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chroniclesofamiddlechild · 7 years

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THE FLIGHT FROM HELL

This blog post is to communicate my current travel status to NYC! Woo first of all, I was sooo PUMPED to go to NYC. Because ya know NYC IS SICK! And who doesn’t like New York?? Pls advise.

Anyways so I got to the airport early to see if I could hop on an earlier flight. (No dice). There were HOARDS of people EVERYWHERE. lining up just to check in took a good chunk of time. But bless up to the guy that checked me in. DID NOT QUESTION MY LAST NAME! Okay next thing was customs. Where I had to take of my shoes, empty my electronics, put my liquids in a separate bag… etc. one of my bins didn’t make it through AND THEN I HAD TO WAIT FOR THEM TO GO THROUGH IT. WELP!!! But once I got to the bin and then the guard noticed that her scanner wasn’t working. -.- -.- -.- so I had to wait for another guard to go through my bin of stuff. They were just really confused by my liquids. I would too… the stuff on the labels isn’t even on English… so WHATEVER I’ll let that pass. The next stop was CUSTOMS. so I went to the machine and tried to go through automatically. BUT… knowing MY LUCK I GOT STOPPED. GOT REJECTED. lol. The print out on my customs report was CROSSED OUT and then I asked the lady IS THIS NORMAL?!! AND SHES ALL LIKE “ya you just gotta talk to the customs officer”. Like da fuq… okey then… so I wait and wait. Wait and wait in line to talk to the customs officer. Wait and wait… and THEEEENNN finally I got to the customs officer and he’s like “U is your last name?” And I’m all like “Yeah”. And he’s all like “that’s weird”. WHAAATT??? Is my last name REALLY WEIRD?? PLZZZZZ it’s 2017. People have WEIRD NAMES LIKE APPLE AND U IS NOT SOCIALLY ACCEPTABLE????!?!?! But then whatever. He then disclosed that the reason I didn’t get through was because of my last name. And then it got cleared AND FINALLY I MADE IT. BY THEN IT WAS 1:15. So I wasn’t able to get on an earlier flight which is fine COS THEN I CAN JUST WATCH NETFLIX. woo woo!!! So I just did that. And then I went to take a piss and then I come back sit down and THEN AT 3 my flight got cancelled. My flight for 3:45 was cancelled. LEGIT WELP!?! my first time that my flight got cancelled. So I listened very CAREFULLY and I listened to them and they said if you didn’t check in any bags YOU CAN TRY TO GET STAND BY!! AKA ME!! So I went to line up. About 15 people were in front of me fighting to get a stand by ticket. -.- so in my head I’m like DAMMIT THESE PPL AHEAD OF ME ARE PROBS GONNA GET MY SPOT!!! NOooOOoO I cannot let this to happen!! So I checked my email and I got an email from AIR CANADA saying that my flight got REBOOKED but I can try and change it. So I WAS TRYING TO CHANGE IT FRANTICALLY!!! I was trying to get on a 5:15 to LGA and I got to that page BUT ONCE I PRESSED CONFIRM, I KEPT ON GETTING KICKED OUT. WELP?? So then I realized that I could change the AIRPORT and I’m like WOO I CAN FLY TO NEWARK OR JFK? AND THERE WAS ANOTHER OPTION HPN??? So I tried to book a flight to Newark/ JFK. THE ONLY FLIGHTS AVAILABLE WERE CONNECTING ONES TO YOL/YUL? Looks like Yukon but it’s actually Montreal LOL. But WHY WOULD I TAKE A CONNECTING FLIGHT AND HAVE THE POSSIBILITY OF BEING STRANDED IN A FOREIGN CITY???? I love NYC but I don’t love NYC that much. Anyways I FINALLY CHECKED AGAIN AND I WAS ABLE TO REBOOK MYSELF ON A FLIGHT TO NEWARK!! WOO WOO so after I got the email confirmation I WAS LIKE SCREW THIS LINE!!!

Lemme describe the people in the line. Like WE WERE ALL IN THE SAME SITUATION, but these YT middle aged women JUST WERE COMPLAINING AND LOOKING AROUND. LIKE WE ARE ALL IN THE SAME SITUATION. DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT. WE ALL WANNA GO TO NEW YORK WE ALL GOT PLANS??!?? Like standing here complaining WILL NOT CHANGE THE CIRCUMSTANCES. but thank god they were complaining and not rebooking themselves on OTHER FLIGHTS cos they would potentially take my spot. So thank you YT women for just standing and complaining. Thank you!!

So back to the story. After I got my email confirmation I TOTALLY DIPPED THE LINE AND WENT TO THE CUSTOMER SERVICE LINE. customer service line was LONG AF too. LOL but after 15 mins of waiting, they said that I could move to another part cos I wasn’t on a flight to Boston. There was something wrong with the tickets to Boston so everyone was waiting for their reprinted tickets for that flight. SO 2 seconds after moving to the other line, I got to the customer service rep. And I explained to her my SITCH and she was like “oh you booked yourself on this flight? The flight is overbooked but you booked yourself. You’ll be on standby. Even though its overbooked in economy I can see that business class is empty. You may get bumped up to business class.” At this point I WAS SO HAPPEH!!! And then she proceeded to PRINT MY TICKET AND THEN TOLD ME TO GO TO THE OTHER SIDE AND TO STAND BY THE BLUE MACHINE BECAUSE SOMEONE FROM SECURITY WILL COME AND SEARCH YOU AND THEN PUT RED STICKERS ALL OVER YOUR NEW TICKET. AND IM ALL LIKE WOO OKAY SICK.

So I waited by the blue machine for 8 mins and then this cool looking security woman came by. Her eye makeup looked really icy and cool. So RESPECT TO THAT!! so she’s like can you put your luggage here and your packpack here so I can search you. And take off your coat so I can do a pat down. And I’m like SURE SURE. In my head I’m just like ANYTHING TO GET ME ON BUSINESS TO NYC!!! So I take off my coat and she pats me down… LOL… I don’t like human contact but I have NO CHOICE. So embarrassing tho because I was literally getting a pat down IN FRONT OF EVERYONE IN THE CUSTOMER SERVICE LINE. which was A SHIT TON OF PEOPLE. WELP!!! Oh well AND THEN She went through my luggage. WHICH IS FINE but yeah… IN FRONT OF EVERYONE in the line so now they know the CONTENTS of my luggage :(. Oh well. After I passed that test, SHE WAS LIKE HAVE A GOOD TRIP. and I thanked her. She handed me my ticket and passport and I TOTALLY RECEIVED IT WITH 2 hands… LIKE A COURTEOUS ASIAN!! and then I took a piss and walked to my new gate. I am currently waiting for the flight and HOPEFULLY I CAN MAKE IT. HOPEFULLY!!! will update once I can!

EVERYONE PRAY FOR ME!

**update** I MADE IT ON THE PLANE. BUT NOT BUSINESS CLASS. BUT IT DIDNT EVEN MATTER COS IT WAS SUCH A SMALL PLANE. i sat beside some guy that was GULFING DOWN WAHLBURGERS so it stank for a bit. i DIDN’T SLEEP THE RIDE cos i WAS JUST TOO PUMPED!!! TOO PUMPED!!! to go the city~ but YAH! THAT IS ALL!

#NEWYORK #MANHATTAN #AIRCANADASUCKS #ECONOMY #LOSER #DELAYED #CANCELLED

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chroniclesofamiddlechild · 7 years

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FEBRUARY FAVOURITES

WELPPP!!! IT HAS BEEN 5EVER SINCE I LAST BLOGGED. BUT I PROMISE, I’LL TRY TO MAKE MORE POSTS!!! so THIS IS A NEW THING THAT IM GOING TO FEATURE ON MY BLOG!!! MONTHLY FAVOURITES and REGULAR STATE OF THE UNIONS!!! if you guys know me, you should all know how OBSESSED I AM WITH YOUTUBE CULTURE AND YOUTUBERS AKA DIGITAL CONTENT CREATORS. i would LOVE to be one, but i value my privacy a lot... and i also dont like to see my face/hear my voice. ^^ #NOTINSECURE #JUSTDONTLIKEIT welp. also, if you dont know what state of the unions are - theyre based off of my 2ND FAV PRE-TEEN BOOK SERIES: THE CLIQUE by LISI HARRISON. its basically about a clique of rich girls and the leader is massie block and every week she journals a STATE OF UNION where she says whats IN and OUT for the week. LOL. if anyone is wondering, my 1st fav pre-teen book series is: THE IT GIRL by CECILY VON ZIEGESAR. WAY BETTER THAN GOSSIP GIRL!!!! but anyways, those books can be talked about in another post. THIS POST IS ALL ABOUT FEBRUARY!! W00T W00T

so february was a short month, but a lot of things happened that im satisfied with which is great. i bought some new skincare in february, i listened to some new music, read some new things etc. but from all that, these are my some of my favourites from this month

the body shop tea tree anti-imperfection daily solution

I AM SOOOO OBSESSED WITH THIS PRODUCT!!! its sooo good for my acne prone skin!!! i really feel like after like a few days of using it, MY SKIN HAD IMPROVED. i’ve been using it as a serum instead of my innisfree green tea serum cos that one sucks. i can feel it being absorbed into my skin and i like the smell and i just LOVE IT. i really recommend this product to EVERYONE!!!

nike flyknit racers in volt

yup.. so i have an obsession with nike, but THIS PAIR IS AMAZING FOR RUNNING. well, i dont run more than 5KM these days but theyre sooo good. theyre so light and they make my wide feet look NARROW which is great cos i HATE MY WIDE FEET. (still mad at my dad for giving me wide feet. and still mad at my grandma for giving me these wide feet genes.) but i have another pair of flyknits and they SUCK and gave me blisters. but these ones have some kind of cushion which doesnt KILL me when i walk and run. ^^

music

if you dunno me, then you dont know how OBSESSED I AM WITH MUSIC. i eat, breathe, sleep music. i just am always listening to songs and always low key humming. i really want to be in a rock band before i die. but ANYWAYS. february was an ALRIGHT TIME FOR MUSIC. i had a lot of songs on repeat.

say you wont let go- james arthur was one of them. SOLID SONG and im really happy for james arthur who is now able to find success after winning x-factor. i used to be obsessed with x-factor back in the day cos IT BROUGHT SUCH GREAT GEMS LIKE ONE DIRECTION, but i found that a lot of the winners could never sustain their success like leona lewis, matt cardle (LIKE WHO??). but anyways, SAY YOU WON’T LET GO is such a nice song but the lyrics are LAME AF. i hate that kind of cheesy crap but the melody and his voice are soo nice. cant hate but HATE THE LYRICS.

spring day - BTS. i know KPOP song. I LOVE KPOP AND I LIKE WHAT I LIKE. I DONT CARE WHAT ANYONE THINKS. solid song!!!! the thing that i like most about kpop is that their lyrics arent lame like north american music. like omg I CANT WITH LYRICS LIKE “so baby pull me closer in the back seat of your rover that i know you cant afford blah blah blah.” like songs like that are just so dumb to me BUT THEYRE SO CATCHY. but spring day is a nice chill song. when it first came out, there was a huge snow storm in toronto, so i downloaded it on apple music (EVERYONE WITH AN IOS DEVICE - GET ON APPLE MUSIC!!! FK SPOTIFY) and then shovelled the snow for an hour as i listened.

omg.. this part of my favourites section is SO LONG. BUT I GOTTA GOTTA GOTTA MENTION ONE LAST SONG!!!

someday - BtoB. obvi my FAV KPOP GROUP!!!!!! but legit. such a good song composed by my BTOB BIAS/KPOP BIAS/LIFE BIAS: IM HYUNSIK!!! as i listen more to the song, there are so many layers in the audio. like the strings, the drums, the guitar, the piano. like SUCH ART. i wanna learn how to create music like that. but how does one even hear these and then put it together to create a song?? I WANNA LEARN!! anyways, the lyrics of the song is art too. its a kind of sad but hopeful song about someday meeting a previous love again. and being sorry for how you acted previously. kind of a cheesy concept, but the lyrics are really good. my fav part is ilhoonie’s rap:

Even when I’m doing well, without much thought The forgotten memories come back as a dilemma Me with you and me without you Are two entirely different people, just know that All these illusions make the musty air thicker First time first love it was really good for the first time But it became a mess, as if we were at war But some day

how can people be so good with words??? how can i put my depth into my writing and not write about such vapid things like february favourites!??!?! I WANNA LEARN!!!!

one thing that i was kinda obsessed with in february was refinery29′s money diaries . i know.. so weird, but its kinda interesting to see how people live and how much money they make and exactly what they spend it on. because of money diaries, ive been just keeping track of my spending in my journal which is so MATURE of me~~ keke

inari sushi

ya so i LUV THIS. AND ive recently started to make inari with my sister. so ez to make (cos we buy the seasoned bean curd) (no one got time to fry bean curd and season it). and all you gotta do is cook SHORT GRAIN RICE and make the rice vinegar and sugar seasoning. and then FILL UP DA BEAN CURD. EZ PZ. but SO BOMB. high in calories, but its okay. SOMEDAY, ill be cooler.. (lyrics) ^^

welp

OMG. idk why I KEEP ON SAYING THIS. WELPPPPPP. WELPPPPPP. i love it. this is the new SPICY.. but def one of my fav SLANG/MADE UP WORDS. LMFAO. WELPPPPPPP!!! WELPPPP!!! where did it even come from!??!?! i will never know. but WELPPPPP!!!!!

and this concludes my february favourites. i know.. its a little sporadic, a little too much on the music.. but its me. im still trying to figure out how to make my bloggie a little more organized and trying to format these posts a bit better. but i just type what is on the top of my head. and this is what came out. hopefully march favourites will be BETTA. but bye february! you were nice to me~~~

#life #btob #kpop #tea tree oil #february #life of a middle child #middle child #inari #james arthur #matt cardle #one direction #leona lewis #bts #february favourites #snow #music #flyknit racers #WELP #someday

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chroniclesofamiddlechild · 7 years

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NAGOYA: JAPAN DAY 10

sorry for NOT BLOGGING for the past couple of weeks.. ~GOMEN NE SAI~ but i was really dreading to write this day BECAUSE we just chilled and lived a local nagoya day. so THIS POST will be MUCH shorter than the other days but hopefully of the same quality.

so today i woke up in nagoya and we left the airbnb a little late. maybe a bit before 10 and WE WERE STARVING. but we were DETERMINED TO GET THE NAGOYA SPECIALITY: hitsumabushi!!!! so we boomed to nagoya station to the ESCA mall and it was on the basement floor. and we got there maybe around 10:30am AND PEOPLE WERE LINING UP ALREADY! the foodie culture in japan is intense~

so we waited until it opened at 11am and we got seated THANK GOD. we ordered the hitsumabushi and it was kind of expensive. around ~2500 yen to ~4000 yen. if youre wondering what hitsumabushi is, its grilled eel on rice. DUN BE CONFUSED WITH UNAGI DON because unagi don is with STEAMED eel and NOT GRILLED. similar to the wagyu beef experience, the hitsumabushi is to be eaten 3 ways. FIRST with just rice, then with the toppings and then in the ochazuke method.

i ordered the deluxe one (4000 yen) to share with my cousin. it IS DEF ENOUGH for 2. quite filling. but i honestly think i can never eat some unagi don anymore. like why have STEAMED EEL when you can have GRILLED EEL?! the texture is a lot different and much better. but IDK. if this was REALLY WORTH 4000 yen. IT was good but not that memorable of a meal. id much rather have the wagyu beef set over this. def didnt have a shokugeki experience.

after this, we boomed to nagoya castle~ we were greeted by these warriors. HONTONI KAWAII?!

lol. I DONT KNOW what is up with the floral armour, but okay.. I’LL TAKE IT. the castle was cool, but i dont really remember much. i still have all the pamphlets, but i havent had time to read through everything. the MOST MEMORABLE THING AT NAGOYA CASTLE was in the special exhibition which just showed pics of nagoya castle during the olden days. the paintings were so detailed. MUCH RESPECT. okay but the CRAZIEST THING was that they had a photograph of some development of the castle when it was being restored in the 1940s/1950s. and the photograph featured 3 kids and LEGIT. I SHIT YOU NOT. ONE OF THE KIDS LOOKED LIKE ME. JUST LIKE ME WHEN I WAS A KID. I WANTED TO TAKE A PIC BUT THERE ARE NO PHOTOGRAPHS INSIDE THE EXHIBITION. i asked my cousin if that kid looked like me, AND HE AGREED. IT LOOKED JUST LIKE ME WHEN I WAS A TODDLER. so conclusion is - i was definition a nagoya citizen in my previous life.

