Mentally arrived in japan

Tomorrow will be my fourth shift at the dinner buffet within this week. The original work schedule said only three shifts, but the girl supervising the restaurant asked me to come in for another shift. Happily I agreed! I constantly worry, that I don't do things well or quick enough. I am really slow with most of the tasks... I hope I become better at everything soon. The job starts to grow on me. Everyone (waiters, cooks, kitchen staff, etc) is friendly. The atmosphere among the staff is very casual and co-operative. However everyone is very professional/reliable in his/her designated work.

So yesterday (Friday) I was asked to come in spontaneously because a group of 60 chinese hotel guests reserved Hall B of the restaurant. I was totally scared of the number of people... in the end in turned out alright, it was just a lot of cleaning left to do afterwards ^^''

The chinese group stormed in MASSES the tiny buffet and were rude to each other and did some stuff with the food/buffet, that I regard as disgusting.

But I have to say SOMETIMES this also applies to some japanese guests as well. It is indeed quite interesting to see how people behave with food. Or what their manners are like and how they react to us, the service staff.

Most customers are very forgiving to me. Ignoring my bad japanese or me being slow with picking up their used dishes. At least one time per evening I am asked where I am from and what I am doing in Japan. Usually this is followed by an encouraging „Ganbattekudasai!“ (means something between „hang in there“ and „Do your best!“)

A downside of my work is that, when I come home from work at around 11pm my boyfriend is already asleep! Our schedules are totally different now and we hardly have time to do something nice together. He works from 6am to 9am and then goes to school til afternoon. However things will settle soon and I will probably usually only get two or three shifts a week anyway.

Today (Saturday) I met up with Naoko-san again. I also met one of her „students“ she teaches japanese to as a volunteer. She introduced an indonesian girl to me (muslim), while talking I realized, she was a „woman“. Married and already has a two years old kid. She wasn’t the age she looked liked. Unfortunately she had to leave very soon again.

Naoko-san and me stuck to our original plan and went for a walk to the Ikutagawa (生田川). We walked a while along the river until we found a really nice spot to sit down. We talked and talked and watched the sakura trees. When some wind came up, the petals were beautifully blowing in the wind. It was my first official hanami in Japan. I enjoyed a can of CALPIS SOUR I had picked up at Lawson before. Calpis with a little shot of vodka.

http://www.calpis-sour.jp/sour/lineup.html

OMG calpis sour is so TASTY. This might turn into my favorite alcoholic beverage in Japan :D

(calpis is some milky/yoghurtsy kind of soft drink/ beverage)

After a while we headed back to sannomiya and paid a short visit to Ikutajinja:

At the same time there was some traditional procession going on. Apparently celebrating „spring“.

http://www.ikutajinja.or.jp/

Oh btw if you're a poor bimbo like me but don’t want to feel like this, go to Daimaru's food floor (basement). Naoko-san and me went only for a few minutes but were able to try out various things. You can have a taste of great food for free that way ;)

http://www.daimaru.co.jp/kobe/

I finally bought make up. I ended up with KATE'S Mineral Cover BB Gel Cream in the lightest shade:

http://nomorerules.net/all_products/face.html

It feels good on the skin and it is mattifying. The coverage is very little though. For me that’s no matter of concern. If I want to cover up spots, I use an additional concealer. Highly covering products are usually heavy and greasy, so I rather use a light make up. So far it seems like  a good match for my combination skin.