Ambiente 14

A few weeks ago I had the awesome opportunity to work at the Ambiente Fair 2014 in Frankfurt to my old boss Akiko! Ambiente focuses on consumer goods around the themes of Dining, Giving and Living meaning a loooot of home design and tiny luxury items. I was in heaven!

getting inspiration for Exhibition Stand Design

The curtainwalls are actually really long candles of the Company!

I made the most of my free pass and scrolled daily through the loveliest unaffordabilities whenever I had toilet breaks the chance. The Frankfurt Fair is gigantic so even tho I spent over an hour before and after my shift no-matter-how-tired walking around the different sections I could not manage more than a half of it!

Working with Akiko and her other colleagues was fun and the hours flew by really quickly.  I was happy to notice myself more confident and socially talented than at the Early Bird two years ago. To top that the International flair made me very happy of my language skills in German, English and Japanese and I even got to use Finnish a few times!

Some companys really put their heart and money into getting new customers. I for sure was impressed by it all. Might this be Bloomingville?

House Doctor for sure made me drool and I wish they could have sold some of their items after the fair...
Not that I left all empty handed tho! Some of the exhibitors DID agree to part with their sample items after the fair with some really student-friendly prices! I'll shoot some of my shoppings soon enough to show where my hard-earned money actually went into haha.

Piece of Japan

While in Hamburg at the beginning of my Semester Holiday, I also visited my old job at Akiko's. Gosh how I miss the place! It was like old times, sitting behind the counter, chatting and drinking Japanese tea with my ex-boss, quiet Jazz in the background.

Loved my job, adored my boss and enjoyed the customers there. Do drop by if you ever pop in Hamburg!

http://www.akiko-japan.de/

AKIKO
Wexstraße 39
20355 Hamburg

Early Bird

Yeah yeah it's been ages since I wrote the last time. This month has been somewhat the most hectic one! After Finland a huge load of work was waiting for me as Akiko, the Japanese shop I work in, took part in an Early Bird Life Style Exhibition! I was nervous as hell as I've never worked in a trade fair before and was also worried about my German skills with strangers. I have to admit, I was quite an ape the first day and rather a nuisance than help to my boss. I was just so dazzled with the enormity of the fair, starting a talk with those business people, addressing them formally, giving background information about our products etc. that I totally failed in taking orders and such.

I wearing store products Machi-belt and a button brooch.

Working at Early Bird was boring actually. You're justs standing around endlessly while waiting someone to come and show enough interest in your product for you to make your sneaky entrence and small talk. Mornings were naturally long and the real customers apeared only after noon.

Boss Designer

Both of us bored we also bonded quite nicely with my lovely boss. Nothing to do but talk, gossip, make jokes and taiji the most of the time. I'm glad about my job. It's the best.

After my job was done I still made some rounds at the fair to see the other stands. My favourite department was "Living and Decorating" the interior design wing. I was amazed how much time, money and effort was put into a single stand, how much lovely useless deco-items fit into the world and how low the prices for the bigger companies are than for a private person.

Overall a nice change to my normal routine and a sweet extra for my wallet.

Remember to click the photos for bigger images!

いらっしゃいませ

Getting the previous whining post off my heart I can move on to the happy topic of introducing my work place! Hopefully this won't bring me bad karma & get me sacked. Ironically I was never employed by a German but a Japanese. Let me intorduce you the loveliest little shop.. 

Akiko

When asked I would describe Akiko a small Japanese design shop. The items sold are either handmade by the owner & her crew or imported from Japan. In Akiko's you can find a variety of fabrics, yuzen and origami paper, accessories, dishes, clothing and stationery with a Japanese touch. A pro seamstress is also available if one wishes to have a bag or a cloth made at the store. The owner organizes Origami Workshops few times per month for small groups. She doesn't do it for the money but for fun, she told me.

The job came to me via a friend to whom I do babysitting at least once a week. She is friends with the shop owner and heard that Akiko is looking for new personnel. I dropped by the next afternoon to introduce myself and fell in love with the shop immediately. To my horror however Akiko started the interview in Japanese as she had heard that I can speak some. I stumbled trying to explain that my Japanese is not that good. Thus we continued in German and I handed my CV over. I felt excited and welcomed by the small woman wishing I could stay.

Now I'm having a testing period of 2 months, working twice a week. It's not much but it's a start. In the best case I won't only improve my German but my Japanese too. I hope to gather work experience that'll be useful in the future.