after nagoya castle, we walked around the park outside the castle. even though the weather was nasty, it was so nice.

around the park, there was a little boy soccer practice going on. OMG SOOO CUTE. there was one little runt and the rest of the boys were like running, looping around pylons. BUT THE LITTLE RUNT KEPT ON TRIPPING OVER THE PYLONS. SO CUUUTTEEE. i took a video from a creeper distance, BUT WILL NOT BE POSTING. pls slide into my DMs if you want it tho.

after stalking, we went to my cousin’s friend’s salon to just chill and then me and another friend just went shopping in sakae which is the DT district. we were looking for some HYPE brands i.e. BAPE and CDG. the thing about nagoya is that nagoya has EVERYTHING tokyo has but IN STOCK. in tokyo, there was a lot of things sold out but nagoya has EVERYTHING. i for one, did not make any purchases, but my friend did. *wishing i had money to buy anything and everything i wanted* :( :( :( :(

next IT WAS TIME FOR SUM DINNAAAAAA. after shopping more around sakae, WE WENT BACK TO LACHICA for dinner. we went to some sushi restaurant with the locals and HAD SOME OMAKASE SET. i didnt take some quality pics BUT IT WAS DEF A QUALITY MEAL. AND THE price was LEGIT GOOD. i think it was about ~3000 yen!

dont be fooled by the pic. we did not just have some commodity goods fish and tamago. we also had chu toro and OTORO! so yeah... nagoya CLASS!!!!~ (only btob fans would understand)

the chef was some old man but he had really pretty eyes. i didnt feel like talking during dinner, but instead i had a staring contest with the chef. pretty fun if you ask me :P

after the dinner, my cousin’s friend offered to take me to a host club! W00T!! TRUE #NIPPON EXPERIENCE. but i declined COS I WAS GOING TO OSAKA THE NEXT DAY and i had to pack! he told me that it was a REALLY GOOD HOST CLUB. i dont know if id ever go to a host club in this lifetime because im just not attracted to the guys that are hosts. like THERE IS NO HONEY SENPAI/KYOYA SENPAI in real life so WHY WOULD I GO?!?! but i think it’d be a fun experience. maybe i’ll go when i have a bit more money cos i hear host clubs can be expensive.

then we said our farewells and we headed back to the airbnb to get ready to leave nagoya the next day. twas a nice trip to see what really is in nagoya. :P but NEXT TIME IM IN NAGOYA, I GOTTA TRY SOME TEBASAKI which is just a nagoya style chicken wing!!!!! sigh... i only learned of tebasaki because of a v-live broadcast that btob did in nagoya. :(

what i learned today: that i was a citizen of nagoya in my previous life! super shocking.

high point: omakase! very VALUE AND GREAT QUALITY!

low point: looking at all the cool hype beast clothes and telling myself i cant buy it cos i shouldnt be buying these expensive things. esp when i went to the CDG BLACK STORE. :( :( :( :( :( :( :( :( :( :(

#travel #nagoya #hitsumushi #esca #unagi #don #rice #grilled #nagoya castle #bape #cdg black #host club #lachica #omakase #QUALITY #class #staring contest #otoro #chutoro #ouran #airbnb

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chroniclesofamiddlechild · 7 years

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SORRY. WILL MAKE SOME NEW POSTS AS SOON AS I CAN

#GOMEN #RANDOM #LIFE #BTOB #HYUNSIK

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chroniclesofamiddlechild · 7 years

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THE DAY I SMELLED LIKE COFFEE: JAPAN DAY 9

today was the day i was going to arashiyama and it was the day i was going to go to nagoya. WOMP WOMP. i woke up early today cos i had to check out and I NEEDED TO MAXIMIZE THE TIME IN ARASHIYAMA/KYOTO. THANKFULLY, I DID NOT HAVE TO BUS ANYWHERE TODAY aka I WONT BE WASTING TIME BEING LOST! YAY

to get to arashiyama, i just had to take the subway on the JR line from kyoto station and theres an arashiyama station. EASY AS PIE!!! it took about maybe 20 minutes subway ride to get there and if you follow the hoards of people you’ll get to all the major tourist attractions such as togetsu bridge, the bamboo forest.

unforunately, i didnt have enough time to go to iwatayama monkey park. :( honestly i dont really like monkeys/animals, but i heard the hike and the VIEW at the hike is amazing. such a shame.. especially since i had beautiful weather day at arashiyama... next time :(

i didnt eat anything before going to arashiyama, so at this time i was STARVED. I REALLY WANTED ICE CREAM. SO I GOT ICE CREAM!! W00T. theres a lot of random ice cream shops/food shops around so i just picked a random one and i got a TOFU ICE CREAM. SO DELICIOUS. but srsly - how can someone fk up tofu ice cream? so obviously its gonna be good.

after indulging in a breakfast ice cream, right outside was TOGETSU BRIDGE. it was very bridge-y. i don’t know how else to explain it, but it was just a bridge.

thats what you see.. from the bridge. literally.. that is it. is it nice? is it beautiful? thats for you to decide.. but i just found it not.. very.. special... it was super busy though! lots of people around. i overheard some local explain to some foreigners (IN ENGLISH) that there was a BOMB COFFEE PLACE on the other side of the bridge. #eavesdroppingFTW! so I WENT THERE!

first of all, the coffee shop is called arabica and their logo is the “%” sign. in arashiyama, their location is a small white shop with a bench outside and a LINE UP THROUGH THE DOOR. i had to wait about 15-25 minutes outside the shop and 10 mins after i ordered. i ordered the cafe au lait and i also bought a small bag of beans to bring back home. keke. BUT THE BEANS WERE NOT CHEAP! NOT CHEAP I TELL YA. for a small bag of like 200g, it was about 1300 yen which is maybe around ~$19CAD. but it was worth. the scent was SO STRONG. i just STANK like COFFEE BEANS THE WHOLE DAY I WAS TRANSPORTING cos U KNOW i already packed my suitcase and there was no way i was going to PUT IN THE BEANS IN MY LUGGAGE.

the cafe au lait was really good. very rich... im not too much of a coffee snob, but i can kind of tell that the beans were strong~ YUM! a must go when in japan :3

after enjoying my cafe au lait, i was going to go to the bamboo forest! luckily there were a lot of signs so i didnt get lost. there were a lot of interesting sites on the way there such as temples. i dont know what those temples were but they looked pretty. (sigh.. wish i had more time) and then FINALLY i got to the bamboo forest.

the bamboo forest was PACKED. PACKED. LIKE. SARDINES. SO MANY PEOPLE. and you know... i was expecting a serene area where its quiet cos youre in a freaking forest where the bamboo is surrounding you BUT I WAS SO WRONG. people WERE SO LOUD and just like stopping everywhere. PACKED EVERYWHERE. but the bamboo forest was really pretty and smaller than i expected.

look at the light peeking through at the top of the bamboo... pretty! BUT OMG. THE PEOPLE. LOOK AT THAT.. crazy.. why is everyone and their moms in the bamboo forest WHEN IM THERE?! jk.. but not jk. IN THE BAMBOO FOREST, I SAW A REALLY REALLY CUUUTE FAT BABY. SOOOO CUTE. the FATTEST BABY IVE EVER SEEN IN MY ENTIRE LIFE. :P (not gonna post the creeper pic i took to protect the baby’s identity)

after being packed like sardines in a bamboo ~grove~, i started to make my way back to kyoto station. i got a little lost there but i just followed the sound of the train tracks AND THEN I GOT TO KYOTO STATION. ^_^ i had to go back to my hostel to pick up my luggage since i was going to go to nagoya in 3 hours.

i had lunch at kyoto station.. and I WENT BACK TO NAKAMURA TOICHI AND I GOT THE MATCHA BUCKWHEAT NOODLES COS I COULDNT STOP THINKING ABOUT IT THE WHOLE TIME AFTER I HAD IT THE FIRST TIME. i kinda regret NOT GETTING A MEAL SET BECAUSE I WANTED TO TRY THE DESSERT but it was okay. i ALREADY HAD ICE CREAM IN THE MORNING.

sigh.. i miss this.. :( I WANT TO EAT IT RIGHT NOW!!!!! :(

after my lunch, i shopped more around kyoto station and got some souvenirs for my family such as bookmarks, postcards, coasters etc. kyoto station is the BEST! it has everything and I NEED MORE TIME THERE. after shopping around, i started to wait for the bus to nagoya.

sigh.. i know what youre thinking. IT DOESNT MAKE SENSE THAT I WENT TO TOKYO -> KYOTO -> NAGOYA and then AFTER NAGOYA I’M GOING TO OSAKA? thats like the OPPOSITE WAY. it would have made more sense if i went to nagoya before kyoto, but this is the way things turned out and IM NOT COMPLAINING. also. I DIDNT TAKE THE SHINKASEN to NAGOYA because the shinkasen is SO EXPENSIVE and i didnt get a JR pass because it wasnt worth it to me as i was going to fly out of osaka to get back to canada. therefore, the next affordable way was to bus.

bussing to nagoya took around 2.5-3 hours. i used the metitsu bus company and it was pretty comfortable. i havent taken the greyhound in a while, but it was much more comfortable than the greyhound. i would say maybe comparable to the go bus because theres not that many people on it. i booked and reserved my seat before i had even gone to japan which was nice because it ensured that i had a seat. there was someone sitting beside me EVEN THOUGH there was like NO ONE on the bus. :(. i didnt mind because he didnt get in my way or anything, but i just felt bad for him cos my coffee beans STANK SO MUCH. lol. WHATEVER

by the time i got to nagoya it was almost 7pm. when i went past nagoya on the shinkasen, it looked very old with like no high rise buildings, but I WAS SO WRONG. WHEN I GOT OFF THE BUS AT NAGOYA STATION, IT WAS SO DEVELOPED. lol. THERE WAS A HUUUGEEE PRADA STORE RIGHT ACROSS FROM THE STATION. did not expect that. i met my family and friends at this mall called lachic in sakae which is the downtown district of nagoya.

blessed that google maps was so good in nagoya and it told me which platform to board for the subway. thank god. ^_^. the subway was packed but not ALL that packed compared to tokyo even though i was riding it during a peak hour. ^_^ ^_^ nagoya already exceeded expectations once i got there.

but LACHIC. damn, that was SUCH A NICE MALL. with FANCY STORES. on the ground level, there is a CDG store, D&G, and even CHROME HEARTS. none of which i could buy anything from. but it was nice just having it there. :3 after meeting up at the mall, we went to drop off stuff at the airbnb. i had no idea where our airbnb was, but the walk there was jokes. it was like the neighbourhood that a ghibli film would be. so i was pretending to walk a dog, like the short film that i watched at the museum. ^_^.

after dropping off the stuff, freshening up and just chilling, we went to a restaurant to meet up with my cousin’s friend. the restaurant was SO LOCAL. i had no idea where we were BUT theres no english name, no english menu. had no idea what i was eating/drinking but it was good.

#nagoyafood

excuse the poor photography. but that on the grill is nagoya okinomiyaki aka “PUKE” cos its so watery and there is like more cabbage than other okonomiyaki. it tasted really good. the yakisoba was BOMB. the DRINKS WERE BOMB. #NAGOYAFOOD

as i said before, i was NOT LOOKING FORWARD TO NAGOYA. but damn PEOPLE ARE SLEEPING ON NAGOYA. it has everything that tokyo has to offer (in terms of shopping) and the food is cheaper and not at “tokyo prices.” so AFTER ABOUT 4 HOURS IN NAGOYA, i can say that nagoya exceeded what tokyo has to offer.

after dinner, we just went back to the airbnb and got ready for the next day~

what i learned today: nagoya is sooo underrated. SOO UNDERRATED. it isnt as like BORING than what people may think. also, i NEED MORE TIME IN ARASHIYAMA NEXT TIME. take out time from tokyo and spend more in kyoto!

high point: arabica.. so gooood. i havent opened the beans yet cos i need to get them grinded, BUT WHEN I CAN GRIND THEM, ill be drinking coffee like water.

low point: ALL THE PEOPLE IN THE BAMBOO FOREST. UGH. packed like sardines -_-

#travels #arashiyama #arabica #coffee #bamboo #kyoto station #nakamura toichi #nagoya #metitsu #prada #okonomiyaki #lachic

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chroniclesofamiddlechild · 7 years

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THE DAY I WENT TO THE WRONG PAVILION: JAPAN DAY 8

today was going to be my only full day in kyoto and i had planned a lot of good stuff such as: going to the golden pavilion and then going to the ryoanji zen garden and then making my way to the north east side of kyoto to have a cup of green tea at nanzenj and then walk around gion and go back to eikan-do for the night time illuminations. quite an AGGRESSIVE plan that i BRACED myself for. BUT DID NOT GO AS PLANNED.

first of all, i left the hostel before 9am today. DIDNT SEE THE CUTE GUY in the olive green rain jacket. DIDNT SEE THE CUTE GUY THAT WORKS THERE EITHER. -.- before i left canada, today was the day that i planned to buy a bus and subway day pass, but since i was so successful with bussing the previous day, i opted to buy a bus pass to save some money. lol. so BEFORE i hopped on the bus to go to KINKAKU-JI (golden pavilion), i went to the convenience store to get a 500ML bottle of water and an onigri. the family mart was right outside the bus stop which was nice. so when i got on the bus, a few stops later, I NOTICED I WAS ON THE WRONG BUS -____-. so i got off AS SOON AS I COULD and went to a bus stop that would take me to the right place. luckily that bus was coming soon so i just waited and THEN HOPPED RIGHT ON :P. AND THEN THE BUS WENT OUT OF SERVICE SO EVERYONE HAD TO GET OFF. LIKE WTFFFFFFF -__- AND THIS BUS STOP WAS RIGHT ACROSS FROM THE FAMILY MART I HAD MY MORNING ONIGRI AT... WHICH MEANT THAT I WAS ON THE WRONG SIDE OF THE STREET WHEN I FIRST BOARDED THE BUS. anyways, so then i just went on the next bus, since it was the same bus number. THEN I HAD TO GET OFF SOMEWHERE TO TRANSFER, which i did. HOWEVER, i transferred to the WRONG BUS. the final bus that i was on had “ginkaku-ji” on it BUT I TOOK IT AS KINKAKU-JI because “g” and “k” are often interchangeable in asian countries. (i.e. eunkwang, the leader in btob, is sometimes referred to as eungwang. also another example is the guy from infinite - sometimes he is sunggyu and sometimes he is sungkyu.) but DON’T MAKE THE SAME MISTAKE AS ME! so i i just rode the bus leading to ginkaku-ji until i hit the destination. once i got off the bus, it was around 11am. it took me 2 hours to reach this place -_____-. and I DIDNT EVEN KNOW I WAS AT THE WRONG PAVILION UNTIL I WHATSAPPED A PICTURE TO MY FAMILY AND THEY NOTIFIED ME I WAS AT THE SILVER PAVILION AND NOT THE GOLDEN PAVILION. LIKE FML. SO MORAL OF THE STORY: GINKAKU AND KINKAKU ARE NOT THE SAME!!!

but i still went inside the silver pavilion which was 500 yen.

pretty leaves and trees, but the pavilion itself is a little underwhelming. like WHERE IS THE SILVER?! i think if you are tight on time in kyoto, this is somewhere you should skip. the trees/foilage is pretty but i cant imagine going to the silver pavilion when its not fall and when all the trees are green and boring.

after leaving the silver pavilion, i walked along the philosopher’s path. during march and early april, the philosopher’s path is where all the cherry blossoms are. but during the fall the trees are a bit bare. its a little bit of a dreary path but i kinda liked it.

there were a lot of cool shops along the path. i went into one and i bought this really pretty accordion style scrapbook. i dont plan to use it, but the cover is a cherry blossom design, and its just a nice souvenir. there were a lot of other cool sights along the path. a lot of old people painting and i saw some cute japanese girl wearing a beret practicing her flute. def the type of girl some of my guy friends would lust over haha.

