Cute item tour through the Daiso

Good morning everyone! Isn't it strange when I post now, that's how I feel, I never thought the day would come when blogging felt like this. I mean rather than being a habit as it was before, now it's some sort of one-off and it feels strange. My whole life feels strange now, I've gone back to the sort of life I had several years ago and everything I did/loved during the course of this blog has disappeared from my life.

I haven't traveled to Japan for 7 months, it's the longest amount of time between a Japan Trip for the past three years. I'm not taking photos for any new Japan related posts, but I want to keep writing about Japan so it may be soon enough I don't have any more post fodder. Until then I hope you enjoy these posts.


The Daiso carries a large range of 100 yen cosmetics actually (they are already known for their 100 yen eyelashes) but you can also make some cheap manicures too!


Giant spangle ribbons, sometimes you see 109 shop staff wearing these sort of ribbons during special events haha

The Daiso is a store that I have written about several times before. (Cute on the Cheap and Shopping at Jam Pixy and Daiso) This post will include more fun photos tho!

Due to the Daiso being a place where you can find all sort of fun and crazy items for just 100 yen, and it expanding to a worldwide company it has become rather well known. But that doesn't mean there's not always something interesting to show about this 100 yen shop!


The Daiso also carries lots of cute bento, a great way to build a large bento collection!


The rest of their kitchenwares are very cute too, look at this mouse's face hehe


Stationary goods that appeal to young girls, or those young at heart

In Ichinoe, where I have stayed during my last 4 trips, there is a Daiso. It was a bit of a walk from the apartment at around 20 minutes one way, but it was really nice to have it within walking distance. Feeling bored? Need something to clean or organize? Just head over to the Daiso haha. Of course it's a great place to pick up cute or silly things, good for souvenirs!


These 3D stickers are so cute, the fabric is iridescent, and they would be great for scrapbooking too^^


This was in the postcards, amongst typical scenes of Japan! How random to find this old movie picture of Brad XD


Daiso also has tons of yummy snacks, including "impulse buys" around the register in case you forget you need some gummis


The Daiso also has a discount Purikura machine, it's an older model but only 200yen. The 10-13 year olds around town liked to use this!

The sad thing is now that Daiso was to be closed at the end of last summer. Since I haven't returned I'm not sure if it did close or what the fate of that particular Daiso is. I wonder what other things have changed there in these past 7 months, will I go there again? Whenever I write these Japan posts (finally DX) I feel as if I ought to be there in a way.

Well my goal in life is to change my entire life haha. I want to get back into the life I was leading before Christmas - including losing weight, blogging everyday, dressing nicely and traveling. I will try to blog everyday this week so I can start changing my habits. I do actually have a new job now (not that it's good or I like it) but perhaps the structure will help haha.

I'm also going to try and catch up on replying (since I haven't....)

Valentines sugar - Sweets Paradise cake buffet!

Hello and Happy Valentine's Day everyone! It's the sweetest day of the year, with super cute red and pink decorations! I know not everyone like Valentine's Day, but it is a great day if you remember it is meant to celebrate love *3*

Though of course we should treat our loved ones with courtesy and affection everyday, I think Valentine's Day is a good opportunity to go a bit out of the way to show your love. As I have said before, I don't see Valentine's limit to just romantic love, it includes platonic and familial love too! Why else would we give little cards to our classmates? haha!

But if you do happen to have a significant other today is a good date day haha, and why not have a date that's more unique than eating at a fancy restaurant or getting chocolates/roses?

Inside the Sweets Paradise Yokohama Vivre

In Japan Valentine's Day is basically just about ladies giving chocolate to all the men in their lives, friends, co-workers and boyfriend. But if you are a foreigner staying in Japan perhaps you want a more interesting experience, so I would recommend going to Sweets Paradise with your SO or friends XD

At the buffet line

Sweets Paradise is cake buffet! Which means for a flat price you can go and eat all the cake you possibly can within 70 minutes. The nice thing about Sweets Paradise is they have other food besides cake, such as ice cream and spaghetti, curry and salad for those who aren't total sweet tooths haha!

The food I chose!

Though the time limit may make you feel compelled to jam in as many sweets as possible in my experience you will get to the full point long before you reach 70 minutes. The cakes are all cut in small slice and are not very sugary so you can try many. And even if you don't need a plan for Valentine's Day it's a nice place to check out in Japan.

