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  • Germany Berlin
  • REPORTERRei Watanabe

He studied the master’s program at the Free University of Berlin. His fields of expertise include film theory, new phenomenology and neurophilosophy. Now in my13th year of living in Berlin, He hopes to rediscover the unique aspects of life in Berlin that can start to be taken for granted when living there, by sharing such information with everyone.

  • Germany Berlin
  • Rei Watanabe
  • 2015.11.27
  • Berlin's history through a zoetrope: Fichte-Bunker
  • A peculiar building stands in my neighborhood. People tend to pass by thinking it to be just an oddly-shaped piece of architecture, but that is a tragedy caused by the busyness of adult life. When I went inside with the idea of introducing it here, I was surprised to find that this innocuous building in a residential district is filled with a great deal of history.
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  • Germany Berlin
  • Rei Watanabe
  • 2015.10.30
  • Gecekondu against the wall
  • Last time we learned the Sioux word “teepee.” Today I am going to talk about a Turkish word. In Turkish, gece means “night” and kondu means “built,” so gecekondu refers to an “overnight-built simple structure, the squatter's house.” As a follow up to the last post, today I am going to introduce construction-by-night instead of fly-by-night, another type of squatting in the zone that separated the former East and West Germany. I hope you will learn a bit about Berlin history and sense the generosity of the city administration.
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  • Germany Berlin
  • Rei Watanabe
  • 2015.10.16
  • Self-made village on the Pavement
  • Teepees refer to tents in the Native American language. Today I’d like to introduce to you the small tent village in Berlin called Teepee Land, but please let me first tell you about squatting, a culture probably not so familiar to the Japanese. To squat means to occupy an area of land or a building that is possessed by someone else. The extent to which this kind of activity is tolerated here would be unimaginable in Japan.
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  • Germany Berlin
  • Rei Watanabe
  • Germany Berlin
  • Rei Watanabe
  • 2015.09.11
  • Back alley in Berlin・kiez
  • In a previous post I mentioned that the street corner Spätkauf (meaning late-night store) is the water cooler for residents of kiez (city neighborhoods). In this post, I’ll talk a little more about kiez.
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  • Germany Berlin
  • Rei Watanabe
  • 2015.09.04
  • The Spaeti’s Fight for Survival
  • We often hear of foreigners who have lived in Japan longing for the convenience stores they experienced while there. As implied by its name, such convenience is certainly hard to find in other countries.
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  • Germany Berlin
  • Rei Watanabe
  • 2015.08.14
  • Veggie in Berlin
  • Although there are still few vegetarians in Japan, they are not at all rare in Berlin. In Western European countries with a high standard of living and strong interest in ethical issues, there is a particularly large number of vegetarians among the younger generation in cities.
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  • Germany Berlin
  • Rei Watanabe
  • 2015.07.31
  • Trash in Berlin
  • When foreigners visit Japan, they’re surprised at the cleanliness and lack of trash in public spaces. In contrast, people who visit Berlin from Japan notice the amount of trash and how dirty the city is. I suppose it depends on where you are, since high-end neighborhoods, areas with a high percentage of immigrants, sightseeing areas, and business districts in Berlin completely differ in atmosphere and consumption.
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  • Germany Berlin
  • Rei Watanabe
  • 2015.07.24
  • Christopher Street Day
  • This post introduces the summer tradition, Christopher Street Day, an event in which sexual minorities parade through the streets. In Japan, such events are typically called rainbow pride or rainbow parade, but in Germany it is called Christopher Street Day or CSD for short.
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  • Germany Berlin
  • Rei Watanabe
  • 2015.06.19
  • Carnival of Cultures
  • The holiday called Pfingsten was celebrated just recently on May 25th (Monday). It is a day celebrating the Pentecost on the 10th day after the Christ’s ascension to heaven and the 50th day counting from Easter. Over this extended weekend, a festival called Karneval der Kulturen (Carnival of Cultures) was held in Berlin.
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  • Germany Berlin
  • Rei Watanabe

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