so after my leisurely stroll along the philosopher’s path, i decided to go to eikan-do in the day time instead of night time because I NEEDED TO BUY STUFF AKA GREEN TEA before THE SHOPS CLOSE since EVERYTHING CLOSES EARLY IN KYOTO. and I ALSO decided to not go to nanzen-ji because BY THE TIME THAT I FINISH NANZEN-JI AND EIKAN-DO then it’d be too late to go to kinkaku-ji (MY ACTUAL FIRST DESTINATION FOR THE DAY) and why go to kyoto if you dont go to the GOLDEN TEMPLE?!!?!

so eikan-do is SO GORGEOUS. it is quite pricy at 1000 yen (around $13 CAD), but totally WORTH. when you walk in, its just a colossal of colours just hitting your eyes since the trees are red, orange and yellow.

this is the entrance of eikan-do. pls take in all the TOURISTS there. x.x. with all the tourists, it was a little difficult to walk around and take pics but i managed.

so fricking pretty. i dont know what that stone monument is and/or what it means, but i liked it.

look at the colours! so gorgeoussss~ the key to having pics with no people in it is to take pics of random things, or just random small paths inside the temple. there is a pagoda inside this area, but when you go to the pagoda, you have to walk up some NARROW STEPS. i was EXTREMELY SCARED but i dont advise people with weak legs to walk up those steps. VERY NARROW and the STEPS ARE VERY SMALL! that was the only thing beside the massive amount of tourists that i didn’t like.

after eikan-do i was going to go to kinkaku. BUT ONCE AGAIN, I GOT LOST GOING TO KINKAKU. GODDAMN, i really HATE BUSSING. google maps IS SO UNCLEAR WITH WHERE THE BUS STOPS ARE. i think that part is a little inaccurate in kyoto. so i walked to some BUS STOP as per GOOGLE MAPS and then I TOOK THE BUS, AND IT LED ME BACK TO EIKAN-DO. like WTF?! so i asked the bus driver if i was on the wrong bus and he was like yeah, SO I GOT OFF. and then I JUST WALKED BACK TO WHERE I WENT to go on the WRONG bus, and then walked more to another BUS STOP and then FINALLY, I WAS ON THE RIGHT BUS. thankfully i DID NOT HAVE TO TRANSFER. so i just rode the bus until i hit the GOLDEN PAVILION. phew. PHEW. when i got off the bus stop, i was STARVED. there was a udon resto right outside the bus stop, but i looked it up and the google reviews didn’t look that good AND PLUS THERE WAS NO ONE INSIDE. but i had an okonimiyaki on a stick. i dont think it was particularly good since it was geared towards tourists, BUT I WAS JUST SO HUNGRY I DIDNT CARE.

so after wolfing down that okonomiyaki on a stick, i entered the golden pavilion and realized HOW BIG THE DIFFERENCE IS BETWEEN THE TWO PAVILIONS. the golden pavilion is just SO GOLD. ITS GORGEOUS!

i wish it was a less cloudy when i went so i could see the sun bouncing off the gold of the pavilion and then the reflection in the water would be prettier. but still, it was so pretty. NOW THATS A PAVILION. i walked around the whole pond just to get the pic at different angles. there were A BUNCH OF PEOPLE EVERYWHERE. november is truly peak season for kyoto -.- . theres a few things to do after looking at the golden temple - there is a coin toss monument and some other souvenir shops. at most of the temples/shrines in japan, you can write down your wish and or get your fortune. i got my fortune for 100 yen from a machine.

haha i was so happy when i got this fortune cos its SO GOOD!!!! BUT i dont think its very accurate because my luck has been quite poor since coming back from japan. but who am i to rely on a piece of paper from a machine to give me luck?!

i spent around ~1 hour at the golden temple and by the time i was done walking around it was about 4:30pm. MY NEXT DESTINATION WAS TO GO TO GION FOR SOME ICECREAM AT GION KINANA. but AS YOU CAN IMAGINE. GETTING TO GION WAS NOOOO FUN. LIKE OMG I KEPT ON GOING TO THE WRONG BUS STOP AS PER GOOGLE MAPS. i had to ask around and the girls that i asked told me that i was at the wrong stop. -.- BUT WHEN i finally got on the RIGHT BUS AND IT WAS PACKED. SOO PACKED. SO THAT WAS VERY UNAMUSING. but luckily i got to transfer buses BUT WHEN I TRANSFERRED THE BUS, IT WAS JUST AS PACKED AND WAS PICKING UP EVEN MORE PEOPLE. SO I WAS EVEN MORE JAMMED. UGH. just thinking about it IS SO FRUSTRATING BECAUSE 1) I HATE BUSSING 2) I KEPT ON GOING ON THE WRONG BUS THE WHOLE DAY AND WASTED SO MUCH TIME BEING LOST 3) IM ON A SUPER PACKED LIKE SARDINES BUS. ughhhUGHHH. eventually I GOT TO GION. BUT WHEN I GOT THERE, it was just too late to see any geishas walking around :(.

but when i got to gion, i noticed there were a lot of mainland chinese tourists. I SAW ONE OF THEM PICK THEIR NOSE WHEN CROSSING THE STREET. LIKE OMG...so gross. anyways, my main intention in gion was to go to gion kinana which is famous for their roasted soy bean ice cream. SO I FOLLOWED THE DIRECTIONS TO IT using google maps OF COURSE. and it led me to these dark alley ways in gion which was a little scary since it was night time. but google maps told me that i had reached my destination. i looked at my destination and i saw 7 GIRLS IN KIMONOS ENTER THE SHOP FOLLOWED BY 2 MEN IN SUITS. LIKE WTF? DID GOOGLE SEND ME TO SOME GEISHA HOUSE OR SOMETHING? I WAS SO CONFUSED and i WALKED AROUND to make sure that google was right and GOOGLE WAS RIGHT!! THAT WAS THE ICE CREAM SHOP. but when i got in, i noticed that the 7 girls in kimonos were not related to the 2 men in suits. they were each their own party. haha. PHEW.

so at gion kinana, they make all their ice cream IN SHOP. i was FRICKING EXCITED and i ordered a taster of 3 flavours. there was a bunch of other items in the menu but I REALLY WANTED ICE CREAM!!!!

all of the orders come with their hojicha tea which really goes well with sweets. the ice cream flavours that i had were what was available for the day which was brown sugar, vanilla and roasted soy bean. i was so disappointed when they told me that i had vanilla because vanilla is such a BORING flavour, but it was pretty good. it wasnt too sweet and not too creamy which i liked. the roasted soy bean was BOMB tho :P. the one that i didn’t really like was the brown sugar. it just had a weird after taste. thankfully i ate that first and didn’t save it for last. that would have made me really sad. i think this shop is a MUST VISIT for kyoto! I WANT TO GO BACK and try more flavours of their ice cream and i wanted to try some of their parfaits too BUT I CAN ONLY EAT SO MUCH AS A PERSON. next time.. next time...

after gion kinana, i wanted to try some kyoto style sushi which i heard is pickled sushi. i went to izuju sushi which is famous of their kyoto style sushi, but it was PACKED. there was no way i was gonna be able to get in before closing and i was kinda full anyways so i just walked around. i wanted to find a container to hold some green tea leaves, but i couldnt find one that i liked and was of a size that i wanted. :( i also, walked past the mannequin restaurant, and was standing outside of the restaurant deliberating whether or not i should eat there. the restaurant only serves one type of dish which is the kyoto style okonomiyaki. i saw the chef make it but as i was looking inside the restaurant, looking RIGHT AT THE MANNEQUINS, I WAS STARTING TO GET REALLY SCARED. I WAS IMAGINING EATING MY FOOD, AND THEN THE MANNEQUINS STARTING TO MOVE. that thought really made me lose my appetite so i just left and walked more around gion. but the next time i go to kyoto and if im not by myself, i will DEF GO TO THIS RESTAURANT!!

after walking around gion, i went back to kyoto station as i had to buy a bunch of stuff like TEA. getting back to kyoto station is EZ by bus because there are a bunch of buses for kyoto station. PHEW so i didn’t get lost getting there. when the bus dropped me off at the bus stop, you can see kyoto tower in the background which i recognized from an instagram pic of hyunsik’s. <3 aka i WAS WHERE HYUNSIK WAS <3 anyways, i went to kyoto station and i bought a lot of tea from nakamura toichi (aka matcha buckwheat noodle restaurant) and fukuguen. buying all that tea really took up a lot of time cos i had to buy for gifts and others. and i had to smell the tea too to make sure that i liked it. after buying a lot of tea, i went to daiso and this daiso was amazing. IT WAS SO BRIGHT AND CLEAN AND SPACIOUS!!! this daiso was outside kyoto station and it was at the mall that i went to the day before with uniqlo. i bought a lot of random things from daiso like cloth covers for bento boxes and instant miso soup. so fun fun, but to this date, i have not opened the cloth covers for the bent boxes and truthfully, i cant even remember where i put it... -_____-

so after shopping for tea and other souvenirs I WAS STARVED. but the only thing that is opened past 9pm at kyoto station is ramen street. THIS TIME I WAS ABLE TO FIND RAMEN STREET! (you have to take the elevator at the south side of isetan.)ramen street is CRAZY. LIKE THE WHOLE FLOOR IS FILLED WITH RAMEN RESTAURANTS. i really didnt know what to get since everything looked the same to me EXCEPT ONE RESTAURANT, the tsukemen restaurant. i prefer tsukemen over ramen cos i just dont like submerged meats that much. most of the ramen restaurants on this floor required you to order from the machine. and most of the machines had an english option which was blessed. at this restaurant, i just ordered the small size of the tsukemen and i ordered gyoza too cos i was so starved.

the gyoza was gyoza..pretty standard. but OMGZ. i love the tsukemen. the flavour of the broth was so strong, the noodles were JUST AL DENTE. SOO GOOD. the broth was PIPING HOT and it was STILL HOT even though i took so long to eat my noodles. ugh this is something im missing from japan. i had tsukemen in toronto recently, and it wasn’t comparable to this. :( i purposely ordered the small size, because i was hoping to try another ramen restaurant afterwards. but i COULDNT COS I WAS TOO FULL AND PLUS since i eat so slowly, by the time i was done, it was almost 10pm which was closing time. SO SAD. tried to be ambitious, but i failed :(

after finishing my tsukemen, i went back to the hostel to pack my purchases since i was going to nagoya the next day. i washed up and just relaxed and then fell asleep. and if you are wondering, i did not SEE ANY OF THE CUTE GUYS. which was good cos acne attacks dont go away in one day.

what i learned today: kinkaku and ginkaku are NOT THE SAME. G AND K ARE NOT INTERCHANGEABLE IN THIS SCENARIO. also, kyoto is a beautiful city and next time, i need to be in kyoto for longer. theres so much more i want to do there.

high point: kinkaku-ji. so pretty. and im glad i still went even though i went to the wrong pavilion initially.

low point: just the bussing. getting from one place to another was so difficult. it was also my fault cos i would get too anxious and i would just go on a bus without checking the numbers and asking around.

#travels #kyoto #tsukemen #eikando #kinkakuji #ginkakuji #kyoto station #uniqlo #fukuguen #daiso #nakamura toichi #gion #gion kinana #geisha #bussing #nanzenji #getting lost #family mart

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chroniclesofamiddlechild · 7 years

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THE DAY I WENT TO KYOTO: JAPAN DAY 7

today i left tokyo and took the 8:56am shinkasen to kyoto~ at first i was a little worried to take the subway during morning rush hour BUT IT WAS FINE! NO CHIKAN IN SIGHT! also, the subway was surprisingly less packed than i anticipated at 7:30am. maybe people were already at work? if so, that sucks. anyways, when i got to tokyo station it took me a while to figure out where my platform was even though i asked about 5 workers at the station...

BUT I FOUND IT JUST RIGHT IN TIME AND THATS ALL THAT MATTERS. i was pretty worried about being late because the shinkasen is always on time and if i missed it, it would have been $151 CAD thrown away. :(

my experience on the shinkasen was about 3hours to get to kyoto~ it’s pretty fast and i just stared out the window the whole time. i saw a lot of rural areas which was so different since i was just in a concrete jungle. i saw a lot of fields and i think some cows here and there. japanese cows look the same as canadian ones FYI. the homes in rural japan are COMPLETELY different than rural homes in like farmland canada. first of all, the roof is not made from shingles. the roof looks like some kind of like HAY material - but im not sure. and homes in farmland canada are made out of those like metal/steel panels or whatever or sometimes bricks. but the homes in japan were like completely like white stucco with some brown accents. i think next time if i have the opportunity to go back to japan, i want to try and stay in a more rural area just to experience a more ~holistic~ life away from the city.

anyways, so when i arrived at kyoto station i was STARVED. i initially wanted to go to ramen street, but I COULDNT FIND IT. i knew it was close to ISETAN 10TH FLOOR. so i went up ALL 10 FLOORS on the ESCALATOR. not the ELEVATOR - but the ESCALATOR and it was BRUTAL since i had my luggage. i looked around for the ramen street and just gave up because i wanted to try something else. i ended up at nakamura tokichi which is a pretty famous restaurant/tea house. i had to line up for about 20 mins BUT IT WAS SO WORTH.

i had the kitsune matcha buckwheat noodles and it was SO AMAZING. IT WAS definitely something i needed after waking up early and feeling a little cold. the deep fried aburaage was so delicious. it wasn’t oily AT ALL and it was really sweet but a little savoury. the noodles were pretty good, just your typical japanese buckwheat noodles (i find korean buckwheat noodles have a much stronger buckwheat taste). i didn’t find the matcha taste very strong but that was okay. the soup base was some dashi broth and it was pretty subtle but was complemented by the green onion. ughhhhh SO DELICIOUS, JUST DESCRIBING THIS DISH IS MAKING ME WANT IT AGAIN!!!!! but it was such a simple dish but 100% my FAVOURITE DISH FROM MY WHOLE JAPAN TRIP. IT EVEN BEAT OUT THE WAGYU BEEF. i normally don’t like soupy noodles but this was just amazing. ^_^ <3 i miss it.

after the kitsune noodles, i headed towards my hostel. kyoto station is huge and there are seriously soo many exits which made it confusing. but i got out of the right exit which was blessed. also in kyoto, google maps works a lot better - probably because its a bit older and less high rise buildings. as i was walking to my hostel, google maps told me to take small streets instead of the main road. walking through the small streets reminded me of this scene in the short ghibli film that i saw when i was at the museum. like imagine a neighbourhood where all the neighbours are friends and they wave to each other whenever they see each other. little school children are able to walk home by themselves and dogs just walk without a leash. that was my impression of kyoto~ pretty nice and very different to what im familiar with in toronto.

