frillish

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!

Weekend Joys

• daily

Hello I’ve titled this post “Weekend Joys”, but I’ll actually back up a bit all the way to last Monday! I’d like to record some of my small happy moments here more My hand eczema has been acting up a lot recently unfortunately, so it’s hard for me to journal/write on paper since I have to have heavy lotions on constantly… but then I remembered I have a blog, too

On Monday, jume spontaneously asked me if I wanted to have lunch at the office, so I joined in! I was honestly just feeling like a big salad, so that’s what I got. I got some avocado and egg as a treat

But most of all, I was so excited to see that this office has my newest obsession in their snack cabinet: Barebells protein bars!!!

Wore a simple outfit with my new evelyn sweater over an old mille fille closet skirt. I just wanted something easy to wear I’m so happy I got this sweater. I really love how comfortable it is - though it’s still generally a cropped design, it’s not as high-waist/cropped as other evelyn sweaters I have, so this one is a lot easier to wear casually

Later in the week, I met up with my dangie and my bro at Habuya Okinawan Dining in Tustin - it’s a local izakaya spot that I found after discovering we procrastinated too much to eat anywhere else for the cravings we had without perhaps waiting until 8-9pm

This place doesn’t take reservations, so I was able to waitlist & arrive in perfect time for us to be seated without too much wait! I didn’t realise Tustin has so many little diners like this - we really need to eat out here more

I had a brain skip and ordered the salmon ikura bowl even though I have always removed ikura from my bowls lol… but in an effort to be a good customer, I made my first attempt to eat ikura ever And… it turned out pretty good!? It didn’t have the “popping boba” effect that I thought it’d have… though it was still quite a bit salty for my preference! The bowl overall was incredibly delicious, though

A silly thing… for some reason I didn’t recognize the fresh housemade wasabi as, well, wasabi, so I scooped half of it and ate it by itself… it was quite an experience

My bro ordered bluefin tuna sashimi and his favourite… an entire karaage appetizer that he finished himself! lol (he offered it to us, but I don’t eat meat and dangie was too full from her own meal)

I just find it funny because the last time the 3 of us ate together, my brother also ordered a karaage that no one else ate and he finished the entire thing himself. A true karaage lover

Dangie ordered a chicken curry that came in such an interesting bowl. I didn’t take a photo, but someone else at another table ordered a ramen and it came in a strangely shaped bowl, too, so when we were waiting for our meals, we kept wondering what kinds of bowls our food would come in

It was super fun to eat together again! Actually, I think this place is such a local gem. They include 15% as gratuity and don’t take tips, which is SO rare. Most of all though, the food was incredible and I want to try so many different things on their menu!

We got HNTea after - a favourite of my manz but I had never been there myself! My dang tried hot milk tea with boba for the first time (she usually gets it cold) It’s my favourite (hot milk tea with boba). I recommend it as long as you know not to burn your tongue (unlike me)

On the weekend, we went with B & E for a spontaneous picnic! It was really lovely since the spring weather is so nice right now I was ready to lay inside and do nothing this weekend, but I’m really glad we went out after all!

My manz wanted farm strawberries since he hasn’t really tried them before, so we zipped into this random farm lot to get some. I was a bit tired so I didn’t get out of the car at this time, but I saw the stand owner show their doggo with B showing off their dog

B & E are really good at making food and picking out great snacks - their homemade bruschetta was incredible My manz made an egg salad that I really enjoyed, too! I took the lazy unprepper’s route and brought fruit and hummus lol

The doggos kept wanting to eat all our picnic food… my manz had to be very much on his guard while Holo’s saliva flew away with the wind

It was so fun watching the dogs chase after balls together! Their dog is the only dog that Holo doesn’t get super aggressive at, so I’m happy it seemed like everyone had a good time

When we got back after the picnic, I knocked out almost right away… it’s really hard to have enough energy for even half a day’s activities, but I’m relieved that B & E are super understanding, they were super nice about it even though I felt bad as a host

On Sunday, I honestly just wanted to sleep the entire day, but we decided to at least get groceries and try the new sakura lychee Junbi miffy collab that I saw. I also saw a Japanese ceramics store on Google Maps when looking up Junbi’s location so I wanted to take a peer inside!

The store is called Orange Tableware and they’re incredible - stocking a lot of artisan Japanese pieces that were so beautiful to look through! I was so tempted, but decided not to get anything too fancy for now. Overall, the pricing of the store seemed really reasonable, which surprised me!

Instead, I was intriged by a Kinto glass + nonslip tray. Since I’ve been trying to make iced matchas lately, a clear glass cup seemed really nice And since I’m really anxious all the time, the nonslip tray looked perfect to help carry things without worry. My manz got them for me as a treat

Fun story…

My manz told me that he’s not going to touch the Kinto glass since it’s so thin and delicate looking - when he was younger, when drinking from a glass cup, he decided to bite on the glass and in an instant it shattered!!! From then on, he hasn’t bitten glass cups anymore…

…but I thought (and so I told him), why would one bite a glass cup???

At the same time, I think… why not, I guess? It’s not really the consumer’s fault if teeth are used on a mouth receptable, right?

Aside from tablewear, they also have cookware like donabe and matcha bowls

Finally, the cute Miffy collab with Junbi: I ordered the sakura lychee milk tea with lychee bits To be honest, I think Junbi is a bit overpriced (although it’s probably standard for Irvine, sigh) but the drink itself was actually super tasty! I got it at 25% sweetness and it was still rather sweet. I really want to make lychee matcha drinks now.

We got our groceries at Tokyo Central, but not until we quickly had a lunch before the manz got hangry. We heard that a new Tokyo Central location is going to open up in Irvine this summer, which is so exciting It’s not that this location is super far, but it’s still a bit farther out, so a closer location is welcome for sure!

The new nonslip tray & Kinto glass in use