Japan Day 2

travel date: 1/27/2011
resuming my japan trip post……heavy pic

woke up early - jet lagged!! not all bad since our 1st stop is tsukiji market. we wondered around the dry and wet market for a long time before we found our main destination....sushi dai. after several "sushi dai ni wa doko desuka" and some tamago we finally saw a bunch of people queuing outside sushi dai. after 2 hrs, several photos and some snacks it was finally our turn to enter the famous sushi dai which sits only 13 patrons. we ordered one special set and one normal set.

after a heavy brunch (should have order 1 set), we made our way to sensoji temple. the friendly sushi master. he knows a bunch of languages.

tokyo is very very safe. kids go to school by themselves. no kidnappers in tokyo?

kaminarimon (thunder gate)

nakamise shopping arcade leading towards sensoji. i had so much fun exploring this street. lots of snacks and souvenirs (my kinda thing).

skewered kibi-balls covered with soybean powder

ningyoyaki - small cake with red bean paste filling

the 2nd gate, hozomon

got a bad fortune mikuji :( tied a knot on the metal wires hoping the bad fortune will not attach to me.

fanned the smoke from the burning incense for purification and luck.

threw a coin for offerings and made a prayer.

after all the religious and cultural activites, it was time for foood. we went to daikokuya for their famous tendon. it's on one of the streets by nakamise-dori. pretty easy to find. there were a lot of people and we had to wait for 30 mins to be seated. the tendon is darker and the batter they used is different from what i usually have. definitely something different to try.

after lunch, we made our back to the hotel to pick up our luggage and head to shinjuku-odakyu train station to catch our train to hakone. we bought the hakone free pass(5000 yen) and got upgraded to the romance car(870 yen) since we want to get to our ryokan in time for dinner. warning!! there are no luggage space in the romance car. we got to stuff our luggage in our legroom area and put our legs on top of the luggage. it was an uncomfortable ride.

we missed the bus to our ryokan by seconds and decided to take the cab instead. cabs are expensive. they charge you 710 yen once you get in. fortunately, the ryokan is nearby and the meter didn't tick at all. hooray!!

funny story. we didn't want to wear our yukata to dinner since we weren't sure how to put it on. thinking we should observe how people wear them first. then we walked out the room with slippers provided. on the way to the dining hall, we realized that we didn't know about the slippers either. were they meant to be worn in the room or outside?? we quickly looked at people's feet to check. yup, they were meant to be worn outside the room. phew~~~

our kaiseki dinner. very ornate and incredibly delicious.

after dinner, we rest a bit and wore our yukata ready to try out the onsen. i was a little wary being naked in front of strangers for the first 5 mins.but, i totally enjoyed the experience. it was so tranquil dipping in the outdoor onsen with bamboos and trees everywhere. it felt therapeutic, but that might be my brain acting up.

thoughts: japanese are very polite. a lady tried to open the door to my washroom cubicle. when i got out, she was very apologetic (all i could made out was "sumimasen") and all i could say was daijyobu ^_^

happy earth day + good friday + easter nails !!

happy earth day! i believe each of us can make a difference if we change. do you?

some reminders:
1) trade plastics bags with reusable bags
2) trade coffee cups with reusable mugs
3) trade plastic utensils with reusable utensils (especially at work)
4) trade conventional light bulbs with energy saving light bulbs
5) trade bottled water with filtered water in reusable bottle
6) trade regular batteries with rechargeable
7) trade your vehicle with hybrid/electric vehicle (that's a big one)

finally RECYCLE :)

easter nails

china glaze for audrey
china glaze lemon fizz

picnic on lazy sunday afternoon. perfect tree for our blanket.

seedless grape keeps you hydrated under the sun. it’s probably my fav fruit. no peeling, no cutting, no slicing and it’s almost always sweet.

mantao is a gentleman. he sits cross-legged.

but guess what he did. major attack on my leg. any recommendation for a good scar healing cream?

review ~ cleansing oil

i want to thank all my new and "old" followers for filling up my "jar of hearts". blogging is more fun with more hearts.

i didn't know cleansing oil exist 2 years ago. that was the time i didn't care about my skin. bad bad bad idea. now i have to pay for all the damages from before :( message to all the young girls out there, "start taking care of your skin." i think the main reason why i had bad skin last time was because my makeup was not removed completely. still had residue after cleansing (smack my head for being ignorant).

cleansing oil came to my life and i was ecstatic. it's so easy to wash off makeup without rubbing, tugging too hard on your skin. it's such an effortless step.