anyways, my hostel was about a 10 minute walk from kyoto station which was very close. so when i got to my hostel, it was too early to check in but i was able to leave my luggage there. so i got there and THERE WAS A VERY CUTE BOY WORKING AT THE FRONT DESK. CUTEST GUY IVE SEEN IN ALL OF JAPAN. EVEN BEATS THE GUY WITH THE PRETTY EYES FROM THE DRUG STORE. AND SIGH... THERE WERE SO MANY THINGS WRONG WITH ME WHEN I GOT TO THE HOSTEL. LIKE 1) MY BREATH STANK BECAUSE OF THE GREEN ONION FROM MY MEAL AT KYOTO STATION AND 2) I WAS HAVING A MASSIVE ACNE ATTACK ON MY CHIN SO I LOOKED FUGLIER THAN USUAL :( . SIGH... so i was pretty embarrassed and RIGHT AFTER I DROPPED OFF MY LUGGAGE I WENT TO THE CONVENIENCE STORE TO PURCHASE GUM TO ENSURE THAT STANK BREATH IN FRONT OF A CUTE BOY WOULD NEVER HAPPEN AGAIN. ^_^

my next stop on my schedule was fushimi inari shrine. getting there was a little difficult because i had to buy a bus pass.. i had to find the bus stop and i had to get on the right bus and i had to figure out how to ride a bus in kyoto. so to buy the bus pass i asked the cute boy at the front desk but honestly i was so distracted by all my ISSUES that i wasn’t paying attention :(. so i just went to the closest subway station and i just asked the man working at the ticket booth for a all-day bus pass and just bought it there. apparently there was a bus stop in front of my hostel that would take me to the shrine, but google maps was a little unclear and i didn’t know which side of the street it was. but there was another bus stop at kyoto station so i just walked to that bus stop and asked the people working there where i should stand. but riding a bus in kyoto is SO different than anywhere. like YOU GET ON AT THE BACK AT THE BUS. and then make your payment at the front of the bus and you get off at the front of the bus. SO WEIRD, RIGHT??? and i didn’t know that until i googled “how to ride a bus in kyoto”. and while i was reading that, I MISSED A BUS. AND THE BUS COMES LIKE EVERY 30 MINS so during the 30 mins, i just walked around kyoto station. i looked at the green tea desserts and i went inside a bakery in the station. japanese bakeries just are so amazing. the scent of their buns triumph chinese bakeries. when 25 minutes elapsed, i went back to the bus stop and FINALLY GOT ON THE BUS. W00T W00T. and then i got to fushimi inari shrine~ i really wanted some of the street foods. i intended to try some inari sushi and this famous tofu ice cream shop (kyozuan).. but i didn’t. i wasnt hungry enough for like 6 inari sushi and i also didn’t want to be a gaijin walking and eating and i was a little pressed for time since i wanted to ensure that i had sufficient time to go to another temple afterwards for the night time illumination. x.x

but fushimi inari shrine was a little bit underwhelming. it was pretty cool and the meaning behind it was interesting but it was just fricking packed. like so MANY TOURISTS AT THE START OF THE SHRINE. like you have all these tourists like STOPPING TO TAKE PICS AND JUST STOPPING THE WHOLE FLOW OF PEOPLE WALKING which was ANNOYING. but i decided to hike up the whole mt. inari since i like hiking and it was a lot emptier.

sugoi-ne? the hike was so easy.. not even a hike but the weird thing was the top of the mountain was so underwhelming, i didn’t even notice i was at the top until someone told me... (sigh how do i even function in society?) but a memorable story during the hike was that 2 american guys asked me to take a picture of them and they at first thought i was a japanese so they were speaking to me like i didn’t know english. but then i just answered normally in english and they were like “omg you have a bit of an american accent, ARE YOU AMERICAN?” and i was all like “PSH NO. IM CANADIAN” and was about to say something rude about america cos donald trump just became president and the guy that asked me if i was american had a british accent. but luckily i didn’t say anything cos they were both americans keke. thank god. anyways so we chatted a bit about where we were from (they were from san diego and in japan for some army training or something) and they said that they were in osaka the previous day and EVEN THOUGH THEY DIDN’T KNOW ME THEY SAID I WOULD LOOOVE OSAKA. WHICH MADE ME EVEN MORE PUMPED FOR OSAKA. LIKE STRANGERS TOLD ME THAT I WOULD LOVE OSAKA SO MUCH THAT I WOULD NOT WANNA GO BACK TO CANADA. LIKE OMG. I WAS ALREADY SO EXCITED FOR OSAKA AND THAT JUST MADE MY HEART JUMP OUT OF MY CHEST. and there was a little bit more conversing but i told them that i was going to go leave the shrine cos i got somewhere else i wanna go after this and we all shook hands and that was it. i walked down mt inari and by then, the sun was setting. it was a really pretty sight. with the sun setting and just looking down at kyoto. very refreshing~~~~~

after fushimi inari shrine, i was headed towards kiyomizudera temple for the night time illuminations. but for some reason, i kept on thinking that i was heading towards eikan-do temple. i even typed in eikan-do in google maps and i walked 30 minutes in somewhere in kyoto at night time in the cold to a bus stop for EIKAN-DO. WHEN I MEANT TO HEAD TOWARDS KIYOMIZUDERA WHICH IS A LOT CLOSER TO FUSHIMI INARI SHRINE THAN EIKAN DO. i didn’t even notice that i was thinking of the wrong temple until I GO TO THE BUS STOP FOR EIKAN DO. luckily, the bus stop also had a bus that would take me right to kiyomizudera. so blessed. but actually walking on that street towards the bus stop was not that bad. i saw people coming home from work and they were like riding bikes and moto bikes. i saw little school kids walking home from school and i just saw the local kyoto life; so no regrets for mistaking the temple and walking 30 mins just to get to a bus stop that was further away.

when i got to the kiyomizudera temple area i was hungry so i bought a taiyaki with a sweet potato filling.

i was so hungry so it was pretty good and it was hot which warmed up my hands. i ate it when i was walking but i didn’t care cos i was just so hungry and cold. i felt sorry for all the tourists that were dressed up in kimonos cos they were probably freezing their buns off.

anyways, when i was walking up to the temple, the street was PACKED with people. but there were a lot of cool things being sold like chopsticks, mochi, beef buns, souvenirs, lucky charms etc. so i would walk into the stores just to check them out and sometimes i would get samples of food :D hehe. after walking up that street, finally i reached the temple ^_^. truthfully, i initially didn’t plan to go to this temple because when i was doing my research on which temples to go to for night time illuminations, i got freaked out by the website. right when you go to the site, the screen becomes dark and there is some chanting audio which TOTALLY FREAKED ME OUT. but after more research, i learned that this was one of the best night time illuminations in kyoto.

there were a lot of people there and very difficult to take pictures sometimes. but the pics that i took def are so bad and do not do any justice to kiyomizudera. like the night time illumination gives it a different vibe than going in day time (didn’t go in daytime, but yeah). but when it was lit up, the temple looked so surreal that it was like a paper cut out.

so fricking pretty. definitely a MUST VISIT if you were go to kyoto in november. the night time illuminations are only for a few weeks in the fall and i was so fortunate to be able to see this. ^_^ but the thing about the night time illuminations is that they restrict a lot of the other areas so 1) the price is cheaper than normal admission and 2) you won’t spend that much time in the temple.

so after walking around for an hour, i left kiyomizudera temple and i walked down the street that i walked up. by this time i was FREEZING because i kept on sticking out my hands to take shitty pics of the illuminations. so i bought a BEEF BUN to warm myself up.

my nails became purple because of the cold x.x ~~~ but the japanese beef buns are different from chinese ones. i think chinese ones would have like green onions and just like very strong flavours, while the japanese one was just beef and onions. and it was STEAMING HOT which was good and it was quite filling~

after walking down the street, i headed towards back towards kyoto station because i had to get back to my hostel to check in. by this time, it was around 8:20pm and i had to get back to my hostel before 10pm. so i explored a bit in the area around my hostel and i went to a mall that had a huge uniqlo. i noticed that things that were on sale in tokyo WERE NOT ON SALE IN KYOTO. so i had some regrets because i just thought the sale items were nationwide BUT THAT WAS NOT THE CASE. i also noted that malls in kyoto closed at 9pm =.= which was a bummer. so after uniqlo closed, i just walked to don quijote to check out if there were any weirdo products that i could pick up. but there was nothing different from the don quijote in tokyo and the one in kyoto. so i just strayed away from purchasing anything cos i still had to go to nagoya and osaka. by this time, it was close to 10pm so i just headed back to my hostel to check in. before going back to the hostel, i made sure that i had gum and that my breath didn’t stank. BUT THE CUTE GUY WAS NOT THERE :( instead it was a cute japanese girl with an australian accent. def the type of girl some of my guy friends would lust over.

after checking in, i just washed up and just relaxed since i had a pretty long day. before sleeping (it was around 1AM at this time) i had to use the washroom to pee. the hostel was very quiet at this time and no one was in the common area except these 2 GUYS. and im pretty sure they were cute judging by their clothes and just their overall aura. one of the guys was wearing an long hooded olive green rain jacket with skinny black jeans and like doc marten like boots.. such nice swag and i couldnt see the other one. but yeah.. i just had my head down because i didnt want them to see me because 1) the slippers to the hostel clashed with my pajamas BIG TIME. the slippers were like some weird yellow leather ones. the shape was similar to what my grandpa used to wear (pointy toed) ones but THESE WERE DEHYDRATED PISS YELLOW COLOURED. UGH. and if you are not familiar, my pajama bottoms are magenta bottoms with some random black letters. and i was wearing a black crew neck.. but the letters on my crew neck were all like damaged since i dont wash the crew neck inside out. x.x SO IMAGINE THAT AND PISS YELLOW SLIPPERS. #GROSS #FASHUNFAUXPAS and 2) BECAUSE I WAS HAVING AN ACNE ATTACK, I HAD ACNE PATCHES ALL OVER MY FACE. LMFAO. SO EMBARRASSING!!! SO I JUST HAD MY HEAD DOWN AND PRETENDED LIKE I WAS SO SLEEPY BUT IN REALITY I WAS JUST EMBARRASSED AND WANTED TO HIDE MY FACE SO THAT THEY COULD NOT ASSOCIATE MY OUTFIT WITH ME AND THE ACNE PATCHES WITH ME.

luckily, after i finished peeing they were no longer there. PHEW. and then i went to bed hoping to get a better look at them tmr when IM WEARING MY NORMAL CLOTHES AND WITH NO ACNE PATCHES.

what i learned today: uniqlo sales are not nationwide. they vary by city x.x

high point: the kitsune matcha buckwheat noodles. SO BOMB. SO BOMB. a close second would have been the night time illuminations~

low point: being surrounded by tourists at fushimi inari shrine. x.x so sucky. i really hated how people would take pics and just disrupting everyones path. like sooo inconsiderate. x.x if you want to take a picture, then take it higher up at mt. inari where there are less people. ugh

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chroniclesofamiddlechild · 7 years

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BEAUTY: SKINCARE ROUTINE - PART 1

i only have one face for my life, which means it must be taken care of rigorously. there is the korean 10-step skin care regime which i based my routine off of, but it’s not exactly the same. the korean 10-step skin care routine requires the use of a toner and a sheet mask daily. but i DEF don’t do that because 1) sheet masks are not THAAT cheap in canada as it is in korea. you can get sheet masks as samples when you purchase products in any road shop korean makeup store. but in canada, its like a dollar per mask. 2) asian toners are different than western ones. i think asian toners are to help make your skin more ready to absorb serums and essences etc. western toners are to help minimize your pores/just tone up your face.

so to cleanse my face, these are the products i use:

banila co clean it zero makeup remover

i HIGHLY RECOMMEND THIS PRODUCT. this hands down is my favourite makeup remover. it is an oil-based balm that melts into a cleanser when exposed to heat. the smell is very light which is something important to me. i have very sensitive and dry skin, so i find that after using this cleanser, my skin is NOT dry at all. however, it is a little difficult to clean the corners of my nose, so that is why i use some of the following products.

where to buy:

amazon

jolse

bisou beauty

innisfree apple juicy emulsion eye and lip makeup remover

for the rare days that i wear eye makeup, i use this product to remove the stubborn eye makeup. i don’t think that it is the BEST product, but for what i want it is pretty good. it isn’t very oily like the lancome eye make up remover and it isn’t harsh like the face shop rice water one. the face shop rice water eye makeup remover is so garbage and it really irritates my eyes. the innisfree one is quite gentle and even though the scent is green apple, it isn’t very strong and it actually smells good. the make up remover is more of a cream (hence the name EMULSION) which is good for my dry skin.

to use this product, i recommend to pump the product 2 times into a cotton pad and then just press it against your eye for about 45 seconds. and then gently sweep the cotton pad in the opposite direction of your face. and then repeat this for your other eye.

i very rarely wear eye makeup, so i don’t really know whether to recommend this product or not, but if you do wear, i think it is worth to give it a try.

where to buy:

innisfree

amazon

bioderma sensibio h2o

this is a very popular french product and this is what i used to remove my makeup before i was exposed to clean it zero. it’s a cleansing water which means that it’s very gentle which i looove and its odourless.. even better. as i said that sometimes the nooks and crannies of my big face are not fully clean after the banila co, but i cleanse again with this cleansing water to just make sure all the makeup is off.

to use this product, just drench a cotton pad with the product and then gently wipe the makeup off your face. depending on how big your face is, you may need to more than one cotton pad.

i really recommend this product, but honestly it’s sooo pricey. i can only really buy this when its on sale. last year on boxing day, i went to murale (owned by shoppers) and got two 500mL bottles for $32.95. so i recommend to only buy this in bulk. it takes a long time to finish. i’ve been working on a 500mL bottle for a year, and the one that is photographed above is the unopened bottle from last year x.x

where to buy:

shoppers drug mart/beauty boutique/murale

pharmaplus

amazon

cerave foaming facial cleanser

THIS PRODUCT IS A MUST HAVE. i hate HATE cetaphil and this is A THOUSAND times better. cerave is a skincare brand that is made by dermatologists and their products are BOMB. this cleanser, i use it in the morning and at night when i clean my skin. it doesn’t make your skin feel dry after cleansing. in addition to having dry and sensitive skin, my skin is very acne prone. i do feel like this does help calm down the acne and reduces it. when i don’t use this cleanser for 2 weeks, my skin really becomes a WARZONE. -__-

theres a lot of value to this product. i think i purchased this for about $15 and even though i have a big face, i only use about maybe half to a pump. i bought this one in november 2015 and there is still maybe less than half in the bottle. SO MUCH VALUE. highly recommend! and sometimes the cerave website has a coupon for $3 off any cerave product which makes it even more affordable :D

where to buy:

shoppers

walmart

stridex acne pads

when im having an acne attack, i use this product for my affected areas. it contains salicylic acid which pretty much helps dry out your zit so it will shed while helping your skin regenerate. apparently, this is the strongest over the counter product for acne that is available in north america which is why i purchased it.

this product comes in presoaked cotton pads and you can cut the pad and just place it on the affected area for as long as you can handle and then just let it dry. don’t put any other products on that area!!!! OR ELSE your zit won’t dry.

i don’t really recommend this product and i kind of regret buying the large size. i don’t really see it working that well but maybe because i am putting it on the zits that are on my chin that are caused by hormones x.x ... i do feel it drying out on my skin, but i don’t think that it is THAT good. after i’m done using all these pads, i want to try the cosrx one step pimple pads which has the same intent as the stridex ones but possibly better?

where to buy:

amazon

i’ve tried some other cleansing products and they were PURE shit. the products on my SHIT LIST:

the face shop herb day cleansing balm - sooo bad. i can’t even find it on the website for the face shop so thank god they are not selling this super shitty product. like it is supposed to be like the banila co, but it’s soooo bad. it doesn’t remove makeup well and the smell is disgusting. i was so dumb for buying it, but i just really wanted to try it!!!!!! wish i could get my money back :(

the face shop rice water bright eye and lip makeup remover - so garbage. i hate this product. so irritating on my eyes and it was difficult to remove the makeup. not gentle at all and BECAUSE IT WAS SO DIFFICULT TO REMOVE THE MAKEUP, I WOULD HAVE TO WIPE IT AGAINST MY EYE A LOT. THIS HAS CAUSED ME TO HAVE EYE WRINKLES AND I AM NOT HAPPY WITH. SO EVERYONE, PLS BOYCOTT THIS PRODUCT.

the body shop shiso cleansing oil - i don’t even know why i bought it but i did. this product is also not even on the website probably because of how bad it is. it did not remove the makeup well. and you had to use a lot of product. also, for cleansing oils, it is best to have a pump packaging. but this product is not pump which made it MESSY AF because you would have to pour the cleansing oil onto your hands and then you just get the oil on the bottle and its just overall not good... also, the smell is very artificial. i’m very sensitive to scents and this smell was too “chemically”.

if you see these products in stores, do yourself a favour and DON’T BUY! stay away and buy yourself some other stuff! preferably the skincare products that i DO recommend :P

and this concludes my skincare routine PART 1. part 2 will include everything that i use to moisturize and hydrate my face right after i cleanse it.

i learned recently that YOU ALWAYS have to hydrate your face and that you should NEVER leave it dry without any product on it. so for all my loyal readers out there, please make sure you put cream on at all times AND ESPECIALLY NOW THAT IT’S WINTER, take care of your skin!

until my next skincare post, stay clean!

