short getaway ~ houston

mr. adventure's parents were visiting, so we decided to make a short getaway to the 4th largest city in US, Houston. we made a stop at Lockhart for Kreuz Market BBQ. absolutely delicious. the brisket was so yummy with all the fats and burnt meat (i sound like a glutton...lol).

Yup, that’s how we eat BBQ in texas. no fancy presentation on plates. it’s all about the meat! (sorry if you’re a vegan. don’t mean to disrespect).

we stayed at residence inn by marriott located right in front of the galleria. a very nice english style inn. we then invaded NASA's Johnson Space Center. tip: get a coupon from McDonald's right next to the space center for half of the admission ticket(if you ever want to go). overall, it's a ripped off if you pay full price. all the stimulator rides are not included in the admission ticket :( blah!!

cute girl wondering around while waiting for our tram.

since kemah boardwalk is near the space center, we went there for seafood buffet dinner. the service was terrible. we waited pretty long to be seated when there were available tables right in front of us. the food was decent for buffet. it was nice to walk on the boardwalk next to the ocean. i miss the ocean breeze.

fav shot of the night.

downtown houston had an awesome art car parade. all the cars were fun, wacky, unique, creative. i wish i'm in a parade like this one day.

last stop chinatown. found a "daiso" like store. i want to live in houston just because of this store.

had korean food for late lunch before we start our journey back. work is getting busier. feels great to have a mini getaway to recharge before diving into heaps of work.

award ~ the versatile blogger

doing a quick award post. my "award presenter" is amy. she's a sweet and nice girl. thanks amy for awarding me :) she does tutorials, reviews, swatches and all that good stuff. head over to her blog to find out more.

rules......
1. thank the person who give you the award, and link back at them.
2. tell us 7 things about yourself...
3. nominate 15 recently discovered Blogger for this award.
4. contact these bloggers and tell them they received the award.

7 things about me

1. those word verification box annoys me, but i do it anyway(i think it's enabled in my blog as well :P). thanks to spammers!!

2. fresh laundry makes me happy

3. i hate washing dishes. the only dishes i'm willing to wash is mantao's bowl. how lucky he is.

4. i'm attempting to plant my own vegetable garden. wish me luck!

5. i don't really like sweet treats, but i enjoy looking at them especially those cute ones.

6. i subscribe to tons of magazine, but i hardly read any of them. should really start flipping those pages.

7. i like anything with zombies (resident evil, plant vs zombies, the walking dead, left for dead etc.)

i'm awarding anyone who read my post, has a blog, and feel versatile :)

Japan Day 3

travel date: 1/28/2011
couldn't sleep the whole night. not sure if it's jet lagged, or i was too excited, or because i'm sleeping on tatami. i woke mr. adventure at 7am and said "let's go for a dip." he was groaning while waking up....lol. we went for a refreshing onsen dip. aaahhhhh~~~~~~~
breakfast is next. everything was yummy except nato beans. i have no idea why japanese like to eat this. maybe it's like stinky tofu to the chinese. my fav dish, congee with sour plum great combo.

after breakfast we went back to our room to rest and get ready for the day's adventure. playing around in our ryokan

hiding inside doraemon’s bed

the streets in hakone is extremely narrow (reminds me of london, but worst). the drivers here have all my respect! we took the tozan railyway train up the mountains. it was a saturday and we had to squeeze in with all the tourists. hakone is a HOT spot ^_^ .


1st stop gora. met a really nice ojisan selling hot red bean snacks. he volunteered to take our photo. arigatou-ne. made a quick stop at gora park since it's included in the package.

beautiful manhole.

2nd stop owakudani. we took the ropeway(cablecar) to the active volcanic zone with sulphur mines. we hiked up the trail to eat black eggs and inhale sulphur(bad idea).


smart way to transport crates of eggs


3rd stop lake ashinoko. took the ship across the lake for a beautiful breezy ride. it was cloudy==no mt. fuji insight.

too bad I didn’t have a zoom lens to capture the red tori in the middle of ashinko

4th stop hakone-machi. had lunch there in a random restaurant. curry rice and curry udon.
5th stop back to ryokan. collected our luggage and took the train back to shinjuku. the hotel manager was so nice to drive us all the way to hakone-yumoto station since we had huge luggage.

took the subway to shibuya and hunt for our hotel. shibuya is very confusing for the first time. took us 30 mins to find it (got lost…haha). it’s easier the 2nd time once you got your bearings and some landmarks.
hunting for food in shibuya is not a problem at all. it’s available every corner. we picked the famous ichiran ramen for dinner located opposite maruicity. most delicious ramen I have ever tasted. thumbs up!! it has a pretty cool setting. tiny cubicles for each patron.

fashion haul: accessories

hauling accessories from ebay is fun, but waiting for them to arrive is a pain. they usually take around 3 weeks to arrive from china/hong kong/taiwan/korea. if you're impatient, it's probably not the thing for you. most of the time i forget purchasing them, so it’s always a little surprise for me when they arrive. haha....yes, i have bad memory.

ebay haul. you can find accessories for really cheap. i think they are around $1 each.

forever21 haul. everyone knows forever21 is an accessories galore. $1.50 each. cheap, but thumbs down on quality. they'll rust overtime. I like anything cat and pretty food . in reality I don’t really like sweet dessert that much. I just like looking at time.

ulta haul. spring/summer hair accessories. very girly with soft colors.

urban outfitters haul. military hat and big glasses. big glasses are so trendy in asia.

macys haul. pinkish beads bracelets and a studded bow ring.

OOTD

romper: unknown malaysia
straw hat: unknown malaysia
sandals: ross dress for less (have it since last year?)

wholes food was hosting a free show on its rooftop. a pretty smart gimmick since everyone who went ended up spending $ on food, snacks, drinks (including me...lol). if you have not watched the princess bride, get it on dvd and watch it. it's hilarious. everything from the script, the actors, the plot etc. it has romance, comedy, action, adventure and family genres all in one movie.

funny story: instead of searching for rotten tomatoes, i searched for rotten potatoes. i was sleepy as it passed bedtime already. a great laugh to end the night.

i won!!

i won a few giveaways recently. yay! me likey giveaways

dollywink falsie case. it's so girly with a huge bow. thanks to with a hint of guilt. check out her blog.

sinful colors nail polishes. they are pretty decent nail polishes for cheap. won from thenailventuress. she does interesting nail art and features lots of beautiful nail color.

stila smudge pot black gel liner. once can never have enough gel liners for smoky look. won from @theglamourist. she's a makeup artist that does bridal makeup for your prefect FOTD on your prefect day.

toms’s movement “with every pair you purchase, TOMS will give a pair of new shoes to a child in need. One for one.” I’m digging the colorful prints. they kind of remind me of kung fu shoes have you been spotting these around? toms

spotted these cuties up for adoption. reminds me of mantao when he’s little.