03.03.14 Hinamatsuri

Hello!

How are you!?
I am fine. 

Today in Japan, it is "Hinamatsuri" as some of you might know. Hinamatsuri (doll festival/girl's festival) is always celebrated on 3rd of March. Families with daughters will during this day, pray for them to have a happy and successful life. It is also tradition to display dolls, together with peach blossoms in the homes here, during Hinamatsuri. Eating chirashi sushi is another tradition of Hinamatsuri (if you haven't tried it, you should, I really love it. Absolutely delicious). And I read somewhere that you also drink sweet sake today. But I don't know about that.

Honey's mum also gave me some Hinamatsuri origami that her colleague had made. Her colleague told her to give it to me. Very nice thought. I've always liked origami. And a couple of years ago I spent a lot of my time folding origami. Have you ever tried it out? There's a lot of guides online where you can learn to fold different kinds of origami.

Aren't they adorable!? Really cute. Origami always fascinates me a lot.

What else!? Hmm... well.. yesterday, me and honey met up with one of his friends. We went to a local tempura restaurant to eat. It was delicious. And I could enjoy having lunch together with his friend. All of us ordered the same. A set menu for 2000¥ each.

Don't have any good pictures of yesterday's lunch. But here's some of the food that were included in the set menu.

At the restaurant yesterday. To be honest I've felt uncomfortable with the thought of uploading pictures of me,
 or other people around me here at the blog. But I'll try to change it.
I guess it won't hurt to upload a picture every now and then ^^

26.02.14

Hello guys! How have you been!?

I hope you're all fine. And that you were able to enjoy the weekend, and beginning of this week. 

I'm fine. But have been feeling a bit exhausting since there was a lot of things to do this weekend. And didn't get a lot of sleep. But I could enjoy anyway.

Me and honey went to an indian restaurant in Kichijouji. We ate tandoori chicken, prawn masala, garlic nan, and potato nan. It was super delicious! Especially the garlic nan. I think that the restaurants name is "Sital" (?) if I remember correctly. Anyway, I recommend you to go there if you're in Tokyo/Kichijouji. We also walked around for some while in Kichijouji, and even had lunch outside on a park bench. It was really cozy. After the dinner, and before we went home, we had warm sweet potato bubble tea from a small moomin stand that you can find in Kichijouji as well. It was so tasty. If you like pumpkin latte, I'm sure you'll love this sweet potato bubble tea also.

Sunday, as you know, we went to look at some apartments again. And the good news is, that we've found ourselves an apartment. Yaay. A 3LDK, 60 square meter, including a tatami room, two balconies. pretty fresh, and plenty of storage. Not too bad. I'm sure we'll make a good home there. Can't wait. Since we finished looking at apartments earlier than expected, we had plenty of time left that day. So we went to the sea for some while. It was nice. Unfortunately, even though last sunday was Mt Fuji's day, we weren't able to see Mt. Fuji. But we will have a lot of chances to see it in the future. So no worries.

We were gonna go to Disney Sea this monday. But finally, we were too tired from lack of sleep. So we just took it easy, and went to the next station to look at curtains and so on.
So instead, we went to Disney Sea yesterday. It was a lot of fun. We didn't ride too many attractions. But both me and sweetie were totally fine with it. We could enjoy just walking around, eating some tasty things, and just hang out together. I think Disney Sea is a lot more mature than Disney Land. And also a bit cosier. And the shows at Disney Sea it waaaay better than the parades at Disney Land. But I still like both places though. We didn't take a lot of pictures. But at least enough. I actually thought it would be more convenient to film a bit, and also more time saving. So I think that's why we didn't take too many pics at there. 

Weekend Plans

Saturday: Go to Kichijoji and meet up with honey to eat lunch then walk around in the neighbourhood, and then have dinner. After that pick up rental car. Kichijoji is a quite cozy, and interesting neighbourhood with a lot of cafes and restaurants. Big + for that.

Sunday: Go and look at some other apartments. Hopefully we'll find one this time. Please let us find one this time. If not, I give up, kinda, sorta.. Blaah. Or at least I'll stop care and say yes to anything haha. I hope we'll get a good view of Mt. Fuji this time. It's so, so beautiful!

Monday: Disney Sea! Yaay (^o^) Really look forward to it. Last winter we went to Disneyland. loved it. Disney Sea, I heard, is more mature, and perhaps more popular for couples!?

I've been feeling like I'm catching a cold these recent days. It is just too freaking cold in this apartment. Central heating does NOT exist in Japan. And the ceiling here just sucks. Kotatsu is almost always occupied, and the oil heater sucks anyway. Blah blah.. should stop complain. Just started to feel even worse today. So I do feel a bit irritated. Have stuff to do you know. No time for a heavy cold. Seriously I'll stop complaining now.

