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Japan Day 2

• travel

See day 1 earlier in my blog I thought for a bit whether I wanted to do a step-by-step through my days in Japan, or summarize it… but I figured just for fun, I might as well revisit my memories Even if I’m a little shy about how I travel by myself, this blog is reflections for myself anyway!

Note: I bulk edited most of my photos for these posts, but for some reason some of them dropped in quality a lot and became pixellated. I have no idea why but I’d rather move on to write new posts than to dig back and fix photos lol so sorry in advance for pixelled photos!

3.11 Tuesday

I stayed in Ebisu for this trip, which is an area I’ve never been to before, much less stayed in! In my previous Japan trips, I’ve always stayed in either Shinjuku or Toshima area or just anywhere that’s cheap haha, but jumelle recommended that I try staying in/near Shibuya for a trendy experience

Since I managed to find a listing for a location walkable to Shibuya Station for a pretty good price, I went for it! And I am so happy I did Ebisu is so beautiful and spacious while being not too busy, and accessible to lots of fun things. So for my first full day, I figured I’d explore the local area.

I went to Café Façon Roaster Atelier, which I think is a very small/family owned place - initially I couldn’t figure out how to get “to” the cafe since I didn’t realise you had to order downstairs first before going up to the loft area for seating. However, one of the employees noticed a confused girl outside so he helped me out with how to order!

They’re… a pretty coffee-ish coffee place LOL, so, the mocha I ordered was very strong and a little bitter - I think my manz would’ve loved it!

I also got a cheesecake which was so delicious and cheezy

The interior is so pretty. I love a loft view, even though the street itself was kinda just facing an apartment or something like that, and no ‘people-watching’ since it was a quiet street - it was very calming and lovely to start my day so peacefully

I went to Tokyu Hands Shibuya to see if I could pick up some gifts and various goods to use during my trip, such as haircare since I didn’t bring any lol. I was pleasantly surprised to see this cute “retro expo” display on their lowest floor

Next, I visited nail shop TAT渋谷店 but… to be honest, I didn’t really find it too great to visit. I was hoping for great deals on nail accessories and gels, but the prices are really high - basically the same as if I just bought them from Zillabeau here, though seeing sample colours in person is really helpful! Anyway, since it was pretty expensive it wasn’t really fun to browse lol

Just the outfit I wore that day

Next, I peeked into 109 because I didn’t bring a lot of clothes on this trip so I’d have to supplement with a bit of shopping, which I planned for. Honestly, I really wanted to wait to shop with my girls later so I didn’t want to look through any of the shops, but I decided to peek into Evelyn since I probably would spend most of my time there So, I ended up just shopping from Risa Magli & Evelyn

I tried on these two cute tops that I ended up buying since they look very versatile for California summers You can’t see it in the photo, but the pink top has subtle silver sparkles in the fabric. It’s SUPER comfortable and I wore it a ton during my trip!

Also tried on this cute long sleeved heart-cutout top, but the fabric is a bit thick, so I can’t really see myself wearing this most of the year back in cali so I passed on it, despite how cute it is. If I see it secondhand for cheap, I might pick it up though

I forget if I’ve already mentioned, but I’ve been trying to focus my new acquisitions on tops - it’s kind of hard to find comfy and well-fitted tops that are soft and don’t irritate my eczema So, it helped a lot to try these on in person!

And I found THE boots!!! I mentioned in my Japan Buys post but I was sooooo happy I found this in store, in my size, in the colour I wanted after regretting not springing for it when it released. After buying these boots, I basically wore them every remaining day of my trip except for 1 day. LOL

Next, I visited Loft to see if they stocked some cosmetics I was looking for. Honestly, by this time I was getting pretty fatigued even though I was trying to conserve energy and browse casually.

I learned from my previous trips that it’s really easy for me to get hyperfixated on shopping in Japan and forget to eat, drink, rest, or use the restroom for an entire day so I tried my best to keep basic body needs in mind during this trip, but it definitely takes a bit of checking in with my body and seeing how I feel. Reflecting on this, I don’t think I did very well on this day for this LOL

Anyway, at Loft I picked up my favourite Matsuyama items & a few other goodies!

At this time, my arm was so tired!!! It’s a good thing I fixed the broken stitching on the bottom of my ecobag before this trip I forgot to take any photos there, but I also visited Tutuanna in an unexpectedly random Shibuya location since I didn’t bring a lot of sockwear either. I found some cute Cinnamoroll socks to give to Sarah & Mina later

Alright, I was way too exhausted this point and even though my brain still wanted to continue shopping, I made myself go find a place to sit down and eat. I ended up at Excelsior Caffé even though I really didn’t want to choose a chain coffee place, but like, I was worried if I waited any longer I’d actually keel over

With very little brain energy left I just couldn’t make any more decisions haha but it ended up being just the right time to rest I ended up ordering a simple latte and their seasonal almond jelly cake, which was like… okay. They don’t really have good options for savoury non-meat eaters, so I tried to order the smallest portion of sugar.

It was pretty cute, and I spent some time catching up on my notes and just taking in the atmosphere. I’m pretty sure I knocked out asleep for a bit too LOL

At some point, Sarah reached out since she was free for dinner and let me pick the place! I really needed like, normal food after all the sugar I ate today HAHA so I chose LOTUS CAFE TOKYO【ヴィーガン料理専門店】 which is a vegan cafe located between Shibuya/Ebisu.

I was so happy to meet up with Sarah again!!!

I got their vg curry karaage with rice! I was so intrigued because I haven’t had karaage in a long time, but it was pretty good The portion size of my meal was kinda huge too! Though I think Sarah’s veggie plate was a lot smaller lol I wish I had a chance to come back here again to try some of their other menu options because everything looked delicious to me!

Sarah ordered their homemade ginger ale and it was, as you see, shocking(ly good)!!

Also got two cakes to share: carrot cake (gluten-free) and seasonal apple cake. I think we both liked the apple cake more, but gluten-free baked goods have a certain texture that’s a litle more unusual. Still, both were yummy!

When we were walking back (thank you Sarah for walking me back to my airbnb to make sure no weirdos bother me!!!), we saw this… sight. I don’t even know what to think. Did a girl get disintegrated???

Also, Google Maps took us by a trainy road while walking back to the airbnb, and while Sarah was trying to tell me a story, a new train piece would zip by and make loud train noises covering her tale.

It was really fun hanging out at the end of the day together! I got to see Sidney and his tall friend whose name I forgot later in front of the airbnb, which was fun too!