There are Sweets Paradise locations all over Tokyo (and Japan), including all the major areas like Shibuya, Harajuku, Shinjuku etc. So check it out XD


Not everyone would like to go out and eat sweets so I came up with some other ideas for Valentine's dates/activities . . .
* Try something your partner likes to do but you don't (Hiking, arcades, paintball etc)
* Play a round of mini golf
* Hand make gifts for your loved ones
* Have a pizza party with your friends
* Go on a bike tour of your city
* Volunteer at an animal shelter, food shelve, nature park etc
* Get a make over at the department store and try fancy clothes on

Happy Valentine's Day!

Christmas traditions of old

Good evening. Well it's only a couple days more until Christmas huh? I can't believe its already here, I feel so deflated honestly. To me Christmas is the best time of the year, no wonder it's in the last month everything leads up to it haha. But whatever reason - my job, graduating, age, lack of snow - it just doesn't feel right.

Perhaps it's because of the things I used to do, and my family did, that we no longer do make it seem less Christmas-y. This year I had some plans to do Christmas activities and events but they never worked out, so I thought it might be good to atleast write about some of my family's Christmas traditions XD


Cookies!


I think this is very common holiday activity, but it is something very rewarding haha, you get to make something with your own hands and then eat it! I remember making Christmas cookies with my Grandma every year when I was young. We would make little wreaths made out of corn flakes and green colored marshmallow (like rice crispies).

The photo above was taken on Christmas 2008, some of the cookies were given to us, but most were made by my mom! Oh and there also some bars and fudge. I can't look at it any more, hungry!



The Christmas Toy

img via Muppet Wiki

The Christmas Toy is a Jim Henson, creator of the Muppets, one hour Christmas special which came out in 1986. Kermit is in it a little bit, but it's basically about toys who are alive, and one thinks he is supposed to be his owner's Christmas gift again.

Well I used to always watch this at Christmas time when I was a kid, and recently I have been watching it again. Not this year, but the past couple of years we just watch it some evening in December^^



Department 56's Dicken's Village


Another tradition we had was to display our village collection from Department 56, we had the Dicken's Village which were lighted houses, scenery, and figures modeled after the Victorian period in England. Every year we would put the houses out on a sheet of fake snow with hand carved "hills" on the entertainment system.

Well we got rid of the entertainment system cabinent, so there was no place to assemble the village and the tradition died out. But my mom recently bought a new bookcase which may work so next year hopefully we can put the village out again!


Christmas Eve gift


Another Christmas tradition we had was I was allowed to open one gift on Christmas Eve rather than Christmas Day. On Christmas Eve I used to go to my paternal Grandparent's house to exchange gifts, visit and have a nice dinner. When I got home I would show my mom all the gifts I got and tell her about the evening, then I got to pick a small gift from her to open.

That was always very fun and exciting, my mom always got me the cutest toys I wanted, and it just made the wait for Christmas morning harder haha!


Relaxing


This may sound like an odd tradition, but in the past me and my mom would just relax on Christmas day. We didn't have family come over (we always went to visit them), so we didn't cook a meal or have a party. We would just open our gifts and enjoy the free day.

Now my dad and maternal Grandma come over on Christmas day so we quickly have to unwrap gifts and get them out of the way so we can start cooking dinner. The photo above was some of the food we bought and had to prepare (all that for 4 people yes) You can read about that in this old post.



Wow this post took me so much longer to write than I expected! I didn't think it would be difficult to write about things that are personal, but each sentence took forever to form haha! I still have some things to finish before Christmas, but I work the next two days (yeah on Christmas Eve TT) so I have to manage my time well!

Well just to make this post more fun, here's a picture of my cat Micky from Christmas 2009, with a Christmas candy wrapper on his head as a hat:



I guess he's sticking his tongue out at the hat haha

Supermarket sweets mini-spam!

Good evening again! I just about didn't post today, and perhaps some won't consider this a real update either haha. I wasn't cut from my shift at work today, but they are running so "lean" (always minus 2 staff) so it's really tiring. No time for a bathroom break even. But pictures of delicious food can act as energy for the brain haha!

I promise to get some more nice photos up next week as we head into the final countdown to Christmas. I have some festive photos that have not been edited for quite awhile, perhaps it would be fun to do all Christmas post this coming week hehe!

Boxes of beautiful Japanese sweets! I like Japanese sweets but they can be an acquired taste, do you like them?

Anyhow, I snapped all these pictures in a local supermarket in a town near where I stay in Japan called Nishi-Kasai. We were shopping for dinner ingredients but I love to take photos of all the awesome sweets available. Especially since I can't eat them haha!