1st one i tried was the famous DHC cleansing oil. it's a great product. the 6.7 fl. oz. bottle lasted me 5 months. a single pump is enough to wash off everything.

2nd one i tried is fancl mild cleansing oil. it washes off eye makeup, but not waterproof mascara like majorlica lash expander plus(my current fav) or dolly wink eyeliner without heavy scrubbing(which is not a good idea on your gentle eyes). won’t be repurchasing. (photo below is part of my haul in tokyo)

currently, laneige cleansing oil is what i'm using right now. i got it from incheon airport(previous trip to asia) for ~usd21. this works great! gentle messaging around the eye area strip off all makeup and residue. i used it for 1 months and still have 90% left. I do double cleanse with my clarisonic mia to ensure I face a clean squeaky face without too drying.

next, i would like to kose softymo deep cleansing oil. it’s cheap from sasa.com.

trailer food

I received my Josh Duhamel’s tokidoki for relief run t-shrt. 100% profit goes to the American Red Cross Japan Earthquake and Tesunami Fund. out of stock == lots of profits ==

mr. adventure got the t-shirt designed by mike shinoda(from linkin park). the profits go to music for relief to help survivors of the 8.9 magnitude earthquake in Japan and subsequent tsunami.

austin is well-known for trailer food. read my previous post. the weather was great and i was craving for trailer food. they're cheap and usually yummy. so, we headed to east 6th street and discovered some really quirky looking trailers and yummy food.

spring is in the air

i had fish and chips. it was good except for the tartar sauce. not sour enough in my opinion (i'm the kind who dips everything in sauce).

mr. adventure had philly cheesesteak. it was tasty and juicy. much better than the one i had from geno's 6 years ago. well, i had it cold....long story.

there's a trailer selling takoyaki. i'm going to try it next time as my tummy was already full that day. probably the only takoyaki place in austin.

there were tons of people in jumpsuit. i think it's something to do with the new "bigger" mini cooper launch. saw a couple there as well. also, a photography group was there. i would say 50/50 between nikon and canon users. i'm in the canon category. what about you?

sometimes I wonder what mantao is dreaming…….

concert + shatter

wonders of the younger. what's that??? the new album by plain white t's. i went to their concert tour 2 weeks ago in austin. why?? cos' their songs are catchy and i like "rythmn of love". it gives me a happy boost every time i hear it on the radio. their tour is opened by andy grammer and parachute. honestly, i haven't heard of andy grammer, i looked him up on youtube before the concert and his songs are great. he's very talented live as well. parachute's "she is love" rocked the concert. of course everyone went wild when plain white t's came on stage. they did a lot of songs from their new album and some hit singles. they have lots of teenage fans. some of them came with their parents. makes sense since the concerts didn't end until past midnite. it was a fun night cheering, singing, jumping and dancing, but the waiting time in between bands sucks. we literally stood for 5 hrs for the entire show cos' we didn't want to give up our good spot. it's almost as long as standing at times square for new year's countdown minus the cold. if you're interested, check out plain white t's tour. they may come to your town.

some videos and photos. pardon the quality. s95 is a great pocketable camera, but not the best in taking concert videos. the mic is incapable to capture heavy bass.

 

 

 

with will anderson from parachute

with andy grammer

plain white t’s is too big for after photos

moving on to NOTD. OPI shatter is so hyped up that i had to get it on my trip to ulta. verdict: love it. it's so quirky, fun and easy. it gives the nail texture without cumbersome nail art.

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ulta professional last fling
OPI shatter
seche vite top coat. it's the best! dries within seconds.

spot some interesting new products at ulta

butter london. this baby is almost twice the price of OPI. anyone tried this?

eylure falsies. apparently they’re #1 in UK.

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