- EM

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chroniclesofamiddlechild · 7 years

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THE DAY OF ISETAN: JAPAN DAY 6

today was my last FULL day in tokyo :(

we were STARVING this morning and planned to go to ootoya for breakfast since ootoya is pretty famous for their set meals. once we got there, we realized it was NOT OPENED YET... so long story short, there were 3 HANGRY people.

it was about 10AM at this time and barely anything of substance was opened. we wanted some traditional japanese set menu instead of baked goods. but we noticed that there were people lining outside of the department store, isetan in shinjuku and we realized that it was opening at 10:30. PHEWWW. if you are not familiar, the department stores in japan are extremely fancy. they have gourmet food halls in the basement floor and it puts high end grocery stores like mcewan and pusateris to SHAME. the service in the japanese department stores ARE ON ANOTHER LEVEL.. so we waited until isetan to open.

right at 10:30AM, there are 2 workers who spoke both english and japanese. they have an opening speech in which they welcome the customers lining up to isetan and how they will provide the best service blah blah. and then, AND THEN... ONCE YOU WALK IN, ALL THE EMPLOYEES ARE LIKE OHAYO GOZAIMASU (good morning) and they bow. EVERY SINGLE ONE OF THEM... on ALL FLOORS. if you want to feel like royalty, go to isetan RIGHT AT OPENING!

so after being greeted, we QUICKLY went to the lower level to check out the food hall. and hOLY... it was HEAVENLY. no pictures are allowed in isetan, but i will try to be descriptive. the LIGHTS WERE BRIGHT. THE FOOD WAS FRESH. ANYTHING AND EVERYTHING YOU WANTED WAS THERE. OTORO, WAGYU BEEF, KOBE BEEF, UNI. ALL THE LUXURIES, and YOU ALSO GET YOUR BASIC ONIGRI. from high-end to low-end. EVERYTHING WAS THERE. and something i really liked about the food hall was HOW CLEAN IT WAS. isetan itself reminded me of SOGO in hong kong but way better. i found the lights in SOGO in the food hall were way too bright and it was a little messy. maybe because SOGO is a bit more crammed and isetan is more spacious.

after walking around in the food hall, i got some onigri (MY FAVOURITE) and a vegetarian bento box that contained a lot of pickled foods (NOT MY FAVOURITE - but it looked really pretty.) there were no places to eat on the food hall, but isetan has a roof top terrace in which you could eat. the roof top terrace also had some playground for kids which was good because as i was eating, i could look at cute japanese kids monkeying around <3

as i mentioned, i got a vegetarian bento box (forgot to take a pic... gomen ne sai.) the food in the bento box was REALLY PRETTY like very pretty pastel colours. i had no idea what was anything, but i can tell you that i didn’t really enjoy it. maybe because i dont really like foods like that. but the onigri was BOMB. :)

after isetan, i split off from the crew and walked more around isetan keke. i saw a really pretty clutch from chloe (the georgia clutch if anyone wants to get it for me for xmas haha.) i also looked around the makeup and all the shiseido and shu uemura products but didn’t purchase anything because i still had 3 more cities to tend to. overall isetan is a very very clean and well organized store. i loved it and i wish canadian department stores could get on their level with their customer service and overall experience.

then i walked around shinjuku a bit and ended up at the shinjuku gyoyen national garden. it cost 200 or 300 yen to get in but SO WORTH. even though the trees did not change colours yet, they were still pretty and unique looking.

this picture reminds me of the movie poster for big fish :P

i walked all around the park and just chilled there until closing at 5PM. very calming and the park was so popular. i realized that the japanese get tarp and just use it to have picnics and just chill at the park. theres also a lot of couples lying down on the tarp. i think i witnessed a lot of groping at the park lol... very spicy if you ask me. theres a lot of public sleeping but that’s cool. i understand people are tired. theres a lot to shinjuku gyoyen! there are 3 gardens here: a japanese garden, english garden and french garden. i don’t know the difference between the english garden and the french garden but yea...

on instagram there is a common hashtag that people use: #ihaveathingwithfloors. i don’t have a thing with floors, but #ihaveathingwithtrees. it may be because i have a tree outside the driveway of my family home and i think the tree is the prettiest of all the trees in my neighbourhood because its proportions are perfect. just wide enough yet not too tall. but anyways, back to the national garden. it was really pretty and very chill. a way different vibe than the gardens in the imperial palace but still very nice. there was a pretty japanese cute guy that i saw in the garden. he was sitting down on one of the benches writing in his diary... and his diary had a sticker with the star of david on it. sugoi ne? LOL.

i went to a traditional tea house called rakuutei in the garden and all i can say is, i was SCAMMED. like omg. after going to ippodo twice like i CANNOT WITH RAKUUTEI. IT WAS DEFINITELY A TOURIST TRAP THAT I FELL FOR.

THIS WAS THE MOST VILE THING I HAD IN JAPAN. LIKE OMG. THE DESSERT - LIKE WTF WAS IT? IT WAS LITERALLY LIKE A MOUTHFUL OF FROSTING. AND THAT TEA? THAT MATCHA DOES NOT DESERVE TO BE CALLED TEA. THE WHISKING WAS NOT DONE WELL. LIKE IT WAS NOT GOOD MATCHA EITHER. LIKE I COULD NOT TASTE ANY BITTERNESS. IT WAS SOME LOW-GRADE MATCHA (DEFINITELY MATCHA PURCHASED FROM THE CONVENIENCE STORE) THAT WAS NOT WHISKED PROPERLY. MATCHA IS SUPPOSED TO HAVE UMAMI. THIS IS SUPPOSED TO BE USUCHA. BUT IT WAS NOT. IT WAS JUST NOT. I CANNOT BELIEVE THAT THIS WAS 700 YEN. FOR 300 EXTRA YEN I COULD HAVE HAD A GREAT EXPERIENCE AND GREAT DESSERT AND BOMB TEA AT IPPODO. SO ANGRY AT MYSELF. I SHOULD HAVE KNOWN NOT TO GO INTO THIS TRAP. BUT ONCE I REALIZED THAT I WAS IN A TOURIST TRAP, IT WAS TOO LATE. I ALREADY PAID. FML. THINKING ABOUT THIS IS MAKING ME MAD. BUT IF ANYONE IS PLANNING TO GO TO THE SHINJUKU NATIONAL GARDEN. DO NOT GO TO THE TRADITIONAL TEA HOUSE. THE ONLY TRADITIONAL THING ABOUT THIS IS THE OLD LADY IN A KIMONO SERVING YOU. SKIP OUT ON IT. YOU WILL BE SCAMMED.

*thinking happy thoughts* okay. im over it. after the garden, i went back to shinjuku and i was FREAKING STARVING. so i was like YA YA YA IM GOING TO OOTOYA!!!! i ordered some udon and maguro don set.

to put into perspective HOW SCAMMED i was at the “traditional” tea house, this was about 800 yen. for an extra 100 yen i could get some delicious carbs vs some mouthful of icing and just low quality matcha... ugh.

but anyways, ordering at ootoya was SUPER difficult. when i was ordering, i didn’t know that they came in sizes and you could request for cold noodles. so when the lady was asking me questions after i pointed to it on the menu, i let her talk and repeat herself hoping that i would under 20% of it. BUT I COULDNT. so i just said WAKIRIMASEN and then some other worker explained in english. this is the small size and obviously the hot udon. even though this was considered the small size, it was HOTONI FILLING.

after my meal at ootoya, i went back to lumine est because i really wanted to check out the store, village vanguard. but i ended up walking around the whole mall. it was pretty good, i saw some nice clothes and i tried on some coats but ended up not getting anything. i also went to the etude house in the mall and the prices were quite high compared to what i saw in korea and the prices i see online. i also saw this rabbit at lumine est.

i like stuff like this, but i was HONTONI KOAI (very scared) when taking this pic because i was scared that there was actually someone in there and was going to CHASE ME. lol. but there wasn’t anyone there. THANK GOD.

after walking around lumine, i decided it was TIME TO GO THE DESTINATION THAT I REALLY WANTED TO GO TO TODAY: EBISU SQUARE GARDEN. if you’ve watched hana yori dango (BEST J-DRAMA EVER), you know how ICONIC this landmark is. even though it was VERY FAR FROM SHINJUKU STATION, I HAD TO GO THERE... FOR MAKINO AND DOMYOJI. in the drama, domyoji tells makino to meet him at the clock tower at ebisu square garden at 1pm on sunday. but makino DID NOT GO and instead went bargain hunting with her mom. makino didn’t think that domyoji would be there/wait for her, but she went there at night time and HE STOOD THERE... IN THE RAIN... IN THE COLD WAITING FOR HER. #iconic. and the rest is history~

that weird cement thing on the right is the clock tower. haha... pls excuse my poor photo. i swear i took a better picture, but i must have deleted it. to be very honest, this was kinda underwhelming as there was nothing else there. there were christmas illuminations, but i found it very GAUDY and BOUGIE. but as a diehard HYD fan, it was worth.

by the time i finished reliving HYD and waiting for makino, it was about 8/9PM. i messaged the others to see what they were up to, and they were having yakitori in akihibara, so i went to join. luckily akihibara is on the same line as ebisu.

i was still full from my dinner in ootoya, but i cannot resist CHICKEN HEART SKEWERS. like I CANNOT. chicken hearts are SO DELICIOUS, SO JUICY AND SO FLAVOURFUL.

i recommend EVERYONE to try chicken hearts. they’re honestly NOT AS DISGUSTING AS IT SOUNDS. ITS ACTUALLY NOT EVEN DISGUSTING. but this restaurant, KUSHISUKE, has specialized in yakitori for 40 years, and i could tell. the skewers were lightly seasoned with salt yet grilled JUST RIGHT. not overcooked or undercooked. HONTONI UMAI!!!! and pairing it up with a glass of asahi... JUST PERFECTION. great ~dessert~ haha. i ordered a liver skewer too, but liver is too heavy to me. i just wanted to try it, but imagine having like a skewer of pate. THATS HOW IT WAS LIKE FOR ME. i could only have one bite and it was too much. but others liked it, just my taste buds did not. overall BOMB RESTAURANT, highly recommend and it is a place that is frequented by locals~ :P

after the skewers, we went to walk a bit more around akihabara. i saw the gundam cafe, the AKB48 cafe and shop and i also saw 2 female high schoolers hustling. they were like singing/dancing and enticing some boys to drop some money into their basket. it was like a school night and they were making $$. respect. i also saw a girl in a maid costume trying to get people to go to the maid cafe. cool sites in akihabara. if there is a next time, i want to go to akihabara during the day and i would want to try going to a maid cafe since its so different. i think i would low-key enjoy doing the weird ~sprinkle sprinkle~ stuff with the maids lol. i’d probably be so good at doing those weird stuff that they’d want to hire me kekekeke. we wanted to check out some other stores in akihabara, but they were all closed. :( the one thing that really shocked me was how early things closed in japan. you’d expect that there’d be a lot of stores opened 24 hours, but that wasn’t the case. they close at like 9PM/10PM which is fair. those workers have to go home too!!! so since the stores were closed, we went back to the airbnb and started to get ready for my trip to kyoto the next day.

what i learned today: the colourful bento boxes are vegetarian and have pickled/preserved foods.

high point: isetan - being greeted by the employees when the store opened was AMAZING.

low point: the “traditional tea house”.. sigh.. got scammed. got enticed into a tourist trap. sigh... waste of 700 yen.

where i went today:

SIGHT SEEING

shinjuku gyoen national park (新宿御苑)

address:11 naitomachi, shinjuku, tokyo 160-0014, japan

SHOPPING

isetan (伊勢丹新宿店)

address: 3 chome-14-1 shinjuku, 新宿区 tokyo 160-0022, japan

hours: 10:30AM - 8PM

lumine est (ルミネエスト新宿店)

address: japan, 〒160-0022 tōkyō-to, shinjuku-ku, shinjuku, 3 chome−38−38番1

hours: 11AM - 10PM

FOOD

ootoya

address: japan, 〒160-0022 tōkyō-to, shinjuku-ku, shinjuku, 3 chome−34−2, 11 宝島２４新宿南口店

hours: opens at 11:30AM

kushisuke (串助)

address: AKIBA-ICHI 3F, 4-14-1, sotokanda, chiyoda-ku, tokyo, 101-0021

hours: 11:00AM - 11:00PM

#TRAVELS #japan #scammed #tea #shinjuku #yakitori

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chroniclesofamiddlechild · 7 years

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THE DAY I ATE: JAPAN DAY 5

this was my 2nd last full day in tokyo and it was a pretty chill day and according to the health app on my phone, i only walked 9km which is significantly less than the 30km that i was hitting in previous days.

we started the day at the roku roku plaza in roppongi hills for some pastries.

i have no idea why there is a massive spider, but i like it. it looks scary. apparently if you stand under the body, you can see that the spider is carrying eggs. spiicyyyyy.

so we had pastries at l’atelier by world renown chef, joel robuchon

i forgot to take a pic of the pastries that i bought and tried. overall, i think that these pastries were a lot more heavy compared to the ones that i tried in previous days. it was much more rich and buttery, which i dont really prefer. it was good nonetheless, but if i were to choose, i’d pick gotran cherrier in shinjuku over l’atelier. i also had a coffee here, and i did not find anything special with it. most likely never coming back to l’atelier.

so the real reason why we went to roppongi hills was to go to a wagyu beef restaurant, matsurokuya. matsurokuya only serves 30 wagyu beef sets for lunch, so we had to line up. we lined up at around 10:35am and we were one of the last parties that were able to get the lunch sets. the restaurant opened at 11:30 and we waited for about 2 hours until we were seated. was it worth? HELL YA.

like most restaurants in japan, the lunch sets are drastically cheaper than dinner. the basic wagyu beef bowl that i ordered was 1800 yen which is about $22 cad. the prices for lunch sets are about 1800 yen to 2400 yen in which you can add soba or a sashimi platter etc.

as you can see there is a beef rice bowl. but WHAT YOU DONT SEE IS THE SECOND LAYER OF WAGYU BEEF UNDER THE RICE. SOOO GENIUS. that second layer of beef is BEING WARMED UP BY THE RICE SO IT IS MORE COOKED THAN THE TOP LAYER. *slow clap for the chef*

there are instructions on how to eat this, but i didnt take a pic. but the first step was to have some beef WITHOUT putting of the toppings/spices. the toppings are the 3 small bowls on the top left. i can’t remember what they were, but THEY ENHANCED THE FLAVOUR OF THE WAGYU IMO.

on the instruction manual, they instructed to NOT eat all the beef and to save some because they give you a pot filled with a dashi broth in which you can POUR OVER YOUR RICE, TOPPINGS AND BEEF.

that is my BROTH FILLED BEEF BOWL. ALL I CAN SAY IS... it was AMAZING. SUPERASHI! OISHI! UMAI!!!!! this way of eating (ochazuke) really captured the umami of the wagyu in a soft way. i typically don’t enjoy submerged meats but THIS WAS ON A WHOLE DIFFERENT LEVEL. the meat wasnt being cooked by the dashi, but instead it was just complementing it. i can’t describe, but it was a real life shokugeki experience. my head was buzzing, i felt so calm and relaxed. the environment of the restaurant was helping too because we were put in an isolated room where soft serene music was playing~

after, dessert was served. it was just like a cocoa x red bean pudding. it was okay and brought me back to reality after such a bomb meal.

if any of you are planning to go to tokyo - i highly recommend you go to matsurokoya. 10/10 food 10/10 experience 10/10 worth

after such a bomb meal, we went to the ghibli museum. we were lucky enough to get tickets from our airbnb host but getting to the ghibli museum is srsly a mission. we had to go from roppongi to shinjuku station. and from shinjuku station, we had to take the JR line to JR mitaka station. and then from there, the ghibli museum bus had to be taken. overall it was about about 500 yen to get there one way from shinjuku station. kind of pricey. but WORTH.

the ghibli museum was a great experience. before going, i only watched kiki’s delivery service and totoro - so i wasn’t super familiar with ghibli movies but that’s okay. YOU DON’T NEED TO BE.

pictures were not permitted in the museum :( . but all i can say is - after going to that museum, i had a newfound respect for art. all those intricate details that were hand drawn, SO MUCH RESPECT! i wanted to buy a colouring book in the gift shop, but there was no such thing. IF ANYONE IS OUT THERE, PLS MAKE A GHIBLI STUDIOS COLOURING BOOK (credit me for the idea pls). but instead i bought a spirited away puzzle and a few post cards for friends :)

after the ghibli museum, i headed back to my airbnb. i had a call this day and i also did not want to eat anything because theres no point in eating anything that is not on par with matsurokuya. so i just went back to the airbnb and surfed the internet instead of prepping for my call~ #WASTE

what i learned today: how ghibli movies are made. how each frame is drawn out. how they label in the colour code on the drawing. SO AMAZING.

high point: matsurokuya + ghibli museum

low point: l’atelier by joel robuchon

where i went today:

SIGHT SEEING

ghibli museum (三鷹の森ジブリ美術館)

address: 1 chome-1-83 shimorenjaku, mitaka-shi, tōkyō-to 181-0013, japan

hours: 10AM - 6PM

website: ghibli-museum.jp

FOOD

l’atelier by joel robuchon (ラトリエドゥジョエル・ロブション)

address: japan, 〒106-0032 tōkyō-to, minato-ku, roppongi, 6 chome−10, 六本木６丁目１０ roppongi hills

matsurokoya (御曹司松六家御曹司松六家)

address: japan, 〒106-0032 tōkyō-to, minato-ku, roppongi, 4 chome−10, 六本木4-10-2 荒川ビル1F

hours: lunch - 11:30AM ~ 2:30PM dinner - 5:00PM ~ 11:30PM

#ghibli #spirited away #kiki's delivery service #travels #roppongi hills #wagyu beef #matsurokuya #l'atelier #joel robuchon #pastries #butter #gastropost #eats #art #shokugeki no soma #ochazuke

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chroniclesofamiddlechild · 7 years

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THE DAY I LOST MY TOKYO METRO PASS: JAPAN DAY 4

to start the day this morning i went to gontran cherrier which is the bakery outside the JR shinjuku station south. this is a pretty popular bakery and i came looking for a matcha croissant. but, when I got there (8:15am) it was sold out... :(. that didn’t really matter because the selection at this bakery was SUPERASHI! the aroma of the bakery was SO GOOD too. UGH it reminded me of when i went to paris~~ especially the viennese white chocolate pastry. i was going to get it but there was basil on it, and i don’t know how i feel about basil on pastries so i did not get it. i ended up getting an amande croissant with a cafe au lait.

the croissant was amazing. the inside had crushed almonds and the croissant itself it was perfectly flakey and just not too buttery. the cafe au lait was pretty average. in my opinion, aroma is better. i sat at the bakery for an hour working on my documenting my previous days and beside me were some mysterious yet sophisticated looking japanese girls. they were reading their books and just sipping on their coffee. ~hontoni mysterious~ after i finished up with my food, i met up with the crew and we went to the imperial palace.

