Life Update - Studying 1 year in Japan & my TV appearance ♥

Miss Neko - a German girl living and studying in Japan 
Hi sweeties ♥ ヾ(*'▽'*)
Long time no see ! YES - I'm still alive and have just risen from the
undead(-bloggers). My last post was in 2016 and almost my whole life has changed so drastically in these 2 years. I still do love sharing my adventures in Japan and around the world with you guys, though ♥ So it has been bugging me a bit that I just didn't find the time to write, these past years. I've started to be very active on Instagram though. So if you wanna follow me and see my stories about my daily life, Japan, travelling the world & many exciting things I just have to shout into the void of the internet, 'cause I dont wanne keep it just for myself - heres my Instagram @officialmissneko
I post stories almost daily ♪
Want an update on what I've been doing the last 2 years ?
Just watch the video above (･ω･)☆ 
I have actually been able to fulfill my childhood dream and move to Japan !
I have been living in Kobe, which is near Kyoto and Osaka.There I have been studying at a Japanese University as an exchange student from autumn 2016 until autumn 2017.The German newspaper of my small hometown even wrote an article about my time abroad. I even made the front page : 

It says "Johanna is living her dream in Japan" 

The first page:

Page 2 :

This is at my graduation ceremony from the University in Kobe in autumn 2017:

The two women at the sides are organizers of the exchange program and

the woman on my left was our main Japanese teacher. They were all incredibly sweet to us students and always there for us ~ I think of all my life as a pupil/student
these will be the people I will remember the most throughout my life. They had a great impact on me and I'll always be grateful for that ♥
I'm trying to give back the kindness and help they showed me to the world in my daily life now.

Now you know why I sadly had to take a big break from blogging. I can't describe to you how much work and effort it took to make this dream come true. But I see this as a motivator, you can always make your dream happen somehow ! Just be prepared for the effort it might take and keep your expectations and plans realistic.

Sometimes the days working towards this were incredibly hard, but what always made me happy and not loose my stamina was thinking of this quote by the german philosopher Immanuel Kant: "Ich kann, weil ich will, was ich muss"
roughly translates to: "I CAN, because I WANT what I MUST"
meaning ~ I can do everything I want to do, because I want to do the things I HAVE to do, to get me what I want. If I want this outcome 'A' I also must want everything that will lead me to my goal and see it already as a part of my goal.
At least this is how I interprete it. It made me happy to know all the work, all the MANY paperwork and preperations were already a part of me going to Japan and bringing me so much closer. That helped a lot and not to forget the strong support system I had in my lovely family, friends & my partner ♥ I couldn't have done it without them either.
♪
I was also working a part time Job besides University for about 2 years in a
Japanese-German bookstore: Takagi - books and more
Besides books we also sold Manga, japanese magazines and a lot of anime Merchandise.
So you can guess I really enjoyed my time there and on top of all everyone who works there is really sweet which makes it even nicer ♪

Of course not only the inner me has changed a lot in these 2 years, my sense of fashion has evolved as well. With all these millions of inspirational influences I had, while living in Kobe ♪
♥ Here are a few looks I really enjoyed during the last 2 years :

Pastel Goth Moon Child ~

My personal casual look ~ shopping in Shibuya ♥

Of course I also still followed my passion for Kimono while being in Kobe ♥

Snow fairy Gal at mount Fuji ♪

Casual Winter look ♥ I dyed my hair all by myself in this photo and I can tell you it was such a struggle to do that with only 2 arms (￣▽￣*)ゞ

Romantic Country look ~ Onee-Gal version ♪

I even got this super cute fan-art made by LALYCK.
Thanks so much dear ! (*♡∀♡) I wish I looked THAT pretty *-*

Fills my heart with happyness that this is how you see me ♥

Check our her page, she's such a talented artist !

Doing one of my favourite things in Japan - Thrift shopping in the Book off ♥

Pastel Mermaid ♥ in Harajuku

Liz Lisa x MyMelody look in front of the Osaka Castle. 

I took a million Purikura - of course ! ♥
This dress is also Mermaid themed by Secret Honey and the
cardigain is by Liz Lisa.

