04/02/12 - Shizuoka

Wow, it's been over 2 weeks since I've last blogged.. exams got to me so I really didn't have any time to do anything unfortunately :( Also I've been working a lot lately, pretty much everyday so on my days off I'm trying to film as much as possible. Kind of sucks because I wanted to film a lot during these holidays, but I guess at the same time at least I can save up to shop in Japan! I do have a lot of videos already pre-filmed so I just have to edit them!

Anyway I've been wanting to blog more lately to get all my Japan posts out of the way, so today I'm going to do another one!

During my stay in Tokyo, I decided to spend 2 days in Shizuoka to visit my host family again. I stayed at their house for 2 weeks last year when I went on a short exchange program in a Japanese highschool (Shizuoka Gakuen). I try to visit them at least once every time I go to Japan.

Janelle and I took the Shinkansen (Bullet Train) to Shizuoka.



It looks like an airplane!



My ticket~



Janelle and I~

While on the train, we passed by Mount Fuji



Chiho met me at the train station, and then we decided to go shopping for a bit before her parents picked us up from Shizuoka station.


We went to Shibuya109 Dreams! Also known as Shizuoka109. It's pretty much the same as Shibuya109, just smaller


Purikura!




While waiting for Chiho's parents, we went to Starbucks to rest. About exactly one year ago, I sat in the exact same spot in Starbucks and took the exact same photo lol.


Photo in 2011


My maccha latte!



Chiho's parents came to pick us up!


Went back to their place~


Since it was quite late, we went straight out to dinner. Ended up going to a BBQ place (kind of like Korean BBQ)




Chiho's parents are so cute!


I'm not sure if it's just me and I'm just easily amused, but this thing amazed me. It's an electronic pen that you just use to touch things on the menu that you would like to order. The waiters will then bring your order to you without having to call them to take any orders!



And here is a food spam~

















Dessert time!!



After that we went straight back home. Chiho and her mum helped us set up our futons~



That's all for now! I've been trying really hard to make time to film more videos but it's just hard with the amount of time I have right now. However I do have quite a lot of videos already filmed so I'm trying my best to edit them all asap!

03/02/12 - Ikebukuro Sunshine City Shopping Tour in Pictures (Picture heavy)

Hey everyone!

So, I'm going to warn you, this is a VERY picture-heavy post because I went a bit shutter happy with my camera on this day. I'm going to show you guys a tour of one of my favourite shopping places in Tokyo, Ikebukuro! I also filmed while taking photos but haven't got around to editing it yet.. Japan vlogs take a really long time to edit, and also I've been really busy with uni so haven't really had the time to do so. Shopping in Japan can be expensive, but if you know where to go, it can be amazingly really cheap! Sunshine City is one of my favourite places to shop in Tokyo, they sell really cheap clothes/shoes!

Walking to Sunshine City~ I don't know what this thing is, I think it is a mascot for Docomo or something.



Makeup shopping!



Walking around Sunshine City




Accessories shop~


Clothes




This is a really good shoe shop, they sell lots of Liz Lisa shoes/wallets/bags. They're all fake though I think, but they're relatively cheap



Bags and accessories



Coldstone, I think they sell desserts




Turning to the left I'm going to go into Studio Alta. This area has tonnes of cheap shoes and clothes.


They sell heaps of Liz Lisa bags here but I think they're all fake as well. They're quite expensive for fakes I think :S





Socks!



Cheap clothes



Really cheap shoes! "No Fall" has seriously the cheapest shoes, most of them are around $15-$25 a pair and they're really cute!








$12 boots! so cheap!



More clothes~



Upstairs~



This shop sells ridiculously cheap clothes sometimes. I bought 2 skirts for $12 for both!




This shop sells weird (but cool) stuff haha





More clothes!


These big shirts look like the INGNI ones, but 1/3 of the price!

I love the shoes in this store! They're really pretty!





Liz Lisa shoes (but fakes). I bought the pink pair of boots though!






More weird stuff


Pretty clothes!







Superhero underwear, lol


This is outside of Studio Alta now, but still on the second level of Sunshine City.
Pink Mix is a store selling a lot of cute clothes, some look identical to Liz Lisa but a lot cheaper.



Recognize that sweater? I have that one from Liz Lisa, and the Pink Mix one looks exactly the same! That Jacket also looks very similar to Liz Lisa!

Another shoe shop~


Most shoe shops in Japan sell almost the exact same thing. There are like 10 shoe shops like this in Sunshine City. I really hate the sizing system in Japan for shoes though. They usually have sizes S, M, L which is a bit strange. For reference I'm a size 5.5-6 Australian in shoe size and I wear size S in Japan. Most of the time it fits but yeah, I don't like the size system :S

Accessories store



Around the other size they have more "edgier" "sexier" clothes


Kind of reminds me of the brand MA*RS

Namja Town! I haven't been inside cos you have to pay 300yen to get in I think (around $5) but I was too cheap to pay lol. Apparently they have cute cafes in there that sell desserts shape as cats. They also have icecream city inside there too, where you find really weird icecream flavours. I'll go there when I go to Japan next time though!





Just outside of Namja Town there is a build-a-bear shop


Apparently you can build a hello kitty there too?

Loft~ This store sells everything. The bigger stores sell food, everyday needs, makeup, gifts, quirky things etc. The Loft store in Sunshine City is really small compared to others.













Axes Femme is a really nice girly shop!




The third floor in Sunshine City is just restaurants! Almost every restaurant in Japan has "fake food" for display but they look so real!











"Egg and me" ?

Back down to the 1st floor, here is one of my favourite drugstores. It's near UNIQLO







Fountain in the middle~ It was close to Valentines Day so there were a lot of stores selling chocolates








More clothes stores on the ground floor~


Weird name for a shop lol. The clothes are more cute than sexy I think




More clothes~






Weird shop names again







Loddispotto is the weirdest name ever for a shop but I like the clothes lol.





After that we went to Tokyu Hands which is a store just selling pretty much everything from makeup to stationary, everyday needs to furniture etc.. Seems like the only photos I took are of useless things lol. But they're really cute :P











Stationary section~





Stickers!





Cool origami art~





Craft things






I think these are the sweets you make?








We then went to Nekobukuro which is like a pet store, and they also have an area where you can go pet cats! Didn't go in though, had no money lol.






That's all for now! Sorry for the ridiculously long post. I just took lots of photos and didn't know what to say about them. Hope you enjoyed the photos anyway, still got a lot more photos to come so hopefully they'll be more interesting than this post haha. I'm in the middle of examination period for uni now so things have been a bit hectic, but I got a few videos already edited which I will upload hopefully next week!