THIS TIME I WAS ABLE TO WALK INSIDE THE GARDENS!!!! W000000000T! the gardens were so nice. the air was clean. the trees were ~gorgina~. as i mentioned, the chiyoda ward is different from other areas of tokyo. it’s amazing how a city like tokyo can just have so many different aspects such as nature in one area, historical shrines in another, and then a dense concrete jungle. i really found the gardens pretty, but i really hate how there were so many GNATS and bugs hanging around. it's so gross cos they were just hanging around my phone. so gross. and i felt like they were crawling up my jeans cos my legs were itchy AF. anyways after imperial palace we were gonna go to get the michelin star tonkatsu restaurant. HOWEVER AS i shoved my right hand into right butt pocket to retrieve my tokyo metro 72-hr pass, IT WAS MISSING!!!! i remained calm as it was going to expire at 7:45 pm that night. but I was just worried about how i was going to get a new one. luckily, my cousin let me use his suica card to go to the tonkatsu restaurant.

the tonkatsu restaurant, tompachitei, was close to ueno-okachimachi station. this area was even more different than chiyoda ward and core tokyo. it wasn’t flashy, it seemed more like a country-side than anything! we didn't get that lost heading towards the tonkatsu restaurant!!! and I was leading!! my navigation skills slightly improved~~ but as we were heading towards the restaurant, all I could wonder was where to buy the new pass. -_-

as well, on our way there, we walked past a lot of undies clubs. super spicy. FYI undie clubs are where the bartenders are women and they just are in their undies. they have pics of the bartenders outside of the club, but to me, they were not that pretty. i don't know why but I don't really find japanese people all that attractive... BUT that’s just me~

we got to tompachitei and there was a line up. that's when you know something is legit - when there is a line up. as we lined up, the woman working there provided us with a menu. the prices were SOOO cheap; ranging from 750 to 1250 yen. the selection was simple as there was only pork loin, big size (~biggu sizu~ in japanese) pork loin and pork filet. as a person who had a to cook for themselves for 4 years and only ate chicken and salmon, i did not know the diff between filet and loin. but I just ordered the pork loin since it was the first item on the menu. there was also the option to add fried prawn (~ebi~) to your tonkatsu, but i did not order cos that would be 1) too much food and 2) i don't really like cooked seafood.

we waited for about 20-30 mins to finally get into the restaurant which is extremely quick. the turnover was fast for this restaurant , probs cos it is a tonkatsu restaurant. the restaurant has 2 levels - if you get seated on the first floor, you are able to sit at the bar and watch the chef drop the breaded pork into the oil. the upper level is just normal table seating. unfortunately, we got seated upstairs and did not witness the chef drop the pork into the oil but.. DAJIBOU DESU (it’s okay). the food was BOMB!!!

the cabbage was SO TASTY with the ponzu sauce. apparently, a good tonkatsu should not use the ponzu sauce. so I did not pour the sauce over my tonkatsu!!!! andI AM GLAD THAT I DIDNT because once you pour that shit, you cannot GO BACK. AND ALSOOOO it was def not needed. the pork loin was so juicy. with every bite I just felt some UMAMI.

the tonkatsu was SOOO filling. in addition to the tonkatsu and a bowl of white rice, a miso soup was provided. the miso soup had these mini clams inside it...

HONTONI KAWAII DESU!!!

after the tonkatsu we went back to the ginza area. i found a place to purchase a new subway pass. BLESSSS UP~~ but SRS the process to purchase outside of the airport was highly inefficient, it took about 15 minutes -___- but i got it and THAT’S ALL THAT MATTERED. after ginza, we went to ippodo.. 2nd time for me, BUT I LOVED IT. I LOVE THAT PLACE.

this time at ippodo, we had to wait about 45 minutes. the lady working there was trying to explain in japanese to me that we had to wait, but i just stared at her and nodded my head hoping that i would pick up like 20% of what she was saying. but i understood NOTHING. so i just said WAKARIMASEN. and then she got someone else to explain in english for us. so we walked more around maronuichi and went to the COMME DES GARCONS PLAY store. sigh.. that store was legit so great but before going to japan, i told myself that i was not allowed to buy any CDG. the crew members bought something but the whole time i was in the store, i was fighting with myself because i really wanted to buy something but i knew i shouldnt. keke luckily i abided my rules and didn’t buy anything. however, SHOUT OUT TO THE EMPLOYEE there. HE WAS SO NICE AND KIND TO US GAIJINS. he was pretty CUTE too cos he was just soooooo nice <3 (if you’re reading this, i miss you <3)

after shopping around maronuichi street, we finally went to ippodo. this time i got the HOJICHA. SOO GOOD. i thought the instructions to make it would be different than the genmaicha, but i guess because it is all sencha, the instructions were the same. still an awesome experience <3

then, we walked around ginza. i went to the dover street market and it was just amazing. everything i loved was there. the aesthetics were amazing. i need to go to the one in london and in nyc within the next 2 years.. #goals #dreams #life in terms of aesthetics, there were oversized parasites, oversized ugly babies, and oversized bearbricks. like WHAT MORE CAN A GAL ASK FOR?

ugh... i am LIVING for this aesthetic. i need my future home to be like this~~kekek~ I OBVIOUSLY did not buy anything from DSM GINZA. but if i had more money, i def wanna get some yohji yamamoto. one of the workers there was wearing a really nice dress and it just looked super nice on her. *wishing it looks the same on me* -____-

after DSM, i walked around ginza a bit more until i had to go meet my friend who was staying at the airbnb with me. we then got some gyoza in shinjuku and just shopped a bit at BIC CAMERA and other drug stores to buy some of those heated eye masks and medicated pain patches. but HOLY when we went to the drug store that she bought the medicated pain patches, the cashier there was SO INTERESTING to look at that he was really CUTE and attractive. his eyes were SO PRETTY. like i don’t know how to describe, but they were different from other japanese peoples’ eyes - very unique. and his eyelashes were quite long too. and they WERE NOT FAKE EYELASHES!!!! overall, hands down the cutest guy in tokyo that i saw!! <3 if anyone is wondering, this drug store that im talking about is outside kabukicho about one block away from the don quijote in kabukicho :3 :3 GO THERE FOR SOME EYE CANDY!!

and then, we met up with the crew in kabukicho for some takoyaki. kabukicho is considered the red light district in tokyo. i saw a lot of ~massage parlours~ and some hentai places. i saw a lot of bars where gaijins go to meet japanese girls. haha.. but anyways, we went to this cool takoyaki place and i had a grape fruit highball. KEKEKE. the highball tasted really good like there was no alcohol or very light alcohol. a little sweet, but it went well with the takoyaki. :3

after hanging around kabukicho, i went back to my airbnb and twas the end of the day.

what i learned: the difference between pork loin and pork filet. pork loin is more tender and has more fat :P

high point: DSM GINZA. I LOVED IT. THE AESTHETICS. EVERYTHING.

low point: when i was in kabukicho, and i saw a woman bartender who was wearing shorts step outside for a smoke break and her legs are all veiny because she was cold :(

where i went today:

SIGHT SEEING

imperial palace (皇居)

address: 1-1 chiyoda, chiyoda-ku, tōkyō-to 100-8111, japan

hours: 9AM - 5PM

SHOPPING

dover street market ginza

address: ginza chuo-ku, 6 chome-8 ginza, ginza komatsu west 6-9-5, tokyo 104-0061, japan

hours: 11AM - 8PM

website: ginza.doverstreetmarket.com

FOOD

gontran cherrier (新宿サザンテラス店)

address: japan, 〒151-0053 東京都渋谷区代々木2 chome−2, ２−2−1 新宿サザンテラス内

hours: 7:30AM - 10PM

tompachitei (とん八亭)

address: 4-3-4 ueno taito tokyo東京都台東区上野 4-3-4

hours: lunch - 11:30AM～14:30PM　 dinner - 5:00PM～7:00PM (last order at 7PM)

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chroniclesofamiddlechild · 7 years

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THE DAY I FORGOT TO WASH MY FACE: JAPAN DAY 3

today was the day that i was going to check out of the hostel and go to an airbnb in nishi shinjuku because i was meeting up with some family and friends. so i started the day with stuffing everything in my suitcase and then doing my morning routine. so i got all changed, fixed my hair, brushed my teeth and then started putting on my makeup. after i put on my makeup, some other girl in the hostel started to brush her teeth and WASH HER FACE. AND THEN I WAS LIKE OH MY GOD. I FORGOT TO WASH MY FACE. -_- but IT WAS TOO LATE. I WAS NOT GOING TO TAKE OFF MY MAKEUP AND WASH MY FACE AND THEN PUT IT BACK ON BECAUSE THAT IS TOO TIME CONSUMING. soOooOoO i just spent the day feeling DUTTY with a DUTTY face.

so i checked out of the hostel. i asked if i could leave my luggage there and grab it LATER, but they said no and told me to place my luggage in the travel information booth at shinjuku station (JR south exit). SO I DID SO. AND IT COST 800 YEN aka SCAM. when they told me the price, i was like FUCK but i didn’t want to go through the hassle and go back to the other side of shinjuku station and find a locker. so i just went through with the scam and paid the 800 yen. originally, i planned to go to mount takao since i like hiking, i like walking up mountains and enjoy ~fresh air~ and all, but i instead went to meiji shrine and yoyogi park.

on my way to meiji shrine, i took THE WRONG subway company line. i should have taken the tokyo metro, but instead i took the okadyu subway. -____- #derp but I LEARNED A GOOD LESSON, and thankfully it only cost 130 yen. not a fatal error, but it reminded me to make sure that im on the tokyo metro instead of some other line.

before i went to the shrine i had japanese style breakfast at matsuya. it was good and you were able to order from the machine. but I HAD NO IDEA HOW TO USE IT. #GAIJINLEVEL100000 luckily, some man helped me out which was blessed. AND THEN i didn’t know how to eat it #GAIJINLEVEL1000000 -___- like mixing the raw egg and the beef - is there a specific order to it? i dont know.. but food is food and for the price (390 yen), it was not bad!

then i finally went to meiji shrine and yoyogi park! on my way there, i saw kids riding ponies.. SOOO CUTE. reminded me of the times when i would ride ponies at downey’s farm. such ~sweet memories~

the trees at yoyogi park were really pretty but really green. i was hoping to see the colours changed, but did not :( (i went in around mid-november which is considered the start of autumn, i think the colours are to be changing late november)

my favourite part of yoyogi and meiji shrine were the kids. i went there on a saturday, and i noticed that there were a lot of families all dressed up to take family pictures. and the KIDS WERE DRESSED UP IN TRADITIONAL KIMINOS. IT WAS HOTONI KAWAII (~very cute~ in japanese). i took a lot of creeper pictures of kids, but i will not post for their privacy. LOL. i also saw a wedding go down at meiji shrine which was very interesting. truthfully it looked more like a funeral march to me, but that was just me.

meiji shrine sits outside harajuku which i was just at the previous day. but i didnt know what to do, so i just went to a few more stores in harajuku. my first stop was the JOHNNYS STORE. i didnt know such thing existed but i saw it labelled on my google maps when i was trying to find my current location and i was like OMG. JOHNNYS ENTERTAINMENT STORE?!?!? so i googled it and IT TRULY WAS A JOHNNYS ENTERTAINMENT STORE. SO I JUST HAD TO SEE WHAT THE HYPE WAS bc i LOOOVED NEWS, and KAT-TUN back in the day. i would have taken pics of the store, but there are NO PHOTOS allowed.

before going into the store, i was like expecting some merchandise like what i saw at the BTOB pop up store at common ground in seoul. like body pillows, stationary, calendars, posters. but the johnnys store WAS NOT LIKE THAT. it was literally WALLS/BULLETIN BOARDS filled with POLAROIDS. and you take a sheet in which you just write down the polaroids you want and then you buy them. the store was LEGIT FILLED WITH GIRLS of all ethnicities just LINING UP FOR POLAROIDS... it was very interesting, but not my scene. PLUS i didnt really see any polaroids of my favourite johnny’s associate, yamashita tomohisa... so yeah. i left. and i was the ONLY PERSON in that store that wasnt buying any polaroids.

i also went into the store, alice on a wednesday. alice on a wednesday is an alice in wonderland themed store. it was very ~unique~.

i’m not really familiar with alice in wonderland, but i assume the small door represents something. the walls inside the store were really cool. they were painted in a very alice in wonderland way with the mushrooms, flowers and stuff. my most favourite thing about the store was this face inside a flower that was painted on the wall. the face reminded me of the leader of btob, seo eunkwang.

