On to Kyoto!!

Sorry for the delay but life threw a curveball at us but I'm back and ready to move on to the Kyoto portion of our vacation.

I going to stress again many times in this part of our trip how wonderful having the JR pass was. Once we figured out how to pick ours up and get it set up, the rest was easy going to other cities. We reserved our seats for the most part but in some instances we would jump in the unreserved car and be fine for short trips.

The trains are efficient and clean which makes travelling so much more enjoyable. The people are nice and helpful. If you want to see the Japanese flustered, sit in their reserved seat. Never mind there are other open seats around, they are very mindful of the rules. Don't do it on purpose but you will most likely make some sort of mistake during your stay and cause some major confusion. ;)


On the the photos....and there are a lot today.









The best part about trains is picking out a bento lunch. The kids found a bulgogi jerky that we only found in the Tokyo station.





We did have a nice day to travel but it was more of the same cloudiness in Kyoto. The Kyoto station is pretty large also so I didn't take any pictures of that or the taxi line or our driver's confusion on finding the apartment. Thankfully we had our apartment contact talk to the driver to get the proper directions.



This area alone is bigger than our hotel room in Tokyo. There is another area to the living room and a dining area that I don't think I took pictures of...


We had everything we needed in this small kitchen and a dishwasher!



Like I said, lots of room and space.





So much space!


Japanese bath. Confusing tub since it was all in Japanese. We figured out how to turn it on to fill the tub which eventually overflowed. Luckily its a wet room so the water would drain through the floor. There was a control to keep the water warm in the tub too. That way you can scrub/shower/clean yourself first then soak in the tub, Possible ideas for our master bath...





















This school uniform is too cute and I love his backpack.





Hope you enjoyed this post...more to come!

May Favorites

I promise to get to my summary of Japan but I'm happy to be able to find some new topics for blogging. 

For the month of May, these are my 5 faves. They are things I have enjoyed so I'm sharing. :)

1: I have a seriously lack of eyelashes. Yes, my lashes are very light, thin and short. I don't like to wear mascara but I do for special occasions. I've tried false eyelashes but they're expensive and I always had someone put them on for me. I've felt self-conscious about them and the false ones seem to be really extreme so I felt conspicuous with them.
Flash to 2015...more styles are available and at my local Daiso (Japanese $1.50 store) has a so many ones to choose from. I figured I'm Asian so maybe I'll give them a go. I can pay $1.50 to try a few styles out.  Ta-da!! I found these and they work great. I can get about 3 uses out of them if I'm careful and they add some pop to my eyes. I am much more comfortable putting them on too. I buy about 6 or more so I always have some on hand.



2: Cosmetic Organizer/3 drawers. I don't have a huge array of cosmetics so I kept it all in a cosmetic bag but lately with a renewed interest in makeup etc I have to dig in the bag only to grab the wrong item. So when I was at Bed Bath and Beyond, I found this cute clear cosmetic organizer and it's perfect for the amount of makeup I have. It's actually more than enough, I have room for more stuff. My friend sells Mary Kay cosmetics so I have a drawer dedicated to samples. Now I know were everything is and makes putting makeup on a snap.



3: The Lunar Chronicles by Marissa Meyer. Cress is the 3rd book in the series. I started the first book Cinder earlier in May and here we are. Really clever in blending fairy tales and sci-fi. It may not be for everyone but I'm enjoying them a lot.

4: My mini-iPad cover. Hector have me a mini for Mother's Day so of course I want get a protective cover and this is what I found. Something colorful and unusual. :)


5: Dove Promises Dark Chocolate. I don't consider myself a chocoholic at all but I saw Easy 1 Minute Lava Cakes ( a quick 1 minute chocolate lava cake recipe)and had to try it. There are many ways to do this but I think this is the easiest... I tried this Memorial weekend and it came out great. I have leftover chocolate so I tried them and yum. :)




Have a great day!

Friday Roundup

Just catching up since we've been pretty busy with everything!

Round up in photos time!

Here we go...





Hector and I went to an amazing yakitori here in Torrance. Reservations a must. I tried the apple sochu which comes with frozen apple cups that you eat afterwards. Really good. the food there was excellent.



Fun with cats...no cats were harmed during this photoshoot.


Shadow had some sort of encounter one night so he needed a bath. You can see Phil's concerned paw on the edge of the sink. No humans were harmed during this bath period.




