It's my second time to be able to see the beautiful sakura in Japan. It usually blooms towards the end of March until the beginning of April. This year it was in the first week of April. The Winter was longer than usual so it bloomed quite late.
Usually in the south of Japan it blooms earlier than in the north.
I personally think the blooming time is one of the most magical moments in Japan.
Last year I saw the cherry blossoms at the Ueno Park. This year I was able to see them at the Imperial Palace and Ichigaya.
Ichigaya
Imperial Palace Chidoya
They say the cherry blossoms at the Imperial Palace are the most beautiful in Tokyo. Indeed I spent a very magical day there!!
This beauty last for a couple of days until...
... the blossoms fall and the trees grow leafs.
It's definitely worth seeing a beauty like this live!!
Once a year near Tokyo in a town called Kawasaki which is about 20 minutes from Shinagawa, takes a weird festival place.
It's the so called Kanamara Matsuri or also known as the penis festival.
The event takes place at Kawasaki-Daishin. Right near a station there is a small temple. Unmissable since so many people are going. Not only japanese but also many foreigners.
The festival starts around 11 o'clock, but the actual parade only starts at 12 o'clock.
Around this temple there are many stands with food and drinks offered. Most of the foods are in a penis form. Ex. ice cream, lollipops, sausiges, ...
They also offer amusement activities.
There was a group of japanese women dancing and some wooden penis riding.
This little cute monkey was an attraction too. Honestly this only broke my heart seeing him like this!! ='( I don't think he actually wanted to be there. He looked quite confused and probably felt uncoｍfortable around so many people!!
Honestly I don't really know what to think about this event... It was really crowded and we were barely able to see anything. Once you saw it there was nothing holding you there anymore.
We didn't stay long there. We went through the sweets section and saw the beginning of the parade. That was enough for us and we left.
I was quite surprised at how many people actually went there. I imagined that there wouldn't be that many people, but it was really crowded.
First of all you need to apply for a working permission. You can request it directly at the airport or at the foreigner embassy.
For requesting it at the airport I received from my school a sheet where I had to sign it and turn it in at the airport control counter.
At the embassy you have to fill in more papers and wait for 2 weeks till you get the permission.
With this stamp on your residence card you are allowed to work in Japan
Remember that with the student-visa you can only work 28 hours per week!!
The CV
Here in Japan they use printed forms for your CV!! You can buy them in every Conbini store.
They have 2 different kind of CVs. For Part-time job and for full-time job.
Part-time job CV パート、アルバイト
You have to fill it in by hand and you can't copy them. Passport pictures are also needed for it.
Hello Work
Hello Work
What is it
All my friends at school recommended me to go to Hello Work. It's a work agency that helps you in finding a job.
It's charge-free and until now no one ever told me, that they didn't get a job and basically half of my school found their job through that agency. I also found my part-time job there.
They also have English speaking officers.
Office Location
The office worker are all really friendly. The office is located between Shin-Okubo and Shinjuku's Kabuki-chou. Right at a main road next to the train station.
Hello Work Shinjuku (Kabukicho Branch) 1F, 2-42-10 Kabuki-cho, Shinjuku-ku
Keep in mind that it takes almost 3 hours at the first time you go there. The earlier you go, the better. The office opens at 9 a.m. You can also call and ask for an appointment.
What they do
After they saved your informations in their files, they immediately look for any type of jobs in their data bank or also for the job that you want to apply for.
If you are interested in that job they will call for you and rather you have an interview or you can send them your CV.
If they found 2 or 3 places that are interesting, they will send you away. If it didn't work out you have to go back again and they will look for further places.
I went twice there until I got my part-time job at a restaurant.
Other ways
There are also different types of websites to find a job and also one special one for foreigners. It's called Gaijinpot.
Tokyo's zoo is really famous for its Pandas. The zoo is situated in Ueno, right next to the JR station. For some reason Pandas are really famous here in Japan. They have some kind of cuteness effect.