LOOOOOL do you see the similiarities? sigh such a low quality pic, but high quality moment and comparison. i need this to go viral so btob can laugh at this and credit me <3

after harajuku, i went to IPPODO! ippodo is a tea room that i really love and i was really excited to go to before going to japan. the ippodo in maruonichi is one of the 3 kabuko rooms in the world. the kabuko rooms just allow to drink the tea and they also show you how to make the tea vs going through the whole ceremony. SUPERASHI! (~amazing~ in japanese) i learned how to make genmaicha and i got some azuki mochi with it. also i learned the correct pronunciation of genmaicha (ken-mai-cha)!!!!! NOT JEN-MAI-CHA. (step 1 of becoming less gaijin). i sat at ippodo for about an hour just drinking the tea, and i afterwards felt so calm and balanced. i even forgot that i didn’t wash my face in the morning for a bit. but, thats why i love green tea. it may be more psychological, but i just feel much more relaxed after drinking it.

after drinking my tea, i followed the trees and sat down at some place.

little did i know, i was outside the imperial palace! i wanted to go inside the gardens, but i was a bit too late and entry was no longer permitted. but i walked outside the outer moat of the palace which was really nice. there were a lot of gnats around the moat which was a little gross. when i was walking all around the palace, i saw a lot of cool buildings such as the national diet building and the national theatre. just the chiyoda area was so different than the other places in tokyo that i had already been which was cool. the chiyoda area wasnt so compact and like a concrete jungle like shibuya and shinjuku. instead, i found it more neat and like simple. a little difficult to explain, but if you are ever planning to go to tokyo, try to spend a day in the chiyoda ward. it’ll be well worth it.

by the time i was done walking around the imperial palace, the maronuchi area had night time illumination for christmas. it was really beautiful~~

i got honked at by a taxi cos i stood in the middle of the street when taking this picture. but anything for the blog, right? #dedication

then i went back to shinjuku because i had to pick up my luggage. i went into lumine est randomly, and that mall is a THOUSAND times better than shibuya 109! if your style is more western and just simple, i highly recommend lumine. do not even bother to go to shibuya 109. it is overrated and just NO! but i did find that the clothes were pricy so i didn’t buy anything, but it was a good mall to walk and marvel over pricy clothes.

i then picked up my luggage and made my way to the airbnb. once i got inside the unit, the host was there! she was such a NICE WOMAN! she was speaking some japanese to me, and whenever i hear some foreign languages, i try to repeat after them. she said “chotto matte” to me which means wait a minute WHICH I LEARNED from HANA YORI DANGO (best j-drama ever). and i repeated her. she asked me if i knew japanese and she told me that i looked japanese. kekekee!! NO LONGER A GAIJIN!!!!!! and then i told her that im not japanese but i have been mistaken for a mix of japanese and korean and she said she sees it. #raciallyambiguous the host gave me instructions like how to turn on the hot water, how to make the floors heat up, how to wash your asshole with the bidet etc.. and then she left.

i used the bidet after she left. very interesting. :3

AND THEN I WASHED MY DUTTY FACE THAT I DID NOT WASH FOR OVER 36 HOURS. IT FELT SOO BLESSED. i felt really sorry for my face :( so i let it breathe for a moment before i put my makeup back on to meet up with family and friend.

i met up with them for dinner. we were supposed to go to a fish ball ramen place but the LINE WAS WHACK. like 2 HOUR WAIT? so then we tried to go to ichiran, but the line was a 1 hour wait AT LEAST. so we ended up at some conveyor belt sushi, numazuko, which i was fine with. but this was LEGIT conveyor belt and not like uobei in which you order and it comes to you. we sat at the end of the conveyor belt so we got to pick from the shitty fish or the expensive fish :(. but the food was good!

after dinner, i retired back to my airnb and did some laundry and washed my face.

what i learned: use the lockers at the subway stations to store your luggage high point: ippodo :3 - such a great experience <3 i loved it. low point: feeling disgusting for majority of the day because of my gross unwashed face in which i just caked makeup on

where i went today:

SHOPS

johnny’s shop

address: japan, 〒150-0001 tokyo, 渋谷区jingumae, 1 chome−14−21, イルサリチェビル

hours: 10AM - 7PM

closest tokyo metro station: harajuku

alice on wednesday (水曜日のアリス東京)

address: 6 chome-28-3 jingumae, shibuya, tokyo 150-0001, japan

hours: 11AM - 8PM

closest tokyo metro station: meijijingu-mae

RESTAURANTS

ippodo (一保堂茶舗東京丸の内店)

address: japan, 〒100-0005 tōkyō-to, chiyoda-ku, 千代田区marunouchi, 3 chome−３−１−１

hours: 11AM - 7PM

closest tokyo metro station: hibiya

numazuko (沼津港新宿本店)

address: japan, 〒160-0022 tōkyō-to, shinjuku-ku, 新宿区shinjuku, 3 chome−３−３４−１６

hours: 11AM - 10:30PM

closest tokyo metro station: shinjuku

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chroniclesofamiddlechild · 7 years

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FOOD: HOJICHA PUDDING

in kyoto, i went a little overboard with purchasing tea... which is great and all, but i didn’t check the expiry date. WHO KNEW THAT TEA HAD AN EXPIRY DATE? most certainly not me. x.x

so...what should one do when they have a shit ton of tea? obviously try to make food/dessert with it! :P and that is how i got to make HOJICHA PUDDING!

i bought a bag of kuki-hojicha from nakamura tokichi at kyoto station. i didn’t know what hojicha was until april 2016 because i randomly tried a hojicha latte from a hong kong starbucks. the taste of hojicha is very different from other sencha that i have tried. the taste has a lot of depth and there is a more ~earthy~ scent to it. for those of you who are familiar with chinese tea, the closest thing that i can associate with hojicha is the “teep koon yum” tea. but it isn’t as heavy and bitter as “teep koon yum.”

the kuki-hojicha is made out of roasted twigs while hojicha is made from roasted tea leaves. i didn’t buy hojicha so you wont be able to tell the difference between the leaves vs twigs but you can use your imagination.

anyways in terms of the recipe, it’s super simple and srsly if i can successfully execute it, anyone can.

ingredients:

- 10g of gelatin powder

- 4 table spoons of water

- 2 cups of milk (i used skimmed milk)

- 3 table spoons of hojicha

- sugar (up to your discretion)

directions: (gomen ne sai, i forgot to take pics during this process but i can be very descriptive)

1) mix 10g of gelatin powder with the 4 table spoons of water until it becomes of a paste consistency. the gelatin powder mix actually smells DISGUSTING because gelatin powder is made out of BONES. so when you smell something gross, you are probably doing it right.

2) put the milk and hojicha into a pot and keep it on medium heat. keep stirring it until it is boiled. at this stage, feel free to put as much sugar as you want. i put in about 2 table spoons of sugar because i don’t really like sweet things that much.

3) once the mixture is boiled, the mixture should be of a light brown colour and the hojicha scent should be strong. at this point, turn off the stove and let the mixture cool to about 75 degrees celcius. i don’t have a cooking thermometer, but i watched a 15 minute youtube video as i was waiting for it to cool.

4) after it has cooled, pour in the gelatin powder mix to the milk and then stir to make sure that the gelatin powder has dissolved into the milk. making sure that the milk has cooled is extremely key because gelatin does NOT harden in hot temperatures.

5) strain the mix and then pour into whatever serving bowls you want.

6) place the bowls into the fridge until it has a pudding consistency.

7) once it has hardened, eat.

voila~ this is the finished product~~

the pudding tastes NOT BAD, but not SUPER DELICIOUS. i used 2.5 cups of milk in the recipe and i think that was NOT A GOOD DECISION. i find the pudding to be a bit too milky and not enough of a tea flavour. maybe because i used too much milk or because i used kuki-hojicha and not hojicha.

also, i think that the pudding is lacking in sweetness. there needs to be a little bit more sugar in there. i used brown sugar instead of white sugar so that could have impacted it a bit.

overall, i would give this pudding a 5.5/10. i would try to make this again, but with modifications~

if you guys have the ingredients, give this recipe a try!!

until then, stay spicy!!!!

-EM

#food #tea #hojicha #hojicha pudding #recipe #review

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chroniclesofamiddlechild · 7 years

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THE DAY WITH THE 1L WATER BOTTLE: JAPAN DAY 2

~w000000oo000~ today was my FIRST FULL DAY IN TOKYO!!! but it rained... but on the bright side, i learned that japan has an honour system with regards to umbrellas!! you can just take one and then put it back afterwards! so i took one from my hostel. whether i returned it or not...keep reading to find out kekekeke.

so i left my hostel and went to lawsons to buy a bottle of water and an onigri. this morning before i left the hostel, i saw some girl with a 2L bottle of water on her bed and i thought she was sooo smart. so i wanted to do that too! but instead i bought a 1L bottle of water for the day and a salmon roe onigri. japanese people frown upon eating/drinking while walking and just overall public eating. as i did NOT want to be a gaijin (a derogatory japanese term for foreigner), i put them in my backpack.

i planned to go to the meiji shrine, but it was raining quite hard. so then i decided to go to takeshita street which was scheduled for after meiji shrine. so i just hopped on the subway (the f line - shinjuku sanchome) and i saw ikebukuro. ikebukuro is where sunshine city mall is which houses the pokemon center. i was really not planning to go there because i really think pokemon is so 2000 and late. but it is an indoor mall so i just went there to see what the hype was. i got off the subway at ikebukuro and it took me a while to find the sunshine city mall, but i just followed the signs in the underground paths and followed the hoards of people and FOUND IT! once i got there, i just really wanted to eat my onigri. i saw some school girls sitting at the mall and eating pocky, so i just sat down on a seat and ate at the mall. i did not know how to open the open the onigri (sigh, im such a gaijin). but WHATEVER. I STILL ATE IT. it was pretty good, a little salty though. next time, i would want to try something else. EVEN THOUGH IT WAS SALTY, i did not OPEN THE 1L WATER BOTTLE. so it just SAT IN MY BACKPACK.

i walked around the mall. saw some cool stores with some cool products. i went into a sanrio store and saw a new hello kitty xmas collection called the snowman and hello kitty.

i found this collection extremely odd, because isnt hello kitty supposed to be some young girl? why is she hanging out with some old man snowman? why is the snowman holding her in his arms? SO MANY QUESTIONS.

i went into a store called it’s demo and saw a collaboration with DISNEY and DHC. the makeup products looked really interesting a little gimmicky. but i know it’s demo is a very popular store in japan, and there was no point in buying something now when i’ll probably see 15 more of the stores. so i didn’t buy anything.

then i found the pokemon center. i still do not see the hype on pokemon - like IT IS NOT 2004. but i did buy stuff! as xmas is approaching, i bought some LIMITED EDITION SNOW SEASON POKEMON STUFF! i bought a file folder because it was SO PRETTY and ~KAWAII~.

after sunshine city i went to tokyu hands. some department store with everything. i dont know.. i don’t see the HYPE with these department stores, i only went to like 14 stores before i went to tokyu hands and i just felt like it sold the same things as every where else. x.x

then went to uniqlo in ikebukuro. the jeans I wanted yesterday were on sale! woot!!!!! but i didn't buy it there... but i walked around for like an hour... with the heavy ass water bottle in my backpack. i was really cursing at myself for buying a 1L bottle at this moment. my shoulders and back were in pain, but ive always wanted a nice back, so i guess ~no pain no gain~.

i felt hungry after all that walking with a huge water bottle in my backpack. but i didn’t want to eat too much cos i knew i was going to have conveyor belt sushi later that day. so i walked around and found a cafe. I got a cheese and chocolate croissant and a cappuccino. i typically hate chocolate because its too sweet, but i was surprised and how NOT sweet this croissant was and the cheese was pretty good. i dont usually eat cheese either but this was some different cheese. the croissant was flakey and not too buttery which was good because I HATE butter (side note: im a very picky eater). the cappuccino was good and definitely needed from my lack of sleep. but i wouldn’t say it was the BEST cappuccino or BEST croissant i had in my life.

when i went to pay i fucked up because thought the 5 yen coin was a 50 yen coin. so the cashier kept on speaking to me in japanese but i was all like WAKARIMASEN!!! and then he was getting pissed at me and I caused a hold up. thankfully the guy behind me helped me out and told me it was a 5 and not a 50 as i originally thought. that was a very gaijin move of me.. oh well, at least i learned from this experience. this cafe was awesome cos I was able to part away from my fucking heavy ass bag that had a 1L water bottle in it. i also had some time to look up more of ikebukuro and Japan-guide.com said to check out some more anime shit. so i went to some arcade store. but it was wayyy to anime-y for me. it was like a 7 floor arcade store with games including the claw game to retrieve an anime figurine. i checked out 2 of the floors and was getting worried that i was going to go into the hentai section so i just left the arcade and ikebukuro. my next destination was takeshita street.

i got on the F line again and i got off at the meiji shrine harajuku station. but i got LOST AF around this area. i tried to find takeshita dori, but instead i first was led to OMETESANDO!!! NOT COMPLAINING since i was going to go to ometesando as well. i looked at the nike store and some cosmetic stores. so when I went to nike I saw a lot of cool shoes. it made me wonder like what year are we in, in terms of nike, in canada? like my air maxes are new in canada. but in japan, I felt like i was wearing shoes from 1999. i couldn’t find them in the nike store. and then they had all these next level shoes with different colours and it made me felt sad.. and dated :(

after I went to OMETESANDO, i was in harajuku... at least i think i was in harajuku. i walked in the small side streets and the stores were really cool. i think second hand stores are pretty popular in japan. PERSONALLY, im not a fan of them but to each their own, right? i found a really nice store.. jeanasis! super ME but pricy.

this jeanasis store had 2 floors, and the 2nd floor was like this really interesting souvenir stand. there was a blank tote bag and you could pick the stuff to be ironed on the bag. i didn’t buy anything, but i just loved the aesthetic of this store and the souvenir stand.

sigh... so by this time I've been walking around for over 2 hours trying to find takeshita street. keep in mind, i did not open the water bottle and the full 1L was still in my backpack and it was killing me.

so after walking around and finding the place I started at (OMETESANDO) i FINALLY FOUND TAKESHITA STREET!! REJOICEEEE!! i finally went to daiso (the dollar store)!!!! WOOOO but it was very underwhelming and super crowded. so i left and i just walked around. takeshita street/harajuku is pretty poular for their crepes, but i was super grossed out by them. there was SO MUCH WHIPPED CREAM ON THEM and i HATE whipped cream. so i definitely did not get any of it! but I found zakuzaku and I had the croquant stick instead of their famous hokkaido milk soft serve just because i was not in the mood to eat something heavy. the croquant was good! not too heavy, which was good and did not make me completely hate myself and my life choices.

after finishing my croquant, walked more around takeshita street. it was a weird street filled with weird ass fashion.. NOT DOWN. but as I was leaving, there were these above average jap men talking to below avg naive looking jap girls possibly trying to sell something or entice them to go somewhere. the guys were dressed up in some kind of uniform that looked very SWAT like... pretty spicy. I have no idea what was going on but a few things were running through my mind like... 1) why were the guys not paying attention to my gaijin self?!? im foreign!!! i should be interesting. (#middlechild #attentiondeprived) 2) are they advertising for some kind of host club?!! OURAN?! 3) i should be happy i'm not getting approached to follow them to a host club! and with that I just left takeshita street.

i walked around somewhere... no idea where but I found the store SPINS in which was featured in sunnydahye's vlog. fashion was weird. did not really enjoy. and beside SPINS was too cool for school which is one of my favourite korean makeup brands. but this was a weird TCFS as it was legit 20% TCFS products and 80% cell phone accessories that were not made by TCFS. at that moment, I had the thought that TCFS stores are franchised. but at this location, the sales associate maybe made cell phone accessories on the side and in order to sell the accessories she used the TCFS name to bring all the guillable gaijins that love TCFS (ME). so i felt duped there and i just left that area and went to shibuya for dinner and some more shopping.

i went to UOBEI first and got lost going there. UOBEI is a conveyor belt sushi restaurant. the cool thing about this one was that you order it from an ipad and then your order comes to you. i walked all over to find the damn conveyor belt sushi. pls keep in mind that my 1L of water was NOT TOUCHED and STILL in my backpack KILLING ME. and then i found UOBEI!!! the experience was def pretty sugoi and reasonably priced! even tho it was cheap sushi, it’s better than the sushi in toronto~

after UOBEI, i went to shibuya 109. it was like 9 floors of pure shit. i felt like I was just like in a jap version of the markets near DDP in korea. The style is so different and the clothes are SOOO expensive. like i dont want to be dressed up like a tiered cake or some thing. sigh... it made me miss the shopping gangnam station :(. shibuya 109 was just a big NO and i felt sad because i was really looking forward to buying clothes in japan, but the style was just too girly and like cupcake-y aka NOT MANLY AND DARK like me.

after being disappointed by shibuya 109, I went to find SILKREAM!!! I went thru the shibuya crossing 3 times to find silkream!! woot! but I had to cross many times because I GOT LOST... AGAIN!! and DONT FORGET, my backpack was HEAVYYYYYY. but i eventually found silkream! on the way there I went to 2 huge multi purpose stores: it's demo and Loft. When walking through both of them i felt like there was NO DIFF. they all carry the SAME stuff... so that was a left down.

finally I found silkream!!! it was pretty good however I did find it pricy (515 yen) and possibly because i was so full from everything else, i felt a little sick... the cone was a crepe which i liked!!! presentation was on fleek though.

it took me forever to finish the ice cream. i didn't want to be a gaijin so i just stood there outside the cafe eating, until the ice cream was almost done. kinda awkward just standing there, but luckily there wasn't that many people on the street judging me.

after silkream and after my stomach was full and bloated, I decided to go to uniqlo again. this was a smaller uniqlo and had a garbage bag right when you walk in which was good for the label of my silkream that i was holding on to. i was worried that i was going to have to hold it until I got back to the hostel. BLESS UP for uniqlo's garbage bin!

so at uniqlo, i was determined to buy the jeans I saw at ikebukuro uniqlo. i tried them on and when i was in the changing room, i finally OPENED THE WATER BOTTLE. i chugged about 50 ml of water. so now i was only holding a 950 ML water bottle in my backpack.. YAY! anyways i bought the jeans! and I also bought a grey sweater similar to my urban outfitter grey knit sweater. however the fit for this sweater was more asian. the sleeves were a bit bell-shaped which is in trend right now. as i was paying, i noticed the cashier was wearing the outfit that I JUST BOUGHT!!! we are two peas in a pod <3. she also had a pair of nikes on which was very me. she was pretty much a japanese version of me!! PRETTY SUGOI~~~~ HEHEH

after uniqlo, i went to walk around shibuya a bit more. i came across a daiso! this one was significantly better than the one at takeshita street. i found a lot of good finds like a hello kitty turban! perfect for a hello kitty obsessed friend. i also got a minnie mouse laundry bag which i love (update: i just gave my minnie mouse laundry bag to my grandma yesterday for no reason). i will def need to buy more laundry bags- BUT they have to have cute designs or BUST! Anyways after Daiso I FOUND A DON QUIJOTE!!! it was fricking packed there. but I found some cool products like the black face masks that hyunsik uses. < <3 Kekekekeke and some nose hair cleaner.

fucking gross but i felt like it would be good for my dad. the price was a little ridiculous ($22 cad for this piece of shit), so i didn’t get it for ernz. ~gomen ne sai~

after don quijote, walked a bit more around shibuya. i saw a really pretty display outside a department store. it was a fancy christmas tree with the beauty and the beast characters on it!! SOOO pretty and it was 2 things i really like: XMAS AND BEAUTY AND THE BEAST!!!!

