to raise me bilingual :), then of course English (the first language I ever learned at school and I love it), Japanese (I think I am quite fluent) and basic French (I had it 4 years in school, but since Japanese is my major now, I forgot most of my French which is a waste...)

Okay, I said that I would write about the Chousa Matsuri in Kotohira this time, so here you go! Ai told me that every district in Kotohira town has it's own Matsuri (Festival), and we were able to participate in the matsuri of Enai district, where Ai lives. Her father lend us the traditional jackets and off we were. I missed to ask her why it was celebrated, but I can guess it is because of religious reasons. It was October, 1 and it was sooo unbelievabely hot (about 30 degrees), Sarah even got sunburned. Anyways, let the fotos speak!

Ahem, don't mind my silly face XDDD

Half from the backside...

I forgot the name of this thing, how embarrasing for a student of Japanese culture... there are children inside drumming while the adults pull the thing (it is standing on wheels). We were pulling too! But it was too exhauting after 20 minutes in the heat, so we gave up and just followed it! XDD

We were strolling through the whole district of Enai with that thing :-) Good thing that there were strong men with us XDDD

Sarah and me. My height is a catastophe! :-)) But since I 'm Asian, it should be okay ^o^

Ai and Sarah

We loved the little boy in his festival clothing <33

Ai and me: almost leaving! Bye, bye!

Thanks to Ai we could make this experience of participating in this wonderful event. Normally, no foreigners or tourists are allowed, I think, so we kind of got a special permisson XD

Next post: Visit to Konpira-san (a famous shrine) in Kotohira.

Sunshine Award and Q&A Game

It is very rarely for me to post two times a day, but I was tagged by Naka for the Sunsine Award and for a funny Q&A game. Before I forget posting about it I had better do it asap. Have fun reading!

Share 7 interesting facts about yourself

1. I speak 5 languages (well, one of those only with basic knowledge)

2. I love to eat at night, especially sweets

3. I enjoy knitting and crochet more than videogames (actually, I am not into videogames at all, except for Pokemon on my DS :-)

4. I really hate insects, if they come near me I begin to cry or faint, I swear! 

5. I love baking! (It seems I'm gonna end up as a good wife)

6. I love shopping but rarely buy anything XDD Watching makes also happy :-)

7. I am only listening to Japanese music. It is not that I hate Western music, but somehow I lost my interest!

Questions and Aswers

1. A vampire or a wizard (and why)

Urgh, vampires... I can't see any blood. Of course a wizard. Then I could do magic, that't much more cooler.

2. If you could change one thing about you, what would it be?

My height. I am only 154 cm, and would love to be 160-165 cm tall XDDD

3.Would you rather live like a rock star or president (fun or power)

Of course like a rock star/fun! What would life be without fun? I have fun almost every day, haha! 

4. What's your favourite cartoon character?

Lockon Stratos from Gundam 00. I'd love to have a bf like him :-)

5. What is your (most) guilty pleasure?

Guys who can play the guitar...

6. If you were a song, what would it be?

Ohh, there are many, but probably "Trust You" by Itou Yuna

7. What is your biggest dream?

Right now? A year of Working Holiday in Japan whch will hopefully become true soon :-)  

8. Do you prefer to be the one to ask questions or the one who answers them?

Asking is sometimes more easy than answering.

9. What is your biggest turn on and turn off?

Turn on: Politeness, Turn off: Smokers  

I tag:

Kate from Ribbonlicious

Rick from Waiting for Wisdom  

Rena from Rainbow Briteness 

Riechan from Riechanster

Sophia Alexandra from No No Deja Vu 

Keiko from Chocomintbubblegum

Next post: Chousa Matsuri in Kotohira, Shikoku!

Finally an update: Our first day in Shikoku

I'm sorry for my late update this time! A lot of happend, and I was so busy! I'll try to update more often from now on (I always say so all the time XDD)

I found some part time jobs now! All in all there are 3, but one of those is only for 3 weeks, and then I will only have two. I'll work part time in an accessory section of a department store starting this week, as an inventory part time (only for 3 weeks) and as a home tutor. Hopefully I can earn some money and save it to get a Working Holiday Visa for Japan :-)

And again a big Thank You to all the participants of the giveaway! I never dreamed of such a great number! In just a week's time I will announce the lucky winners, I guess I am more excited than you are, hahaha! I wish you all could win!

Thank you, too for your kind word to my last post, I am sure Ai would be happy to hear all about it. I sent her the link to the post, hopefully it will cheer her up! As I already mentioned her in my last post, I thought maybe you are interested in my time with her in Shikoku, Japan? Then I will write about it now and in my next posts.

I got to know Ai from the Glory Bee penpal page in 2007. She wrote an email to me, saying that she'd like to exchange letters with me. So we started to do so. In  October 2008 I finally met her, she invited me to her house in Kotohira, Shikoku. I was travelling with a friend, and we visited her for one week. We took the Shinkansen from Osaka to Okayama, then change trains and finally arrived in Kotohira, where she picked us up by car. Have some fotos!

On our way to Okayama

Inside the train...there was no one except us travelling on this route XDD

Passing the Setonaikai Bridge which links Shikoku with the main island Honshu. We were told it is 20 kilometres long!

Ai and her fat cat Mii-chan. Aren't they lovely?? <33 I hope she won't kill me for posting this XD

Mii-chan sleeping on MY futon XDD

Well, I hope this was interesting for you! Next time I will write about the Chousa Matsuri Festival in Kotohira, which we were able to participate, thanks to Ai's help! Look forward to that!