A manga about a girl going to Berlin for a year and her adventures in Berlin (and other pretty places).

In this manga we follow a girl named Aki, she has just lost her home due to a fire, has lost everything. And so now she is wondering what the hell to do with her life. She decides to do something grand, something huge. She decides to take her camera, her few possessions, and moves to Berlin! For a year! Yes, I was quite excited when I saw the premise of that, though I had a laugh how the plan came to be. I was shocked that she lost everything, but loved how she made a grand plan and went with it. Going to a whole different country, with different foods, but also a totally different language? I am not sure if I would have dared it! But Aki did!

I loved seeing Aki arrive (and tell someone in Japan that no she couldn’t take that package she wasn’t anywhere near Japan, haha) and see her find the place she stays. She has the luck that she has found an apartment with a Japanese girl also living in Germany (though unlike Aki she is doing sound-effects and sound stuff). And from there the adventures start! I loved seeing Aki try to make the best of it, not always easy as her German is very very very basic, but she does try and does practice. And thankfully, a lot of people speak English so she can move to that! We see her fall in love with the city (and who wouldn’t, I mean, I already wanted to go to Berlin, and now with this manga I want to go even more), fall in love with the food (so many good foods, YUM), not fall in love with the hot weather (I would think that since she is from Japan she is used to hot/humid weather, but I guess not, haha). She is trying to make her room something special, tries to find jobs (not always with success as well everyone wants her to speak German). It was a lot of fun and I could imagine that there were days that Aki was just done with it. Wondering if this was a good idea or not. I mean, I would have felt the same. But again, I am not sure if I would even have gone for this adventure. So far from home, well Aki even further. Germany is next door to my country. But say I would have gone to Japan. Phew. That would have been a change!

I loved seeing her make friends, not just with her roommate, but also with others around her.

And one thing I also loved is the details about the food! Next to a lot of droolworthy architecture we also get a lot of food! Aki discovering foods, but also together with her roommate making food in detail. Gosh, my stomach was all like, hello? Can I please get a bit of that? And I had to calm him down and tell him, that sure we can make that food with those strawberries. Soon.

The art was really nice, I especially love how the mangaka went full on out on the details of the buildings. WOW! It was just so pretty~

All in all, this was a fab volume and I want the next book as well! I would recommend this one if you like inspirational tales, love food, and love seeing Berlin (and also Prague).