Today I found this cute Rilakkuma latte while I was out. Bought it because it was just simply too cute. I was surprised that it didn't taste bad at all. Usually I don't like these kind of coffees. They are always too sweet. I like strong, unsweetened coffee normally.

Super kawaii or what!? lol

Häagen Dazs 20.02.14

So in Japan, recently Häagen Dazs released two new, seasonal flavours for their "30th anniversary".

One I am a fan of myself.. the other one!? Not so much. The flavours are: sakura (cherry blossom), and rose. Can you guess which one that I do not find desirable? The rose flavoured one of course. Although I have not tried it out myself, I am also just as sure that I will not. I think that rose is something you either love, or hate. As much as I love the flower itself.. I absolutely do not like rose fragrances, flavours.. or anything similar to that. Blehhh.

Sakura, anyhow, I really like. It reminds me of bubblegum taste. When I've eaten, or been drinking something with sakura flavour, I immediately become reminded of my childhood. Every now and then, my mother would buy me this pink, soft bubblegum in a tube, that I always loved to chew. With a taste so sweet.

But I won't lie. Sakura is a complicated flavour. You can easily go wrong with it. For example, I've eaten sakura softcream, that wasn't a big hit. Häagen Dazs sakura ice cream is however awesome, . Starbucks Sakura Latte isn't that good either. Way too milky. It takes a pro to master the flavour of sakura.

Anyhoo, back to the topic, me and sweetie bought both sakura and rose. His sister wanted to try out both flavours. So I've taken a couple of pictures of both the ice creams.

If you're in Japan, take this opportunity to buy any of these ice creams, while they're still available. I recommend sakura one. If you're a fan of cherry blossoms, you'll be a fan of this ice cream too. The price is around 180¥ if I remember correctly :)

Which one of these would you like to try out!?

Review: Etude House "Happy Teatime Peach Tea Cleansing Foam", "Sleeping Facial Pack", & Skin Food "Honey Black Tea Bubble Foam".

Alright.. So I haven't been updating anything here for almost a month!!! And I am really sorry about it. Since I came home from Japan I haven't really felt any inspiration for writing. Didn't really know what to write about. But I will start updating about my everyday life.. even though it is most of the time boring as h*ll, lol!

Today I will write a review of 3 products that I use on a daily basis. They are from the korean brands "Skin Food", and "Etude House". Some of you might have heard of these brands before, or even tried 'em out. And for some of you, this might be the first time hearing about them. I personally love Skin Food.. and I actually like Etude house much. I'd like to say that they have got a lot of good beauty products, for a small price. That's always a good thing, right? ;)

From left to right: Etude House Sleeping Pack, 

Etude House Cleansing Foam, And Skin Food Cleansing Bubble Foam.

The Sleeping Pack's texture is quite loose (runny), and as you might see 

it's a bit transparent. 

The Cleansing Foam's texture is very creamy, thick, and firm.

The Cleansing Bubble Foam is,

 as you can see very foamy, bubbly.

Etude House Sleeping Pack: I really like this one. As I tend to have dry skin in bad weather conditions, I'm happy there's a pack like this. There are 3 different type of sleeping packs. I'm using the moist&firm one. Apply it after you've washed your face, go to bed, and rinse it off in the morning. It won't get easier than this. The sleeping pack has got a mild scent. A positive thing is that you only need to apply little, thanks to it's texture. I do think that it keeps your skin quite moist. I do NOT recommend this to people with very sensitive skin, as your skin might react badly to this product!

Etude House Cleansing Foam: This is a very good facial wash. I'm not sure, but it feels like a mild product. The smell is divine (peach tea). It is ridiculously easy to apply onto your face (thanks to it's creamy texture, it feels very smooth to apply). And rinsing off has never been easier. On the pack it says that the cleansing foam is nourishing and brightening. The bad point however (in my opinion) is that I feel like I need to apply a moisturizing product right after, or else my skin feels a bit dry. But still, it cleanses very well, which is very important for me.

Skin Food Cleansing Bubble Foam: I L♡VE this cleansing foam. From when I first bought it, til now, I'm still in love with it. lol!! It's moisturizing your skin, and also removes keratin + provides elasticity to your skin (according to what is written on the bottle). I bought this together with the honey and black tea daily cream. Unfortunately I've run out of it!! But it is also a great product.
I love the honey smell. And the bubbly, foamy foam is really nice. Easy to apply. Rinses off easy, and leaves your skin fresh.


I recommend all of these three products. And one more thing that's very nice about 'em are the packaging. Really cute!!
If you have a possibility to, you should try them. I've personally bought all of them in Japan. But I think you can order it from Ebay, Amazon (?) etc. If you have the possibility to, you should visit their shops :)

I'll try to write a new update soon again!!
Hope that you're all having a good week.

Love from Amanda (^o^)/♡