When I wasn't learning or working the past 2 years I spend all the free time I had with my lovely friends - old and new ones ♥

With one of my closest friends ♥  aka. V-chan ;D
I had some classes with her at Uni, now she already has a Job in Tokyo.
She also played a big part of me going to Kobe. When I first went to Japan in 2014 I flew with her. She was starting her year abroad in Kobe, at the exact same Uni I went to, 2 years later. The day I left her at the University I was determined - I want to study here too, this was all I could ever dream of.
That gave me motivation for the next years. Thanks so much again for
all the help & guidance ♥

Then there is of course my bestie Bea-chan ;3 ♥

 She introduced me to her passion - Kimono & let it become mine too.
She stayed with when I first visited Japan in 2014. She was living in Kyoto at that time. And also helped me more often than I can count ♥
With my studies ~ but also my life ^^" Thanks Onee-san !

I visited her during my year in Kobe, while she was working, in Bali. We decided spontaneously to spend my summer holidays together. Another huge adventure I might share with you in another entry. I wanted to show a pic of us together in Bali but I found none ?! I must admit since I know her she has been taking hundreds of thousands of photos of me (eternal thankfullness) as she likes photography & just is really nice. So every time we go somewhere I have a thousand photos of landscapes and myself ;_; ups
We need to start taking more than just 1 purikura every 2 years dude !! (ง ื▿ ื)ว

Currently I'm in a long-distance friendship with Bea & Wiebke ;_; 

Which I'm surprisingly used too...as it's the same with my boyfriend since almost 2 years now. But I must say I feel really warm inside, seeing that no matter how far away we're all scattered across the globe I've always felt close to you all and you were still always there with me ♥ you're the best !

Although I'm in a long distance relationship with my boyfriend, we still talk almost every day. He even visited me 4 times during my stay in Kobe.
Briefly - but still ♥ I think that was very kind of him.
He's living in Los Angeles since about 2 years now and I will move in with him there most likely this October ! FINALLY *-*

Like I said I also met many great people & made new frieds during my 

year in Kobe. And I'm glad that I was blessed enough to have been able to get to know so many sweet personalities ♥

Summer festival on Campus 

 Out with the dorm squad ♥ I'll never forget you guys !
Eating my favourite Japanese dish! Okonomiyaki (I eat the vegetarian version).
(They're all wearing paper napkins to protect their clothes - why don't I ??
I have the biggest reason to wear one, as I'm in an Angelic Pretty dress there...what is wrong with me o.O)

With cute Claudy ~ my neigbour & closest friend and ally from the time 

in Kobe ♥ I'm glad you were there during my year ! Wouldn't have been half as great without you ♪  

At the German Embassy in Osaka with Claudy ♪ 

We were invited to an event, but I can't remember what it was exactly.

 At the Tenrikyo Temple in Nara 

With Natsumi-chan & Junna-chan from my exchange uni (＾▽＾)♥
We were the Opa-squad (b ᵔ▽ᵔ)b
'Cause we all liked the shopping center called OPA and I told them
that it's hilarious to me, because it means "Grandpa" in German :D
It's a really fancy, big shopping department all over Japan with the cutest clothes ♥ I think it's as good as Shibuya 109 and really similar. With brands like Liz Lisa, DaTura and Swankiss present .

With the Swankiss staff girls in the OPA in Osaka ♥

 Never wanting to leave Harajuku ♪

Overlooking Tokyo ♥ On the Tokyu Plaza Omotesando

 But one day came the day I had to leave my dear Kobe ♥ .･ﾟﾟ･(／ω＼)･ﾟﾟ･.

 In autumn 2017 I went back to Germany to finish my last semester of University, write my Bachelor's thesis and then finally be finished
and free to go wherever my heart takes me.
♪
So this is what I'm currently doing - writing my Bachelor's thesis and doing a lot of preperations to finally move to Los Angeles to live there with my boyfriend.
♥
I just want to enjoy the next 2 years there and become much more active on social media like Youtube and Blogger. I'll also have a job in the US. but that's a story for another time. I will say right now, I'll be travelling a hell of a lot *-*
Just like I always dreamed of. My boyfriend and I can't really make plans set in stone yet for the far future as his job as a music producer is so spontaneous and you gotta be very flexible, but that suits our lifestyle at the moment. One thing we do know for certain though, before I turn 30 years old we will return to Japan for 1 year at least and I will search for a job during that time, that will promote me a work visa in Japan, like many of my friends and old study buddies have done already.
I would like to stay in Japan then and my boyfriend is quite fond of that idea too, but we will see where life will lead us until that time comes. ^-^