A roll cake with a pudding inside! For those days when you can't pick between cake and pudding XD

Roll cakes with a New Years motif. Strawberry and cheese flavor

Fruit on pudding parfait cups

A great thing about Japan is they are really into seasonal and limited edition food/flavors! So there are constantly new flavors of sweets and snacks being released. You can tons of Japanese blogs that are dedicated just to reviewing all the new sweets coming out haha!

Chocolate cake slices with some mont blanc in the background

Cakes being sold by the slice, the green one is matcha flavor

And one more bonus shot, it's not a sweet food though it appears like it should be sweet by the adorable packaging - it's Rilakkuma fishcakes! These are definently something you want use when making a bento XD

Ok, I think that's enough of me being evil haha! I promise the next photo spams will not be of things that are so tempting. I have a lot of errands to run tomorrow (one of my last free days before Christmas) so I'd better get some rest now^^

Hyaluronan & Collagen beauty supplement

Good day, and welcome to the start of a new week! This season is alot more hectic than last year, I guess I can understand how some people feel the holiday season is stressful now. (Well kinda, I still love it haha). There's yardwork, school work, work work but I want to put more effort into blogging. I'd better beef up on my multitasking skills huh? haha!

Today I want to review a product which is different from lash, lens or cosmetic reviews but it's still a beauty product. I think it will be an interesting thing to introduce.

This is hyaluronan (more widely know as hyaluronic acid) and collagen powdered supplement produced by the Orihiro company. For some time now collegen has been a popular in Japan as a beauty supplement that can make brighter more youthful skin. Recently hyaluronic acid has also been gaining popularity for that reason

In Japan you can find many powdered supplements and medications, though in the US pill and capsule form is still the standard (I suppose because it's more simple/less user error). This powder comes with a 10 cc measuring spoon that measures out a 7 gram dose. There is a 28 day supply totally.

Everyday you measure out one spoon and add it to your drink of choice. On the back of the can, there are several recommendations such as coffee, hot chocolate, milk and soy milk. Consuming a spoon of the supplement gives you 5200mg of collagen and 20mg of hyaluronan.

Complete nutritional information, contains some animal derived components

Recommended uses: in coffee, hot chocolate, milk and soymilk.

Collagen is And Hyaluronan is an important component of cells that helps promote healing, reduces inflammation and cell turn over. In 2003 the FDA approved the use of hyaluronan in injectables (for the face), it has positive effect on skin hydration and drives collagen synathesis. Which is why its good to have collagen and hyaluronan in the same supplement.

This is a beauty supplement, not a health supplement, but as with anything you put into your body you should take caution. Make sure to understand the product before using, and discontinue if you experience any negative side effects.

The supplement on oatmeal (gotta still stir it in)

However personally, I have had a good experience with Orihiro's Hyaluronan and Collagen supplement! Though I can't say it's magical, when I use the product continunally, after several days I do notice my skin appears brighter and less dry. I think this product is nice to use if you feel your skin is a dull.

And I'd also like to point out another way to another way to consume this supplement - in oatmeal! The collagen has a little vanilla flavor, so it makes the oatmeal taste a bit better haha.

Winter tastes, smells and colors

Wow, hey! Sorry to be behind again. I'm going to have to figure out how to budget my time now that have a job. I'm so used to having plenty of free time outside of my school work, now I'd better make a schedule for myself :/ Especially since I'd like to start exercising again.

Last time I posted I had remarked that all the Christmas stuff out already. The malls are already all decorated and the stores are all doing holiday season sales. It's hard to resist the feeling that it's winter already! Even though its still Autumn, I'm getting into winter things haha.

Though its not a winter taste per se, this Sea Salt Soirée chocolate bar is apparently new and it's flavor is rich like winter foods. You may be thinking "Salt...with chocolate?!" but the salt really blends with the dark chocolate to make a deep flavor.

On to the scents! A couple days ago I got a coupon from Bath and Bodyworks in my email for 10$ off of 30$. So I went onto their website and found their large candles are 2 for 30$ and they'd released all the winter candles. I'd gotten the urge to get a winter candle to burn in my room (tho I never wanted to before haha) and I ended up with the "Winter" scent XD

It's described on the website as "A festive holiday blend of shimmering pine, orange clove, crisp bay leaf and warm winter woods."