(please excuse my poor photography skills)

i after then just went back to my hostel and put back the umbrella i took! effective honour system! :P

what i learned today: i do not share the same style with majority of japanese girls and i don’t like the cutesy, girly style. a major thing i learned today was that I SHOULD NEVER CARRY A 1L BOTTLE OF WATER. EVER. 500 ML MAX. high point: the daiso in shibuya low point: shibuya 109

where i went today:

SHOPPING

sunshine city (サンシャインシティ)

address: japan, 〒170-0013 tokyo, 豊島区higashiikebukuro, 3 chome−1番1号

hours: 10AM - 8PM

website: sunshinecity.co.jp

omotesando (表参道（バス）)

address: 6 Chome-4 Jingūmae, Shibuya-ku, Tōkyō-to 150-0001, Japan

harajuku (原宿駅)

address: japan, 〒150-0001 tōkyō-to, shibuya-ku, jingūmae, 1 chome−18, 神宮前1丁目

takeshita street (竹下通り)

address: 1 chome-19 jingūmae, 渋谷区 shibuya-ku, tōkyō-to 150-0001, japan

shibuya 109

address: 2 chome-29-1 dōgenzaka, 渋谷区 shibuya-ku, tōkyō-to 150-0043, japan

hours: 10AM - 9PM

it’s demo (イッツデモ渋谷センター街店) - shibuya location

address: japan, 〒150-0042 tōkyō-to, shibuya-ku, udagawachō, 24, 宇田川町２４−４

loft (渋谷ロフト) - shibuya location

address: japan, 〒150-0042 tōkyō-to, shibuya-ku, udagawachō, 21−１西武渋谷店

hours: 10AM - 9PM

don quijoite (ドン・キホーテ渋谷店) - shibuya location

address: 2 chome-25-8 dōgenzaka, 渋谷区 shibuya-ku, tōkyō-to 150-0043, japan

hours: 24 hours

FOOD

uobei (魚米魚べい渋谷道玄坂店)

address: 2 chome-29-11 dōgenzaka, 渋谷区 shibuya-ku, tōkyō-to 150-0043, japan

hours: 11AM - 12AM

silkream

address: japan, 〒150-0041 tōkyō-to, shibuya-ku, 渋谷区jinnan, 1 chome−1−19−3 ハイマンテン神南ビル

hours: 11AM - 9PM

#travels #waterbottle #pain #japan #tokyo #ikebukuro #shibuya #uobei #ometesando #harajuku #takeshitadori #silkream #zakuzaku #middlechild

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chroniclesofamiddlechild · 7 years

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THE DAY I LANDED: JAPAN DAY 1

i landed safely in HND at 5:10pm japan time. it was soo surreal that i just left toronto and was in tokyo.

that day, i took a bus to the airport because it was easier to do so. so my mom just dropped me off at the bus station and told me to be careful. i got to the airport about 3 hours before take off. i usually try to go very early because my last name sometimes causes issues. my last name is one letter however airlines do not accept one letter last names - so the name on my ticket does not match my passport. (PLS AIRLINES IT IS 2016 - PEOPLE HAVE ONE LETTER LAST NAMES AND EVEN NUMBERS AND SYMBOLS IN THEIR NAMES. GET WITH THE TIMES) this time, i easily passed through the gate and customs at yyz and i just leisurely spent time at the airport. i saw some young japanese guys and girls all dressed up in suits and skirts. at first i thought they were going to be my stewards and stewardesses and got disappointed because they were truly unattractive. but when i was lining up to board the plane, those dressed up individuals were just students in their uniform going back to japan after a trip in canada.

just to sum up my flight - it was shit. honestly air canada is a fucking scam. like 1) the food is DISGUSTING. the first meal i had was gyudon (literally beef bowl in japanese). it was okay. like not bad but NOT on par with the bulgogi rice I had on korean air. the second meal was cup noodle. it was just GROSS. like can air canada not serve something less SHITTY than cup noodle?!?!?! what a slap in the face. air canada is not some kind of discount airline and they serve you something that probably costs 10 cents to them?! like what the?!?! do they have no morals? i understand that the margins for airline companies are very tight but CUP NOODLES? seriously… and the last meal i got congee which i could not eat. i felt disCUSTing (purposely spelt incorrectly) after the cup noodle. and with the congee, it came with a fruit salad which just included an assortment of the shittiest fruits: cantaloupe and honey dew. sooo gross. 2) just straight up not comfortable. idk how but korean air is so much better. 3) they do not hire on looks. why are people so old?!?! they need to learn from asian airlines and hire on looks. even though i have unfavourable experiences, i will probably still continue to fly the SCAM airlines that air canada is.

so after i passed through customs and everything, i went to get my SIM card. i HIGHLY RECOMMEND people travelling to japan to buy this sim card. it is about $30 CAD but it is unlimited data for 14 days (hehe not sponsored). solely data NO voice calling option. it was blessed but legit took 10 years to set up. after that i got a ticket to the keio rail and a discounted tokyo metro pass. when i was buying these transportation passes, i heard like a hoard of japanese girls squealing. turns out some celebrity was there and the girls were just stalking. so if anyone asks i SAW SOMEONE FAMOUS!!!! getting to my hostel through subway was definitely easy. HOWEVER leaving the subway and walking to the hostel was NOT spicy. i got lost OF COURSE but i wasn’t that lost.

once i got to the hostel at around 8pm (3 hours after i landed), i checked in. the worker there at the hostel checking me in was really not amused with me. he was kinda pissed at me cos i didnt know how to type in my pin in the japanese credit card machine. but i dont care. i just flew fricking 13 hours in with the worst airline company and spent 3 hours getting to the hostel that you work at. so EAT SHIT. anyways, after i finally paid for the hostel, i took a look around. all I could associate with the ~hostel lyfe~ was that it reminded me of living in residence back in university. having a shared washroom reminded me that i did not pack water shoes for the shower. so after I dropped my shit off on my bed, I was off to shinjuku to shop and eat

i really have no sense of direction, but i do hold some common sense. i couldn’t understand the directions on google maps so just followed the lights and i ended up at BIC CAMERA in shinjuku sanchome which is owned by uniqlo which owns GU. SO I WALKED THRU EVERYTHING! uniqlo was nice. at uniqlo - i looked at myself in the mirror and i saw how scary i looked. i looked pretty disheveled which was expected after a horrible 13 hour flight with air canada. but what really stood out was how bloodshot and scary my eyes looked. i barely slept on the plane so my eyes were just red and just a little demonic. anyways, i saw a nice outfit and i really liked the jeans but it was not on sale. i have a rule for shopping at uniqlo - NEVER BUY ANYTHING REGULAR PRICE. it always goes on sale eventually. i also saw a cute tunic but it was also not on sale. i went to GU (which was a store that i was SUPER SUPER SUPER EXCITED TO CHECK OUT COS IT IS SO CHEAP) and it was just straight up so messy. i could NOT. (side note: i HATE MESSY STORES. that is why i dont shop at forever 21 and sometimes h&m). and then I went to bic camera to look for some flip flops for the shower. they only carried brand names one. like why the hell would i buy brand name ones to shower? i was starting to get a bit worried and was just like if i can’t find, i will just have to be BAREFOOT in the shower. and then I got grossed out. all these old memories of showering at the community center after swimming lessons and looking at the hair balls on the ground came to me. but if i had to be barefoot, i had to. so i went to walk around and i tried to find ichiran (24 hour chain ramen restaurant) which is recommended by BTOB and others.

on my way to ichiran i found a random 100 yen shop and i bought the slippers WOOOO. NO LONGER HAVE TO SHARE FOOT FUNGI WITH STRANGERS!!! WART FREE!!!!!

google maps lied to me… i got lost.. as expected and it probably took me like 20 mins for a journey that was 200m away from the 100 yen shop. i noticed that google maps is NOT VERY ACCURATE IN TOKYO. it may be because there are just so many tall buildings and there is just poor reception. but I found ichiran and thats all that mattered. honestly i don’t really like ramen. i don’t like foods that have been submerged in water or broth or anything and i especially hate meat that has been submerged. thus i do not enjoy hotpot, and pho. but when in japan you have to eat ramen.

the unique thing about ichiran (or so i thought was unique) was that you ordered from a machine and then you eat solo. you can also choose how heavy/light you want your broth to be and how soft/firm your noodles can be. i can’t really remember what i ordered - but i know i ordered a light broth (because i hate heavy and oily broths) and i ordered firm noodles (no idea why.)

i was kinda dumb and ordered green onions because i didn’t know it came with green onions - but more the merrier?

overall ichiran was good for my first meal. it was something that was needed after eating disgusting food on the plane. the broth was pretty good and the spicy seasoning was very nice. i like VERY SPICY foods, but only ½ is good! do not go beyond because the spice will last the whole bowl!!!!! if i were to go to ichiran again, i would definitely NOT do the green onion and order bamboo shoots and definitely order the softer noodles.

after my dinner at ichiran, i headed back to the hostel to call my grandma and shower and slumber. when i got back to the hostel, i just sat down in the lounge, to make a call. the girls staying on my floor were mainly asian and they were just eating convenience store foods that looked really delicious. i didn’t talk to anyone because no one was talking to each other but i don’t really mind. <3 <3 silence <3 <3. then after i called, i just showered and got ready for bed. i obviously could not pack that much of my skin care products but i had a sample of the etude house baking soda cleanser and i hated it. (the smell, the consistency - everything.. so gross) it would be a sad 14 days for my face. but thankfully i had some other samples from my trip to korea such as the innisfree volcanic foam cleanser that i could use on other days. to moisturize my face, i had a lot of other samples such as the etude house pink vital water line, innisfree green tea serum, innisfree pomegranate products (from hong kong, not available in korea) and a really disgusting innisfree orchid cream. i also brought some sheet masks, but i didn’t use it for my first day.

after moisturizing my face, i just played on my phone until i slept. i have a lot of difficulty sleeping in foreign places and this hostel was no exception. i slept but i did not sleep much but AT LEAST I SLEPT :P :P

what i learned from my first day in tokyo: eating solo is very common

high point: eating where BTOB eats

low point: cup noodle on the flight

where i went today:

SHOPPING

BICQLO (ビックロビックカメラ新宿東口店)

address: 3 chome-29-1 shinjuku, shinjuku-ku, tōkyō-to 160-0022, japan

hours: 10AM - 10PM

website: biccamera.co.jp

closest tokyo metro station: shinjuku sanchome

RESTAURANTS

ichiran (一蘭新宿中央東口店)

address: 3 chome-34-11 shinjuku, 新宿区 shinjuku-ku, tōkyō-to 160-0022, japan

hours: 24 HOURS

closest tokyo metro station: shinjuku - east exit

#japan #tokyo #aircanada #scammed #cupnoodle #btob #ichiran #etude house #innisfree #silence #travels

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chroniclesofamiddlechild · 7 years

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JAPAN 2016

in november 2016, i went on a 2 week trip to japan which was HONTONI SUGOI~~~ (very cool in japanese). i planned to visit 4 cities: tokyo, nagoya, kyoto and osaka. i was most looking forward to osaka because of the overnight osaka guide and least looking forward for nagoya.

this was a trip of firsts. it was the first time i was going to a country by myself. the first time i was staying in a hostel. the first time i will have to eat by myself. truthfully, im a person who rarely likes others upon initially meeting them, so a solo trip would be extremely interesting.

you may be wondering.. WHY JAPAN?!?!? i ALWAYS WANTED TO GO TO JAPAN. i love LOVE JAPANESE FOOD AND I LOVE THE FOODIE CULTURE. I USED to LOVE japanese music (UTADA HIKARU, AI OTSUKA, JOHNNY’S ENTERTAINMENT GROUPS). and I LOVE LOVE GREEN TEA. but as i was a lone wolf travelling abroad to a foreign country, i knew i had to be careful at all times.

before going to japan, i was a little worried because of the following reasons:

1) i do not know how to read a map. i am extremely.. EXTREMELY directionally challenged.

2) japanese people can be weird (like all people). japanese men GROPE women on subway (chikan). i already hate people touching me.. what would happen if i got GROPED ON THE SUBWAY!?!?!?!?!?

3) what if i got followed?!??!! i watched a youtube video of a girl telling a story about her and her friend being followed by a man in tokyo. what if that happened to me and i didn’t notice the man following me?

4) what if i went into a cafe which was actually a host club?? and the hosts were actually girls pretending to be guys and you had to rate whether they did seem like a guy or not. i remember watching kelly osbourne’s travelling show back when i was in junior high and she WENT TO A CAFE LIKE THIS!! IM NOT MAKING IT UP!!!! it does sound like an interesting cafe - but not for me.

5) i didn’t want to be scammed by prostitutes. i know this concern is not really relevant to me but before going to japan, i was reading about people who were scammed in roppongi hills and kabukicho on reddit.. kinda funny/sad how an offer of sexual favours can lead to people being scammed $5000+.

but these concerns were heavily outweighed by my weeaboo heart.

my mom went to japan months before me and she told me that i could only bring my carry on luggage and a backpack because there are a lot of stairs and it’s a very compact country. i was cursing her in my head because I WANTED TO BRING A BIG LUGGAGE SO I CAN EASILY FIT ALL MY PURCHASES but when i got there, i was thankful for listening to my mom (FOR ONCE) (I HOPE SHE’S NOT READING THIS).

in terms of purchases - i wanted to BUY A LOT!! i wanted to buy:

- a lot of shit from DAISO!!!! the dollar stores in japan are BOMB and put dollarama to shame.

-makeup! japan has the BEST eye makeup. and my 2nd favourite thing about myself after my eyelashes are my eyes. so I wanted to buy everything

-skincare! i have a lot of korean skincare products but i wanted to try some japanese skincare products since they do all have very nice skin

-CLOTHES. i follow a lot of cool japanese girls on instagram and they just have such cool street style. so i was looking forward to becoming one of them.

-TEA. i love green tea. PERIOD.

-SOUVENIRS. things for my friends and family of course :3

whether or not i bought all that i wanted will be revealed in the following posts. so stay tuned.

until then,

#japantravel #tokyo #kyoto #nagoya #osaka #kawaii #sugoi #travels

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