Josh got a haircut. No children were harmed although the kids beg to differ.




Phil attempted to 'shove' me down the stairs. I was not harmed.




Had a nice weekend in Mammoth! Everyone survived.

Nail Clippers

On one of my recent posts I raved about some 'life changing' Japanese nail clippers and I was asked about them. Unfortunately I didn't save the packaging mostly because I couldn't read it.

I did the next best thing and took pictures of the nail clippers. So here are some close ups..





The bottom nail clipper is your average typical Revlon nail clipper that can be purchased in any drugstore. Small and hard to hold which I never really put much attention to in my life. We have another bigger clipper that I think are for thick toenails but that's another issue.



Here is the Revlon clippers in a side view. The angle of the blade is about 45 degrees and usually when you cut the nail, you can hear an audible sound. Sometimes it may take a few tries to cut through the nail and I don't have thick nails.




Front view of Japanese clipper...very sturdy and easy to hold. Compare the two top portions and you can see how much bigger the Japanese lever is which takes less effort to press/cut.

Now for the hardest part, showing the side view since the blade is very sharp and thinner my camera didn't like focusing on it but I think you can get the general idea of how sharp the blade really is.




I removed the black cover also otherwise you wouldn't be able to see the blade.
It's funny to think how much better the Japanese clippers are just by tweaking some things. These clippers shouldn't split/crack your nails either.

I remember we bought these in the Akihabara. There are multi-level stores ( like 5+ stories) and just go to the cosmetic/beauty area where strange facial machines are and there are much smaller shops that have fewer items but packed into a single space.. The shops in that area are pretty  much the same, either anime/cosplay based or electronics.

I hope this helps when you ever go to Japan...pick up another set for me please!! ;)

El Primero del gang

Two days in a row!! This for my honey who showed me this to me. We were talking about Morrissey and H sent this to me later...

For those who are not familiar, Morrissey has a huge Mexican fanbase so this is the next step up from a tribute band. :) It's Mexrrissey!




This recording isn't the best but I love this song. From what I understand, Morrissey wrote this song to acknowledge his Mexican fans. :) It's even better since my honey's name is in it. Such a silly boy!

Here is a compilation of songs in much better quality...

Japan: Shibuya & Tokyo International Forum

We only stayed in Tokyo for 4 days but managed to cram a lot in since I'm still posting about it. This outing is in Shibuya which a massively popular place for shopping and people watching. It was raining that afternoon so the crowds are not as large. As I go over my photos, I notice the common theme of Tokyo being so huge that one photo cannot properly show how much is crammed into a space. Everywhere you look, there is another sign, billboard, restaurants located from basement level to 5 floors up and shopping. It is sensory overload to the maximum.




First stop was to find Hachiko. I didn't want to fight our turn for a photo so I just made do with this one.

Enough of me yapping since I'm sure you rather see the pictures...











We did not spend a long time here because we're not big shoppers so it's on to the Tokyo International Forum. Like most of the places we wanted to see, we took many twists and turns to get there. The journey involves lots of asking directions which we appreciated and one security guard helped us in the underground mall to find the correct escalator. 

Of course, it began raining harder but we had a short way to cross the street and into the building. I'm not sure what this building is used for but it looks like it has many meeting rooms and I could be entirely wrong. It is a huge building with lots of glass and metal reminiscent of a ships hull which is pretty cool. Add in another mile of walking in order to see it from every angle.





Start the journey to the left and walk all the way around up a gradual ascent to the walkways zigzagging over head.







So much to look at...









After all this walking, we found a vending machine for refreshment! 

Japan: Tokyo food

When travelling, food is an important part of that trip. We remember  the food we ate as much as the activities too. Well, in Tokyo we found a little gem that we frequented several times in our short stay.

Our first night when we arrived, Josh & Hector went out in search of food while Tyler and I crashed in our rooms.They found this place just down the street from our hotel.  Another night, Hector and I enjoyed a dinner together and the following night the entire family went to celebrate our last night before heading to Kyoto.

We have had some experience with izakayas at home which range from the food stand variety to the full on restaurant complete with screaming employees (not angry, just very very very LOUD).












Besides the vending machines, this is the place where we'll remember our Tokyo food that had great chicken skin that Josh devours and that Tyler tried the pork tongue and enjoyed it. :)