It makes sense I picked this out of everything because I wanted a pine scent and I like clove smell haha. I also liked: Merry Mistletoe, Twisted Peppermint, and 'Tis the Season

Because it's an evil shop of wonderful smells I couldn't escape with just a candle. I picked up these "travel" size body sprays - Twilight Woods and Dark Kiss! Twilight Woods is a top seller, and I can see myself buying more products in these scents soon XD

And finally the colors of winter! It may be red and green, blue and silver, gold and silver etc for you but in this case let's explore the winter cosmetics colors haha! Winter usually brings in the darker colors in cosmetics, and I'm happy to see plums coming up, and dark lips.







These scans from the November Jelly really caught my eye and inspired me to use my purple eyeshadows more. Also I did gold nails last week, but today I put on a dark maroon color.

What are the tastes, smells and colors that define winter to you??

Special delivery and impromptu coordi

Good evening! I will have the next O7W voting post up tomorrow, the normal programming schedule has been interrupted by a special delivery! Really this delivery was so special and made me feel so appreciative that I wanted to blog about it right away.

My friend in Japan, who I stay with over there sent me a gift for my birthday and it arrived this morning (I already received a super adorable card from him before my bday). Imagine my feeling when I saw "Runway Channel" on the outside of the box, actually I started to cry! I don't deserve such a kind gift. Thank you so much!



ViVi November 2011 with freebies


It's the online Tshirt set...

Inside was a copy of November's ViVi which comes with a freebie Murua collar! Isn't that the best freebie ever? I mean something you can actually wear and not a tote bag. The other part of the gift was the online exclusive Murua tshirt and cardigan set, in exactly the colorway I wanted!

I had this set on my wishlist, but sadly scratched it off after it after the white tshirt combos sold out. Its just so wonderful he got me this, it's too expensive, but now I feel I really don't need anymore clothing for awhile!



Wearing the set


The ViVi x Murua collar


They look great together too!

Of course I wanted to photograph this shirt worn, so I figured I may as well make an outfit to got with it. However I was not wearing any makeup at all, so I don't want to present that image here. I like how I look with makeup as it expresses me. But these set items should work in many great coordinates so you'll see it again soon XD



Just a few minutes after I finished taking these photos my dad came over to visit me for my birthday. He gave me the Lion King on Bluray for a gift and brought over ingredients to bake cookies. I made some molasses cookies from scratch, and amazingly they turned out perfect, chewy but not doughy or burnt.




One skull cutout amongst the normal cookies XD

My dad took like 80% of them with him, but I still have this many left and noone to give them to. I'm dieting, all the people I know are dieting or wouldn't like the taste of molasses TT Well anyhow it was a good day for me.

Tsubohachi, a chain izakaya

Thank you everyone who has given me such nice comments on my last post with my face photos, I feel photos like that are so boring/off-putting but your support makes me more confident^^ Anyhow I am also sorry that I haven't blogged recently, this weekend was so busy everyday! But atleast now I got the fabric for my halloween costume!

I'm going to do a Japan writeup now, try to break up the personal fashion-y posts a bit haha. Today I am introducing Tsubohachi and like it says in the title Tsubohachi is a chain of izakaya (Japanese pubs) which can be found in locations all over Japan.



Tsubohachi in Motoyawata

Although one of the fun point of izakaya is the huge variety of them and the specialty of small individually run izakaya. But there are times when you want a cheap meal in which you know exactly what you will get. Like other chain izakaya Tsubohachi has a very low cost menu so you can feel free to eat alot haha!



A menu page of Tsubohachi


Complimentary appetizers

We stopped at this Tsubohachi after our game of bowling and exploring Motoyawata a little bit. The interior was a bit dated, but it was comfortable. We got a floor table, but there was a cutout in the floor for everyone's legs so it was still comfortable haha.

Of course as usual I was trying to save money and eat properly so I didn't try so much at Tsubohachi, but everything I did have was pretty good in quality. It was personally what I expect for lower cost food, and I think I'm fairly realistic but still optimistic in my expectations haha!



Daikon Salad


Tamagoyaki seasoned with dashi


A tiny little parfait, good but teeny haha!

I know we had more, but I guess I didn't take pics of what my friend ordered, sorry there was not much food to look at! But as you can see from the menu photo there is plenty to choose from, especially a lot of nice Japanese type foods. The quantities are small so make sure to order many different things haha!




I haven't eaten at a izakaya in a long time, indeed I think I only dined at a restaurant twice or something during my Japan Trip this summer. But if you have the chance please try some izakaya the food is usually great and the atmosphere is fun and enjoyable^^