frillish

Japan Day 4

• travel

See day 3 of the trip

3.13 Thursday

After my previous days of sweet sugary mornings, I really wanted a full and hearty breakfast. I chose WOODBERRY COFFEE SHIBUYA, which is a popular brunch spot nearby. And popular it is! I came 5 minutes after opening and had to wait (not too long though) for a sit spot

I ordered the smoked salmon benny (benny!!), spicy strawberry mocha, and hojicha cheesecake You order after being seated using the QR code located on the table. I requested my cheesecake to arrive after the main meal.

Omg, this benny - it was really hearty and filling! I haven’t eaten a full avocado-toast-like food ever since starting my diet, so I was soooo happy to eat such a delicious and lavish variation. The benny was made fresh and with perfect texture!

I rarely eat egg now too so definitely this was like a treat meal for me.

They take their coffee really seriously! This was another place where I think my manz, a fancy coffee lover, would enjoy It was honestly a bit too fancy for me and I think I would’ve preferred it sweeter (after all, it’s a mocha), but I think there was an option to sweeten it when you order but… I hadn’t selected it. LOL

Yes, the cheesecakes have returned. I was a little nervous since houjicha is hit-or-miss for me in terms of enjoying the flavour but this cheesecake was SO good! I think it’s not made in-house (I don’t remember) but I really enjoyed it with my meal, even though I was completely bursting at this point!

While walking after my meal I came across this restaurant with these funky paintings. I don’t know why they were there, but I enjoyed seeing them

Since the weather was so beautiful, finally, I got to walk outside at a park and I chose Shinjuku Gyoen. It was the perfect option and really uplifted my whole mood.

Since it was still kind of cold, not a lot of blooms were present, but it was still so crispy and refreshing. I haven’t mentioned it yet, but during my trip, I tried to get about 15-20k steps a day if possible, so a beautiful park to walk at was suitable

Basically, so far I’ve been walking between stations as much as possible to get in some extra steps, but the rain made it kind of gloomy so far. Thankfully, today was really lovely out!

There were even cherry (? or plum? lol I have no idea honestly, I’ll just call them cherry blossoms) blossoms at the park which people crowded around haha! But it wasn’t a huge crowd yet so I was very happy and surprised to see such early spring blooms!

Filled me with so much happiness

While taking photos, a little pink leaf fell on my fuzz

So pink!!!

While I was trying to take photos of this tree, a really nice girl walked up to me to ask me for help with taking her picture. I think she was a solo traveller too which made me happy to see - she was really kind and offered to help me take photos too, though I wasn’t planning to (I didn’t even wear makeup today haha). When I hesitated, she was really cheerful and said it would look super cute, so I was convinced!

My neck got kind of tired looking up at all the pink blossoms lol but it was lovely! I spent a long time walking around them and enjoying even though there really was just like 3 trees that blossomed It was kind of funny because you could see other people running from pink tree to pink tree, too.

I took some photos of my boy

Some of my favourite photos from this trip was of my pink flowered boy

My manz suggested visiting Sekaido which was basically just outside Shinjuku Gyoen, and I’ve always wanted to go, so I visited here after a relaxing time at the park.

Omg I was missing out by skipping this on my previous trips!!! I thought it was just going to be mostly art supplies which I don’t really need more of, but it had tons of stationery (which I also don’t need more of haha but ) It was super fun to browse!

I even found sumikko goodies

Finally, the other stop I planned for today (though now that I think about it, this would’ve been better on the rainy day…) was Thermae-Yu - a spa recommended by both jumelle and my manz. Wow, I am not really a spa person normally but this place is sooooo relaxing!!!

It’s just one price for the whole day (you can stay overnight for an additional fee) but I really, really needed a relaxing few hours, which I spent happily here. There are multiple floors with lots of amenities and relax spots aside from the spas. I even tried a hot rock room which wasn’t as hot as a sauna or hot yoga, but comfortably hot.

There’s food that my manz said was really tasty but I only had the cremia ice cream hehe (I was tempted by the protein smoothies lol but sadly they only use whey)

I really wanted to visit here again before my trip ended but sadly didn’t get to, but I guess I’ll have to plan to go again on my next trip

On my next stop, I went to Tokyo Station to check out the Chiikawa and Sumikko shops. Wow, the Chiikawa shop is so packed that you have to get in line for like 30 minutes just to pay! Sarah invited me to see her idol friend Heidi perform but I was stuck in line at Tokyo Station lol…

I got a few gifts but I don’t know if I would really recommend stopping by here just for Chiikawa. Tokyo Station is quite far and the checkout line was really long, and a lot of the merch you could find at other chiikawa store locations. Still, it was fun to browse since I was already there!

Then, I went to the Sumikko store…

…and saw these cute boys…

…that were all so cute…

…and I’m so obsessed with them LOL

But they look cuter in groups or arranged like this, so I didn’t end up buying any for myself (somehow)!

I kind of regret not picking one (or some) up though… just look how funky they are!!!