Thats it for now ~
I've already got 2 new entries planned so there's gonna be more frequent updates on here again.
Thanks so much for staying a blog follower all this time ! You guys are the best ♥

Miss Neko in Tokyo: Swankiss, KOKOkim & meeting Hikapu ♥

Hi there (^-^)v ♥

Today I'll show you some more of my favourite shops in
the Tokyo department store Shibuya 109 !
One of recently most popular shops there is
Swankiss 

Since I saw their store in Osaka for the first time
I really love their fashion as it's so romantic and cute.
See my entry about Swankiss in Osaka here ♪
Before I didn't really like Swankiss as I thought their fashion was
more vintage like but now that I've seen their new collections I've
really fallen in love with the romantic, princess like side of their style.
~♥~
I happened to meet Hikapu when I was in the store in Shibuya. 

She's one of the staff girls and model for Swankiss.
Check our her blog for more fashion: ameblp.jp/hikapupu
She's a great inspiration ♪
My friend Bea, who was with me, and I talked quite some time with
her and she helped us picking out some cute things.
She also posted a picture of us on her instagram and 

we followed each other :3

tm0927 named Tomomi is also a staff girl from Swankiss in Osaka ^-^
She recognized me from when I visited their store ♪

Hikapu also signed my shopping bag :

With Miho-chan ~♥ 

check our her blog ameblo.jp/nninni0129

I decided to buy this cozy cardigan :

I also bought this dress :

 and the headband ♪

 Another really cute store is KOKOkim ♥

There I got this t-shirt:

I just love the print *-*

They even wrote "109" on her stethoscope ♫

~♥~

 Another thing I bought at Shibuya 109 is this necklace :

After all the shopping my friend Bea and I rested a bit outside ♪

 

After some time we started to get up again to explorer Shibuya some
more. From time to time people asked me if they could take a
picture with me ^^ Like these girls from America :

 I think it's really cute how they were almost waiting in line ☆0(＾＾0)

Of course I was really flattered by thier compliments ^////^ ♥
It makes me very happy when something so nice happens.

But I was also glad when there were times when Bea and I weren't
bothered too much and could just enjoy ourselves.

We also came across a Tower Records store ♥

 Their store in Shibuya is said to be one of the biggest
music retail outlets in the world ! So of course I had to
take some pictures for my music loving boyfriend Valentin ♥
He studies music production and performes live shows in Europe.
Most of my dear readers might know him, for those who don't
check out his music if you like EDM, Dubstep, etc.
Virtual Riot :

my honey ♥

~♫~

We also saw this poster of my favourite band Perfume ♥
It said their 10 year major debut anniversary was on the day
we saw the poster ! *-* Awesome. It's crazy how time flies
I've been a fan of them since 2007 !
I've even been to a concert of them, here's my blog entry about it:
1st Perfume concert in Germany 

Met Iron Man in Shibuya ♪♪ｖ(⌒ｏ⌒)ｖ♪♪イエーイ 

109 Men's  department store:

~♥~

In front of 109 :

The famous crossing in front of Shibuya station :

Those huge commercials were quite impressive. You could
also hear music most of the time, I really liked that.
I wish we had this in Germany too.
Even though it can be stressful from time to time I still prefer
it when music is playing to create a nicer ambience.
You can also see the Marui ( "OIOI" ) department store
on this photo at the top right :

This duck truck was really awesome by the way :

~♥~

The famous Yamanote line ♥

I really liked using the train, it was such a pleasant experience
compared to Germany. I absolutely hate it when people
are reckless and inconsiderate and sadly I have to
encounter such people in my daily life in Germany way too often.
Of course there are reckless people everywhere in the world, yes! also
in Japan, BUT the general society definitely acts more
considerate towards each other as it makes life in such a
crowded town so much easier ♥
For example you always wait in lines before entering a train and
nobody would push you away to get on the train faster than you.
In Germany people use to stand way to close to you
when you want to enter a train or subway and very often someone
even pushes themselves passive-aggressively
against your bag or even your body ! 

~♥~

~♥~

Shibuya109 official blog 

Neko's music :

Spending all my time loving you !

so loving you forever ~♥

That's it for today ♥

I hope you enjoyed reading !
I'll see you next time, get ready for some
more fashion news from Japan ｡.::･'ﾟ☆ ＼(￣ー＼)(／ー￣)／'ﾟ★｡.::･
Bye bye ! ♥♥♥