finally some time off

Wow, golden week was hell and I am glad I am through this. I enjoyed yesterday and today without any work. I used my time to do groceries by bike and go on a short date with my boyfriend. I forced him to go with me to harborland again. We did a bit of window shopping and then sat down at nana's green tea. It's a bit pricey, but worth it. they have such great matcha and azuki beverages to choose from *heaven*

I had an azuki float with shirotama (dango) and it was delicious:

the shop had a great interior concept

got free postcards

Check their menu out :
http://www.nanaha.com/

view from the outside...

 u can sit next to the artificial canal of the canal garden shopping complex

On our way back we also stopped by a kohnan store コーナン. Another „home center“ store. Actually we live next to one, but different chain. Kohnan is really big and quite cheap and is worth to check out for their sales and special bargains. They also had pets&animals and made me fell in love with super purrty american short hair cat. Forgot to take its photo though. They also had really cute rabbits, huuuuge cockroaches/insects and snakes. The thing that most surprised me was, that they offered owls. In Germany it's forbidden to keep them as pets:

By the way, my boyfriend has/had fishies :D He started with two and then bought another one, but the biggest, the red one died quite quickly. And last time I checked the mini aquarium, I could only spot one fish. Another one had died. My bf never says anything to me about them :D What is he doing with them or better asked what is he not doing? Omg, I keep thinking about the cute cat from the home-center store :/ But I strongly believe it is no good to keep cats in home all day and night. I feel it is a much more natural way to keep cats, when you have the option to leave them out. With our apartment that’s downright impossible, we live at a huge, busy main road and there's no green spot around. I checked out the snakes too, but they are damn expensive and I don't feel like keeping cockroaches... so no pet for me.

Today (Friday), I met up with Laura-san. Laura-san is an Italian woman (or Japanese /Italien mixed), has a six month old babyboy and is married to a Japanese. She lives a bit more on the country side of Kobe I think, but still very close by. We met at Minatogawakoen Station. I actually mixed sth up and first waited for her at the Minatogawa-Shrine, until I realized that it was NOT the right station :D So I walked and walked..and eventually found her. Through my mistake I was able to see my first traditional Japanese wedding ceremony though:

I felt creepy taking pics, so I couldn’t take any closer shots.

Tomorrow I meet up with Naoko for coffee and then head to work. Sunday & Monday will be filled up by working at IKEA and Tuesday another shift at the Hotel Restaurant.

At the Hotel-restaurant started another chinese guy and new Nepali. The crew gets more and more international. At IKEA is also a nepali woman. I didn’t know before, that there were so many people from Nepal in Japan.. or is it only Kobe?

And I officially signed some six months contract with IKEA as a part-timer. First official contract for me (apart from the mobile phone one :D). The hotel-restaurant did not provide me with any papers so far. I actually asked them for something that proves/confirms my employment with them, but haven't received anything so far.