Beside Pandas they have other animals as well. They have elefants, monkeys, birds, small animals, ecc.
I've been at the zoo twice already. Once in Summer and once in Winter. Everytime I went there they were restructuring something and some accesses were close.
It's a big zoo, there are a lot of animals and you need an entire afternoon to see the entire place. Be careful in Winter closing hour is at 5 p.m.
I really like how they organised the zoo and it's in a really pretty surrounding. There is a lot of green and nature, unusual for Tokyo.
I personally would recommend to go in Summer. It was pretty cold when I went last February. Nice was that there weren't many people around. They don't put the animals in hibernation during Winter.
During Summer it's really crowded and depending on which month pretty hot and humid.
The perfect season is probably in Spring, April to June.
The fee is not that expensive. It's 600 ¥ for adults.
Right next to the entrance of the zoo there is a little pizza place. The name of the place is "Pizza Savoia". They sell small pizza which are super delicious. Give it a try if you are already there.
109 for Woman is one of the most known stores in Shibuya. It's right at the big crossing, impossible to miss. If so then just ask somebody for directions.
Beside being an awesome place to shop it also has a hair salon on the 8th floor.
It was my 4th time going there. I really love this place!! The personal is really friendly and everything looks so nice there.
Inside the hair salon
Everytime I went there I had more or less an idea on how to cut my hair and already picked out some pictures to show them. They also have magazines with hairstyle ideas.
Let me tell you something, they really try to get the exact same result as it is shown on the pictures. No kidding they take it super serious.
My hair transformation from long to supershort.
This is how my hair developped from super long to super short... If you want to know more about why I cut my hair click here.
Just to give you an example, I showed them a picture of Keira Kneighley with short hair and they basically made my hair look exactly the same.
their color collection
If there is something that they can't do, they try their best to do it as similar as possible.
The last time I asked them if it is possible to color my hair purple. I showed them the following picture:
They told me that this is only temporary color and for getting this result, I would need to bleach my hair.They had a purple-pink color and suggested me to color my hair twice, in that way I would get a close result to that picture.
Since japanese hair color is weaker and less damaging, it wouldn't be to damaging for my hair coloring them twice.
selfie while waiting for the color to have effect
This is the outcome of coloring my hair twice without bleaching them....
I was really sattisfied with the result. Everytime I leave this hair salon, I'm super duper happy with the outcome of my hair.
The prices are not that expensive eighter.
For a cut you pay 3500 yen and for coloring 12000 yen. Coloring is a little bit more expensive.
Before booking the flight with Qatar airlines, I had my doubts about them.
On internet I read a few reviews on different websites. They all had different opinions about this airline.
I was skeptical because they were always one of the most inexpensive airlines and they always had many offers.
On one review I read that sometimes they offer more tickets than places are available.
Although all those information, I still booked my flight with Qatar airlines.
I was kind of nervous when the day for departure arrived.
The day of departure
I was almost late, when I arrived at the gate all the passengers were already on board. I was held off when I tried to change my money. In the end I didn't even had time for the duty-free section. Well I had a 6 hour stay in Doha. Enough time there. XD
Btw I only got this kind of connections because I had to postpone my flight. Originally I would only have a 1 1/2 hour stay in Doha.
My thoughts about the Airline
My thoughts about this airline are the opposite from negative!!
The personal is really friendly. Their appearence is really representable. It seems that they even change coats during the flight. I had the feeling that they were walking more often back and forward than in other airlines.
You also have a function on your display were you can text the stuff for some needs.
The food is good. You receive a menu and can choose between two different ones.
I had Spätzli with chicken
I flew economy and had my own screen. As for movies they offered all the actual theater movies. I watched Despicable me 2! Was really funny.
They have internet on board, pretty cool heee?!? ;) Although you have to pay for it.
The window are sun repelling or better you can darken them.
