A golden symbol at a gate to a shrine

Entrance to the restaurant Hajimeno ippo

Enjoying a glass of wine

We ate at a restaurant called Hajimeno Ippo, a restaurant that specializes in dishes with garlic. All their garlic comes from Aomori-ken, which supposedly has Japan's best garlic.

ラブラブ♡

Inside the restaurant. Notice the garlics hanging in the upper left corner.

It's been a year since I promised I would make an updated PDF about how to translate Japanese kanji into Korean based on some simple pronunciation rules. Sorry for the delay! My last year as a student has been pretty busy, but now that I'm on my last school holiday I've finally been able to finish this list!  If you already know Japanese and want to learn Korean (or vice versa) this will come in handy for learning the vocabulary faster. Good luck, and please let me know if you have any comments or if you find mistakes in the document (hopefully there aren't any, but you never know).!

Kanji to Hanja - 300 words

Thanks again to Jostein for the great logo!

As the world becomes steadily more globalized the question of pointing to a "home" also becomes more complicated. This video hit me right in the heart, and I hope that it will be interesting to watch for my fellow globetrotters out there.

"More and more people worldwide are living in countries not considered their own. Writer Pico Iyer -- who himself has three or four "origins" -- meditates on the meaning of home, the joy of traveling and the serenity of standing still."

The entrance to the tea house at the back of Aoyama Flower Market

The greenhouse cafe

Great atmosphere and great company

A green tea with various leaves inside

Our salad, which also turned out to include sausages.

Chocolate cake with whipped cream and blueberries

A flower by our table

Fancy flower vase

Some more flowers

The tea shop is quite popular

Tea house 名刺

Today's flower

Flower party coming up!

■ Basic Info

• ・Name of Cafe: 
•     Aoyama Flower Market Tea House 
•     (青山フラワーマーケット )
• ・Address：
•     〒107-0062 Tokyo, Minato, Minamiaoyama, 5 Chome−1−2, 
•     青山エリービル1F
• ・Phone: 03-3400-0887
• ・Opening Hours: 11:00～20:00 (Mon-Sat),
                             11:00～19:00 (Sundays & official holidays)
• ・Official Home Page：http://www.afm-teahouse.com/aoyama

Related blog posts

• All blog posts from Tokyo
• All blog posts about cafes
• Tokyo Cafes: The Usabibi Bunny Cafe (うさびび)
• Tokyo: Penguin Bar Ikebukuro (ペンギンのいるBar)
• Tokyo Cafes: Meiji 100% Chocolate Cafe
• Tokyo Cafes: Cafe Fuglen - Norwegian style Coffee & Vintage Furniture
• Tokyo Cafes: Rakuten Cafe in Shibuya
• Tokyo Cafes: Aoyama Flower Market Tea House
• Toko Cafes: Tokyo Dome City Moomin Bakery & Cafe
• Shikoku: The Abandoned School Cafe Haratoke (ハレとケ珈琲)

Recommended Hotels in Tokyo

 More Tokyo hotels

Henn na Hotel ★★★★ → review .

The Centurion Classic Akasaka ★★★★ → review

Hundred Stay ★★★★ → review ,

Kaisu Hostel ★ .

---

This page contains affiliate links, and if you follow a link and make a hotel reservation through these links you help support this blog without any additional cost to you. Thank you so much for your kind support!

---

A shrine covered in snow

From inside the shrine area

The white streets

Flowers in the snow

And.. Surprise! More snow..

Melted snow

The carrousel at Tokyo Dome City also covered in snow

In the evening I went to Shibuya to meet up with some friends, and while I was there I took some really cool photos of Hachiko covered in snow. Only thing is, I had uploaded these pictures to my computer earlier that day, and I had forgotten to put the memory card back into the camera. Didn't realize until later when I wanted to take a look at the photos I thought I had taken. Ahh.. Oh well, at least I got some nice ones of the snow in the morning..

• All blogposts from Tokyo

Royal Park Hotel The Shiodome

Bunka Hostel Tokyo

Sotetsu Fresa Inn Nihombashi

Ryokan Asakusa Shigetsu Hotel

It has been about three and a half year since I first came to Ritsumeikan as an exchange student back in 2010. Back then I had planned to stay at the school for a year through the Study in Kyoto Program, but ended up enrolling in Ritsumeikan's Graduate School of International Relations.

This week I went back to Ritsumeikan for the oral defense of my thesis, which I turned in last month. The defense marks the ending of my life as a student in Japan, and after I start working in Tokyo in April I think it will take many years until I possibly decide to go back to university again.

Anyway, I have decided that I'll still keep on posting updates about my life in Japan along with my travels, but as I will no longer be a student I have made a small change to the blog's title. Stay in tuned for more adventures in the future!

