One year after 311 Earthquake in East Japan

Today is the first anniversary of 311 Earthquake of magnitude 9.0, followed by deadly tsunami. Over 21.000 people lost their lives, killed by tsunami or from the injuries caused by quakes.
I wasn't here in Japan, when it ocurred. I was in Poland that time. We were woke up around 8 am by a phone call from my father-in-law and he asked us if we're aware what is hapening now in Japan. We were surprised, because we were sleeping, exhausted after quite a busy night our 9 month old son gave us. We quickly turn on TV and... I sat in shock on our sofa. A huge wave was tearing apart houses, washing away cars and taking along big ships further into the mainland. I remember crying a lot that day, and next days too. Japan is like my second home, I lived there almost 4 years, gave birth to my son in Sapporo, I have a lot's of friends around the country. To think that anything bad would happen to them is just too much for me. Luckily, none of my friends were injured or killed by tsunami. We were worried about my husband's friends who live in Sendai, because there was no contact with them, but finally they callled (or wrote an e-mail, don't remember now) saying they're all right. For the next few days I watched NHK World - one and only japanese channel we were able to find in our cable tv programme list, and was so depressed seeing all those images of wave washing away averything, people suffering and ruined cities. And of course problems with Fukushima nuclear plant. I just couldn't stop watching TV... Everyday new number of people killed, problems with food in damaged villages and cities. That was so sad, I couldn't get over it. I wanted to do something, I even thought I could go to Japan and help somehow, but as I had a small baby at home, it was impossible. We eventually gave some money to help rebuild an elementary school ruined by tsunami. That was all we could do that time.
Today we we're watching in TV the ceremony held in memory of all the people who lost their lives in tsunami. There was a minute of silence at 14:46 - the time when the earth shook on 11th March 201. All day all the channels were showing programms about tsunami and people who survived the wave. Again, its was so depressing and sad.
Sorry for such a personal post here, but it was very emotional experience for me, and as I live now in Japan, I wanted to show my respect for the people here and for the place I really love.

And at the end, please look HERE - these are some pic taken after tsunami striked and one year after. Scroll pics from side to side to see places then and now. I was shocked how fast they cleaned almost all of the debris and things brought along by the wave. But well, that's Japan :)

がんばれ、日本！

Pic from the top of the post is taken from here

Hokkaido winter, part I

Lots and lots of snow in the north of Japan :)
Today not very nice pics, just to show you how it looks from my windows and through my iPhone. Enjoy ^^

Winter, the beginning...

And just winter...

 

Next post will show more artistic view of Hokkaido winter ;)

Too soon :)

It started to snow late in the evening yesterday...

And in the morning it was like that:

Too soon... Autumn colored leaves still haven't fallen from many trees and it's still quite "warm" - around 5°C, but snow's not melting...
Our winter clothes are still held by the post - we sent them by ship two months ago and we're still waiting... Even my winter shoes are in one of the packages... Guess I won't go out for a while ;)

Back in Japan ^^

After one year in Poland I came back to Sapporo, the biggest city of the Japan's north island - Hokkaido. I've lived there almost 3,5 years from spring 2007 'till fall 2010. Now we came back for next two years. And Sapporo welcomed us with beautiful colours of Japanese autumn <3

 Those leaves are sooo big!!

 Ginko avenue at the Hokkaido University.

 And ginko trees at Higashi district's local shrine

And Odori Park, main park in the center of Sapporo.

Went to Hel-l XD

Went on scout camp (as a staff) at the very end of peninsula at the Baltic sea to Hel - Polish seeside town. Spent there 10 days, mostly rainy and windy. But it was fun and I enjoyed every day there. My 14 months old son was really happy spending all days outside and sleeping in big tents. He finally learnt how to walk and now he's almost running everywhere - he looks so cute ;D 

Hope you all enjoyed your free time during the summer ^^

Perfect "real life" Yoru ^^

As for the inauguration of this blog, this entry will introduce Yoru - my first OC, also in a doll form ^^ If you don't want to read this stupid stuff, just go directly to the pics under the "story" :D

Yoru is a +200-year old vampire, changed when he was 19 (so he looks like a teen). He wasn't bitten - it was some kind of a curse. He was, along with his sister, kidnapped and abused by their father's associate, and then drowned in the pool full of their parent's blood. After waking up, he got really bloody vengeance on the murderer.
Yoru's Japanese, has a twin sister Makie and a "half-brother" Shiki.
Normally he's a really nice, friendly and extroverted guy, but when he's angry or hungry you better run and hide :D

His mood can change quite quickly but most of the time he's cheerful, enthusiastic, also quite a talker, but a bit childish and hot-blooded. He's also annoyingly persistent, impatient and stubborn. But being open-minded and sensitive makes Yoru being liked and trusted by many people. And he uses it a lot to get a late dinner, mostly  with an early breakfast ;)

Yoru's really bad at cooking, he can't even make a sandwich. Well, he do not need it anyway. For now ;)

He has a lots of vampire skills, but he's still learning useful stuff from his extraordinary friends. But he's a bad student, after all... His former tutor and master was Shou, fire half-dragon. They had really strange relationship, but luckily for a vampire it was over after few years.

So, time for pic spam of cute vampire ;D

But today I've found a perfect "real life" Yoru ^^ I saw pics of Miura Haruma, japanese model and actor, and I was like - OMG my Yoru!! Finally found you! XD So here are Haruma's pics found in the internet:

<3 Cuuuute :D 
Pics found here, here, here and here ^^