The overall appearence of the plane was really good. Everything was clean, the seats were kind of comfortable especially for the head. They had a head pillow at the back. Seems that in the older planes they still don't have them yet.
I actually flew on 2 different planes. QR 806 and QR 94. I'm pretty sure my first flight was with a newer plane. Because from Doha I had a plane that wasn't as modern as the first one.
in the first plane QR806
Airport in Doha
It must be a huge airport. We had to take the bus from the landing line. It took us about 10 minutes to reach the buildings.
There are different stations and you know by the color of your ticket where you have to leave the bus. They also call it out loud. Unmissable!! =)
I had to leave at the Transfer&departure station. Right after security check you find all the duty-free sections.
A huuuuge section!! They have a really cool souvenir section.
Duty-Free Section
This airport also offers you free wifi!!
It's a fight to find any good dock station. They do have a location with dock station but they don't work. I had to sit in a small corner somewhere in the airport. This was kind of disappointing.
All in one I really enjoyed flying with Qatar. I would book a flight with them again. For some reason both of my planes were not full at all. I'm not sure if it's because it's not really a holiday season or if this airline is still not that trusted. Anyways from Doha I had the whole section for myself, no one sitting next to me, that was really nice!!
In a few days I'll be leaving for Japan again!! I actually should have been there already, but something went wrong with the visa application.
This time I'll be there with a student visa that expires in 1 year.
Extending Tourist Visa for 3 months
The first time I went with a tourist-visa that originally expired in 3 months, but as a swiss passport owner, I could extend the visa for other 3 months. I could do this while I was already in Japan at the immigration office. It's actually really simple and it doesn't take long. You only have to fill in a paper on where you are explaining why you want to stay longer.
It might be that not all nationalities can extend the tourist visa. So inform yourself before going to Japan.
Certificate of Eligibility
Through my school in Tokyo I requested a student visa called "CoE".
It requires 3 months to get that visa and you have to fill in quite some papers. Because my tourist visa was almost expired at that time, I had to leave Japan and go back to my country to wait for the results.
This visa permits me to work and study in Japan. The Work-and Holiday Visa doesn't exist for my country, so I had no choice than requesting this type of visa. The difference between these two visas is that with the CoE I have limited working hours, while with the work- and holiday visa you don't have a limit on working hours.
Attention!!
I had a few Swiss friends with the same visa and they both requested the visa while they where already in Japan, they didn't had to do anything in Switzerland.
When I received the accepted visa documents from my school per mail, I thought that I had to go to the immigration office in Japan.
Only 1 day before my departure I realised that I had to go to thejapanese embassy here in my countryto get the permission for my visa. This requires 1 week until it's done!!!
It never accured to me that I had to go there!!! It was kind of written in the papers that I got from my school, but I misunderstood it totally! That was quite a shock actually but in the end everything went well.
Actually I had to fill in some other documents at the japanese embassy. Kind of the same again as I had to fill in in Japan.
Working with the CoE
With the student visa I'll be able to work for 28 hr per week, which is quite a lot since I'm also going to school.
It's not necessary to work. If you don't need it you can also only go to school.
I received from my school a document that I have to submit at the airport. There I get the permission to work in Japan.
Actually you can also do it a the immigration office when you have already left the airport, but I guess it's easier to do it right from the beginning.
Kai Japanese School
A few friends asked me, if I was planning to change the school. I never thought about it and I don't see a reason why I should change school. I really like the school and their concept. All my friends are there and this is why I don't see a reason to change my school.
If you are interested in the school, here is the link to their website: Kai School
Guesthouse Hippo House Kita-Toda
I actually didn't want to go back to the same place where I was before. I still decided to go there again, because I know the people that are living there and it's not a start-over again.
I wrote a separate post about the guesthouse. Click here to know more about it.
If there is a possibility to change and find a new place that is closer to my school and cheaper, I will take the opportunity.
I'm actually thinking of gathering some friends and rent an appartment. But well I still haven't figured it out.
I will let you know if something has changed.