主催：　ノルウェー夢ネット　http://www.norway-yumenet.com 
後援：　フィンツアー　 http://www.nordic.co.jp 
日時：　【第６６回】　２０１４年２月１５日（土）　１３：００～１５：００
講師：　青木 順子（ノルウェー語翻訳・講師　ノルウェー夢ネット代表） 
ゲスト講師：　Anette Benes Hansen (アネッテ・ベネス・ハンセン）さん
1988年生まれ。 　　　　　　　　　　
ベルゲン大学にて教育学と日本語学科を学ぶ。立命館大学に留学し、国際関係の修士を学ぶ。 　　　　　　　　　　
韓国ソウルの慶熙大学校で政治学修士を学ぶ（立命館の共同修士学位プロジェクト）。 　　　　　　　　　　趣味は、外国語を学ぶこと、旅行、空手、ダンス、トレーニング、編み物 　　　　　　　　　　
写真・ブログ:　www.adventuresofanette.blogspot.com 
場所：　フィンツアー会議室（東京都港区芝5-13-18　ＭＴＣビル９Ｆ　会場の地図はこちら）
参加費：　￥3000（テキスト代込）
講座テーマ：　「日本に魅せられたノルウェー人～アネッテさんの語る留学、就職、将来の夢～」 

ここ数年、日本に興味を持ち日本語を学ぶノルウェー人の若者が増えてきました。 アネッテさんもその一人。 エキゾチックと感じた日本語をベルゲン大学で学び、日本と韓国への留学を経験され、現在は駐日ノルウェー王国大使館でインターンとして働いています。 そして、この春からは日本の大手ＩＴ企業への就職が決まっているそうです。Bridal modeling for Kyoto Weddings 日本の文化に魅了され、日本に住み、日本で働きたいと考えるノルウェー人はそれなりに多いものの、実際に就職活動をして実現できる人は限られています。 

今回のサロンでは、そんなアネッテさんのこれまでの軌跡と、将来の夢に向かって着実に前進されている成功の秘訣を探ってみましょう。 日本での就職活動はノルウェーの場合と、どのような違いがあるのでしょうか？ 日本の何に魅力を感じて、どんな体験をされてきたのでしょうか？ そして今、思い描いている将来像は？ アネッテさんの目を通して見た日本社会、日本人観を伺うことで、新たな発見があるかもしれません。 

また、プライベートでは将来を誓い合った日本人の恋人がいらっしゃるというアネッテさん。 日本人男性に持つイメージや、結婚や家族観についても聞いてみましょう！ 

ノルウェー語ワンポイントレッスンは、「夢を語る」です。

 (Photo: Yuki Kuwabara)

UPDATE:
ノルウェーについて学ぶサロン・講座レポート
講座についての自分のブログ（英語のみ）

関係あるポスト：
日本語あり

The Moomin cafe at Tokyo Dome City in Kourakuen

The Finnish cartoon character Moomin is extremely popular in Japan. This year marks the 100th anniversary of the Swedish-Finnish creator Tove Jansson, and we can probably expect to see a lot of the little white troll in Japan in the coming year as well.

I've finally come to the last post I wanted to write about Palau. This is going to be a summary of my total impression of the island, and I'll try to make it as short and informative as possible.

All in all it was a nice place to visit, and we got to see some really unique and interesting sights. People were really friendly, and we felt very safe there even when we ended up sleeping on the ground outside our hotel when we arrived at 3 am on our first day.

For people wanting to visit Palau there are a couple of things one should be aware of first though. The thing I missed the most during our stay in Koror was that there wasn't a single beach in the vicinity, so unless you take a taxi or rent a car to go to the other side of the island (depending on where you live of course) you won't be able to fulfill your dreams of spending some relaxing days on the white sand. In our case, the hotel we stayed at was situated in the middle of nowhere, and the main reason we had chosen the place was because of their beautiful pool. But as it was off-season it turned out that the pool hadn't been cleaned for months and was filled with green water... Although the hotel in itself wasn't bad this obviously had a huge negative impact on our stay. To avoid ending up in the middle of nowhere and get your vacation destroyed you should be very careful when choosing where to stay. If you want to make sure you get a proper hotel I would recommend the Palau Royal Resort; they are located close to the city senter and have a private beach. If I ever get the chance to come back to Palau I'll most definitely stay there.

The second negative aspect of Palau is that there is not much to do unless you have money to pay for activities and trips (again a good reason to choose a hotel with a good locations and activities available on the hotel's grounds). There are some tour operators offering to take you along on great trips around Palau, which of course is nice if you don't mind spending around 100 dollars a day for such trips. It is not the best place to be a poor student like we were..

You could of course also rent a car and travel around (which isn't that cheap either), but if you stay in Koror you might just find yourself stuck at Cafe Berry due to lack of things to do. Free wifi is rare in Palau and Cafe Berry is one of the few cafes that offers free wifi along with your order. The password is changed every day, but is always something from their menu (at least during our week here) and included words like cappuccino and americano. Be aware that both locals and tourists alike come here just to use the wifi, and the Internet is often reaaally slow.

As for nightlife; Palau has strict rules about how late you are allowed to stay out, and most places close really early. We celebrated New Years in Palau, and this was the only day of the year where the bars were allowed to stay open until midnight. It actually turned out to be an awesome and very memorable New Year's celebration which deserves a separate post.. For now however, just keep in mind that Palau probably isn't your #1 partying destination for most of the year.

If you can ignore the negative aspects mentioned above (in other words: if you're not a backpacker on a tight budget like I was) then Palau will be a great destination for you. Palau is known as a mecca when it comes to diving, and we had an awesome dive trip to the Turtle Wall. I'm sure that people who visit mainly for the diving opportunities (and stay at a proper hotel) won't be disappointed.

Anyway, the rest of my posts about Palau can be found below! Although this post might seem a bit negative we did have a lot of fun during our stay, which I hope has been reflected in my other posts.

• All blogposts from Palau
• Sightseeing in Palau: The Milky Way!
• Sightseeing in Palau: The Jellyfish Lake
• Sightseeing in Palau: Kayaking the Rock Islands
• Palau: Visiting the Battlefield of Pelileu Island
• Diving in Palau - The Turtle Wall

Palau Royal Resort by Nikko Hotels

Airai Water Paradise Hotel & Spa

DW  Motel

Lighthouse  Hotel