I also saw these huge boys I wanted huge shirokuma so badly but there’s no way he’d fit in my luggage. Oh well… I guess I don’t have anywhere to put him anyway

Wow looking at this photo and seeing how poor quality I took it is pretty funny Anyway, this was Maguro-to-Shari Shibuya, a tuna bowl specialty shop. I zipped in here 20 minutes before they closed hoping the kitchen was still open, and got so lucky, because after I came in the owner turned the sign to Closed! It was super cold and rainy outside so I was sooo thankful I got to eat food even though I was calculating which konbini food would sustain me the best as I ran to this store haha

I somehow didn’t initially realise it’s a tuna specialty shop… I typically prefer salmon but decided to just try it out. You order via a machine at the back and pay there, then give the ticket to the owner who will prepare the bowl for you!

I got a smaller salmon bowl with some fatty tuna added in, and it was so fresh and delicious! I liked how straightforward it is. The owner gave me a free miso soup too (probably because it was about to close haha but it was cold out so it was really nice)

These were my buys from the Sumikko shop

Japan Day 3

• travel

See day 2 of the trip

3.12 Wednesday

Since the previous day ended up with my being really fatigued, I just wanted to take it easy today, and evaluate my energy to see what I was able to do today without tiring myself out for the next days.

When travelling, I always worry that downtime “looks bad”, makes my trips “boring”, or is “a waste of time”. However, since I’m just travelling alone, I tried very hard to make sure to take care of myself during this trip, even if I don’t seem to end up as fun as other people. It’s a bit hard to remember this because it’s so natural to compare your trips to how others do theirs.

Since I was a little gloomy about being tired so early in my trip, I decided to cheer myself up by trying a cute chai cafe that jume recommended to me: uRn.chAi&TeA EBISU

It was just perfect for this day I spent a bit of time here just recharging. The cafe’s music selection is so calming, so peaceful! Honestly, vibes were 100% what I needed to rest up.

Yes, this is where I took out my ipad to prepare a bit of blog posts and relax a bit! This cafe has a loft area which is very cute!

I ordered their chai matcha and a hot sando of their seasonal flavour: sakura mochi The hot sando was so, so delicious. I still think about it sometimes Although by the second half of it, it started to become too sweet for me!

As I stayed at the cafe, it ended up being super rainy (despite the original weather report saying it wouldn’t rain on this trip), which made me really thankful I picked up an spontaneous umbrella the previous day, and of course those Evelyn boots

I was a bit bummed since I wanted to go to a park to recharge but with rain, it’s just not super great, so I decided to do some indoor shopping. I went to Lumine EST in Shinjuku, which I wish now that I went to multiple times because Shinjuku has a bunch of cute shops! Did some shopping at evelyn (surprise!) and a random Tabio (I had to try out the Nudey54 tights that Sarah was raving about!)

I was super happy to find these colourways of the top and the dress since they’re sold out online. It doesn’t show up well after my editing LOL but the top is grey (blueish) and the dress is pale purple-pink The Lumine EST location of evelyn allows you to do tax-free while the 109 location doesn’t, so I’d recommend shopping here if you can specifically for evelyn.

For the top, I’m super happy with it because I was afraid the sheer lace part would be itchy, but it’s not! It’s not like… the softest haha but it’s definitely passable for me I really liked a similar design from mellfy memory’s previous collection, but since I don’t have experience wearing MM I didn’t want to risk ordering a full price item and having it not fit. Thankfully, evelyn came out with this similar design (cheaper too) so I can match this style with my closet now

Tabio had a bunch of cute Chiikawa socks! I love seeing collabs, though I didn’t buy any

It was still pouring rain like crazy… I left Shinjuku area since I was intending to save my clothes shopping to be done w/ the girls and ended up trying to shop around at Harajuku. This was probably the biggest waste of time during my trip LOL I should’ve just stayed in Shinjuku I visited Closet Child, but they had such a tiny selection and a lot of pieces were lined up in the back for online order only (?), and I didn’t really suit most of the other stores in Harajuku so it was just kind of a big energy black hole in my day.

At this time, I realised I just really needed to de-stimulate from all the crowds, so I walked back to Shibuya.

I ended up going back to Tokyu Hands to pick up the chiikawa &honey set that I had seen/passed on the previous day though (after thinking about it) and got a few more cute things, so that made me happy!

For dinner, I just wanted something warm, simple, and local after all that rain, so I found a vegan ramen option at Jikasei MENSHO. It’s an order-by-tablet ramen place which is great for solo eaters.

It was alright honestly! Sometimes vegan options are really oily, especially if it’s a dish like ramen that typically gives me heartburn. It was the soupy warm dish I needed, but I think taste-wise it was just okay - just made me realise I don’t think ramen is really for me

These were the buys I got from Lumine - an OP, a top, and a skirt from evelyn; two tights and a pair of pink socks from Tabio It was kind of hard to tell what colour to pick for the tights so I tried to go lighter with their “ecru beige”. I figured I’d try it out before seeing if I wanted more since Tabio’s a bit pricier than other options like tutuanna!

I also got a capsule ball boy for my manz.

Also some konbini desserts! I don’t know why but i LOVE that mint ice cream and eat it every time I come to Japan. It’s just like, a normal mint chocolate chip, but somehow I love it